Devon Energy Corporation (DVN)

[Timothy Smith]

Devon Energy (DVN +1.6%) is upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform with a $58 price target at Bernstein, which believes the success of the company’s New Devon strategy has been overshadowed by the macro environment.

Bernstein sees a recent significant improvement in DVN's well results across the board, which implies a step-up in performance metrics if it is the beginning of a trend, and the ramp of Jackfish-3, which is expected by year-end and translates to "an end to oil sands development capex and a harvesting of oil sands cash flow."

Dropdowns to Enlink also may prove to be a catalyst in the next few quarters, the firm says.