Devon lightens debt load

Article Excerpt

DEVON ENERGY CORP. $39.00 (New York symbol DVN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (405-235-3611; www.dvn.com; Shares outstanding: 524.0 million; Market cap: $21.0 billion; Dividend yield: 0.6%) continues to sell its non-core properties to pay down debt and strengthen its balance sheet. That should let it quickly raise funds to accelerate drilling when oil and gas prices recover. So far this year it has sold properties worth $2.1 billion. The company has also raised another $1.5 billion by issuing shares. On March 31, 2016, Devon’s long-term debt stood at a high $12.2 billion, or 58% of its $21.0 billion market cap. The proceeds from the share issue and asset sales will take its debt down to around $8.6 billion. That equals a much more reasonable 41% of its market cap. Devon Energy is a buy. buy…