Cenovus'(NYSE: CVE) Downstream Will Weigh on Them Says TD Newcrest

According to TD Newcrest, the downstream of Cenovus Energy Inc (NYSE:CVE) will weigh the company down, and they downgraded them from "Buy" to "Hold" based on that assumption.

TD said, "Of note, our 2010 CFPS estimate is now marginally higher since we were already at the low-end of the new target range. Our 2011 CFPS estimate also increases marginally (drives 75% of the EV/DACF component of our target price calculation) but since we reduced our target multiple to 8.5x from 9x to reflect current peer group multiples, our target price falls to $32/share. We note that 2010 guidance had not been updated since April 2010. With a target return of 15%, we are concurrently downgrading to HOLD."

Cenvus closed Friday at $27.82. losing $0.35, or 0.89 percent. They lowered their price target from C$33 to C$32 on the company.

Wells (NYSE:WFC) Sees No Quick Fix for Blueknight Energy (OTC:BKEP)

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) changed their rating on Blueknight Energy Partners, L.P. (OTC:BKEP), downgrading them from "Outperform" to "Market Perform," citing no quick fix in the short term for their restructuring.

"We’re downgrading BKEP as terms of the announced restructuring are less attractive than we had forecast. According to our preliminary analysis, the restructuring transaction is unlikely to result in potential unit price upside near term. While we still believe Vitol and new GP owner CharlesBank are likely to grow the partnership over time via organic investments and acquisitions (including dropdowns), near-term upside potential appears limited, in our view. Our model and estimates are being reviewed," said Wells.

Wells lowered their valuation range from $12-14 to $5-8. Blueknight closed Monday at $8.95.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Says Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) Reaches Upside Limits

Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) was downgraded by Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), citing most of the upside is priced into the share price. They were downgraded from "Outperform" to "Market Perform."

Wells said, "With success at Sanish and now initial success at Lewis and Clark, WLL has executed and erased Bakken inventory concerns. Given, YTD outperformance, much of the upside is already priced into shares, in our opinion and we believe risk/reward is now neutral."

The valuation range was also lowered from $105-$110 to $100-$110.

Whiting closed Friday at $100.97, dropping $0.51, or 0.50 percent.

Tesoro (NYSE:TSO) Patterson-UTI (Nasdaq:PTEN) ECA Marcellus Trust (NYSE:ECT) Rated by RBC Capital

RBC Capital said it has made some changes on some of its ratings on oil and gas stocks, including Tesoro Corp. (NYSE:TSO), Patterson-UTI Energy (Nasdaq:PTEN) and ECA Marcellus Trust (NYSE:ECT).

Patterson-UTI Energy (Nasdaq:PTEN) was upgraded from "Sector Perform" to "Outperform," with their price target raised from $23 to $27. Patterson closed at $19.44, dropping $0.11, or 0.56 percent.

Tesoro Corp. was downgraded from "Outperform" to "Sector Perform," with a price target on them of $15 a share. Tesoro closed Thursday at $13.14, losing $0.78, or 5.60 percent.

RBC initiated coverage on ECA Marcellus Trust with an "Outperform" rating, and a price target of $25. ECA ended Thursday's trading session at $23.34, falling $0.22, or 0.93 percent.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Downgraded by Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS)

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) lowered its rating on Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) from "Outperform" to "Neutral," as the company has enjoyed a 29 percent increase in net profit in its latest quarter.

Production soared in the quarter, which in addition to the higher price of oil, increased earnings per share to $1.47, handily beatings analysts' estimates of close to $1.35 a share.

Some analysts believe Occidental will be able to keep up their torrid pace.

The majority of growth for the quarter was in the Middle East/north Africa.

Occidently pulled back to $80.97 on Wednesday, losing $0.23, or 0.28 percent. Credit Suisse lowered their price target from $92 to $89 on them.

Weatherford (NYSE:WFT) Faces Risk Going Forward, Downgraded

Considered a high risk company and stock at this time, Weatherford International (NYSE:WFT) was downgraded by FBR Capital and Credit Agricole.

FBR lowered their rating from "Outperform" to "Market Perform," while Credit Agricole downgraded them from "Outperform" to "Underperform."

"We are downgrading WFT as we believe its risk/reward profile is less favorable than that of other stocks in our coverage group. In part, we believe the recovery in international markets will continue to be slower than many expect. This, coupled with the risk of how and when Weatherford settles the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation and how the TNK-BP put is settled, adds an element of risk that we believe requires a higher potential return than we see in the stock," said FBR.

Weatherford closed at $17.37, gaining $0.20, or 1.14 on Wednesday. Credit Agricole has a price target of $18 on Weatherford, lowering it from $19, and FBR Capital dropped its price target on them from $23 to $21.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) Downgrades Cheniere Energy Partners (AMEX:CQP)

Citigroup (NYSE:C) downgraded Cheniere Energy Partners (AMEX:CQP) from "Hold" to "Sell."

Cheniere made a nice upward move earlier in 2010, but have remained level since the latter part of April, hovering around the $20 a share mark and a little above.

Concerning cash distributions, Cheniere reported this in a press release Tuesday: [They] declared (i) a cash distribution per common unit of $0.425 ($1.70 annualized) to unit holders of record as of November 1, 2010, and (ii) a cash distribution of $229,121.46 to its general partner. All of these distributions are payable on November 12, 2010.

Cheniere closed at $20.57 Wednesday, gaining $0.07, or 0.34 percent.

Plains Exploration & Production (NYSE:PXP) Downgraded by FBR Capital

Plains Exploration & Production (NYSE:PXP) was downgraded by FBR Capital from
"Outperform" to "Market Perform."

"Assuming current MMR stock price (our $4.50/Mcf long-term gas price assumption implies about 6 Tcfe gross deep shelf potential priced in) and a generous $2 billion in proceeds from deepwater asset sales, the remaining assets are currently valued at 4.7 times 2011 TEV multiple and 70% of 3P NAV. We note that comparable peer group trades at 5.5x and 55% of 3P NAV. We would like to see an actual price tag for the deepwater assets, continued deep shelf exploratory and development success, and execution on the remaining assets before we revisit our rating," said FBR.

Plains closed at $26.49 Tuesday, falling $1.23, or 4.44 percent. FBR has a price target of $30 on Plains.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Downgrades Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS) Citing Valuation

With its strong performance since its summer IPO, Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS) is looked upon as fully valued, and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) was the latest to downgrade them, as the dropped them from "Outperform" to "Market Perform."

Wells said, "We are downgrading shares of OAS following substantial absolute and relative strength. With shares up 55% from the IPO, they have handily outperformed the EPX during that timeframe. With Bakken upside potential increasingly understood, execution a requisite, and oil trading toward the higher end of its recent range, we view risk reward as more consistent with a Market Perform rating. We are maintaining our estimates and valuation at this time."

UBS (NYSE:UBS) downgraded them Monday from "Buy" to "Neutral," citing similar reasons.

Oasis closed Tuesday at $20.26, losing $1.40, or 6.46 percent.

Wells has a valuation range of $21.00 to $23.00 on them.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Downgrades Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) on Disappointing Results

The seemingly strong performance of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) wasn't enough to impress the market, and the share price of the oil giant got hammered, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) adding insult to injury by downgrading them from "Overweight" to "Equalweight."

Earnings for the quarter ending September 30 were $544 million, or 60 cents a share. That's over double the $262 million earning in the same period last year, or $0.29 a share.

Revenue for the quarter jumped to $4.67 billion, a 30 percent gain. The street was looking for revenue of $4.78 billion, and earnings of $0.56 a share.

Halliburton shares were pressured down as a result, closing Monday at $34.09, losing $1.73, or 4.83 percent.

Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS) Trading Beyond Valuation?

Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS) has soared since its initial public offering in Jue 2009, soaring about 60 percent since that time.

But according to UBS (NYSE:UBS), they believe the company at this time is trading at 2P valuations that are unsustainable in the short term. Consequently UBS downgraded Oasis from "Buy" to "Neutral."

UBS analyst says, "Since its June IPO, shares of OAS have rallied 60% vs. oily peers of 23%. We attribute the rapid appreciation to: 1) solid operational execution across its first set of Bakken wells; 2) increased M&A activity in the Bakken; and 3) broader confidence in Bakken resource potential. While we still view the company favourably in terms of fundamentals, we now believe the market is trading the company beyond 2P valuations and may be attempting to price in a takeout premium that we believe is unlikely to take place," said UBS.

Oasis closed Monday at $21.66, gaining $0.02, or 0.09 percent.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Looks at NuStar (NYSE:NSH), Energy Transfer (NYSE:ETE) for General Partner MLPs

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) gave a large overview of the general MLPs sector, including large and small caps, and others. They also looked at General Partner MLPs in general, and NuStar GP Holdings, LLC (NYSE:NSH) and Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE:ETE) in particular.

Wells said, "We are increasing valuation ranges across our general partner MLP coverage universe by an average of 2%. Our revised valuation ranges suggest median total return potential of 1% for the subsector. On average, we are lowering our 2011 DCF per unit estimates for GP MLPs by 4%. We are downgrading NuStar GP Holdings, LLC to Market Perform from Outperform based on valuation. Our top Outperform picks in this subsector is Energy Transfer Equity, L.P."

NuStar closed Thursday at $33.53, dropping $0.56, or 1.64 percent. Energy Transfer closed at $38.89, losing $0.13, or 0.33 percent. Trading volume for both companies was down from the daily 3-month average.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) on Genesis (NYSE:GEL), TC Pipeline (Nasdaq:TCLP) and Holly Energy (NYSE:HEP)

Commenting on the small cap pipeline MLPs, Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) gave their input on Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE:HEP) and TC Pipeline Partners, L.P. (Nasdaq:TCLP) and Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE:GEL)."

"We are increasing valuation ranges for GEL to $25 to $27 from $24 to $26 and for TLP to $33 to $35 from $32 to $34. We are also adjusting our DCF estimates for GEL, HEP and TCLP. Our revised valuation ranges suggest median total return potential of 13% for the subsector. We are downgrading Holly Energy Partners, L.P. and TC Pipeline Partners, L.P. to Underperform from Market Perform based on valuation. Our top Outperform pick in this subsector is Genesis Energy, L.P."

Holly Energy closed down $50.89 Thursday, falling $1.36, or 2.60 percent. TC Pipelines finished the trading day at $47.66, dropping $1.23, or 2.52 percent. Genesis also finished down, ending at $25.01, losing $0.19, or 0.75 percent.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) Cuts Petrobas (NYSE:PBR) to "Equalweight"

Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS) analyst Paul Cheng downgraded Petrobas (NYSE:PBR) from "Overweight" to "Equalweight," citing concerns over the spending of the company.

With Petrobras profits considered a means of socialist programs of the Brazilian government, uncertainty over how deeply the government may rob the Petrobras piggy bank is weighing on the mind of Cheng, and other investors as well.

If Petrobras is tapped in a big way by the incoming Brazilian government, it would mean a "lower future return for Petrobras' minority shareholders over the next several years."

Other spending concerns are the move to an increased domestic refining capacity, which could result in capital expenditures of over $150 billion over the next decade, said Cheng.

In the past Petrobras added capacity overseas inexpensively as their strategy.

Petrobras common shares closed at $35.09 Wednesday, dropping $1.62, or 4.41 percent.

Tesoro (NYSE:TSO) Downgraded by Raymond James

Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) was downgraded by Raymond James from "Market Perform" to "Underperform."

Along with others in the industry, Tesoro is fighting to have a California law suspended which calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be slashed, which has wreaked havoc on the jobs market.

Tesoro and other energy companies from outside California say enforcing the regulations will result in thousands of jobs in the state being lost, something their opponents don't deny.

So-called green jobs would supposedly eventually replace the lost jobs over time, but that's far from proven in an industry that's build mostly on hype and faith, rather than reality.

A ballot to vote on the issue will be held on November 2.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) Downgraded by Standpoint Reserach to "Hold"

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) was downgraded by Standpoint Research from "Buy" to "Hold," citing valuation.

Standpoint said, "CVX, market cap $168 bln, is now fairly valued at 1.8X book value, 9X earnings and 8X peak earnings. The shares are closing in on the July 2008 high. On the two-year chart CVX is +14% even though crude is down 7%. Our main concern is that these low-beta shares have run up 24% since our July 1 recommendation, topping the S&P-500 by > 1100 bps. This Energy and Materials trade looks a bit crowded to us and we want to lighten up here."

Chevron closed Wednesday at $83.89, gaining $0.50, or 0.60 percent.

Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) Downgraded by Itau Unibanco to "Market Perform"

In light of the recent $70 billion sale of shares by Brazil's Petrobras (NYSE:PBR), Itau Unibanco downgraded the company from "Outperform" to "Market Perform."

Itau Unibanco analysts said, "We believe that the last two years have undermined Petrobras’ goodwill with the market and consequently investors’ appetite to pay material premiums, at least for now."

In other words the stock is considered expensive at this time.

Petrobras closed in New York at $36.71 Tuesday, gaining $0.12, or, 0.33 percent. Volume was almost exactly double the 3-month daily average.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Downgrades Conoco (NYSE:COP) to "Underweight"

With September being such a strong month for equities, many companies across a number of sectors have been downgraded on valuation. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) was among those downgraded, as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) lowered the rating of the company from "Equal Weight" to "Underweight."

Morgan said they liked the strategy of Conoco, but all of that is already priced into the stock in their estimation, and don't see much room for growth at their current multiples.

They recommend Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX), as they offer an improved risk/reward scenario for investors, according to Morgan Stanley.

Conoco closed Friday at $57.86, gaining $0.43, or 0.75 percent.

A price target of $56 is maintained on Conoco.

Dynegy (NYSE:DYN) Downgraded by JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM)

JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) downgraded Dynegy (NYSE:DYN) from "Overweight" to "Neutral," while lowering the price target on the company from $10 to $5.

After a 40-day period of seeking an alternative to the bid from The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX), Dynegy, while receiving some interest, didn't end up with any other bids.

Dynegy stated, “Despite this solicitation of interest, Dynegy did not receive any acquisition proposals.”

They said eight parties gained access to private company information in order to make an informed decision, but they evidently didn't like what they saw.

A shareholder meeting of Dynegy on November 17 is set, where the merger with Blackstone will be approved. The deal should close in near the end of November.

Exxon (NYSE:XOM), Forest Oil (NYSE:FST) Downgraded by Howard Weil, Hess (NYSE:HES) Upgraded

Howard Weil sent a couple of mixed signals with the oil sector, downgrading ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Forest Oil (NYSE:FST), while upgrading Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES).

Exxon was downgraded from "Focus Stock" to "Market Outperform" with the price target lowered from $81 to $77.

The oil giant closed at $61.45, providing an approximate 25 percent upside for the stock.

Forest Oil was downgraded from "Market Outperform" to "Market Perform," with the price target lowered from $39 to $34. Forest closed Wednesday at $29.22, down $0.29, or 0.98 percent.

Hess on the other hand was upgraded from "Market Perform" to "Market Outperform. The price target on Hess was downwardly revised from $78 to $73.

Hess closed at $65.40, gaining $0.25, or 0.46 percent.