Cenovus boosts refining

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY, $24.64, remains a buy for long-term gains. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $47.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 1.7%; www.cenovus.com) has now agreed to buy the 50% of an oil refinery in Toledo, Ohio, that it doesn’t already own from U.K.-based oil giant BP plc (New York symbol BP). In exchange, Cenovus will pay $300 million U.S. in cash, plus an additional sum for the value of oil in that facility’s inventory. To put that price in context, its cash flow was $3.1 billion (Canadian), or $1.53 a share, in the second quarter of 2022. The company expects to complete the sales transaction by the end of this year. Owning 100% of this facility will increase Cenovus’s refining capacity by 80,000 barrels a day to 740,000 barrels. The facility’s proximity to Cenovus’s other refinery, in Lima, Ohio, should also let the company improve the efficiency of both operations. Cenovus is a buy. buy…