Take the long view on Imperial

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $42 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Shares outstanding: 848.0 million; Market cap: $35.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) produced 386,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the three months ended September 30, 2015, up 25.7% from 307,000 a year earlier. That’s because Imperial recently completed the second phase of its 71%-owned Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta. However, lower oil prices cut its revenue by 25.9%, to $7.2 billion from $9.7 billion. Cash flow per share fell 32.9%, to $1.10 from $1.64. Even so, Imperial plans to keep expanding Kearl and Cold Lake, its other main oil sands project. These operations, which should last decades, will prosper when oil prices rebound. Meanwhile, low prices continue to make the company’s refineries more profitable, as cheaper crude cuts their input costs. In the latest quarter, cash flow from Imperial’s refineries and gas stations jumped 174.6% and accounted for…