RE:RE:Globe amd Mail (Suncor disappointed with Syncrude)Well said! But on the issue of dividend increase, I think the money can be better spent buying back shares. With its huge reserves and low risk, COS should trade at its historical payout ratio of 5% which implies a share price of $28. Rightly or wrongly, the market values growth far more than dividend. One way to create growth on a per share basis is to reduce the share counts; assuming a constant annual production going forward, a 10% reduction in the number of outstanding shares increases the production per share by 11%, and a 20% reduction in the number of shares increases the production per share by 25%. With its substantial free cash flow, COS could easily achieve a 10% reduction in share count in the next couple of years ( that's less than $1 billion at the current share price).
COS already has the highest dividend among oil sands stocks. So long as the share price is below $28, buying back shares creates more value.