When it comes to investments, there’s not much better than consistent, low-risk, annual cash flows. Sure, it’s nice to watch stocks go up, but thanks to market volatility, they often go down as well. What’s really comforting is getting a high dividend return.
Occasionally, I’ve written articles about dividend stocks I own that paid me a lot of annual cash flow. The stock I’ve posted on most often in these articles has been TD Bank (TSX:TD). I bought some TD stock last year very cheaply, after dumping my previous shareholdings early in the year. The price I got was about $75. TD was yielding about 5.5% at the time.
This year, TD has gone on a massive rally, resulting in its yield shrinking to below 4%. It’s not really a high-yielder anymore. Accordingly, I will share a different dividend stock in this article, one that I believe hasn’t really started moving yet. I’m getting a 4.1% annual dividend yield from this stock, and I expect the yield to gradually increase with time.
Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy Inc (TSX:SU) is a Canadian integrated energy company. It is involved in oil exploration and production; refining; natural gas marketing; and gas stations. The company’s gas station chain, Petro-Canada, is one of the largest in Canada.
One of Suncor’s biggest virtues as an integrated energy company is the fact that it can make money in different oil & gas market conditions. As an E&P, it can make good money when oil prices are high. As a refiner, it can make money when there is a wide oil-gasoline price spread (“crack spread”), even if oil prices aren’t high in an absolute sense. This makes Suncor a fairly stable and dependable energy company.
Dividend potential
Suncor Energy pays a $0.57 quarterly dividend, or $2.28 per year. At today’s stock price ($55.31) that provides a 4.1% yield. If you invest $50,000 in Suncor stock, you’ll get $2061.12 in annual passive income, assuming the dividend doesn’t change. See the math below.
| COMPANY | RECENT PRICE | NUMBER OF SHARES | DIVIDEND | TOTAL PAYOUT | FREQUENCY |
| Suncor Energy | $55.31 | 904 | $0.57 per quarter ($2.28 per year) | $515.28 per quarter ($2061.12) per year. | Quarterly |
Recent earnings
To gauge how Suncor has been doing as a business lately, we can look at its most recent quarterly earnings release.
In its most recent quarter, Suncor Energy delivered:
- $12 billion in revenue, down 9.8%.
- $1.1 million in net income, down 27%
- $873 million in operating earnings, down 46%.
- $2.9 billion in operating earnings, down 23.5%.
As you can see, it was a fairly weak quarter for Suncor. However, it’s important to note two things: first, oil prices were pretty low last quarter and Suncor should fare better in future periods when oil prices are higher. Secondly, Suncor is cheap given the earnings levels shown above.
Valuation
At today’s prices, Suncor stock is fairly cheap, trading at:
- 11.5 times earnings.
- 1.4 times sales.
- 1.5 times book.
- 4.7 times cash flow.
As you can see, the stock is quite cheap, so even with the recent decline in earnings, it remains a decent value. Personally, I’m happy owning Suncor stock.
