Canadian Tire sales and dividend rise

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. (Toronto symbols CTC $240 and CTC.A $167; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 66.8 million; Market cap: $11.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) expects to increase its annual same-stores sales (excluding gasoline) by 3% from 2018 to 2020. It also aims to expand its annual earnings per share by 10% over the same period. The company’s improving outlook has prompted it to raise the quarterly dividend by 38.5%, to $0.90 a share from $0.65. The new annual rate of $3.60 yields 2.2%. It also plans to buy back $550 million of its class A non-voting shares by the end of 2018. Canadian Tire is a buy. buy…