Topic: Dividend Stocks

CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD – Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting]

CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $42 and CU.X [class B voting] $42; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 263.3 million; Market cap: $11.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta and Australia. It also operates 18 power plants in Canada, Australia and the U.K. ATCO Ltd. owns 53.2% of the company.

Alberta power regulators recently selected Canadian Utilities to build and operate a new 500- kilometre transmission line between Edmonton and Fort Mc- Murray, an area where power demand could double in the next 10 years.

The company will own 80% of a joint venture that will build this project. Quanta Services (New York symbol PWR) will own the remaining 20%. Canadian Utilities’ share of the $1.43-billion cost is $1.14 billion. Construction will begin in 2017, and the new line should start up in 2019.

Meanwhile, Canadian Utilities earned $226 million, or $0.80 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2014. That’s up 71.2% from $132 million, of $0.44, a year earlier. Without unusual items, such as a $138-million gain on the August 2014 sale of the company’s information technology business, earnings rose 8.9%.

Revenue gained 6.2%, to $802 million from $755 million, mainly due to higher natural gas volumes and contributions from new power projects.

Lower oil prices have prompted oil sands operators to cut spending on new projects. That will hurt power demand and cut Canadian Utilities’ likely 2014 earnings by 6.3%, to $2.07 a share.

However, new projects in Saskatchewan and Mexico could raise its earnings to $2.33 a share in 2015, and the stock trades at a moderate 18.0 times that forecast. The $1.18 dividend yields 2.8%.

The class A non-voting shares are more liquid than the class B voting shares.

Canadian Utilities class A stock is a buy.

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