Cenovus shares are cheap

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY, $15.03, remains a buy for long-term gains. The company (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $30.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 0.5%.; www.cenovus.com) continues to sell less-important properties to pay down debt. The cash from those sales will help cut Cenovus’s net debt (total debt less cash balances) from $12.4 billion U.S. to $10.0 billion by the end of 2021. That target is equal to 41% of the company’s market cap. Cenovus aims to cut its net debt to $8.0 billion by the end of 2022. Once the company hits that target, it plans to reward shareholders with higher dividends and increased share buybacks. The current annual dividend rate of $0.07 a share yields 0.5%. Investors can expect projected cash flow per share to rise from $3.78 in 2021 to $5.09 U.S. in 2022 as the company realizes more savings from the Husky merger. The stock trades at just 2.4 times the 2022 estimate. Cenovus is a buy. buy…