TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (16,171.06, up 8.10 points.)
Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Up three cents, or 6.59 per cent, to 48.5 cents on 17.34 million shares.
Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC). Financials. Down 17 cents, or 0.89 per cent, to $19.00 on 8.37 million shares.
Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB). Energy. Up 41 cents, or 0.98 per cent, to $42.16 on 5.87 million shares.
Karora Resources Inc. (TSX:KRR). Materials. Down three cents, or 3.85 per cent, to 75 cents on 5.4 million shares.
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSX:NDM). Materials. Up 16 cents, or 5.41 per cent, to $3.12 on 4.74 million shares.
B2Gold Corp. (TSX:BTO). Materials. Up 18 cents, or 2.04 per cent, to $9.02 on 4.67 million shares.
Companies in the news:
Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B). Down 83 cents to $54.96. Rogers missed analyst expectations Wednesday as its net profit and adjusted earnings were cut in half in the second quarter with a 17 per cent drop in revenues. The Toronto-based telecom company earned $279 million or 54 cents per diluted share, down from $591 million or $1.15 per share a year earlier. Adjusted net income was $310 million or 60 cents per share for the period ended June 30, compared with $597 million or 48 cents per share in the second quarter of 2019. Revenue was $3.15 billion, down from $3.78 billion a year earlier. Rogers was expected to report 71 cents per share in adjusted profits on $3.18 billion of revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv. Chief executive Joe Natale told analysts on a quarterly conference call that all parts of the business were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially its Blue Jays sports team and media unit.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (TSX:CP). Up 46 cents to $365.47. CP is forecasting adjusted earnings growth in 2020 despite a sharp drop in profits in the second quarter. The Calgary-based railway beat expectations even though its net income decreased 12.3 per cent to $635 million in the quarter. That equalled $4.66 per diluted share, down from $5.17 per share of $724 million a year earlier. Adjusted net income was $553 million or $4.07 per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with $602 million or $4.30 per share in the second quarter of 2019. Revenues were $1.79 billion, down 9.4 per cent from $1.98 billion in the prior year quarter. CP Rail was expected to report $3.78 per share in adjusted earnings on $1.76 billion of revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
Empire Company Ltd. (TSX:EMP.A) Up 62 cents at $33.53. Empire plans to spend $2.1 billion over the next three years on building and renovating stores, expanding its e-commerce offering and growing its private label portfolio as it drives to add $500 million in annualized earnings. Empire, which owns the Sobeys and Safeway grocery chains, unveiled a new three-year strategy dubbed project horizon focused on growing its market share and building on cost efficiencies it started to realize with its previous three-year strategy project sunrise, which recently wrapped. It achieved more than its savings target of $550 million. The focus on growing market share includes accelerating plans for the company's two e-commerce fulfillment centres that have yet to be built. Empire partnered with British firm Ocado to build four robotics fulfillment centres in Canada. It opened the first in the Greater Toronto Area in June, and the second one in Montreal is under construction. Empire expects that location will start operating in early 2022 thanks to a slight construction delay due to the pandemic. Empire will "accelerate" plans for the two remaining fulfillment centres in Western Canada.
A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund (TSX:AW.UN) Up 21 cents to $28.82. A&W says COVID-19 took a big bite out of its second-quarter results with same-store sales plunging 31.6 per cent from the prior year. The Vancouver-based fast food restaurant chain says it was adversely impacted by the response to the pandemic as a large number of its locations were temporarily closed. At its peak, 230 of 971 restaurants in its royalty pool were closed but only 21 remain closed by the end of the quarter but it was restricted to drive-through operations, delivery and mobile ordering for most of the quarter. Sales improved with reopenings over the three months ended June 14 as same-store sales were down 20 per cent in the last four weeks of the quarter, compared with a 45 per cent decrease in the first four week. Gross sales at A&W restaurants in the royalty pool decreased 28 per cent to $253.2 million compared with $351.8 million in same quarter last year. Net income fell to $4.24 million from $7.55 million in the second quarter of 2019. Monthly distributions to unitholders that were suspended to preserve cash during the pandemic are being reinstated and paid at 10 cents per unit as of July 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2020.
The Canadian Press
