HART STORES INC. $4.89 (Toronto symbol HIS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; SI Rating: Speculative) earned $0.24 a share in its fourth fiscal quarter ended January 28, 2006, up 33.3% from $0.18 a year earlier.

However, if you exclude an insurance settlement for a fire at one of its stores, Hart would have earned $0.18 in the most recent quarter. Sales …read more »

CALGON CARBON CORP. $8 (New York symbol CCC) has sold its solvent recovery business for an undisclosed sum. The sale is part of Calgon’s plans to sell non-core assets and use the cash to pay down debt (0.6 times equity at the end of 2005). Calgon’s water-purification technology has strong growth potential, but the stock will probably move sideways until …read more »

THE WESTAIM CORP. $6.90 earned $0.21 a share (total $19.5 million) from continuing operations in the three months ended December 31, 2005 compared with a loss of $0.11 a share ($10.4 million) a year earlier. However, the latest quarterly earnings included a $30.1 million gain on the recent sale of shares in subsidiary Nucryst Pharmaceuticals Corp. Westaim now owns 73.5% …read more »

TIM HORTONS INC. $31 (Toronto symbol THI; SI Rating: Extra risk) recently sold shares to the public at $27.00 each. We usually advise against buying initial public offerings, since all too many fizzle in their first few years on the market. But we made an exception for Tim’s. Its parent company, Wendy’s International Inc., sold part of Tim Hortons to …read more »

DEL MONTE FOODS CO. $12 (New York symbol DLM; WSSF Rating: Extra risk) has agreed to buy the Milk-Bone dog biscuit business for $580 million. However, the benefits of tax losses effectively cut the price to $455 million. To put that in context, Del Monte earned $0.26 a share (total $52.0 million) in its third fiscal quarter ended January 29, …read more »

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $39 (New York symbol FIC; WSSF Rating: Average) has successfully made its FICO credit scoring system, which calculates the likelihood that an individual will pay back a loan based on prior credit history and other factors, into an industry standard. In fact, 99 of the top 100 U.S. banks, and half of the top 50 banks in …read more »

MERCURY INTERACTIVE CORP. $33 (Pink Sheets Over-the-Counter market symbol MERQ; WSSF Rating: Extra risk) now trades on the Pink Sheets market, after Nasdaq removed it in January for failing to file its financial statements on time.

The company is currently restating its results to correct errors related to the timing of stock options. The restatement will not change Mercury’s reported revenue, …read more »

WENDY’S INTERNATIONAL, INC. $62 (New York symbol WEN; WSSF Rating: Above average) is the third-largest hamburger chain in the world, behind McDonald’s and Burger King. In 1995, it acquired coffee and donut chain TIM HORTONS INC. $27 (New York symbol THI; WSSF Rating: Extra risk).

Tim Hortons is Canada’s largest fast-food chain, with 2,597 outlets. This includes 681 smaller restaurants in …read more »

Here are two general rules that have paid off again and again over the years: First, new stock issues tend to produce below-average results for investors; second, spin-offs tend to produce above-average results.

This is due to human nature. New issues come to market when it’s a good time for the company or its insiders to sell. That’s not likely to …read more »

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $31 (Toronto symbol SNC; SI Rating: Average) earned $0.29 a share in the fourth quarter of 2005, up 45.0% from $0.20 a year earlier (all per-share amounts adjusted for a recent 3-for-1 stock split). If you exclude losses from its 16.77% stake Highway 407, a toll highway north of Toronto, per share earnings grew 20.8%. Revenue rose …read more »