Replies to post #46 on EOG Resources Inc. (EOG)

[Timothy Smith]

This quarter is the third time that management has increased guidance for the 2012 total liquids production growth target, raising it to +35% from +33%. The company's total production growth target increased from +7% to +9% year over year. Natural gas production is expected to decline 10% in 2012 as management wants to focus all its human and capital resources on oil.

However, given years of natural gas exploration and production, EOG still maintains a substantial amount of North American natural gas reserves, which it will keep in inventory until market conditions improve. Finally, in order to keep debt at manageable levels and minimize the funding gap generated by the company's drilling budget, management has shed $1.2 billion of assets this year. These asset sales have keep net debt-to-cap under 30%.

[Timothy Smith]

EOG is currently trading around $110 per share, giving it a price to book of 2.2 and a forward price to earnings of 17.1. This reflects a premium to EOG's underlying value, but it also reflects the firm's strong expectations for growth.

Analysts at Raymond James recently upgraded EOG from market perform to outperform, just a few days after researchers at Miller Tabak upgraded the stock from neutral to buy. I believe that these ratings are appropriate for EOG, since it is trading at a discount to its peers and its future earnings potential.