Buy for gas price recovery

Article Excerpt

ENCANA CORP. $55.05 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 750.1 million; Market cap: $41.3 billion; SI Rating: Average) has held up well in the face of falling natural-gas prices. Gas is now around $3 U.S. per thousand cubic feet, which is near a seven-year low. That’s mainly because of lower industry demand during the recession, cooler-than-normal summer weather and increased production. In response, EnCana has cut its daily natural-gas production by about 10%, and put off investments in new projects. The company has also used hedging effectively: it has locked in two-thirds of its natural-gas production through October 31 at an average of $9.13 U.S. per thousand cubic feet. That’s on top of the 45% of its expected gas output that it has hedged at $6.09 U.S. per thousand cubic feet through October 2010. EnCana is still a buy. buy…