Cenovus EnergyCVE.TOCOMMENTNov 06, 2014Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Aug 14, 2026. Market Open.
It is the cheapest large cap quality company in North America. They have been shooting the lights out with the highest quality assets in Canada. Also they have been able to exit non-performing refineries and at the same time increasing exposure to better ones while turning them around. Margins are up 200 to 300% year over year in the last quarter and he thinks this will persist. They are getting refinery exposure and best of breed highest quality oil sands assets. The time for the oil sands is now. They have one of the cheapest multiples of large cap stocks in North America. . Also they are paying down debt to very conservative levels and returning 75% of free cash flow to shareholders mostly in the form of share buybacks. He thinks that number will go to 100% next year.
In summary it has an excellent balance sheet and management team as well as decades and decades of inventory. He sees 50 to 60% upside.
Buy 18 Hold 1 Sell1
Lightened up a bit after the runup. Price of oil will come down, but the bigger question is where will it level out? A hard one to gauge, but his sense is that it will take longer to get supplies out. (He's not a big believer in the pending agreement yet.)
In general oil isn't going back to where it was, and these stocks will be pretty good buys. One of the best oil-levered plays. MEG purchase was brilliant.
Set-it-and-forget-it way to get exposure to bullish oil thesis. New floor for oil is $80, and higher in years to come. Downstream exposure (refineries), with margins at record highs. Top decile oilsands assets. Another record quarter. Really likes management. Yield is 2.09%.
(Analysts’ price target is $43.47)
What has scared him from owning this is the rising cost structure of the Christina Lake and Foster Creek oil sands projects as they got into the later stages of their life spans. Steam/oil ratios have gone up. Third-quarter earnings came out and were a big beat on expectations, in spite of some down time. This was a modest positive for the story. He is most interested in seeing, in the coming quarters, what their plan is for their fee simple lands. He is looking for $3 billion of value to be realized in a transaction similar to Encana (ECA-T) spinning out of Prairie Sky royalties.