Cenovus will bounce back stronger

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $20 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 833.3 million; Market cap: $16.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) has cut jobs in response to sharply lower oil and natural gas prices. It has also lowered its 2015 capital spending by 40%, to between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion. These moves, along with more efficient drilling, will save it $400 million in 2015, up from its earlier forecast of $280 million. Cenovus now plans more job cuts, which should save it a further $100 million a year starting in 2016. Meanwhile, Cenovus’s oil production rose 5.7% in the three months ended September 30, 2015, to 210,422 barrels a day from 199,089 a year earlier. That’s due to the start up of new phases at its 50%-owned Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sands projects in northern Alberta; U.S.-based ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns the other 50%. However, sharply…