TransCanada Corp – TRP

"TransCanada is a leader in the responsible development and reliable operation of North American energy infrastructure. Our network of more than 59,000 kilometres (36,500 miles) of pipeline taps into virtually all major gas supply basins in North America. TransCanada is one of the continent’s largest providers of gas storage and related services with approximately 360 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. A growing independent power producer, TransCanada also owns, or has interests in, approximately 7,700 megawatts of power generation."

Investors in TranCanada Corp. all received a pay raise yesterday (albeit a small one). TRP raised their quarterly dividend by 6% and reported fourth quarter net income of $0.70/share (up 27% from last year). While fourth quarter earnings were up 8% from 2006. Year over year net income was 5% to $2.31/share, while earning were up 10% to $2.09/share.

In my opinion TRP is a solid Canadian company that should part of the foundation of any diversified dividend growth portfolio. Here’s why I continue to hold TRP:

-Has paid a dividend for the last 42 years
-Long history of increasing dividends (with the exception of 1999 where they cut it from $1.12 to $0.8)
-The purpose of the dividend cut was "to strengthen its financial flexibility and capture North American energy growth opportunities."
-Current P/E – 17.7X
-2008 Estimated PE – 17X
-2009 Estimated PE – 16X
-ROE – 14.1%
-Current Yield – 3.8%
-5 Year Average Yield – 3.5%
-Current Payout Ratio – 63%
-5 Year Historical Payout Ratio – 54%
-3 year dividend growth rate – 11.66%
-5 year dividend growth rate – 6.73%
-Good growth profile with the proposed 3,456-kilometre (2,148-mile) Keystone Pipeline project.

(Disclaimer: I’m am not a financial advisor. Please do your own research and make your opinions on when to buy or sell. Nothing I say should be bastardized or construed in any way to be advice.)