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My 1,001st Post – It’s About BAS

To think the post before this one was my 1,000th since joining the site. I would have had more fanfare if I had realized. But then the best tribute I can make is to march onward with the good work.

BAS reported earnings last night of $0.06 a share – $0.13 excluding one time items. So far this morning, BAS is gapping down 10% (and counting).

This is honestly a pretty good showing. They lost $0.10 a share last quarter, so they swung $0.23 cents into profits.

The company has grown revenues 12% from this time last year. Revenues are 8.5% higher from last quarter.

At the moment, the CEO is anticipating another 4-6% lift in revenues in the third quarter. That should be good for another $3-4 million in profits for shareholders, so I’d expect earnings to lift another $0.20 or so at the next report. That would put us at ~$1.30 annually with a full quarter left to go in 2014.

Beyond that, I see more shareholder value being unlocked as the cost of capital continues to come down and natural gas adoption progresses.

The stock is cratering this morning on profit taking (it’s priced pretty fairly right now, in line with the rest of the market), but I’d guess it recovers soon enough. We’re on track to make that $1.60 annually I mentioned, and the $2.50-3.00 surprise I also hoped for is not out of the question. Barring some sort of major stumble, the stock should be in the vicinity of $35 by Christmas.

After all, if they keep this tempo, they’re at $2.00 yearly earnings by the start of 2015.

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Reduced Size Of BAS Position To 15% Of Assets

I made a large series of sales in BAS for $26.23 on average. These shares were sold for an average gain of 116% from my initial purchase price a few years ago.

This sale brings BAS back in line to a 15% position in my portfolio. It had been almost 25%. The 10% cash raise will sit on my books for now.

I ran some numbers, and from their last report, I’m thinking BAS was probably worth about $8 a share. This massive move higher has been from the company managing to stop the losses they were taking every quarter. However, the next major risk to the shares will be execution; can the company turn a profit?

I think I can see how the company could make $1.60 a year in earnings pretty easily. That puts an 11 year break even point, which is about the top end of my acceptable range. At this junction, the shares are a fair price, in my book.

But I love the company, so I’ll be keeping the 15% position I have in them. I think they don’t just turn $1.60. I think they surprise us all and make $2.50-3 per share annually, sending the shares into the $30-40 range.

I cannot justify keeping the massive ~25% of my portfolio in BAS though. That’s too much, and I do have a lot of money sitting on the table here. I’m only willing to take regular risks that Basic Energy Services makes the next step successfully, even though I’m confident they will.

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BAS Taken Out Back And Shot

Basic Energy Services blew past analyst expectations, recording a smaller than expected loss, announcing above average revenue growth expectations, and that they were so excited by all of this that they will be jacking up investment activity even more than prior announcements.

The stock is off 8% after the open.

I don’t know what shareholders were expecting…but given the run from $16 to $28 followed by this, I have to suspect it was ‘the moon’.

The company is afforded the benefit of the doubt in my opinion. I’ll look at the SEC filing then decide if I want to lock in some gains or let it ride. But I’m predisposed to let it ride.

Mind you, today’s plunge doesn’t even take the stock back to the 50 day moving average. My guess is this will resolve quickly, affording a good buying opportunity.

Natural gas is going to be huge this decade.

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BAS Earnings After The Close

Basic Energy Services, one of my most favorite positions, is reporting Q1 earnings after the close.

The stock is up ~80% since the start of the year. Accordingly, it is being afforded a little break today, while longs lock in some gains.

Cain Hammond Thaler will not be among the profiteers, as he is resting self-assuredly in his 9th floor office, indifferent to the prospect of a BAS sell off. Cocky, even.

Natural gas spot pricing is back to $4.70. That is a huge rebound from the mighty flush out that first put the natural gas sector on ice. Since which time, BAS and strengthened their corporate entity, engaging in buy outs and solidifying the balance sheet.

Let’s see what they can do.

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The Ratings Industry Is A Stupid Place

Let’s just take a second to really breath in the absurdity that takes place around us on a day by day basis, shall we?

Here is a recent history of analyst recommendations for BAS (one of my favorite positions, I will say right off the bat, since it traded at $12).

Untitled

Look specifically at the ratings being issued by Wunderlich Securities. On October 28, 2013, Wunderlich downgraded BAS from a Hold to a Sell. Then, yesterday, they upgraded BAS from a SELL to a HOLD.

And now let’s look at the price action in BAS.

04-20-14 BAS 12 Months

Wunderlich almost marked the explosive upside to the inflection point. If we don’t go anywhere, they will have “downgraded” 100% of equity gains.

Okay so Wunderlich blew the call and got it wrong. They then reversed their rating to a Hold from a Sell (if you listened you missed out on a move that is being converted to a logarithmic scale on most finance sites). Fair enough – mistakes happen.

That’s not what irritates me. This is what irritates me:

Will This Upgrade Help Basic Energy Services (BAS) Stock Today?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Basic Energy Services Inc. (BAS_) was upgraded to “hold” from “sell” at Wunderlich Securities.

The firm upgraded their rating based on improvements in the weather and natural gas prospects.”

Will this upgrade help BAS? I would fucking hope not

I don’t want to sound indignant here because I guess as a shareholder, any good news is welcome. But…Christ…

We have just devolved to the point of putting anything out there that we can slap a curious headline on to whore a few hits on a website. After a miss like that, why should Wunderlich Securities’ have the ability to move markets with regards to BAS? If I were to make a list of analyst opinions I care about when it comes to BAS, Wunderlich (and basically half the others on that sheet at the top of this post)…they’re not even at the bottom, okay? They’re not even on the list.

The 24/7 “news about nothing” cycle just starts to grind on you after a while. We have a multi-million (billion?) dollar industry that seems to exist for the sole purpose of employing people to tell me stuff. Why I should listen though…as of yet, nobody has really explained that.

Maybe The Street should instead do a story about how many analysts (including their own) completely missed an obvious buying opportunity. And if you relegate yourself to those sites (rather than read the grassroots efforts of iBankCoin or like), you probably had no idea.

Because less I let this slip by, here’s The Street’s own rating for BAS:

TheStreet Ratings team rates BASIC ENERGY SERVICES INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

“We rate BASIC ENERGY SERVICES INC (BAS) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, increase in net income and revenue growth. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins.”

What’s that? Sorry I’m too busy being up 130% on this position to hear you.

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BAS Is Returning 7% Today Alone

Although my 40% cash position may create the illusion that I am missing out, such a view would be misplaced. Careful allocation and selection on my part is gifting me full participation in today’s excess in spite of recent reservation.

BAS is up 7.29% at the time of this writing, as the natural gas cycle makes full leaps and bounds forward. As I told you it would transpire, this is where your money must be at for the next 10 years. Companies and partnerships like BAS and HCLP will grow at unprecedented rates, facilitating the United States of America back to Her rightful status as Greatest Country and Loan Superpower on planet Earth.

HCLP is also up 2% and taken altogether, my portfolio is up .9%.

As for the excitement about Yellen, I don’t fully understand the sentiment. If you go back and read or listen to anything from Yellen, it’s pretty clear she has been consistently more in favor of Federal Reserve supporting markets and the economy than Bernanke was.

Despite that, there is good reason to believe a deep pullback may come soon enough (first half of 2014). We can’t all be millionaires.

UPDATE If you followed my initial purchase of BAS on 8/16/2012, you are presently up 65% on the position. If you’ve been trading along with me inside The PPT, you are up far more.

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