Dahlman Rose Comments On Massey Energy After Releasing Guidance

Massey Energy's MEE full-year 2011 guidance was left unchanged, including total sales of 43-47MM tons and average realized pricing of $81-86. Massey contracted 2.2MM incremental met tons during the quarter, bringing the total 6.2MM ton 2011 hedged volume average price to $128/short ton FOB mine. Total 2011 sales are expected to be 10-14MM tons depending on the execution of several growth projects. Management believes the current market to be ~$175-185/metric ton FOB for its lower quality high vol and $230-250 for its higher quality high-vol met products. Massey's 4Q10 results and 2011 expectations were essentially in line with expectations following the pre-reported production and comments by the company in early January. Dahlman is awaiting further developments on the antitrust approval process for the Alpha merger. Dahlman Rose has updated its earnings estimates and introduced quarterly forecasts. Dahlman is maintaining its Buy rating and $66 price target on MEE shares. MEE is trading higher at $63