LINN Energy LLC's (LINEQ) stock is up more than 8% today. However, today's pop doesn't even come close to making up for the pain investors have felt over the past month, as the stock is still down more than 20%.
There's really no news behind LINN Energy's popping stock price today other than the fact that the investors might finally be realizing that the sell-off over the past month is unjustifiable.
The reason the sell-off doesn't make sense is because of how well hedged LINN Energy is against commodity price volatility. While many other oil companies are exposed to falling oil prices LINN Energy is not. Currently, 100% of the company's oil production is hedged this year and another 50%-60% is hedged for the next two years. Further, 100% of the company's cash flow is protected this year, and 93% of its cash flow is protected next year. For comparison's sake just 47% of the cash flow of an average exploration and production company's cash flow is protected this year, and 20% is protected next year.
Bottom line here is that LINN Energy has been caught up in the broader sell-off of oil stocks, which should not have happened. Now, investors appear to be picking up units of LINN Energy at a big discount to where the units were trading just a few weeks ago.
