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| BUY | 20.530 | Michael Smedley | Well worth holding because of its yield situation. Expect it will be solid for you. Boring. | 2012-02-07 | |
| Comment | 20.360 | David Baskin | (Market Call Minute.) Not a bad yield play. The spread of the cost of manufacturing electricity and what you sell it at is moving in their favour. | 2012-01-31 | |
| DON'T BUY | 20.060 | Stan Wong | Stock has meandered sideways for the last couple of years. Very good dividend so if you're looking for a dividend play it’s a great play. If things are getting better in the world, as he expects, it probably won't perform as well on a relative basis. | 2012-01-26 | |
| TOP PICK | 21.020 | Ross Healy | Stayed away for a very long term and then an interesting thing happened. Forecasts are making a U turn so he has recommended the stock. It is not exciting but it sure has heck has done better than the TSX itself and is looking for a nice bounce in the stock and a nice yield. | 2012-01-10 | |
| WEAK BUY | 21.310 | Michael Decter | Good dividend yield. Company has struggled to get proper utilization of its capital. Has not been his favourite utility. Favours TRP, ENB and others. It has a base and Alberta is growing so he is less negative about it and previously. | 2012-01-04 | |
| DON'T BUY | 20.480 | Michael Sprung | Not certain that it has found its bottom yet. Have had some well-known problems over the last year or 2, which is pretty much discounted in the stock. Not sure what the catalyst is to move the price up again. Management has not delineated to investors’ satisfaction what they plan to do to improve the earnings profile. | 2011-12-19 | |
| HOLD | 20.890 | David Cockfield | Utility that is pretty well managed. Good yield. Has pretty reasonable long-term growth. Nice stock to hold when the market is volatile. | 2011-12-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.400 | Paul Gardner, CFA | Utilities do not have the volatility of pipelines. (He owns the bonds and is quite comfortable with it.) They want to maintain a 30% market share in Alberta but they always have to deal with shutdowns and expect there will be some next year. Have to spend a ton of CapX on their plants in 2012. Prefers others such as Enbridge (ENB-T). | 2011-11-16 | |
| Comment | 21.910 | Douglas Kee | Yield of 5.29%.New CEO. Assets are OK. Their problem is how they can grow. Alberta coal assets come off over the next 5-10 years. The assumption is that the will replace the coal assets with natural gas. No dividend increases for quite a while but they can maintain the current one. | 2011-11-07 | |
| BUY | 22.360 | David Cockfield | Payout ratio is a little scary but they've held their dividend before and he thinks they will do it again. | 2011-10-21 | |
| DON'T BUY | 23.110 | Paul Gardner, CFA | Owns the bonds. Did break out but from a fundamental perspective it is s lifted because of the interest rates. They are closing down a power plant and that could be expensive. Not his favourite utility. | 2011-10-11 | |
| TOP PICK | 22.360 | Ron Meisels | Had a major bottom in early 2009 with a little bit of a rising bottom. It is almost a V extended bottom. In a major trading range and has just broken out. About a 6% dividend. | 2011-10-03 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.810 | Norman Levine | Warm to the utilities. He owns man others. He didn’t think management was as good as others, nor some of the assets. He prefers a clean utility, assets that are not economically sensitive and dividends that rise. | 2011-09-23 | |
| TOP PICK | 21.950 | Hap (Robert) Sneddon FCSI | Likes it because it bounced from where it was in a trading range. Excellent risk to reward. The company has guided higher. Fantastic yield. | 2011-09-21 | |
| DON'T BUY | 22.190 | Barry Schwartz | Most of their power plants are based on coal. Coal power plants are being phased out across Canada. They’ll have to look for other sources. | 2011-09-14 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.790 | Gavin Graham | Has been paying out a lot of its earnings and in some cases has paid out more. Hasn’t recovered from its big fall in 2008 because there isn’t much possibility of dividend growth. If you are going to choose a utility, this wouldn’t be most people’s choice. | 2011-09-09 | |
| TOP PICK | 22.020 | Ross Healy | Stock is cheap compared to its own long-term record. Has a nice dividend. Earnings forecasts are starting to turn back up again. There is support from analysts, markets. | 2011-08-31 | |
| BUY | 20.890 | Douglas Kee | Owns it in Income Now portfolio. Good dividend payer. Coverage of dividend is solid. Not a lot of potential for growth in dividend, however. | 2011-07-21 | |
| TOP PICK | 20.820 | Paul Gardner, CFA | 6.4% bond maturing Nov18/19. Investment grade. Gives you 2% above government of Canada bonds. | 2011-07-04 | |
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| BUY | 20.590 | Don Vialoux | Chart shows long-term resistance. Has gone back to the bottom of its trading range. That is the time you want to buy. You won't get a large capital gains but if looking for a consistent yield with relatively low risk, this is a good investment. | 2011-06-30 | |
| HOLD | 20.910 | Brian Acker, CA | Model $17.90, 14% negative differential. Dividend $1.15, with earnings estimate of $1.16. Next year is $1.24. 5.5% yield. Investors are there for the yield. If interest rates spike, these stocks are vulnerable. | 2011-06-09 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 21.900 | David Cockfield | (A Top Pick June 4/10. Up 10.7%.) This was bought strictly for the dividends. Doesn’t expect a huge amount of capital appreciation. Will buy when it gets close to the $20 range and trade out when it gets close to $24. | 2011-05-27 | |
| Comment | 21.070 | Don Vialoux | Chart is flat. In a trading range and there is no particular reason to believe it is going to go above or below its range. The key is that it is a nice high yielding security. You own this for yield, not capital gains. | 2011-05-13 | |
| HOLD | 20.600 | Douglas Kee | Would not expect dividend increase for the next couple of years. Are paying out pretty much as much as they can – all of the earnings and some cash flow. They can maintain it, however. Decent yield. | 2011-03-21 | |
| DON'T BUY | 20.150 | Prakash Hariharan | Has this decrepit coal fired plant that needs to be turned around. He prefers Moore Capital Power. Prices are so suppressed right now, if they go up, TA will benefit. | 2011-03-09 | |
| Comment | 20.590 | Paul Gardner, CFA | Good management but not great. Has under performed. Had an earnings miss last quarter. Also had some issues with Alberta power plants. Prefers it on the debt side through bonds. Consider Enbridge (ENB-T) or Atco (ACO.X-T) instead. | 2011-02-23 | |
| SELL | 20.820 | Bruce Campbell | Down on the year and has been flat for 9 months. Power prices in Alberta have not done particularly well. A lot of people own it for the yield play but there are a lot of yield plays with growth. | 2011-02-16 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.170 | Michael Decter | Has had a long rocky road. Decent company but is vulnerable to competition in the electricity market in Alberta. Doesn’t see it as a screaming bargain even at this low rate. | 2011-02-03 | |
| Comment | 21.350 | David Baskin | Prefers Canadian Utilities (CU-T), which is in similar real estate and similar space with superior management and a better mix of assets. 5.4% yield, which is nice. If he owned, he would consider lightening up during 2011. The more regulated a utility, the slower response to price increases. | 2010-12-22 | |
| BUY | 21.490 | Douglas Kee | Owns for yield, doesn’t expect a lot of upside. Ha run up due to takeover, which didn’t happen. No big dividend yield increase, but slow and steady. God if you want some yield. | 2010-12-21 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 20.500 | Mark Carpani | (Top Pick Nov 17/09, Up 14% total Return) 6.4% 11/18/2019. Solid utility, still owns it. | 2010-11-16 | |
| DON'T BUY | 20.650 | Gavin Graham | Investors felt dividends had been too high and not sustainable. Did not increase dividends and earnings grew sufficiently to cover it. Probably not dividend investors’ first choice because payout ratio is pretty high and business doesn't have much growth. 5% yield is relatively safe for the moment. | 2010-10-29 | |
| BUY | 21.770 | David Cockfield | Good utility. Likes the yield. Reasonably well run. A proxy for bonds for people that want yield in their portfolios. | 2010-10-13 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 21.620 | Hap (Robert) Sneddon FCSI | (A Top Pick Aug 4/09. Up 9%.) Sold this to get into Emera (EMA-T). (See Top Picks.) | 2010-09-20 | |
| Comment | 21.230 | Michael Decter | Has been a steady Eddie. Hs preference has been Trans Canada (TRP-) or Enbridge (E#NB-T) because of scale, nature of the assets and the debt structure. These 2 are probably better choices for growth. | 2010-08-26 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 20.760 | Hap (Robert) Sneddon FCSI | (A Top Pick Aug 4/09. Basically flat excluding dividends.) Focused to the business cycle as opposed to a regulated utility. Rotated out of this into Emera (EMA-T). See Top Picks. | 2010-08-18 | |
| BUY | 21.160 | David Cockfield | This is a stock that you like to have as a core stock in portfolios, particularly where you are interested in a steady flow of income. A utility so won't go racing up. Dividend is quite safe. | 2010-08-06 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 20.040 | Hap (Robert) Sneddon FCSI | (A Top Pick Aug 4/09. No change.) Switch this to Emera (EMA-T). (See Top Picks. | 2010-07-08 | |
| TOP PICK | 20.700 | Mark Carpani | 6.4% 2019 5.95%, slightly less yielding but more traction because of slightly longer term. Good cash generator. Company doing very well. Keep an eye on cap X. | 2010-06-07 | |
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| TOP PICK | 20.600 | David Cockfield | It has technically been a bit of a disaster for a while. This is a company that shows itself willing to hang in on the dividend. Biggest risk is the Canadian Economy. | 2010-06-04 | |
| BUY | 20.810 | Douglas Kee | Not a core holding. Good dividend, but no likely they can increase it a lot. Would not expect to get a lot out of it. 8 or 9% guaranteed just based on their rate base. | 2010-06-02 | |
| DON'T BUY | 20.560 | Christine Poole | Doesn’t see a lot of earnings growth over the next couple of years. Earnings have been depressed because power prices in Alberta have been depressed. Very attractive yield at 5.6%. She prefers other utility stocks. | 2010-05-26 | |
| BUY | 20.470 | Nick Majendie | Energy producer with coal power being their major source. Should earn in the area of $1.25 this year and possibly $1.40 next. Very healthy dividend of over 5% giving a double-digit return. Decent entry point. | 2010-05-04 | |
| HOLD | 21.890 | John Stephenson | Operates an electricity generating unit, primarily in Alberta and dispatches its units when it can do so at a profit. Power prices in Alberta have been low. Expect this stock will trade sideways for the next 12 months. | 2010-04-16 | |
| DON'T BUY | 22.050 | Steve Carlin | Acquisition of Canadian Hydro Developers was a good tactical move and will give them some good tax planning. Trouble with a lot of utilities as that they are close to their target prices so he is very underweight utilities. | 2010-04-12 | |
| WEAK BUY | 22.900 | Michael Smedley | Dividend (5%) has chronically been considered not safe but it is not excessive and he thinks it will continue through thick and thin. Company is a bit boring. Solid, good long-term hold. | 2010-03-18 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.940 | Linda Shick | Best part of this stock is the attractive dividend. Problems will continue. Payout ratio is very high – funded through debt. Not a lot of upside on this stock. | 2010-03-02 | |
| BUY | 21.940 | David Cockfield | One of their significant positions. Are in for the dividend. Likes the management, (good utility, but not rocket scientists). A good stock to hold if you are looking for a dividend yield and not too much in capital gains. | 2010-02-26 | |
| BUY | 22.340 | Hank Cunningham | Transalta 2020 series bond: Likes the company, well managed and he would recommend these bonds. | 2010-02-25 | |
| DON'T BUY | 22.230 | David Baskin | (Market Call Minute.) Not his favourite utility because they produce a lot of electricity using dirty coal and have a lot of facilities that need replacing. | 2010-02-08 | |
| Comment | 22.320 | Philip Doyle | Opinion on green energy part of their business? This is a relatively new area for utilities so difficult to assess. Likes utilities as most of them have projects that will be able to deliver alternatives without capital (?) going forward. Prefers TransCanada (TRP-T). | 2010-02-05 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 22.640 | John Stephenson | (A Top Pick Jan 2/09. Down 4.17%.) Sold a lot of his holdings. A play on power prices. Correlated with gas prices so if you think gas is going up you could play this. | 2010-01-22 | |
| BUY | 23.360 | Paul Gardner, CFA | Are the bonds a safe investment? Credit profile weakened slightly because they acquired Canadian Hydro and issued a fair amount of debt. Debt to capital was at 52% but is now 57% but hopefully will come down in 2011. Acquisition gave them newer and greener assets. Still an investment grade bond and he likes it. | 2010-01-08 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | 22.100 | John Stephenson | (A Top Pick Dec 3/08. Up 8.9%.) Have lightened up on this one and buying more of TransCanada (TRP-T). | 2009-12-11 | |
| HOLD | 22.210 | Laura Wallace | Growth prospects are fine but not fabulous. Dividend is fine. Still working on how they are going to present and integrate the Canadian Hydro acquisition. | 2009-11-26 | |
| TOP PICK | 21.120 | Mark Carpani | 6.4% bond maturing November 18/19. New issue. Likes the 7 to 13 part of the year curve. | 2009-11-17 | |
| DON'T BUY | 20.410 | Bill Harris, CFA | Issue right now is state of coal generation electricity plants. You can get an income but probably the stock will not move up. | 2009-11-10 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.150 | Robert Lauzon | Has been a bit of a disappointment. Would rather own TransCanada (TRP-T) or Enbridge (ENB-T) for utility exposure. Expect they will have down earnings year-over-year. 5.5% dividend. | 2009-10-05 | |
| WAIT | 21.680 | Prakash Hariharan | Prefers TRP. Has bulk of cash flow from coal-powered facilities. Wait until after Friday to make a decision. | 2009-09-29 | |
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| WEAK BUY | 21.720 | Christine Poole | Not a huge amount of growth and is why they bid for the alternative energy play Canadian Hydro Developers (KHD-T). Okay for the 5.3% dividend but she doesn't see a lot of earnings growth. | 2009-08-26 | |
| DON'T BUY | 21.880 | Andrew McCreath | Hurt by decline in power pricing. Would not short of buy, but dividend is safe. | 2009-08-18 | |
| SELL | 21.880 | Prakash Hariharan | Have been making a huge attempt to generate carbon offsets. Coal fired plants are a no-no in this things. Have age-old assets. Is skeptical of the company. | 2009-08-18 | |
| Comment | 21.620 | Paul Gardner, CFA | Hassled for a number of months from a private equity firm to re-leverage the balance sheet. That is now over so they can now effectively grow their business. Trying to acquire Canadian Hydro Developers (KHD-T). Great balance sheet. Long-term assets with good management. (He owns bonds, not stocks.) | 2009-08-12 | |
| TOP PICK | 21.120 | Hap (Robert) Sneddon FCSI | His macro view is that we are in a deflationary environment. Utility sector is starting to move up in his rankings. Risk/reward is exceptional from here. Looking for $30 over 5 years. 5.5% yield. | 2009-08-04 | |
| Comment | 20.800 | Greg A. Taylor, CFA, BBA | Made a hostile bid for the wind farm operator, Canadian Hydro Developers (KHD-T). Probably a good strategic fit for them but the stock will be under pressure. Expect a big debt issue or a fairly dilutive equity issue to pay for it. | 2009-07-22 | |
| Comment | 20.800 | Norman Levine | Made a hostile bid for the wind farm operator, Canadian Hydro Developers (KHD-T). Being basically 100% coal generated, this would be excellent diversification for them. | 2009-07-22 | |
| Comment | 21.000 | Christine Poole | Electrical utility, primarily in the West. Not a lot of earnings growth. Power prices in the West have been coming down so earnings are also being brought down. 5.5% yield. Defensive name. | 2009-07-21 | |
| Comment | 19.980 | Norman Levine | Utility. Has held up well with its yield. If you are yield oriented, this is fine. If you are looking for quick capital gains, this is not it. Not his favourite, but okay. | 2009-06-08 | |
| HOLD | 20.000 | Gavin Graham | Was probably over-distributing on its dividend for most of this decade but it earned its way into it very successfully. A lot depends on what the carbon tax is going to be. | 2009-06-04 | |
| WAIT | 18.760 | Marc-Andre Robitaille | Raised dividend as expected by market. Was under phenomenal pressure compared to piers. Dividend is safe and he lives the yield. Wait for earnings before buying. | 2009-04-15 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | 19.200 | Rick Stuchberry | Utilities are a good place to look for yields. Doesn't think there is a huge risk on this one. Earnings are fairly stable. They are into a few new things that are interesting such as windmills. Watch it and buy on dips if you need the yield. | 2009-02-20 | |
| BUY | 21.360 | Jeff Parent B. Eng. FCSI | Has formed a very solid base. 5%-5.5% yield. Would Buy on some expectation that it might go up to $25. $20 would be an exit point. | 2009-02-11 | |
| DON'T BUY | 22.530 | Peter Gibson | Yield of about 5%. Return On Equity is falling rapidly. Also wants a reasonable debt to cash flow of below 3X or 2.5X. Theirs is 3.6X. | 2009-02-04 | |
| Comment | 23.880 | Ross Healy | Nice yield. Currently running up against some technical resistance. Would need to bust out of $25.50 to advance much further. His Fair Market Value is about $45. | 2009-01-09 | |
| TOP PICK | 25.250 | John Stephenson | 4.3% dividend yield. Valuation has been beaten up. Levered to Alberta with strong margins. Continued demand. | 2009-01-02 | |
| BUY | 22.260 | Gordon Higgins, CA, MBA | Hedge fund investors wanted to acquire at $39 so stock went up. That is now off the table so it has pulled back. Always paid $1 whether earnings went up or not. Earnings are finally up this year over last and going up in the next couple of years and dividends are forecast to increase. | 2008-12-22 | |
| TOP PICK | 21.190 | John Stephenson | Could see this easy trading in the mid-$30 range. One of the few pure play power generation companies out there. You have dividend support and a lot of upside. | 2008-12-03 | |
| Comment | 23.750 | Ross Healy | Getting back to reasonable value but not dirt-cheap for a utility. At a level that you don't have to worry about it quite so much anymore. 4.5% yield. | 2008-11-17 | |
| HOLD | 25.140 | Bill MacLachlan | Dividend is likely safe. Have a high debt load but have been paying out a fairly high percentage of their earnings as dividends for some time. In an area where the population growth is going to be above the national average. | 2008-10-23 | |
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| DON'T BUY | 27.500 | Bill MacLachlan | The perennial question is how safe is the dividend. There have been on-going debt concerns and an aborted deal they tried to do a while ago. He is concerned about the sustainability of the dividend. | 2008-10-03 | |
| Comment | 29.120 | Gavin Graham | Has grown its way into its high dividend. And now it's able to do some of the things it needs to address its carbon imprint. 3.6% yield. | 2008-09-17 | |
| HOLD | 35.250 | Don Lato | There is an offer on the table to negotiate from 2 of their major shareholders. The talk is around $39. On its own, the stock is not cheap at 15X earnings. | 2008-08-13 | |
| Comment | 34.950 | Jaime Carrasco | Going through a possible takeover, which he thinks will happen. Cash flow is going to be there. Solid revenue generators. | 2008-07-25 | |
| HOLD | 36.910 | Robert Floyd | If you own, he would hold for the time being until there is a better sense of the take-out potential. If you don’t see anything further coming, then he would consider selling. | 2008-07-23 | |
| HOLD | 37.110 | Norman Levine | Has been a bid for a takeover. If you own, you could take a bit of profit in case the deal falls apart but it looks like it is going to happen. | 2008-07-21 | |
| BUY | 31.060 | Norman Levine | The street has loved to hate it. The company is well managed. They have a good yield. Not going to cut the dividend, they’ll probably grow it. | 2008-03-27 | |
| HOLD | 30.900 | John Stephenson | This name is a hold here. Not overly optimistic about entry here. Power prices have been weak in Alberta, which is their dominant market. | 2008-03-25 | |
| Comment | 35.410 | Jeff Parent B. Eng. FCSI | Hitting an all-time record high. Trend has been very favourable and he thinks it should continue and should have a lot more potential. | 2008-02-20 | |
| TOP PICK | 33.540 | Kenneth P. Norquay, CMT | Stoploss is at the recent low. Wouldn't want to buy this today as much as if it broke out beyond $34. Buy at $35. | 2008-02-12 | |
| BUY | 30.850 | David Burrows | If you are going to own equities through a difficult economy and market, yield is something you should look at. There are a bunch of companies in the Canadian market that have hung on pretty well. Look at TransCanada (TRP-T), Transalta (TA-T), Fortis (FTS-T) or an Enbridge (ENB). | 2008-01-28 | |
| DON'T BUY | 31.250 | Norman Levine | It is an utility stock. It had trouble a few years ago and has not been forgiven by the street. It has been in the highest growth area especially Alberta. The demand for power is very strong. It has been a great stock but it is a little high to buy. He prefers a cheaper utility stock like Fortis or Amira. | 2007-10-23 | |
| SELL | 29.940 | John Stephenson | Best example of a pure play merchant energy utility in Canada. Isn't under a regulated regime. Vast majority of its revenues come from buying natural gas on the open market, converting it into power and selling the power into the grid. Ran up recently because of speculation of private equity buying it. Too expensive. | 2007-08-08 | |
| BUY | 30.560 | Brendan Caldwell | Technically it has broken out to new highs. While it may pull back a little bit, it is very much in an uptrend and looks like it wants to head higher. 3.25% yield. | 2007-07-24 | |
| Comment | 31.600 | Paul Gardner, CFA | Has moved up sharply because of possible takeover possibilities. If that happens, there will be a 10% upside, otherwise a 10% loss. Operationally, they do a good job. Have power generation in Canada, US and Mexico. Fully valued. | 2007-07-19 | |
| STRONG BUY | 28.410 | Kenneth P. Norquay, CMT | A lovely uptrend. Utility stocks are in an uptrend as well. It had a lovely uptrend in 2005, it consolidated in 2006 and now it's going to go again. | 2007-06-01 | |
| HOLD | 28.000 | Michael Smedley | Had a bit of an incident this week with Transalta Power LP (TPW.UN-T) putting itself up for sale. Doesn't think this matters too much. Nice dividend. | 2007-05-25 | |
| DON'T BUY | 24.380 | Norman Levine | Sold his holdings about a year ago. Has a very high yield, probably because it is the riskiest utility company in Canada. Has no growth right now. Have some operational problems in northwest US. Totally coal, so there are some environmental issues. | 2007-03-13 | |
| HOLD | 24.590 | John Stephenson | This is a merchant energy company that takes price risk. Not a regulated utility. Because of that, the price of gas has to be low and the price of power has to be high. (Spark Spread) They may have to roll their trust (TPW.UN-T) back into corporation and the question is, can they do it economically. | 2007-02-21 | |
| SELL | 24.640 | Peter Brieger | All the utilities, Canadian Utilities (CU-T), Emera (EMA-T) and Fortis (FTS-T) have a far too high P/E relative to their growth. | 2007-02-19 | |
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| DON'T BUY | 26.490 | Norman Levine | Mostly a dividend story. Has been a laggard compared to most of the other utilities until very recently. No earnings driver and have some issues in the Pacific northwest. | 2006-12-20 |
