Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) is up on oil gains and an earnings beat. Here’s why.

It’s been a big week in the oil and gas space, as energies have gained strength pretty much across the board. Companies large and small have picked up collateral benefit from these price increases, and as we head into the weekend, here’s a look at Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN)  – which also released its first quarter 2016 innings today, and is surging as a result.

For those not familiar with the company, Southwestern is a Texas-based oil and gas company with a market capitalization of circa $4 billion. This market capitalization puts it right to the outer bracket of our normal target focus, but the gains seen today make it worth our while to take a look at.

Southwest and opened today’s session at a little over $11 a share, and as we head into the US lunchtime, currently trades one dollar higher at $12 a share – a 12.5% gain across the morning session.  So why the upside?

Well, the aforementioned gains in oil and gas have contributed to the concurrent gains in the company’s market capitalization, but is also often mentioned, Southwestern reported its latest financials today – and impressed pretty much across the board.

Estimates put a first-quarter 2016 adjusted net loss for the company at $.20 per share, but the financial readout showed $0.08 per share – a big beat on consensus.  Revenues also beat expectations, coming in at $579 million versus a forecast of $500 million.

So what can we expect going forward?

The company is way down on its 52-week high, currently trading at the aforementioned $12 a share versus its 52-week high of $29.6, so there is plenty of potential upside as we head into the latter half of the second quarter of the year. Of course, they primary driver behind this upside (as will be the case across the wider energies industry) will be the price of crude. If the bulls remain in control on the commodities side of the equation, Southwestern could well be testing the $30 level, third quarter.

DISCLAIMER: There is a substantial risk of loss with any speculative asset, especially small cap stocks. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not constitute recommendations to buy or sell a stock. Do your own research before committing capital.