Topic: Dividend Stocks

TRANSCANADA CORP. $39 – Toronto symbol TRP

TRANSCANADA CORP. $39 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 699.5 million; Market cap: $27.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) operates a 60,000-kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. TransCanada also owns, or has interests in, over 10,900 megawatts of power generation. That includes Bruce Power LP, a nuclear facility in Ontario, and the Ravenswood facility, which serves New York City.

TransCanada has spent about $10 billion of the $20 billion it has set aside for new growth projects. It will spend the remaining $10 billion over the next two years. Its biggest project is the Keystone pipeline, which it is building in three phases.

Keystone’s first phase is now pumping crude oil from Alberta to refineries in Illinois. The second phase will extend to Oklahoma, and should be ready in 2011. The third phase, called Keystone XL, will pump oil to refineries in Texas. U.S. environmentalists and politicians have criticized this project. Even so, TransCanada aims to finish Keystone XL by the end of 2013.

The company has already signed contracts with oil shippers for 83% of Keystone’s capacity. These deals have an average term of 18 years. That cuts the risk of this investment.

In addition to Keystone, TransCanada will build new gas-fired power plants in Ontario and Arizona. As well, it plans to refurbish reactors at the Bruce plant, and build new wind farms.

Once these new businesses are operating, the company expects its annual cash flow to rise to $4 billion from $3.3 billion in 2010.

TransCanada trades at 17.3 times its projected 2011 earnings of $2.26 a share, and 9.1 times its likely cash flow of $4.30 a share. These are reasonable multiples in light of its new projects’ strong long-term potential.

TransCanada is a buy.

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