Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: What is your advice on Stella-Jones? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Stella-Jones Inc., $49.48, symbol SJ on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 69.3 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; www.stella-jones.com), is a manufacturer of pressure-treated wood products. They include railway ties (35% of sales); utility poles (33%); treated lumber products for the residential construction market (21%); general-purpose logs and lumber (6%); and lumber for industrial uses such as construction timbers and highway guardrails (5%). The company gets most of its utility poles from the timberlands it leases in Quebec and B.C. It also buys wood for railway ties and other products from sawmills in the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. provides 69% of its sales, while Canada supplies the remaining 31%. Revenue jumped 182.4%, from $651.6 million in 2011 to $1.84 billion in 2016. Over that same period, Stella-Jones improved its earnings 176.3%, from $55.7 million in 2011 to $153.9 million in 2016. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share gained 155.2%, from $0.87 to $2.22 (all per-share amounts adjusted for a 4-for-1 stock split…