Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: Could you please provide your input on Stella-Jones? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Stella-Jones Inc., $78.15, symbol SJ on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 17.2 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; www.stella-jones.com), makes pressure-treated wood products, including railway ties (59% of sales), utility poles (27%), lumber for industrial uses, such as construction timbers and highway guardrails (8%), and treated lumber products for the residential market (6%). The company gets most of its utility poles from timberlands it leases in Quebec, B.C. and Alberta. It also buys wood for railway ties and other products from sawmills in Canada and the U.S. Stella-Jones continues to expand in the U.S., which now provides two-thirds of its sales. In April 2010, it purchased Tangent Rail Corp. for $170 million U.S. Tangent makes railway ties at plants in Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. In December 2011, the company paid $34.9 million U.S. for Thompson Industries Inc. This Arkansas-based company makes treated railway ties and other products. In addition, Stella-Jones just bought McFarland Cascade Holdings Inc. for $250 million U.S. Washington State-based McFarland makes utility…