Steady growth trumps high p/e

Article Excerpt

Enbridge has jumped 175% in the past five years, largely because low interest rates have prompted income-seeking investors to buy high-yielding utility stocks. The company is also aggressively adding pipelines to profit from rising oil sands production and new fields like the Bakken shale oil region. The stock now trades at over 25 times earnings. That’s a high multiple for a regulated pipeline operator, but it’s still reasonable in light of Enbridge’s improving growth prospects. ENBRIDGE INC. $56 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 846.4 million; Market cap: $47.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) gets 90% of its revenue from pipelines that pump oil and natural gas from Western Canada to customers in Eastern Canada and the U.S. The remaining 10% mainly comes from distributing gas to 2.1 million consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. New pipelines and other projects boosted Enbridge’s revenue…