acquisition

INTACT FINANCIAL $84.98 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 131.5 million; Market cap: $11.2 billion; Dividend yield: 2.7%) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance. Its brands include Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink and belairdirect. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Intact’s revenue rose 7.5%, to $1.91 billion from $1.78 billion a year earlier. Revenue improved across all of the company’s insurance lines and geographic regions. Canadian Direct Insurance, which Intact purchased for $197 million in early 2015, also added to its sales....

CALIAN TECHNOLOGIES $18.60 (Toronto symbol CTY; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (613- 599-8600; www.calian.com; Shares outstanding: 7.4 million; Market cap: $137.6 million; Dividend yield: 6.0%) has two main divisions: Business and Technology Services (which supplies 70% of the company’s revenue) provides engineers, health care workers and other skilled professionals on a contract basis; Systems Engineering (30% of revenue) sells hardware and software for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communication systems. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, the company’s revenue rose 15.2%, to a record $64.5 million from $56.0 million a year earlier. Excluding onetime items, Calian earned $3.3 million, or $0.45 a share. That’s up 22.2% from $2.7 million, or $0.37 a share, a year earlier. The Business and Technology Services division continues to benefit from recurring orders from Canadian federal government departments, including the Department of National Defence. This segment’s revenue rose 9.0% in the latest quarter....

STANTEC INC. $32.04 (Toronto symbol STN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (780-917-7288; www.stantec.com; Shares outstanding: 94.4 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) continues to grow by acquisition. Its latest is VOA Associates, a 280-person architecture and planning firm based in Chicago. VOA’s recent Chicago projects include the 32-story Wabash “vertical campus” Building at Roosevelt University and waterfront reconstruction of the landmark Navy Pier. Stantec cuts its costs by sharing administrative expenses, financing and employee benefits among its divisions. But continually buying new firms adds risk, including the risk of writedowns....

STANTEC INC. $32.04 (Toronto symbol STN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (780-917-7288; www.stantec.com; Shares outstanding: 94.4 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) continues to grow by acquisition. Its latest is VOA Associates, a 280-person architecture and planning firm based in Chicago. VOA’s recent Chicago projects include the 32-story Wabash “vertical campus” Building at Roosevelt University and waterfront reconstruction of the landmark Navy Pier. Stantec cuts its costs by sharing administrative expenses, financing and employee benefits among its divisions. But continually buying new firms adds risk, including the risk of writedowns....

Energy Fuels Inc., $3.26, symbol EFR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 45.3 million; Market cap: $147.6 million; www.energyfuels.com), operates two uranium processing facilities—the White Mesa Mill in Utah and the Nichols Ranch Processing Facility in Wyoming. Both supply uranium oxide (U3O8) in concentrates to major nuclear utilities. The White Mesa Mill has a capacity of over 8 million pounds of uranium oxide per year. The Nichols Ranch Processing Facility, acquired in the company’s purchase of Uranerz Energy Corporation in June 2015, has capacity of 2 million pounds of U3O8 per year. Energy Fuels also has uranium mining projects located in a number of western U.S. states, including small producing mines, mines on standby, and mineral properties in various stages of permitting and development....

PFIZER INC. $32 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.5 billion; Market cap: $208.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.

Pfizer gets about 45% of its revenue from 10 drugs, each of which generates over $1 billion in annual sales. They include Lipitor (for high cholesterol), Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis), Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis), Viagra (erectile dysfunction), Norvasc (hypertension), Prevnar (a pneumonia vaccine), Sutent (stomach cancer), Premarin (hormone replacement) and Zyvox (bacterial infections).

The company is also the world’s fifth-largest maker of overthe- counter drugs. Brands include Advil (pain relief), Centrum (vitamins) and Robitussin (cough syrup).
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TOROMONT INDUSTRIES LTD., $28.56, symbol TIH on Toronto, distributes a range of industrial equipment, including machinery made by Caterpillar Inc. It also makes refrigeration systems through its CIMCO division. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, the company’s revenue rose 1.4%, to $472.0 million from $465.7 million a year earlier. However, earnings fell 2.8%, to $44.4 million, or $0.57 a share, from $45.7 million, or $0.59. Toromont saw weaker demand from customers in construction and mining. The company had to cut its prices to compete, and that lowered its profit margins and earnings....

FORTIS INC., $36.20, Toronto symbol FTS, has agreed to buy ITC Holdings Corp. (New York symbol ITC), which owns 25,100 kilometres of high-voltage power lines in Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. The company is paying $6.9 billion U.S. in cash and shares for ITC. Following the acquisition, ITC shareholders will own 27% of the combined company. Fortis will also list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange; its shares will continue to trade in Toronto. If you include ITC’s $4.4-billion U.S. debt, the total purchase price is $11.3 billion U.S. (or $15.7 billion Canadian). That’s roughly 1.5 times Fortis’s current market cap (the value of all outstanding shares) of $10.3 billion....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $30 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $42.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. suncor.com) is Canada’s largest oil producer. It also operates four refineries and 1,500 Petro-Canada gas stations, which supply 63% of its revenue. The company produced an average of 577,800 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2015, up 8.0% from 534,900 barrels in 2014. Suncor’s oil sands projects accounted for 80% of its output. However, Suncor lost $2.0 billion, or $1.38 a share, mainly because it wrote down the value of its reserves in response to the oil-price drop. It also wrote down its operations in Libya and some of its offshore projects. But without unusual items, Suncor earned $1.01 a share. In 2014, it earned $4.6 billion, or $3.15 a share....