We recently published a list of the Top 15 Energy Companies with the Highest Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE:PR) stands against other top energy companies.
After posting notable gains in the first three months of 2025, the energy sector witnessed significant declines in April, primarily due to the ongoing global trade war sparked by President Trump’s tariffs and the prospects of an economic slowdown. The overall energy sector has now slid by around 3.8% since the beginning of the year, against a decline of about 5.8% by the wider market. Unsurprisingly, the downturn is led by the oil and gas sector, which has fallen by over 15% YTD.
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The primary reason behind this fall is the declining global price of crude oil, caused by the continued uncertainty surrounding global trade, demand fears, and the recent decision by OPEC+ to increase supply. The West Texas Intermediate crude price is currently hovering at a multi-year low level of just under $62, down by over 25% YoY. To make matters worse, the International Energy Agency recently cut its 2025 oil demand growth forecast by 300,000 barrels per day compared to last month, warning the world to ‘buckle up’ amid the escalating trade tensions.
That said, there are sectors in the energy industry that are still significantly bullish, with liquified natural gas being a prime example. The United States of America is already the largest LNG exporter in the world, with exports growing consistently over the last decade. Still, the industry continues to boom after it received significant support from the Trump administration, which has made boosting America’s fossil fuel sector its primary agenda. According to Wood Mackenzie, 15.5 million tons per annum (MTPA) of long-term LNG offtake contracts were signed in the first quarter of 2025, following a record 81 MTPA last year. These numbers are expected to spike in the coming months after more and more countries are looking to export American LNG to narrow their trade gap with the US, following a tariff threat by the White House.
Another important growth driver for the energy sector is the ongoing AI boom and its accompanying power-hungry data centers. According to a study by the American Clean Power Association, electricity demand in the US is expected to surge by 35-50% by 2040, driven by domestic manufacturing growth, data centers, and mass electrification. A primary candidate to satisfy this huge demand is natural gas, which is clean, reliable, and abundant. According to energy data provider Enverus, a total of 80 new gas power plants could be constructed in America by the end of the decade. That said, natural gas is not as cheap as it was a year ago, as prices have surged by around 36.6% over the last 52 weeks.
Another important candidate is nuclear energy, which has emerged as a hot topic these days, especially after several tech giants met on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston and signed a pledge to support the goal of at least tripling the world’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050. A number of these companies have already signed contracts with nuclear energy providers to power their data centers, with Jeff Bezos’ online retail giant being a primary example.
A close-up of a wellhead, showing off the company’s production of oil and natural gas.
Methodology
To collect data for this article, we examined companies operating in the energy sector and then compiled a list of the stocks with the highest upside potential according to Wall Street analysts, as of April 28, 2025. To keep our list relevant, we have only included companies with a market cap of $10 billion and above. The following are the Energy Companies with the Highest Upside Potential.
At Insider Monkey, we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE:PR)
Upside Potential as of April 28: 44.29%
Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE:PR) is an independent oil and natural gas company with operations focused in the Permian Basin. The company’s assets are concentrated in the core of the Delaware Basin.
Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE:PR) successfully closed its $818 million acquisition of Barilla Draw last year, adding about 24,000 boe/d to its output. The deal also expanded the company’s footprint by about 27,500 net acres in the Permian Basin, which is the largest shale oil belt in the world. As a result, PR’s oil production in FY 2024 shot up by almost 64% YoY, while its overall production surged by a hefty 77.1%.
Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE:PR) reported an adjusted EPS of $0.36 in Q4 2024, beating expectations by $0.02. However, the company’s revenue of $1.3 billion slightly fell short of estimates by $1.83 million, despite growing by 15.44% YoY. PR’s cash flow from operations stood at $3.4 billion during the quarter, while its adjusted free cash flow came in at $1.4 billion. As a result, the company ended the year with total liquidity of $3 billion, up $1 billion from 2023. It also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share and currently maintains a strong dividend yield of 5.73%.
Overall, PR ranks 6th on our list of the top energy companies with the highest upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of PR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.