Services help Finning cope with slump

Article Excerpt

Finning and SNC-Lavalin sell equipment and services to clients in the resource industry. Both companies have seen their shares fall over the past few months in light of dropping oil and metals prices. Both also stand to gain from increasing government spending on infrastructure. We continue to have a high opinion of both, but we prefer Finning because of its lower p/e ratio and higher dividend yield. FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $11 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 170.5 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; SI Rating: Above Average) sells, rents and repairs heavy equipment made by Caterpillar Inc. It has major customers in the mining, forest products and construction industries. Finning’s revenue rose 5.8% in 2008, to $6 billion from $5.7 billion in 2007. Finning’s clients ordered more heavy equipment in the first half of the year as a result of high commodity prices. Finning’s operations in the U.K. and South America account for…