Enbridge raises its dividend

Article Excerpt

ENBRIDGE, $63.30, is a buy. The firm (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares o/s: 2.2 billion; Market cap: $136.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 6.0%; www.enbridge.com) recently completed its acquisition of three regulated gas utility firms—they serve roughly 3 million customers in Ohio, North Carolina, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming—from Dominion Energy. The purchase made Enbridge the largest gas utility in North America. In all, the company paid $14.0 billion U.S. in cash for these businesses. The new assets will help raise Enbridge’s distributable cash flow (DCF) by about 2% in 2025, to between $5.50 and $5.90 a share. The stock trades at an attractive 11.1 times the midpoint of that range. Thanks to its improving cash flow, Enbridge will increase your quarterly dividend by 3.0%. Starting with the March 2025 payment, investors will receive $0.9425 a share instead of $0.915. The new rate yields a high 6.0%. The company has now increased the annual dividend rate each year for the past 30 years. Enbridge is a buy…