Topic: Dividend Stocks

EMERA INC. $35 – Toronto symbol EMA

EMERA INC. $35 (Toronto symbol EMA; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 123.9 million; Market cap: $4.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.emera.com) owns Nova Scotia Power, which is that province’s main electricity supplier. It also owns electrical utilities in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, revenue fell 0.1%, to $501.3 million from $501.7 million a year earlier. Two large industrial customers in Nova Scotia closed their operations, which cut electricity sales in the province by 19.8%. That offset the positive impact of higher power rates.

However, earnings jumped 44.7%, to $46.3 million from $32.0 million a year earlier. Because it had slightly more shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 42.3%, to $0.37 from $0.26. If you exclude a gain on an investment, Emera would have earned $0.28 a share in the latest quarter.

The company is now waiting for regulators to approve the Maritime Link project, under which Emera will team up with other firms to form a new utility that will transmit power from a plant on Labrador’s Churchill River to the island of Newfoundland. Emera will pay $600 million for a 29% stake in Maritime Link. It will also spend $1.2 billion to build an undersea cable that will transmit 20% of the plant’s power to Nova Scotia. Emera will own 100% of this cable. These two projects should begin operating by 2017.

The company should earn $1.67 a share in 2012. The stock trades at 21.0 times that figure. The $1.40 dividend yields 4.0%.

Emera is a buy.

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