Petrohawk Purges Its Poison Pill

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Fools may be aware that I've been picking on Petrohawk Energy (NYSE: HK) for a while now.

First it was the dilutive equity offering, intended to fund accelerated growth at a time when others like EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) were deferring production in order to maximize per-share value.

Based on comments by EnCana (NYSE: ECA), which has subsequently farmed out some of its own Haynesville acreage, I later concluded that folks like Petrohawk didn't really have much choice but to put the pedal to the floor, if they wanted to hold onto their leases. Still, as with Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) in the deepwater, this says to me that Petrohawk bit off more than it could chew.

My second criticism directed at Petrohawk and fellow Haynesville dwellers like Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE: GDP) regarded their sketchy initial production rate press releases. For that bit of bombast, they're on my Well Test Wall of Shame until they switch their focus to much more informative 30-day average production results.

My purpose today, however, is to compliment Petrohawk.

Like countless other firms during the market meltdown, the company adopted a Stockholder Rights Plan, also known as a poison pill. I elaborated on the mechanism behind (and my general opposition to) such plans here. My skepticism toward Brigham Exploration's (Nasdaq: BEXP) popping of such a pill was later proven to be well-founded.

Petrohawk showed a great deal of restraint by limiting the life of its plan to one year at the outset. In contrast, Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN) recently extended its longstanding poison pill by 10 years! It is even more heartening to see that Petrohawk has plucked its poison pill several months ahead of schedule.

So, well done, Petrohawk. Now if only your insiders would stop selling so many shares, maybe you'd get a thumbs-up from me over in Motley Fool CAPS.