boeing

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $59.35 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 36.6 million; Market cap: $2.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.7%) serves the following areas of the real estate market: commercial real estate, residential property management and property improvement. The company has more than 24,000 employees worldwide. In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, FirstService’s revenue rose 14.7%, to $660.7 million from $576.1 million a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). Excluding one-time items, earnings per share were $0.74, up 29.8% from $0.57. Revenue rose at all three of FirstService’s divisions: Colliers International (commercial real estate), up 22%; FirstService Residential (residential property management), up 9%; and FirstService Brands (property services), up 12%. FirstService Brands operates Paul Davis Restoration, California Closets and CertaPro Painters....

BOEING CO. $129 (New York symbol BA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 720.6 million; Market cap: $93.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.boeing.com) has won a contract from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop a new vehicle that will carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Boeing will build three of its Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) crew capsules at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The contract is worth $4.2 billion, which is equal to 5% of the company’s annual revenue of $88.4 billion.

NASA, which retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, plans to resume manned space flights in 2017.

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APPLE INC., $101.66, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, unveiled several upgrades to its hugely popular iPhone smartphone this week. The new model comes in two screen sizes, 4.7 inches (called the iPhone 6) and 5.5 inches (iPhone 6 Plus), both of which are larger than the current 4.0-inch iPhone 5. The bigger screens should help Apple compete with cheaper smartphones powered by Google’s Android software, particularly in emerging markets. The iPhone 6 also includes the company’s new wireless payment system, called Apple Pay. With this service, users add their credit card information to their phones. They can then use them to pay for goods at any tap-and-pay-enabled cash register and for some online purchases. To prevent fraudulent transactions, the phone will scan the user’s fingerprint to confirm their identity....

WESTJET AIRLINES $33.05 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) serves 90 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Its fleet of 107 modern Boeing 737s are 30% more fuel efficient than older jets.

In June 2013, the company launched WestJet Encore, its Canadian regional airline. This business now operates 13 Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop planes, which seat 78 passengers.

In the three months ended June 30, 2014, WestJet’s earnings rose 15.9%, to a second-quarter record of $51.8 million from $44.7 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 17.6%, to $0.40 from $0.34, on fewer shares outstanding. This was WestJet’s 37th consecutive quarter of profitability.

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WESTJET $26.85 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493- 7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) now plans to operate its own wide-body, twoaisle aircraft, starting in 2015. The planes will offer greater range than its current fleet of Boeing 737s and let it compete with Air Canada on international routes. WestJet aims to start with four wide-body planes, with the first flights going between Alberta and Hawaii during the winter season, beginning in late 2015. Right now, it is using two Boeing 757-200s operated by Thomas Cook for its Alberta-to-Hawaii winter service....

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $169.58 (New York symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The SPDR Dow Jones ETF’s top holdings are Visa, IBM, Goldman Sachs Group, ExxonMobil, Chevron, 3M, McDonald’s, Caterpillar, United Technologies and Boeing. The fund’s expenses are about 0.17% of its assets.

SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy.

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ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $29.34, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, has reported higher sales and earnings in the latest quarter, as well as a dividend increase. In the three months ended April 27, 2014, Couche-Tard’s sales rose 2.0%, to $9.0 billion from $8.8 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, per-share earnings gained 10.0%, to $0.22 from $0.20 (all figures adjusted for Couche-Tard’s 3-for-1 stock split on April 14, 2014). The company is raising its quarterly dividend by 20.0% with the July 2014 payment, to $0.04 from $0.033. The shares now yield 0.6%....

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock market index or sub-index. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day, at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

Bombardier recently had to suspend test flights of its CSeries passenger plane because of a problem with its Pratt & Whitney engines, which are 20% more fuel-efficient than current models. This was the first major issue with this new engine in over three years of testing. The delay will probably add to the CSeries’ development costs, but Bombardier still expects to begin deliveries in the second half of 2015. BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A and BBD.B; www.bombardier.com) is the world’s third-largest commercial aircraft maker, behind Boeing and Airbus. It is also the world’s leading passenger railcar manufacturer....

DEVON ENERGY CORP., $79.21, symbol DVN on New York, has agreed to sell some of its properties to Linn Energy LLC (Nasdaq symbol LINE) for $2.3 billion. The sale includes Devon’s holdings in the Rockies, the onshore Gulf Coast and the Mid-Continent region (which includes Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas). The sale will let Devon focus on what it sees as low-risk/high-reward properties, especially the oil-producing assets it bought in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation for $6 billion last year....