Vernon Jones

Vernon is a managing editor at TSI Network, working with a team of analysts and reporters to develop editorial content focused on Canadian investors. An award-winning journalist, Vernon has years of general and business reporting experience at five of North America’s major dailies, including the Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times. He was also business editor for one of North America’s oldest newspapers. He led the development of ten national business-to-business magazines, including Wealth Professional and Insurance Business Canada. The Toronto native is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s school of journalism, and holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Posts by the author
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $190 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 161.3 million; Market cap: $30.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.5; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) transports freight over a 22,000-kilometre rail network between Montreal and Vancouver, as well as hubs in the U.S....
C.R. BARD INC. $147 (New York symbol BCR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 76.3 million; Market cap: $11.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.8; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.crbard.com) earned $152.6 million in the three months ended March 31, 2014, up 12.8% from $135.3 million a year earlier....
BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $3.90 and BBD.B $3.76; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $6.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has received a firm order for 20 of its Q400 turboprop planes from WestJet Airlines Ltd. (Toronto symbol WJA); WestJet is a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that focuses on aggressive investing.

WestJet will use these planes for its new regional airline, which will serve smaller Canadian cities. Bombardier will begin delivering these planes in 2013.

The order is worth $683 million (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). If WestJet exercises all of its options to buy an additional 25 planes, the entire order would be worth $1.6 billion. That’s equal to 9% of Bombardier’s 2011 revenue of $18.3 billion.

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TIM HORTONS INC. $52 (Toronto symbol THI; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 157.4 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.timhortons.com) has raised the prices of muffins, sandwiches and other items at its coffee-and-donut stores in Canada and the U.S. That’s because the drought in North America is pushing up its costs for wheat, canola oil and other ingredients.

The increases are unlikely to hurt customer traffic or sales, particularly because the company did not increase coffee prices.

Tim Hortons is a buy.

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CAE INC. $10 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 258.3 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) spends around 10% of its annual revenue of $1.8 billion on research. That helps it develop simulators for new planes, like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A380. The company is also using these funds to apply its expertise to new fields.

For example, CAE is now making simulators and other products, including lifelike mannequins, to train paramedics and medical students. It is also focusing on the mining industry: Right now, mining firms are using software that CAE developed to plan new mines and measure reserves. These new businesses, which both have strong growth potential, now supply 5% of CAE’s revenue.

The stock trades at 12.7 times the $0.79 a share that CAE will probably earn in its 2013 fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2013. The $0.16 dividend yields 1.6%.

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