The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Mueller, following the late Wednesday's release of Birchcliff Energy's updated 2024 guidance, five-year outlook and a 50-per-cent reduction to its dividend, downgraded his recommendation to "hold" from "buy." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Mueller trimmed his share target by $3 to $6. Analysts on average target the shares at $7.98. Mr. Mueller says in a note: "Following a year of dividends coinciding with deteriorating natural gas prices, Birchcliff declared its Q1/24 quarterly dividend at 10 cents per share, or 40 cents per share annualized, reflecting a yield of 7 per cent. While a dividend cut is often accompanied by a truncated outlook, we view the decision as the right move given the incremental debt taken on in 2023 to support the dividend and a muted outlook for natural gas prices in H1/24. Birchcliff has also elected to weight its 2024 capital program to the back half of the year to deliver increased volumes at a time when the outlook for natural gas prices is expected to improve from this winter. At the current strip and on our updated estimates, we forecast Birchcliff generating FCF of $85-million this year."