Gains and steady income at a bargain

Article Excerpt

Acquisitions and new products have spurred strong gains in Molson Coors shares (up 23% in the past year) and Andrew Peller (up 36%). Even so, both stocks still trade at low multiples to earnings. They also have long histories of rising dividends. MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. (Toronto symbols TPX.A $51 and TPX.B $51; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 183.6 million; Market cap: $9.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.molsoncoors.com) is one of the world’s leading brewers. Its main brands include Coors Light, Molson Canadian and Carling. In the three months ended June 29, 2013, the company earned $278.6 million (all amounts except share prices and market cap in U.S. dollars). That’s up 11.4% from $250.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 9.4%, to $1.51 from $1.38. These figures exclude unusual items, mainly costs to integrate StarBev LP, which the company bought for $3.4 billion in June 2012. StarBev owns nine breweries…