cp rail

Investment counsellor
Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor.

Torstar has struggled in the past few years as more people get their news from the Internet, rather than newspapers. But the company is doing a good job of responding to its challenges, which should let it improve its earnings and maintain its current payouts.

TORSTAR CORP. (Toronto symbol TS.B; www.torstar.com) publishes the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper by circulation. It also publishes three other daily papers and over 100 weeklies.

The slow economy continues to hurt advertising sales at Torstar’s newspapers. In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, the company’s revenue fell 7.4%, to $225.6 million from $243.6 million a year earlier.

Earnings jumped 44.2%, to $18.1 million, or $0.23 a share, from $12.6 million, or $0.16 a share. However, if you disregard restructuring costs and other unusual items, earnings per share fell 4.8%, to $0.20 from $0.21.

...
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $230.28, Toronto symbol CP, earned a record $400 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014, up 20.8% from $331 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 22.9%, to $2.31 from $1.88, on fewer shares outstanding. Even so, that missed the consensus estimate of $2.39 a share. Revenue rose 8.9%, to a record $1.67 billion from $1.53 billion. CP saw strong revenue gains from shipping grain, crude oil, metals and consumer products. That offset declines in shipments of fertilizer, coal and automotive products....
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $231(Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.5 million; Market cap: $39.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.4; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) prefers to use its excess cash to buy back shares instead of raising its dividend. That’s because many of its investors live in the U.S. and are subject to withholding taxes on dividends from Canadian firms.

The company could repurchase up to 5.3 million shares under its latest authorization. It has now reached this limit, so it has increased its target to 12.65 million shares, or 7% of the total outstanding. It expects to complete these purchases by March 16, 2015.

CP Rail is a buy.

...
ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $21.54 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange....
Investment Advice
Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor.

BCE is facing regulatory hurdles, but the company is improving its services while keeping its operating costs down. That should let it maintain its high dividend yield.

BCE INC. (Toronto symbol BCE; www.bce.ca ) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone services, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.3 million TV subscribers.

BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.

The company recently offered to buy the 56% of Bell Aliant (Toronto symbol BA) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant sells phone and Internet services to 2.3 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.

...
Paper rolls
Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. Domtar Corp. (symbol UFS on Toronto; www.domtar.com), is among North America’s largest producers of paper (sold in huge rolls), with an annual capacity of about 3.4 million tons....
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $224.99, Toronto symbol CP, recently offered to merge with CSX Corp. (New York symbol CSX), the third-largest railway in the U.S. CSX has rejected the proposal. A merger would help CP ship more crude oil from producers in North Dakota’s Bakken region to refineries in the Midwest and on the U.S. east coast. It would also help CP speed up shipments, because the company would not have to transfer railcars to another railway. The combined firm would be one of North America’s largest railways. However, regulators would have likely blocked the merger or required CP and CSX to sell significant parts of their operations. Still, the prospect of a future deal adds to CP’s long-term appeal....
Commodity Investments
Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. (symbol VOIL on the OTCQB market; www.virtusoilandgas.com), began trading in June 2014. The OTCQB market, formerly called the U.S. over-the-counter bulletin board, has no minimum financial standards and includes shell companies and penny stocks with minimal operations....
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $231(Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.5 million; Market cap: $39.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.4; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) prefers to use its excess cash to buy back shares instead of raising its dividend. That’s because many of its investors live in the U.S. and are subject to withholding taxes on dividends from Canadian firms. The company could repurchase up to 5.3 million shares under its latest authorization. It has now reached this limit, so it has increased its target to 12.65 million shares, or 7% of the total outstanding. It expects to complete these purchases by March 16, 2015. CP Rail is a buy....
Investment Counsellor
Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. Leisureworld Senior Care Corp., $13.28, symbol LW on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 36.3 million; Market cap: $481.6 million; www.leisureworld.ca), is one of Canada’s largest operators of seniors’ housing and the biggest licensed long-term care provider in Ontario....