New initiatives will fuel its sales

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $153 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 66.8 million; Market cap: $10.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) aims to spur sales at its retail chains (Canadian Tire, Mark’s, Sport Chek) with several new initiatives. For example, it now offers home delivery service at all of its stores. It’s also letting customers pick up their orders at self-serve lockers inside its stores. In addition, Canadian Tire is expanding the number of private-label products it offers, as those products are more profitable than national brands. The company is also starting to see the benefits of its new Triangle Rewards loyalty program. In the third quarter of 2018, spending per Triangle member rose 15% compared to a year earlier. Those initiatives should lift Canadian Tire’s projected earnings from $11.77 a share in 2018 to $12.88 in 2019. The stock trades at just 11.9 times this year’s estimate. The company recently increased its quarterly…