A Badger Daylighting crew drills holes in the ground for the replacement hydro poles after a storm caused damage to hydro lines in Cambridge, Ont., in 2007. Badger is one of a number of smaller companies now offering dividends to investors.Peter Lee/The Canadian Press
Validea's pick of the week provides a detailed report on a company that scores well in the stock-screening service's model portfolios. On Validea.ca, investors can analyze 1,000 Canadian stocks through 12 different guru-based models and get individual reports on each company. Globe Investor has a distribution agreement with Validea.ca. Try it.
Calgary-based Badger Daylighting Ltd. makes technologies used to safely dig in congested grounds and challenging conditions, where machines like backhoes aren't suitable.
It works for contractors and facility owners in the utility, transportation, industrial, engineering, construction, and petroleum industries.
Badger's market cap is $600-million and it has grown revenues at a 16 per cent rate over long term (using average of the 3, 4, and 5 year sales growth rates).
It gets some interest from the Warren Buffett-based model because it has increased EPS in all but one year of past decade. EPS is up by $2.01 over past decade while retaining $6.11 in earnings, making for a 32.9 per cent return on retained earnings, which the Buffett-based model considers exceptional.
Badger has more net current assets ($43-million) than long-term debt ($30-million) and a solid 2.7 current ratio, which the Benjamin Graham model likes. It has also averaged 27.1 per cent return on equity over past decade.
Offers 2.2 per cent dividend yield while paying out lower portion of profits (43 per cent) than it has historically (60 per cent), a sign it could increase dividend.
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