Grocery retailer Metro Inc. (symbol MRU.A on Toronto) is a good example of a stock that has graduated from Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investors, to The Successful Investor, which focuses on more conservative selections.
Stock Pickers Digest is where we analyze stocks that are attractive but not yet suitable for The Successful Investor’s conservative investing focus. Ideally, many of our Stock Pickers buys will one day mature into investments that we can recommend in The Successful Investor.
We first added Metro to the stocks we analyze in Stock Pickers Digest in June 1998. At the time, it was trading at around $10. In December 2007, when we moved it to The Successful Investor, it was trading at about $32, for a 220% gain.
Sometimes aggressive picks become more appropriate for conservative investing
The Successful Investor has two main goals. First, it explains our three-pronged conservative investing approach, which consists of investing mainly in well-established companies, spreading your investments out across the five main economic sectors, and downplaying stocks that are in the broker/public relations limelight.
Second, it gives you conservative investing recommendations that you can use to implement our investment approach.
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Metro: A good example of a company that has evolved into a more conservative investing stock
By December 2007, Metro had clearly reached a point where it deserved a spot in The Successful Investor. With its 2005 purchase of A&P Canada, the company had expanded out of its home market of Quebec, where it operated 385 supermarkets under the Metro, Super C and Marche Richelieu banners.
Adding A&P made Metro the third-largest supermarket operator in the country, behind Loblaw and Sobeys. As well, the A&P purchase pushed up the company’s sales substantially. In fact, since we switched Metro to The Successful Investor, it has risen 22.6% — quite a gain in light of the drop of 15% or so in the market since then.
Recent moves cement Metro’s place as a strong conservative investing stock
Lately, the company has been lowering its marketing costs by converting its Dominion, A&P Loeb, The Barn and Ultra supermarkets to the Metro label.
As well, Metro is expanding its Food Basics discount chain in Ontario. Last year, the company bought back 36 of these stores from franchisees for $16.4 million. Metro now owns the entire chain.
The company is also expanding in Quebec. In September 2009, it paid an undisclosed sum for Les Supermarches GP (Groupe GP), which operates 15 supermarkets in eastern Quebec.
The two companies have a long-standing partnership, and eight of Groupe GP’s stores operate under the Metro and Metro Plus banners.
You can get our latest buy/sell/hold advice on Metro and 13 other high-quality companies in the latest issue of The Successful Investor. Even better, if you act now, you can get this issue absolutely free. Click here to learn how.
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