Higher oil prices offset lower output

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $40 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Shares outstanding: 837.6 million; Market cap: $33.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s second-largest publicly traded oil company, after Suncor. ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial. In the quarter ended September 30, 2017, Imperial produced an average of 390,000 barrels a day, down 0.8% from 393,000 a year earlier. A fire at the big Syncrude processing facility in northern Alberta (25% owned by Imperial) offset rising production at its main oil sands operations. The lower output also caused Imperial’s overall revenue to fall 3.8%, to $7.2 billion from $7.4 billion a year earlier. However, higher crude prices caused cash flow per share to jump 26.5%, to $1.05 from $0.83. The stock trades at a reasonable 12.7 times Imperial’s 2017 projected cash flow of $3.15 a share. The company’s $0.64 dividend yields 1.6%. Imperial Oil is a buy. buy…