Forest Oil Shares Dropped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of oil and gas company Forest Oil (NYS: FST) fell as much as 12% today after the company released earnings.

So what: Fourth-quarter volume fell 12% to 342 million and revenue fell slightly to $176.7 million. Earnings fell to $0.18 per share from $0.41 per share a year ago after one-time items were taken out. Analysts had expected earnings of $0.26 per share.

Now what: The falling price of natural gas affected profits and so did lower-than-expected natural gas liquid production. Like most companies, Forest Oil is trying to make the transition to liquid plays as much as possible with natural gas prices so low. With earnings falling and the company falling short of expectations, I'm going to sit this move out until I can see a trend that the company can improve costs and increase production.

Interested in more info on Forest Oil? Add it to your watchlist byclicking here.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Travis Hoium does not have a position in any company mentioned. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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