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A roundup of some of the North American equities making moves in both directions today

On the rise

Crescent Point Energy Corp. (CPG-T) and Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. (PEY-T) were up 0.2 per cent and 0.7 per cent on Thursday after an equity analyst at Macquarie raised his rating for both stocks.

Crombie Real Estate Investment Trust (CRR.UN-T) rose 1.3 per cent after announcing an agreement to sell an 89-per-cent non-managing interest in a 26 property portfolio for a total of $161.6-million to a U.S. private equity group.

The Nova-Scotia based REIT said it will retain an 11-per-cent ownership interest and will continue to manage and operate the properties, which are all subjected to long-term leases with Sobeys.

“This transaction is another example of our team’s solid execution against strategy,” said Crombie president and CEO Don Clow. “Such partial dispositions at pricing in line with IFRS fair values highlight the quality and value of our portfolio and demonstrate our attractiveness as a strong managing partner.”

On the decline

Toronto-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (TRUL-C) erased early gains and finished down 3.6 per cent after announcing its fourth-quarter revenue grew 172 per cent to US$35.9-million year-over-year, exceeding the expectation on the Street of US$33.4-million.

“2019 will be a year of execution for us as we leverage our strong revenue growth and positive adjusted EBITDA,” said CEO Kim Rivers. “We will focus on innovating and delivering new products for our customers, such as smokable flower, edibles and nano-emulsions. We will cultivate new strategic partnerships, as we have recently demonstrated with Slang and Blue River. Finally, we will execute on our plans for multi-state operational expansion.”

Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM-N) was down 0.9 per cent after its shareholders on Thursday approved the company’s US$10-billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc. (GG-N, G-T), which is set to create the world’s biggest gold producer with assets across the Americas, Africa and Australia.

About 98 per cent of votes at a special meeting were in support of Newmont’s proposal to issue new stock to fund its takeover of Goldcorp, the Denver-based company said in a statement. Goldcorp’s investors voted to approve the acquisition last week.

U.S.-listed shares of Goldcorp sat 0.7 per cent lower.

Walt Disney Co. (DIS-N) was down 0.5 per cent ahead of Thursday investor event at which it is expected to unveil further details on its Disney+ service, a family-friendly streaming service with which it aims to cut into Netflix Inc.’s (NFLX-Q) market dominance.

Credit Suisse analyst Douglas Michelson said: “As Disney unveils its Disney+ service, we expect an impressive user interface, wide device availability, and an impressive list of launch distribution partners, along with what will be the best line-up of library + Pay 1 movie brands ever made available in a streaming service, while its originals are likely to be high quality as well. We expect mgmt to outline its Disney+ business model including inputs to create a forecast (price, launch timing, costs), while we do not expect overall Disney EPS guidance.”

Shares of MTY Food Group Inc. (MTY-T) dropped 8.2 per cent after announcing an agreement to merge with U.S. pizza store operator Papa Murphy’s Holdings Inc. (FRSH-Q) in a deal worth approximately US$190-million.

MTY will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Papa Murphy’s, which operated 1,331 franchised and 106 corporate-owned stores in 37 U.S. states, Canada and the United Arab Emirates as of Dec.31, for cash consideration of US$6.45 per share.

“This is an important transaction for MTY as we add a brand with a differentiated position in pizza to our existing U.S. portfolio,” said MTY chief executive officer Eric Lefebvre. “We are thrilled about the prospect of welcoming the Papa Murphy’s brand, its franchise partners and employees, to the MTY family. Papa Murphy’s is a unique concept with over a 35 year history of providing a superior quality product made with fresh ingredients. We believe the pizza segment is highly attractive due to its size, fragmented nature and growth potential. The Papa Murphy’s brand is well loved by its loyal customers and is supported by a strong network of franchise partners. We expect the combination of these two companies and the expertise it brings to produce tremendous opportunities for MTY’s U.S. expansion objectives.”

Shares of Papa Murphy’s rose 31.3 per cent in New York.

Cogeco Communications Inc. (CCA-T) dipped 2.9 per cent after an equity analyst at Desjardins Securities downgraded its stock, a day after the release of its quarterly results.

“While we see continued profitability improvement in the quarters to come, the stock’s valuation is now less attractive versus a year ago,” said Maher Yaghi.

Dollarama Inc. (DOL-T) was down 1.8 per cent after an Industrial Alliance Securities analyst downgraded its stock over valuation concerns.

Neil Linsdell also expressed concern over “recently lowered growth expectations and slight margin pressure that we have seen over the past year.”

Tesla Inc. (TSLA-Q) shares sat 2.7 per cent lower after Panasonic Corp. said it is studying further investments in battery production at its Gigafactory venture with the electric carmaker.

Tesla said it would continue to invest in the Nevada plant as need be but believed more output could be gained from its existing resources than previously thought.

Japanese financial daily Nikkei reported earlier on Thursday that financial issues had led the companies to rethink plans to expand the capacity of Gigafactory 1 by another 50 per cent next year.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY-Q) dropped almost 9 per cent after announcing weaker-than-anticipated guidance for the current quarter during a conference call following the release of its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday evening.

With files from staff and wires

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 3:57pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
CPG-T
Crescent Point Energy Corp
+1.19%11.08
FRSH-Q
Freshworks Inc Cl A
+0.66%18.21
DIS-N
Walt Disney Company
+1.14%122.36
TSLA-Q
Tesla Inc
-2.25%175.79
PEY-T
Peyto Exploration and Dvlpmnt Corp
+0.13%14.93
NFLX-Q
Netflix Inc
-1.01%607.33
DOL-T
Dollarama Inc
-1.4%103.19
CCA-T
Cogeco Communications Inc
-0.03%60.08
MTY-T
Mty Food Group Inc
-1.14%51.13
G-T
Augusta Gold Corp
+6.93%1.08
NEM-N
Newmont Mining Corp
+1.67%35.84
CRR-UN-T
Crombie Real Estate Investment Trust
-2.14%13.69
TRUL-CN
Trulieve Cannabis Corp
+2.25%16.78

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