Range (RRC) Boosts Financial Strength, To Repurchase Shares

Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) recently provided three financial updates.

The upstream energy player announced that bank commitments have been increased to $2.4 billion from $2 billion. The company added that its maximum facility amount is still $4 billion while the borrowing base remains at $3 billion.

Moreover, the explorer and producer said a 0.5% overriding royalty interest sale for gross proceeds of $150 million. The overriding royalty interest applies to the company’s core properties in southwest Appalachia, spread across 350,000 net surface acres. The company also sold a 2% overriding royalty interest in the core region in July for gross proceeds of roughly $600 million. Late last year, Range Resources divested another 1% overriding royalty interest from the resources, which fetched $300 million.

Part of the asset sale proceeds will likely be utilized to reduce debt burden. The company continues to strengthen its balance sheet by lowering debt and expanding liquidity. Investors should know that in the past year, the upstream energy player managed to divest assets worth $1.1 billion to boost its financial strength.

Range Resources also received approvals from its board of directors to initiate a share repurchase program worth $100 million. The explorer expects the program, likely to be funded by proceeds from asset divestments and free cashflow, to begin in October.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, TX, Range Resources currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Meanwhile, a few better-ranked players in the energy space are Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG) , Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc (NYSE:HLX) and Matrix Service Company (NASDAQ:MTRX) . All the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Crescent beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the prior four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 235.1%.

Helix beats the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the prior four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 32%.

Matrix Service has managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the past four quarters.

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