The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Feb. 3, edition that Desjardins Securities analyst Justin Bouchard and Chris MacCulloch, ahead of fourth quarter earnings season for Canada's energy sector, are "doubling down on natural gas." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that the analysts say: "We continue to favour natural gas–weighted equities vs their oil-weighted counterparts, as we believe that the outlook for NYMEX and AECO prices is very supportive well into 2022. In contrast, while the fundamentals for oil have improved since the beginning of this debacle last spring, we are cautiously optimistic given depressed global demand due to COVID-19 and the large supply overhang from OPEC+ spare capacity and elevated inventories, on both the crude and refined product side." The analysts continue to hold a "bullish long-term view on oil." On the natural gas side the analysts say, "We continue to see a very tight market developing through a combination of lower supply, higher exports and continued support from the power stack." Mr. MacCulloch continues to rate Freehold Royalties "buy." He boosted his share target to $8.50 from $7.50. Analysts on average target the shares at $7.63.