Leon’s raises your dividend

Article Excerpt

LEON’S FURNITURE LTD. $27 is a buy for aggressive investors. The retailer (Toronto symbol LNF; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 68.2 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.leons.ca) sells furniture and appliances through 300 stores, mainly under the Leon’s and The Brick banners. In the second quarter of 2024, Leon’s sales rose 4.0%, to $617.7 million from $593.8 million a year earlier. Revenue rose on strong furniture and appliance sales. Same-store sales gained 3.6% in the quarter. Excluding one-time items, earnings in the quarter gained 6.8%, to $29.9 million from $28.0 million. Per-share earnings rose 7.3%, to $0.44 from $0.41, on fewer shares outstanding. Thanks to its improving earnings, Leon’s will raise your quarterly dividend by 11.1%. Starting with the October 2024 payment, investors will receive $0.20 a share instead of $0.18. The new annual rate of $0.80 yields a solid 3.0%. Moreover, the stock trades at just 13.6 times the $1.99 a share that…