Canadian Railroads > CP announces E. Hunter Harrison's retirement

The retirement of Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison has been expected.

Today, CP announced that Harrison will retire July 1, 2017, but will continue
in a consulting role for three years. He will be replaced by current
President/COO Keith Creel.

It took CP long enough to make an official announcement.  Mr. Harrison announced his retirement and successor at the annual shareholders meeting on April 20th in Toronto.

Is this why CP shares are increasing in value all this week so far

More of the same.  More of the same.

KG

Someone please explain to me how this stock can be up. They missed the earnings forecast by 12%, potash is down 25%, grain is down 21%, just lost the GM plant in Oshawa, trains are being cancelled because there isn't enough traffic to bother running them, layoffs are increasing, locomotives are just being parked as they fail...but stock is up!

Posted from iPhone

Finderskeepers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Someone please explain to me how this stock can be
> up. They missed the earnings forecast by 12%,
> potash is down 25%, grain is down 21%, just lost
> the GM plant in Oshawa, trains are being cancelled
> because there isn't enough traffic to bother
> running them, layoffs are increasing, locomotives
> are just being parked as they fail...but stock is
> up!


The stock may be up because even as bad as those factors look, they're better than what the investors had expected.

Stock value is not a result of performance but of open-market investor perception.

Basically smoke and mirrors then, based on metrics which are manipulated by the company to look favourable. Someone please do a forensic audit of this place and get back to me about the real state of being.

Posted from iPhone

It's entirely smoke and mirrors.  The selling of assets to artificially inflate earnings has about tapped out in this house of cards.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/16 18:09 by CCMF.

Canadian oil is looking better on the world market, the damage from the fires has mostly passed.

CP has a pretty good outlook among stock market analysts. 22 analysts surveyed by StreetInsider rate it a buy or strong buy, just 8 are neutral, and there are no sell suggestions in that sampling.  Very few shareholders are short the stock, fewer than 1%, according to the Wall Street Journal.  CP's earnings quality is considered a little better than CN's (PE of 15.05 to CN's 14.0).

Finderskeepers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Someone please explain to me how this stock can be
> up. They missed the earnings forecast by 12%,
> potash is down 25%, grain is down 21%, just lost
> the GM plant in Oshawa, trains are being cancelled
> because there isn't enough traffic to bother
> running them, layoffs are increasing, locomotives
> are just being parked as they fail...but stock is
> up!
>
> Posted from iPhone

The shares were trading today up $10 to $196.  In April of last year it was $240, so it is not all good news.

< The stock may be up because even as bad as those factors look, they're better than what the investors had expected. Stock value is not a result of performance but of open-market investor perception.>

Just another total disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street, all based on expectations of investors and their infantile attention spans. Once should invest for the long term, or else run to the local savings bank. Their ignorant expectations, either too high or too low, drive the stock market as though they are some supreme beings. You think they know a thing about farm harvests ? . So do panics, which we saw with Brexit. The stupid chatter-boxes on CNBC declared us in a worldwide recession, then the decline was all erased 2 weeks later.

When Harrison joined CP as CEO, there were also a number of changes to the Board of Directors, placing persons on the board that were pro- Harrison and the a Ackman investor group.

Since that time, there have been several changes, as the appointees have moved on to other endeavours.

In olden times, CP's Board of Directors included many of the "Captains of Industry" of Canada's business community. Someone termed the phrase , "the Laurentide Elite" regarding the close business connections between a variety of Montreal and Toronto enterprises.

Some of the power has shifted west to Calgary and the oil industry and also to the computer industries, but the big banks and the manufacturing sector are still based in Montreal and Toronto.

I wonder what they feel about Harrison appointing his heir to the throne?

Creel like Hunter is a stranger to the Montreal Athletic Club, or the Granite Club in Toronto, and didn't go to the same schools. Will the "Laurentian Elite" have their own plans at the CP Annual General Meeting.

​It has happened before and not that long ago.

I would agree with the Cardinal's observation on the Laurentide gang, but note that the same Bay street folks stuck with Fred Green far too long. The railroad got fat and sloppy.

CP shares are held in NY and in Ontario by investment firms and pension plans. They will hold Creel's feet to the fire...

Posted from Android

I though any nationwide bank that was ever based in Montreal moved out with the Separatist movement 20+ years ago.
Where is BMO's HQ ?

Place d'Armes in Montreal, near an early CPR hq

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Place d'Armes in Montreal, near an early CPR hq
>
> Posted from Android

Legally yes, but according to the Wikipedia entry, top managment is based in Toronto.

"BMO's official legal corporate head office is in Montreal, located on Saint Jacques Street. The chairman, President and some senior division executives work in the Toronto offices at First Canadian Place."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Montreal

Thanks.

In the US, many corporations place their state of incorporation in DE or another state with very corporate friendly statutes.  Makes it difficult to throw out management, or launch hostile takeovers. DE makes a huge profit on brass plates mounted on the walls of law offices and trust companies.

As you note, the actual headquarters is someplace else.

Mergers either make or break a manager, (see Alfred Pearlman).  If the NS deal had stuck, Harrison would be the golden boy of the railroad business.  Instead, he was handed a golden parachute.  Who's the real victim?  The people who got laid off because of the huge expenditures fighting for or fighting off the acquisition.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/16 11:48 by a737flyer.