Topic: How To Invest

Hello Pat: A stock pick from my misspent youth: Sun Gro Horticulture Income Fund. What is your take on it? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Sun Gro Horticulture Income Fund, $2.50, symbol GRO.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 22.3 million; Market cap: $55.8 million), is North America’s largest producer of sphagnum peat, and the largest distributor of peat moss and peat and bark-based growing media to professional plant growers in the U.S. and Canada. Sun Gro mainly sells its professional products to greenhouse, nursery and specialty crop growers, as well as to golf-course developers and landscapers. Sun Gro also sells peat moss and peat-based growing mixes to retail customers, either through private-label partnerships or under its own brand names. Approximately 80% of the company’s sales volume goes to the U.S. In the three months ended June 30, 2009, Sun Gro’s revenue rose 4.6%, to $64.9 million from $62.1 million a year earlier. The gain mainly resulted from the higher U.S. dollar, which increases the value of the sales the company makes in the U.S. Overall sales volumes fell 13%, partly because a major seller withdrew from the…