Two buys for your safety-conscious gains

Article Excerpt

CP Rail and Metro are leading competitors in their respective markets; look for that to cut your risk if the economy should weaken. Regardless, we see both stocks as buys. CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $103.62, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CP; shares o/s: 930.1 million; Market cap: $97.7 billion; Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 0.7%) ships freight over a 23,700-kilometre rail network, mainly between Montreal and Vancouver. It also links to hubs in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. The company is now in the process of completing its merger with U.S.-based railway Kansas City Southern. The cash-and-shares deal is worth $28 billion U.S. CP expects to receive final regulatory approval soon. Meantime, CP reported a 20.7% revenue increase for the quarter ended December 31, 2022; it rose to $2.46 billion from $2.04 billion a year earlier. Higher shipments of grain, metals, potash, automotive products and intermodal containers offset lower shipments of coal. Excluding one-time items, overall earnings in the quarter jumped 53.7%, to $1.06 billion from $689.7…