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MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $30 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 134.6 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mapleleaffoods.com) is Canada’s largest food processor. It mainly sells its products, including fresh and prepared meats and poultry, under the Maple Leaf and Schneider brands. The company recently completed a multi-year restructuring plan that involved closing older meat processing plants and shifting their operations to newer, more efficient ones. Thanks to the success of this plan, Maple Leaf earned $42.3 million, or $0.31 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2016. The results are a big improvement over the $2.9 million, or $0.02, it lost a year earlier. If you factor out unusual items, earnings per share jumped to $0.28 from $0.05....
IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $41 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $34.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s second-largest integrated oil producer after Suncor. The company’s Alberta oil sands operations, including its 25% stake in the Syncrude project, supply 90% of its crude. Imperial also has conventional oil and gas operations in Western Canada, and invests in offshore projects in Atlantic Canada. In addition, it owns three refineries and makes petrochemicals. In March 2016, Imperial agreed to sell its 497 company-owned Esso gas stations to independent operators for $2.8 billion....
THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $53 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 752.4 million; Market cap: $39.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.thomsonreuters.com) mainly sells information products to financial clients, such as banks and brokerages. In 2015, this business supplied 52% of Thomson’s revenue. The company also sells specialized information to professionals in the legal (27%); tax and accounting (11%); and intellectual property and science (8%) fields. Its Reuters news division supplies the remaining 2%. Thomson now plans to sell its intellectual property business. It will probably use the expected proceeds of $3 billion to buy back its own shares (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). The sale should close later this year....
PENGROWTH ENERGY CORP. $2.08 (Toronto symbol PGF; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 547.4 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend suspended in January 2016; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.pengrowth.com) has more than tripled from its low of $0.66 in January 2016. That’s partly because prominent Toronto investor Seymour Schulich recently acquired 16.6% of the company’s shares. The purchase makes him Pengrowth’s largest shareholder. Meanwhile, the company continues to sell less-important properties to focus on its main Lindbergh oil sands project. That’s why its production in the first quarter of 2016 fell 10.5%, to 62,056 barrels a day (61% oil and liquids, 39% natural gas) from 67,934 barrels a year earlier. In addition, weaker oil and gas prices cut its cash flow per share by 4.8%, to $0.20 from $0.21. Pengrowth used the cash from its recent assets sales to pay down its long-term debt. It now stands at $1.7 billion (or 1.5 times its market cap). That’s down 9.3% since the end of 2015....