Comstock Resources Inc (NYSE:CRK) shares were up 2.83% on Friday when approximately 1.04M shares were traded, against the average daily trading volume of 448,584.00. Analysts at Credit Agricole recently upgraded the stock to Underperform from Buy. Comstock Resources Inc (NYSE:CRK) has a consensus buy rating, according to Zacks Investment Research. 1 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, 6 have assigned a hold rating, Zero says it’s a buy, and 0 have assigned a strong buy rating to the company.
The 52-week price range is $2.64-$12.88 and the company has a market capitalization of $175.92 billion.
Comstock Resources Inc (CRK) on November 4, 2015 reported financial and operating results for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2015.
Financial Results for the Three Months and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Low oil and natural gas prices continue to adversely impact the Company`s financial results and have resulted in a significant impairment of the Company`s producing properties being recorded this quarter. Comstock reported a net loss of $545.0 million, or $11.81 per share, for the third quarter of 2015 as compared to a net loss of $1.9 million, or 4¢ per share, for the third quarter of 2014. The third quarter 2015 results include a charge to impair certain producing oil and gas properties and unevaluated leases of $549.8 million, recognition of a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets primarily resulting from the large impairment provision of $189.4 million, an unrealized gain from derivative financial instruments of $0.7 million and a net gain on extinguishment of debt of $51.1 million. Financial results for the third quarter of 2014 included an unrealized gain from derivative financial instruments of $12.4 million and exploratory dry hole costs of $11.4 million. Excluding these items from each quarter`s results, the net loss for the third quarter of 2015 would have been $48.9 million, or $1.06 per share, as compared to a net loss of $2.2 million, or 5¢ per share, in the third quarter of 2014.
On July 22, 2015, Comstock closed the previously announced sale of its Burleson County, Texas properties and received net proceeds of $103 million. A portion of the proceeds were used to retire debt through purchases of the Company`s notes on the open market. As of September 30, 2015, Comstock had repurchased $100.9 million of face value of bonds at a purchase price of $37.8 million.
Comstock produced 13.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 635,000 barrels of oil, or 17.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (“Bcfe”), in the third quarter of 2015. Natural gas production in the third quarter of 2015 grew by 40% from 9.6 billion cubic feet in the third quarter of 2014 and by 22% from 11.1 billion cubic feet in the second quarter of 2015 due primarily to the resumption of the Haynesville shale drilling program in early 2015. Haynesville gas production has increased by 119% compared to the first quarter of 2015. Oil production in the third quarter of 2015 averaged 6,903 barrels of oil per day compared to 12,228 barrels per day in the third quarter of 2014. The decrease in oil production is due to the sale of the Company`s Burleson County, Texas properties and the absence of drilling in the South Texas Eagle Ford.
