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Gold/Mining/Energy : Canadian Oil & Gas Companies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (9635)	2/25/2003 11:06:57 AM
From: Kerm Yerman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24921

Portfolio Stock / Devon Energy S&P Equity Analyst Upgrades Devon Energy to 'Accumulate' From 'Avoid' Monday February 24, 5:19 pm ET NEW YORK, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's has upgraded its equity STARS ranking on Devon Energy (Amex: DVN) from a two-STARS "Avoid" to a four STARS "Accumulate" at $48.50 per share. A leading provider of independent research, indices and ratings, Standard & Poor's made this announcement through Standard & Poor's MarketScope, its real-time intelligence service. "We see today's agreement for the acquisition of Ocean Energy as an excellent deal for Devon Energy. Without paying a significant premium, Devon Energy will get a much-needed diversified portfolio of domestic and international assets with strong production growth over the next 3-4 years. At the same time, the deal will bring long-term debt down to around 52% of capitalization," says John Kartsonas, Exploration & Production Equity Analyst, Standard & Poor's. "Despite the risk of integration difficulties with the deal coming on top of the recent Anderson and Mitchell acquisitions, Devon Energy is attractive on the potential for its shares to trade at higher multiples," concludes Kartsonas. Standard & Poor's Stock Appreciation Ranking System (STARS), which was first introduced on December 31, 1986, reflects the opinions of Standard & Poor's equity analysts on the price appreciation potential of more than 1,230 U.S. stocks for the next 6-12 month period. Rankings range from five-STARS (strong buy) to one-STARS (sell). A model portfolio comprised of Standard & Poor's equity STARS recommendations was recently recognized by Investars.com as outperforming those of other equity research firms who analyze more than 500 stocks, over the 12-month period ending December 31, 2002.* Standard & Poor's analytic services are performed as entirely separate activities in order to preserve the independence of each analytic process. In this regard, STARS, which are published by Standard & Poor's Equity Research Department, operates independently from, and has no access to information obtained by Standard & Poor's Credit Market Services, which may in the course of its operations obtain access to confidential information. Standard & Poor's has the largest U.S. equity coverage count among equity research firms that are not affiliated with a Wall Street investment bank, analyzing more than 1,230 U.S. stocks. Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is a leader in providing widely recognized financial data, analytical research and investment and credit opinions to the global capital markets. With 5,000 employees located in 19 countries, Standard & Poor's is an integral part of the world's financial architecture. Additional information is available at standardandpoors.com . * Note to Editors: Investars.com has created a performance measurement tool called ROSS (Rate of Success System). The system quantifies the recommendations of Equity Research Firms by hypothetically purchasing shares in the recommended stock at the time of the recommendation. In short, the system calculates returns as if the Firm had actually purchased or sold shares at the time of the recommendation. Furthermore, the amount of shares purchased depends on the strength of the recommendation. For example, if a Firm's initial recommendation for the period is a buy on Cisco Systems (CSCO) then the system purchases 300,000 shares in CSCO at the price at the time of the recommendation. The price used is the opening price on the day of the recommendation. If the Equity Research Firm upgrades Cisco at a later date from a "buy" to a "strong buy" then the system increases the number of shares by 50% at the time of the upgrade. Similarly, if an Equity Research Firm downgrades a stock then the system decreases the number of shares by 33.3%. If a Firm reiterates a recommendation then the position in that stock is left unchanged. If a Firm issues a bearish rating on the stock (underperform, sell or strong sell) the system goes short the stock in the hypothetical portfolio. A short position is calculated as the inverse of a long position to reflect an analyst's market timing and to eliminate a natural mathematical bias towards long recommendations. Investars returns are excellent for relative performance of analyst rating but are not comparable to market returns or stock returns.