Higher oil prices to speed up sales

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $12 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $14.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) recently acquired 100% of its main oil sands properties in Alberta—Christina Lake and Foster Creek. The company did that through purchasing the 50% interest of its partner in the venture, ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP). Cenovus paid $17.7 billion in cash and shares for that stake. Thanks to rising oil prices, the company should soon meet its goal to sell $4 billion to $5 billion of its less-important conventional properties. That cash will let Cenovus pay down its total debt of $12.5 billion (as of June 30, 2017). That’s a high 87% of its depressed market cap. The company aims to complete all of those transactions by the end of 2017. Cenovus is still a buy. buy…