TransCanada looks to sell assets

Article Excerpt

TRANSCANADA CORP. $64 (Toronto symbol TRP; Income-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 923.6 million; Market cap: $59.1 billion; Dividend yield: 4.7%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.transcanada.com) operates a 91,900-kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. Its other operations include 4,900 kilometres of crude oil pipelines and 11 power plants. With the April 2019 payment, TransCanada increased its quarterly dividend by 8.7%. Investors receive $0.75 a share, up from $0.69. The new annual rate of $3.00 yields a high 4.7%. TransCanada still plans to increase its annual dividend by 8% to 10% each year through 2021. The company aims to invest $8 billion in new projects in 2019. To help offset those costs, it may look to sell some of its less-important assets. That could include its Columbia Midstream business, which operates four natural gas-gathering systems and a pipeline in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. A sale of that business could raise $1 billion. TransCanada will probably…