Cyclical leaders at moderate prices

Article Excerpt

We include these three manufacturing companies in our Aggressive Growth Portfolio, mainly because they operate in industries that are particularly vulnerable to swings in the overall economy. Even so, all three are market leaders with strong growth prospects. They also trade at attractive multiples to earnings. BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $5.08 and BBD.B $5.06; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $8.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) is the world’s third-largest commercial aircraft maker, behind Boeing and Airbus. It is also the world’s leading passenger railcar manufacturer. The company has postponed the first test flight of its new CSeries passenger jet. It had planned to begin flight tests in June, but it needs extra time to upgrade the plane’s software. Bombardier has firm orders for 177 CSeries jets, plus options for 211 more. If the buyers exercise all these options, the resulting 388 orders would be worth…