The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, March 28, edition that TD Securities Menno Hulshof, believing Vermilion Energy's setbacks are "largely in [the] rearview mirror," has upgraded his recommendation to "buy" from "hold." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Hulshof gave his share target a $2 boost to $20. Analysts on average target the shares at $20.58. Mr. Hulshof says in a note: "They included material technical reserves revisions, extended Wandoo downtime and European windfall taxes. However, Vermilion is now on a stronger operational footing and has taken its lumps on reserves revisions for the foreseeable future, in our view. On a more competitive return-of-capital footing: VET just migrated to 50 per cent return-of-FCF through base dividends/buybacks. On strip, dividends consume $71-million of 2024 estimated FCF, and we model $256-million of buybacks (10 per cent of current float) vs. $96-million in 2023. We expect it to be fairly aggressive, given the current share entry-point. It also recently increased the quarterly dividend by 20 per cent effective Q1/24, following a 25-per-cent hike in 2023—it now appears committed to ratable-dividend-increases."