transcanada

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....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC., $36.03, Toronto symbol SU, has extended its hostile all-stock takeover offer for Canadian Oil Sands (Toronto symbol COS) from December 4, 2015, to January 8, 2016. That’s because Alberta securities regulators upheld Canadian Oil Sands’ request for more time to look for another buyer. However, Suncor did not increase the size of its offer: Canadian Oil Sands investors would still receive 0.25 of a Suncor share for each share they own. The deal requires at least two-thirds of shareholders to tender their holdings. Canadian Oil Sands’ main asset is its 36.74% stake in the Syncrude oil sands development near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Suncor already owns 12.0% of Syncrude, so buying Canadian Oil Sands would give it effective control, with a 48.74% stake. The company feels its expertise running similar projects would help Syncrude improve its efficiency and profits....

TRANSCANADA CORP. $42.69 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 708.9 million; Market cap: $30.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.9%; www.transcanada.com) recently had its proposed Keystone XL pipeline rejected by the U.S. The line would have pumped oil sands crude to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. So far, TransCanada has spent $2.4 billion U.S. on this $8.0-billion U.S. project. However, it can use some of the line’s equipment on other projects, which would minimize a writedown. Meanwhile, TransCanada has $35 billion of large-scale projects underway, as well as $13 billion in small- to medium sized developments set to come into service in the next three years....

TRANSCANADA CORP., $43.32, Toronto symbol TRP, fell 4% on Friday after the U.S. rejected its proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would have pumped crude from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. So far, TransCanada has spent $2.4 billion U.S. on this $8.0-billion U.S. project. However, it can use some of the line’s equipment on other projects, which would minimize a writedown. Meanwhile, the company’s earnings fell 2.2% in the three months ended September 30, 2015, to $440 million (Canadian), or $0.62 a share, though that was still ahead of the consensus estimate of $0.60. A year earlier, it earned $450 million, or $0.63....

TRANSCANADA CORP. $45.10 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 708.9 million; Market cap: $31.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.6%; www.transcanada.com) earned $440 million, or $0.62 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2015. That’s down 2.2% from $450 million, or $0.63 a share, a year earlier. The decline is mainly due to lower power prices in Alberta. Unplanned outages also cut earnings at the Bruce nuclear power station in Ontario (TransCanada owns 48.9% of the Bruce A reactor and 31.6% of Bruce B). However, revenue rose 20.1%, to $2.9 billion from $2.45 billion, due to gains from its pipelines and U.S. power plants....

Hydro One Inc. is an electricity transmission and distribution utility owned by the province of Ontario. It owns and operates 96% of Ontario’s electricity-transmission capacity, serving 1.4 million customers through its 29,000 kilometres of power lines. Transmission refers to the delivery of electricity over high-voltage lines, typically over long distances, from generating stations to local areas and industrial customers. Distribution refers to the delivery of electricity over low-voltage lines to users such as homes, businesses and institutions. Hydro One doesn’t generate electricity. Ontario Power Generation, also owned by the province of Ontario, supplies about 50% of the province’s power. Companies like Northland Power, TransAlta and TransCanada Corp., along with small independent producers, supply the rest....

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ETF $20.99 (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, 8.3%; TD Bank, 7.3%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.7%; CN Railway, 4.7%; Suncor Energy, 3.9%; Bank of Montreal, 3.8%; Valeant Pharmaceuiticals, 3.8%; Enbridge, 3.7%; BCE, 3.2%; Manulife Financial, 2.9%; TransCanada Corp., 2.9%; CIBC, 2.9%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.8%; CP Rail, 2.5%; and Potash Corp., 2.5%.

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ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ETF $20.47 (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 0.18% of assets, and the units yield 3.1%.

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, 8.3%; TD Bank, 7.7%; Valeant Pharmaceuticals, 6.0%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.6%; CN Railway, 4.7%; Suncor Energy, 4.0%; Bank of Montreal, 3.7%; BCE, 3.6%; Enbridge, 3.3%; Manulife Financial, 3.2%; CIBC, 3.0%; Brookfield Asset Management, 2.8%; and TransCanada Corp., 2.4%.

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TRANSCANADA CORP. $45 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 709.0 million; Market cap: $31.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) is buying the Ironwood gas-fired power plant in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The facility is close to the Marcellus shale region, which gives it access to large supplies of cheap natural gas. The company will pay $654 million U.S. when it completes the purchase in early 2016. The plant will add $90 million U.S. to $110 million U.S. to TransCanada’s annual gross profits; in 2014, its gross profits totalled $5.5 billion (Canadian). TransCanada is a buy.

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. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....