Cenovus Energy Raises Quarterly Dividend 33%

Canada’s Cenovus Energy (CVE) has raised its quarterly dividend payment to shareholders by 33% as it reported a first-quarter profit of $636 million.

The Calgary-based company said that, going forward, it will pay a base quarterly dividend of 14 cents per share, up from 10.5 cents previously.

The increased dividend comes as Cenovus reported a Q1 profit that was down considerably from a year earlier.

Cenovus’ Q1 profit of $636 million was down 60% from $1.6 billion in the same quarter of 2022. The profit equates to $0.32 per share compared to $0.79 a share a year ago.

Revenue in Q1 totalled $12.3 billion, down 24% from $16.2 billion in the first quarter of last year.

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Cenovus blamed the poor results on higher costs and issues at its U.S. refineries.

Additionally, the company lowered its production guidance for the year, saying it now expects upstream production to be between 790,000 and 810,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The new production forecast is down from a previous prediction for between 800,000 and 840,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The stock of Cenovus has declined 11% so far in 2023 and is down 4% over the last 12 months.