Their solid businesses cut their cyclical risk

Article Excerpt

Dividends from companies in cyclical industries, whose profits move up and down with the overall economy, tend to be less predictable than payments from more-stable businesses such as utilities. These two cyclical companies, however, have a long history of maintaining their payments, or even raising them, during economic downturns. IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $40 (Toronto symbol IMO; Cyclical- Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio; Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 840.4 million; Market cap: $33.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s secondlargest integrated oil company, after Suncor Energy. U.S.- based ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial. With the July 2017 payment, the company raised its quarterly dividend by 6.7%. Investors now receive $0.16 a share instead of $0.15. The new annual rate of $0.64 yields 1.6%. In the quarter ended September 30, 2017, Imperial produced an average of 390,000 barrels a day, down 0.8% from 393,000 a year earlier. A fire at the big Syncrude processing facility in…