Athabasca up as brokerages upgrade rating on 2024 capex forecast, shareholder returns

Athabasca Oil

07/12/2023 16:21

** Shares of Canadian energy company Athabasca Oil  ATH.TO 
rise 7.74% to C$3.62
    ** Co forecast capital spend of C$175 million ($128.75
million) for 2024, higher than forecast of ~C$145 million for
2023 
    ** Firm to grow oil production by 14% to ~37,500 barrels of
oil equivalent per day by end of 2024 from year-end 2023
production estimates 
    ** Firm also expects to return 100% of free cash flow to
shareholders through buybacks, up from 75% in 2023 
    ** Brokerage TD Cowen (PT:C$3.36) upgrades rating to "buy"
from "hold" on strong balance sheet, which allows co to pursue
organic growth such as planned expansion at Leismer oil sands
mine to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 19,000 bpd 
    ** Brokerage RBC Capital Markets (PT:C$5) upgrades rating to
"outperform" from "sector perform", says co is in a strong
financial position and can weather near-term downside due to
volatility in commodity prices
    ** 6 of 8 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher and 2
"hold"; their median PT is C$4.75 - LSEG
    ** Including session's gains, stock has climbed 50.21% YTD


($1 = 1.3592 Canadian dollars)

 (Reporting by Kabir Dweit)
 ((Kabir.Dweit@thomsonreuters.com))