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
Growth Stocks
RTX Keeps Adding to Its Strong Backlog
RTX Corp. (formerly Raytheon Technologies Corp.) hits new all-time highs on unprecedented global demand.
4 min read
Jim Bates
Value Stocks
Finning International Has a Surging Backlog Amid Mining and Infrastructure Boom
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
Growth Stocks
This growth stock pick’s earnings rose sharply in 2010
Tim Hortons, symbol THI on Toronto symbol THI, sold its half of Maidstone Bakeries business to Aryzta AG of Switzerland last year for $475 million. That helped the company buy back $341.1 million of its stock under its current repurchase program, which ended February 17, 2011. Under its new program, the company plans to spend up to $445 million on share repurchases over the next year. Meanwhile, the growth stock pick’s sales rose 4.0%, to $2.5 billion in 2010 from $2.4 billion in 2009. During the year, the company opened 149 new restaurants in Canada. That brings its total number of Canadian stores up to 3,148. Same-stores sales in Canada rose 4.9%. In the U.S., Tim Hortons opened 44 restaurants and 52 self-serve kiosks. It now has 602 U.S. outlets. Same-store sales in the U.S. rose 3.9%. The company’s earnings for 2010 jumped 110.5%, to $624.0 million from $296.4 million in 2009. Earnings per share rose 118.3%, to $3.58 from $1.64, on fewer shares outstanding. This was mostly due to a $361.1-million gain on the sale of Maidstone. New restaurants and menu items also contributed to the higher earnings....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Energy Stocks
Higher production and prices boosted this oil stock’s 2010 earnings
Cenovus Energy Inc., symbol CVE on Toronto, operates three oil-sands properties in Alberta, and one in Saskatchewan. Cenovus ships the heavy bitumen from these projects to refineries in Illinois and Texas. ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of these refineries, as well as 50% of Cenovus’ two main oil-sands projects. Cenovus also owns conventional oil and natural gas properties. Cenovus split off from EnCana Corp. in December 2009. In 2010, Cenovus earned $993.0 million, or $1.32 a share. That’s up 21.4% from $818.0 million, or $1.09 a share, in 2009. The oil stock’s production rose, as did oil prices. These were the main reasons for the higher earnings. These gains were somewhat offset by higher costs for shipping oil due to problems along the Enbridge pipeline system, and costs to upgrade its U.S. refineries. The oil stock’s cash flow fell 15.1% in 2010, to $2.4 billion, or $3.21 a share, from $2.8 billion, or $3.79 a share in 2009. Lower volumes and selling prices for natural gas were the main reasons for the declines....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Wealth Management
Aggressive investing: LoJack’s revenue and earnings rise in latest quarter
LoJack Corp., symbol LOJN on Nasdaq, sells systems that help track and recover stolen vehicles. LoJack sells its products in the U.S. and 30 other countries. The company’s Canadian subsidiary is Boomerang Tracking. LoJack is one of the aggressive investing stocks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, LoJack’s revenue rose 12.4%, to $40.0 million from $35.6 million a year earlier. The international division’s revenue jumped 27.1%, to $16.4 million from $12.9 million a year earlier. Sales in Italy were especially strong in the latest quarter: the company added 2,200 clients in the country, and now has a total of 13,000 Italian clients....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Growth Stocks
Technology stocks: New chips push up Nvidia’s sales and earnings
Nvidia Corp., Nasdaq symbol NVDA, designs graphic chips that make computer games run more smoothly and appear more lifelike. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended January 30, 2011, Nvidia earned $253.1 million. It lost $68.0 million in 2010. Earnings per share jumped to $0.43 from a loss of $0.12. Excluding one-time items, the technology stock’s earnings per share rose 160.0%, to $0.65 from $0.45. Nvidia spent 24.0% of its sales on research in fiscal 2011, so it’s more profitable than it seems. Sales rose 6.5%, to $3.5 billion from $3.3 billion. That’s largely due to strong demand for the technology stock’s new Tegra chips, which greatly enhance displays on cellphones and other mobile devices. The company is also seeing strong interest from computer makers for its chips that can process data as well as display graphics....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Blue Chip Stocks
Strong competition hurt this blue chip stock’s earnings in the latest quarter
Campbell Soup Co., symbol CBB on New York, is the world’s largest maker of canned soups. It also makes Prego canned pasta and sauces, Pepperidge Farm cookies and V8 vegetable juices. The company gets 19.8% of its sales from international markets. Its biggest foreign markets are Australia and Europe. In the three months ended January 30, 2011, company’s sales fell 1.2%, to $2.13 billion from $2.15 billion. Soup sales fell 4.0% in the U.S. The company continues to face strong competition from generic brands. In response, it ran promotions that discounted the prices of some of its brands, particularly ready-to-serve soups. Earnings fell 7.7%, to $239.0 million from $259.0 million a year earlier. The company spent $417 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 4.1% to $0.71 from $0.74. The lower sales and higher advertising spending were the main reasons for the decline....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Growth Stocks
Stock trading advice: China growth pushed up Yum’s sales in 2010
Yum! Brands Inc., New York symbol YUM, operates over 37,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food) and Long John Silver’s (seafood). The company continues to grow strongly in China. That offsets slower growth in the U.S. and other parts of the world. In 2010, Yum’s sales rose 4.7%, to $11.3 billion from $10.8 billion in fiscal 2019. Overall sales rose 17% in China, while same-store sales in China grew 6%. Yum opened 507 new restaurants in China in 2010, along with another 884 international outlets outside China....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Dividend Stocks
Income investing: Acquisitions push up Buckeye Partners’ revenue in 2010
Buckeye Partners L.P., symbol BPL on New York, operates over 8,700 kilometres of pipelines in the northeastern and midwestern U.S. These lines pump gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products. Buckeye also owns oil and natural-gas storage terminals and other related businesses. Buckeye is one of the income investing picks we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster. In 2010, Buckeye’s revenue jumped 78.0%, to $3.2 billion from $1.8 billion in 2009. The gain mostly reflects the company’s recent acquisition of oil pipelines and storage terminals. In addition, the company is transporting more fuel due to the improving economy. Rising oil prices have also pushed up the company’s fee income....
1 min read
Jim Bates
Dividend Stocks
This stock’s new pipelines could produce steady gains for the conservative investor
A key part of our three-part tsinetwork.ca investment strategy is to diversify by spreading your money out across the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities). (The other two parts are to stick with well-established, dividend-paying companies, and downplay stocks in the broker/public-relations limelight.) Generally speaking, stocks in the Resources and Manufacturing & Industry sectors expose you to above-average volatility, and stocks in the Utilities and Canadian Finance sectors entail below-average volatility. Consumer stocks fall somewhere in the middle....
3 min read
Jim Bates
Dividend Stocks
Strong wireless sales pushed up this dividend paying stock’s results in 2010
Telus Corp., symbol T.A on Toronto, provides telephone services in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. It also sells wireless services across Canada. In 2010, the dividend paying stock’s sales rose 1.8%, to $9.8 billion from $9.6 billion in 2009. Sales in the company’s wireless division rose 6.6%, and the wireline division’s sales fell 2.2%. Overall, Telus added 378,000 customers in 2010, bringing the total to 12.3 million. That figure includes 7.0 million wireless subscribers, 3.7 million wireline access lines, 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 314,000 “Optik TV” customers. (Optik TV is an Internet-based television service that operates through phone lines.)...
1 min read
Jim Bates
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