Is WestJet’s stock about to take off?
The Calgary-based airline is looking to expand its fleet and grow its customer base. Is now a good time to get on board?
When he was younger, Max Fawcett wanted to make a mint in the markets. Now as the managing editor of Alberta Venture he gets to write about them. Close enough, right? He can be reached at mfawcett@albertaventure.com
by Max Fawcett
Airline stocks are notoriously bad investments, but WestJet might be on the verge of becoming the exception to that rule. The stock, which has traded between $10 and $16 over the last 52 weeks, made a move to the upside today on news that its employees overwhelmingly approved of the company’s plan to order up to 40 turboprop plans in order to start offering short-haul flights to smaller communities across the country by 2013.
It didn’t hurt that the company released its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2011 on the same day. In the fourth quarter, WestJet earned $35.6 million in profit, while on the year it booked $148.7 million, a 65 per cent increase from 2010. It also bumped its quarterly dividend up a penny to six cents a share, and announced that it plans to buy back as much as five per cent of its stock over the next year.
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