bombardier

LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD., $47.01, Toronto symbol L, has received approval from competition regulators for its acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. (Toronto symbol SC), which operates 1,253 drug stores across Canada. To win approval for the purchase, Loblaw has agreed to sell 18 stores and 9 pharmacies. It does not plan to close any of its 1,000 supermarkets. Loblaw will pay roughly $12.4 billion in cash and shares for Shoppers when the deal closes on March 28, 2014. The price is equal to 93% of its $13.3-billion market cap. After the deal closes, Shoppers shareholders will own 29% of the combined company....

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....

CANADA BREAD CO. LTD., $72.30, Toronto symbol CBY, has accepted a $72.00-a-share takeover offer from Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo SAB. Canada Bread’s shares are trading slightly higher than the bid. That’s because the deal lets the company keep paying quarterly dividends of up to $0.75 a share until Grupo Bimbo completes the takeover, probably by June 30, 2014. Before the deal, Canada Bread paid quarterly dividends of $0.50 a share. Investors should tender their shares to Grupo Bimbo to receive the full $72.00 without paying brokerage fees....

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....

CAE INC. $14 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 261.4 million; Market cap: $3.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) began operating in 1947 as Canadian Aviation Electronics Ltd. It originally made ground-communication equipment and antennas for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In 1952, the company began making flight simulators for air force pilots. It’s now the world’s leading maker of flight simulators for commercial and military aircraft. CAE made about half of the commercial aircraft simulators in use today and has 16% of the military simulator market.

Sales of simulators to airlines tend to move up and down with the economy. To steady its revenue, CAE began training pilots in 2001. It now trains over 100,000 pilots and crew members a year at 50 schools worldwide.
...

PLEASE NOTE: One week from today, on January 31, 2014, shortly after the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Toronto time, we will reveal our #1 U.S. Stock of 2014 to subscribers of Wall Street Stock Forecaster. You can be among the first to hear about our #1 pick for 2014. Because you’re a loyal subscriber, we are happy to offer you a bargain-priced, no-risk introduction to Wall Street Stock Forecaster. It gives you the first month—and the 2014 Stock of the Year—FREE. But you must act now. Click here. CAE INC., $14.24, Toronto symbol CAE, announced this week that it has sold five flight simulators to Air Canada and four other customers. In all, these orders are worth $70 million. That’s equal to 3% of CAE’s annual revenue of $2.2 billion....

PLEASE NOTE: One week from today, on January 24, 2014, shortly after the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Toronto time, we will reveal our #1 Aggressive Stock of 2014 to subscribers of Stock Pickers Digest. You can be among the first to hear about our #1 pick for 2014. Because you’re a loyal subscriber, we are happy to offer you a bargain-priced, no-risk introduction to Stock Pickers Digest. It gives you the first month—and the 2014 Stock of the Year—FREE. But you must act now. Click here. CAE INC., $14.10, Toronto symbol CAE, is our Stock of the Year for 2014. This is CAE’s third time as our #1 pick. It was our Stock of the Year in 2000, when it gained 130.0% for us. We picked it again for 2002, but 9/11 hurt air travel much more than we expected. Fuel prices also moved up, the economy weakened, and CAE dropped 54.2% that year....

We’ve chosen CAE Inc. as our Stock of the Year for 2014.

This is CAE’s third time as our #1. It was our Stock of the Year in 2000, when it gained 130.0% for us. We picked it again for 2002, but 9/11 hurt air travel much more than we expected. Fuel prices also moved up, the economy weakened, and CAE dropped 54.2% that year.

Today, CAE is a much different company....

CGI GROUP INC., $34.96, Toronto symbol GIB.A, is Canada’s largest provider of computer outsourcing services. It helps its clients automate certain routine functions, like accounting and buying supplies. That makes companies more efficient and lets them focus on their main businesses. The company is the lead contractor for the Healthcare.gov website, which lets Americans shop for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare). Since the site began operating on October 1, 2013, visitors have had trouble logging on and evaluating the various health plans. As a result, fewer users than expected have signed up. These problems have prompted Massachusetts and Vermont to withhold scheduled payments to CGI. Other states may do the same or demand refunds. That’s mainly why the stock is down 7% in the past week....

BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $4.52 and BBD.B $4.50; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $8.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has won an order for five of its new CSeries passenger jets from Iraqi Airways. This client also has options to buy 11 additional planes.

The company now has 182 firm orders for the CSeries. If buyers exercised their options for 237 more planes, these orders would total roughly $32 billion U.S. Bombardier expects to begin deliveries by the end of 2014.

Bombardier B stock is a buy....