UPDATE: BMO Capital Upgrades QEP Resources (QEP) to Outperform

BMO Capital upgraded QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP) from Market Perform to Outperform with a price target of $24.00 (from $18.00). Analyst Dan McSpirit sees favorable risk/reward.

"We believe QEP affords an inexpensively priced rate of change appeal. We see it in the deepening of the economic inventory that came with the recent acquisition of Permian Basin properties in Martin County, Texas," said McSpirit.

"We measure it in improving cash margins, increasing recycle ratios, and compressing trading multiples. Add to this a defensive quality to the shares that comes from a stronger than-most balance sheet. We find a favorable risk/reward at current trading levels and believe QEP fits our larger investment thesis on being long producers with captured inventories of increasingly low-cost, low-risk reinvestment opportunities, a quality that takes on greater import should oil prices mature at today's levels," added the analyst.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on QEP Resources click here. For more ratings news on QEP Resources click here.

Shares of QEP Resources closed at $17.92 yesterday.

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