oil and gas

ENERFLEX LTD. $13.10 (Toronto symbol EFX; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (403-387-6377; www.enerflex.com; Shares outstanding: 79.1 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.6%) rents and sells equipment and services for natural gas production, including compression and processing plants, refrigeration gear and power generators. On June 30, 2014, Enerflex closed its $431-million U.S. acquisition of two businesses owned by privately held Axip Energy Services: an international contract compression and processing subsidiary and a division that provides aftermarket services. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, the company’s revenue fell 5.7%, to $425.2 million from $451.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share were unchanged at $0.40....

REITMANS (CANADA) LTD., $4.02, symbol RET.A on Toronto, owns 775 women’s clothing stores across Canada. The chain consists of 332 Reitmans, 136 Penningtons, 107 Addition Elle, 83 RW & Co., 68 Thyme Maternity, 17 Hyda and 32 Smart Set outlets. It also has 21 Thyme Maternity boutiques in Canadian Babies “R” Us stores. In the three months ended October 31, 2015, Reitmans’ sales rose slightly, to $240.3 million from $238.3 million a year earlier. Same-store sales gained 7.6%, with brick-and-mortar stores increasing 4.8% and e-commerce jumping 72.2%....

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $169.77, Toronto symbol CP, has revised its takeover offer for U.S.-based railway Norfolk Southern Corp. (New York symbol NSC). The combined firm would be North America’s largest railway, with more than 56,000 kilometres of track. Buying Norfolk would also give CP greater access to ports on the U.S. Gulf Coast and Atlantic Ocean. Under the new deal, Norfolk shareholders would receive more stock and less cash: $32.86 U.S. a share in cash plus 0.451 of a CP share for each Norfolk share held. That would give them 47% of the combined company, compared to 41% under the original offer....

Lower prices for oil and other commodities are weighing on Encana and Finning (see box). However, both firms are aggressively cutting costs, which puts them in a better position to grow when prices recover. ENCANA CORP. $9.14 (Toronto symbol ECA; Con- servative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 845.7 million; Market cap: $7.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.encana.com) raised $2.7 billion in 2015 by selling less important properties (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). These sales are part of the company’s plan to focus on four key projects: Montney (B.C.), Duvernay (Alberta) and Eagle Ford and Permian (both in Texas). These fields produce large amounts of oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane and butane, which cuts Encana’s reliance on natural gas. They’re also efficient, which helps the company cope with low oil and gas prices....

ENCANA CORP. $9.14 (Toronto symbol ECA; Con- servative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 845.7 million; Market cap: $7.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.encana.com) raised $2.7 billion in 2015 by selling less important properties (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). These sales are part of the company’s plan to focus on four key projects: Montney (B.C.), Duvernay (Alberta) and Eagle Ford and Permian (both in Texas). These fields produce large amounts of oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane and butane, which cuts Encana’s reliance on natural gas. They’re also efficient, which helps the company cope with low oil and gas prices. Because of these asset sales, Encana’s production fell 15.4% in the three months ended September 30, 2015, to 398,300 barrels a day (65% gas and 35% oil and natural gas liquids) from 470,600 a year earlier....

Many investors are reading the news intently these days, in hopes of spotting a sign that the drop in oil prices has ended. They assume that if they get in at just the right moment, they’ll be able to take advantage of another of the violent upswings that the oil market has put on in the past, after a downturn like the one now underway. One investor wrote: “When oil dropped, I waited but not long enough. I bought $50,000 of Chevron and $40,000 of Imperial. Imperial is down about $4,000 and I have a $2,000 profit on Chevron. I’m thinking about selling the Chevron and maybe wait to see if it drops more later. I have to ride out the Imperial Oil.” This is a bad way to invest, but especially in a volatile, worldwide market like oil, and all the more so today. It’s easy to look at a long-term history of oil prices and detect what you feel is a clear, recurring pattern. However, these patterns occur in response to supply and demand in the market, and both are constantly changing....

Aecon Group Inc., $13.50, symbol ARE on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 56.5 million; Market cap: $769.1 million; www.aecon.com), is one of Canada’s largest infrastructure developers. The company and its predecessors built Canadian landmarks like the CN Tower, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Calgary Olympic Oval and the Halifax Shipyards. Aecon has three main divisions: •The energy group, which accounted for 39% of the company’s revenue in the latest quarter, builds facilities and components for clients in the power industry, including nuclear reactors....

Surge Energy, $2.01, symbol SGY on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 220.9 million; Market cap: $446.4 million; www.surgeenergy.ca), produces oil and gas in central and northwestern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. Its output is 83% oil and 17% gas. In response to lower oil prices, and to pay down its debt, the company sold 5,300 barrels of oil equivalent of daily production in two transactions for $465 million earlier this year. It also unwound its crude oil hedging contracts for 2015 and realized a gain of over $35 million. Surge’s long-term debt now stands at $131.0 million, or a reasonable 24% of its market cap, down from $564.3 million at the end of 2014....

While drilling equipment company McCoy Global has dropped to the penny stock range, we see it as a bargain for aggressive investors

Flow-through limited partnerships offer big tax breaks but may not be the best things for your portfolio.