Two ways to profit in CU

Article Excerpt

We’ve long admired Canadian Utilities for its decades of steady earnings and dividend growth. In September 2009, we also began recommending ATCO, its parent company. Due to its holding company discount, ATCO gives investors a cheaper way to invest in Canadian Utilities. However, it pays a lower dividend, so income seekers may prefer Canadian Utilities. Either way, both stocks offer low-risk growth plus income. CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $68 and CU.X [class B voting] $68; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 128.1 million; Market cap: $8.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta. It also operates 18 power plants in Canada, Australia and the U.K. ATCO Ltd. (see page 2) owns 52.8% of Canadian Utilities. The company’s power plants supply around 60% of its earnings, followed by gas distribution (30%) and other businesses (10%). It gets 90% of its earnings from Canada. Canadian Utilities’ revenue rose 15.6%,…