New businesses enhance their prospects

Article Excerpt

METRO INC. $48 (Toronto symbol MRU; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding 227.4 million; Market cap: $10.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.metro.ca) operates 600 grocery stores and 700 drugstores, in Quebec and Ontario. With the March 2018 payment, Metro raised its quarterly dividend by 10.8%. Investors now receive $0.18 a share instead of $0.1625. The new annual rate of $0.72 yields 1.5%. The company completed its acquisition of Quebec drugstore operator Jean Coutu in May. It paid $4.5 billion (75% in cash, 25% in shares).Metro expects that merging warehouses and eliminating overlapping operations with Jean Coutu will let it cut $75 million from its annual costs by the end of the third year. Those savings should let the company keep raising its dividend. In the fourth quarter ended September 30, 2018, Metro’s revenue rose 15.7%, to $3.7 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier. Earnings in the quarter rose 35.1%, to $161.0 million from $119.2 million. Earnings per share increased…