We’re changing our rating on Linamar

Article Excerpt

LINAMAR CORP. $64 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.8 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.linamar.com) gets around 80% of its revenue by making engines, transmissions and other precision-machined parts for automakers. It has 44 plants in North America, Europe and Asia. The remaining 20% of Linamar’s revenue mainly comes from self-propelled, scissor-type elevating work platforms, which it sells under the Skyjack name. The company also makes other industrial machinery, such as parts for wind farms. Pent-up car demand boosted results Thanks to strong car demand after the recession, Linamar’s revenue jumped 114.5%, from $1.7 billion in 2009 to $3.6 billion in 2013. In addition, automakers are cutting their own costs by outsourcing more production to suppliers like Linamar. The recession also prompted Linamar to cut jobs and close some plants. The resulting lower costs caused its earnings to soar from $0.02 a share (or…