price to sales ratio
SONY CORP. ADRs $28 (New York symbol SNE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $28.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.sony.com) had to shut down its PlayStation Network for nearly a month because online intruders stole personal data....
INTEL CORP. $23 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.3 billion; Market cap: $121.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 15.9%, to $0.21 a share from $0.18125. The new annual rate of $0.84 yields 3.7%. This is the second time Intel has raised its payout in the last six months. Meanwhile, Intel is focusing on developing new chips for mobile devices, like tablet computers. That will help it offset slowing personal computer sales. As well, demand for its chips for server computers is rising as more people use mobile devices to access the Internet. Intel expects revenue from chips for servers and storage devices to more than double in the next five years, to $20 billion from $8.7 billion in 2010. It reported overall revenue of $43.6 billion in 2010....
J.C. PENNEY CO. INC. $36 (New York symbol JCP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 229.9 million; Market cap: $8.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jcpenney.com) reported that its sales rose 0.4% in the three months ended April 30, 2011, to $3.94 billion from $3.93 billion a year earlier....
THE BOEING CO. $76 (New York symbol BA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 738.3 million; Market cap: $56.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.boeing.com) has struggled in the past few years, mostly due to production problems with its new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet.
The plane is now three years behind schedule....
The plane is now three years behind schedule....
TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $52 and T.A $50; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 324 million; Market cap: $16.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) is Canada’s second-largest telephone company after BCE Inc. (Toronto symbol BCE). Telus has been expanding its wireless operations over the past few years. As a result, it now gets 52% of its earnings from its 7.0 million wireless subscribers across Canada. Telus now has 28% of the wireless market. Market leader Rogers Communications Inc. (Toronto symbol RCI.B) has 36%. The remaining 48% of the company’s earnings come from its traditional phone business, which has 3.7 million customers in British Columbia, Alberta and eastern Quebec. Telus also has 1.2 million Internet subscribers....
CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $33 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 753.9 million; Market cap: $24.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) operates three oil-sands properties in Alberta, and one in Saskatchewan. Cenovus ships the heavy bitumen from these projects to refineries in Illinois and Texas. ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of these refineries, as well as 50% of Cenovus’ two main oil-sands projects. Cenovus also owns conventional oil and natural-gas properties. The company has received approval from regulators to expand its Christina Lake oil-sands project in Alberta. It will build this project in three phases; each phase will add 40,000 barrels per day to Christina Lake’s current production of 18,000 barrels per day. Cenovus will complete the first phase in 2014, the second phase in 2016 and the third phase in 2017....
IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $46 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $39.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated-oil company. U.S.-based ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial’s shares. Most of the Imperial’s production comes from its oil-sands projects in Alberta. It also has conventional oil and natural-gas operations in western Canada, and holds interests in offshore projects in Atlantic Canada. The company’s other operations include four refineries and roughly 1,900 Esso gas stations. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Imperial earned $781 million, or $0.91 a share. That’s up 64.1% from $476 million, or $0.56 a share. Cash flow per share rose 4.7%, to $1.12 to $1.07. Revenue rose 11.4%, to $6.9 billion from $6.2 billion....
SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $39 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $62.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) merged with Petro-Canada in August 2009 to become Canada’s largest integrated-oil company. The company recently formed a joint venture with French oil company Total S.A., to develop two oil-sands projects. Under the terms of the deal, Suncor acquired 36.75% of Total’s Joslyn oil-sands project, which should begin operating in 2017. In exchange, Total received 49% of Suncor’s Voyageur facility, which converts tar-like bitumen from the oil sands into synthetic crude oil. Total also got part of Suncor’s stake in the Fort Hills oil-sands project....
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $61 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 169.4 million; Market cap: $10.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) transports freight between Montreal and Vancouver. It also connects with major hubs in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, CP’s earnings per share fell 66.7%, to $0.20 from $0.60 a year earlier. That’s mainly because a strike at Teck Resources Ltd. (Toronto symbol TCK.B) cut coal shipments (CP is Teck’s main railway). Bad winter weather in B.C. and a 28% jump in fuel prices also weighed on its earnings. CP’s revenue was unchanged at $1.2 billion. CP’s operating ratio worsened to 90.6% from 82.3% a year earlier. The company feels it can lower its operating ratio to around 70% in the next two to four years, mainly by increasing the speed and length of its trains. CP is also introducing new surcharges to help offset its higher fuel costs....
CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $73 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 461.8 million; Market cap: $33.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) operates Canada’s largest freight-rail network, and serves 16 U.S. states. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is CN’s largest shareholder, with just over 10% of the shares. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, CN earned $668 million. That’s up 30.7% from $511 million a year earlier. The company spent $340 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Because of fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 34.3%, to, $1.45 from $1.08. If you exclude one-time items in both quarters, mainly gains on sales of rail lines in southern Ontario, earnings per share would have risen 12.5%, to $0.90 from $0.80. Revenue rose 6.1%, to $2.1 billion from $2.0 billion....