Small setback for SNC

Article Excerpt

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $40 (Toronto symbol SNC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 150.6 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.snclavalin.com) earned $26.5 million in the second quarter of 2015, down 17.3% from $32.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share declined 19.0%, to $0.17 from $0.21, on fewer shares outstanding. The drop was largely because SNC ran into unstable soil while building a mass-transit project, which increased its costs. Expenses at a separate highway project were also higher than expected, further hurting its earnings. However, revenue jumped 32.7%, to $2.25 billion from $1.7 billion, thanks to U.K.-based Kentz, which SNC bought in August 2014. Kentz provides engineering and construction services to the oil and gas industry and now supplies a third of SNC’s revenue. The stock fell to $36.24 in March 2015 after the RCMP laid charges against SNC and some of its subsidiaries for using bribes to…