Comment from Stockwatch June29One company preparing for a rollback is Alberta gas producer
Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (
BXE), down two cents to 72 cents on 377,200 shares. It decided months ago to roll back its shares in order to save its imperiled listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which requires that stocks stay above $1 (U.S.) (nearly twice Bellatrix's closing price of 55.21 U.S. cents today). The company proposed a 1-for-5 share rollback at a special shareholder meeting last month. The size of the rollback led to some raised eyebrows, with plenty of cynics taking it as a sign of Bellatrix's concern that the stock would not stay long above $1 (U.S.) long if the rollback was just 1 for 2. In any event, the 1-for-5 rollback was approved and is scheduled to take effect on July 1.
Some insiders are buying ahead of the rollback. Chairman Mickey Dunn bought 179,100 shares yesterday, boosting his holdings to 1.13 million of Bellatrix's 246 million shares. As well, chief operating officer Garrett Ulmer bought 46,500 shares from June 23 to June 27. He now owns 186,106 shares. Perhaps both share the high hopes of National Bank Financial analyst Dan Payne, who gave a brief but pleasant mention to Bellatrix in a research note two days ago, right after the company closed a $34.5-million non-core asset sale. The sale "continues to positively address liquidity and capitalization, while giving us line of sight towards funding for a resumption of growth," wrote Mr. Payne. He also noted that Bellatrix is using $15-million of the sale proceeds to drill an extra four wells in its low-cost Spirit River gas play. This increased activity, in Mr. Payne's opinion, could lead to "fundamental outperformance on rates and costs in 2018." He left his price target at 90 cents.