What happened
Shares of U.S. onshore energy driller Centennial Resource Development (PR -0.40%) rose an impressive 15% at one point in early trading on March 4. It wasn't able to hold on to all of that gain, however, and settled to a still pleasing 10% or so advance at 11:30 a.m. EST.
So what
There were a number of different currents here today. For example, oil prices were on the rise while natural gas prices fell a little. Natural gas price changes tend to have a pretty material impact on Centennial Resource Development's stock price. But the oil price advance was sizable (think mid-single digits) and likely carried more weight today. That said, there was one other issue of note specific to this energy stock.
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Analyst Leo Mariani at KeyBanc increased his price target on Centennial Resource Development by a whopping 25%, upping it from $4 per share to $5. The stock ended March 3 trading at $4.64 per share, so some of that change was just the analyst catching up to the current market price. However, the call has remained overweight throughout, so the bullish sentiment hasn't changed. Still, investors tend to like it when analysts up their price targets, so it's not surprising that the shares were higher today.
Now what
Today's gains have pushed Centennial Resource Development up to and slightly over the $5 target. So, perhaps, after the early price spike, investors shouldn't read too much more into the news here.
