Updates on your Conservative stocks: CNR, Thomson Reuters & Canadian Tire

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $172 (www.cn.ca) remains a buy. Canada’s largest railway has reached a new three-year contract agreement with the union representing 2,500 of its track and bridge employees. They maintain its tracks across Canada. CN has not yet said how much extra it will pay under this new deal. However, labour peace helps cut its risk. The company also expects an improving North American economy and better efficiency will lift its earnings per share by 10% in 2024 to $8.02 a share. The stock trades at a reasonable 21.4 times that forecast. As well, CN raised your quarterly dividend by 7.0% with the March 2024 payment. The new annual rate of $3.38 yields 2.0%. CN Rail is a buy. THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $213 (www.thomsonreuters.com) is a buy. The company has completed its acquisition of Pagero Group AB, a Swedish firm that specializes in electronic invoicing services. That helps its clients comply with tax reporting requirements in various countries. It paid $800 million U.S. for the business,…