holding company

We’ve long recommended Canadian Utilities as a top pick for income seekers when you consider its high-quality assets that provide plenty of cash flow for dividends.


We also like its parent company, ATCO. Essentially, it lets you buy the same businesses as Canadian Utilities but at a discount....

Canadian Utilities and ATCO offer investors two ways to buy essentially the same businesses.


We like both stocks, but income-seeking investors should pick Canadian Utilities for its higher payout. Value seekers, on the other hand, should buy the parent, ATCO, for its holding company discount.


CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $37 and CU.X [class B voting] $37; Income-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 268.1 million; Market cap: $9.9 billion; Dividend yield: 3.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta and Australia....

MITEL NETWORKS $9.43 (Toronto symbol MNW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (613592-2122; www.mitel.ca; Shares outstanding: 121.9 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; No dividends paid) will sell its Mitel Mobile to U.S. digital communications company Xura, Inc., for $350 million U.S....

POWER CORP. $30.43 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares outstanding: 414.4 million; Market cap: $14.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.4%; www.powercorporation.com) is a diversified holding company. It holds its financial assets through its 65.6%-owned Power Financial.


In the quarter ended September 30, 2016, Power Corp.’s earnings per share fell 40.4%, to $0.65 from $1.04 a year earlier....

Both BCE and Telus continue to prosper in the competitive Canadian telecom market. That positions them to continue raising their already-high dividend payouts.


BCE INC. $60 (Toronto symbol BCE; Income Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 868.2 million; Market cap: $52.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 4.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest telephone provider, with 6.5 million customers in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces....

United Technologies has moved down from its recent peak of $110 in August 2016. The decline reflects the slow delivery of its new jet engines because of manufacturing problems. However, that’s a short-term setback, and deliveries should pick up in 2017.

To boost market share, the company is now cutting its prices....

ATCO LTD. (Toronto symbols ACO.X [class I non-voting] $47 and ACO.Y [class II voting] $47; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 114.3 million; Market cap: $5.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.atco.com) gets most of its earnings from its 53.1% stake in Canadian Utilities (see left)....

A: Consolidated Edison Inc., $75.52, symbol ED on New York (Shares outstanding: 302.8 million; Market cap: $23.2 billion; www.coned.com), is the holding company for Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc.

That firm sells electricity, gas and steam (used for heating and power) across most of New York City and Westchester County, New York....

We still think investors will profit most—and with the least risk—by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying stocks with strong business prospects.



These are companies that have leading positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing market.



Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of safety despite today’s volatility....

ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG (class C non-voting), $719.41, and GOOGL (class A voting), $733.19, is the new holding company for Google’s Internet search business and its other operations, including self-driving cars and home thermostats.

The reorganization also made Google Fiber a separate subsidiary....