The share price of Oil Search Ltd [ASX:OSH] is down close to 4% today. At time of writing, the company’s shares are trading at $3.65, down from yesterday’s $3.79 close.
What happened?
The company announced today their Chief Financial Officer-designate Ayten Saridas will be leaving the company on 1 December.According to the company’s announcement, she’s going to ‘pursue other opportunities in the corporate sector’ and the decision was by mutual agreement.
Ayten Saridas hasn’t been at Oil Search too long, coming to the company in August after leaving Coronado Global Resources.
But it looks like the main reason pushing the share price lower is likely to do with the price of oil though.
Brent crude dropped 1.8% overnight to US$47.72 a barrel. WTI is also down, trading at US$45.05 at time of writing.
In fact, lower oil prices are also dragging many of the other oil stocks today with Beach Energy Ltd [ASX:BPT] down by 3.71%, Santos Ltd’s [ASX:STO] share price has shaved off 2.43% and Woodside Petroleum Ltd [ASX:WPL] is down 2.34%.
What could happen next for Oil Search?
It really hasn’t been a good year for Oil Search with oil prices collapsing during the pandemic.
In fact, Oil Search’s share price hasn’t really gone anywhere since April, as you can see below.
Source: TradingView
The share price has perked up a bit with hopes on the vaccine but that could still be quite some time away.
Oil demand could still remain subdued for a while with the virus increasing in the US and Europe as they head into winter.
Oil Search is also under pressure from the shift to fossil fuels into renewables and investors.
In fact, Climate Action 100+, an investor group with over $64 trillion in global funds and that includes among its members AustralianSuper, AMP Capital and QSuper have recently added Oil Search into their target list. The group is looking to pressure big emitters into taking action against greenhouse gas emissions.
Overall, we think there may be better investments out there, especially if you are looking at dividends.
Check out Rum Rebellion Editor Greg Canavan’s free report ‘Five Dividend Stocks set to Thrive in the Post-Pandemic Era’.
You can access it here.
Best,
Selva Freigedo