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Topic: Blue Chip Stocks

One of our blue chip stocks is up to the challenge of low oil and NDP rule

blue chip stocks oil

Imperial Oil continues to expand its oil sands projects in the face of low oil prices. Alberta’s new NDP government could also increase royalties or impose new environmental regulations.

However, these projects should last decades. As well, Imperial operates refineries, which are seeing higher profits thanks to the oil-price drop.

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. (Toronto symbol IMO; www.imperialoil.ca) produced an average of 333,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (93% oil and 7% natural gas) in the first quarter of 2015, up 0.9% from a year earlier.

Excluding properties Imperial sold in the past year, production gained 5.7%. The increase is mainly due to rising output at the Kearl oil sands project in Alberta. Imperial owns 71% of Kearl; Exxon- Mobil (New York symbol XOM) holds the other 29%. Exxon also owns 69.9% of Imperial.

Blue chip stocks: Oil sands projects earn largest share of $4 billion capital spending for 2015

A 50% drop in crude oil prices cut Imperial’s revenue by 32.8%, to $6.2 billion from $9.2 billion. Earnings fell 55.5%, to $421 million, or $0.50 a share. A year earlier, the company earned $946 million, or $1.11. Cash flow per share dropped 39.9%, to $0.86 from $1.43.

Imperial expects to spend a total of $4.0 billion on capital projects in 2015, down from $5.7 billion in 2014. It will use most of these funds to expand Kearl and Cold Lake, its two main oil sands properties. In all, these investments will add 47,000 barrels to Imperial’s daily output by 2016.

The stock fell to $44 in January 2015, but it has moved up along with oil prices. Imperial trades at 24.9 times the $1.97 a share it will probably earn this year.

However, the company’s earnings could reach $3.02 a share in 2016, and the stock trades at a more reasonable 16.2 times that forecast. The $0.52 dividend yields 1.1%.

Recommendation in The Successful Investor: BUY.

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