Morgan Stanley analysts led by Evan Calio upgraded the US E&P Sector to Attractive following an increase in long-term oil price forecasts to $80 from $60 for Brent and WTI to $77 from $57. The analyst said E&P's, despite recent strength, have significant relative upside in a sector recovery over the next several years. Calio said many investors have been waiting for a sector pullback to add to energy exposure or cover shorts, and remain largely underweight energy. Given recent production outages, the analyst sees a potential 2H 2016 pullback, but believes a long-term recovery is a bigger and higher conviction event. As part of the sector change, Calio upgraded Concho Resources (CXO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE) to Overweight from Equal Weight and downgraded Occidental Petroleum (OXY) to Equal Weight from Overweight.

Truist analyst Neal Dingmann raised the firm's price target on Devon Energy to $69 from $66 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The company's upcoming earnings release should see "no surprises" as its drilling and completion costs in key operating areas remain "efficient", the analyst tells investors in a research note. Truist adds that Devon's overall capital efficiency could return this year to levels last seen in 2021-2022 after cumulative average production fell sequentially in the Delaware and Bakken the past two years.