Encana sharpens its focus

Article Excerpt

ENCANA CORP. $19.59 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 738.6 million; Market cap: $14.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.encana.com) has agreed to sell its midstream operations in Colorado’s Piceance basin. These operations mainly consist of pipelines that collect natural gas from nearby wells and transport it to storage and processing facilities. Encana will hang to its gas wells in this region. The company will receive $590 million when the deal closes later this year (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). This sale will help Encana reach its goal of selling $1 billion to $2 billion worth of secondary assets by the end of 2011. That will let the company focus on its main gas-producing properties in Alberta, B.C., Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana. Encana is a buy. buy…