TransCanada powers ahead

Article Excerpt

TransCanada continues to attract a lot of media attention, mainly because environmentalists and some politicians oppose its planned Keystone XL pipeline, which would pump crude from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in Texas and Louisiana. However, Keystone XL is just one of the many growth projects TransCanada is working on. The others—including big investments in its nuclear power business—have received much less attention, but they still enhance the company’s long-term prospects. They should also give it plenty of cash for dividends. TRANSCANADA CORP. $45 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 704.0 million; Market cap: $31.7 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) operates a 68,500- kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. The company’s pipelines supply 20% of North America’s natural gas. In 2011, they provided 49% of TransCanada’s revenue and 60% of its earnings. In the past few years, the company has aggressively diversified…