TD:Target Price increase to $52 11:02 AM EDT, 05/10/2022 (MT Newswires) -- Analysts at TD Securities and Raymond James raised their price targets on Suncor Energy Inc. (SU.TO, SU) on Tuesday following the Canadian energy company's first quarter results.
Raymond James analyst George Huang raised his target on the stock to $52 from $50, and maintained an Outperform rating.
Huang said Suncor's stronger-than-expected results were accompanied by a 12% dividend hike, and a 10% expansion of its stock buyback program.
"Robust free cash flow (FCF) generation during the period allowed SU to return $1.4 Billion to shareholders while continuing to reduce indebtedness," the analyst said in a note to clients.
"The accelerated deleveraging achieved versus the plan laid out at last year's Investor Day has afforded the company the ability to accelerate shareholder returns and pull forward its longer-term plan to return a larger proportion of FCF to shareholders," Huang said.
TD Securities analyst Menno Hulshof raised his target on Suncor to $53 from $51, and maintained a Buy rating.
"We continue to see relative upside in SU shares, especially given downstream tailwinds, which, for now, are not being priced in by the market," Hulshof said in a note to clients. "However, we believe improved operational consistency will prove critical to bridging the multiple gap with its peers, and maintaining it in the long term."