Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, August 19, 2016

Article Excerpt

METRO INC., $44.73, Toronto symbol MRU, operates 600 grocery stores and 250 drugstores in Quebec and Ontario. In its fiscal 2016 third quarter, which ended July 2, 2016, Metro’s earnings rose 8.0%, to $176.5 million. A year earlier, it earned $163.5 million. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share gained 12.5%, to $0.72 from $0.64. That missed the consensus estimate of $0.73 a share. Overall sales for the quarter rose 4.5%, to $4.0 billion from $3.8 billion. Same-store sales improved 3.9% from a year earlier. Higher volumes helped offset a drop in overall food prices. Metro also continues to benefit from its 5.7% stake in Alimentation Couche-Tard (Toronto symbol ATD.B). In the latest quarter, earnings from this investment jumped 78.2%, to $15.5 million from $8.7 million a year ago. (Couche-Tard, which operates convenience stores in North America and Europe, is a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that focuses on aggressive investing.) The stock has gained 19% in the past year…