The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, February 18, 2011

Article Excerpt

TRANSCANADA CORP., $38.01, Toronto symbol TRP, recently opened the second phase of its four-phase Keystone pipeline project, which pumps crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in the U.S. Midwest. The third phase, called Keystone XL, will pump oil from Oklahoma to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The fourth phase will run from Alberta to Nebraska. Regulatory delays and higher-than-expected construction costs have pushed up the entire project’s cost to $13 billion U.S. That’s 8.3% higher than TransCanada’s earlier estimate of $12 billion U.S. So far, the company has spent $7.4 billion U.S. on Keystone. It aims to complete the remaining two phases by mid-2013. Meanwhile, TransCanada earned $1.4 billion (Canadian) in 2010. That’s up 2.7% from $1.3 billion in 2009. However, earnings per share fell 3.0%, to $1.97 from $2.03, on more shares outstanding. Even so, the latest earnings beat the consensus earnings estimate of $1.96 a share. These figures exclude several unusual items, including a writedown of a loan TransCanada made…