Enbridge hikes its payout

Article Excerpt

ENBRIDGE INC. $55.14 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 934.2 million; Market cap: $52.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.2%; www.enbridge.com) will buy Spectra Energy Corporation (New York symbol SE) for $37 billion in Enbridge stock. Spectra operates 143,520 kilometres of crude oil and natural gas pipelines in the U.S. and Canada. It also owns oil and gas storage facilities. Thanks to additional cash flow from Spectra, Enbridge will increase its quarterly dividend by 10.0% with its March 2017 payment. Shareholders now receive $0.583 a share instead of $0.53 a share. The new annual rate is $2.33, for a yield of 4.2%. The company has raised its annual dividend consecutively for the last 22 years. Enbridge is still a hold. hold…