Transurban Group (ASX: TCL) has made a move into the country's top 20-listed companies following a strong performance in its most recent half-year period.
The change comes as part of the quarterly S&P Dow Jones Indices review, in which it often moves a number of big-name companies in and out of various indices based partially on their share performances.
In this instance, Transurban has moved into the S&P/ASX 20 (Index: ^AXTL) (ASX: XTL) at the expense of Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG), whose shares have been crushed over the last 18 months as a result of plummeting oil prices.
Transurban Group is the owner and operator of a number of major toll roads in both Australia and the United States. It's a very capital intensive business, but it owns some of the most important infrastructure in both countries. The infrastructure is relied upon by thousands of commuters every day to save both time and money.
Although users of the roads mightn't enjoy paying the tolls, they're at least willing to do so in order to get to and from their destinations quicker.
The pricing power of Transurban is clear given that, with the exception of Brisbane, its proportional toll revenue grew at a faster pace than average daily traffic (ADT) figures in each of its cities, including Melbourne, Sydney and Northern Virginia, during the first-half of financial year 2016.
Notably, the company also increased its interim dividend by more than 15% to 22.5 cents per security. It's trading on a partially franked dividend yield of about 4% currently and could be worth a closer look by long-term investors.
