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ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $32.88 (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Units outstanding: 68.5 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.alliedpropertiesreit.com) owns 133 office buildings, mostly in major Canadian cities. These mainly Class I properties contain over 9.5 million square feet of leasable area.

Class I refers to 19th- and early-20th-century light industrial buildings that have been converted to retail space. They usually feature exposed beams, interior brick and hardwood floors.

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RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $25.35 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 302.3 million; Market cap: $7.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT), with interests in 346 shopping malls containing over 83 million square feet of leasable area. That total includes 51 U.S. malls with over 14 million square feet.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2013, Rio- Can’s revenue rose 3.1%, to $272 million from $248 million. Cash flow rose 6.6%, to $113 million from $106 million. Cash flow per unit rose 2.8%, to $0.37 from $0.36, on more shares outstanding.

RioCan continues to see growth opportunities in Canada and the U.S. In 2012, it spent $926 million on properties. In the first three quarters of 2013, it bought 16 more for a total of $576 million.
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PENGROWTH ENERGY $7.14 (Toronto symbol PGF; Shares outstanding: 519.8 million; Market cap: $3.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 6.7%; www.pengrowth.com) plans to spend $715 million to expand and upgrade its oil and natural gas properties in 2014. That’s down 7.1% from the $770 million it probably spent in 2013.

The company ended 2013 with cash of $430 million, and it expects to generate $500 million to $540 million of cash flow this year. That should let it invest in its properties and maintain its monthly dividend of $0.04 a share, for a 6.7% yield.

Pengrowth is still a buy....

BONAVISTA ENERGY $14.96 (Toronto symbol BNP; Shares outstanding: 187.0 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.bonavistaenergy.com) explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Its production is 63% gas and 37% oil.

In the three months ended September 30, 2013, Bonavista’s cash flow per share gained 27.1%, to $0.61 from $0.48 a year earlier. Its production rose 12.5%, to 73,632 barrels of oil equivalent a day (including gas) from 65,464.

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ENCANA CORP. $20.83 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 740.2 million; Market cap: $15.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.4%; www.encana.com) is one of North America’s largest natural gas producers.

In the three months ended September 30, 2013, Encana’s cash flow per share fell 28.2%, to $0.89 from $1.24 a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). The decline mostly came from lower realized gas prices.

Encana now plans to cut its dependence on gas. This year, it will devote 75% of its $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion of capital spending to five properties that produce oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs), such as butane and propane. The company expects oil and NGLs to supply 75% of its cash flow by 2017, up from about 35% today.
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GREAT-WEST LIFECO $30.77 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 999.4 million; Market cap: $30.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 4.0%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) bought Irish Life Group, Ireland’s largest pension manager and life insurance provider, for $1.75 billion last year.

Excluding costs to integrate Irish Life, earnings per share rose 7.3% in the three months ended September 30, 2013, to $0.59 from $0.55 a year earlier.

The company has $705.1 billion of assets under administration.
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BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $60.94 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $72.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Div. yield: 4.1%, www.scotiabank.com) is the third-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with assets of $743.8 billion.

In its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter, which ended October 31, 2013, the bank earned $1.30 a share, up 10.2% from $1.18 a year earlier.

Higher loan demand and an increase in deposits pushed up the Canadian banking division’s earnings by 23.3%. That includes ING Direct, which the bank bought for $3.1 billion in late 2012. This business offers a variety of no-fee banking services, mainly over the Internet. It has 1.8 million customers and $30 billion of deposits.
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SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. (Toronto symbol SNC; www.snclavalin.com) is a leading Canadian engineering and construction company that specializes in large-scale public works projects, such as roads, bridges, transit systems and water treatment plants. SNC has offices in over 40 countries....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific investing advice as well as questions on investment strategy and the economy. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle....

Technology stocks tend to be riskier than our other recommendations in the Manufacturing & Industry sector. That’s mainly because innovations can quickly make today’s products obsolete....

Suncor is shipping more oil by rail while waiting for governments to approve new pipeline, such as TransCanada’s Keystone XL. At the same time, recently completed oil sands projects are raising the company’s production....

The price of gold hit a low of around $1,200 in July 2013. It then moved up to $1,400 in two months. The price subsequently moved back down and is now close to $1,320....

BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $4.08 and BBD.B $4.04; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has won a contract to build 65 railcars for a new public transit line in London, U.K. The company will build these cars at its plant in the country and deliver them from May 2017 to December 2018. Bombardier will also build a maintenance depot for the new line. The deal is worth $1.6 billion U.S., or 9% of Bombardier’s annual revenue of $17.9 billion U.S. The cheaper class B shares are the better choice because of their slightly better liquidity and higher dividend....

POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN $37 (Toronto symbol POT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 856.1 million; Market cap: $31.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.2; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.potashcorp.com) earned $2.04 a share in 2013, down 13.9% from $2.37 in 2012 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Sales fell 7.8%, to $7.3 billion from $7.9 billion. North American potash demand should rebound in 2014, because farmers will need more fertilizer to replenish their soil after last year’s record crops. However, delayed orders will likely slow exports to Asia, because buyers feel prices will keep falling after last July’s breakup of a marketing alliance between producers in Russia and Belarus. Potash Corp. is still a hold.

CAE INC. $14 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 262.2 million; Market cap: $3.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) earned $46.1 million in its fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended December 31, 2013. That’s up 22.9% from $37.5 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings rose 28.6%, to $0.18 from $0.14. Sales rose 2.5%, to $513.6 million from $500.9 million. The company sold 12 flight simulators in the quarter and three more since January 1. That brings this fiscal year’s total to 43—a new record. As a result, sales at its civilian simulator and pilot-training businesses (55% of total sales) rose 3.2%....

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE $89 (Toronto symbol CM; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 399.3 million; Market cap: $35.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cibc.com) is the fifthlargest Canadian bank, with $398.4 billion of assets. CIBC recently launched a new credit card loyalty plan for travellers after it lost the Aeroplan contract to TD (see page 21). This plan, called Aventura, lets cardholders earn points on their purchases and redeem them for free flights and other benefits. Losing the Aeroplan business will cut CIBC’s annual earnings by $0.45 a share. To put that in context, it earned $3.6 billion in its 2013 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2013, up 6.5% from $3.4 billion in 2012. Earnings per share gained 8.8%, to $8.78 from $8.07, on fewer shares outstanding....

BANK OF MONTREAL $70 (Toronto symbol BMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 644.5 million; Market cap: $45.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bmo.com) is Canada’s fourth-largest bank, with $537.3 billion of assets. The bank is buying U.K.-based F&C Asset Management, which sells investment services to individuals and institutional clients, such as pension plans and insurance companies. F&C has $136 billion U.S. in assets under management, which will increase the assets that Bank of Montreal’s Global Asset Management division administers to $269 billion U.S. The purchase will also add many wealth management clients outside North America....

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $63 (Toronto symbol BNS; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $75.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.scotiabank.com) is Canada’s thirdlargest bank, with assets of $743.8 billion. The bank continues to profit from its November 2012 purchase of ING Direct, which offers a variety of no-fee banking services. ING has 1.9 million customers and $30 billion in deposits. Bank of Nova Scotia will soon change ING’s name to Tangerine (it has to stop using the ING brand by May 2014). The change will let this business keep using the orange colour associated with ING Direct. In its 2013 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2013, the bank’s earnings rose 3.6%, to $6.7 billion from $6.5 billion in fiscal 2012. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 1.3%, to $5.15 from $5.22. Without unusual items, such as a gain on a real estate sale, per-share earnings rose 10.2%, to $5.08 from $4.61....

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $71 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $99.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s second-largest bank, with $860.8 billion of assets. Royal recently agreed to sell its 13 branches and related operations in Jamaica. The country’s struggling economy has hurt these branches’ profits in the past few years, so selling them frees up cash for Royal to invest in its more promising Caribbean business. The bank will record a one-time loss of $60 million on the deal. Meanwhile, Royal earned $8.4 billion in its 2013 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2013. That’s up 11.1% from $7.6 billion in 2012. Earnings per share rose 12.4%, to $5.54 from $4.93, on fewer shares outstanding....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $36 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $54.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. suncor.com) produced 558,100 barrels of oil equivalent (99% oil and 1% natural gas) a day in the three months ended December 31, 2013. That’s up 0.3% from 556,500 barrels a year earlier. Oil sands production rose 17.9%, to a record 446,500 barrels a day, because Suncor started up a new phase of its Firebag project. That helped offset lower conventional output following the company’s recent sale of a big part of its Western Canadian gas properties. The higher production helped push up Suncor’s revenue by 7.4%, to $10.2 billion from $9.5 billion. However, its average realized price for oil sands bitumen fell 5.2%, and a lack of pipeline capacity is forcing the company to ship more crude by rail. As a result, its earnings fell 1.5%, to $973 million from $988 million....

ENBRIDGE INC. $47 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 831.1 million; Market cap: $39.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www. enbridge.com) plans to expand its storage terminal near northern Alberta’s Christina Lake oil sands project, which will help it take advantage of t h i s p r o p e r t y ’ s r i s i n g production. The company will also build pipes and other infrastructure to connect the expansion with its existing pipelines. This project will cost $200 million. That’s equal to 72% of the $278 million, or $0.34 a share, that Enbridge earned in the third quarter of 2013. It expects to finish construction in the third quarter of 2015. Enbridge is a buy.

TORSTAR CORP. $5.12 (www.torstar.com) continues to cut costs as more people get their news from the Internet. This secular trend is working against newspapers and print advertising. As a result, we’ve cut Torstar’s TSINetwork Rating from “Above Average” to “Average”....

EMERA INC. $33 (www.emera.com) earned $259.4 million in 2013, up 12.5% from $230.5 million in 2012. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share rose just 6.0%, to $1.96 from $1.85. Revenue rose 8.3%, to $2.2 billion from $2.1 billion. These increases are mainly due to Emera’s April 2013 purchase of three gas-fired power plants in New England....

CAMPBELL SOUP CO. $43 (New York symbol CPB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 315.0 million; Market cap: $13.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.campbellsoupcompany.com) is the world’s largest maker of canned soups. It also makes Prego canned pasta and sauces, Pepperidge Farm cookies and V8 vegetable juices. Wal-Mart accounts for 19% of its sales.




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NORDSTROM INC. $61 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 193.4 million; Market cap: $11.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nordstrom.com) mainly sells upscale clothing, accessories and footwear.

In Nordstrom’s 2014 fiscal year, which ended February 1, 2014, its sales rose 3.3%, to $12.5 billion from $12.1 billion in 2013. Same-store sales gained 2.5%. Online sales jumped 30%.

Nordstrom continues to open new stores, particularly discount outlets. The related costs were part of the reason why its earnings fell 0.1%, to $734 million from $735 million. Per-share earnings rose 4.2%, to $3.71 from $3.56, on fewer shares outstanding.
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