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[abbyjoseph]

The weakness in oil prices was pretty sudden and has changed the financial dynamics for many producers. Typically, weaker oil prices are slow to translate into lower prices at the pumps.

Domestic junior oil stocks have been hot commodities until recently. Many of the market’s best growth stocks in this sector continue to be expensively priced and finding value has been a difficult endeavor.

One company we’ve considered before in these pages is Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG). (See “My Favorite Bakken Oil Play.”) This outfit is based in Minnesota and operates in North Dakota and Montana. The stock is not expensively priced, and the company is back online with solid sequential growth in production.

Northern has experienced infrastructure problems and weather-related issues that have hampered well completions, but the company’s latest quarter was a big success and full-year 2014 production guidance was upgraded to between 20% and 25% growth over 2013, compared to previous guidance of 15%.

According to Northern, its 2014 second-quarter production grew 17% sequentially and 41% year-over-year to 1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), averaging 15,369 boe per day.

The company’s total oil and gas sales in the second quarter of 2014 increased dramatically to $121 million, compared to $80.0 million in the second quarter of 2013.

But management incurred a significant loss on the mark-to-market of a derivative instrument and on the settlement of a derivative instrument, which resulted in actual second-quarter revenues being knocked down to $74.6 million, compared to $96.0 million in the second quarter of 2013.

As a result of the derivative loss (perhaps the reason why the stock is still a value), Northern incurred a second-quarter loss of $4.4 million, compared to earnings of $25.0 million in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, net income in the se… Read More