Imperial Oil continues its expansion

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $35 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Shares outstanding: 792.7 million; Market cap: $27.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s third-largest publicly traded oil company, after Suncor (No. 1) and Canadian Natural Resources. U.S.-based ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial. About 60% of the company’s production comes from its Alberta oil sands operations; they include its 25% stake in the Syncrude project. Imperial also has conventional oil and natural gas operations in the West and holds stakes in projects off the coast of Atlantic Canada. In the third quarter of 2018, the company produced an average 393,000 barrels a day. That’s up slightly from the 390,000 a year earlier. However, thanks to higher oil prices, revenue jumped 36.0%, to $9.7 billion from $7.2 billion a year earlier. Imperial’s earning in the quarter soared 101.9%, to $749 million from $371 million. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose at a..