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Topic: Dividend Stocks

NORDION INC. $6.87 – Toronto symbol NDN

NORDION INC. $6.87 (Toronto symbol NDN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 62.0 million; Market cap: $425.9 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend suspended in September 2012; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.nordion.com) fell 30% after it lost its arbitration case against government-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. It may also have to pay part of Atomic Energy’s legal costs.

Nordion gets 40% of its revenue from selling isotopes for medical research and cancer treatments. Most of its isotopes come from Atomic Energy’s 53-year old Chalk River nuclear reactor near Ottawa.

In 1996, the company hired Atomic Energy to build two new reactors, called MAPLE, which would replace Chalk River. In 2006, Atomic Energy bought MAPLE and agreed to supply isotopes to Nordion for 40 years. However, Atomic Energy shut down MAPLE in 2008 due to rising costs.

Nordion feels that new deal to buy isotopes from a supplier in Russia will offset the lost production from Chalk River when it shuts down in 2016.

The ruling prompted Nordion to suspend its dividend, which was yielding about 4%. That was likely the main reason behind the price drop.

However, the ruling should have little impact on Nordion’s future operations, as it was simply trying to recover the $350 million it contributed to MAPLE in 2006.

Nordion is still a buy.

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