LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $63 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 412.5 million; Market cap: $26.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) continues to benefit from its March 2014 purchase of the 1,250-store Shoppers Drug Mart chain for $12.3 billion in cash and stock.
In the three months ended March 28, 2015, the company’s overall sales jumped 37.8%, to $10.0 billion from $7.3 billion a year earlier. Shoppers contributed $2.6 billion to the latest quarterly sales.
Same-store sales at Loblaw’s supermarkets rose 4.0%, excluding gasoline sales. Shoppers’ same-store sales gained 3.1%. Without unusual items, earnings jumped 96.7%, to $301 million from $153 million. Per-share profits rose 35.2%, to $0.73 from $0.54, on more shares outstanding.
In the latest quarter, Loblaw cut $44 million from its yearly costs by merging its warehouses and other operations with Shoppers. The company expects these savings will rise to $200 million for the full year.
The strong earnings prompted Loblaw to raise its quarterly dividend by 2.0%, to $0.25 a share from $0.245. The new annual rate of $1.00 yields 1.6%.
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