TRP sells assets to fund growth

Article Excerpt

TRANSCANADA CORP. $41.29 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 699.5 million; Market cap: $28.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.transcanada.com) is selling 25% of two natural-gas pipelines: Gas Transmission Northwest, which pumps gas from western Canada to Washington State, Oregon and California; and Bison, which pumps gas from Wyoming to markets in the U.S. Midwest. TransCanada will receive $605 million U.S. for these interests. To put that in context, it earned $425 million (Canadian), or $0.61 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2011. That’s up 29.6% from $328 million, or $0.48 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 14.7%, to $2.2 billion from $2.0 billion. The cash from the sale will let TransCanada fund its new growth projects without issuing new common shares. TransCanada is still a buy. buy…