Profit from rising U.S. production

Article Excerpt

DEVON ENERGY CORP. $68.68 (New York symbol DVN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (405-235-3611; www.dvn.com; Shares outstanding: 407.4 million; Market cap: $27.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.4%) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 57% gas and 43% oil. In 2011, Devon sold all of its international and Gulf of Mexico properties, which it saw as risky and expensive to develop. The company aimed to focus on its North American projects, which include conventional production, Texas shale oil and Alberta oil sands. Devon recently narrowed its focus even further by selling some of its Canadian properties to Canadian Natural Resources (symbol CNQ on Toronto) for $2.8 billion. The company will use the cash to fund last year’s $6-billion purchase of oil-producing properties in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation. It also plans to expand its other U.S. operations. Meanwhile, Devon’s daily production averaged 696,200 barrels of oil equivalent in the three months ended December 31, 2013. That’s up…