Imperial cuts its debt

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL $41.07 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $35.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.5%; www.imperialoil.ca) is Cana da’s third-largest publicly traded oil company, after Suncor Energy (No. 1) and Canadian Natural Resources (No. 2). In the quarter ended December 31, 2016, the company’s cash flow per share rose 14.2%, to $0.74 from $0.65 a year earlier. Imperial has used cash from the sale of 500 Esso gas stations, and other assets, to pay down its debt. As a result, its long-term debt is now $5.2 billion, or 15% of its market cap. The stock trades at a reasonable 7.8 times the company’s 2017 projected cash flow of $5.24 a share. The $0.60 dividend yields 1.4%. Imperial Oil is a buy buy…