Two ways to buy these top utility assets

Article Excerpt

Canadian Utilities and ATCO offer investors two ways to buy essentially the same businesses. We like both stocks, but income-seeking investors should pick Canadian Utilities for its higher payout. Value seekers, on the other hand, should buy the parent, ATCO, for its holding company discount. CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $37 and CU.X [class B voting] $37; Income-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 268.1 million; Market cap: $9.9 billion; Dividend yield: 3.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta and Australia. It also operates 15 power plants in Canada (13) and Australia (2). ATCO Ltd. (see right) owns 52.9% of the company. Canadian Utilities will increase its quarterly dividend by 10.0% with the March 2017 payment, to $0.3575 a share from $0.325. The new annual rate of $1.43 yields 3.9%. The company has increased the payout each year since 1972. CU divi Canadian Utilities operates two coalfired plants (Sheerness and Battle River) in…