Purchase lifts Ovintiv’s output

Article Excerpt

OVINTIV INC. $66 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol OVV; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 273.9 million; Market cap: $18.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ovintiv.com) recently paid private equity firm EnCap Investments L.P. $4.4 billion (73% in cash, 27% in shares) for 1,050 wells in the Permian basin (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). To help offset the cost, the company sold its holdings in the Bakken basin to EnCap for $706 million. The new assets helped lift Ovintiv’s production in the second quarter of 2023 by 14.6%, to 573,000 barrels a day (49% oil and liquids, 51% natural gas) from 500,000 a year earlier. However, its realized price per barrel for oil and gas (combined) fell 50.2%. As a result, the company’s revenue in the quarter declined 32.6%, to $2.52 billion from $3.74 billion. Cash flow also fell 42.9%, to $699 million from $1.22 billion; due to fewer shares outstanding,…