CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $79 and CU.X [class B voting] $79; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 128.6 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above A v e r a g e ; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta. It also operates 18 power plants in Canada, Australia and the U.K. ATCO Ltd. (see right) owns 52.9% of the company.
In July 2011, Canadian Utilities bought an Australian natural gas distributor for $1.1 billion. This move, along with an expansion of its power transmission grid in Alberta, continues to benefit the company. These new assets have also helped offset lower revenue from its Alberta power plants due to planned maintenance shutdowns.
As a result, the company’s earnings rose 13.1% in 2012, to a record $561 million, or $4.11 a share. The new Australian business contributed $26 million to that total. In 2011, Canadian Utilities earned $496 million, or $3.65 a share. Revenue rose 4.7%, to $3.1 billion from $3.0 billion.
(Note: Both Canadian Utilities and ATCO plan to split their shares on a 2-for-1 basis in May 2013.)
Canadian Utilities continues to launch new projects, including a $735-million investment to build 355 kilometres of transmission lines and substations in southeast Alberta. This project should begin operating in the second half of 2013.
It’s also building a 485-kilometre transmission line from northeast of Edmonton to southeastern Alberta. This project will cost $1.6 billion and should begin operating in late 2014.
The company will probably earn $4.46 a share in 2013. The stock trades at 17.7 times that estimate. It also recently raised its dividend by 9.6%. The new rate of $1.94 a share yields 2.5%.
The class A non-voting shares are more liquid than the class B voting shares.
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Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
The Successful Investor Inc. and its affiliate Successful Investor Wealth Management (referred to hereafter as TSI Network) know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting websites owned by or associated with TSI Network, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
This privacy policy is applicable to all TSI Network Visitors, Clients, Employees, Suppliers, Web sites, Management, and all other interested parties. Any links to or from our site are not covered by this policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every site that you visit.
The privacy of the site/store visitor is very important to TSI Network, and is respected at all times. The information we receive from customers helps us to personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network.
We do not collect or disclose personal information, except when it is provided to us voluntarily by the site/store visitor with their consent.
We store subscriber and password files containing personal information securely. These files are stored in secure areas that are not accessible to the general public. We are always working to ensure the security of your personal information.
We are continuously in the process of improving our sites and services. If any new features or policies require a change to this current policy, we will post a clear notice of this change on pages of our site where the privacy policy appears. The principle behind this privacy policy is to collect information with your knowledge and consent.
What personal information do we collect?
The information we receive from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network. TSI Network may collect personal information online for all legal purposes, which include, but are not limited to:
Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way through sign-up forms or ordering forms for publications and services. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our services and features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing your web browsing experience for you, improving our website, and communicating with you.
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Does TSI Network Use the Information It Receives?
"Contact Us" and Comment Features: TSI Network encourages visitors to its websites to contact us with questions and comments. Email addresses and other information of persons using these features may be collected in order to facilitate our responses to those inquiries.
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Changes to this Policy
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