DEVON ENERGY CORP. $65.82 (New York symbol DVN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (405-235- 3611; www.dvn.com; Shares outstanding: 411.0 million; Market cap: $26.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 40% gas and 60% oil.
The company narrowed its focus with its July 2014 sale of some of its properties to Linn Energy for $2.3 billion. The deal included holdings in the Rockies, the onshore Gulf Coast and the Mid-Continent region (which includes Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas).
The sale lets Devon focus on what it views as lowrisk/ high-reward properties, especially the oilproducing assets it bought in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation for $6 billion in 2013.
Excluding the assets sold to Linn, Devon’s daily output averaged 685,000 barrels of oil equivalent in the quarter ended March 31, 2015, up 21.7% from 563,000 a year earlier. Production rose on drilling success at Eagle Ford and new capacity at its Jackfish heavy-oil plant in Canada.
Cash flow per share fell 8.9%, to $3.50 from $3.84, on lower realized oil and gas prices. The company’s $10.3 billion of long-term debt is a manageable 38.7% of its market cap. It also holds cash of $1.9 billion, or $4.62 a share.
The stock trades at 4.7 times Devon’s annual cash flow of $14.00 a share, based on the latest quarter— although that cash flow will vary along with oil and gas prices.
Devon Energy is a buy.