United States President Donald Trump 's efforts to block Canadian companies from securing U.S. government contracts have hit the shares of some of the country's publicly traded engineering firms that do business stateside, but one analyst thinks their stocks are a buy, nonetheless.
Among the Canadian-based engineering companies covered by Stifel Canada, Stantec Inc. ranked among the 10 worst-performing stocks on Wednesday down 3.2 per cent from its Tuesday close. WSP Global Inc. fell 2.28 per cent, while AtkinsRealis Group Inc. was down about two per cent.
As of midday Thursday, shares of the three companies were gaining back some of the ground lost as the dust settled rom Trump's latest trade bomb.
"We would be buyers of the stocks on any significant weakness, with our current favourite being WSP at its current valuation," Ian Gillies, a Stifel Canada analyst, said in a note on Tuesday. "It is early days, but we anticipate this will have limited impact on the engineering firms in our coverage given that the work is often being completed in the U.S. by U.S.-based entities/employees."
Besides targeting Canadian companies around government work, Trump also ordered the General Services Administration (GSA), which is the federal government's central buyer, to remove Canadian-origin products from its purchasing program.
Gillies said the engineering companies Stifel covers ought to be able to skirt the GSA order since it targets goods, while WSP, Stantec and AtkinsRealis sell services.
His main concern regarding Trump's announcement is that it could create confusion among federal and state agencies and slow the awarding of work for the remainder of the year.
"At this juncture, it is challenging to have a strong handle on the situation given the information limit," he said.
Nearly 20 per cent of WSP's consolidated gross revenue came from the U.S. public sector in 2026.
"However, we believe most of this is being generated by employees that reside in the United States," Gillies said.
WSP had 30,800 employees in the U.S., accounting for 36.4 per cent of its workforce.
Stifel has a buy rating on WSP and a 12-month price target of $280.
Stantec doesn't provide a detailed geographic breakdown similar to WSP, but Stifel said about half that company's gross revenue so far this year came from the U.S., with around 50 per cent to 55 per cent of its gross revenue coming from the U.S. government.
Stifel has a buy rating on Stantec and a price target of $140.
AtkinsRealis has the least exposure to the U.S. of the three companies, and Gillies has a buy rating on the company and a price target of $102.
• Email: gmvsuhanic@postmedia.com
