The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Oct. 23, edition that Desjardins Securities analyst Chris MacCulloch has reaffirmed his "buy" recommendation for Cenovus Energy. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. MacCulloch gave his share target a 50-cent trim to $29.50. Analysts on average target the shares at $31.93. Mr. MacCulloch is expecting "a relatively smooth" third quarter earnings season for Canadian oil and gas producers, seeing operations benefiting from limited wildfire impacts and an absence of material infrastructure downtime this summer. Mr. MacCulloch says in a note: "This was most evident for oil-weighted producers as reflected in our estimates, which indicate a slight uplift in sector production relative to 2Q24 levels. Although crude oil prices slid in 3Q24 as global market fundamentals continued shifting into an oversupplied situation, WTI–WCS differentials were relatively stable as the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline continued ramping operations. To that end, we expect industry to continue absorbing incremental egress capacity moving into 4Q24 as nearly every heavy oil producer under coverage is currently forecast to ramp production exiting the year."