Top oil stocks keep raising their dividends

Article Excerpt

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $41 (Toronto symbol SU; Cyclical-Growth Payer Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $65.6 billion; Dividend yield: 4.1%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.suncor.com) is Canada’s largest integrated oil company, with major projects in the Alberta oil sands. The company also owns four refineries (three in Canada and one in Colorado), along with 1,500 Petro-Canada gas stations. Suncor last raised its dividend with the March 2019 payment. Investors now receive $0.42 a share, up 16.7% from $0.36. The new annual rate of $1.68 yields 4.1%. Due to low prices and transportation delays, the government of Alberta recently ordered oil companies to cut their crude production. In response, Suncor sped up the processing of tar-like bitumen already in storage at its 58.74%-owned Syncrude project. That facility takes bitumen and partially upgrades it to synthetic crude. As a result, Suncor’s average daily production rose 10.9% in the first quarter of 2019, to 764,300 barrels from 689,400 barrels a year earlier. In addition to…