Imperial looks better all the time

Article Excerpt

New technologies are helping to unlock the vast reserves of the oil sands and shale-gas fields in North America. However, the extra production could hold back oil and natural gas prices. That’s why we feel it’s a great time to own our favourite integrated oil producer Imperial Oil. Besides drilling for oil, Imperial also owns refineries which convert crude oil into gasoline and other fuels. These operations profit when oil prices fall, because they pay less for the crude they refine. Imperial also operates 1,850 Esso gas stations. That helps diversify the company’s business, and further cuts its risk. IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $42 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $35.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s third-largest publicly traded oil company, after Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Imperial is a 69.6%-owned subsidiary of U.S.-based ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM). Most of Imperial’s oil production comes from its oil-sands projects…