Pritchard Capital Lowering Estimates On Venoco

Pritchard Capital is out with a research report on Venoco, Inc. (NYSE: VQ) and is lowering its estimates on the stock. It has a $19 price target and a Buy rating.

In a note to clients, Pritchard Capital writes, "We are lowering our 2011 EPS/CFPS estimates to $1.08/$2.95 from $1.20/$3.19 primarily driven by a slight decrease in our production forecast, lower realized oil prices, and higher gathering and transportation costs which are slightly offset by lower production expenses and tax rate. Our 2011 production estimate goes to 18.2 MBoe/d (59% gas) from 18.4 MBoe/d (58% gas) vs. VQ's new guidance of 18.5 MBoe/d from 19.5 MBoe/d mainly driven by lower assumed production from the Monterey. We are raising our 2012 EPS/CFPS estimates to $1.35/$3.42 from $1.16/$3.42 primarily driven by an increase in our production forecast to 20.0 MBoe/d from 19.2 MBoe/d, higher realized oil prices and lower tax rate. Now trading below our “hard” mid $13s NAV, which has no proven onshore Monterey Shale (MS) reserves in it, this tells us that expectations for the play have been wrung out of the stock, and any good news could send the shares meaningfully higher. Please see note “Attractive Risk Reward at Current Levels” for further details."

Shares of VQ lost 56 cents yesterday to close at $11.85.