Updates on Loblaw, Bank of Nova Scotia and Innergex Renewable Energy

Article Excerpt

LOBLAW COMPANIES $63.10 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 375.2 million; Market cap: $23.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.9%; www.loblaw.ca) operates 1,082 supermarkets under a variety of banners: Loblaw, Zehrs, Provigo, Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills. In March 2014, the company purchased the Shoppers Drug Mart chain for $12.3 billion in cash and shares. Shoppers now operates 1,335 drug stores across Canada. Loblaw feels the drugstores give it a strong platform to profit from cannabis legalization. That’s because their pharmacy operations have experience distributing controlled substances and counselling customers about their effects. Shoppers has now began selling medical cannabis online to patients in Ontario. The company’s stores will not carry cannabis. Instead, prescription-holding patients who register with Shoppers can purchase cannabis from one of the chain’s licensed producers. They will then send the medication to the patient’s home or doctor’s office. Loblaw is a buy. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $74.47 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $91.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating:…