Boom times for Teck

Article Excerpt

TECK RESOURCES LTD. $58 (Toronto symbol TCK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 590.6 million; Market cap: $34.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.teck.com) sold 23.2 million tonnes of coal in 2010, up 17.2% from 19.8 million tonnes in 2009. Coal prices rose 15.3% in 2010, to $181 U.S. a tonne from $157 U.S. Teck is also seeing stronger demand and rising prices for its other commodities, including copper, zinc and lead. As a result, its earnings rose 61.3% in 2010, to $1.5 billion from $924 million in 2009. Earnings per share rose 51.4%, to $2.62 from $1.73. These figures exclude unusual items, such as gains on asset sales. Revenue rose 21.7% in 2010, to a record $9.3 billion from $7.7 billion. In 2011, Teck will probably sell 24.5 million to 25.5 million tonnes of coal. That’s up around 8% from 2010, but down from its earlier prediction of 26.0 million tonnes. Avalanches have slowed rail…