RE:RE:RE:RE:@ $77.00 WTI and Current Differentials and the CAD$You are 100% correct robert41. $800-$900 million in debt is not chump change for a company the size of TVE (based on their market cap). And the amount of shares they're buying back will take years to make any meaningful difference. Why not pay down the debt to about $400 million, let the shares move up to $8.00 bucks and then do a 2:1 share rollback if and when market conditions are more ideal. If oil prices stay high or go higher they will have even more cash flow than now and can still buy back shares at $4.00 buck after a 2:1 reverse split.
The only reason I can see for buying back shares now is if the company belleves they are fending off short sellers and day traders from driving the share price lower. They may also be buying back shares in attempt to discourage a hostile takeover attempt by keeping their debt higher making them a bit less atractive to a hostile takeover bid. And then there's also the possibility that they are trying to show improvement in earnings per share as the share base goes lower and keep the dividend payout percentage around this level which is probably attractive and keeping some investors in this stock doing the I'm being paid to wait thing.
I've seen this movie too many times were as you say, the price of oil tanks and suddenly paying down debt isn't so easy. The recent quick drop in oil price to the low $70s last week should have been a wake up call to companies like TVE.
My opinion only, please DYODD.
HB77