Integrated oil producers cut your risk

Article Excerpt

We recommend conservative investors stick with well-established producers, such as Suncor and Imperial Oil, when picking Resources stocks for their portfolios. That’s mainly because the refineries of those integrated oil companies help shield them from volatile crude prices. SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $50 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $80.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) is Canada’s largest integrated oil company, with its major projects in the Alberta oil sands. It also owns four refineries (three in Canada and one in Colorado), along with 1,500 Petro-Canada gas stations. In the quarter ended March 31, 2018, Suncor’s average daily production fell 4.9%, to 689,400 barrels from 725,100 a year earlier. That’s mainly because bad weather disrupted operations at its main oil sands projects. However, higher oil prices increased Suncor’s cash flow in the quarter by 6.9%, to $2.16 billion from $2.02 billion. Due to fewer shares outstanding, cash flow per share gained 9.1%,…