price to sales ratio

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $25 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units o/s: 312.7 million; Market cap: $7.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.5; Dividend yield: 5.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 267 shopping centres and other rental properties in Canada....

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $101 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $141.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.6; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s largest bank with assets of $1.27 trillion.


In November 2016, Royal acquired Los Angeles-based City National Bank....

BLACKBERRY LTD. $13 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 537.1 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.7; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) is in a strong position to profit as more businesses increase their spending on cybersecurity.


For example, the company recently introduced a new feature to protect corporate data from ransomware threats....

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $116 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 740.2 million; Market cap: $85.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.5; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) continues to benefit from rising crude oil production and a lack of new pipeline capacity.


In the quarter ended June 30, 2018, the company transported 155,000 carloads of petroleum products (crude oil, refined products and chemicals)....

Both crude oil and natural gas prices have moved up since the start of 2018. Still, we feel U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil will further lift oil prices. At the same time, rising North American production of shale natural gas should hurt overall gas prices. Due to those factors, we prefer oil companies like Cenovus over gas producers like Encana.


ENCANA CORP....

ANDREW PELLER LTD. (Toronto symbols ADW.A $17 and ADW.B $17; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 44.2 million; Market cap: $751.4 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.2%; www.andrewpeller.com) began operating in 1961, and is now Canada’s second-largest producer of wines, after Arterra Wines (formerly the Canadian division of Constellation Brands.) Its vineyards in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, and British Columbia’s Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, account of 14% of Canada’s wine market.


In October 2017, Peller acquired three wineries in B.C.: Black Hills Estate, Gray Monk Estate, and Tinhorn Creek....

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $82 (Toronto symbol QSR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 467.6 million; Market cap: $38.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.9; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.rbi.com) operates 17,022 Burger King, 4,794 Tim Hortons (coffee and donuts) and 2,975 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (fried chicken) outlets in over 100 countries.


Tim Hortons recently began offering an all-day breakfast menu at its outlets in Canada....

LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $68 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 375.3 million; Market cap: $25.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) aims to profit from Ottawa’s plan to legalize the sale and consumption of recreational cannabis on October 17, 2018.


The company has applied for a licence to sell recreational marijuana in Newfoundland and Labrador....

All four of these power and gas utilities reported lower earnings for the second quarter of 2018. Moreover, rising interest rates have hurt their appeal among income-seeking investors. Higher rates will also increase their borrowing costs as they raise funds for new projects.


Even so, most of their revenue comes from regulated operations....

CAE INC. $26 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 267.9 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) is the world’s largest maker of flight simulators for commercial airlines and military clients....