Suncor beats the CRA

Article Excerpt

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $43 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $73.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) has successfully resolved a dispute with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). In 2013, the CRA challenged the company’s use of hedging losses to reduce taxes on its 29.9% share of the Buzzard offshore oil field in the North Sea. Those losses occurred in 2007, when the asset was owned by Petro-Canada (Suncor acquired Petro-Canada in 2009). If the Tax Court of Canada had ruled against Suncor, the company would have had to pay $1.3 billion in additional taxes. To put that figure in context, Suncor’s cash flow in the third quarter of 2016 was $2.0 billion, or $1.22 a share. As part of the legal dispute process, the company deposited a total of $657 million with the CRA and the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. It now expects to recover that money within…