Lower interest rates will fuel your returns

Article Excerpt

The shares of these two utilities continue to rise, mainly because falling interest rates make their high dividend yields more appealing to income-seeking investors. As well, their new projects will give them even more room for dividend hikes. CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. $36 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CU; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 271.6 million; Market cap: $9.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta and Australia. It also owns or invests in power plants in Canada, Mexico, Australia and Chile. ATCO Ltd. (see right) owns 52.6% of the firm. Canadian Utilities’ revenue in the quarter ended September 30, 2024, fell 0.2%, to $810 million from $812 million a year earlier. The decline was mainly because the company sold its ATCO Energy subsidiary, which sells power and natural gas to residential and small business customers in Alberta, to its parent firm. If you exclude a $14 million loss on that…