Another Wall Street analyst has thrown their support behind Coterra Energy , adding to Jim Cramer’s belief that the oil and gas producer is a stock to watch in the new year. Bank of America on Friday upgraded Coterra to buy from a hold-equivalent rating, becoming the fourth research firm in less than a month to turn positive on the Club holding. Within a few days of each other in December, Citi, UBS and Wells Fargo all recommended clients buy Coterra . More than 60% of analysts covering Coterra now have a buy-equivalent rating on the stock, according to FactSet. “I think Coterra is either going to get bought [by another company] or have a huge year because there are too many people who are behind for me to think there’s just, like, ‘Well, let’s buy it for no reason,'” Jim said Friday. “People just feel like this is the year they can have the breakout.” Coterra on Friday rose nearly 1% to just over $25 per share as the Club considers whether to buy more of the stock. Both oil and natural gas were up on the session. Our most recent Coterra purchase came Dec. 6 — just $25 per share, as investors dumped the stock aggressively during what proved to be a five-day losing streak. Coterra has underperformed the S & P 500 over the past six months, gaining about 1.6% compared with a nearly 6% gain for the broad U.S. stock index. The S & P 500 Energy Sector was up about 4% over the same stretch. CTRA .SPX 6M mountain Coterra versus S & P 500 over the past six months While there’s no public indication that Coterra could be imminently acquired, Jim’s comments reflect an awareness of the flurry of dealmaking across the energy sector in the wake of ExxonMobil ‘s $60 billion takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources . Weeks later, Exxon’s rival oil major Chevron in October announced a plan to buy Hess for $53 billion. Meanwhile, smaller deals — such as Occidental Petroleum ‘s $12 billion bid for privately held CrownRock — also have transpired. The latest consolidation move…
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