investment

When the government introduced its income trust tax, most real estate investment trusts (REITs) were exempted. A year and a half after the tax took effect, this has kept REITs popular among investors seeking income as well as capital gains. PRIMARIS RETAIL REAL ESTATEINVESTMENT TRUST (Toronto symbol PMZ.UN; www.primarisreit.com) owns large malls in medium-sized Canadian cities and suburban areas. In all, it owns 33 properties that contain 13.7 million square feet of leasable area....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week we respond to a question from an Inner Circle member asking about one of the Canadian stocks with important interests in a nation that has been living through a period of upheaval, Libya. Pat notes that this infrastructure and engineering specialist also does a lot of business in North America, and assesses its outlook. ...

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $73.54, Toronto symbol CP, has resumed normal operations now that Ottawa has ended an eight-day strike by its locomotive engineers, conductors and yard workers. The strike probably cut CP’s earnings per share by around $0.20 in the second quarter of 2012. The company earned $0.82 a share in the first quarter. At CP’s recent annual meeting, U.S.-based activist investment firm Pershing Square Capital Management, which owns 14.2% of the company, succeeded in replacing seven of CP’s 16 directors with its own nominees....

This is the latest in a series of video interviews in which Pat McKeough gives his advice on a variety of topics. Some will deal with his overall investment philosophy, others on specific investment strategies and still others offer investment advice related to events that are affecting the markets and the economy. In last week’s video, Pat advised against selling during the market downturn. This week, the market turned up and Pat thinks people should look closer to home than Europe for one of the reasons why. He also looks at what may be ahead for the stock market.
Q: Pat, last week you said people shouldn’t be dumping their stocks. This week the market turned up. Was that because of something that happened in Europe, and do you think the crisis is over?...

FAIRFAX FINANCIAL HOLDINGS $392.57 (Toronto symbol FFH: TSINetwork Rating: Average) (416-367-2612; www.fairfax.ca; Shares outstanding: 19.9 million; Market cap: $7.8 billion; Dividend yield: 2.5%) has agreed to buy 77% of Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., a publicly traded company that sells travel, insurance and foreign exchange services in India.

Fairfax is buying this stake from struggling U.K.- based parent company Thomas Cook Group plc for $150 million U.S.

This investment should help Fairfax profit from increasing business travel to India.

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YAMANA GOLD $16.36 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www.yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 746.0 million; Market cap: $12.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) owns seven operating gold mines in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. It also holds a 12.5% stake in the Alumbrera copper/gold mine in Argentina, and has three other properties in advanced stages of development.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, Yamana’s revenue rose 17.6%, to $559.7 million from $476.1 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). The company increased its production and benefited from higher gold prices. Earnings per share rose 19.0%, to $0.25 from $0.21.

Yamana held a high cash balance of $867.6 million, or $1.16 a share, on March 31. Its $766.0 million of debt is just 6.3% of its market cap. Thanks to the improved results, the company is raising its quarterly dividend by 18.2% with the July 2012 payment, to $0.065 from $0.055. The shares now yield 1.3%.

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DUNDEE REIT $37.67 (Toronto symbol D.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-365-3535; www.dundeereit.com; Shares outstanding: 86.0 million; Market cap: $3.2 billion; Dividend yield: 5.8%) owns and manages 18.9 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space. The trust has a 95.6% occupancy rate. In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Dundee’s revenue jumped 64.9%, to $150.0 million from $91.0 million a year earlier. Most of the increase came from properties the trust recently purchased.

The best way to assess a real estate investment trust’s operating performance is to look at its cash flow, and Dundee’s cash flow rose 62.6% in the latest quarter, to $41.0 million from $25.2 million. Cash flow per unit rose 14.5%, to $0.63 from $0.55, due to more units outstanding (the trust issued new units to pay for the acquired properties).

Dundee’s growth-by-acquisition strategy adds risk, but it is diversifying outside western Canada. At the start of 2010, about 70% of its properties were in western Canada. That’s now down to less than 55%.

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CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $74.58 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 170.9 million; Market cap: $12.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.9%; www.cpr.ca) is the 2012 “Stock of the Year” for The Successful Investor, our conservative growth advisory. We chose CP early this year because we liked its plan to increase its efficiency. As well, a prominent U.S.-based activist investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, had acquired 14.2% of CP and was pushing for more changes. We thought that would further boost the company’s earnings and share price. Despite a market downturn, CP’s stock is up 8.1% since our Successful Investor recommendation. We think it has further gains ahead....

BCE INC. $41.54 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 773.6 million; Market cap: $32.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) is teaming up with a group of other investors, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, to buy privately held Q9 networks Inc. Toronto-based Q9 provides data-storage and web-hosting services to businesses across Canada. It has 11 data centres in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. This investment will help BCE take advantage of growing demand from business clients for reliable cloud-computing services (the general term for shifting software and data off of users’ machines and onto service providers’ machines via the Internet). The company already operates six data centres. It will open a seventh later this year....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $26.57 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 285.0 million; Market cap: $7.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest REIT. It has interests in 333 shopping malls in Canada, including 10 under development. These properties contain over 91 million square feet of leasable area. RioCan also owns stakes in 46 malls in the U.S. through joint ventures. In addition, it owns 14% of Cedar Shopping Centers, a U.S. REIT whose malls are mainly in the northeastern U.S. In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, RioCan’s revenue rose 15.6%, to $274 million from $237 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit rose 5.7%, to $0.37 from $0.35. The units yield 5.2%....