Morgan Stanley Downgrades Ovintiv Inc. (OVV) Stock to Equal Weight

Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV) is one of the Best Oil and Gas Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. On August 18, Morgan Stanley analyst Devin McDermott downgraded the company’s stock to “Equal Weight” from “Overweight” with a price objective of $48, down from the prior target of $52, as reported by The Fly. Notably, the firm has been shifting to a more defensive stance in oil exploration and production after the outperformance of stocks relative to oil. The downgrade comes after the outperformance of Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV)’s stock against oil exploration and production peers, which the firm believes was because of healthy execution and capital efficiency improvements.

Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV)’s Q2 2025 production remained above guidance range on every product, with average total production volumes of 615 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBOE/d). Furthermore, the company reduced net debt by $217 million during Q2 2025 to ~$5.31 billion. Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV) stated that robust well performance throughout the portfolio, rapid integration of its new Montney assets, and enhanced capital efficiency allowed it to reduce its expected 2025 capital investment and operating costs.

While we acknowledge the potential of OVV as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.