Around the Traps ... with THE FERRET 07:25, Tuesday, 9 March 2004
Sydney - Tuesday - March 9: (RWE) ********************************* Investment fundamentals seemingly make PETSEC ENERGY (PSA) an attractive proposition but the sharemarket was anything but attracted to the stock yesterday. The shares fell 4c to $1.32 despite a strong results announcement. Maybe the buyers had stocked up enough last week when the shares rose from $1.25 to as high as a 12-month high of $1.48 on Thursday. The company has experienced a rebound in full-year earnings to $22.7 million on the back of further exploration and development successes in the Gulf of Mexico. The $22.7 million profit for the 12 months to December 31 follows a loss of $4.4 million loss in the previous year. The company says EPS was 21.5c which means that at yesterday's price for the shares the stock is on a p/e of not much more than 6c. It would be even lower on a forward p/e basis, going by executive chairman Terry Fern's comments. "In 2004, we intend to build substantially on the outstanding 2003 exploration, production and revenue performance," he said. "This will include further development and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and the start of drilling this month of two to five wells in the Beibu Gulf, offshore China." Cash at the end of 2003 was $16.8 million (previous year $2.3 million) which included $9.8 million of the net $11.6 million raised in a placement late in December of 12.8 million shares at 95c a share
PSA Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
