Tellurian Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:TELL) is a North American natural gas company founded in 2016 and headquartered in Houston, Texas. Charif Souki and Martin Houston founded the firm. Souki was the founder and CEO of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:LNG) and Houston was the former COO of BG Group. TELL has a current market capitalization of $2.8 billion.
The company’s maiden project is called ‘Driftwood LNG’ and is a 27.6 million tonne per anum LNG facility near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The project has obtained all required funding to begin construction.
Q1 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
TELL shares have gained 44% since the beginning of 2022 but remain up only 1% on a one year basis. Shares began recovering during 2021 after a significant 75% fall in the share price in late February 2020 after Indian-based Petronet requested to extend MOU timing to determine if they would commit to the project.
On the 16th of May, COO Keith Teague tendered his resignation from TELL after announcing his retirement. Teague stated that he would continue to work with the company in an advisory role.
The firm also reported first quarter results at the beginning of May. To highlight critical financials, the company posted EPS of -14 cents, rising from -8 cents in the prior year. Total revenue grew to $146.9 million from $8.7 million in the preceding year, representing a growth of 1,800%. The increase in total revenue results from increased realized natural gas prices and production volumes over the year.
TELL produced 6.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas over the first quarter, rising 24% from the 4.9 billion cubic feet produced in the previous quarter. Management noted in the result that they are "nearing net production of 100M cubic feet equivalent per day (mmcfe/d) and plan to reach 200 mmcfe/d by year-end". The firm noted that production is now generating free cash flow after Capex and they intend to maintain Capex spending at about $150 million per anum.
Tellurian stated that they are on track to begin LNG production in 2026 at the Driftwood project as Betchel is now on site.
Over the past three months, retail ownership in the stock has risen slightly but remains relatively stable. During the last week, the stock climbed 4 ranks to the 29th most popular security held on the platform. Included below is a chart that illustrates retail ownership against the share price:
For some comparison, Tellurian has experienced significant growth in the level of Institutional ownership over the last year. Fintel quant analysis provides TELL with an ownership accumulation score of 84.67, which placed the stock in the top 5% of 24,000 included constituents. TELL has 417 institutional owners that hold 242.2 million shares on the register. A chart has been provided below to illustrate the ownership:
TELL stands out on the Fintel platform with a short squeeze score of 80.65 and a gamma squeeze score of 88.41, based on short interest of 15.2% as a portion of the total float. These scores are calculated with the use of Nasdaq and Capital IQ data. This quantitative score is calculated using short interest, borrow fee rates, and other metrics. There has been no recent insider trading.
Analyst Views And Opinions
Benjamin Nolan from Stifel noted how the Q1 results came in below their estimates on higher costs and an aggressive cash burn. They note how TELL continues to use its ATM (at the market), offering at an uncomfortable speed with concerns over shareholder dilution. They remain 'sell' rated on the stock with a target of $3.50 as they prefer to wait until the risk/reward outlook is more reasonable.
Article by Ben Ward, Fintel
