Short review: By my figures (from DNE's news releases), they had 17 Barnett Shale wells online at the end of 2006, or the first week of Jan. With the three new wells anounced last week, the total should currently be 20. They are still on tract to be at 26-32 at the of Q2 and 40-50 at year end. A lot of "news" is expected over the next 13-15 weeks: Two earnings reports, more drilling updates, and one or more corporate presentations (as the company has increasingly more "good news" to share with the investing public).
IMO, Dune Energy will breakout above 5 sometime in the late Mar-May period. Why? Because many rating services are only backward looking. If the revenues and earnings haven't been reported, they are not even considered. Rating services like IBD, VectorVest, MarketGrader, etc. are really negative on DNE; however, they also give no credit for the revenues that have (surely) been received in Q4 and to date in Q1...but not yet reported. For the most part, many of these services are behind the curve. DNE is selling a heck of a lot more gas in Feb than they did in Q3 and earlier quarters. At some point this year, rating services should get up to speed. Currently for them, Dune Energy is a very small O+G play with virtually no revenues and a negative cash flow. Those on this board/arena should understand this company a lot better than the rating services. Since fall 06, we have had nothing but good news from DNE. I expect this to continue throughout 2007. IMO, DNE could be a home run stock in 2007 or nlt 2008.
I continue to like the energy pairing of VLO and DNE. Valero is and will continue to produce a ton of cash and mananement both smart and very shareholder friendly while Dune has unusual potential for intermediate term capital gains. Ed