Buy one for income, the other for value

Article Excerpt

Canadian Utilities and ATCO (see box) offer investors two ways to buy essentially the same businesses. We like both stocks, but income-seeking investors should pick the subsidiary, Canadian Utilities, while value seekers should buy the parent, ATCO. 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%…