Updating Loblaw Companies, Power Corp. and Imperial Oil

Article Excerpt

LOBLAW COMPANIES $65.13 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 404.5 million; Market cap: $26.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.6%; www.loblaw.ca) currently operates over 1,100 supermarkets across Canada. In March 2014, the company purchased the Shoppers Drug Mart chain of 1,300 drugstores. The company continues to expand its popular President’s Choice brand of products. Most recently, it launched a new line of compostable President’s Choice single-serve coffee pods. Sales of coffee pods are rising fast, but most of the containers end up in landfills. As a result, many municipalities want to impose environmental fees on these products. Loblaw’s new pods should avoid these extra costs, giving them a competitive advantage over non-recyclable products. Loblaw is a buy. POWER CORP. $28.48 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares outstanding: 414.4 million; Market cap: $13.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.7%; www.powercorporation.com) holds its financial assets through its 65.7% stake in Power Financial. That company’s holdings include 58.7% of IGM Financial. IGM has two main businesses: Investors…