The only people being tricked are the shareholders. I'd say Devon is a multiple trick pony. Pathetic that with the kind of buybacks being performed along with the production increases being seen that the stock continues to dwell at the bottom of the bbl. Could it be that the skinny dividend is a major component to keeping Devon's stock down ? If the share price is not growing and the dividend is basically not growing, why would you own it? This stock story has followed Devon for a long time now.
Very much what @VYiyODH-fxuq said. No matter what you do, if the dividend remains slim, the stock will not climb up. But to raise the dividend you need to increase profits, which can't really be done if your only way of doing that is by gutting workforce. So it's Catch 22, in the end.