Big acquisition pays off

Article Excerpt

ENBRIDGE INC. $42.86 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $85.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 6.3%; www.enbridge.com) continues to sell some of its less-important assets to help pay down the debt it took on to buy Spectra Energy in February 2017. That firm operates crude oil and natural gas pipelines in the U.S. and Canada. Spectra also owns oil and gas storage facilities. Thanks to those sales and the additional cash flow from Spectra, Enbridge plans to raise its quarterly dividend by 10.0%. Starting with the March 2019 payment, investors will receive $0.738 a share, up from $0.671. The new annual rate of $2.952 yields a high 6.3%. The company also intends to raise the annual dividend rate by a further 10% in 2020. Enbridge is a hold. hold…