EMERA INC. $29 - Toronto symbol EMA

EMERA INC. $29 (Toronto symbol EMA; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 132.4 million; Market cap: $3.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.emera.com) is Nova Scotia’s main power supplier. It also holds interests in electrical utilities in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

The company continues to invest in promising new projects. For example, it recently agreed to pay $541 million U.S. for three natural-gas-fired power plants in New England. Emera also plans to pay $390 million for a 34.5% stake in a power plant in Labrador. In addition, it will spend $1.5 billion to build an undersea cable that will transmit 20% of this facility’s power to Nova Scotia.

Closing a non-regulated power plant for maintenance helped cut Emera’s second-quarter earnings by 8.0%, to $42.6 million from $46.3 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 13.5%, to $0.32 from $0.37, on more shares outstanding. However, overall revenue still rose 1.0%, to $506.5 million from $501.3 million, thanks to colder-than-normal weather in Nova Scotia and higher power rates.

The stock trades at a moderate 15.9 items the company’s projected 2013 earnings of $1.82 a share. The $1.40 dividend yields 4.8%.

Emera is a buy.

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