The jury’s still out on the current health of Hess Corporation. As they get set to pay out ex-dividend and dividend to investors this month, the energy company is weathering a rocky time on the stock market: the stock is down -24.4 percent over the last three months.
As an exploration and production (E&P) company, Hess focuses on developing, producing, purchasing, and transporting crude oil and natural gas. Its services are available in the United States, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Norway.
The state of the company has been in flux for quite some time—not unusual for a company focused on energy these days. On the plus side, investors are definitely still interested: Hess’s new director Marc Lipschultz (co-founder of Owl Rock Capital Partners) purchased 484 shares in late February of this year, as did several other directors, including Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey, Edith E. Holiday, Leonard S. Jr. Coleman, and Rodney F. Chase.
In addition, Hess continues to form strategic partnerships and develop new energy sources. At the beginning of March, they awarded a contract to McDermott International, Inc. to do subsea tieback work for Hess’s deepwater Penn State Deep field in the Gulf of Mexico. The partnership will allow Hess and McDermott to work together to initiate subsea oil and gas projects to safely produce and transport hydrocarbons.
On the stock market, however, Hess Corporation’s strength continues to fluctuate. As of March 13, Hess shares were trading at $48.38, a -26.2-percent decrease from its 52-week high of $65.56. The company’s earnings per share at the time—an indicator of company profitability—was -$19.78.
Experts took note of this, as well as the fact that the company currently has a two bull technical rating, indicating some weakness. While a lower price could make this a great time for intrepid investors to scoop up stock, analysts suggest that Hess stock prices could easily continue to deteriorate, particularly given the stock’s recent history: It was down -24.4 percent over the last three months and -5 percent over the last six months.
Still, Zacks Investment Research forecasts HES’s potential future earnings growth as 34.84 percent, which is above the industry average of 25.5 percent.
The energy market is ever changing, so it’s no surprise that Hess Corporation, like many other energy leaders, is all over the map when it comes to profit and loss. Still, there are indicators that the stock could move in a positive direction—if investors are patient enough to wait out the turmoil.