Dallas, Texas 10/30/2013 (Financialstrend) – Total SA (ADR) (NYSE:TOT), a France-based oil and Gas Company and a chemicals manufacturer with a market cap of 140 billion has the distinction of being the 5th largest publicly traded oil company. Total has its operations spread across 130 countries and they operate in all aspects of business in the petroleum industry, which includes “upstream operations, refining & Chemicals (refining, petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, crude oil trading and shipping) and marketing services”.
The oil major has had a good run at the browsers over the past 3 years. As of close of business on October 29, the stock is trading at prices which are very close to its 52 week high valuation of $62.17. The stock has gained close to 20.5% in market value year to date.
Oil and Gas industry has some strong growth opportunities and considering the current outlook of the market conditions, we can expect the medium term of share price could reach $64. However considering the good run that the “Total” stock has had so far, it might test lower levels if market conditions deteriorate.
The oil firm is preparing to report its third quarter earnings this Thursday and most of the analysts are positive on the results. Even if there is a slight dip in the revenue over the last few quarters Total is still a good bet for investors who would like to build a strong dividend-oriented portfolio.
Experts are projecting a production growth of 2% to 3% compared to FY12. The company has several things going well for it and they were in the news for merging refining and chemicals operations, which will create synergies and allow much more effective operations. This in turn will see the expected growth from $6.46 to $6.97 in 2014, a 7.8% annual gain. On 29th October, Total closed at 62, up by .93% from its previous day close.
