Sure, lets put this in perspective, assuming the mineral rights owner is savvy.
If you (as the land owner)knew that $1 million (guessing) per year is pumped from your property. Would you sell your rights to a big company with a market cap in the billions, or a small company with a 3 million market cap?
1 million dollars per year wouldn't even touch the balance sheet of many of these large cap oil/gas companies. However, 1 million dollars would be dramatic in regard too the EPS growth rate of a small company like ALRY.
If you knew that YOUR LAND could MAKE the company you are leasing too, wouldn't you want to pile some cash into the stock and make consider gains on top of the percentage from oil/gas sales?
For some, owning stock in the small PUBLIC company you lease your land too could yield HIGHER gains than you might ever see from your land rights alone.
Many of the land owners that HMGP does business with bought HMGP stock. If they got in when the stock was under .05, they made a killing and this was just BONUS on top of the sale of oil/gas from their land.
How can the big dogs complete with this strategy.
ALSO, many of these large cap companies dont go the extra mile and take care of the land they are working on. The mess these companies leave behind is a good enough reason not to do business with them...... Companies like ALRY keep the land clean and benefit from word-of-mouth in these small rural communities, thus giving them the competitive edge when seeking leases.