A New Look for ConocoPhillips

By Joel South and Taylor Muckerman – Oct 25, 2012 at 8:42PM

NYSE: COP

ConocoPhillips

Market Cap

$152B

Today's Change

(0.27%) $0.35

Current Price

$130.47

Price as of April 26, 2024, 2:25 p.m. ET

An up day for ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips (COP 0.27%) was up today, after coming in at $1.44, significantly surpassing analysts' $1.20 estimates. Having recently come off their spin-off of their downstream, Conoco is a difficult company to value and compare right now, as it has some big transformations lined up for the future. If all goes as planned, ConocoPhillips will be a huge North-American upstream E&P in just a few years' time.

Changes ahead for Conoco include focusing capital expenditure on new oil-rich fields, such as the Bakken and Eagle Ford, as well as moving away from natural gas and shifting their concentration almost entirely to production. The company will also work on improving its balance sheet, and plans to steadily increase its dividend -- a very shareholder-friendly move.

Joel South has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Taylor Muckerman has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Devon Energy and has the following options: long JAN 2013 $16.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, short JAN 2014 $15.00 puts on Chesapeake Energy, long JAN 2014 $20.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, and long JAN 2014 $30.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.