price to sales ratio

METRO INC. $40 (Toronto symbol MRU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 227.1 million; Market cap: $9.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.metro.ca) operates 590 grocery stores and 250 drugstores, in Quebec and Ontario.

Rising minimum wages will probably add $35 million to $45 million to Metro’s costs for the current fiscal year; it earned $153.4 million, or $0.67 a share, in the quarter ended December 23, 2017.

In response, Metro is now testing a new automated checkout system that let shoppers scan items as they put them in their shopping cart and pay as they leave the store....

Rising interest rates have increased the attractiveness of bonds and hurt interest in high-yielding dividend stocks like these four utilities. However, steady cash flows from their high-quality operations will continue to let them keep increasing their payouts....

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $36 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Shares outstanding: 831.2 million; Market cap: $29.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Divd. yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil. ca) is Canada’s third-largest publicly traded oil company, after Suncor (No....

We recently selected CGI Group as our top Aggressive stock pick for 2018. That’s mainly because we feel it is in a strong position to profit as more businesses and governments outsource their increasingly complex computing functions to specialists like CGI.

The company also has an ambitious plan to double its size in the next few years, probably through acquisitions....

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $116 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares o/s: 3.5 billion; Market cap: $406.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.3; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. jpmorganchase.com) is the largest banking firm in the U.S., with total assets of $2.5 trillion as of December 31, 2017.

Morgan has four main businesses: Consumer and Community Banking, including branches and credit cards (45% of 2017 revenue, 36% of earnings); Corporate and Investment Banking, including brokerage and underwriting services (34%, 41%); Asset Management (13%, 9%); and Commercial Banking, which provides financing and other services to business clients (8%, 14%)....

BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. $70 (New York symbol BAX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 544.8 million; Market cap: $38.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.7; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.baxter....

APACHE CORP. $48 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 380.4 million; Market cap: $18.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apachecorp.com) produces oil and natural gas from properties in the U.S., Canada, Egypt and the U.K.

Pipeline outages have hurt Apache’s operations in the North Sea....

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP. $64 (New York symbol TUP; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 50.9 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.tupperwarebrands. com) makes household goods such as plastic containers for food, beverages, cosmetics and fragrances....

U.S. President Donald Trump has relaxed the Obama administration’s regulations on coal-fired power plants. Even so, many U.S. states say they will bring in their own new rules to maintain those tougher standards.

Meanwhile, these Midwest utilities continue to invest in renewable energy and to reduce coal use....

PEPSICO INC. $121 (Nasdaq symbol PEP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares o/s: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $169.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Divd. yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pepsico.com) is the world’s second-largest softdrink maker after Coca-Cola....