BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $51.74 (Toronto symbol BNS: Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $55.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Div. yield: 4.0%, www.scotiabank.com) continues to build up its operations in China. The bank recently agreed to buy 19.99% of the Bank of Guangzhou; the Chinese government owns the remaining 80.01%. This bank is the 29th largest in China, with …read more »

We still think investors will profit most — and with the least risk — by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying stocks with strong business prospects.

These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace.

Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of …read more »

GENUINE PARTS CO. $50 (www.genpt.com) has acquired privately held Cobra Wire & Cable, Inc. Based in Pennsylvania, Cobra distributes insulated wires and cables to makers of telecom equipment, batteries and other electrical products, mainly under long-term supply contracts. Genuine Parts did not say how much it paid, but Cobra will add $43 million to Genuine’s annual revenue of $11.9 billion. …read more »

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $33 (Toronto symbol MBT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 65.7 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 5.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mtsallstream.com) has over 1.3 million telephone and wireless customers in Manitoba. This business now accounts for 54% of the company’s revenue. The remaining 46% comes from its Allstream division, which …read more »

TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $53 and T.A $51; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 352.9 million; Market cap: $18.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) continues to expand its wireless business. As a result, it now gets 52% of its earnings from its 7.1 million wireless subscribers across Canada.

The company gets the …read more »

CP’s earnings have suffered lately, mainly due to bad weather. Avalanches during the winter disrupted its operations in western Canada, and spring floods washed out some of its lines in the Canadian Prairies and the U.S. Midwest.

However, these are short-term setbacks. As well, the company is now working on a number of improvements that should make it more efficient, and …read more »

TRANSCANADA CORP. $43 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 703.0 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) continues to face strong opposition from environmentalists and celebrities over its proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would pump crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf …read more »

Both Great-West Lifeco and IGM Financial sell mutual funds and wealth-management services. The companies’ fees vary with the value of the assets they manage, so both stocks have moved down due to recent stock-market volatility. Even so, we still like their long-term prospects.

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $22 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 949.5 million; Market cap: …read more »

CAE INC. $10 (www.cae.com) has won $100 million of new contracts. That’s about 6% of CAE’s annual revenue of $1.6 billion. Under these deals, CAE will build and service flight simulators and other equipment for the U.S. and German air forces. Demand for CAE’s products should continue to rise, because it costs much less to train pilots on simulators than …read more »

IMPERIAL OIL $40.16 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 853.9 million; Market cap: $33.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.1%; www.imperialoil.ca) continues to work on its Kearl oil-sands project in northern Alberta. Imperial owns 71% of Kearl. ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM) owns the remaining 29%. Exxon also owns 69.6% of Imperial.

The company had to import some of the …read more »