Big investments will spur their production

Article Excerpt

DEVON ENERGY CORP. $53.06 (New York symbol DVN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (405-235- 3611; www.dvn.com; Shares outstanding: 404.5 million; Market cap: $21.5 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 63% gas and 37% oil. Last year, Devon sold all of its international and Gulf of Mexico properties, which it saw as risky and expensive to develop. The company is now focused on its North American projects, which include conventional production, shale oil in Texas and oil sands in Alberta. Devon is forming joint ventures to cut the risk of its big development projects. Earlier this year, it sold a one-third stake in shale oil and gas fields in five U.S. states to giant Chinese state-owned petroleum and chemical firm Sinopec for $2.2 billion. More recently, Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. agreed to buy 30% of the Cline and Wolfcamp shales in Texas for $1.4 billion. Meanwhile, the company’s daily production averaged 678,200…