Toms Capital Takes Top-Five Devon Energy Stake, Pushes for a Sale

Toms Capital has built a top-five stake in Devon Energy and is pressing the freshly merged U.S. shale producer to sell assets or sell itself, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters on June 17. The push landed six weeks after Devon closed its $58 billion all-stock combination with Coterra Energy, a deal that created one of the largest independent oil and gas producers in the United States and is now under pressure from a second activist investor less than two months in. Toms is also sounding out other oil-and-gas companies about bidding for Devon, two of the sources said.

Devon has not publicly responded to the campaign. Toms Capital declined to comment. Devon CEO Clay Gaspar is due to speak at JPMorgan Chase’s energy, power, renewables and mining conference in New York on Tuesday, June 23, at 8:45 a.m. Central time, the company’s first public stage since the Reuters report.

A Top-Five Stake Built Out of Public View

Toms Capital Investment Management is run by Benjamin Pass from New York and now holds one of the five largest positions in Devon. The position was first reported by the Financial Times on June 17 and confirmed by Reuters the same day. Toms declined to comment; Devon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

The fund’s Devon position is among its largest current holdings, the five people familiar with the matter said, declining to elaborate on size. The investment firm is backed by Citadel, the hedge fund founded by Ken Griffin, according to a public summary of the FT report. Toms has spent the last several years pressing public companies, including Kellanova, US Steel, Kenvue and Target, to pursue strategic changes. Devon is the most prominent energy target Toms has taken on since the firm was founded in 2017. The pressure is private for now: Toms has not publicly disclosed its Devon thesis.

Devon’s shares closed at $42.58 on June 17, down 0.72% on the day the Reuters report ran, with a pre-market quote of $42.45. The stock is up around 17% in 2026, against a 22% gain by the S&P Energy index. That five-point gap to the sector is the wedge both activists are now pushing on. the first public report on Toms Capital’s Devon position sets out the size of the holding.

Sell the Assets or Sell the Whole Company

Toms has been engaging with Devon management in recent weeks to push for faster asset sales, according to the people familiar with the matter. The fund has gone further than that, telling management it would be open to a sale of the entire company. Toms has also been trying to generate behind-the-scenes interest from other oil-and-gas companies to bid for Devon, two of the sources added. The conversations, by design, are private.

Devon’s June 17 disclosure that Toms is sounding out bidders puts the merged company in a delicate spot. Industry sources told Reuters Toms would face an uphill battle to put Devon into play right after a $58 billion combination. Most suitors, the same sources noted, would rather pick individual assets that fit their needs than take on the whole multi-basin operator with positions in the Permian, Anadarko, Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Powder River and Williston.

Toms’ demands stack into four discrete asks of management:

• Speed up non-core asset sales beyond the pace Devon is already working with.
• Strip the combined company down to its highest-margin basins.
• Concentrate capital in the Permian, where Devon already leads.
• Consider a sale of the entire company, with Toms signalling willingness to support it.

What Devon Has Done So Far to Push Back

Devon has not been idle since the Coterra combination closed. On May 7, the same day the merger completed, the board approved a $0.320-per-share quarterly dividend, a 33% increase over the prior quarter. The board also authorised a new $8 billion share repurchase program running through June 30, 2029, described by Devon as “almost 15% of our current market capitalization,” per the company’s May 7 capital-return release.

On June 9, Devon said it plans to optimise its portfolio around its core Permian position and that a strategic and financial review of its assets is under way. The combined company carries assets in a half-dozen shale basins, with the Delaware Basin in Texas and New Mexico as the anchor. New financial guidance is expected in mid-June, the company said when it announced the buyback. Management has also been meeting institutional investors in recent days, two of the sources told Reuters, framing the merger closing on May 7 as the start of a strategy now being finalised.

Devon’s response is shaped for two audiences at once. The dividend and buyback are designed to show the company can return capital without selling itself. The June 9 portfolio review is a softer form of the asset-sales agenda Toms is now pushing for. The two answers are not the same answer. The May 7 completion announcement called out $1 billion in identified annual pre-tax synergies targeted by year-end 2027.

The key numbers Devon is working against:

• $58 billion: Coterra merger value.
• $8 billion: share repurchase authorisation through June 30, 2029.
• $0.320: new quarterly dividend per share, up 33% on the prior quarter.
• 17% vs 22%: Devon’s 2026 stock gain versus the S&P Energy index.

Kimmeridge Lit the Fuse, Toms Is Adding the Fuel

Toms is not the first activist through the door. Kimmeridge Energy Management disclosed a stake in Devon in November 2025, then escalated with an open letter to Devon’s future board in late April 2026 calling for an “accelerated program of non-core asset sales.” The letter warned the combined company risked a “conglomerate discount” in the stock if it stayed multi-basin. A week after the letter, Devon’s board approved the $8 billion buyback. Toms appeared with a top-five stake less than two months later.

Kimmeridge and Toms are pushing the same door from different weights of shoulder. Kimmeridge’s stake is roughly 1% of Devon, according to LSEG data reported in April. Toms is a top-five holder, has been engaging management directly for weeks, and is sounding out bidders. Both want asset sales; only Toms is publicly open to a whole-company sale, the sources told Reuters.

The two campaigns are landing on management in roughly 90 days. The buyback and the June 9 portfolio review are the company’s current answer to Kimmeridge’s “conglomerate discount” warning. Whether they are enough to satisfy a top-five shareholder sounding out bidders is a different question. Devon’s updated financial guidance, expected in mid-June, is now the next test of whether management’s frame settles the conversation.

Where Toms Has Done This Before

Toms Capital Investment Management, founded in 2017, is not a frequent public campaigner. Its playbook, when it does surface, runs through the same script: build a quiet stake, engage management directly, and agitate for a sale, divestiture or strategic combination. The firm is currently pressing three other public companies at the same time it is on Devon.

The current slate, beyond Devon: a substantial stake in McCormick & Co., built after the spice company announced its planned combination with Unilever’s food business, a deal that would create a $65 billion industry giant; a public push on Voya Financial to either sell itself or divest its health insurance unit; and a “significant” December 2025 investment in Target, which has had 12 consecutive quarters of negative or negligible sales growth and has seen its share price fall 60% from the pandemic-era record. Earlier public campaigns included Kellanova, US Steel and Kenvue, per a Financial Times summary reported by PYMNTS.

The pattern that matters for Devon is the Voya template: an open push for a sale of the whole company, on the record through a letter to the board. McCormick is a softer version of the same trade, where Toms took a position after a deal was announced and is now waiting to see how integration unfolds. On Devon, Toms is again at the aggressive end of that range.

The JPMorgan Test and the Open Question on a Sale

Clay Gaspar, Devon’s president and CEO, is scheduled to take part in a fireside chat at JPMorgan Chase’s energy conference in New York on Tuesday, June 23, at 8:45 a.m. Central time. The slot is now the first public stage on which management will have to describe what the asset review means in dollar terms. Investors are also waiting for the mid-June updated financial guidance Devon promised when it announced the buyback on May 7.

Gaspar framed the buyback and dividend on May 7 as proof the merged company can return capital on its own. The immediate question for the JPMorgan stage is whether the company can credibly map out the asset-sale path fast enough to keep Toms from escalating the call for a whole-company sale. Most suitors would rather pick assets that fit their needs than take on the whole multi-basin operator, the sources told Reuters, which sets a hard ceiling on how fast a buyer can be assembled.

Today’s actions demonstrate our unwavering commitment to returning meaningful capital to shareholders and maintaining a disciplined, investment-grade balance sheet.

That quote comes from Clay M. Gaspar, president and CEO of Devon Energy, in the company’s May 7, 2026 capital-return release.