Imperial boosts its spending

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $35.96 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 792.7 million; Market cap: $27.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.1%; www.imperialoil.ca) produced an average 431,000 barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2018. That’s up 8.0% from 399,000 a year earlier. Most of that gain is due to higher production from its Syncrude (up 23.6%) and Kearl (up 6.6%) oil sands operations. However, revenue fell 2.3%, to $7.89 billion from $8.08 billion, due to lower prices for Canadian crude. Thanks to higher results from its refining operations, which benefit from lower crude prices, earnings in the quarter improved to $853 million, or $1.08 a share. A year earlier, Imperial lost $137 million, or $0.16 a share, due to a $566 million writedown. In 2019, the company plans to spend $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion on exploration and upgrades compared to $1.43 billion in 2018. That increase is mainly due to Imperial’s new Aspen oil sands property in Alberta. Imperial Oil is a buy…