The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, May 7, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Dan Payne is keeping his "outperform" recommendation for Baytex Energy intact. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Payne gave his share target a 50-cent trim to $5. Analysts on average target the shares at $4.38. On Monday, Baytex reported operating and financial results that Mr. Payne deemed "solid" versus expectations, including daily average production of 144,194 barrels of oil equivalent, up 2 per cent year-over-year, and cash flow per share of 60 cents, topping the Street's expectation by 4 per cent. Mr. Payne says in a note: "As commodity prices through the period proved relatively stable, its realizations remained in-hand (up 6 per cent), which in association with its relatively static cash cost structure (up 6 per cent), saw its cash netback remain intact at $36/boe (up 9 per cent). The cash returns therein continue to see its production supported negative 3-per-cent net of dispositions and outages within a 90-per-cent payout ratio that implied a 10-per-cent FCF yield. Those returns continue to be redirected toward its 4-per-cent cash yield, return of capital and balance sheet."