Globe says Manulife, others may start to beat a retreat
2009-10-09 08:15 ET - In the News
See In the News (C-MFC) Manulife Financial Corp
The Globe and Mail attempts to identify companies that are not likely to perform well in the latest quarter in its Friday, Oct. 9, edition. The Globe's Scott Adams writes in the Number Cruncher column that he considers what surprises analysts have predicted in the past and then sees if they are projecting more. Then he considers recent downgrades to earnings estimates by analysts for the current quarter and year. Finally, Mr. Adams looks for negative changes in analyst recommendations. Mr. Adams considered only Canadian-listed companies with market caps greater than $250-million and coverage by at least three analysts. Most of the companies making it onto Mr. Adams's list have had earnings estimates cut drastically in the past couple months. Their earnings momentum, however, has not hurt the stocks in the past three months, as the market is up sharply and has bid up deep-value stocks. Mr. Adams warns that these stocks could reverse direction if they produce a poor quarter. Companies with profit momentum warning signs are Lake Shore Gold, First Uranium, Manulife Financial, Fairborne Energy, New Gold, Savanna Energy Services, Silver Standard Resources, ATS Automation Tooling and Cogeco.