Q: Can you please give an updated opinion on VLE. It is not reacting well to the rising price of oil, Thanks
5i Research Answer:
VLE is up 376% in a year, so may just be seeing some profit-taking. The stock remains cheap on current earnings, the balance sheet is fine, but it does have negative cash flow as it grows. Production rose 8% to 22K b/d in the 2Q but it reported a net loss of $1.3M vs a big profit in the 1Q (due to the gain on an asset sale). Production guidance was maintained. The stock is up 14% YTD, still ahead of the energy sector (+5%). We do not see anything recently negative here, but it remains a smaller, higher-risk stock with operations in Turkey and Thailand, so gets some discount on valuation because of these factors.