Loblaw invests for the future

Article Excerpt

LOBLAW COS. $43.87 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 277.3 million; Market cap: $12.2 billion; SI Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield 1.9%) is Canada’s largest food retailer. It now has around 1,000 company-owned and franchised stores. In the three months ended June 19, 2010, Loblaw’s earnings fell 6.7%, to $180 million from $193 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 8.6%, to $0.64 from $0.70, on more shares outstanding. Despite the drop, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.62 a share. The lower earnings were largely the result of the company’s ongoing drive to improve its efficiency. As part of this plan, it spent $41 million in the latest quarter to upgrade its inventory-management systems and streamline its distribution networks. That lowered its earnings per share by $0.10. Loblaw also closed one of its distribution centres. That cut its earnings per share by an additional $0.06. Sales rose 1.2% in the quarter, to $7.3 billion from $7.2 billion. However, same-store sales…