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

How To Invest

Stock investing: Intuitive Surgical’s earnings rise sharply

Intuitive Surgical (symbol ISRG on Nasdaq) makes the “da Vinci,” a computerized surgical system. Intuitive’s shares trade at a high price, but you can buy as few as you wish through any broker. Intuitive is one of the aggressive stock investing picks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. Guided by a miniature camera connected to a 3-D monitor, surgeons use the da Vinci to operate by remotely manipulating tiny robotic arms. This is safer and far less invasive than regular surgery. It reduces the patient’s recovery time, post-operative discomfort, scarring and infection risk....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Wealth Management

Investor Toolkit: How “averaging down” can hurt your portfolio diversification

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 successful investing, including portfolio diversification. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away....

3 min read

Jim Bates

Blue Chip Stocks

Large cap stocks: Apple earnings surge on iPhone, iPad demand

Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) makes computers and a variety of other electronic devices. Portable devices, such as the iPod music player, the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet computer, dominate Apple’s overall sales. Users of these products also buy music, movie and video-game downloads at Apple’s iTunes online store. Apple is one of the large cap stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In its fiscal 2011 first quarter, which ended December 25, 2010, Apple sales rose 70.5%, to $26.7 billion from $15.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings jumped 77.7%, to $6.0 billion, or $6.43 a share. A year earlier, the company earned $3.4 billion, or $3.67 a share....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Daily Advice

Stock market investments: Tempur-Pedic earnings jump in latest quarter

Tempur-Pedic (symbol TPX on New York), reported higher revenue and earnings in the latest quarter. Tempur-Pedic manufactures and distributes mattresses and pillows made from its proprietary Tempur pressure-relieving material.

In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Tempur-Pedic’s earnings rose 59.0%, to $46.3 million from $29.1 million a year earlier....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Wealth Management

Stock investment advice: Intel reports record revenue and earnings in 2010

Intel Corp. (symbol INTC on Nasdaq), is the world’s largest computer chip maker.

For 2010, the company reported record revenue of $43.6 billion. That’s up 24.2% from $35.1 billion in 2009.

Earnings jumped 76.1%, to a record $11.6 billion from $6.6 billion in 2009....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Blue Chip Stocks

Blue chip stocks: Alcoa posts higher 2010 revenue and earnings

Alcoa Inc. (New York symbol AA) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The company is one of the blue chip stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In 2010, Alcoa’s sales rose 14.0%, $21.0 billion from $18.4 billion in 2009. The company saw higher demand in most of its markets. In 2010, overall aluminum demand rebounded 13%, the biggest increase in 14 years. The company earned $262 million, or $0.25 a share, compared to a net loss of $985 million, or $1.06 a share, in 2009. The higher sales and higher aluminum prices were the main reasons for the improved earnings. The company also improved its productivity during the year....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Growth Stocks

Wall Street stocks: Supervalu earnings decline in latest quarter

SuperValu Inc. (New York symbol SVU) operates about 2,500 company-owned and franchised supermarkets. Major banners include Save-A-Lot, Albertsons and Jewel-Osco. Supervalu gets 76% of its revenue from its retail stores. It gets the remaining 24% by supplying food to 1,890 independent stores. The company continues to focus on its core business of food retailing, and has stopped selling other items, such as automotive goods and perfumes, in its stores. In its fiscal 2011 third quarter, which ended December 4, 2010, the Wall Street stock’s sales fell 5.9% to $8.7 billion from $9.2 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales declined 4.9%. The company closed underperforming stores, and was forced to cut its prices due to stronger competition from discount retailers, including Wal-Mart, which is selling more groceries in its stores....

1 min read

Jim Bates

Growth Stocks

Aggressive investing: Ruby Tuesday reports higher sales and earnings

Ruby Tuesday (New York symbol RT) owns 676 restaurants in the U.S. Franchisees run another 140 U.S. outlets, and international franchisees operate 58 restaurants overseas. Ruby Tuesday is one of the stocks we analyze in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing. Ruby Tuesday offers casual American dining. The company’s fall menu contains a number of new offerings, including Fit & Trim entrees, complimentary garlic cheese biscuits, additional side items and an improved Sunday brunch....

1 min read

Jim Bates

How To Invest

Investing in stocks: ConAgra reports lower earnings, slightly higher sales

ConAgra Foods Inc. (New York symbol CAG) makes a wide variety of packaged foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Peter Pan peanut butter and Orville Redenbacher popcorn. The company gets 67% of its revenue by selling its products to consumers. It gets the remaining 33% by selling foods to businesses. In its 2011 second quarter, which ended November 28, 2010, ConAgra’s sales rose 2.0%, to $3.2 billion from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Sales rose 1.0% at the consumer foods division, to $2.1 billion from $2.07 billion. The commercial foods division’s sales rose 3.0%, to $1.1 billion from $1.0 billion. The company sold more of its Lamb Weston specialty potato products. As well, ConAgra’s flour-milling operations raised their prices to offset higher wheat costs....

1 min read

Jim Bates