Tudor, Pickering, Holt on Wednesday reiterated its buy rating on the shares of Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) with a C$30.00 price target following the company's acquisition of rival oil-sands producer MEG Energy.

"While CVE has consistently been among our top CDN integrateds picks throughout the year, the story and value proposition have continued to improve, in our view. With equity performance lagging on the year (+19% YTD vs. rest-of-coverage comps +30%, +10% QTD more in-line vs. comps +9%), valuation in our model (updated last week for the MEG deal close) continues to screen attractive (TPHe ~9.8% FCF/EV at strip through the next few years, a ~3.9pp discount vs. Hold-rated comps). Big picture, the favorable conclusion to multiple aspects of the MEG transaction (valuation, debt/equity mix, pathway back to the 100% payout ratio via combination of organic FCF generation and the recent WRB downstream asset sale) tee the company up well to narrow the gap vs. comps with continued execution," analyst Jeoffrey Lambujon wrote.

(MT Newswires covers equity, commodity and economic research from major banks and research firms in North America, Asia and Europe. Research providers may contact us here: https://www.mtnewswires.com/contact-us)

Price: 25.38, Change: -0.51, Percent Change: -1.97