Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 22, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba B6 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM BUSINESS I STOCKS FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024 Couche-Tard notes ‘value-seeking’ in customers: CEO THE HEAD of Alimentation Couche- Tard Inc. says lower-income consumers feeling “strained” by economic head- winds are cutting back on how often they visit the chain’s convenience stores. These customers are also adopting more “value-seeking” behaviour and, in some cases, trading down for prod- ucts they see as more affordable, chief executive Brian Hannasch said Thurs- day on a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s latest results. Couche-Tard is seeing these habits crop up most in the company’s salty, confectionary and grocery categories, which Hannasch said are the softest part of its business. “We can look geographically and see that where we’ve got lower-income consumers, our results are worse and where we’ve got higher-income con- sumers the results are pretty stable.” Hannasch’s remarks came a day af- ter the company reported its net earn- ings attributable to shareholders were US$623.4 million in its third quarter, down 15.5 per cent from US$737.4 mil- lion a year earlier. The Laval, Que.-based business, which reports in U.S. dollars, said revenues for the quarter ended Feb. 4 totalled US$19.6 billion, down from US$20.1 billion dur- ing the same quarter last year. The convenience store and gas sta- tion chain behind the Couche-Tard and Circle K banners attributed the fall in earnings to a lower average road trans- portation fuel gross margin in the U.S. and softer customer traffic amid chal- lenging economic conditions. It operates 15 Circle K locations in Winnipeg. “We think this is transitory,” Han- nasch said, when asked on the call about the softness in consumer spend- ing. “We don’t think this weakness in that consumer base will persist over multiple years.” To address the number of customers turning to “value-seeking” behaviour, Couche-Tard has focused on marketing its private-label products, growing its loyalty program and offering Fuel Day promotions. — The Canadian Press TARA DESCHAMPS YUKI IWAMURA/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Reddit Inc. signage is seen on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor prior to the U.S. company’s IPO, Thursday. Reddit, self-anointed ‘front page of the internet’, soars in Wall Street debut N EW YORK — Reddit’s stock soared in its Wall Street debut as investors pushed the value of the company close to US$9 billion seconds after it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Reddit, which priced its IPO at US$34 a share, debuted Thursday afternoon at US$47 a share. At the close of trading, it was up 48 per cent at US$50.44, back- ing off a peak of US$57.80. “This volatility is not surprising because there has been a lot of buzz around Reddit,” noted Reena Aggarwal, director of Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy. When Reddit’s price initially jumped, she explained, some investors who got an allocation may have sold their shares to cash in on the gains, bringing it back down. She noted this could to continue in the stock’s early days. Reddit’s IPO will test the quirky com- pany’s ability to overcome a nearly 20- year history coloured by uninterrupted losses, management turmoil and user backlashes to build a sustainable busi- ness. The interest surrounding Reddit stems largely from a large audience that religiously visits the service to dis- cuss a potpourri of subjects that range from silly memes to existential wor- ries, as well as get recommendations from like-minded people. About 76 million users checked into one of Reddit’s roughly 100,000 com- munities in December, according to the regulatory disclosures required before the San Francisco company goes pub- lic. Reddit set aside up to 1.76 million of 15.3 million shares being offered in the IPO for users of its service. Per the usual IPO custom, the remain- ing shares are expected to be bought primarily by mutual funds and other institutional investors betting Reddit is ready for prime time in finance. Reddit’s money-making potential also has attracted some prominent support- ers, including OpenAI CEO Sam Alt- man, who accumulated a stake as an early investor that has made him one of the company’s biggest sharehold- ers. Altman owns 12.2 million shares of Reddit stock, according to the com- pany’s IPO disclosures. By the tech industry’s standards, Reddit remains extraordinarily small for a company that has been around as long as it has. Thursday’s opening debut valuation of US$9 billion, for ex- ample, is still far below the US$1.2-tril- lion market value boasted by Meta Plat- forms — whose biggest social media service Facebook was started just 18 months earlier than Reddit. Reddit has never profited from its broad reach while piling up cumulative losses of US$717 million. That number has swollen from cumulative losses of US$467 million in December 2021, when the company first filed papers to go public before aborting that attempt. In the recent documents filed for its revived IPO, Reddit attributed the loss- es to a fairly recent focus on finding new ways to boost revenue. — The Associated Press RBC to close 25 HSBC locations TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada says it will be closing 25 HSBC Bank Canada branches and rebranding doz- ens more after its takeover deal closes next week. RBC spokesperson Christine Stew- art said the closures are part of the company’s “process of optimizing our branch network in a way that makes the most sense for our clients and our business.” Some of the shuttering HSBC loca- tions are near RBC branches, she added in an email that said clients were noti- fied about the changes in early March. The closures come as RBC is also pre- paring to turn its soon-to-be-acquired HSBC properties into RBC locations on March 28, the same day its $13.5-billion takeover deal will close, if it clears cus- tomary conditions. Branches and offices being converted into RBC locations will reopen April 1. There are two HSBC branches in Winnipeg (330 St. Mary Ave. and 1560 Kenaston Blvd.). The brick-and-mortar transforma- tion that will take shape at HSBC is one of the earliest manifestations of the ex- pansion of RBC’s empire. RBC announced plans to purchase HSBC Bank Canada in November 2022. At the time, HSBC had about 800,000 clients, 130 branches, 4,200 employees and two per cent market share. It also counted $130 billion in assets, making it the seventh largest bank in the country. Despite being a minor player in com- parison to some of the larger banks, experts predicted the deal could have a negative impact on consumer choice because HSBC often undercut its rivals on borrowing costs. Other, larger banks offered fixed and variable mortgage rates that were 20- to 80-plus basis points higher than HSBC, mortgage strategist Robert Mc- Lister said in December 2023. “They were an everyday low-price lender, which is extremely valuable in the Canadian market,” he said. In advance of the branch and office conversion, HSBC told its customers their products, services and balances would be automatically migrated over to similar offerings from RBC. — The Canadian Press TARA DESCHAMPS Agnico Eagle Mines L 76.30 0.89 1,493 82.90 59.36 Alamos Gold Inc. 18.43 0.09 993 20.20 14.80 AltaGas Ltd. 29.43 -0.08 725 29.68 21.25 ARC Resources Ltd. 23.42 -0.34 1,342 24.09 14.66 Bank of Montreal 130.50 0.88 2,054 132.11 102.67 Bank of Nova Scotia 68.30 0.46 4,779 69.17 55.20 Barrick Gold Corpora 21.40 0.23 3,405 28.19 18.65 BCE Inc. 46.25 -0.10 2,941 65.66 45.40 BMO MSCI EAFE Index 22.88 0.15 28 22.73 19.11 BMO S&P 500 Index ET 77.67 0.55 256 77.19 58.82 BMO S&P/TSX Capped C 29.72 0.07 66 29.67 25.04 Brookfield Infrastru 40.34 0.46 660 50.36 29.12 Brookfield Renewable 30.55 0.18 297 44.13 27.43 CAE Inc. 27.17 -0.51 441 33.87 24.75 Cameco Corporation 57.68 1.07 1,339 69.18 32.75 Canadian Apartment P 48.32 -0.05 403 54.60 40.52 Canadian Imperial Ba 68.48 0.63 4,439 67.99 47.44 Canadian National Ra 179.65 1.88 1,058 178.38 143.13 Canadian Natural Res 100.48 0.96 5,154 100.52 68.27 Canadian Pacific Kan 121.76 0.84 1,130 123.37 94.45 Canadian Tire Corpor 133.89 -0.70 114 189.82 128.88 Canadian Tire Corpor 244.21 0.34 0 327.00 243.87 Canadian Utilities L 30.76 -0.03 311 39.87 28.13 CCL Industries Inc. 74.00 0.00 0 74.00 53.01 CCL Industries Inc. 71.37 -0.12 368 74.49 52.82 Cenovus Energy Inc. 26.14 0.17 5,269 29.18 19.82 CGI Inc. Class A Sub 154.58 -4.97 579 160.15 124.45 Colliers Internation 168.38 3.08 63 176.51 115.00 Constellation Softwa 3797.96 28.95 32 3856.00 2328.27 Descartes Systems Gr 126.54 0.32 43 127.75 95.03 Dollarama Inc. 103.89 -1.26 370 107.79 76.25 Element Fleet Manage 22.18 -0.36 372 23.46 17.00 Emera Incorporated 47.74 -0.08 402 59.52 43.67 Empire Company Limit 33.03 -0.18 631 40.69 32.12 Enbridge Inc. 48.42 -0.25 3,606 54.05 42.75 Fairfax Financial Ho 1526.55 6.40 42 1563.49 870.31 Fairfax Financial Ho 903.32 0.00 0 925.80 644.37 First Quantum Minera 13.85 -0.85 3,278 39.13 9.31 FirstService Corpora 227.44 -1.17 53 231.73 181.42 Fortis Inc. 53.61 0.09 1,043 62.00 49.82 Franco-Nevada Corpor 157.79 -0.32 405 217.70 139.19 George Weston Limite 183.20 1.64 107 184.97 144.41 Gildan Activewear In 50.84 -0.18 238 52.80 36.42 Great-West Lifeco In 43.35 -0.02 2,838 45.18 34.06 Hydro One Limited 41.25 0.22 800 41.69 32.79 IGM Financial Inc. 35.40 0.40 355 42.02 30.34 Imperial Oil Limited 91.38 0.62 357 92.62 60.19 Intact Financial Cor 220.71 -2.47 363 237.25 188.15 iShares Core MSCI EA 37.35 0.11 67 37.25 31.30 iShares Core S&P 500 55.00 0.20 171 54.83 41.45 iShares Core S&P/TSX 35.38 0.06 192 35.34 29.75 iShares S&P/TSX 60 I 33.63 0.06 1,286 33.60 28.49 Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. 15.96 0.04 1,106 16.49 9.89 Keyera Corp. 33.88 -0.11 1,012 35.08 27.98 Kinross Gold Corpora 7.75 -0.02 4,280 8.39 5.60 Loblaw Companies Lim 150.34 0.49 475 152.00 110.52 Lundin Mining Corpor 13.23 -0.42 10,942 13.75 7.63 Magna International 75.57 1.46 706 87.00 64.41 Manulife Financial C 32.88 0.01 7,805 33.59 23.69 MEG Energy Corp. 30.77 0.32 1,014 31.11 18.40 Metro Inc. 72.56 -0.33 332 78.88 65.43 Molson Coors Canada 89.32 0.00 0 93.39 67.65 Molson Coors Canada 85.21 0.00 0 93.00 68.44 National Bank of Can 114.68 1.94 1,071 112.97 84.27 Newmont Corporation 46.76 0.54 201 70.88 39.96 ONEX Corporation Sub 101.14 0.90 101 107.28 58.71 Open Text Corporatio 54.10 1.11 452 60.00 44.34 Ovintiv Inc. 69.67 0.28 146 70.61 43.23 Parkland Corporation 43.42 0.11 584 47.99 27.92 Pembina Pipeline Cor 47.29 0.05 4,127 48.69 38.79 Power Corporation of 39.82 0.55 10,358 40.30 32.33 RB Global Inc. 104.36 0.91 91 105.42 68.80 Restaurant Brands In 107.60 0.00 0 109.74 82.68 Restaurant Brands In 108.84 -0.20 957 112.12 83.60 Rogers Communication 58.25 -0.57 1 68.25 50.50 Rogers Communication 56.92 -0.94 1,970 67.67 50.15 Royal Bank of Canada 136.53 1.17 5,543 136.67 107.92 Saputo Inc. 26.04 -0.09 240 36.70 25.57 Shopify Inc. Class A 107.68 -2.01 2,180 123.20 58.57 SNC-Lavalin Group In 55.36 -0.35 358 57.38 31.04 Sprott Physical Gold 22.90 0.02 26 22.97 19.15 Stantec Inc. 116.66 0.04 209 118.39 75.31 Sun Life Financial I 74.52 0.23 1,852 74.80 60.63 Suncor Energy Inc. 48.99 -0.05 8,387 49.47 37.09 TC Energy Corporatio 54.66 0.62 13,594 57.02 43.70 Teck Resources Limit 60.55 -0.17 845 66.04 46.63 Teck Resources Limit 60.53 -0.12 4 106.80 44.46 TELUS Corporation 22.33 -0.17 3,946 28.95 21.16 TFI International In 217.98 5.41 245 212.66 137.36 Thomson Reuters Corp 211.50 -1.13 231 217.83 163.01 TMX Group Limited 33.79 -0.23 711 36.21 26.58 Toromont Industries 128.57 -1.39 83 131.67 100.81 Toronto-Dominion Ban 81.43 0.31 11,442 87.10 75.89 Tourmaline Oil Corp. 60.18 -0.29 1,001 74.21 52.85 Vanguard S&P 500 Ind 126.09 0.80 183 125.32 95.30 Vanguard U.S. Total 95.69 0.78 61 94.97 72.49 Waste Connections In 232.10 2.27 145 234.24 174.74 West Fraser Timber C 116.73 1.73 174 119.16 88.61 Wheaton Precious Met 61.44 0.56 1,362 71.39 52.15 WSP Global Inc. 228.46 3.00 139 228.62 164.32 VOLUME 52-WK 52-WK STOCK CLOSE CHG (000S) HIGH LOW (by market capitalization) TSX Top 100 MARK E T WAT CH Daily Mutual Movers Biggest gainers and losers base on percentage change in daily net asset value per share. Data supplied by Fundata. All Funds COMPANY CLOSE CHG Fid Adv Ether ETF Fd B 24.38 2.76 HSBC Emerg Mkts Pooled Fd 8.39 2.10 HSBC Emerg Mkts Fd Inv 9.98 2.07 HSBC Emrg Mkt Fd II Inv 10.57 2.07 HSBC Asia Pacific Fd Inv 17.44 1.98 Friedberg GblMacHdgFd U$ 5.49 1.95 HSBC Eme Mkts Eq Idx Inv 8.01 1.91 Desj SocTerEmMktsEquFd A 8.68 1.84 CIBC US Sml Comp Fd A 36.29 1.83 Fid Glo Innovat Inv Tr O 27.51 1.78 Fid USFoStkFd B 109.82 1.78 Fid Gbl Innova Cl A 31.77 1.77 Desj Emer Mkts Fd A 13.55 1.77 Canadian Equity COMPANY CLOSE CHG Desj Cdn Equ Val Fd A 25.69 0.59 Desj SocT Can Eq Inc I 10.74 0.52 Mack Max Dv Can I FdA 14.66 0.52 Fid CdnFundamentalEqM-A O 15.04 0.46 CIBC Sust Cdn Equ A 10.34 0.40 CIBC Cdn Equ Val Fd A 24.84 0.39 InvFTSE RAFI CdnIdx ETFA 15.85 0.37 Fid Cdn Lo Vo ETF Fd B 13.04 0.36 CL Cdn Val Fund A 17.78 0.35 SEI Cdn Equity Fd O 23.86 0.35 Desj Soc Ter Cdn Equ Fd A 12.97 0.33 InvS&P/TSXCompESGIdxETFA 11.63 0.33 Fid Cdn Hi Qu ETF Fd B 12.89 0.33 Canadian Fixed Inc.ome COMPANY CLOSE CHG Canoe Bond Advantage Fd A 8.54 0.01 ATBIS FixIncPool -F1 9.77 0.00 MD Bond Fund Series A 6.83 0.00 RBC Mthly Inc Bond Fd A 8.81 -0.01 EdgePoint Mthly Inc Pt A 9.34 -0.02 Frk Bis Core + Bond Fd-A 9.89 -0.06 Sym Fixed Inc Pf A 9.35 -0.07 Scot Cdn Inc Fd A 12.11 -0.09 Fid Pre Tac Fix Inc PP B 7.16 -0.09 Fid Tac Fix Inc Fd B 7.14 -0.09 CL Dvf Fx Inc Port A 8.64 -0.09 Mack FPCan Fx In PtPA 9.91 -0.09 Invsc Cdn Core +Bond Fd A 5.22 -0.10 Global Equity COMPANY CLOSE CHG Canadian Dollar 39,781.37 16,401.84 DOW NASDAQ S&P 500 S&P/TSX +269.24 +32.43 +16.91 +41.55 5,241.53 22,087.26 -0.20 -0.014 OIL GAS GOLD SILVER US$81.07 US$1.831 US$2,184.70 US$24.94 +23.70 -0.07 DOLLAR 73.94 ¢ +0.19 21,200 21,600 20,800 22,000 20,400 DAILY CLOSE, PAST 30 DAYS February March I Manitoba Stocks Ag Growth Int’l Inc. 63.64 0.72 37,721 Artis REIT 6.31 0.06 244,876 BCE Inc. 46.25 -0.1 2,940,941 Bird River Resources Inc. 0.05 0 11,000 Boyd Group Services Inc. 287.17 -0.86 114,781 Buhler Industries Inc. 2.08 0.01 1,014 Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. 0.02 0 201,029 Exchange Income Corp. 49.16 0.38 91,726 FP Newspapers Inc. 0.53 0 463 Gossan Resources Ltd. 0.03 0 - Great West Lifeco Inc. 43.35 -0.02 2,837,945 Hudbay Minerals Inc. 9.33 -0.06 756,619 IGM Financial Inc. 35.40 0.4 355,406 Kane Biotech Inc. 0.10 -0.005 62,000 Medicure Inc. 1.15 0 - NFI Group Inc. 12.22 -0.07 97,743 North West Co. Inc. New 39.51 0.57 66,262 Farmers Edge Inc. 0.35 0 8,374 Pollard Banknote Ltd. 36.50 -0.4 6,023 Winpak Ltd. 41.08 0.18 37,058 Marwest Apartment REIT 0.85 0 0 COMPANY CLSE CHG VOL COMPANY CLSE CHG VOL Futures Trading — Grain quotes CANOLA COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE YEST. May ‘24 648.50 652.10 636.90 642.90 648.60 Jul 657.10 660.30 646.20 652.40 657.20 Nov 663.00 666.30 654.20 660.50 663.50 Jan ‘25 670.50 672.80 662.90 668.30 671.00 Mar 675.10 675.10 665.70 671.30 674.30 May 668.50 669.90 667.00 669.90 672.90 Jul 661.80 664.00 660.60 664.00 667.10 Nov - 635.50 - 635.50 639.90 Jan ‘26 - 626.90 - 626.90 631.30 Mar - 627.30 - 627.30 631.70 May - 627.20 - 627.20 631.60 SOURCES: THE BANK OF CANADA, FUNDATA, ICE FUTURES CANADA, CME GROUP S&P/TSX Composite Index Foreign Exchange Rates These are indicative wholesale rates for foreign currency provided by the Bank of Canada on Thursday. Quotations in Canadian funds. Australian dollar 0.8895 Brazilian real 0.2718 Chinese renminbi 0.1879 European euro 1.4706 Hong Kong dollar 0.1729 Indian rupee 0.01626 Indonesian rupiah 0.000086 Japanese yen 0.00892 Mexican peso 0.08073 New Zealand dollar 0.8185 Norwegian krone 0.1271 Peruvian new sol 0.3661 Russian ruble 0.01471 Saudi riyal 0.3606 Singapore dollar 1.0073 South African rand 0.07189 South Korean won 0.001015 Swedish krona 0.1294 Swiss franc 1.5065 Taiwanese dollar 0.04238 Turkish lira 0.0423 UK pound sterling 1.7155 US dollar 1.3525 A U.S. dollar cost $1.3525 based on daily average Fid Glo Innovat Inv Tr O 27.51 1.78 Fid Gbl Innova Cl A 31.77 1.77 NEI Glo Value Fd A 15.20 1.54 Invesco Global Div Cl A 21.23 1.47 NEI Environmtl Ldrs Fd A 19.70 1.47 Fid Gbl Innov CN Cl A 27.64 1.45 Desj SocTer Pos Chg Fd A 15.82 1.37 NEI Gbl Growth Fund A 10.89 1.35 RBC Gbl Div Grw Fd A 23.70 1.26 Desj Gbl Dividend Fd A 49.19 1.22 RBC Gbl Div Grw CN Fd A 20.60 1.15 Franklin Innovation Fd A 10.72 1.12 GQG PartnersGloQualityEqA 15.23 1.10 These companies will have headquarters or major operations in Manitoba. Closing values are as of the end of trading. Provided by Wellington-Altus Private Wealth. ;