The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, May 14, 2010

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN TIRE CORP., $57.22, Toronto symbol CTC.A, rose 8% this week after the company reported better-than-expected earnings. In the three months ended April 3, 2010, Canadian Tire earned $49.4 million, or $0.61 a share. That’s down 0.6% from $49.7 million, or $0.61 a share, a year earlier. If you exclude unusual items, such as losses on property sales, earnings per share would have risen 3.3%, to $0.63 from $0.61. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.55 a share. Sales rose 4.1%, to $1.83 billion from $1.76 billion. Overall sales rose 2.1% at the company’s main retail division, which consists of its Canadian Tire stores and the PartSource auto-parts chain. The division’s same-store sales rose 1.7%. Warmer-than-normal spring weather pushed up demand for seasonal items, such as bicycles and patio furniture. That helped offset lower sales of winter merchandise, like snow blowers. Canadian Tire is a buy. TIM HORTONS INC., $35.15, Toronto symbol THI, earned $78.9 million in the…