Capitalization

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you our specific advice on the fundamentals of successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away.

Today’s tip: “The quality …read more »

ISHARES DEX SHORT TERM BOND INDEX FUND $29.15 (CWA Rating: Income) (Toronto symbol XSB; buy or sell through a broker) mirrors the performance of the DEX Short-Term Bond Index.

This index consists of a wide range of investment-grade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with between one- and five-year terms to maturity. The fund holds 201 bonds with an average …read more »

Gold and silver continue to rise. Gold is up 30% from a year ago, and is trading at $1,248 U.S. an ounce. Silver is at $19.35 U.S. an ounce, up 38%.

Gold and silver could well move higher over the longer term, although they will likely remain volatile. Higher prices would arise from investor fears that low interest rates and governments …read more »

MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $9.61 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 136.8 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 1.7%; SI Rating: Average) rose 5% in August after the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan sold some of its Maple Leaf shares to private equity fund West Face Capital Inc. at $8.25 a share. West …read more »

HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $43 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 34.7 million; Market cap; $1.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 1.5%; SI Rating: Average) specializes in residential first mortgages to small business owners, the self-employed and others who don’t meet the stricter criteria of larger, traditional lenders.

The company earned a record $1.25 a share …read more »

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successfully investing your money. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away.

Today’s tip: “Starting a business is …read more »

The economic recovery continues to increase CP Rail’s shipments of forest products, coal, potash, grain, steel and cars. This new growth and the company’s aggressive cost cuts almost doubled its earnings in the latest quarter. Ongoing capital spending should help it take even better advantage of rising demand.

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $62.60 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 168.7 million; Market …read more »

The investment industry has created all sorts of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in recent years. However, quality varies. All too many exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads, so you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings.

ETFs offer very low management fees. In addition to low fees, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality …read more »

ENCANA CORP $32.07 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 735.3 million; Market cap: $23.6 billion; SI Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.5%) earned $81 million, or $0.11 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2010 (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars).

The latest earnings were down 82.8% from the company’s year-earlier earnings of $472 million, or $0.63 a share. …read more »

Big companies like GE and 3M are examples of “GNP (Gross National Product) stocks”. Because they are already huge and sell to a wide variety of customers, investors feel their earnings growth may only match the growth of the overall economy.

However, both GE and 3M successfully restructured their businesses during the recession. The resulting cost cuts should push their …read more »