Laredo Petroleum has settled its previously disclosed litigation with Shell Trading. The litigation commenced in May 2017 and related to a crude oil purchase agreement previously entered into between Laredo and Shell effective as of October 1, 2016. Pursuant to such settlement, on April 12, 2019, Laredo received a one-time payment of $42.5M from Shell and both parties dismissed their respective claims with prejudice. The cash payment will be recorded as non-operating income on Laredo's consolidated statement of operations in connection with the litigation settlement.
Piper Jaffray analyst Kashy Harrison downgraded Laredo Petroleum to Neutral and lowered his price target for the shares to $3 from $9.
MKM Partners analyst John Gerdes downgraded Laredo Petroleum to Neutral and lowered his price target to $3 from $5. The analyst cites the company's "5% lower oil production composition and modestly higher cash expenses" as it transitions to "wider spaced completions" in early Q2 of 2019.