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Sun Life Financial Inc. and Manulife Financial Corp. each offers a combination of solid earnings growth, ongoing share repurchases, and impressive dividend yields.
Groupe Dynamite Inc. is a high‑quality specialty retailer with gains ahead.
Teck Resources Ltd. is a solid bet on higher copper prices with its big merger winning approvals
Toromont Industries Ltd. should see continued earnings growth thanks to its leading market share and Canada’s plan to increase spending on infrastructure projects.
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When investing in rare earth metals, you need to look at the unique geographical and political environment the mining company produces in.
There will always be stocks you’ll wish you bought, especially after you see their growth. Here’s what to look for so you won’t miss out.
In addition to BCE (see page 21), we also like these two other leading telcos. Both Telus and Manitoba Telecom are doing a good job attracting new customers, and hanging on to their current subscribers. Recent cost-cutting plans should also give them more cash to improve their networks and increase their dividends. TELUS CORP. $40 (Toronto symbol T; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 599.9 million; Market cap: $24.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 4.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) is Canada’s second-largest wireless telephone service provider, after Rogers Communications, with 8.5 million subscribers. Wireless now supplies 56% of Telus’s revenue and 66% of its earnings. The remaining 44% of revenue and 34% of earnings come from its wireline division, which serves 1.5 million residential phone customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. This business also has 1.6 million high-speed Internet users and 1.0 million TV clients....
PENGROWTH ENERGY CORP. $0.91 (Toronto symbol PGF; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 543.0 million; Market cap: $494.1 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend suspended in January 2016; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.pengrowth.com) has suspended its $0.01-a-share quarterly dividend in response to the sharp decline in oil prices. It will also reduce its capital spending to between $60 million to $70 million in 2016, from $184 million in 2015. The company has also laid off workers, which should save it $25 million in 2016, and aims to sell $600 million of less important properties. It will probably put these funds toward its $2.1-billion debt, which is now a high 4.3 times its depressed market cap. Pengrowth is a hold.
POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN $21 (Toronto symbol POT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 836.5 million; Market cap: $17.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 6.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.potashcorp.com) earned $1.52 a share in 2015, down 16.5% from $1.82 in 2014 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Revenue declined 11.7%, to $6.3 billion from $7.1 billion. High global potash inventories have cut demand, while record North American harvests have hurt crop prices, leaving farmers with less to spend on fertilizers. In response, Potash Corp. has suspended production at its $2.2-billion (Canadian) potash mine in Picadilly, New Brunswick, which only started up in early 2015. It also cut its dividend by 34.2%; the new annual rate of $1.00 U.S. a share yields 6.6%....
CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $14 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 833.2 million; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) gets 35% of its revenue from its Western Canadian oil sands properties and conventional oil and gas wells. Chief among these assets are its 50%-owned Christina Lake and Foster Creek oil sands projects; ConocoPhilips (New York symbol COP) owns the remaining 50%. Refining supplies the remaining 65% of Cenovus’s revenue. The company ships its oil to its 50%-owned refineries in Illinois and Texas. Phillips 66 (New York symbol PSX) owns the other 50%. Low crude prices have prompted Cenovus to cut its capital spending by 26.5%, to about $1.25 billion in 2016 from $1.7 billion in 2015....