The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, May 8, edition that Raymond James analyst Michael Barth has lowered his recommendation for Cenovus Energy to "outperform" from "strong buy." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Barth boosted his share target by a loonie to $42. Analysts on average target the shares at $41.06. Mr. Barth says in a note: "With another solid quarter in the books, we continue to see lots of positive operational momentum across the business. At the same time, Cenovus has delivered a total return of nearly 60 per cent since we upgraded to 'strong buy' last October (and has outperformed the peer group average by 11 per cent). Similarly, it has been the best performing name in the peer group since the Iran conflict started. While valuation still looks reasonably compelling at a 15-per-cent/12-per-cent sustaining FCF yield on our 2026/2027 estimates, we are moving the stock to an 'outperform' rating on valuation. Despite the rating change, we continue to view Cenovus as offering amongst the best risk-adjusted returns in our large cap coverage group today." Mr. Barth calls the company's results "another solid quarterly print" with refining "trending better than expected."