Buy these two economic cornerstones

Article Excerpt

Canadian Pacific Railway has gained 22% since the start of 2012, while Canadian National Railway is up 9%. Even so, both trade at reasonable multiples to their earnings. Due to their importance to the Canadian economy, all investors should own at least one railway. We prefer CP for new buying. CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $87 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 434.8 million; Market cap: $37.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.8; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) reported that its earnings rose 17.3% in the three months ended June 30, 2012, to $631 million from $538 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 22.0%, to $1.44 from $1.18, on fewer shares outstanding. If you exclude one-time items, such as gains on sales of rail lines, earnings per share rose 19.0%, to $1.50 from $1.26. Revenue rose 12.5% to $2.5 billion from $2.3 billion. CN saw higher shipments of metals and minerals, coal, intermodal (containers…