Heartland Advisors Sees Berry Corp. (BRY) as an “Attractive Opportunity”

Heartland Advisors, an investment management firm, published its “Heartland Value Fund” fourth-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be seen here. The fund continues to focus its relentless research on identifying and owning companies that are poised to succeed against a variety of backdrops or those that are priced at significant discounts to peers regardless of the sector. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Heartland Value Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Berry Corporation (NASDAQ: BRY) and discussed its stance on the firm. Berry Corporation is a Bakersfield, California-based upstream energy company with a $692.8 million market capitalization. BRY delivered a 2.85% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 124.94%. The stock closed at $8.66 per share on January 27, 2022.

Here is what Heartland Value Fund has to say about Berry Corporation in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Uncertainty about economic growth in the coming quarters weighed on Energy companies in the broader market. Longer term, we believe the capital discipline oil producers have shown over the past few years will provide support for energy prices as increased incremental demand will continue to absorb modest production increases. The Fund’s holdings in the sector fared better, and the portfolio owns well managed producers with strong balance sheets. Longtime holding Berry Corporation (BRY) fits this profile.

We highlighted Berry in the third quarter commentary praising its seasoned management team and financial strength. The company maintained its record of shareholder-friendly policies during the most recent quarter.

The move, along with compelling valuations—shares trade at just 4.7X EV/EBITDA—makes Berry, in our view, an attractive opportunity. Management remains disciplined in allocating capital, reining in debt, and focusing on high-margin production. This approach, along with aggressive efforts to return capital to shareholders through share repurchases and increased dividends, should attract additional investor interest.”

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Our calculations show that Berry Corporation (NASDAQ: BRY) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. BRY was in 14 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 16 funds in the previous quarter. Berry Corporation (NASDAQ: BRY) delivered a -9.89% return in the past 3 months.

In October 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on BRY in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.