Savvy acquisitions will power these oil buys: Corterra Energy & Devon Energy

Article Excerpt

Oil and gas prices have moved up lately. But the future direction of energy prices depends on a lot of things, particularly economic growth rates around the world in the wake of COVID-19. Meanwhile, though, well-established companies in the industry took advantage of the earlier setback to pick up properties and employees who might be harder to find in more-prosperous times. Those top companies also have the strength to survive, even if energy prices drop and to continue paying dividends. That adds an extra layer of safety and helps support their share prices. Here are two we see as buys: COTERRA ENERGY, $22.87, is a buy. The company (New York symbol CTRA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (www.coterra.com; Shares outstanding: 813.6 million; Market cap: $18.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%) is the new name for oil-weighted Cimarex Energy after its recent acquisition of gas-weighted Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. The merged firm is 50.5% owned by Cimarex and 49.5% by Cabot shareholders. Coterra believes that having a broader…