Efficiency gains buoy CP

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $197.07 (Toronto symbol CP; shares o/s: 147.7 million; Market cap: $28.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 1.0%; www.cpr.ca) ships freight over a 22,000-kilometre rail network between Montreal and Vancouver. It links to hubs in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. The company reported 3.0% lower revenue in the three months ended December 31, 2016. That was mostly due to lower grain shipments caused by a late harvest and bad weather. In the quarter, earnings per share rose 11.8%, to $3.04 from $2.72. The higher profit was due to CP’s long-term plan to boost efficiency with new locomotives, upgraded tracks and software that optimizes trainloads and speeds. For all of 2017, CP expects its earnings per share to rise about 9%, to $11.22 a share. The stock trades at a reasonable 17.6 times that forecast. The $2.00 dividend yields 1.0%. CP Rail is a buy. buy…