There may be dueling analysts split on whether Statoil is a ‘buy’ or ‘sell’, but “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer comes down firmly in the ‘buy’ camp.
The analysts were from Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs .
Deutsche Bank upgraded Statoil to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ on March 9. It sees the oil and gas company delivering a 6 to 7 percent increase in product volumes for 2012 and thinks the current round of exploration should drive even more growth down the line.
However, Goldman Sachs takes the opposite view- it downgraded Statoil to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’ the very same day. Cramer called it a “relative call” and said it is therefore of “dubious value.” That’s because Goldman put together a whole re-ranking of the European integrated oil. In that re-ranking, Goldman liked Statoil least. While it acknowledges Statoil’s excellence at finding oil, it doesn’t like that the stock has run.
“I think Deutsche Bank is right — Statoil gives you a ton of positive catalysts this year as they explore for oil all over the world. Their recent track record is phenomenal, and to top it all off, they’re paying you to wait for those catalysts with [a] juicy 4 percent yield,” he said.
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