The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that National Bank's Maxim Sytchev has reaffirmed his "outperform" call for Stantec. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Sytchev gave his share target a $3 boost to $167. Analysts on average target the shares at $168.72. Mr. Sytchev says in a note: "Concerns around the sustainability of growth was a hot topic for engineering consulting names going into quarterly reporting, and short-term share price reactions appeared to be driven by an almost knee-jerk reaction to the headline metric. The uncertainty of the recent U.S. government shutdown exacerbated this dynamic, but we think management's commentary (and TTEK's -- which is 20-per-cent exposed to the U.S. Federal government) of continued positive organic growth in the U.S. and confidence in the backlog should give investors a degree of comfort. Water, infrastructure and advanced manufacturing remain thematically growing areas, regardless of which way the political winds are blowing, and management's strong execution and clear margin expansion trajectory support continued earnings compounding for the foreseeable future. ... U.S. organic growth [is] expected to accelerate despite flat backlog year-to-date."