NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Encana were gaining 6.8% to $12.73 Wednesday as oil prices continued to rise for a second day on lower-than-expected U.S. oil inventory levels. WTI crude oil for May delivery was up 4.5% to $55.69 a barrel early Wednesday afternoon, and Brent crude oil for May delivery was up 2.6% to $59.93 a barrel. The rising oil prices come after the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced that U.S. crude oil inventories grew by 1.3 million barrels to 483.7 million in the week ending April 10, their highest levels in at least 80 years. Analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expected inventories to increase by 3.6 million last week. The lower-than-expected increase comes a day after the International Energy Agency announced that it expects global oil demand to increase by 1.1 million barrels a day in 2015, according to the Journal. The increase would be a "notable acceleration" from the 700,000 barrels a day growth seen in 2014, the agency said. Encanca is a Canadian company that produces oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the U.S. and Canada. TheStreet Ratings team rates ENCANA CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate ENCANA CORP (ECA) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed -- some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, compelling growth in net income and notable return on equity. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including weak operating cash flow and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: ECA's very impressive revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 19.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues leaped by 58.4%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. The company's current return on equity greatly increased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of significant strength within the corporation. When compared to other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, ENCANA CORP's return on equity exceeds that of the industry average and significantly exceeds that of the S&P 500. The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.81, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.86 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems. ECA's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 48.52%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Turning toward the future, the fact that the stock has come down in price over the past year should not necessarily be interpreted as a negative; it could be one of the factors that may help make the stock attractive down the road. Right now, however, we believe that it is too soon to buy. Net operating cash flow has decreased to $261.00 million or 43.50% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower. You can view the full analysis from the report here: ECA Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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