Asset sale pays down debt

Article Excerpt

ENCANA $10.70 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 849.9 million; Market cap: $8.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.7%; www.encana.com) recently sold its oil and gas properties in Colorado’s DJ Basin. The company received $900 million U.S. That will let Encana pay down its long-term debt of $5.7 billion U.S. (as of June 30, 2016). That’s a high 85% of its market cap. The sale is part of Encana’s plan to focus on its four main properties: Montney (B.C.), Duvernay (Alberta) and Eagle Ford and Permian (both in Texas). These fields produce large amounts of oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane and butane. That cuts the company’s reliance on natural gas. Encana is a buy. buy…