Sale frees up cash for debt repayment

Article Excerpt

ENCANA CORP. $10 (Toronto symbol ECA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 849.9 million; Market cap: $8.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.encana.com) will complete the sale of its oil and gas properties in Colorado’s DJ Basin by July 31, 2016. The company will receive $900 million U.S. That will let Encana pay down its long-term debt of $5.4 billion U.S. (as of March 31, 2016). That’s a high 82% of its market cap. The sale is part of Encana’s plan to focus on its four main properties: Montney (B.C.), Duvernay (Alberta) and Eagle Ford and Permian (both in Texas). These fields produce large amounts of oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane and butane. That cuts the company’s reliance on natural gas. Encana is a buy. buy…