Our #1 buy for 2012

Article Excerpt

We’ve chosen Canadian Pacific Railway as our “Stock of the Year” for 2012. Railways are highly cyclical. CP’s stock got as low as $30 in mid-2004, then shot up to briefly peak at $90 in mid-2007. It then fell to a low of $33 by March 2009, as the recession cut deeply into freight volumes. The stock more than doubled to $68 by February 2011 as the economy recovered. However, avalanches in B.C. and spring floods in the Prairies hurt CP’s volumes and earnings in 2011. The stock fell as low as $46 in September. It then began to rise in October, as the economic outlook and the stock market both improved. The company now has a new plan for dealing with bad weather and raising its efficiency. The recent involvement of a prominent American hedge fund may speed up CP’s earnings growth, and spur further gains in its stock price. CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $69 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing…