enbridge

ENBRIDGE INC. $42 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $42.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) has opened its first geothermal power plant....

Growth by acquisition can be risky, as newly purchased companies may develop unforeseen problems, especially in an unsettled economy. But Pembina lowered that risk with last year’s purchase of a rival in a business where it’s already a leader. Meanwhile, Veresen aims to add power plants with long-term contracts already in place.

PEMBINA PIPELINE $32.36 (Toronto symbol PPL; Shares outstanding: 310.3 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Div....

BCE INC. $44.58 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.9 million; Market cap: $34.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) has gained in response to U.S.-based Verizon Communications’ (New York symbol VZ) announcement that it will not enter the Canadian wireless market right now (see box below).

BCE is Canada’s second-largest wireless carrier, with 7.72 million subscribers....

The U.S. is the sole country worldwide that requires its citizens to file an income tax return and report any income regardless of where they live or whether they hold dual citizenship in another country. That’s unlike Canada, which mainly bases its tax system on country of residence, like most other nations. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates that five to seven million American citizens reside abroad. Of that total, about one million live in Canada. Most U.S. citizens paying income taxes in Canada pay no additional U.S. income tax. However, they still have U.S. tax filing and compliance requirements....

ENBRIDGE INC. $43 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 826.0 million; Market cap: $35.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) is extending its Woodland pipeline, which will let it pump more bitumen from the recently opened Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta to refineries and other pipelines in Edmonton. Imperial Oil (see above) owns 71% of Kearl; Exxon owns the remaining 29%.

The company will spend $1.3 billion on this project, which should begin operating in the third quarter of 2015.

Enbridge is a buy.
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ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $17.88 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 8.2%; TD Bank, 7.1%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 6.2%; Suncor Energy, 4.5%; CN Railway, 3.9%; Bank of Montreal, 3.7%; Enbridge, 3.4%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.2%; TransCanada Corporation, 3.0%; Manulife Financial, 3.0%; BCE, 2.9%; CIBC, 2.8%; Valeant Pharmaceuticals, 2.8%; Potash Corp., 2.3%; Cenovus Energy, 2.0%; and Goldcorp, 2.0%.
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IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $42 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth Portfolio; Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 848.0 million; Market cap: $35.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) has teamed up with its parent company, ExxonMobil Corp....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or subindex. They hold a more-or-less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

ENBRIDGE INC. $44.53 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 809.3 million; Market cap: $36.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.enbridge.com) has shut down three of its oil pipelines near Fort McMurray, Alberta, after heavy rain weakened the ground beneath one of them, causing a minor spill.

The company has since reopened two of these lines and expects to restart the third in the next few days. The shutdown is costing Enbridge about $1 million a day in lost revenue. To put that in context, the company’s revenue was $8.0 billion, or over $89 million a day, in the first three months of 2013.

Enbridge is a buy.
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CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $131.73, Toronto symbol CP, continues to benefit from rising shipments of crude oil by rail. That’s because a lack of pipelines is forcing producers to find other ways to transport their oil to refineries. However, last Saturday’s derailment and explosion of a train hauling crude oil in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, could slow down the oil-by-rail boom. (Note: a rival firm, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, operated this train, not CP.) The crash will likely lead to new regulations, such as requirements for thicker-hulled tanker cars that can better withstand collisions. Regulators may also demand that railways place more workers on their trains and install automatic braking equipment....