Great quarter for CP

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $123.16 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 174.6 million; Market cap: $21.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.1%; www.cpr.ca) continues to benefit from a major restructuring plan, which includes new locomotives, better tracks and software that optimizes train loads and speeds. In the first three months of 2013, CP’s earnings jumped 52.8%, to $217 million, or $1.24 a share. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.21. A year earlier, the company earned $142 million, or $0.82 a share. Revenue rose 8.6%, to $1.5 billion from $1.4 billion. The company saw revenue gains from shipping consumer and industrial products (up 24.8%), fertilizers (up 20.6%), grain (up 9.0%), coal (up 8.8%) and forest products (up 6.0%). That offset declines in automotive products (down 7.6%) and intermodal (down 4.2%). The higher earnings are mainly due to CP’s improving efficiency. Its operating ratio improved to 75.8% from 80.1% a year ago. (Operating ratio is calculated by dividing a company’s regular operating…