Couch Potato ETFs don’t exist, but they should.Getty Images/iStockphoto
Some major Canadian dividend-paying stocks in sectors ranging from retail to real estate to insurance will have an active day on the market Thursday.
Two of the country's largest insurers, Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc., reported generally positive results after markets closed on Wednesday.
Manulife said earnings per share, excluding one-off items, were 53 cents in the third quarter to Sept. 30, which beat the analyst consensus of 49.5 cents, according to Bloomberg.
Sun Life reported adjusted net earnings of $1.05 a share, which were above expectations of $1.01 and slightly above $1.04 for the same time last year. Sun Life also hiked its quarterly dividend by 5 per cent or 2 cents per share to 45.5 cents per common share.
Investors will be anxious to see if retailer Canadian Tire Corp., which also owns the Sport Chek and Mark's brands, will keep its winning streak alive when it reports its latest results Thursday morning. It has beaten the Street's adjusted profit expectations in all of the past eight quarters; this time, the company is expected to report earnings of $2.70 per share compared to $2.44 for the same quarter last year.
In an earnings preview, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Irene Nattel reiterated her "outperform" rating on the stock and $190 price target. "Our long-term view is unchanged, with management focused on continuing to drive top-line growth while surfacing operating efficiencies and returning capital to shareholders," she said in a recent note. She forecasted earnings of $2.59 per share for the third quarter.
Canadian Tire stock closed at $157.49 on Wednesday. The analyst consensus price target for the stock over the next year is $179.46. Among 14 analysts that cover the stock, 12 have a "buy" recommendation and two a "hold."
Telus Corp., Magna International Inc., Kinross Gold Corp. and Brookfield Asset Management are all expected to report before markets open on Thursday.
As of market close on Wednesday, 148 of 249 companies on the S&P/TSX composite have reported their latest quarterly results. Earnings have beaten the consensus by 5.1 per cent so far, but sales missed by 3.4 per cent, according to Bloomberg data. Just over half – 57 per cent – have beaten profit expectations and 42 per cent have missed.
In the United States, shares of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. were up about 1 per cent in after-market trading Wednesday after the entertainment giant reported quarterly revenue that slightly beat expectations. Earnings of 49 cents (U.S.) a share were in line with projections, while its revenue of $7-billion compared with $6.5-billion for the same quarter last year. CNBC, quoting unidentified sources, reported earlier this week that the company held talks to sell most of its assets to Walt Disney Co.
Financial technology company Square Inc. beat expectations with earnings of 7 cents per share versus a forecast of 5 cents. Revenue came in at $257-million compared with expectations of $244.9-million. Still, shares were down about 2 per cent in after-hours trading, which some investors believe could be due to conservative EPS guidance for the fourth quarter. The stock is up 170 per cent so far this year.
Equifax Inc. will also report its highly anticipated third-quarter earnings after markets close on Thursday, the company confirmed on Wednesday. An investor conference call with senior management is scheduled for Friday morning. It's the first quarterly report since the company announced a massive security breach in early September. The company is expected to report earnings of $1.49 per share in the third quarter, versus $1.44 a year earlier.