Cenovus: An oil sands pioneer

Article Excerpt

Cenovus Energy took its present form on December 1, 2009, after the old EnCana Corp. split itself into two new companies: Cenovus, which specializes in oil sands, and the new Encana (see box at right), which focuses on natural gas. Lower gas prices have pushed Encana’s shares down by about 68% since the split, but Cenovus’s stock is up about 12%. The stock trades at higher multiples to earnings and cash flow than larger oil sands operations like Suncor and Imperial Oil. That’s mainly because investors expect its ambitious expansion plans to spur greater growth in the next few years. CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $31 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 755.8 million; Market cap: $23.4 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) operates three heavy oil projects in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. It gets about half of its output from the oil sands. Conventional oil and natural gas wells supply…