LandBridge and WaterBridge Stocks Are Setting Up for Gains -- Barrons.com

By Doug Busch

Most investors overlook the IPO market entirely, chasing the same crowded large-cap names everyone else watches. That neglect creates opportunity, as the best gems are often found right at the beginning, when few are looking.

The key is patience: Spotting promising new issues early, then wait for them to form proper bases before committing capital. Energy IPOs, in particular, have delivered some of the cleanest setups, offering both the novelty of a fresh listing and the sector's fundamental tailwinds once the stock has digested its post-IPO volatility and carved out a solid pattern.

Two recent energy IPOs illustrate this point perfectly. LandBridge, which went public in mid-2024, and WaterBridge Infrastructure, which went public 10 months ago. Both arrived with little fanfare outside the energy complex. Because so few generalist investors even screen the IPO calendar for these names, patient observers who tracked them from the open and waited for the early public market turbulence to subside and resolve into proper patterns, were positioned ahead of the broader market once the stocks began to attract institutional attention.

Now let's look at the charts, where both the daily and weekly time frames reinforce the bullish outlook.

LandBridge, a land and infrastructure platform for the energy industry, came public in June 2024 and rose 370% over the next five months. During that span, it advanced in 18 of 23 weeks and has essentially traded sideways since. It has now bumped up against the $80 level for the eighth time since trading began just more than two years ago.

On the daily chart, a cup-with-handle base has been forming on the ratio chart against the VanEck Oil Services ETF since mid-March. Notice how the stock has shown greater resilience around the round $80 level this time than it did during three previous attempts -- last November and again this March and April.

Those earlier attempts stalled out for a reason. A bearish evening star completed on March 19 and preceded a decline of more than 8%, while a shooting-star candle formed on May 20. Both signals preceded sharp price declines. Since then, the technical picture has improved. A bullish golden cross formed in March, when the 50-day simple moving average crossed above the 200-day, and the slope of the 200-day SMA has been curling higher since late April.

A bull flag formation has now taken shape, and I would enter this on a break above $80. If that occurs, a quick move toward par could happen by the fourth quarter, representing a 25% upside from the breakout level.

LandBridge was trading around $75 Monday.

WaterBridge Infrastructure, a "picks-and-shovels" water infrastructure play in the oil and gas industry, came public about 10 months ago and has nearly doubled from its early-January low following three months of weakness between last October and the start of 2026. It has been remarkably consistent, with no consecutive weekly declines so far this year.

On the daily time frame, the stock has outperformed its energy infrastructure peers since the start of the second quarter. Its newly formed 200-day SMA is sloping firmly higher, following a bullish inverse head-and-shoulders pattern that formed between last October and this March. The $27.50 trigger was taken out on March 27 and the stock proceeded to gain 37% through its recent peak.

It has shown some volatility lately and now trades 6% below its 52-week high. On the bright side, a bullish morning star was completed with a 7% advance on June 25. That was followed, however, by a bearish evening star on July 1, that preceded an 8% decline, as well as two bearish engulfing candles on July 15 and July 23 and a doji on July 17.

These signals suggest fatigue, so investors should be patient and consider entering on a pullback toward the 50-day SMA near $32. The stock could reach $49 by early 2027, representing roughly 42% upside from current prices. Remain bullish above $28.

Waterbridge Infrastructure was trading around $34 Monday.

Doug Busch is the senior technical analyst at Barron's Investor Circle . His technical view is added to stock picks, including those published exclusively for Investor Circle readers. A glossary of technical terms is updated regularly with new entries.

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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July 27, 2026 14:38 ET (18:38 GMT)