Saudi Aramco Rated “Overweight” By JPMorgan

Credit: Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco has just received its first major assessment from a brokerage giving it an “overweight” rating.

JPMorgan’s assessment comes just after Goldman Sachs rated the company “neutral” on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs’ neutral rating came with a price target of 41 Riyals per share. That target contrasts with the 37 Riyals per share target set alongside JPMorgan’s overweight rating. JPMorgan has explained that Saudi Aramco can sell its oil at a premium while maintaining capital expenditure flexibility and a low debt to equity ratio. So, the company can distribute a higher percentage of its cash flow. This means that Saudi Aramco can raise production with only minimal incremental capital expenditure.

JPMorgan went on to explain that its plausible that Saudi Aramco could raise capacity from 12 million barrels per day (bpd) to 15 million bpd, with production at 10 million bpd.

JPMorgan was one of the nine companies that helped organize Saudi Aramco’s historic IPO. The IPO raised a record $25.6 billion at 32 Riyals per share. The company managed to then make an additional $3.8 billion by selling even more shares to very eager investors. This brought the total from the company’s IPO to $29.4 billion.

Saudi Aramco’s IPO has been hailed as a huge success for Saudi Arabia. The government plans on using the funds raised from the IPO to help the country diversify its economy and edge away from its dependency on oil. As of Monday, Saudi Aramco’s market cap stands at $1.86 trillion, just short of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s $2 trillion target.

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