Want to Retire Well?

Retiring well is a two prong attack. You need to have money to live on and you need to live within your means. To get some extra money, it is helpful to invest some of your earnings. The best way to start out investing is to invest in some nice utility stock. The first list is the utility stock that I currently follow.

ATCO Ltd (TSX-ACO) operates primarily in Alberta, Canada. ATCO LTD. is a management holding company with operating subsidiaries in electric and natural gas utility operations. For my reports dated October 2009, click here or here.

Canadian Utilities (TSX-CU) operates in four business segments: regulated natural gas operations; regulated electric operations; technologies; and power generation. It is 74% owned by ATCO. For my reports dated November 2009, click here.

Consumers Waterheater (TSX- CWI.UN) operate in Ontario. Consumers' Waterheater Income Fund owns a portfolio of waterheaters and other portfolio assets, which they rent to primarily residential customers. For my reports dated September 2009, click here or here.

Emera Inc (TSX-EMA) operates in Canada, US and the Caribbean and has electric utilities and pipelines. For my reports dated March 2010, click here or here.

Enbridge Inc (TSX-ENB) operates in Canada and US. The company is focused on three core businesses of crude oil and liquids pipelines, natural gas pipelines, and natural gas distribution. For my reports March 2010, click here or here.

Fortis Inc TSX-FTS) operates in Canada, US and the Caribbean. Fortis is a diversified, international distribution utility holding company. For my reports dated April 2010, click here or here.

Gas Metro (TSX-GZM.UN) is a Limited Partnership whose core business is the distribution of Natural Gas in Quebec. For my reports dated January 2009, click here or here.

Innergex Power Inc (TSX-IEF.UN) operates in North America. Innergex Power Income Fund acquires and operates a portfolio of hydroelectric facilities and wind farms that produce electricity exclusively from renewable energy sources. For my reports dated January 2010, click here or here.

Superior Plus (TSX-SPB.UN) operates in Canada and US. Superior’s Energy Services division provides distribution, wholesale procurement and related services in relation to propane, heating oil and other refined fuels. For my reports dated in May 2010, click here or here.

Transalta Corp (TSX-TA) operates in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Australia. It is an electric generation and marketing company. For my reports dated June 2009, click
here or here.

TransCanada Corp (TSX-TRP) operates in North America. TransCanada is a leader in energy infrastructure. For my reports April 2010, click here or here.

This is a list of ones I am not following, but they are in the TSX’s Utility Index.

Atlantic Power Corp (TSX-ATP) operates primarily in the US. It owns interests in a diversified portfolio of power generation and transmission projects. Its website is Atlantic.

Brookfield Renewable Fund (TSX-BRC.UN) operates in Canada and US. The Fund owns, operates and manages 42 hydroelectric generating stations and one wind farm. Its website is Brookfield.

Capital Power (TSX-CPX) operates in Canada and US. It is an independent power generation company. (It has really only been operating since June 2009.) Its website is Capital Power.

Just Energy Fund (TSX-JE.UN) Operates in Canada. Just Energy's business involves the sale of natural gas and electricity to residential and commercial customers under long-term, irrevocable fixed price contracts. Its website is Just Energy.

Northland Power Fund (TSX-NPI.UN) operates in Canada. It is a trust that indirectly owns interests in five power projects. Its website is Northland.

The other part of what I am talking about, of course, is living within your means. This is basically that you do not spend more in any year than you make. Get a program like Quicken or Money and start to track how you spend your money. Once you know this, you can start deciding on how you want to spend your money. I have no problems with credit cards, but I do pay off my bills every month. I know how much I can spend on the credit card and I keep to that. The best think you can do when buying things on credit is to remind yourself that you are indeed spending money.

What you need to do is start to cut back on the spending that is the least important to you. First, you need to stabilize your debt and then you need to start to pay it off. Now is an excellent time to do this, as interest rates are low. You can get a line of credit or a cheaper credit card (in regards to interest rates) to lower your interest payments. There are agencies you can go to, to get help with debt.

The important think is to not retire until you have spending and debt under control

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Saputo Inc 2

I first bought this stock (TSX-SAP) in September 2006 and some more in November 2007. My total return to date is 14.25% per year. This is a dividend paying stock. This stock has a great record for increasing dividends with a growth rate for the last 5 years at almost 14%. However, the increase for 2010 was one of lowest increase with it being around 3.6%.

The first thing that I see when I look at the Insider Selling and Insider Buying reporting is lots and lots of insider selling to the tune of almost $11M. Just over $8M was by officers of the company getting rid of options. I reported on the same thing when I last reviewed this stock. The interesting thing is that insiders seem to get rid of options when stocks hit a high. I do not know what this means. The problem is insider selling may not mean anything besides the selling want or need money.

When I look at low 5 year average P/E ratio for this stock, I get a ratio of 14.8. When I look at the high 5 year average P/E ratio, I get one of 20.5. I get a current P/E ratio, based on earnings estimates for 2010 of just 14.5. So this ratio shows a good current price. The next thing I looked at is the Graham price. I get one for 2010 of $21.10. The current stock price of $29.35 is about 40% higher than this, but this is about average for this stock. (That is, most of the time, the stock price is about 40% above the Graham price.)

The next thing I like to look at is the Price/Book Value Ratio. The 10 year average P/BV ratio is 2.84 and the current P/BV ratio is 3.00. This would suggest the current stock price is not low. The last thing to look at is the dividend yield. The current yield is about 2% and the 5 year average is about 2%. Expect for the P/E ratio, all this seems to point to a current relatively average price for this stock.

So what do the analysts say? The recommendations I can find are Strong Buy, Buy and Hold. The consensus would be a Buy. (See my site for information on analyst ratings.) Analysts seem to like the long term potential of the stock.

This company is a dairy processor and cheese producer in Canada, USA, Argentina, UK and Europe. It is also the largest snack-cake manufacturer in Canada that accounts for about 3% of its business. Its web site is here Saputo. See my spreadsheet at sap.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Saputo Inc

I first bought this stock (TSX-SAP) in September 2006 and some more in November 2007. This has been a wonderful stock. My total return to date is 14.25% per year. This is a dividend paying stock. However, the dividends are not high and the amount of my return attributable to dividends would be just over 2%. This stock has a great record for increasing dividends with a growth rate for the last 5 years at almost 14%. However, the increase for 2010 was one of lowest increase with it being around 3.6%. The best you can say about this increase is that it is higher than inflation.

When you look at the spreadsheet, there are no trouble spots. Revenue growth over the past 5 and 10 years is 8.6% and 12% per year, respectively. The growth in cash flow over the past 5 and 10 years is 17% and 13.3% per year, respectively. These are important growth figures as it is revenue and cash flow that drive increases in stock value and dividends.

If you had invested in this company at the average stock price, you would have 5 and 10 year total returns of 11.3% and 13.4% per year, respectively. The stock would be generally classified as a dividend paying growth stock. Although the increases are very good for the dividend, after having this investment for 10 years, your dividend yield on your original investment would be only around 6.5%. This is not a bad return, but stocks that have higher yields would do better. The yield on this stock is currently around 2% but this is high as in most years the dividend yield lower. However, the yield has been increasing over the years and this is good.

The other good things to report on this stock are that the Liquidity and Asset/Liability ratios are good. The Liquidity Ratio is 1.51 and the Asset/Liability ratio is even better at 2.66. The stock has a strong balance sheet. The Return on Equity is also good at 18.9% for 2009 and with a 5 year average of 16.1%. Even the Accrual Ratio for 2009 is good as this ratio is a negative at -.86%.

Needless to say, I am very happy with my investment in this stock. However, I will not be buying more in the future as I already have enough of it in my portfolio. I do not like any stock to be a too high a percentage of my portfolio, even the great stocks.

This company is a dairy processor and cheese producer in Canada, USA, Argentina, UK and Europe. It is also the largest snack-cake manufacturer in Canada that accounts for about 3% of its business. Its web site is here Saputo. See my spreadsheet at sap.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Shoppers Drug Mart 2

I bought this stock (TSX-SC) for my TFSA, so I did a purchase in January 2009 and in January 2010. To date, I have lost some 21% per year. This is not a stunning performance. After I had purchased this stock, analysts seem to have come up with all sort of negative things to say about this company.

When I look at the Insider Buying and Insider Selling information, I find that there has been, over the past year, Insider Selling to the tune of $1.8M. However, this selling all occurred last year. Lately, insiders have been keeping their stock options. As I find a problem in lots of company, I find that the insiders of this company have more stock options than shares in this company. There has been an extremely small amount of insider buying this year. I do not think all this tells us much. All the selling of last year occurred prior to the recent drop in share price.

The 5 year average low P/E ratio is 18.9 and the 5 year average high P/E is 22.8. These ratios are both rather high and rather close. The current P/E ratio that I get is 12. This is better than the average low and is not a bad ratio. For 2010, I get a Graham price of $34.18. The current stock price of $34.77 is less than 2% higher. I do not see a time since this stock went public 9 years ago when the stock price was so close to the Graham price. Prior to this the closes the stock price has been to the Graham Price was 25% above the Graham Price.

The current stock yield of 2.6% is quite a bit above the 5 year average of 1.4%. This is the highest the yield has been so far. The last thing to look at is the Price/Book Value Ratio. The 10 year average is 3.36 and the current P/B is just1.74. This P/B ratio is less than 60% of the 10 year average and also points to a good price.

So what are the consensus recommendations? When I look at the recommendations, I find lots of Strong Buys, Buys and Holds. I find no other recommendations, The consensus would be a Buy. (See my site for information on analyst ratings.) A lot of analysts feel this is a great company. However, it is the Ontario government’s generic drug policy that has put this stock under pressure. There is also the fear that other provinces may follow Ontario’s lead. No one feels that this stock will rise anytime soon.

I found a couple of reports by RBC dated March 26, 2010 and April 8, 2010 on this company. (I do not know how long this link will last.) Wikipedia has an item on this company, see Shoppers. Also, Wikinvest has an article at TSE:SCfor this company.

At the moment, I will be holding on to my stock, as this is a long term solid investment. However, I doubt if I will see the fruits of this investment anytime soon.

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. is a licensor of Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada and Pharmaprix in Quebec. The company owns and operates Shoppers Home Health Care stores. It also owns MediSystem Technologies Inc. and the new Murale Stores. Its web site is here Shoppers. See my spreadsheet at sc.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Shoppers Drug Mart

I bought this stock (TSX-SC) for my TFSA, so I did a purchase in January 2009 and in January 2010. To date, I have lost some 21% per year. This is not a stunning performance. After I had purchased this stock, analysts seem to have come up with all sort of negative things. One problem is the Ontario change in how much pharmacies can charge for generic drugs. One analyst recently said that Shoppers was ringing up as sales, items bought with Optimum points. This will not affect earnings, but can certainly make sales look better than they are. I just have that feeling that this investment may not turn out to be one of my better investments. Or, maybe I just bought this stock at the wrong time.

First, what gives me a bad first impression is that when you look at the investor section on their site, you cannot access anything. Either you get the PDF document is damaged and cannot be shown or you get a 10 second time out from their servers. Although, I found you if you open Adobe Reader ahead of looking at their statements, you can sometimes get something (and sometimes not). The next thing to address is that I cannot seem to get much stock data prior to 2001. This company went public in its present form in 2001.

A lot of the growth figures are not bad. Take for example dividend growth. Dividends were started in 2005 and over the past 4 years has increase at the rate of over 21% per year. They increased their dividends in 2010, of which I might say, many companies did not do. If you had held this company for the past 5 years, you would have made about 7 to 8% per year return. The 10 year figure is better at 12 to 13% per year.

Cash flow and revenues, two items that must have growth for a company to have growth, have not fared badly over the last while. The 5 and 10 year growth figures for revenue per share have grown by almost 8% per year and 11% per year, respectively. The 5 and 9 year growth figures for cash flow have been 8.8% per year and 16.5% per year, respectively. I guess the main thing is that this stock has taken a beating since the end of 2009 and the stock price is down some 24%. Over the same period, the TSX is down just over 2%.

The next thing to talk about is Liquidity and Asset/Liability Ratios. These ratios are quite good, as the current ones are 1.71 and 2.43 respectively. Any time these ratios are over 1.50, they are good ratios. The last thing to talk about is Return on Equity. The ROE at the end of 2009 was 15.3% and the 5 year average is 15.7%. Both these figures are very good.

Tomorrow, I will take a look at what the analysts say on this stock and look at spreadsheet ratios in connection with the stock price.

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. is a licensor of Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada and Pharmaprix in Quebec. The company owns and operates Shoppers Home Health Care stores. It also owns MediSystem Technologies Inc. and the new Murale Stores. Its web site is here Shoppers. See my spreadsheet at sc.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Russel Metals 2

I am continuing my review of this stock (TSX-RUS) which I bought in April 2007 and I have lost 4% per year. However, the total return on this stock over the past 5 years is 11.5% and over the last 10 years is 25%. Past performance does not in anyway guarantee future performance, but I have had this stock for only 3 years and we are in a recession.

The first thing I like to look at is Insider Buying and Insider Selling. There is a very tiny bit of both with more buying. This tells us nothing. However, it would appeal that the stock options that have been granted this year seem to have been kept and this is positive. This is a widely held stock, so there is no big owner. The only negative I see is that generally, insiders have more stock options than actual shares.

When I look at the 5 year average P/E low it is quite low at just 7.2. The 5 year average P/E high is also quite a low figure at 11.4. I get earnings estimate of $1.30 for 2010 and this puts the current P/E ratio at 14. This is a rather high one for this stock, although the P/E has varied widely on this stock, it is above average. When I look at the Graham Price, the current price comes off a bit better. I get a Graham Price of $19.64 for 2010 and this is higher than the current stock price if $11.38, at just over 6%. This shows a good current stock price. There is one problem and that is the stock price on this stock is often below the Graham Price and at times, substantially.

When looking at the dividend yield, I get a current one of 5.4%. This is lower than the 5 year average of 6.6%. Also, past dividend yields have been much higher, often over 7%. This would tend to say, the current price is not a great one. The last thing to look at is the Price/Book Value. I get a 10 year average P/B of 1.33 and a current P/B of 1.39. What you want to see is a current one about 80% of the 10 year average. Part of this problem was the dropped in book value for this stock in 2009 (and another drop for the first quarter of 2010). So, this does not point to a current good price. The best thing I can say about the current price is that it is lower than it was in 2006 and 2007. So, on an absolute basis, the stock price is low, but it is not on a relative basis.

The next thing is what do the analysts say? When I look at the recommendations, I see Strong Buy, Buy, Hold and Underperform. It would seem that the consensus is a Buy with Buy and Hold being the most common recommendations. (See my site for information on analyst ratings.) Analysts seem to like this stock for the good dividend yield and feel it is reasonably safe. The main difference between the Buy and Hold recommendations is where the analysts’ feel this company will be in terms of price and earnings in 2011.

I will continue to hold the shares I have. I have no intentions of buying more at the present time.

This company does metal distribution and processing North America. It operates in three segments of metals service centers, energy tubular products and steel distributors. Its web site is here Russel. See my spreadsheet at rus.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Russel Metals

I am now back reviewing my stock portfolio stocks. I bought this stock (TSX-RUS) in April 2007 and I have lost 4% per year. However, the total return on this stock over the past 5 years is 11.5% and over the last 10 years is 25%. Past performance does not in anyway guarantee future performance, but I have had this stock for only 3 years and we are in a recession. Therefore, the performance does not surprise me.

It is obvious that 2009 was not a good year for this company. There was a sharp turn down in revenues, earnings and cash flow. All these items were in negative territory. These items are expected to start recovering this year, but the recovery will take us to at least 2012.

The dividends on this stock tend to fluctuate depending on what they can pay. However, dividends are up well in both the last 5 years and the last 10 years, by 7% and 19.5% per year respectively. As mentioned already, the total return on this stock over the last 5 and 10 years is very good, and this is largely to do with the dividends paid under this stock. However, the company lowered the dividends in 2009 and they have not changed the dividends paid yet.

The book value on this stock has been growing over the last 5 and 10 years at the rate of 7.7% and 9.5% per year respectively. This is not bad considering that the book value decreased in 2009. The other good thing about this stock is the strong balance sheet. The Liquidity and the Asset/Liability Ratios are very good at 4.32 and 2.28. It is very good when these ratios are at or over 1.50.

When I look at the Return on Equity, the 5 year average ROE in 2009 is good at 13% considering there was a loss in 2009. The current one is at a still respectable one of 8.4%. The last thing to look at is the Accrual Ratio and this is generally good and low. The bad thing about this ratio for the 1st quarter of 2010 is that the earnings are higher than the cash flow from operations. What you really want to see is the reverse.

I am happy with my investment in this stock as I think that it will turn out to be a good long term investment. Tomorrow, I will look at what the analysts say about this stock and some more of the spreadsheet Ratios.

This company does metal distribution and processing North America. It operates in three segments of metals service centers, energy tubular products and steel distributors. Its web site is here Russel. See my spreadsheet at rus.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Ballard Power Systems Inc

In the late 1990’s I read about investing in small cap stock. The article said that you should invest in a basket that contained at least 5 stocks. The theory was that you could only lose what you have invested, but the sky’s the limit to what you can gain. What you needed was only about 20% or 2 in 5 stocks being successful to make money on small caps. So, I bought a number of small caps, but I never made money on any of them.

The main problem was the bear market that occurred in the 2000. None of my stock recovered from that. Take this company, Ballard (TSX-BLD, NASDAQ-BLDP), which I invested in, in 1997 and sold in 2006. I lost 5.3% per year or 38% of my investment. While, at least this stock is still around and on the stock market. I am still following this stock. I still think that fuel cells are a good idea, but I am also curious to see if they will ever make any money.

This company has a Wikipedia entry. There is also an article on the fuel cell industry today.

This company is not making any money and there has been very few years in the past when it has. Analysts’ looking at this stock talk about their sales, which was $46M in 2009. However, in terms of sales growth, it is not bad over the last 10 years with growth of 7.5% per year in US$ (but only 4% per year in CDN$). There has been no growth over the last 5 years, and sales have been declining around 11% per year (and worse in CDN$). The one way of valuing non-profit making companies is to look at the Price/Sales Ratio. What you want is a Ratio about 1.00. However, the 2009 P/S ratio is around 3.40 and the 5 year average is even worse at 7.30.

Surprisingly, there are a number of analysts who follow this stock. When I look at analysts’ recommendations, I find Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Underperform and Sell recommendations. (See my site for information on analyst ratings.) The consensus recommendation would be a Hold. No one seems to expect this stock to have any positive earnings or cash flow for 2010 or 2011, but many expect the stock price to go up from where it is currently. There is some minor Insider Selling and no Insider Buying. All the Insider Selling seems to be in connection with stock options.

It was interesting investing in small cap stocks. Most of the ones I invested in were not making any money. I am presently looking at small cap stocks that pay dividends. These stocks, in order pay dividends, by definition, have to be making money. And, who knows, maybe if the recession and bear market of 2000 had not come along and been so strong, I might have made some money on these small caps. It certainly was a learning experience and one I do not regret.

Ballard Power Systems designs and manufactures clean energy hydrogen fuel cells. Better energy, delivered through our focused fuel cell innovations, offers the Power to Change end-user applications, while also improving the environment. Its web site is here Ballard. See my spreadsheet at bld.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Mullen Group Ltd 2

I will continue my review a new small cap dividend paying stock (TSX-MT). I have not invested in this stock, but I like to look at recommended small cap dividend paying stock to see if they would be a possibly good investment now or in the future. The other thing to mention about this stock is that it recently converted from an income trust and has decreased it dividends.

The first thing I like to look at is the Insider Buying and Insider Selling reports. What I found was selling to the tune of 7.2M. However, this was by a single director, who was retiring from his directorship. This was done near the end of 2009. There was also a tiny bit of Insider Buying about one year ago. Recently, there has been no Insider Buying or Selling action at all.

When I look at the 5 year average low P/E Ratio, I get a ratio of 8.6, which is quite low. The 5 year average high P/E ratio is 17. I get a current P/E ratio of 15.3 which is based on earnings estimates and a forward P/E Ratio (for 2011) of 12.5. This P/E ratio is a bit high, but earnings are still recovering from the recession. Next, when I look at the Graham Price, I get one of $17.52. This is almost 19% higher than the current stock price. This would show a good current stock price.

Next, I look to the Price/Book Value Ratio. For this ratio, I get a current one of just 0.97. That means the current stock price is lower than the Book Value. The P/B Ratio is just 50% of the 10 year average P/B Ratio of 1.94. The last thing to look at is the dividend yield. Currently this stock has a dividend yield of 3.5%. The 5 year average is 6.5%, because this stock used to be an Income Trust. I show point out that this stock’s dividend yield was often under 2% in the past before it was an income trust. However, I think we should focus on the yield at 3.5% being a good yield for a dividend paying stock.
There is a recent article about this stock in New Technology Magazine. If you like timing the market, there is a blog entry about this stock being bullish.

When I look at analysts’ recommendations, I find recommendations of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold and Sell. There is no Underperform rating and there is only one Sell. The consensus recommendation would be a Hold. (See my site for information on analyst ratings.) I see no negative comments on this company. Even those analysts that feel now is not the time to buy, say it is a well run company. Others think that it will pick up with the oil and gas industry, and that this has started to happen. They also point to the strong balance sheet of this company.

Mullen Group Ltd. is a corporation that owns a network of independently operated businesses. Mullen is recognized as the largest provider of specialized transportation and related services to the oil and natural gas industry in Western Canada and is one of the leading suppliers of trucking and logistics services in Canada - two sectors of the economy in which Mullen has strong business relationships and industry leadership. Its web site is here Mullen. See my spreadsheet at mtl.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

Mullen Group Ltd

What I want to do today is review a new small cap dividend paying stock (TSX-MT). I have not invested in this stock, but I like to look at recommended small cap dividend paying stock to see if they would be a possibly good investment now or in the future. The other thing to mention about this stock is that it recently converted from an income trust and has decreased it dividends. Since the current yield is 3.5%, it is a very acceptable dividend.

What I like to mention next is that 2009 was not a great year for this company. What I should say next is that the first quarter of 2010 was not great either. However, the analysis I read expected this company to recover as the oil and gas industries do. The thing is that having mentioned the above, this stock’s 10 year growth figures are generally quite good. It is the 5 year growth figures that are not great.

The thing is, if you had this stock for 5 years, buying at an average price, you would have make some 6.3% return per year and this is not bad considering we are in a recession that is especially affecting the oil and gas industry. If you had bought this stock at the year end price, you would have made a slightly higher return of 7.5% per year. I should also point out that past results can not be to used as a guarantee of future results.

This company has issued shares to do acquisitions, so the number of shares has increased over time. This especially true of 2006, when they last did major acquisitions. This can affect the per share valuations. The worse 10 growth is in revenues and this has only grown some 6.7% per year. The problem is the low revenue of in 2009. The Cash Flow growth for the last 10 year is also low at just 8%. However, this is also due to the low cash flow for 2009.

One very good thing about this stock is the strong balance sheet. The Liquidity and the Asset/Liability Ratios are very good. These ratios are 3.35 and 2.54 respectively. For these ratios, anything over 1.50 is good. And the last thing to talk about today is the Return on Equity. The ROE was fairly good until 2009 and then the ROE came in at 7.8%. The 5 year average looks low at 7.6% because of the earnings loss of 2007. However, without this loss, the ROE would be a much healthier 12%. So this is nothing to worry about at the present.

Tomorrow, I will look to see what various analysts are saying about this stock.

Mullen Group Ltd. is a corporation that owns a network of independently operated businesses. Mullen is recognized as the largest provider of specialized transportation and related services to the oil and natural gas industry in Western Canada and is one of the leading suppliers of trucking and logistics services in Canada - two sectors of the economy in which Mullen has strong business relationships and industry leadership. Its web site is here Mullen. See my spreadsheet at mtl.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.