Updating AGRIUM INC., SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. and LINAMAR CORP.

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AGRIUM INC. $76 (www.agrium.com) has raised its dividend for the first time since 1996. The new semi-annual payout of $0.225 U.S. a share, up 309.1% from $0.055 U.S., has an annualized yield of 0.6%. The company should also continue to benefit from rising crop and livestock prices, which give farmers more money to spend on seeds, fertilizers and other products that Agrium sells in its retail outlets. Buy. SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $54 (www.snclavalin.com) has won a contract to design a plant to process bitumen from the MacKay River oil sands project in northern Alberta. The company didn’t reveal how much the contract is worth, but it should enhance SNC’s reputation in this fast-growing area. Buy. LINAMAR CORP. $15 (www.linamar.com) earned $0.39 a share in the third quarter of 2011, up 44.4% from $0.27 a share a year earlier. These figures exclude costs to integrate Linamar’s recent purchase of three French plants that make cylinder heads, gears and other parts for European carmakers…