Suncor plans regular dividend hikes

Article Excerpt

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $57 is a buy. Canada’s largest integrated oil producer (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $74.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4: Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) put out a record 827,000 barrels a day in 2024, up 10.9% from 746,000 barrels in 2023. That’s partly because the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline let it ship more crude oil from its Alberta oil sands projects to the west coast, in part to meet Asian demand. In 2025, the company plans to spend between $6.1 billion and $6.3 billion on exploration and upgrades to its existing operations. Those investments should lift this year’s average production to between 810,000 and 840,000 barrels a day. The higher output should also lift the company’s free cash flow (after capital expenditures) from $7.36 billion in 2024 to $10.8 billion in 2026. That will give Suncor more room to reward investors. In 2024, it spent $3.0 billion on share buybacks and raised…