Topic: How To Invest

TRANSCANADA CORP. $54.00 – Toronto symbol TRP

TRANSCANADA CORP. $54.00 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 708.0 million; Market cap: $38.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%; www.transcanada.com) operates 68,500 kilometres of natural gas pipelines and over 11,800 megawatts of power generation in Canada and the U.S.

In the three months ended June 30, 2014, TransCanada’s revenue rose 11.2%, to $2.2 billion from $2.0 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share fell 7.8%, to $0.47 from $0.51. That was mostly due to maintenance outages at its Bruce Power plant in Ontario and weaker power prices in Alberta.

The company completed $6.1 billion worth of growth projects in 2013 and another $1.7 billion in the first half of this year. It plans to complete $36 billion of additional projects secured by long-term contracts by 2018 (an amount almost equal to its current $38.2-billion market cap). That includes $3.0 billion more for Keystone XL.

TransCanada has raised its dividend annually for the past 14 years, including a 4.3% increase in April 2014. The shares yield 3.6%.

The stock trades at 22.5 times the $2.40 a share that TransCanada should earn this year. That’s a high multiple for a utility stock, but it’s still reasonable in light of the company’s strong growth prospects.

TransCanada is a buy.

Comments

Tell Us What YOU Think

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Please be respectful with your comments and help us keep this an area that everyone can enjoy. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Terms of Use, please click here to report it to the administrator.