IMO upgrades for investors

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $31.75, is a buy for safety-conscious investors. The stock (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 764.2 million; Market cap: $23.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.imperialoil.ca) lets you tap Canada’s third-largest publicly traded oil producer, after Suncor (No. 1) and Canadian Natural Resources. ExxonMobil (symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial. The company likely spent between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion on exploration and upgrades to its existing operations in 2019. About 70% of that spending went toward its oil properties, including projects that improved the reliability of its Kearl and Syncrude oil sands operations in northern Alberta. Thanks to those upgrades, Imperial’s output should rise 6% in 2020. The company is also making better use of technology, such as self-driving trucks, to cut its operating costs and add value for investors. Combined, those factors should increase the company’s 2020 cash flow per share by about 10% to $4.68. The stock is cheap for your new buying at 6.8 times that estimate. estimate…