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

On the rise

Premium Brands Holdings Corp. (PBH-T) was up 8.6 per cent on Tuesday after it announced it has completed a private placement of 2.6 million common shares to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at a price of $76.02 each for a total of $200-million.

The price is based on a 1.5-per-cent discount to the five-day volume-weighted average trading price of the company’s common shares as of the close of trading on May 17.

Premium Brands said it intends to use the net proceeds to repay debt, finance organic and acquisition growth opportunities and for general corporate purposes.

"We are very pleased to be entering into this long-term partnership with CPPIB as we embark on the next stage of our growth strategy," said George Paleologou, CEO of Premium Brands.

Héroux-Devtek Inc. (HRX-T) rose 1.1 per cent with the premarket announcement that it has concluded its previously announced agreement to supply the main landing gears for Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler and has extended the scope of the agreement to include the manufacturing of the nose and main landing gears for Boeing’s Advanced F-15 program.

“This contract award represents a significant win for Héroux-Devtek. Becoming a key system manufacturer for two additional main defense aircraft programs for Boeing is a testament to the strength of our long-standing relationship with the world’s largest aerospace company,” said president and CEO Gilles Labbé “We are also excited to expand the scope of our original contract to include spare-parts and aftermarket services, which allows us to add further value to our business.”

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers Inc. (RBA-T) increased 0.5 per cent after receiving TSX approval to commence a normal course issuer bid.

Under the NCIB, the Vancouver-based company may purchase up to the lesser of 5,449,204 common shares, representing 5 per cent of the common shares issued and outstanding as of May 10,worth an aggregate of US$100-million.

“The Company believes that purchasing its common shares for cancellation to mitigate dilution from options represents an appropriate and desirable use of available funds,” it said in a release.

On the decline

Aphria Inc. (APHA-T) fell 0.5 per cent despite its morning announcement its German subsidiary Aphria Deutschland GmbH, had been awarded a fifth lot for the cultivation of medical cannabis in Germany as part of the Company’s previously awarded license from the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices.

The Leamington, Ont.-based company has now secured the maximum output available from the tender process of five lots and said it is the only licensed producer in Germany with the permission to grow all three strains of medical cannabis approved by the BfArM.

“This award affirms Aphria’s leading position in the German medical cannabis market,” said Hendrik Knopp, Managing Director of Aphria Germany. “Construction on our indoor cultivation facility continues to progress rapidly and we look forward to supplying Germany’s first domestically-grown medical cannabis in early calendar 2020."

Shares of First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM-T) dropped 7.2 per cent after an analyst at Citi downgraded his rating for its stock and cut his target price.

“We still believe in the fundamental FM story with a strong management team, a Tier 1 asset under construction and inflection point in FCF/leverage,” said Alexander Hacking. “Yet, we are concerned that Zambia risk is not adequately priced. In addition, the company has more downside risk than peers if copper prices disappoint in 2019-2020.”

After reaching a record high on solid fourth-quarter results on Friday, CAE Inc. (CAE-T) fell 3.6 per cent after a pair of equity analysts downgraded its stock on Tuesday due to valuation concerns.

Desjardins Securities’ Benoit Poirier said: “Overall, while we continue to like CAE in the long term, we believe the stock is fairly valued considering recent share price performance (up 46 per cent year-to-date vs 15 per cent for the S&P/TSX). Therefore, we would wait for a better entry point before buying the stock.”

In the wake of announcing its OSB mill in High Level, Alta., has suspended operations due to a wild fire in the region, shares of Norbord Inc. (OSB-T) sat 2.1 per cent lower.

The facility has a stated annual production capacity of 860 million square feet and has been ramping up toward full production since resuming operations in late 2013

“All non-essential mill employees have been safely evacuated and no injuries have been reported,” the company said. “At this time, Norbord is assessing the impact to its production schedule. The mill was secure at the time of evacuation.”

J.C. Penney Co Inc. (JCP-N) dropped 7.8 per cent after the U.S. retailer announced weaker-than-anticipated same-store sales in the first quarter and a doubling of its net loss.

Excluding one-time items, the company lost 46 US cents a share, more than the 38 US cent loss analysts had expected.

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 27/03/24 3:59pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
PBH-T
Premium Brands Holdings Corp
+2.34%88.7
CAE-T
Cae Inc
+0.58%27.77
FM-T
First Quantum Minerals Ltd
+6.83%14.23
RBA-T
Rb Global Inc
+1.26%104.11
HRX-T
Heroux-Devtek
+0.28%17.91

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