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Suncor is new to our Conservative Growth Portfolio. We added it last August after it bought Petro-Canada, one of our long-time recommendations.

We avoided Suncor before the merger. Its focus on high-cost oil-sands production made it more volatile than other high-quality oil companies, and left it with more to lose if oil prices fell. However, the Petro-Canada takeover diversified Suncor’s operations. …read more »

Food ingredient costs have been rising, and that’s starting to weigh on these four food companies. However, all four have strong brands and loyal customers. That should let them pass on most of these extra costs. These companies have also been finding ways to improve their productivity. We like all four, but only three are buys right now.

TIM HORTONS INC. …read more »

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $20 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 243.2 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.2; Dividend yield: 6.9%; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT). RioCan has properties in all 10 provinces. The trust specializes in large outdoor malls, and owns 261 retail properties, …read more »

As part of their retirement planning, investors (including members of our Inner Circle service) sometimes ask us about ways to set up their finances so they can be easily managed after their death.

When you’re doing this kind of retirement planning, it’s always good to have clear arrangements in place and keep them up to date as your circumstances inevitably …read more »

Gold is currently trading at around $1,183 U.S. an ounce. That’s up 4% from April 19, 2010, when it was trading at around $1,138 U.S. an ounce, but still short of gold’s all-time high of $1,214.80 U.S., which it reached in late 2009.

Gold’s recent rise has partly been driven by investor fears about European sovereign debt — Greek debt in …read more »

Demand for wireless services continues to rise strongly. New phones and devices, such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, should continue to spur demand for wireless service. We still have a high opinion of Apple and Amazon. But their high share prices make them vulnerable to sudden setbacks.

We think network operators like AT&T and Verizon provide a conservative …read more »

Computer-chip technology changes rapidly. New advances keep driving down chip prices and profit margins. To lower your risk, we look for companies that have the financial strength to keep developing new products.

Here are four high-quality chip-related stocks that we see as buys. All four are in a strong position to gain from rising consumer and business spending on new computers …read more »

Food sellers Sysco and Supervalu stand to gain from increasing restaurant traffic and grocery store sales as the economy recovers. However, they could have trouble passing along higher food and other costs to their customers. We feel both stocks will likely make little progress in the next few months.

SYSCO CORP. $31 (New York symbol SYY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; …read more »

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP. $52 (New York symbol TUP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 63.1 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 1.9%; WSSF Rating: Above Average) continues to see strong demand for its plastic food containers and beauty products in Brazil, China, India and other emerging markets. These markets now account for more than half …read more »

SNAP-ON INC. $48 (New York symbol SNA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 57.8 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 2.5%; WSSF Rating: Average) earned $36.8 million in the three months ended April 3, 2010. That’s up 5.7% from $34.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 5.0%, to $0.63 from $0.60, …read more »