TRANSCANADA CORP. $56 - Toronto symbol TRP

TRANSCANADA CORP. $56 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 707.9 million; Market cap: $39.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.8; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) recently completed the purchase of three more Ontario solar power plants from Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq symbol CSIQ).

TransCanada now owns seven of the nine solar farms it agreed to buy from Canadian Solar in 2011. It will probably take possession of the remaining two in 2015. In all, it will pay about $500 million. To put that in context, TransCanada earned $332 million, or $0.47 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2014.

The company has 20-year deals to sell the power from these solar farms, which cuts this investment’s risk.

In addition, TransCanada has agreed to sell its remaining 30% stake in the Bison pipeline to its 33.3%-owned U.S. affiliate, TC PipeLines LP (New York symbol TCP), for $215 million U.S. Bison pumps natural gas from Wyoming to North Dakota.

Transactions like this, called drop downs, free up cash that the parent company can use for new projects. The affiliate also benefits, because the new assets’ cash flow helps it maintain or increase its cash distributions to its unitholders.

TransCanada is a buy.

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