Rising resources spur Finning

Article Excerpt

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $25 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.6 million; Market cap: $4.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) sells, rents and repairs heavy equipment, such as tractors, bulldozers and trucks, made by Caterpillar Inc. Finning’s major customers are in the mining, forest-products and construction industries in western Canada, the U.K. and South America. Rising prices for oil, gold and other commodities continue to spur demand for Finning’s equipment and maintenance services. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, the company’s earnings rose 129.4% to $81.9 million, or $0.48 a share. A year earlier, it earned $35.7 million, or $0.21 a share. Revenue rose 39.0% to $1.5 billion from $1.1 billion. That’s mainly because sales of new equipment rose 68.4%, to $689.2 million. Revenue from support services rose 24.2%, to a record $635.7 million. Caterpillar recently bought Bucyrus International Inc., a leading maker of surface and underground mining…