Recs

8

5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Apache

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 115,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, oil and gas producer Apache (NYSE: APA  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking. Our data has shown that five-star stocks outperform the market by a significant margin; conversely, one-star stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Apache's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Apache facts

Headquarters (Founded)

Houston, Texas (1954)

Market Cap

$35.65 billion

Industry

Independent oil and gas

TTM Revenue

$12.58 billion

Management

CEO G. Steven Farris (since 2002)
CFO Roger Plank (since 2000)

Return on Equity (average last three years)

24%

Competitors

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC  )
EnCana (NYSE: ECA  )

CAPS members bullish on APA also bullish on

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  )
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX  )

CAPS members bearish on APA also bearish on

ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  )
Chevron (NYSE: CVX  )

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, fully 329 of the 344 All-Star members who have rated Apache -- some 96% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include GS751 and TheGarcipian, both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community.

In April, GS751 reminded our community:

About 70% of Apache's reserves are in North America. This eliminates political risk. NA reserves are usually older and harder to get but apache is a low cost producer which is nice. ... If Oil stays above $90 a barrel [Apache] should do well.

In a more recent pitch, from June, TheGarcipian shared that bullish sentiment, pointing out some of the stock's bargain-like ratios (which happen to be even cheaper today):

An oil-n-gas sector play, this stock should be a winner for some time to come. Given the present investing climate of rising oil prices and seemingly insatiable demand for oil, I think this stock, with its very fair PEG ratio of 1.09 and an incredibly low EnterpriseValue-to-EBITDA ratio of only 6, is a bargain right now....

What do you think about Apache, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 115,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.

Best Odds in the Universe!
If you're interested in a 98.79% chance at beating the market... and a 70.84% chance at DOUBLING the market's return – Motley Fool Supernova could be just what you're looking for. And get this: We arrived at these odds from 10,000 random back-tested portfolios composed of Motley Fool Co-founder David Gardner's personal stock picks.

It's why David recently handpicked a small team of world-class portfolio managers. You see, he thinks these odds can get even better! And he'd like to prove it to you...

Simply enter your email address. And the answer to the question everybody is asking will be delivered to your inbox!

For three energy stocks Motley Fool analysts believe will profit from “The Next American Oil Boom,” check out our brand-new free report. You'll get three stock ideas from top analysts, plus some straight talk on our oil "crisis." Click here for access -- it’s free!

Foolish contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Chesapeake Energy is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 731020, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 2/14/2012 6:39:21 PM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated Moments ago Sponsored by:
DOW 12,878.28 4.24 0.03%
S&P 500 1,350.50 -1.27 -0.09%
NASD 2,931.83 0.44 0.02%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes

Related Tickers

2/14/2012 4:00 PM
APA $107.31 Up +1.06 +1.00%
Apache Corp CAPS Rating: *****
ECA $19.36 Up +0.25 +1.31%
EnCana Corp (USA) CAPS Rating: *****
FCX $42.96 Down -1.70 -3.81%
Freeport-McMoRan C… CAPS Rating: ****
XOM $84.67 Up +0.25 +0.30%
ExxonMobil Corp CAPS Rating: ****
APC $87.05 Down -0.29 -0.33%
Anadarko Petroleum… CAPS Rating: ****
CHK $22.71 Up +0.05 +0.22%
Chesapeake Energy… CAPS Rating: *****
CVX $106.49 Up +0.11 +0.10%
Chevron Corp CAPS Rating: *****

Advertisement