Horizon Oil outlook positive at Macquarie

Macquarie Wealth Management kept Horizon Oil as an "outperform" with a 25¢ target price after the energy company held an investor briefing and released June quarter operating results.

"While the appetite for highly-geared E&P companies is understandably limited in the current environment, through a combination of attractive hedging, Maari production improvements and capex cuts it appears HZN is sufficiently well funded to manage the pending redemption of the $US80 million convertible note next year.

"Furthermore the current share price is attributing little option value to HZN's PNG gas resources (which is seemingly moving to the fore as terms surrounding initial gas sales to OK Tedi are imminent and PNG LNG pushes ahead with an expansion train)."

UBS raised Horizon Oil to a "buy" from "neutral" and cut the price target to 12¢ from 14¢.