High-yielding pipeline stocks: 1 buy & 1 hold

Article Excerpt

Political and environmental opposition to new oil pipelines has prompted TransCanada and Enbridge to acquire big U.S. pipeline firms. Using acquisitions to expand adds risk, but those new businesses own regulated assets with predictable cash flows. Both TransCanada and Enbridge have pledged to use the extra cash flow from their new businesses to increase their dividends. Still, for new buying, we prefer TransCanada. TRANSCANADA CORP. $62 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 874.3 million; Market cap: $54.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada. com) operates 91,500 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Its other operations include 4,250 kilometers of crude oil pipelines, and power plants in Canada and the U.S. In October 2017, the company cancelled its Energy East project. That $15.7 billion plan involved converting part of the company’s Mainline natural gas line to handle oil. Trans- Canada would have used the converted pipeline to…