Updating VITERRA, IAMGOLD and FIRSTSERVICE CORP.

Article Excerpt

VITERRA $14.65 (Toronto symbol VT; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-866-569-4411; www.viterra.ca; Shares outstanding: 371.7 million; Market cap: $5.4 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) is up almost 31% since the company said it has received expressions of interest from unnamed parties interested in taking it over. The stock was our Pick of the Month in the last issue (March 2012) of Stock Pickers Digest. At the time, it was trading at $10.09. That’s a 45.2% gain in one month. Our view is that the company is well positioned to benefit from an expected rise in Canadian and Australian crop yields in 2012, as well as the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on western Canadian wheat and barley sales. In addition, its Australian operations’ sales to Asia continue to rise. We also said that Viterra might be an attractive takeover target for a global food giant, such as Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge or ConAgra. We’ll say more as the takeover possibility continues to progress, but for…