CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $40 - Toronto symbol CP

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $40 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 168 million; Market cap: $6.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; SI Rating: Above Average) ships freight over a rail network between Montreal and Vancouver. It also operates in the midwestern and northeastern United States. CP’s first-quarter earnings fell 31.1%, to $62.5 million, or $0.39 a share, from $90.7 million, or $0.59 a share, a year earlier. If you exclude foreign-exchange gains and losses, per-share earnings fell 54.7%, to $0.34 from $0.75. Revenue fell just 6.6%, to $1.07 billion from $1.15 billion. However, that was mostly because CP bought a railway that operates in eight U.S. states last October. Without this, CP’s revenue would have fallen 13%. The company is stepping up its cost cutting in response to weak shipping volumes. This includes laying off 2,400 workers, or 16% of its workforce. CP has also put more trains into storage. CP trades at 15.0 times its likely 2009 earnings of $2.66 a share. But its earnings could reach $3.46 a share in 2010, which gives CP a more reasonable p/e of 11.6. The $0.99 dividend yields 2.5%. CP Rail is a buy.

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