Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) failed in attempts to buy at least three of its oil and gas producing peers in the last 12 months because higher drilling costs and production issues made its stock less attractive to acquisition targets, Reuters reported Thursday.

Acquisition targets were said to have been skeptical about the value of Devon's (DVN) stock, which has lagged the S&P 500 Energy index by 16 percentage points in the last 12 months.

The weakness in Devon (DVN) shares placed the company at a disadvantage to rival bidders, Andrew Dittmar, principal analyst at energy consultancy Enverus, told Reuters.

The failure to bag a deal also is a function of Devon's (DVN) price discipline as an acquirer, as well as heightened competition for assets in the sector; Enverus noted that Marathon Oil and Enerplus sold at an average premium to their undisturbed share price that was roughly three percentage points over the average premium paid for U.S. publicly listed oil and gas companies since the start of 2023.

seekingalpha.com - Devon missed energy deal wave as acquisition targets were skeptical reuters

Even though they failed on some earlier acquisitions, I as a shareholder, like their price discipline as an acquirer. Hopefully the deal to acquire assets from Grayson Mill wil1 turn out to have been better than the ones they declined to buy.