Loblaw is ready for Amazon

Article Excerpt

LOBLAW COMPANIES $71.45 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 398.4 million; Market cap: $28.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.5%; www.loblaw.ca) operates over 1,090 supermarkets and 1,325 Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies across Canada. The company’s shares are down, along with those of most other grocers, following an announcement by Amazon.com (symbol AMZN on Nasdaq and a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest): the online company plans to buy organic grocery chain Whole Foods (symbol WFM on New York) for $13.7 billion in cash. Profit margins for Canadian grocery chains are already low. But the willingness of new rival Amazon to absorb losses in order to win market share could send them even lower. As well, Amazon is expected to use its technological skills to upgrade Whole Foods with its customer analytics and “click and collect” grocery model. However, there are only 13 Whole Foods stores in Canada, with limited room for expansion. As well, Loblaw has already developed online shopping. That’s in addition to…