How does the balance sheet look.
Thank you
MER is $1.1B market cap, trading at 6X earnings, with a 12.28% dividend. The stock is down 15% this year and 30% over one year. The dividend was raised in March. It recently announced that its merger with Tullow Oil had fallen through. The balance sheet is solid: it is debt-free with about $68M cash. However, focused in Africa, its deep-sea exploration assets are high risk and expensive (but also high potential). Earnings and cash flow have been historically highly volatile. Insiders own 3% but two entities together control 47% of the company. While cheap for sure, it has not created much shareholder value. Shares are down 27% in the past 10 years. We would consider it 'OK' for income, but it needs a catalyst here to move higher. This could come from exploration and discoveries, but of course can't be guaranteed.