Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, July 16, 2010

Article Excerpt

ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD INC., $20.00, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, has more than 3,500 convenience stores in the U.S., and is the largest convenience-store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. Couche-Tard sells fuel at 70% of its stores. Excluding one-time items, Couche-Tard’s earnings rose 45%, to $0.29 a share, in its third quarter, which ended April 25, 2010. A year earlier, it earned $0.20 a share (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). There were a number of factors behind the gain: the company earned higher profit margins on gasoline, sold more merchandise, paid less income tax and saw its operating costs drop. Sales rose 33.7%, to $4.0 billion from $3.0 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly because Couche-Tard made a number of acquisitions in the quarter, and saw higher merchandise revenue in the U.S. and Canada. Couche-Tard is forecast…