Cenovus aims to reward investors

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $21 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $42.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) plans to cut its annual greenhouse gas emissions 35% by the end of 2035 compared to 2019 levels. Most of these reductions will come from capturing and storing carbon dioxide. Cenovus is also looking to replace steam with solvents at its oil sands projects. The company plans to spend $2.6 billion to $3.0 billion on capital upgrades in 2022. As well, its free cash flow should improve 70% this year to $9.8 billion. Over time, Cenovus plans to earmark half of its free cash flow to dividends and share buybacks. The current annual dividend rate of $0.14 a share yields 0.7%. Based on that rate, its dividend payments in 2022 will total just $280 million. Cenovus is a buy. buy…