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AASTRA TECHNOLOGIES, $36.16, symbol AAH on Toronto, jumped over 29% this week after the company said it has agreed to a friendly takeover offer from Mitel Networks (symbol MNW on Toronto). Mitel is offering $6.52 U.S. in cash and 3.6 Mitel common shares for each share of Aastra. Based on today’s price for Mitel stock, the offer is worth $37.16 per Aastra share. Aastra develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its technology is centred around business telephone systems and includes products that integrate land lines and mobile phones....
AIMIA INC. (Toronto symbol AIM; www.aimia.com) owns and operates Aeroplan, Canada’s largest loyalty program. It also owns Nectar, the U.K.’s biggest loyalty program. In addition, Aimia has interests in Air Miles Middle East and Nectar Italia, as well as Club Premier, the leading loyalty program in Mexico....
DUNDEE REIT, $28.25, symbol D.UN on Toronto, owns and manages 24.3 million square feet of office and retail space. The real estate investment trust has a 94.9% occupancy rate. As the Canadian economy improves, the trend in interest rates is likely to be upward. That rise—or the anticipation of an increase—can push down prices of REITs and high-yielding stocks, such as utilities. That’s largely why a number of REITs, including Dundee, have moved down lately. When interest rates rise, REITs may suffer because they have a lot of mortgage debt, and it’s more expensive to raise money and refinance existing loans. As well, their units, which typically offer high yields, compete with fixed-income instruments for investor interest....
CAMECO CORP., $19.76, symbol CCO on Toronto, is the world’s largest uranium producer. It supplies 14% of global production and has large, high-grade reserves, low-cost operations, significant market share and a number of uranium mines. Cameco’s exploration efforts are now focused in Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and the U.S. However, it may now consider Greenland for potential uranium exploration projects. That’s because Greenland’s parliament has agreed to remove a 25-year-old ban on uranium mining. The government is hoping that revenue from mining will help it gain independence from Denmark. Greenland was a colony of Denmark, but gained semi-autonomy in 2008....
WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE (New York symbol WYN; www.wyndhamworldwide.com) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,440 franchised hotels worldwide. Its business originated with the Howard Johnson and Ramada chains which opened their first hotels in 1954. The company subsequently added such well-known brands as Days Inn, Super 8, Knights Inn and Travelodge hotels....
WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE CORP., $67.35, symbol WYN on New York, reported higher revenue and earnings in the latest quarter, and the shares rose to a new all-time high. In the three months ended September 30, 2013, the hotel and resort operator’s revenue rose 12.8%, to $1.43 billion from $1.27 billion a year earlier. The company gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That helped push up Wyndham’s occupancy rate by 1.9%. Before one-time items, earnings rose 24.8%, to $1.41 a share from $1.13. The company continues to buy back its stock. In the latest quarter, it repurchased 2.7 million shares for $160 million. In 2012, it bought back 12.9 million shares for $623 million....
GOOGLE INC., $1,011.41, Nasdaq symbol GOOG, jumped 14% on Friday after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue. In the three months ended September 30, 2013, earnings rose 23.3%, to $3.6 billion from $3.0 billion a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share rose at a slower rate of 21.1%, to $10.74 from $8.87....
BELLATRIX EXPLORATION LTD., $8.14, symbol BXE on Toronto, is buying Angle Energy (symbol NGL on Toronto) for $576 million in cash and shares. Angle currently produces 10,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day (58% oil and 42% natural gas) in Alberta. Bellatrix’s output is 22,500 barrels a day, so they will have combined daily production of 33,000 barrels. The purchase also increases Bellatrix’s inventory of drilling targets by 500, to over 2,000, and doubles its undeveloped land base to over 400,000 acres. The company now expects to end 2013 with production as high as 40,000 barrels a day, up from 30,000 to 31,000 before the Angle acquisition. It also expects Angle to immediately add to its cash flow per share....
AMAZON.COM INC., $310.89, symbol AMZN on Nasdaq, won a $600-million deal to build a cloud computing service for the U.S Central Intelligence Agency early this year. This system would let the CIA more effectively connect with the broader intelligence community. The project will run over four years. However, the CIA has traditionally awarded many of its big computing contracts to IBM (New York symbol IBM), a recommendation of our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. IBM protested the awarding of this deal to Amazon, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the CIA reopen negotiations. Immediately afterward, Amazon filed a complaint, which then led to a hearing on Monday of this week....