Jefferies Raises Price Target on Pioneer Drilling Co. (PDC), Maintains Buy Rating

Jefferies reports, "with oil over $100/bbl and E&Ps still in the early stages of "re-discovering" and exploiting conventional and unconventional oil reserves in the U.S., we expect the surge in U.S. land drilling activity to continue into 2012 and push dayrates higher."

To reflect its new land driller outlook, Jefferies is maintaining its Buy rating on shares of Pioneer Drilling Co. (NYSE: PDC) and is raising its price target from $15 to $20. The firm is also increasing its 2011 and 2012 EPS estimates from $0.48 and $0.96 to $0.57 and $1.20.

The firms favorite stock at current levels is Pioneer Drilling (NYSE: PDC) due to the upside from its mechanical rigs and leverage to the high HP workover market. This is closely followed by Nabors Industries (NYSE: NBR) and Patterson-UTI Energy (Nasdaq: PTEN).

For more ratings news on Pioneer Drilling Co click here and for the rating history of Pioneer Drilling Co click here.

Shares of Pioneer Drilling Co closed at $14.67 yesterday.

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