Finning lifts its capital spending

Article Excerpt

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $38 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol FTT; Cyclical-Growth Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 145.2 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; Dividend yield: 2.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) sells and services Caterpillar-brand heavy equipment in Western Canada, South America, the U.K. and Ireland. Its main customers are in the oil and gas, mining, forestry products, and construction industries. With the June 2023 payment, Finning raised your quarterly dividend by 5.9%, to $0.25 a share from $0.236. The new annual rate of $1.00 yields 2.6%. Finning has now raised the annual dividend rate each year for the past 22 years. The company planned to invest $300 million in its operations in 2023, up from its previous forecast of $190 million to $240 million. Those investments should have helped lift earnings in 2023 by 19% to $3.88 a share. The stock trades at just 9.8 times that estimate. Finning is a buy. buy. …