Earnings season is right around the corner, so pretty soon you won’t be able to shut me up about the latest income numbers and balance sheet updates from our portfolio companies… but as we wait for that, we do have some snippets of interesting news about some of our portfolio holdings to share (Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) will be the first Real Money Portfolio company to report, next Thursday… and it’s about $100 above the highest price I’d be willing to pay right now, so hopefully they’ll have good news to share).

First, though, a quick teaser solution, since so many folks have been asking about it this week…

Marc Lichtenfeld is teasing a small $7 oil stock in ads for his Penny Options Trader ($1,795/yr), this is how he hints at it in his ads, while saying that he’s giving readers a chance to buy in before he places his own order, on July 25.

“The $7 energy company I’m investing in on July 25 is – hands down – one of the best buying opportunities I’ve come across throughout my entire career….

“… this company is a money machine… growing revenue and earnings at extraordinary rates.

“Revenue went up from $537 million to $1.8 billion in just two years.

“That’s a 235% jump.

“Earnings went from $7 million at the start of 2021… to $270 million in the most recent quarter.

“A 3,757% increase in just 15 months.

“The company is sitting on $177.9 million in cash.

“And it has ZERO debt.

“The zero-dollar debt figure is why Mario Gabelli says ‘they are in total control.'”

So what’s the stock? This is RPC, Inc (RES), an oil services company that primarily provides completion services for unconventional wells, with about half of their work in the Permian Basin — that means services like pressure pumping and coiled tubing.

Like most oil services companies right now, they’re pretty inexpensive due to the falling oil prices and somewhat reduced drilling and completion work, especially for natural gas, but they do have a great balance sheet, a focus on shareholder returns that seems to be accompanied by some corporate discipline, and they pay a small dividend… and analysts think they will grow their earnings by about 30% this year. Not bad for a little firm trading at about 6X earnings.

I am not an expert in this area, but ...