Q1 | Auer Growth Fund Stock of the Quarter: VAALCO Energy, Inc. [EGY]
Q1 2024: [EGY] — The managers of the Auer Growth Fund screen thousands of stocks every quarter. This discipline sometimes leads us to an interesting company—with a story or history or performance—that might not be on most investors’ radar. We are NOT advocating that the stock we highlight is our best-performing stock, or that you should purchase it for YOUR portfolio. Because of mutual fund laws and disclosures, we have to be careful in discussing any of our holdings, but we do feel it’s interesting to share information on the company, for this quarter, that we find most intriguing!
For the 1st quarter of 2024, our AUERX “Stock of the Quarter” pick is VAALCO Energy, Inc., stock symbol EGY. This company is headquartered in Houston, Texas, but specializes in finding oil in Gabon (offshore) and Egypt (onshore). The company was founded in 1985 and controls 232,000 acres of land to drill on. The company just reported a fiery good 4th quarter and total year end as of 12/31/2023 on March 13th. They recorded .41 cents earnings per share (eps) for the 4th quarter and .56 eps for the whole year. Their proved reserves increased by 3% to 28.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, aka (MMBOE).
As of March 15th, statistics from Yahoo Finance show the last 12 months revenue of $402 million, the company had a market value of $557 million, the market close price was $5.34, the trailing 12 month price to earnings was 9.5x ($5.34 close price divided by $0.56 year earnings per share) and the dividend yield was 5.6%. The book value was $4.20 a share, and the total long term debt was $89 million, and total cash was $103 million.
On March 13th, VAALCO Energy, Inc. reported its latest results with sales of $149 million and a net profit of $44 million. AUERX is very interested in the investment of this small growth energy company.
Holdings are subject to change at any time and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author. The discussion of individual companies should not be considered a recommendation of such companies by the Fund’s investment adviser. The discussion is designed to provide a reader with an understanding of how the Fund’s investment adviser manages the Fund’s portfolio.