Topic: Dividend Stocks

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $32 – Toronto symbol CVE

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $32 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 755.7 million; Market cap: $24.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) operates three heavy oil projects in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. It gets about half of its output from the oil sands. Conventional oil and natural gas wells supply the other half.

U.S.-based ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of Cenovus’s main Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sands projects in Alberta.

These properties produce heavy bitumen, which Cenovus ships to its 50%-owned refineries in Illinois and Texas. ConocoPhillips recently spun off its refining operations as a separate company called Phillips 66 (New York symbol PSX). This new firm owns the other 50% of these refineries.

Cenovus continues to expand its oil sands projects, including a $454-million investment in the three months ended June 30, 2012. When you include spending on conventional projects and refineries, its total capital investments were $660 million, up 38.7% from $476 million a year earlier.

As a result, production rose 27.8% to 155,566 barrels of oil a day from 121,762 barrels a year earlier. The company aims to raise its production to 500,000 barrels a day by the end of 2021.

The production increase pushed up Cenovus’s revenue by 5.1% in the quarter, to $4.2 billion from $4.0 billion. Even so, lower oil prices cut the company’s earnings by 28.4%, to $283 million, or $0.37 a share, from $395 million, or $0.52. Cash flow per share fell 1.6%, to $1.22 from $1.24.

Cenovus’s strong balance sheet will continue to support its expansion plans: Its long-term debt of $3.5 billion is a low 14% of its market cap. It also holds cash of $409.0 million, or $0.54 a share.

The stock trades at 16.8 times the $1.91 a share that Cenovus will probably earn in 2012. That’s a higher p/e ratio than Suncor or Imperial Oil, but it’s still reasonable in light of the strong earnings potential of Cenovus’s reserves. The stock also trades at 7.2 times its likely 2012 cash flow of $4.42 a share. The $0.88 dividend yields 2.8%.

Cenovus is a buy.

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