Cenovus continues to cut debt

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $28 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $53.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) is now Canada’s third-largest producer of oil and natural gas after Canadian Natural Resources and Suncor. It also operates refineries in Canada and the U.S. Under the company’s capital allocation plan, when net debt (total debt less cash balances) is between $4 billion and $9 billion, it earmarks 50% of its cash flow to debt repayments and 50% to dividends and share buybacks. Cenvous now plans to buy back and retire up to $750 million U.S. of its long-term notes. That will help the company cut its net debt, which totalled $6.37 billion (Canadian) as of June 30, 2023. It’s likely net debt will drop below $4 billion by the end of 2023. As a result, Cenovus will then pay out 100% of its free cash flow to shareholders. That will…