CP goes well beyond oil-by-rail

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $202 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.5 million; Market cap: $34.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.6; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) is down 18.5% from its recent peak of $248, partly due to the drop in oil prices. Even through cheaper crude will cut CP’s fuel costs, investors fear that producers will defer new projects, which could hurt the company’s crude-by-rail volumes. Oil accounts for just 7% of the company’s revenue, so any production drop would have little impact on its earnings. Moreover, CP continues to do a good job of cutting its costs. In the third quarter of 2014, its operating ratio improved to 62.8% from 65.9% a year earlier. (Operating ratio is calculated by dividing regular operating costs by revenue. The lower the ratio, the better.) CP Rail is a buy. buy. …