price to sales ratio

BLACKBERRY INC. $15 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 524.0 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.blackberry.com) announced that the U.S....

TRANSCANADA CORP. $49 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 707.0 million; Market cap: $34.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.2; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) plans to build a new 200- kilometre crude oil pipeline that will connect Edmonton to the storage hub at Hardisty, Alberta....

METRO INC. $70 (Toronto symbol MRU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 95.2 million; Market cap: $6.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.metro.ca) earned $100.5 million in the 12 weeks ended March 16, 2013....

MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. (Toronto symbols TPX.A $49 and TPX.B $49; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 181.7 million; Market cap: $8.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.molsoncoors.com) is one of the world’s leading brewers....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $27 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 950.6 million; Market cap: $25.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend Yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s secondlargest insurance company after Manulife, with $545.8 billion of assets under administration. It also sells mutual funds and retirement planning and wealth management services. Power Financial Corp. (Toronto symbol PFC) owns 68.2% of Great-West.

Revenue fell 11.9%, from $33.9 billion in 2008 to $29.9 billion in 2011. That’s partly because low interest rates have cut the interest income the company earns on its investment portfolio. However, revenue rose 0.5%, to $30.1 billion, in 2012.


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SHAWCOR LTD. $41 (Toronto symbol SCL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 58.8 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.shawcor.com) has completed its plan to convert its class A (one vote per share) and class B (10 votes per share) shares into a single class of common shares (one vote per share).

Under the plan, each class A share became one common share. Class B shareholders had the option of receiving 1.1 common shares or $43.43 in cash for each share they held (the company capped the cash portion at 90% of the total compensation). ShawCor will also pay a special dividend of $1.00 a share to all shareholders on April 19, 2013.

The total cost of buying back the class B shares and the special dividend is roughly $580 million. To help pay for this, ShawCor has borrowed $350 million U.S. That pushed up its total debt to $368 million (Canadian), which is still a low 15% of its market cap.
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RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $28 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 300.8 million; Market cap: $8.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.9; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) has teamed up with Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (Toronto symbol AP.UN) and privately held Diamond Corp. to buy a second property in downtown Toronto. In December 2012, the partners acquired a larger, adjacent building. They plan to redevelop these two holdings into a single retail-office complex.

As before, RioCan and Allied will each own 40%, while Diamond will own 20%. RioCan’s share of this latest purchase is $14.9 million. To put that in context, its cash flow was $116 million, or $0.39 a unit, in the fourth quarter of 2012.

RioCan is a buy....

NORDION INC. $6.98 (Toronto symbol NDN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 61.9 million; Market cap: $432.1 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; No dividends paid since July 2012; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.nordion.com) has agreed to settle a lawsuit related to problems at its Montreal drug-testing lab, which the company sold in 2010.

Nordion will pay $22.5 million U.S. That’s equal to 46% of the $48.7 million U.S., or $0.79 U.S. a share, that it earned in the year ended October 31, 2012.

Nordion is still a hold.
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TORSTAR CORP. $7.15 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.7 million; Market cap: $569.9 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 7.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.torstar.com) owns romance novel publisher Harlequin, which recently formed a joint venture with Cosmopolitan magazine that will publish two e-books a month, starting in August 2013.

The new series, called Cosmo Red Hot Reads, will help Harlequin profit from fast-growing demand for erotica, such as the best-selling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Harlequin has also hired best-selling author Sylvia Day to launch this new series, which should help attract new readers.

Torstar is a buy....

ENBRIDGE INC. $46 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 806.5 million; Market cap: $37.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) has agreed to build a 50-kilometre pipeline that will connect the Hangingstone oil sands project in Alberta to its existing pipeline system. This will be the ninth oil sands project to use this network.

The company will spend $200 million to build this pipeline. That’s equal to 16% of the $1.25 billion, or $1.62 a share, that Enbridge earned in 2012. The new line should begin operating in late 2015. Enbridge also has a 25-year shipping contract with Hangingstone’s developer, which cuts the risk of this investment.

Enbridge is a buy....