Pioneer Drilling Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of land-based petroleum driller Pioneer Drilling (AMEX: PDC  ) hit a gusher today, floating to gains as high as 10.3% amid heavy trading.

So what: The company just announced that its secondary stock offering is getting fatter: underwriters Jeffries and Goldman & Sachs (NYSE: GS  ) are picking up 900,000 additional shares on top of the original 6 million as an overallotment. Investors are loving the additional cash inflow more than they worry about dilution.

Now what: Pioneer plans to use this cash to build more drilling rigs, also known as striking while the iron is hot. That takes drastic measures like secondary offerings because the company has a tendency to burn more cash than it generates. Pioneer may run a tighter ship than rivals Hercules Offshore (Nasdaq: HERO  ) and Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT  ) but could use some fresh revenue streams in order to take advantage of economies of scale.

CAPS investors are smitten with this five-star stock with the last thumbs-down rating coming up fast on its one-year anniversary and the most recent negative comment nearly two-and-a-half years old. Jump over to CAPS to voice your own appreciation -- or to swim upstream with a rare criticism.

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