Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, January 20, 2012

Article Excerpt

ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $29.85, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, is our “Stock of the Year” for 2012. Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on high-quality U.S. stocks, will reveal its #1 pick for 2012. We’ve had great success with Alimentation Couche-Tard since we recommended it in our December 2008 issue at $15.50. That’s a gain of 92.6% in just over three years. We said then that the company’s growth-by-acquisition strategy was risky, but Couche-Tard lowered its risk by aiming to acquire profitable, well-managed chains with room for expansion and profit improvement. Couche-Tard’s revenue jumped 86.7% between 2006 and 2010, to $19.0 billion from $10.2 billion (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Revenue will likely reach almost $24 billion this year. Much of the rise comes from a steady stream of acquisitions. However, these purchases also boosted Couche-Tard’s profits: earnings per share jumped 106.2% over the same five years, to $2.00 from $0.97. The company continues to introduce new…