Imperial remains our top oil stock

Article Excerpt

Crude oil prices have steadily declined to the current $74 U.S. per barrel after soaring to about $124 U.S. in March 2022. That was following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Note, however, that today’s price is still above the pre-pandemic price of around $60 U.S. It’s likely crude prices will remain elevated for some time as Canadian oil producers, like Imperial Oil, and their U.S. counterparts are reluctant to take on big new exploration and development projects. They blame a lack of new pipeline capacity among other factors. Still, Imperial’s moderate capital outlays, combined with its strong cash flows, give the company more room to cut its debt and reward investors with big share buyback plans and higher dividends. IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $71 is a buy. This company (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative and Income Growth Portfolios, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 604.8 million; Market cap: $42.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) gets about 90% of its production from oil sands operations…