Stockchase Opinions

Stockchase Insights Cenovus Energy CVE-T PARTIAL BUY Nov 01, 2024

Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research

EPS was 42c, vs estimates of 42.4c; revenue of $16.55B beat estimates of $11.63B. EBITDA of $2.4B beat estimates by 2.3%. With maintenance at Cenovus' Christina Lake facility completed, total production could rise above 800,000 barrels a day in 4Q vs. 771,000 in 3Q, which may lift upstream cash flow and earnings. Operating cash flow dipped slightly to C$2.5 billion in 3Q vs. C$2.8 billion in 2Q, mostly due to the pullback in commodity prices and a negative operating margin for the company's downstream segment. Assuming stable cash flow in 4Q, the company should continue its robust capital returns program -- it returned C$1.1 billion to shareholders in 3Q across share purchases and buybacks. Cenovus reached its net-debt target of C$4 billion in July, which sets the stage for returning 100% of excess free funds flow to shareholders starting with 3Q and beyond. Considering its valuation, dividend and potential, we would be fine buying some, within the context of the cyclical energy sector. 
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WATCH

Coming into the time when you want to own energy, between mid-February and May/June. Chart shows it's at, or maybe below, support. He'd need to see a bounce to be bullish on it. Watch for another 2 weeks or so; if it breaks down, you have to get out.

DON'T BUY

Downstream operations have been extremely weak. Look at the dividend history. They've cut the dividend in the past, so not a stable dividend payer. Dividend looks high because stock price is low. Look elsewhere.

HOLD

High exposure to price of oil and to the differential of Canadian heavy oil (back to almost-new lows). Upstream is going exceedingly well. But downstream has poor utilization rates, mishaps, negative EBITDA; those are all the reasons it's massively lagged peers. Fix that, and good rerate potential; won't play out until latter half of 2025 or early 2026.

If you own, he'd hesitate to sell. He's watching, near the top of his list to deploy capital. You could wake up one morning to a big pop in the stock price.

COMMENT

Unique in that they own US refineries. Negative energy story has brought stock down. 

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Apr 16/24, Down 39%)

Lots of capex to fix issues with refining assets. Sold last September when sentiment soured on price of oil. Investor sentiment muted even when company reached deleveraging targets. Nothing materially wrong with it, whole industry has rolled over. Sharp management, committed to investors.

When he's ready to get back into energy, he'd buy this at a much smaller weight and buy some SU as well.

WAIT

They are righting the ship, as seen in their last quarterly call. They've always held super upstream assets with no mine-life depletion issues. Fair value is higher, but they lack a catalyst. We won't see improvement in their downstream until Q3. Likes the management team.

BUY

Likes energy right now. Stock's come off sharply, energy prices have not been friendly. Decent long-term prospects. Energy prices should rebound, doesn't see them plummeting. With a long time horizon, pullback is a buying opportunity.

BUY

Showing good downstream turnarounds. Look beyond 2025, when tariffs will have been resolved. Energy should bypass a lot of that because of how strategic it is, so we're not going to see a 50% tariff. Buy this and sleep at night, because you don't have to worry about tariff implications a few months from now.

TOP PICK

It has a very long life reserve index. It is also integrated with refineries and has bought some in the U.S. which were not doing well. It is now starting to turn them around and is in a sweet spot. It has more cash flow and is increasing its share buyback. It is now in another sweet spot nearing a net debt level of $4 billion. It has just increased its dividend which stands at 4 1/2 to 5%. We should see a much higher oil price in the second half of the year.          Buy 18  Hold 1  Sell 1

(Analysts’ price target is $25.47)
WEAK BUY

Both oil and oil in Canada are just drifting. No real catalyst imminent. Trying to restructure and clean things up, and they've been very transparent on that. Great company, high-quality business. Still great margins, throwing off lots of $$. Inexpensive; can't sit around and wait for a breakout, because when the moves come they're pretty dramatic.

He owns CNQ instead.