The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Oct. 20, edition that CIBC World Markets analyst Christopher Thompson has raised his recommendation for Peyto Exploration & Development to "outperformer" from "neutral." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Thompson jacked his share target ahead by $3 to $18. Analysts on average target the shares at $16.61. The Globe says Mr. Thompson issued his upgrade following Tuesday's close of its $468-million deal for Repsol's assets in Canada. He calls the acquisition a "logical fit offering deeper inventory, increased scale, and synergy potential." Mr. Thompson says in a note: "The acquisition is 45 per cent accretive to net asset value on strip pricing, and 15 per cent accretive to our 2024 free cash flow per share estimate on strip. We estimate the assets were purchased for seven times EV/EBITDA, which is dilutive versus Peyto's preacquisition metric of 3.4 times in 2024 on strip, but we believe that the company can demonstrate ample synergies with the underutilized gas processing infrastructure and geographic overlap with existing operations. ... We believe management will be focused on improving the balance sheet in the near-term."