
TSE:CVE
Assuming that you don't own this and you are looking at where oil is and looking at the whole realm of oil companies out there, we don't really know where oil is going here. You don't want to buy something that has a lot of risks This is a good buy for the long-term. An ultraconservative way to play the oil market in these times, which are uneasy when it comes to oil.
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.
Oil Sands producer. These companies can have really, really long lives. Once they get going, they produce. The question really is, getting going. There is a lot of cost inflation that could affect the company. Once they get the projects on stream, they tend to work and tend to be good producing long-life assets. They are affected by the price of oil, so the price of oil coming down makes the economics a little harder. Until you are very, very constructive on the price of oil, there are better producers out there that don’t have those long, long life assets, that don’t have the exposure to the price of oil.
Thinks there is good long term value in this stock but their “steam to oil” ratio has been moving higher, which is not good. Expects this to peak in Q3 and fall to more normalized levels, which should help the stock. Ultimately he would be using weakness to be buying. Good balance sheet and debt to cash flow at about 1 times. Trades in line with its peers. Nice safe dividend.
(A Top Pick Aug 15/13. Up 20.54%.) The catalyst for them was bringing production on. There was a bit of concern on their steam/oil ratio which spiked up, but has now flattened out. It will take a little while for it to go back down, but it is under control now. Getting great cash flow from their refinery on the joint venture.
We are going to see them going from about 270,000 barrels a day to over 300,000 in the next couple of years. They have a target of over 500,000 in 2020-2021. The growth profile is never guaranteed, but they have already identified projects where this could come to light. They have not really participated with the other oil companies in the energy boom. He sees earnings going well over $2-$2.20 in the next year or two. Yield of 3.13%.
You have to look at great companies because we don’t know where oil will go. This is one of them. They will have to rationalize their businesses and cut costs. This may involve cutting the dividend.