Imperial Capital maintained an Outperform rating on Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD), and cut the price target to $201.00 (from $210.00), following reduced crude oil price forecasts. Analyst Bob Christensen said that 2Q results, which will be released after the market close on 8/4/15, were adversely affected by severe rain and caused PXD to only place 33 Eagle Ford wells online during the quarter instead of the 42 it had planned.

Christensen commented, "We are maintaining our Outperform rating, but lowering our one-year price target to $201 from $210, about 63% above the recent share price. On 7/22/15, PXD announced that its 2Q15 production volumes of 197mboe/d missed the low end of its previously issued guidance of 198mboe/d to 203mboe/d. PXD largely attributed the miss in production due to weather related and other transient issues. We do not focus on these issues yet it changes 2Q15 estimates lower. Rather, we focus on long-term potential for PXD do grow it production long-term in its Spraberry/Wolfcamp plays in its huge Midland basin leasehold. That said, 2Q results, which will be released after the market close on 8/4/15, were adversely affected by severe rain and caused PXD to only place 33 Eagle Ford wells online during the quarter instead of the 42 it had planned, resulting in the loss of 2mboe/d. The rainfall also extended the planned maintenance scheduled on the Fain gas processing plant in the West Panhandle area of Texas, resulting in the loss of 1mboe/d. Additionally, wells underperformed
expectations in the firm’s peripheral Washburn Ranch lease of LaSalle County in the Eagle Ford, resulting in a loss of 1mboe/d. While the underperformance of the wells is not entirely understood, PXD set expectations on a limited data set, which experienced significant curtailments due to the central gathering plant catching fire in May 2014."

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Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources closed at $123.41 yesterday.