Cenovus boost spending

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY, $23.42, is a buy for long-term gains. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares o/s: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $44.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Yield: 2.4%; www.cenovus.com) expects to spend between $4.5 billion and $5.0 billion on exploration and upgrades in 2024. That’s up from its likely 2023 spending of $4.25 billion. The increase is partly due to the upcoming re-start of the West White Rose offshore project near Newfoundland. The company is also expanding its main Foster Creek, Christina Lake, and Sunrise oil sands projects. As well, Cenovus will spend $800 million to increase processing capacity at its downstream operations (refineries) by 17%. Meantime, the company raised your quarterly dividend with the June 2023 payment by 33.3%, to $0.14 a share from $0.105. The new annual rate of $0.56 yields 2.4%. Cenovus is a buy. buy…