Search

BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. $38 (New York symbol BAX; WSSF Rating: Average) makes medical equipment through three main divisions: Medication Delivery makes intravenous equipment and systems; the Renal unit makes dialysis equipment; and the BioScience division makes various drugs as well as equipment that separates blood plasma. In 2005, the company had to recall 250,000 of its Colleague infusion pumps, which provide intravenous drugs to patients. A potential defect in the pump’s battery and air detection system could cause it to shut down. Baxter is working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fix the problem. Baxter sold $85 million worth of these pumps in the first half of 2005....

C.R. BARD INC. $74 (New York symbol BCR; WSSF Rating: Average) makes medical equipment in four main fields: vascular products such as stents and catheters; urology products for incontinence and drainage; oncology products that detect and treat various types of cancer; and surgical tools. Each area supplies roughly a quarter of Bard’s total revenue. This broad product line cuts Bard’s reliance on any one product. Most of Bard’s products are also single-use devices, which hospitals and other customers must constantly replace. In the three months ended March 31, 2006, Bard’s earnings slipped to $81.1 million from $81.3 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings crept up to $0.76 from $0.75, because it had fewer shares outstanding....

INVACARE CORP. $31 (New York symbol IVC; WSSF Rating: Average) makes wheelchairs and other medical mobility aids. It sells its products through over 25,000 home health care and medical equipment distributors in the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. The company also sells to government health agencies, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs. However, government cutbacks have hurt Invacare’s sales in the past two years, particularly for more expensive items such as power wheelchairs and oxygen equipment. Rising steel, energy and other costs have also squeezed its profit margins. Consequently, Invacare is taking steps to cut its costs, including shifting about half of its manufacturing operations to Asia over the next three to five years. This plan will cost Invacare $42 million (pre-tax). But it will ultimately cut the company’s annual pre-tax costs by $30 million. Making more of its products in Asia will also make it easier for Invacare to expand its market share in that region....

H.J. HEINZ COMPANY $40 (New York symbol HNZ; WSSF Rating: Above average) has sold its New Zealand poultry-processing business for $165 million, which is about 24% more than the $133.2 million or $0.39 a share that the company earned from continuing operations in its third fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2006. This is one of several sales of overseas assets that the company has carried out since last year. It wants to focus on the three businesses where it has a leading market position: ketchup and sauces; meals and snack foods; and infant foods. Heinz still has several smaller operations it wants to sell, but it has now completed most of its planned asset sales. It has also cut its manufacturing facilities by 15%, and shrunk the number of products it makes....

WAL-MART STORES, INC. $46 (New York symbol WMT; WSSF Rating: Above average) is the world’s largest retailer, with roughly 6,100 discount department stores in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Despite its worldwide presence, Wal-Mart still generates 80% of its sales and 85% of its profits in the United States. It has a great growth record and plenty of long-term growth potential, here and overseas. Yet it trades below the market’s average p/e ratio, now around 18.7 on the Standard & Poor’s 500. The company’s sales rose from $217.8 billion in 2002 (fiscal years end January 31) to $312.4 billion in 2006. Profits rose from $1.50 a share (total $6.7 billion) in 2002 to $2.68 a share ($11.2 billion) in 2006....

VERSACOLD INCOME FUND $8.85 (Toronto symbol ICE.UN; SI Rating: Extra risk) paid $396.7 million in December 2005 for the public refrigerated warehouse business of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. That made Versacold the world’s second-largest operator of refrigerated warehouses, with 74 locations in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Thanks to the P&O acquisition, Versacold’s income in the three months ended December 31, 2005 rose 50.0%, to $0.18 a unit (total $4.5 million) from $0.12 a unit ($2.9 million) a year earlier. These figures exclude restructuring costs and other nonrecurring items. Revenue grew 52.6%, to $70.2 million from $46.0 million. The latest revenue figure included $20.8 million from the new assets....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $32 (Toronto symbol SNC; SI Rating: Average) specializes in building large public works projects, such as water treatment plants, roads and bridges. It often buys small engineering firms to expand its share of the world engineering market. SNC also operates public facilities under long-term concession contracts. The largest of these is its 16.77% stake in Highway 407, a toll highway just north of Toronto that uses electronic tracking devices to toll vehicles automatically instead of traditional toll booths. The highway is still losing money, but losses shrank by 68% in 2005. This investment should soon earn a profit, particularly now that the highway’s owners and the Ontario government have settled their dispute over recent toll hikes....

SHAWCOR LTD. $19 (Toronto symbol SCL.SV.A; SI Rating: Average) makes sealants and coatings that protect oil and natural gas pipelines from corrosion. It also inspects pipelines for damage, and makes drilling and other equipment for the oil and gas industry. The company has used small acquisitions to enhance its market share in the past few years. For example, it recently launched a takeover offer for publicly traded Garneau Inc., which operates a pipeline coating plant in Alberta. ShawCor owns 19% of Garneau, and the Garneau family owns 45%. The Garneau family is negotiating with ShawCor to retain the manufacturing operations, which make equipment for oil and gas producers. The deal was to cost ShawCor $22.6 million, but that includes the manufacturing business. To put that figure in context, ShawCor earned $0.30 a share (total $21.8 million) from continuing operations in the three months ended December 31, 2005. That’s a big improvement over the $0.16 a share ($12.3 million) it made in the year-earlier quarter, when losses from its now-closed pipecoating facility in Alabama weighed on its earnings. Revenue rose 28.1%, to $291.7 million from $227.7 million....

SAPUTO INC. $33 (Toronto symbol SAP; SI Rating: Average) has made itself the top dairy producer in Canada in the past few years through acquisitions. However, heavy regulation limits Saputo’s growth in Canada. Consequently, the company is aggressively expanding outside Canada. It is targeting the United States where it’s now the fifth-largest cheese producer, and Argentina, where it’s the third-largest dairy company. Saputo earned $0.43 a share (total $45.0 million) in its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2005, down 21.8% from $0.55 a share ($58.3 million) a year earlier....

TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $44 and T.NV $44; SI Rating: Above average) is Canada’s second-largest telecommunications provider, after BCE Inc. It provides local and long distance telephone services to roughly 5 million customers, mainly in Alberta, British Columbia and parts of Quebec. It also provides Internet access services to roughly 1 million subscribers. Telus’s revenue slipped from $7.1 billion in 2001 to $7.0 billion in 2002, but rose to $8.1 billion in 2005. It lost $0.51 a share (total $145.8 million) from continuing operations in 2001, as well as $0.75 a share ($235.8 million) in 2002, mainly due to restructuring costs following the Clearnet acquisition. However, earnings improved from $0.92 a share ($324.4 million) in 2003 to $1.94 a share ($700.3 million) in 2005. Most of Telus’s recent growth comes from its wireless division, which is Canada’s largest wireless service provider with 4.5 million customers (36% of the market). The company is also doing a good job of hanging on to its customers, and getting them to sign long-term service contracts....

ALTAMIRA SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FUND $8.45 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (Altamira Investment Services, The Exchange Tower, 130 King St. West, Suite 900, Toronto, Ont. M5X 1K9. 1-800-263-2824; Web site: www.altamira.com. No load — deal directly with the company) invests in the telecommunications, biotechnology, environmental technology, health care and computer industries. The $72.9 million fund gained 1.1% over the last year, compared to the Nasdaq’s gain of 2.8%. Its MER is 2.68%. Top holdings include: Cisco, 6.2%; Microsoft, 4.4%; ASML Holding, 4.0%; Intel, 3.6%; Verisign, 3.5%; Yahoo!, 3.4%; Nokia, 3.3%; Samsung, 3.3%; Red Hat, 3.2%; and St. Jude Medical, 2.8%....

H&R BLOCK INC. $22 (New York symbol HRB; WSSF Rating: Above average) has attracted several class-action lawsuits in the past few years, mostly related to products and services it sells to its tax-preparation clients. It recently agreed to pay $62.5 million to settle four lawsuits that accused it of hiding the true interest rate on loans made to customers waiting for income tax refunds. Now it’s fighting charges that fees on a retirement savings plan account it offers exceed interest payments. However, H&R Block says that only happens to customers who make the minimum deposit, and not for those who use this account as intended, to build long-term retirement savings. The State of New York now wants H&R Block to refund about $360 million to these customers, and pay $250 million in fines. To put that in context, it earned $28.9 million or $0.09 a share in its third fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2006. These results included a $31.7 million or $0.10 a share charge for lawsuits....

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS INC. $51 (New York symbol SHW; WSSF Rating: Above average) got as high as $54 in February 2006, but dropped to $37 after a Rhode Island court ruled that the company and two other paint makers are liable for harm caused by lead-based paints. Sherwin stopped making lead paint over 30 years ago, but it and the two other companies could conceivably have to spend over $1 billion to clean up about 250,000 homes in Rhode Island alone. That’s a sizable expense considering that Sherwin earned $463.3 million or $3.28 a share in 2005. However, the court exempted Sherwin from punitive damages. That helped the stock recapture much of the big drop. The stock also got a boost from Sherwin’s improving earnings, which will probably rise to $3.85 a share in 2006. It now trades at just 13.2 times that estimate. The improving earnings also let the company raise its quarterly dividend 22.0%, from $0.205 a share to $0.25. The new annual rate of $1.00 yields 2.0%. The Rhode Island decision may encourage lead-paint lawsuits in other states, which adds to Sherwin’s risk. However, the paint industry has won over 40 of these cases in the past 20 years, so there is a good chance that Sherwin’s appeal could succeed....

SYMANTEC CORP. $16 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; WSSF Rating: Average) makes software that helps guard computers from viruses and electronic attacks. Its best-known product is Norton Anti-Virus, the world’s top selling anti-virus program. In the past few years, Symantec has aggressively expanded its corporate services operations. Selling a variety of programs to businesses gives it steadier revenue streams than consumer software sales. As part of this strategy, Symantec recently paid $11 billion in stock for Veritas Software Corp., which specializes in data storage products for businesses. That’s huge considering that Symantec earned just $0.26 a share (total $282.4 million) on revenue of $1.25 billion in its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2005. These figures exclude merger expenses and other one-time costs. The company spends 15% of its sales of $3.50 a share on research, so it’s more profitable than it appears....

MICROSOFT CORP. $27 (Nasdaq symbol MSFT; WSSF Rating: Above average) is the world’s largest software company. Its main products are the Windows operating system, which runs roughly 80% of the world’s computers, and the Office suite of business programs. In the past few years, Microsoft has tried to cut its reliance on software, particularly in the face of free alternatives such as the Linux operating system. In 2001, it launched the first Xbox video game player. Last year, Microsoft started selling an upgraded version called Xbox 360. Despite strong demand for the new machine, Microsoft is still losing money on each unit. However, the company feels that licensing fees from game makers and revenues from online game players will eventually offset the Xbox’s development and manufacturing costs. The company also hopes to sell Xbox owners other entertainment services, such as music and video downloads....

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $36 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; WSSF Rating: Average) makes software that helps users create electronic documents. Its main product is Acrobat, which let users convert documents to the popular PDF format. In December 2005, Adobe merged with Macromedia Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at $3.4 billion. Macromedia’s main product is Flash, which lets Internet web page creators add animation and other features that make their sites easier to use. Like Acrobat, Flash is an industry standard. In Adobe’s first fiscal quarter ended March 3, 2006, it earned $0.32 a share (total $197.5 million) before restructuring and other unusual costs, up 23.1% from $0.26 a share ($133.8 million) a year earlier. Revenue grew 38.6%, to $655.5 million from $472.9 million....

AUTODESK INC. $38 (Nasdaq symbol ADSK; WSSF Rating: Average) makes AutoCAD, the world’s top selling computer aided design program. About 4 million architects and engineers in over 100 countries use it to design and test new buildings and products. This business supplies nearly 90% of its revenue. The remainder comes from programs that filmmakers use to create special effects. In its fourth fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2006, Autodesk earned $0.33 a share (total $83.0 million), up 26.9% from $0.26 a share ($65.8 million) a year earlier. If you disregard restructuring costs and other unusual items, per-share earnings grew 23.3%, to $0.37 from $0.30. Revenue grew 17.0%, to $416.8 million from $356.2 million. Much of Autodesk’s recent success is due to its decision to sell its products on a subscription basis. That gives it steadier revenue streams than selling its products as a one-time purchase. This move has also made it easier for Autodesk to phase out support for older versions of its programs, which gives users an incentive to upgrade every year or two....

WENDY’S INTERNATIONAL, INC. $62 (New York symbol WEN; WSSF Rating: Above average) is the third-largest hamburger chain in the world, behind McDonald’s and Burger King. In 1995, it acquired coffee and donut chain TIM HORTONS INC. $27 (New York symbol THI; WSSF Rating: Extra risk). Tim Hortons is Canada’s largest fast-food chain, with 2,597 outlets. This includes 681 smaller restaurants in non-traditional locations such as gas station convenience stores, universities, hospitals and office buildings. Tim Hortons now has about 23% of the Canadian fast-food market (compared to 18% for McDonald’s). It also has 76% of the coffee and baked goods segment. It plans to expand by at least 1,000 new locations in the next few years....

CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. $39 (Toronto symbol CU.NV; SI Rating: Above average) supplies electricity and natural gas to over 1 million customers, primarily in Alberta. It also invests in overseas gas and electricity assets. In the three months ended December 31, 2005, earnings fell to $0.69 a share from $0.71 a year earlier, mostly due to higher gas franchise fees paid to municipalities. Higher electricity rates helped push revenue up 6.8%, to $680.3 million from $637.0 million. The company generated cash flow of $5.17 a share in 2005, up 22.2% from $4.23 in 2004. However, that failed to fully cover its capital costs of $4.13 a share, and its $1.10 dividend....

TRANSALTA CORP. $23 (Toronto symbol TA; SI Rating: Average) operates 51 power plants in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Australia. It also owns 50% of a major Canadian wind farm operator. In the past few years, the company has sold its regulated operations to focus solely on its nonregulated plants. However, it sells roughly 90% of its power under long-term, firm-price contracts or directly to specific customers such as carmakers and hospitals, which helps cut its exposure to sometimes volatile electricity prices. It also uses hedges to shield itself from rising fuel costs....

EMERA INC. $20 (Toronto symbol EMA; SI Rating: Average) supplies roughly 95% of Nova Scotia’s electricity needs. This business accounts for over 80% of its income. It also owns the main electrical utility in Bangor, Maine, and holds interests in other power-related projects. In the three months ended December 31, 2005, Emera earned $0.34 a share from continuing operations, up 25.9% from $0.27 a year earlier. The savings from a new natural gas supply deal helped offset higher oil and coal costs. Revenue rose 3.7%, to $297.1 million from $286.5 million. Nova Scotia regulators let the company raise its power rates by 5.3% in 2005. Emera is now asking for a 13% hike in 2006, to cover its higher fuel costs. However, regulators will probably reject this request and approve a smaller rate hike....

FORTIS INC. $23 (Toronto symbol FTS; SI Rating: Above average) operates regulated and non-regulated power systems in Canada, the United States, Belize and the Cayman Islands. It also owns hotels and commercial real estate properties, mainly in Atlantic Canada. In 2004, the company paid $1.5 billion in cash and stock for regulated electrical utilities in Alberta and British Columbia. This helped cut Fortis’s income from its power operations in Atlantic Canada, from 50% of earnings to 30% in 2005. However, Fortis’s earnings in the fourth quarter of 2005 only crept up to $22.3 million from $21.2 million a year earlier. That’s mainly because a settlement with Alberta regulators cut the Alberta subsidiary’s earnings in the latest quarter by $3 million. Per-share earnings remained unchanged at $0.21, while revenue grew 4.7%, to $353.1 million from $337.2 million....

INCO LTD. $54 (Toronto symbol N) struggled as the Asian economic crisis led to lower nickel demand and prices. In light of the bleak outlook, it seemed that Inco overpaid for the huge Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Labrador. The Newfoundland government’s demand that Inco build a smelter in the province to process the ore also threatened the project’s feasibility. The high cost of the Voisey’s Bay purchase also forced Inco to quit paying dividends. But spreading prosperity around the world has spurred nickel demand and prices. That helped make it economical for Inco to build a smelter in Newfoundland. Voisey’s Bay began operations in 2005....

SOBEYS INC. $38 (Toronto symbol SBY; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s second-largest food seller, with 1,300 stores under the Sobeys, IGA and Price Chopper banners. The company owns roughly a third of its stores; franchisees own the remaining two-thirds. The Sobey family controls 68% of the company’s stock. Like Loblaw, Sobeys used non-food items and in-store services such as pharmacies and bakeries to drive its growth. Sales rose from $9.2 billion in 2001 (fiscal years end April 30) to $12.2 billion in 2005. Earnings before unusual items grew from $1.50 a share (total $91.2 million) in 2001 to $2.85 a share ($186.7 million) in 2005. Also like Loblaw, Sobeys has invested heavily in new stores, and developed its own private label brand (“Compliments”). It’s also streamlining its distribution network by closing some facilities and expanding others....

LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $58 (Toronto symbol L; SI Rating: Above average) is Canada’s largest supermarket operator, with over 1,600 company-owned and franchised stores. The company also distributes food and other goods to independent retailers. George Weston Ltd. owns 63% of the company. Loblaw’s revenue grew from $21.5 billion in 2001 to $26.2 billion in 2004, as the company expanded the amount of non-food items in its stores, such as clothing and housewares. It also offered more services like dry cleaning. These moves also fueled its profit growth, from $2.04 a share (total $563 million) in 2001 to $3.48 a share ($968 million) in 2004. In 2005, Loblaw launched a new strategy aimed at protecting its market share, and keeping its costs low. The main thrust of this plan is an overhaul of its warehouse distribution network, including closing six of its 32 distribution centres....