Buy Birchcliff, hold on to Trilogy

Article Excerpt

BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $5.87 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www. birchcliffenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 263.0 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; Dividends yield: 1.7%) explores for, develops and produces oil and gas, mainly in the Peace River Arch area of both Alberta and B.C. About 87% of its output is gas. The remaining 13% is oil. In July 2016, the company bought Encana Corp.’s Gordondale natural gas fields in B.C. for $612.3 million in cash. The deal is big for Birchcliff: Gordondale expanded the company’s average production in the latest quarter by 50.2%, to 60,750 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 40,445 a year earlier. In the three months ended March 31, 2017, Birchcliff’s cash flow per share jumped 85.7%, to $0.26 from $0.14 a year earlier. The increase came from higher oil and gas prices and higher daily production. Output rose to an average of 61,662 barrels of oil per day in the latest quarter. That’s a record. It’s also up 47.0%…