monthly dividend

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline. Friday, December 14, 2012 Dear client,...

TRILOGY ENERGY CORP. $28.25 (Toronto symbol TET; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-290- 2900; www.trilogy.com; Shares outstanding: 116.5 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) owns oil and gas properties in the Kaybob and Grande Prairie areas of central Alberta. About 62% of Trilogy’s production is natural gas. The remaining 38% is oil. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Trilogy produced 33,412 barrels of oil equivalent per day (including gas). That’s up 15.1% from 29,035 barrels a year earlier. But even with the higher production, a 40.1% decline in gas prices pushed down the company’s cash flow per share by 21.6%, to $0.40 from $0.51. Trilogy pays out just 26% of its cash flow as dividends. That gives it a low 1.5% yield, but it’s also letting the company maintain an active drilling program. In the first three quarters of 2012, Trilogy spent $274 million on exploration and development, up 10.5% from $248 million in the same period a year earlier. The company drilled 55 wells, up 25.0% from 44....

LOBLAW COMPANIES $33.47 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 281.5 million; Market cap: $9.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.6%; www.loblaw.ca) has signed a new long-term deal with Towers Watson, a private firm that helps Canadian companies manage their employees’ health benefits. Under the agreement, Loblaw’s in-store pharmacies will offer special discounts to Towers Watson’s clients, which together employ over 30,000 people. These discounts should draw more shoppers to Loblaw’s stores and more than offset the lost revenue. Roughly half of Loblaw’s 1,000 supermarkets now have in-store pharmacies. Loblaw is a buy....

ENERPLUS CORP. $16.05 (Toronto symbol ERF; Shares outstanding: 197.6 million; Market cap: $3.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.7%) produces an average of 82,108 barrels of oil equivalent per day (weighted 51% to natural gas and 49% to oil). Its properties are mainly in Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C., North Dakota and Montana, as well as the Marcellus Shale, which passes through Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Enerplus’s cash flow per share was unchanged at $0.74 from a year earlier.

In June 2012, the company cut its monthly dividend by 50%. It now yields 6.7%.

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AIMIA INC., $14.70, symbol AIM on Toronto, owns and operates Aeroplan, Canada’s largest loyalty program, and Nectar, the U.K.’s biggest loyalty program. In addition, Aimia has interests in Air Miles Middle East and Nectar Italia, as well as Club Premier, the leading loyalty program in Mexico. In the nine months ended September 30, 2012, Aimia’s revenue rose 1.0%, to $1.63 billion from $1.61 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share rose 33.8%, to $1.03 from $0.77. The company’s cost per mile awarded dropped significantly, partly because it is making better use of its computer systems. Redemptions also fell. Aimia continues to diversify its operations geographically. That’s offsetting the risk of its Canadian business: Air Canada, a major Aeroplan partner, is vulnerable to labour disputes that can disrupt its service....

BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $3.51 and BBD.B $3.43, is having trouble getting enough parts from suppliers to build its new CSeries passenger jet. As a result, the company has delayed the new aircraft’s first test flight from the end of this year to June 2013. It still expects to deliver the first CSeries plane by the end of 2013. As well, slowing demand for its passenger railcars has prompted the company to cut 3% of this division’s workforce, including closing a plant in Germany. Severance and other costs will probably total $150 million (all amounts except share prices in U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company did not say how much these moves would save it. Meanwhile, Bombardier earned $209 million, or $0.12 a share, on sales of $4.3 billion in the three months ended September 30, 2012. The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.11 a share....

Natural gas prices hit a high of over $13 U.S. per thousand cubic feet in June 2008. But the economic slowdown, plus vast new shale gas discoveries, pushed prices down to a 10-year low of under $2 earlier this year. Since then, though, gas has rebounded to $3.70 U.S. per thousand cubic feet. There is still a lot of gas in storage, and rising prices are prompting many producers to restart wells they had shut down. However, utilities continue to switch to natural gas from coal to fuel power plants. That demand, plus the prospect of rising liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, to countries like Japan, China and South Korea, could push prices higher. ARC RESOURCES $24.25 (Toronto symbol ARX; Shares outstanding: 307.0 million; Market cap: $7.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.arcresources.com) produces oil and natural gas in western Canada. Its average daily production of 94,970 barrels of oil equivalent is weighted 62% to gas and 38% to oil....

PEYTO EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT CORP. $24.65 (Toronto symbol PEY; Shares outstanding: 143.9 million; Market cap: $3.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 2.9%; www.peyto.com) produces and explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta.

Peyto’s average daily production of 41,343 barrels of oil equivalent is 89% gas and 11% oil.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, the company’s cash flow was $0.47 a share, down 16.1% from $0.56 a share a year earlier. Lower gas prices offset a 20.0% rise in production.

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BONAVISTA ENERGY $18.01 (Toronto symbol BNP; Shares outstanding: 169.2 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 8.0%; www.bonavistaenergy.com) explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.

Bonavista produces an average of 69,506 barrels of oil equivalent per day, weighted 61% to gas and 39% to oil.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, the company’s cash flow per share fell 44.3%, to $0.49 from $0.88 a year earlier. Lower gas prices more than offset a 5.3% production increase.

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INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $60 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 129.6 million; Market cap: $7.8 billion; Dividend yield: 2.7%) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance, based on premiums. Its brands include Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink, belairdirect and Grey Power. In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Intact’s revenue rose 47.8%, to $1.59 billion from $1.08 billion a year earlier. That was mainly due to the contribution from AXA Canada, which Intact bought from Parisbased ASX Group for $2.6 billion last year. AXA Canada is the country’s sixth-largest home, auto and commercial insurer. It also gives Intact a presence in Quebec, B.C. and Atlantic Canada....