What happened
Devon Energy (DVN 0.84%) didn't provide investors with a sweet Valentine's Day gift earlier this week, and on Thursday they continued to punish the company for the transgression. On the back of a fresh trio of analyst price-target cuts, they sent the stock's price down by more than 2.6%. That compared unfavorably to the S&P 500 index's 1.4% slide.
So what
As often happens in the days following a quarterly earnings report, analysts made tweaks to their takes on Devon.
The oil and gas company reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 figures on Tuesday, and we can safely say it wasn't the loveliest Valentine's Day in its history. Production was down during the quarter, although not by much; however, Devon missed by quite a wide margin on earnings. Compounding that, its upcoming quarterly dividend payout will be the lowest over the past year, and few investors like an eroding dividend.
One of the prognosticators making a change was Susquehanna's Biju Perincheril, who now feels Devon stock is worth $72 per share, down from the previous estimation of $79. Perincheril's not giving up on it as an investment, though, as she maintained her positive (i.e., buy) recommendation on the shares.
Now what
The cut-but-maintain-a-buy dynamic was similar with her colleagues Bob Brackett at Bernstein and Neil Dingmann of Truist Securities. The pair both maintained their equivalent of buy recommendations on Devon while taking scissors to the price target. Brackett's new level is $71 (formerly $84), while Dingmann now pegs the stock at $70 from his preceding $80.
