Jim Bates

Jim is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for The Successful Investor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Jim has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 1992 and spent more than a decade at the Financial Post DataGroup before joining TSI Network. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.

Posts by the author

Value Stocks

Finning International Has a Surging Backlog Amid Mining and Infrastructure Boom

Finning Int’l Inc. has a bright outlook spurred by mining and infrastructure growth.

2 min read

Jim Bates

McDonald's Corp. plans to keep aggressively opening locations to continue to power its sales.

Blue Chip Stocks

McDonald’s Reports Higher Sales Despite Economic Headwinds

2 min read

Jim Bates

Dividend Stocks

T. Rowe Price Group Offers a High 4.8% Yield Enhanced by a Key New Strategic Alliance

1 min read

Jim Bates

Growth Stocks

World stock market: Telefonica aims for growth in stronger markets

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week, an investor asked about one of the telecommunications giants of the world stock market, Telefonica. That prompted Pat to examine the balancing act a company like Telefonica undergoes when it experiences weakness in some markets and strength in others....

3 min read

Jim Bates

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks: This popular footwear maker faces a fickle market

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week, a particularly interesting request concerned a U.S. retailer with a reputation for quality. Deckers Outdoors has many popular brands, but it is contending with a highly competitive market. ...

3 min read

Jim Bates

Mining Stocks

Gold stocks: Newmont ties its dividend to the price of gold

Newmont Mining Corp., New York symbol NEM, links future dividend hikes to the price of gold: it will raise the quarterly rate by $0.05 a share for each $100-per-ounce rise in its average selling price for gold in the preceding quarter. The company has now enhanced this policy. If gold prices exceed $1,700 an ounce, it will raise the quarterly dividend by an additional $0.025 a share, for a total increase of $0.075 a share. If gold prices rise above $2,000 an ounce, Newmont will raise the dividend by an additional $0.05 a share, for a total increase of $0.10 a share....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Wealth Management

Stock investment advice: Loblaw continues to rely on private brands

Loblaw Companies Ltd., Toronto symbol L, continues to expand its private-label business. That’s because the company earns higher profits selling private-label merchandise than national brands. In October 2011, Loblaw is launching a new line of gourmet foods under the President’s Choice Black Label brand. These foods include mustards, condiments, dressings and sauces, biscuits, crackers, nuts and desserts. Products like these should help Loblaw compete with high-end food retailers like U.S.-based Whole Foods, which is now expanding in Canada.

Stock investment advice: Loblaw adds to its stand-alone clothing stores

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1 min read

Jim Bates

How To Invest

Canadian investing: New acquisition fuels sales for Gennum

Gennum Corp., Toronto symbol GND, designs chips and other electronic equipment that lets television broadcasters store, edit and transfer video signals without losing picture quality. It also designs chips that make computer networks faster. In its third quarter, which ended August 31, 2011, Gennum’s sales rose 6.6%, to $36.7 million from $34.4 million a year earlier (all amounts in U.S. dollars). The gain mainly reflects the contribution from U.K.-based Nanotech Semiconductor Ltd., which Gennum recently bought. Nanotech designs chips for fibre-optic communications networks.

Canadian investing: Gennum concentrates its focus on chip design

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1 min read

Jim Bates

Wealth Management

Investor Toolkit: Base portfolio management decisions on more than the stock price

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network....

2 min read

Jim Bates

Wealth Management

Stock investing advice: Re-opened Chalk River reactor propels Nordion’s isotope sales

Nordion Inc., Toronto symbol NDN, sells isotopes for cancer detection and research. It also makes products that sterilize food and surgical tools. In its fiscal 2011 third quarter, ended July 31, 2011, Nordion’s revenue rose 39.5%, to $66.8 million from $47.9 million a year earlier (all amounts in U.S. dollars). Isotope sales jumped 79.9%, mainly because the Chalk River nuclear reactor near Ottawa restarted in August 2010 after a 15-month shutdown; this reactor supplies most of Nordion’s isotopes. The company’s sterilization equipment continues to sell well. Nordion is also seeing strong demand for TheraSphere, a process it developed that treats liver cancer using millions of small glass beads that contain radioactive materials. Regulators in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia have already approved TheraSphere. This treatment will soon begin Phase III clinical trials in the U.S....

1 min read

Jim Bates

How To Invest

Investing strategy: What McGraw-Hill’s decision to split in two means for investors

McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., New York symbol MHP, rose 17% the week of September 12 after it announced that it will split into two separate, publicly traded companies. One of these new firms, McGraw-Hill Markets, will sell a variety of financial-information products. This business will include Standard & Poor’s, which provides credit ratings on bonds, and McGraw-Hill’s J.D. Power market-research firm. McGraw-Hill Markets will have annual revenue of $4 billion. International sales will account for 40% of that total. The other company, McGraw-Hill Education, will publish textbooks for schools and colleges. This business will have $2.4 billion of annual revenue....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Energy Stocks

Natural gas stocks: Encana sells off pipelines but keeps gas wells in Colorado

Encana Corp., Toronto symbol ECA, has agreed to sell its midstream operations in Colorado’s Piceance basin. These operations mainly consist of pipelines that collect natural gas from nearby wells and transport it to storage and processing facilities. Encana will hang to its gas wells in this region. The company will receive $590 million when the deal closes later this year (all amounts in U.S. dollars). To put this figure in context, this natural gas stock’s cash flow was $2.0 billion, or $2.77 a share, in the first half of 2011. This sale will help Encana reach its goal of selling $1 billion to $2 billion worth of non-core assets by the end of 2011. That will let the company focus on its main gas-producing properties in Alberta, B.C., Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana. The cash from these sales will also let Encana keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.20 U.S. a share, for an annualized yield of 3.5%....

1 min read

Jim Bates