Following Q1/12 Canaccord Genuity oil and gas analyst John Gerdes released his favorite BUY rated companies, his HOLD rated companies, and his SELL rated companies:
E&P top long/short picks
Our favorite BUY-rated names include Anadarko [APC] (Eagle Ford, Wattenberg field), Bill Barrett [BBG] (Unita Basin), Cabot [COG] (Marcellus) and Carrizo [CRZO] /Comstock [CRK] /EOG/Goodrich [GDP] /SM (Eagle Ford), which offer differential equity value upside in our opinion.
HOLD-rated names include EQT/Range [RRC] /Southwestern [SWN] (market gas macro valuation), Forest [FST] (asset productivity fully appreciated) and Continental [CLR] (valuation).
SELL-rated SandRidge [SD] is overvalued on over-enthusiasm as to the Mississippian play productivity and under-appreciation of longterm capitalization challenges in our view.