Australia's Beach Energy tanks after ratings downgrade

Beach Energy

19/06/2024 03:17

(Recasts bullets 1-3, adds comment from Macquarie)
    ** Shares of Beach Energy  BPT.AX  tank as much as 4.7% to
A$1.458 per share, hitting their lowest since Dec 7 
        ** Co emerges as one of the top losers in the benchmark
 .AXJO  
    ** Analysts from Macquarie, Citi and Jarden downgrade the
oil and gas explorer after the company's strategic review 
    ** BPT forecasts FY25 capital expenditure between A$700
mln($465.64 mln) and A$800 mln; production between 17.5 and 21.5
MMboe, missing a Visible Alpha consensus of 24.0 MMboe,
according to Jarden 
    ** Citi says Beach Energy's FY25 capex guidance was higher
than their cautious forecasts but with no apparent requisite
increase in medium-term production
    ** Analysts from Macquarie note that the review was a
negative surprise, with lower production and higher capex than
expected; however they see valuable M&A opportunities for BPT
    ** Eleven of 16 analysts rate the stock "buy", four "hold"
and one "sell"; their median PT is A$1.75 - LSEG data
    ** Stock down 4.4% YTD, as of last close 
   


($1 = 1.5033 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by John Biju and Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru)
 ((John.Biju@thomsonreuters.com;))