Stantec acquisitions to spur dividend

Article Excerpt

STANTEC INC. $114 is a buy. This engineering firm (Toronto symbol STN; Cyclical-Growth Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 114.1 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; Dividend yield: 0.7%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.stantec.com) is a leading seller of consulting, project-delivery, design and technology services. With the April 2024 payment, Stantec raised your quarterly dividend by 7.7%. Investors now receive $0.21 a share instead of $0.195. The annual rate of $0.84 yields 0.7%. The company tends to use acquisitions to spur its growth, but it cuts related risk by targeting smaller, easy-to-absorb firms. Moreover, spreading administrative expenses, financing and employee benefits among its businesses helps lower overall costs. Those new businesses will probably increase Stantec’s earnings in 2024 by 14% to $4.18 a share, and the stock trades at a reasonable 27.3 times that forecast. Stantec is a buy. buy…