New system looks promising

Article Excerpt

EMERA INC. $62 is a buy. The electrical power utility (Toronto symbol EMA; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 263.1 million; Market cap: $16.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.emera.com) is now testing a new technology called BlockEnergy near Tampa, Florida. Solar panels on homes generate electricity, while batteries store and distribute that power to other houses in the neighbourhood. The system can also help backup the main grid during power outages. If successful, Emera aims to sell the technology to other power utilities. Meanwhile, Emera’s shares hit a new all-time high of $65.23 in April 2022. Even so, the stock remains attractive at 20.5 times the company’s likely 2022 earnings of $3.02 a share. The $2.65 dividend also yields a high 4.3%, and Emera plans to raise that annual rate by 4% to 5% each year through 2024. Emera is a buy. buy. …