Thursday, October 28, 2010

Citigroup (NYSE:C) Sees Strong Headwinds for Hercules Offshore (NASDAQ:HERO)

It appears that Hercules Offshore Inc. (NASDAQ:HERO) will continue to struggle, as Citigroup (NYSE:C) said there are some major headwinds the company faces which will be difficult to overcome until the price of natural gas increases.

Citigroup said they're maintaining their "Hold-Speculative" rating on the company as a result.

“Our $2.40 EV/EBITDA derivation applies a 6.0x EV/EBITDA multiple to our forward-12-month EBITDA of $161 million. The multiple is below the 10.2x peak HERO multiple reached in the most recent downturn and is well above the 1.6x trough reached at the peak of the last upturn. The multiple is based on historical analysis of HERO and relative market multiples and is within the 2.9x–15.6x historical range where the average of offshore driller stocks traded over the past ten years. The median group EV/EBITDA multiple was 7.9x in the most recent cycle,” said Citi.

Citigroup lowered the price target of Hercules significantly, from $3.60 to $2.40. Hercules was at $2.43 a share as of 12:19 PM EDT, gaining $0.05, or 2.10 percent.

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