Competition feeds food store expansions

Article Excerpt

These two leading supermarket chains continue to open new outlets and upgrade their current stores. That helps them compete with big U.S. chains such as Wal-Mart and Costco. Their strong earnings help support those expansion plans and provide cash for dividends. LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $72 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 407.4 million; Market cap: $29.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) operates Canada’s largest supermarket chain. Its 1,100 stores include a variety of banners: Loblaw, Zehrs, Provigo, Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills. In March 2014, the company purchased the Shoppers Drug Mart chain for $12.3 billion in cash and shares. Shoppers operates 1,300 drug stores across Canada. Eliminating overlapping operations saved Loblaw $28 million in the quarter ended March 26, 2016. That helped lift its earnings by 12.3%, to $338 million from $301 million a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 13.9%, to $0.82…