cp rail

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $190.72 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares o/s: 175.1 million; Market cap: $32.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.7%; www.cpr.ca) expects to ship 140,000 to 210,000 carloads of crude oil a year by the end of 2015, up from 90,000 in 2013.

Higher crude shipments and improving efficiency should increase CP’s 2014 earnings by 30% over 2013, to $8.35 a share....

ATCO LTD. (Toronto symbols ACO.X [class I non-voting] $55 and ACO.Y [class II voting] $55; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 115.1 million; Market cap: $6.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.atco.com) has won a contract to operate a new camp for 1,500 potash miners in Saskatchewan....

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $171.19, Toronto symbol CP, reported better-than-expected earnings this week, despite harsh winter weather that cut shipping volumes and slowed deliveries. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, CP’s earnings rose 17.1%, to $254 million from $217 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings increased at a slower pace of 16.1%, to $1.44 from $1.24, on more shares outstanding. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.41. Revenue rose 0.9%, to $1.51 billion from $1.50 billion. That’s mainly due to higher revenue from shipping consumer and industrial products (up 10.8%) and grain (up 4.1%). These gains offset declines in major areas like fertilizers (down 11.8%), automotive products (down 9.3%), forest products (down 9.4%) and coal (down 0.7%)....

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $162 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 175.7 million; Market cap: $28.5 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 4.6; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) will repurchase up to 1.3 million of its shares from a private seller at a discount to the market price.

This move is part of the company’s plan to buy back up to 5.3 million of its common shares, or roughly 3% of the total outstanding, by March 16, 2015. Share buybacks raise earnings per share and other per-share calculations, and give the remaining shareholders a larger stake in the company.

CP Rail is a buy....

CANADA BREAD CO. LTD. $73 (Toronto symbol CBY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 25.4 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadabread.ca) is Canada’s second-largest producer of fresh and frozen baked goods, after Weston Bakery.

Shareholders recently approved a $72.00-a-share takeover offer from Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo SAB....

TELUS $39.14 (Toronto symbol T; Shares outstanding: 623.4 million; Market cap: $24.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.telus.com) has paid an undisclosed sum for Groupe Enode Inc., a privately held Quebec firm whose software protects databases from online intruders.

Enode’s expertise should help Telus attract more government and corporate clients and make its cloud computing services more secure....

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $174 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 175.7 million; Market cap: $30.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) has started charging oil producers a special surcharge for each older DOT-111 tanker car they use on its rail network.

CP hopes the charge will encourage these customers to upgrade to models with thicker hulls. That would make it less likely that oil will spill and catch fire in the event of a crash.

The company is also considering selling $2 billion worth of surplus real estate. These funds would help CP pay for its plan to buy back 3% of its shares over the next year.
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CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $169.99, Toronto symbol CP, and CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $61.98, Toronto symbol CNR, have had trouble shipping last year’s record grain harvest on the Prairies to Canada’s west coast due to bad winter weather. To help clear the backlog, Ottawa now plans to fine CP and CN if they fail to ship a minimum amount of grain per day. The railways already plan to increase shipments as the weather improves, so any fines should be small next to their earnings. CP Rail and CN Rail are still buys....

SAPUTO INC. $56 (Toronto symbol SAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 194.8 million; Market cap: $10.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.saputo.com) now owns 87.92% of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, an Australian producer of milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products....

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....