price to sales ratio

Loblaw and Metro continue to face strong competition from larger retailers, like Wal-Mart, which are expanding their grocery sales. However, both companies have improved their prospects by launching attractive new products and expanding into profitable niche markets. LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $39 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 282.3 million; Market cap: $11.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) is Canada’s largest food retailer, with about 1,000 company-owned and franchised stores. In the quarter ended June 18, 2011, Loblaw’s revenue rose just 0.1%, to $7.28 billion from $7.27 billion a year earlier. However, same-store sales fell 0.4%. Higher sales of clothing and fuel offset flat food sales....

ENBRIDGE INC. $35 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 774.5 million; Market cap: $27.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) is buying 50% of a 300-megawatt wind power project northeast of Quebec City. This investment will cost Enbridge $330 million, or 25% of the $1.3 billion, or $1.75 a share, of cash flow that it reported for the first half of 2011. Wind farms are uneconomic, but operators profit from subsidies. This project has a 20-year deal to sell its power to Hydro-Quebec. Enbridge is a buy.

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $79 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 444.8 million; Market cap: $35.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) will buy back up to 5.65 million of its common shares from a private seller, at a discount to their market price. It aims to complete these purchases by March 2012. This is part of CN’s plan to buy back 17 million of its shares, or 3.8% of the total outstanding, by October 27, 2012. Share buybacks raise earnings per share and other per-share calculations, and give the remaining shareholders a larger stake in the company. CN Rail is a buy....

TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $54 and T.A $51; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 324.5 million; Market cap: $17.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) continues to benefit from rising demand for smartphones, like the iPhone and devices that run Google’s Android operating system. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Telus added 114,000 new wireless subscribers, net of deactivations. That’s down 25.5% from 153,000 a year earlier. However, 70% of these new long-term customers use smartphones. That pushed up demand for data services, such as web browsing. As a result, Telus’s revenue rose 6.5% in the quarter, to $2.6 billion from $2.5 billion a year earlier. Earnings rose 29.9%, to $326 million from $251 million. Earnings per share rose 28.2%, to $1.00 from $0.78, on more shares outstanding....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $25 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 269.6 million; Market cap: $6.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.3; Dividend yield: 5.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT). It specializes in big-box-style outdoor malls, and owns 314 retail properties, 10 of which are under development. Most are in suburban areas, where land is generally cheaper than in towns and cities. RioCan also owns 38 malls in the U.S. through a joint venture with Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. (New York symbol CDR). The trust owns 80% of this joint venture, as well as 14.3% of Cedar. RioCan often leaves room at its malls for expanding existing stores, and building new ones. This makes its easy to add more tenants....

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $34 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.9 billion; Market cap: $132.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jpmorganchase.com) is one of the world’s largest financial-services companies, with 5,400 retail bank branches in the U.S. It also offers credit cards, wealth-management and investment-banking services. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Morgan earned $4.3 billion, down 3.5% from $4.4 billion a year earlier. However, earnings per share rose 1.0%, to $1.02 from $1.01, on fewer shares outstanding. If you exclude unusual items, such as costs to settle lawsuits related to subprime mortgages, Morgan would have earned $0.97 a share in the latest quarter. Revenue fell 0.3%, to $23.76 billion from $23.82 billion. Loan-loss provisions fell 25.2%, to $2.4 billion from $3.2 billion. However, the latest figure is up from $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2011....

WELLS FARGO & CO. $26 (New York symbol WFC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 5.3 billion; Market cap: $137.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wellsfargo.com) provides a wide variety of financial services through roughly 9,000 branches in the U.S. It also operates in Canada, the Caribbean and Central America. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company owns 7% of Wells Fargo’s shares. In the quarter ended September 30, 2011, Wells Fargo earned $4.1 billion, up 21.4% from $3.3 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 20.0%, to $0.72 from $0.60, on more shares outstanding. More clients are repaying their loans on time. As a result, loan-loss provisions fell 47.4%, to $1.8 billion from $3.4 billion. That was the main reason for the earnings increase. Even so, revenue fell 6.0%, to $19.6 billion from $20.9 billion. That’s largely because Wells Fargo is getting less interest income from borrowers due to today’s low interest rates. As well, it has a smaller investment banking business than J.P. Morgan (see below), so it is more reliant on traditional lending....

NVIDIA CORP. $15 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 603.7 million; Market cap: $9.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nvidia.com) develops 3D graphics chips and related technology for computers, gaming consoles and other devices. The company’s chips make computer games run more smoothly and appear more lifelike. Nvidia focuses on design, and outsources production to other chipmakers. The company continues to see strong demand for its chips from makers of smartphones and other mobile devices; Motorola and Samsung are now using Nvidia’s new Tegra chips in their latest smartphones. Rising sales to mobile device makers are also offsetting slower sales of chips for desktop and notebook computers. In its 2011 second quarter, which ended July 31, 2011, Nvidia earned $193.5 million. That’s up 306.2% from $47.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 300.0%, to $0.32 from $0.08, on more shares outstanding. Sales rose 25.3%, to $1.0 billion from $811.2 million....

TERADATA CORP. $57 (New York symbol TDC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 168.3 million; Market cap: $9.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.4; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.teradata.com) makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data, including its sales and inventory. Teradata then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and trends. This helps its clients make better business decisions. The company continues to add to its expertise in cloud computing, which involves storing data and software on one or more centralized servers. Users access these programs or files over the Internet, or through some other computer network. For example, in January 2011 Teradata paid $525 million for privately held Aprimo, which uses a cloud computing model to sell software and services to over 150,000 clients. Aprimo’s products help its customers evaluate their marketing campaigns....

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $28 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 490.9 million; Market cap: $13.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. As well, graphic designers use Adobe’s software to create print publications and web pages. The company also makes Adobe Flash, which lets web site developers add animation and video. In its third quarter, which ended September 2, 2011, Adobe’s earnings fell 15.2% to $195.1 million, or $0.39 a share. A year earlier, it earned $230.1 million, or $0.44 a share. Without one-time items, earnings per share would have risen 1.9%, to $0.55 from $0.54. Revenue rose 2.3%, to $1.01 billion from $990.3 million....