CVE restores its dividend

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY, $9.49, remains a buy for patient investors. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $19.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 0.7%.; www.cenovus.com) has now completed its acquisition of rival oil producer Husky Energy. The combined firm is Canada’s third-largest producer of oil and gas, with output of about 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It’s also the country’s second-largest refiner, with a total capacity of 660,000 barrels a day. The company expects the merger with Husky will let it cut $1 billion from its annual costs. Combined with its previous cost-cutting plan, Cenovus expects to save $1.2 billion in 2021. Those savings will help the combined firm pay down its $13.1 billion debt (net of cash held). That’s equal to 76% of its market cap. Those savings are also letting Cenovus resume quarterly dividend payments of $0.0175 a share. The annual rate of $0.07 yields 0.7%. Cenovus Energy is a buy. buy…