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 Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL) dropped as much as 22% today after the company announced major stock and debt offerings.
So what: Whiting will offer 35 million shares of stock to investors for $30 per share with an overallotment option of another 5.25 million shares. It is also selling $1.0 billion in 1.25% convertible senior notes due in 2020 with another $250 million in potential overallotment. The notes will be convertible into shares of stock at a price of $39 per share.
Now what: All told, these offerings could raise $2.5 billion for Whiting, but they could also dilute shares by adding 72.3 million new shares to the market. That's a huge impact, because at the end of 2014 there were just 131.8 million shares outstanding on a diluted basis.
Such a large offering shows just what dire straits Whiting Petroleum and shale drillers in general are in today. I wouldn't buy the discount today because of the industry's weakness and the lower potential upside if the oil market does recover.
