oil and gas

A: We haven’t found any infrastructure stocks we want to recommend as buys. But here’s a look at one of the hold recommendations by Stock Pickers Digest—as well as two prominent U.S. companies in the industry. Stantec, $33.18, symbol STN on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 93.9 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; www.stantec.com), is a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest. The company offers consulting and project management services for public works and a variety of facilities. It benefits from infrastructure investments all over North America. Stantec continues to grow by acquisition. At the same time, it cuts its costs by spreading administrative expenses, financing and employee benefits among its businesses and new acquisitions. But continually buying firms adds risk, including the risk of writedowns....

MITEL NETWORKS CORP., $9.11, symbol MNW on Toronto, develops and markets products for business telephone systems. It will buy another industry company—Polycom (symbol PLCM on Nasdaq)—for $1.96 billion U.S. in a friendly takeover. Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has pushed Mitel to join with Polycom. Elliott, founded by hedge-fund manager Paul Singer in 1977, first acquired stakes in the two companies in October 2015. It now holds 6.6% of Polycom and 9.6% of Mitel. Mitel will pay $3.13 U.S. in cash plus 1.31 Mitel shares for each Polycom share....

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO., $61.88, New York symbol JPM, is the largest banking firm in the U.S., with assets of $2.4 trillion. In the three months ended March 31, 2016, Morgan earned $5.5 billion, or $1.35 per share. That’s a 6.7% drop from $5.9 billion, or $1.45, a year earlier. Even so, earnings beat the consensus forecast of $1.26 a share. Revenue fell 3.0%, to $24.1 billion from $24.9 billion, but that also beat the consensus forecast of $23.4 billion....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $47 (www.snclavalin.com) acquired U.K.-based Kentz Corp. for $2.1 billion in August 2014. Kentz sells engineering and construction services to oil and gas firms. The purchase is helping SNC win more contracts in the Middle East....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $47 (www.snclavalin.com) acquired U.K.-based Kentz Corp. for $2.1 billion in August 2014. Kentz sells engineering and construction services to oil and gas firms. The purchase is helping SNC win more contracts in the Middle East....

Vecima Networks saw its revenue rise and earnings jump from increased sales of its broadband technology and because of the high U.S. dollar.

Imperial Oil is selling its remaining Esso gas stations. This will let the company focus on its oil sands operations. These projects will prosper when oil prices recover, and enhance the company’s growth prospects. IMPERIAL OIL $41.25 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $34.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.4%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated oil company with oil sands projects in Alberta and conventional oil and gas operations across Western Canada. It also operates three refineries. Imperial is now selling its 497 company-owned Esso gas stations to independent operators for $2.8 billion. Following the sale, franchisees will operate all 1,700 Esso stations across Canada....

MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $18.04 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $35.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other related forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Manulife’s earnings per share dropped sharply, to $0.11 from $0.33. That was largely due to writedowns in the value of its own investments in oil and gas stocks. However, excluding one-time items, per-share earnings rose 16.7%, to $0.42 from $0.36. The company continues to expand in growing Asian markets. Right now, about 40% of its insurance premiums come from that region....

Imperial Oil is selling its remaining Esso gas stations. This will let the company focus on its oil sands operations. These projects will prosper when oil prices recover, and enhance the company’s growth prospects.

IMPERIAL OIL $41.25 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $34.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.4%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated oil company with oil sands projects in Alberta and conventional oil and gas operations across Western Canada....

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $107.44 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index. It’s a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of big U.S. companies. This Vanguard ETF has an MER of just 0.09%. The $46.8 billion fund holds Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Walt Disney. Other top holdings include Philip Morris International, Comcast, Visa, Gilead Sciences and Oracle Corp. Its breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 23.0%; Health Care, 14.2%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.5%; Consumer Goods, 10.9%; Oil and Gas, 2.7%; Materials, 1.0%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%....