oil and gas

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $41.71 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 612.3 million; Market cap: $25.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations. The company has $891.3 billion of assets under management and mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. It’s also expanding in Asia. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Sun Life’s earnings per share rose 7.4%, to $0.87 from $0.81. The company continues to diversify in the U.S. At the same time, it’s focusing on highly profitable niche markets with low capital requirements....

CRESCENT POINT ENERGY $17.64 (Toronto symbol CPG; Shares outstanding: 504.9 million; Market cap: $8.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend y ield: 2.0%; www.crescentpointenergy.com) produces oil and natural gas in Western Canada, with a focus on its Bakken light oil development in southeastern Saskatchewan. Its output is 90% oil and 10% gas. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Crescent Point’s cash flow fell 13.3%, to $496.7 million from $572.8 million a year earlier. The company raised its daily output by 14.5%, but lower oil and gas prices offset that increase. Cash flow per share dropped 23.4%, to $0.98 from $1.28, because Crescent Point issued shares to pay for acquisitions. They include the $1.5 billion the company paid for Legacy Oil + Gas in June 2015....

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. across 175 mutual funds and ETFs. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds are only available in a limited number of provinces. Canadians can, however, buy Vanguard exchange traded funds that trade on stock exchanges. Here are two Vanguard ETF we see as low-fee buys....

ARC RESOURCES $18.38 (Toronto symbol ARX; Shares outstanding: 348.3 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; Dividend yield: 3.3%; www.arcresources.com) produces oil and natural gas in Western Canada. Its average daily output of 119,243 barrels of oil equivalent is 66% gas and 34% oil. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, ARC’s cash flow per share dropped 26.6%, to $0.58 from $0.79 a year earlier. Production increased 1.1%, but its realized oil price fell 32.1%. Gas prices declined 37.6%. Like many oil and gas producers, ARC is cutting exploration and development spending. In 2016, it will devote $390.0 million to this purpose. That’s down 29.1% from $550.0 in 2015....

PENN WEST $1.17 (Toronto symbol PWT; Shs. o/s: 502.2 million; Market cap: $582.5 million; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; No dividends paid; www.pennwest.com) has sold oilproducing properties worth over $1 billion since the start of 2015. Even so, its debt is still a very high $1.9 billion, or 3.3 times its market cap. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Penn West’s production fell 20.3%, to an average of 77,398 barrels per day from 97,143. Cash flow per share fell sharply, to just $7.0 million, or $0.01 a share, from $137.0 million, or $0.28 a share. Penn West may still need to sell more assets to meet scheduled debt repayments. But without significantly higher oil and gas prices, those sales will further cut its already low cash flow....

PENN WEST $1.17 (Toronto symbol PWT; Shs. o/s: 502.2 million; Market cap: $582.5 million; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; No dividends paid; www.pennwest.com) has sold oilproducing properties worth over $1 billion since the start of 2015. Even so, its debt is still a very high $1.9 billion, or 3.3 times its market cap. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Penn West’s production fell 20.3%, to an average of 77,398 barrels per day from 97,143. Cash flow per share fell sharply, to just $7.0 million, or $0.01 a share, from $137.0 million, or $0.28 a share. Penn West may still need to sell more assets to meet scheduled debt repayments. But without significantly higher oil and gas prices, those sales will further cut its already low cash flow....

CALIAN GROUP LTD., $18.26, symbol CTY on Toronto, is the new name of Calian Technologies effective today. The company will also change its stock symbol to CGY from CTY on April 5, 2016. Calian is making the name change because of its expansion into new areas such as healthcare through its Business and Technology Services unit. That subsidiary supplies 70% of Calian’s revenue and provides corporate clients with engineers, health care workers and other skilled professionals on a contract basis. The company’s Systems Engineering business (30% of revenue) sells hardware and software for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communication systems....

Vecima Networks, $11.78, symbol VCM on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 22.4 million; Market cap: $263.0 million, www.vecima.com), designs and make technology for the broadband equipment market. Vecima first sold shares to the public in 2005 and began trading on the Toronto exchange at $7.50. The company’s technology provides a final network segment for service providers, such as cable companies, to connect their systems directly to end-users. This is commonly referred to as “the last mile.”...

McCoy Global is laying off workers and consolidating its production in one facility to cut costs

IAMGOLD CORP., $2.76, symbol IMG on Toronto, has a joint venture with Calibre Mining (symbol CXB on Toronto) to explore the Eastern Borosi silver/gold project in Nicaragua. The partners plan to spend $1.5 million U.S. this year on a 5,500-metre drilling program. They have already completed 11,400 metres of drilling since they formed their joint venture in May 2014. The drilling results have so far included several high-grade mineral showings. They include a 12.9m drilling section that graded at a high 8.73 grams per tonne of gold and 11.5 grams per tonne of silver....