Q: This companies sales are 46% in Canada and 54% in the US and it operates 16 manufacturing facilities. As far as I can tell, what it sells in Canada it produces in Canada and its sales in the US are produced in the US. In this regard I see little effect from the tariffs except for juice concentrates, and plastic resins which it imports from the US for its Canadian juices and plastic bottles. Are you able to confirm the accuracy of my thesis in this regard? It reports on March 19 and with the stock near 52 week highs I am trying to anticipate any negative surprises. Other than tariff issues is there something else I am missing which could produce a negative surprise with its sales/earnings? Do you see it as a buy, sell or hold?
Thank you.
Thank you.
5i Research Answer:
The geographic breakdown is correct; the other info as well. As far as we can ascertain. LAS.A has not mentioned tariffs in any of its public documentation/press releases, so we can at least assume impact will not be material (or management does not expect it to be). On earnings, of course the whole definition of 'surprise' is something investors didn't anticipate. But the Q3 was solid and we would have no additional concerns. Valuation is low enough anyway to reflect a lot of potential issues. It also raised its dividend in February which can be taken as confidence. We would view it as a buy, but reflective of its small size and a higher than average debt level.