Zacks.com Announces That Gregory Spear Highlights the Following Stocks: Petroleum Development, ConocoPhillips, Encana, and Precision Drilling

Business Wire, Oct 20, 2004

CHICAGO -- Gregory Spear, editor of The Spear Report newsletter, believes investors should take advantage of high energy prices and focus on oil-related companies, such as Petroleum Development (NASDAQ:PETD), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Encana (NYSE:ECA), and Precision Drilling (NYSE:PDS). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://at.zacks.com/?id=84

Highlights from the October 15 Featured Expert column by Gregory Spear includes:

At The Spear Report, Gregory Spear and his team are "mercenary" when it comes to following trends, so he continues to recommend the oil-related companies, despite their linkage to the emotional drama in the oil futures pits. Spear recommends using dips and occasional sector bearishness to accumulate positions in the drillers and oil service companies because the economic fundamentals of these stocks are still underappreciated.

Many stand to make windfall profits throughout 2005-6 just by pre-selling their production at low-$40's pricing, and they are doing just that. Others are not yet priced for $35 oil, let alone $40-plus and in this business, margins expand exponentially in bullish pricing environments. Some are so hedged that recent commodity price fluctuations will mean little to their bottomline. And the real irrationality comes in when companies focused on natural gas get painted by the daily crude oil brush. Natural gas has a completely different pricing structure and does not fluctuate much day to day.

That said, this is a stock picker's market, even within the oil patch itself. There are currently 43 names in the Consensus oil and gas list, not including utilities. Spear still recommends the companies he has recently profiled: Petroleum Development (NASDAQ:PETD) is his favorite natural gas play; ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and Encana (NYSE:ECA) are Spear's favorite integrated oil companies and Precision Drilling (NYSE:PDS) is his favorite in the oil services sector.

Read Gregory Spear's complete commentary by clicking: http://at.zacks.com/?id=85

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