Your Imperial shares still have room to rise

Article Excerpt

Imperial Oil’s shares recently hit a new all-time high of $106 thanks to its increased production and rising crude prices. The company is also cutting its production costs, which should give it more room to keep rewarding investors with high dividends and share buybacks. IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $102 is a buy. The integrated oil producer (Toronto symbol IMO; Cyclical-Growth Payer Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 535.8 million; Market cap: $54.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.imperialoil.ca) gets about 99% of its production from oil sands operations in Alberta. Imperial also has conventional oil and natural gas operations in the West. Its other operations include three refineries (one in Alberta and two in Ontario) and a petrochemical plant in Sarnia, Ontario. In addition, it supplies gasoline to over 2,000 Esso and Mobil gas stations in Canada. ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM) owns 69.3% of the company’s shares. With the April 2024 payment, the company raised your quarterly dividend by 20.0%, to $0.60 a..