Encana Plans To Speed Up Spending In Permian

Encana (NYSE:ECA) shares shot up 5.4% on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings, MarketBeat.com reports. FirstEnergy Capital downgraded shares of Encana from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. The stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $12.54. CIBC reduced their target price on Encana from $16.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector performer” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. In taking a deeper look at the stock and where it might be headed, brokerage firms on Wall Street now have a consensus one year price target of $11.20 on the shares. The sell-side analysts are projecting earnings per share of $0.03 for the next fiscal quarter. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $7.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.42. During the same quarter past year, the business posted $0.38 EPS.

On November 11, 2015, Encana’s Board of Directors declared a dividend of $0.07 per share payable on December 31, 2015, to common shareholders of record as of December 15, 2015. The company’s market cap is $6.87 billion. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.68%.

Encana chief executive Doug Suttles says the Calgary-based company made progress in the third quarter and delivered sustainable performance improvements that helped offset the impact of lower prices.

Encana has cut its workforce by 40 percent since the end of 2012 and Permian horizontal drilling and completion costs are down about $2 million per well this year. Market Optimization sells all the Company’s upstream production to third party customers.

The company has been working since 2013 to shift its assets to a greater balance between oil and natural gas production and has focused operations on four main areas – the Permian and Eagle Ford formations in the southern United States and the Duvernay and Montney formations in Western Canada.