Brigham Exploration Company (BEXP)

Up about 900% from March low. Now they are trading at almost 10x book and a large multiple of 2006 and 2007 earnings - and you might remember that those were pretty good years for the oil industry. The mere fact that they are going to survive (somewhat weakened by the oil bust and the credit crisis) does not justify a gigantic run like this.

They are positioned to discover and produce light crude oil from the best known new oil field, Bakken and Three Forks. Great technology and a large amount of land in the Williston Basin will propel this stock into the 20s in six months. They are on their home turf and will begin to open up the faucet to let the revenues start coming in. Oil is only going higher. Besides oil for gas, it is used in plastics, chemicals, and 1000s of other products.

Oil industry and in a key oil field.

Value player.

They own drilling rights to nearly 250,000 acres in the Bakken region and have the technology to find the oil. They haven't missed!

taking advantage of their recent field discovery will continue to drive profits and then share price.

and it awakes from the dead once again.

How soon we forget. Bakken will produce,someday when oil climbs back up. I bought a bunch at about 2 bucks, and now even those little .10 gains make me giggle.

Sorry, I don’t know who these so called Analyst are for BEXP and how they look at the future, but, if you don’t drill, especially when service prices are cheap, you are going to miss the boat. Oil is going back up! Crude stock numbers are short term, people need to understand the time involved in putting a project on-line, years, not days. So, don’t drill and miss the curve again!

Best Mid Size Oil Co-EOG

Best small Oil Co-BEXP, NOG, KOG, CLR

Best Offshore Drilling-NE

Don’t buy Oil Service Co, too early!

Regards, CIS WORKER

America will not easily give up its energy hunger. Pressures on this market will keep energy costs up and allow energy companies to increase margins and productivity.

I was in for a short ride and had to sell, making silly money along the way. This is a great company with solid tech behind it and I plan on getting back on the horse and riding it long.

At this point, oil and gas exploration companies are one of my favorite sector plays.
Demand has declined several percent(1) and may well decline some more over the next year or two. However, the supply is also adjusting to the new environment and oil prices may have already somewhat stabilized. I realize that spot prices may take another dip this summer as economic "green shoots" suddenly wither and die, but I also note that the inflation-adjusted average price for oil for the last 30 years is $43.15 per BP's data(2), during which time we have under-invested in bringing new supplies online.
After an approximately 75% decline in the recent peak oil and gas spot prices and an 88% decline in BEXP share price, I'm now comfortable that I am getting in at a good level. I won't believe that the fundamentals are impaired in this industry until I see competitive energy sources appear or the industrial revolution coming to an end. While the current economic morass may continue for quite some time, demand will eventually resume its upward bias.
If I'm looking at Brigham's numbers on their website correctly, their gross profit margins are still OK at the current revenue levels and production has been growing 5% year over year. They do seem to do a lot of hedging. A 2008 non-cash charge of $237M (3), based on a reevaluation of the value of their holdings, using current oil/gas prices, is not likely to come back on the books anytime soon. However, on the plus side, they now have a $43M deferred income tax credit and some of their properties are undervalued since new technologies that they are using now actually make those properties worth more than the listed book value.
So, $5.15 per share book value is gone (poof!) and $2.60 remains (all tangible). At an entry price of $2.10, I am buying at 80% of the new book value, with profits I can not estimate without plugging in some estimate of future oil/gas prices. I note that CEO Ben Brigham was selling some of his 1.1 million shares last Oct. at around $7 per share and, more recently, has been buying them back in the $1 - $2 range (clever man).

(1) http://tinyurl.com/dle9q4
(2) http://tinyurl.com/dgvgcv
(3) http://tinyurl.com/cvlcbw

-46.87 on 4/1/09

I like the name!!! With demand for energy depressed for 1-3 years now is the time to buy, buy, buy!!! Great leases in proven productive areas in the land of the free.

This stock has bottomed out...great time to get in.

the Bakken is huge and they seem to have a good play there.

historically the stock has been stronger than market

Simply stated - it's the Bakken play!

solid company, now that the worst is fully priced in, these stocks are finally looking attractive