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The following are today's upgrades for Validea's Price/Sales Investor model based on the published strategy of Kenneth Fisher. This value strategy rewards stocks with low P/S ratios, long-term profit growth, strong free cash flow and consistent profit margins.

VAALCO ENERGY, INC. (EGY) is a small-cap value stock in the Oil & Gas Operations industry. The rating according to our strategy based on Kenneth Fisher changed from 58% to 80% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.

Company Description: VAALCO Energy, Inc. is an independent energy company principally engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Company's segments include segments Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. It holds 58.8% participating interest in the Etame Marin block, located offshore Gabon in West Africa. The Etame Marin block covers an area of approximately 46,200 gross acres located 20 miles offshore in water depths of approximately 250 feet. The operations of all segments include exploration for and production of hydrocarbons where commercial reserves have been found and developed. The Company owns an interest in an undeveloped block offshore Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. The Company conducts its operating activities in Egypt, Canada, and offshore Gabon. In Egypt, its interests are spread across two regions: the Eastern Desert, which contains the West Gharib, West Bakr and Northwest Gharib merged concessions, and the Western Desert.

The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.

Detailed Analysis of VAALCO ENERGY, INC.

About Kenneth Fisher: The son of Philip Fisher, who is considered the "Father of Growth Investing", Kenneth Fisher is a money manager, bestselling author, and longtime Forbes columnist. The younger Fisher wowed Wall Street in the mid-1980s when his book Super Stocks first popularized the idea of using the price/sales ratio (PSR) as a means of identifying attractive stocks. According to his alma mater, Humboldt State University, Fisher is also one of the world's foremost experts on 19th century logging. Appropriately, Fisher's firm, Fisher Investments, is located in a lush forest preserve in Woodside, California, where the contrarian-minded Fisher says he and his employees can get away from Wall Street groupthink.

About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.