It was a busy week in markets, as a new tech giant caught the imagination of investors, a Canadian mining icon was put in play and analysts weighed the potential winners and losers from Mark Carney’s projects of national interest. The Financial Post explores those stories and more in The Week in Stocks.

Stock of the Week: Oracle Corp.

Shares of

Oracle Corp.

(NYSE:ORCL) soared 35 per cent in a single trading session this week after the cloud-computing giant revealed it was expecting blockbuster future revenue growth fuelled by massive investment in artificial intelligence. Though the euphoria has since eased a little, with the shares ending the week about 10 per cent below Tuesday’s close of US$328, some analysts think there is even more upside ahead. TD Securities’ Derrick Wood hiked his price target to US$375 from US$325, calculating that approximately US$370 billion of Oracle’s order book — which swelled to US$455 billion at the end of the first quarter compared with US$136 billion the previous quarter — comes mostly from three companies: OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. and xAI, with contracts that span seven years. According to Bloomberg, 23 analysts hiked their targets for the company, with the average 12-month target rising to US$327 from US$269. BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman, who hiked his target to US$375 from US$275, was one of those who think the surge has staying power. “We have incremental confidence in the durability of ORCL’s revenue and operating income growth,” Bachman said in a note. Oracle’s gains briefly made its founder, Larry Ellison, the world’s richest person, before he fell back behind Elon Musk into second place.

Keeping score

Digging into the Teck-Anglo deal

Analysts across the board are predicting a bidding war for

Teck Resources Ltd.

(TSX:TECK/B) with at least one raising his price target after the Vancouver-based miner and

Anglo American PLC

(LN:AAL) announced a merger. Shares of Teck soared 18 per cent Tuesday after the deal was announced and were trading at the $57 level at week’s end. “We believe that the possibility of an interloper for either company is elevated, and we would not be surprised to see a bidding war emerge,” due to the scarcity of large-scale copper operations such as Teck, Scotia Capital analyst Orest Wowkodaw said in a note. Wowkodaw raised his price target for Teck to $70 from $55, placing his outlook for the shares at the high end of the price ranges among analysts. Some analysts were more muted. “We see potential for revised bids in the near or medium term,” Bryce Adams at Desjardins Group said in a note, while sticking with his previous price target of $58. Wowkodaw also warned of several hurdles facing the Teck-Anglo deal including a separate vote for class B shareholders and a “relatively high level of Canadian regulatory scrutiny.”

Back down to Earth?

MDA Space Ltd.

(TSX:MDA) has its wings clipped this week after EchoStar Corp. (Nasdaq:SATS) cancelled a $1.8 billion contract to design, manufacture and test its satellites for the American telecom’s low-earth obit satellite array. MDA’s shares cratered 25 per cent on news. “We view this as a highly unusual event and don’t see cancellation risk associated with the other large contracts in MDA’s backlog,” technology analyst Thanos

Moschopoulos

of BMO Capital Markets, said in note. Still, the analyst significantly cut his price target for MDA to $40 from $53, though he maintained a buy rating on the shares. MDA is trading around $31. Analysts covering the stock have a 12-month price target of $44.25, according to Bloomberg.

Is it time to taking some profit in the TSX?

The

S&P/TSX composite inde

x has had great year gaining nearly 19 per cent year to date. With the TSX riding high, Craig Basinger, chief market strategist at Purpose Investments, thought it was time to take some profit reasoning that valuations are reaching levels above historical norms, while Canada’s economy is showing signs of slowing. “While many parts of the TSX really don’t care about the domestic economy, including golds, which are responsible for about one-third of the gains, the banks have also moved higher. And the banks should care about the economy,” Basinger said in his note, adding that banks’ valuations also looked stretched. “We just are having a harder time seeing what could lift the TSX higher, so taking some profits seems prudent,” he said.

Potential stock winners from national projects list

Analysts were all over the list of projects of national interest that Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to fast-track, looking to identify potential stock winners. Just to recap quickly, the five projects in include LNG Canada Phase 2 in British Columbia, Darlington new nuclear projects in Ontario, Contrecoeur container project in Quebec, McIlvenna Bay Foran copper mine project in Saskatchewan and the Red Chris mine expansion, also in B.C. RBC Capital Markets analysts Robert Kwan and Maurice Choy said in a note they like stocks such as

TC Energy Corp.

(TSX:TRP) given the possibility that it could expand the Coastal GasLink pipeline to feed a second phase of LNG Canada. The RBC team also took a look at the secondary list of projects that includes a critical minerals strategy, an Atlantic wind project, an Alberta carbon capture project, upgrades to the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay and an Arctic economic and security corridor. Kwan and Choy think

Emera Inc.

(TSX:EMA) and

Hydro One Ltd.

(TSX:H), could be winners in the buildout of power lines to Nova Scotia and to support Ontario’s Ring of Fire, an area rich in critical minerals. They also like

Atco Ltd.

(TSX:ACO/X), which generates and distributes power in North America. Analysts at TD Cowen identified several stocks as potential winners including

Canadian National Railway Co.

(TSX:CNR), which should be able to “double” volumes of natural gas liquids to a phase 2 of LNG Canada. They also like Caterpillar dealers

Finning International Inc.

(TSX:FTT) and Toromont Industries Ltd. (TSX:TIH) and think they will benefit from projects that involve moving earth. Other stocks on their list included ATS Corp. (TSX:ATS), which is already involved in development of the Darlington small moduclar nuclear reactor program and five engineering and compliance names including

Aecon Group Inc.

(TSX:ARE),

AtkinsRealis Group Inc.

(TSX:ATRL), Bird Construction Inc. (TSX:BRT),

Stantec Inc.

(TSX:STN) and

WSP Global Inc.

(TSX:WSP). “We believe all five have the capability to be involved not only in the five nation building projects unveiled but with the additional earlier stage projects that could be part of the next (group) for consideration,” the TD Cowen analysts said.

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• Email: gmvsuhanic@postmedia.com

Every week, the Financial Post breaks down the most interesting developments in the week’s world of investing, from top performers to surprising analyst calls and stocks to have on your radar. 

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