Cenovus upgrades facilities

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY, $27.99, is a buy for long-term gains. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $52.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.0%; www.cenovus.com) sends most of its crude oil production to its 50%-owned oil refineries in Illinois and Texas. Phillips 66 (New York symbol PSX) holds the other 50%. Cenovus also owns 100% of two refineries in Ohio (in Toledo and Lima), as well as a third facility in Superior, Wisconsin. The company plans to invest $1.5 billion in the two Ohio refineries. These upgrades should improve the utilization rates (amount of crude oil processed divided by capacity) at these facilities. In 2023, the utilization rate at Lima was 85%. The Toledo rate was just 57% as that facility only resumed regular operations in June 2023 after repairing damage caused by a fire. In the second half of 2023, its utilization rate was 88%. Cenovus is a buy. buy…