teck resources

Eagle Plains Resources, $0.42, symbol EPL on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 78.6 million; Market cap: $32.6 million; www.eagleplains.com), controls over 35 gold, base-metal and uranium projects Eagle Plains owns several of these projects with other companies, including Aben Resources Ltd., Excelsior Mining Corp., Sandstorm Resources Ltd., Sandstorm Metals and Energy Ltd., Providence Resources Corp., Waterloo Resources Ltd., Windstorm Resources Inc., Blackrock Resources Ltd. (a private B.C. company); Heemskirk Canada Ltd., Touchdown Capital Inc., Active Growth Capital and Giyani Gold Corp. In the past few years, Eagle Plains has signed option agreements with Teck Resources, Alexco Resource Corp., Billiton Metals, Rio Algom Exploration, NovaGold Resources and Kennecott Exploration, as well as many other junior-exploration firms. This has provided over $28.3 million of exploration spending on Eagle Plains’ projects since 1998, including 53,600 metres of drilling....

RESEARCH IN MOTION INC., $55.78, Toronto symbol RIM, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. However, the stock fell 11%. That’s because the company’s sales forecast for the current quarter fell short of the consensus estimate. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended February 26, 2011, RIM’s earnings rose 38.8% to $3.4 billion from $2.5 billion in fiscal 2010 (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). Earnings per share rose 47.1%, to $6.34 from $4.31, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus estimate of $6.29 a share. The company shipped a record 52.3 million BlackBerry smartphones in fiscal 2011, up 43% from the prior year. That’s why revenue rose 33.1%, to $19.9 billion from $15.0 billion....

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $57.66, Toronto symbol BNS, reported record earnings this week. That prompted the bank to raise its dividend. In its 2011 first quarter, which ended January 31, 2011, Bank of Nova Scotia earned a record $1.2 billion. That’s up 18.8% from $988 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 17.6%, to $1.07 from $0.91, on more shares outstanding. That beat the consensus earnings estimate of $1.06 a share. Revenue rose 5.6%, to $4.1 billion from $3.9 billion. The bank continues to set aside less money to cover bad loans because of the improving economy; that was the main reason for the higher earnings. In the latest quarter, loan-loss provisions fell 27.5%, to $269 million from $371 million a year earlier....

LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $39 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; 280.6 million; Market cap: $10.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) aims to open 20 stand-alone “Joe Fresh” clothing and accessories stores over the next few years. It already has one store in Vancouver, and plans to open five more outlets in 2011: three in Toronto, one in Calgary and one in New York City. However, the company faces growing competition from non-food retailers like Canadian Tire that have started selling groceries. As well, Wal-Mart plans to open 40 new grocery stores in Canada this year. Rising food costs could also squeeze Loblaw’s profit margins. Loblaw is a hold....

ISHARES MSCI CANADA INDEX FUND $33.63 (New York symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is like a market-cap-based index fund, but its managers try to improve performance by tinkering with the index-fund formula. They do this through their Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The fund has an MER of 0.50%. The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 5.8%; TD Bank, 5.0%; Suncor Energy, 5.0%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.4%; Potash Corp., 4.0%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.7%; Barrick Gold, 3.6%; Teck Resources, 2.7%; Bank of Montreal, 2.5%; Goldcorp, 2.4%; CN Railway, 2.4%; Manulife Financial, 2.4%; CIBC, 2.3% and Research in Motion, 2.2%. If you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund. You’ll pay about a third of the management fees....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have a place in your portfolio. That’s because, unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees, or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to get out of them. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You’ll have to pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs. However, ETFs’ low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most conventional mutual funds. As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital-gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders....

Copper continues to attract a lot of attention from investors in commodity stocks. That’s because the metal recently hit an all-time high of $4.62 U.S. a pound. That’s up sharply from its low of $1.25 U.S. in late 2008. Right now, copper trades at around $4.47 U.S. a pound. Traditionally, investors have bought copper as a way to profit from general economic growth. That’s because, unlike gold, silver and many other precious metals, copper has a wide range of industrial uses. For example, it’s a key element in electrical wire and pipe.

Higher copper will brighten this commodity stock’s prospects

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CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE, $82.25, Toronto symbol CM, reported sharply higher earnings this week. In its 2011 first quarter, which ended January 31, 2011, the bank’s earnings rose 22.5%, to $799 million, or $1.92 a share. A year earlier, it earned $652 million, or $1.58 a share. If you exclude unusual items, such as writedowns of securities the bank holds and a gain on the sale of a business, earnings per share would have risen 19.6%, to $1.95 from $1.63. On this basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $1.77 a share. Revenue rose 1.3%, to $3.10 billion from $3.06 billion....

TECK RESOURCES LTD. $58 (Toronto symbol TCK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 590.6 million; Market cap: $34.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.teck.com) sold 23.2 million tonnes of coal in 2010, up 17.2% from 19.8 million tonnes in 2009. Coal prices rose 15.3% in 2010, to $181 U.S. a tonne from $157 U.S. Teck is also seeing stronger demand and rising prices for its other commodities, including copper, zinc and lead. As a result, its earnings rose 61.3% in 2010, to $1.5 billion from $924 million in 2009. Earnings per share rose 51.4%, to $2.62 from $1.73. These figures exclude unusual items, such as gains on asset sales. Revenue rose 21.7% in 2010, to a record $9.3 billion from $7.7 billion. In 2011, Teck will probably sell 24.5 million to 25.5 million tonnes of coal. That’s up around 8% from 2010, but down from its earlier prediction of 26.0 million tonnes....

Copper Fox Metals, $0.97, symbol CUU on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 360.0 million; Market cap: $349.2 million; www.copperfoxmetals.com), is currently focused on completing a feasibility study on the Schaft Creek deposit in northwestern British Columbia. The company believes this is one of Canada’s largest undeveloped copper/gold/molybdenum/silver deposits. Copper Fox recently raised $4 million in a share issue to fund Schaft Creek’s development. Teck Resources has an option to acquire up to 75% of the Schaft Creek deposit by paying Copper Fox four times its development costs to date and arranging financing for a mine. Copper Fox is okay to hold, but only for highly aggressive investors....