Ovintiv targets its debt

Article Excerpt

OVINTIV INC., $30.88, is a buy. The energy producer (Toronto symbol OVV; Shares outstanding: 261.0 million; Market cap: $8.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.5%) has now yielded to pressure from activist investor Kimmeridge Energy Management Co., which owns about 2.5% of Ovintiv’s shares. As a result, it has agreed to place one of the activist’s three nominees on its board of directors. Kimmeridge also wants it to undertake several actions to improve shareholder value. Those include better aligning executive compensation with the stock price, selling non-core assets and shifting spending to the Permian Basin. It seems Ovinitiv is acting on some of those demands. It’s now selling its operations in Alberta’s Duvernay basin for $263 million (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). It will apply that cash to its total debt of $6.89 billion U.S. (as of December 31, 2020). That’s a high 107% of its $8.1 billion (Cdn.) market cap. Strengthening oil prices and other planned asset sales should let the…