Re: for what it's worth
To Check737 and Captain A999,
Not only is the money being used to maintain and expand production, it is also being used to build and improve infrastructure like pumping stations, gas plants, and the like, infrastructure that will last a long, long time, create value, increase profits, and add to the company's assets. Moreover, the 1.71 billion in 2014 investments isn't paid out in one lump. Nor does it all come out of cash flow. Much of the money is borrowed - credit facility etc. - and is continually being paid back as more money is made from the wells. In one of the company's presentations, it stated that some wells earned back their costs in 24 months, others were as little as 8 months. CPG borrows money, finds and brings wells on line, and then the profit from some of those wells pay out very quickly, but most importantly, these wells continue to pay out, perhaps at a lower rate, for many more years to come and thus increase the value of the company. Some of these articles in Seeking Alpha are just plain stupid. I went to the Peyto website and compared their cash flow, dividend payout, and expenditures, to CPG's and CPG looked fairly good, not as good as Peyto, but then Peyto is one of the best E&P companies in the oil patch. Still, CPG"s debt to cash flow ratio ( 1:1) is lower than Peyto's (1.7:1 if memory serves). It is not how much a company borrows, it is how successful it is using the money to create value.
Lundu