Strong quarter for Andrew Peller

Article Excerpt

ANDREW PELLER LTD. $8.70 (Toronto symbol ADW.A; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 14.9 million; Market cap: $129.6 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.andrewpeller.com) is Canada’s second-largest wine producer, after Vincor Canada. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Peller’s sales rose 4.2%, to $75.0 million from $71.9 million a year earlier. The company launched a number of new products, and is seeing rising demand for its high-margin premium brands. These gains were partly offset by higher taxes on wines sold in its Ontario stores and weaker demand for home winemaking kits. Peller earned $4.9 million, or $0.33 a share. That’s up 36.8% from $3.6 million, or $0.25 a share, a year earlier quarter. If you exclude gains on hedging contracts that the company uses to lock in foreign-exchange rates, earnings would have risen 26.7%. Andrew Peller is a buy. buy…