Latest news with #Emera
Global News
2 days ago
- Business
- Global News
Nova Scotia Power CEO, staff grilled by politicians over cybersecurity breach
Provincial politicians took aim at Nova Scotia Power during a legislative committee meeting Wednesday morning, saying the utility owes ratepayers answers after a cybersecurity breach gave thieves access to data belonging to 280,000 customers. The utility's CEO and other staff were grilled by the public accounts committee about how the breach happened and what the company will do to protect its customers from financial harm. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the ransomware attack affected almost half of the utility's customers, including 140,000 customers who had given the utility their social insurance numbers. Chris Heck, chief digital officer with Nova Scotia Power's parent company Emera, told the committee that the company identified unusual activity on their server on April 25, but later determined the cyber-thieves had accessed the system as early as March 19. NDP Leader Claudia Chender pressed the two men to explain why Nova Scotia Power had been storing the social insurance numbers, but they declined to say, citing an ongoing investigation. Story continues below advertisement Meanwhile, the federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the ransomware attack, with Philippe Dufresne saying in a statement last week he started the probe after receiving complaints about the security breach reported in late April.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
An Intrinsic Calculation For Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) Suggests It's 27% Undervalued
Emera's estimated fair value is CA$85.81 based on Dividend Discount Model Emera is estimated to be 27% undervalued based on current share price of CA$62.58 Analyst price target for EMA is CA$62.00 which is 28% below our fair value estimate Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model. Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 15 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit. We have to calculate the value of Emera slightly differently to other stocks because it is a electric utilities company. In this approach dividends per share (DPS) are used, as free cash flow is difficult to estimate and often not reported by analysts. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. The 'Gordon Growth Model' is used, which simply assumes that dividend payments will continue to increase at a sustainable growth rate forever. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.5%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.0%. Relative to the current share price of CA$62.6, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 27% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate) = CA$3.0 / (6.0% – 2.5%) = CA$85.8 We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Emera as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.0%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. View our latest analysis for Emera Strength Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry. Weakness Interest payments on debt are not well covered. Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Electric Utilities market. Opportunity Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years. Trading below our estimate of fair value by more than 20%. Threat Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow. Dividends are not covered by earnings. Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the Canadian market. Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. Can we work out why the company is trading at a discount to intrinsic value? For Emera, there are three additional factors you should further research: Risks: To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Emera . Future Earnings: How does EMA's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Canadian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. 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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
An Intrinsic Calculation For Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) Suggests It's 27% Undervalued
Emera's estimated fair value is CA$85.81 based on Dividend Discount Model Emera is estimated to be 27% undervalued based on current share price of CA$62.58 Analyst price target for EMA is CA$62.00 which is 28% below our fair value estimate Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model. Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 15 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit. We have to calculate the value of Emera slightly differently to other stocks because it is a electric utilities company. In this approach dividends per share (DPS) are used, as free cash flow is difficult to estimate and often not reported by analysts. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. The 'Gordon Growth Model' is used, which simply assumes that dividend payments will continue to increase at a sustainable growth rate forever. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.5%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.0%. Relative to the current share price of CA$62.6, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 27% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate) = CA$3.0 / (6.0% – 2.5%) = CA$85.8 We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Emera as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.0%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. View our latest analysis for Emera Strength Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry. Weakness Interest payments on debt are not well covered. Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Electric Utilities market. Opportunity Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years. Trading below our estimate of fair value by more than 20%. Threat Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow. Dividends are not covered by earnings. Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the Canadian market. Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. Can we work out why the company is trading at a discount to intrinsic value? For Emera, there are three additional factors you should further research: Risks: To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Emera . Future Earnings: How does EMA's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Canadian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
Global News
29-05-2025
- Business
- Global News
Thieves gain access to about 140,000 social insurance numbers in NS Power database
Nova Scotia Power's CEO says up to 140,000 social insurance numbers could have been stolen by cyber-thieves who recently hacked into the utility's customer records. Peter Gregg said in an interview Thursday that the privately owned utility collected the numbers from customers to authenticate their identities. 'If there are a number of John MacDonalds, it (the social insurance number) determines which one we (the utility) are talking to,' Gregg said during the interview at the Halifax headquarters of the Emera subsidiary. On May 23, Gregg said the data of about 280,000 Nova Scotia Power customers was breached in a ransomware attack — more than half of the total. Asked Thursday how many of these records contained the confidential, nine-digit social insurance numbers, Gregg replied, 'approximately half.' Cybersecurity expert Claudiu Popa questions why a utility would need to keep this kind of data about customers for customer authentication purposes. Story continues below advertisement The founder of the non-profit group KnowledgeFlow says there are less risky ways to identify customers with similar names than to store their social insurance numbers. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'It clearly states on government websites that using one of a person's most confidential identifiers is not the recommended approach to identifying individuals,' he said in an interview Thursday. The federal government's website says the numbers are for work applications and government records, and it advises people not to share them unless it's legally required. It also notes that thieves can use the numbers to commit fraud, including attempting to access government benefits and tax refunds. 'There's an almost infinite number of ways that these numbers can be used in fraud,' said Popa. Gregg said that the social insurance numbers weren't required from its customers, and they offered them voluntarily. The breach of the customer records was first reported in late April, and the company later indicated the first breach was detected in mid March. Popa has said the company should by now have provided more precise information to each customer about what personal data was stolen, and given explicit warnings about potential harm. Gregg said that more details will be provided as IT staff and other cybersecurity consultants continue working to obtain the information. Story continues below advertisement 'We want to be careful to say what we know and not what we think,' he said. 'As we get deeper into the investigation and we are able to confirm details, that information will be shared with our customers.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2025.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Nova Scotia Power says ransomware hackers have published stolen data
Nova Scotia Power has confirmed it is the victim of a ransomware attack and that the hackers who stole data have published it. The utility said in a news release Friday that it has not made payments to the "threat actor" that took customer information. "This decision reflects our careful assessment of applicable sanctions laws and alignment with law enforcement guidance," the statement said. "We have learned that the threat actor has published data that was stolen from our systems. We are actively working with cybersecurity experts to assess the nature and scope of the information that may have been impacted." Nova Scotia Power and its parent company Emera announced in late April that it was dealing with a cybersecurity incident it discovered on April 25. This week, customers began receiving notification letters informing them that an "unauthorized third party" had gained access to certain parts of its Canadian network and servers. The letters say the stolen information may include name, phone number, email address, mailing address, date of birth, account history, drivers licence and bank account numbers. The company is offering free credit-monitoring service from TransUnion for two years.
