Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, March 8, 2024

Article Excerpt

EMERA INC., $48.80, Toronto symbol EMA, is a buy. The company owns 100% of Nova Scotia Power, that province’s main electricity supplier. It also owns 100% of Teco Energy, which supplies electricity and natural gas to 1.3 million customers in Tampa Bay, Florida. Another of Teco’s businesses distributes gas to 540,000 customers in New Mexico. Emera’s other interests include power plants and natural gas pipelines in the U.S. and the Caribbean. With the November 2023, payment, Emera raised your quarterly dividend by 4.0%. Investors now receive $0.7175 a share instead of $0.69. The new annual rate of $2.87 yields a high 5.9%. Emera’s revenue in the three months ended December 31, 2023, fell 16.4%, to $1.97 billion from $2.36 billion a year earlier. If you factor out $286 million in accounting gains from its energy trading business, revenue in the quarter decreased by $100 million. That decline is largely due to lower prices at its gas utilities and unfavourable weather conditions in Florida. Earnings…