Two retailers with a strong customer base

Article Excerpt

North West Company and Alimentation Couche-Tard not only adapted to the pandemic—they thrived. And that has pushed both stocks to new all-time highs for our subscribers. We think each retailer is well-positioned to keep prospering in its markets, and its share price has lots of room to move even higher. Both stocks are buys. ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $57.72, is a buy. This retailer (Toronto symbol ATD; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (couchetard.com; Shares o/s: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $60.9 billion; Dividend yield: 0.8%) operates 12,264 convenience stores across North America and Europe. In the three months ended January 30, 2022, sales jumped 41.2%, to $18.58 billion from $13.16 billion a year earlier (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). As social distancing measures continued to ease in the various regions that Couche-Tard operates in, foot traffic for its locations climbed. Fuel volumes also rose rapidly. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share rose 25.0%, to $0.70 from $0.56. The higher sales were offset by lower transportation fuel profit margins in the…