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Auto-related companies such Magna International Inc., Linamar Corp., and Exco Technologies Inc. topped our listed of Canadian consumer-goods companies, with returns of 50 per cent or more over the past 12 months

Inside the Market's roundup of some of the Canadian small caps making news and on the move today. This post will be updated throughout the morning

Stuart Olson Inc.'s acquisition of Studon Electric & Controls has resulted in a price target hike from Raymond James analyst Frederic Bastien.

"We view the deal positively as it builds on recent efforts to transform the firm into a fully-integrated and capex-light contractor," says Mr. Bastien. "Other considerations drawing us to Stuart Olson are its healthy earnings growth prospects and dividend yield." He maintains his "outperform" rating and is raising his price target to $12 (Canadian) from $11.

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Canaccord Genuity analyst David Tyerman recommends buying Exco Technologies Ltd. shares after strong but relatively unsurprising growth in fourth-quarter 2014.

XTC's fourth-quarter results were relatively close to Mr. Tyerman's expectations, with EPS coming in at $0.22, close to his $0.21 forecast and up a strong 26 per cent year-over-year.

"We continue to recommend buying XTC for good EPS growth from increased sales and margin expansion," says Mr. Tyerman. "We expect good sales growth from continued organic growth from all of XTC's businesses and from new sales from XTC's new Thai and Brazilian plants."

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Labrador Iron Mines Holdings is seeking financial restructuring and is at risk of further curtailing operations and development activities, says Desjardins Capital Markets analyst Jackie Przybylowski.

"Near-term obligations and costs could be significantly higher than the company's cash balance," she says. "Obligations and expenses include working capital, site development at Houston, exploration at Howse and the RBRG offtake commitment. We are maintaining our Sell–Speculative rating and C$0.01 per share target price, which is based on the salvage value of LIM's assets."

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Leucrotta Exploration Inc. had an active first quarter of operations, according to Jennings Capital analyst Mark Heim.

"Leucrotta significantly increasing its land position at Dawson/Sunrise, as well as commencing the first of a planned 3-well Lower Montney program for Q4/14," says Mr. Heim. "The large cash position backstops the 2015 capital program, which is still expected to show exceptional rates of return, even in a weakened commodity price environment."

He reiterates his "buy" recommendation but is cutting his target price to $2.50 from $3.25, reflecting multiple compression under lower commodity prices.

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