Two buys for an oil price recovery

Article Excerpt

Finning and Precision Drilling (see box) supply vital equipment and services to resource firms. Both stocks have suffered in the past few months, as slumping prices for oil and other commodities have hurt their revenue and earnings. However, both companies are well-established leaders, which will help them hang on to clients until resource prices rebound. We still like both, but only aggressive investors should consider Precision. FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $24 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 172.4 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) is the world’s largest dealer of tractors, bulldozers and trucks made by Caterpillar Inc. (New York symbol CAT). It also sells heavy equipment made by other firms. Finning’s clients are mainly in the mining, forest products and construction industries. Weaker commodity prices have hurt sales of new equipment and support services in Western Canada. In response, Finning plans to cut 500 jobs, or…