Pat McKeough

A professional investment analyst for more than 30 years, Pat has developed a stock-selection technique that has proven reliable in both bull and bear markets. His proprietary ValuVesting System™ focuses on stocks that provide exceptional quality at relatively low prices. Many savvy investors and industry leaders consider it the most powerful stock-picking method ever created.

As early as 1980, Pat was recognized as #1 in the world of published investment advice by the Washington, DC–based Newsletter Publishers Association, and he was the first multi-year winner of The Globe and Mail’s stock picking contest.

Both CBS MarketWatch and The Hulbert Financial Digest recognized Pat as one of North America’s top stock analysts. The Wall Street Journal called him “one of only four investment newsletter advisors who have managed to serve their readers well over the long haul.”

A best-selling Canadian author, he wrote Riding the Bull, his 1993 book that predicted the stock-market boom of the last half of that decade. Through his many television appearances, he is well-known to investors for his insightful analysis and his candid, unpretentious style.

Bottom line: Pat’s conservative, reduced-risk strategy is a proven approach to safe investing.

Posts by the author
If you want to find out how to hire a stock broker who meets your needs, you need to watch out above all for conflicts of interest
Shrugging off a slow first quarter, Goodyear sees a good year ahead, thanks to falling costs of rubber and oil and a good labour deal
Real Estate Investing
Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock or investment we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in it at this time.

North American Palladium (symbol PDL on Toronto; www.napalladium.com) owns the Lac des Iles palladium mine near Thunder Bay. It also owns the Vezza gold project in Quebec’s Abitibi region.

Palladium is mainly used in catalytic converters for automobiles, as well as in jewellery.

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TRANSCANADA CORP. $54 (www.transcanada.com) has increased its quarterly dividend by 8.3%, to $0.52 a share from $0.48. The new annual rate of $2.08 yields 3.9%. TransCanada has raised its payout each year since 2000. Best Buy.


ENBRIDGE INC. $58 (www.enbridge.com) plans to increase the capacity of a proposed pipeline project that will pump crude from oil sands projects in Alberta. It will mainly do this by increasing the diameter of part of the pipeline and boosting another section’s pumping power....
TELUS CORP. $42 (www.telus.com) is paying $1.5 billion for new radio frequencies (or spectrum) covering urban and rural areas in Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec. The price is slightly more than the $1.49 billion, or $2.41 a share, that Telus earned in 2014....
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $28 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 315.4 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.0; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 292 shopping centres in Canada, including 15 under development. These holdings account for 84% of the REIT’s rental revenue. The remaining 16% comes from 48 malls in the U.S.

In the past few years, RioCan took advantage of lower property values and interest rates to expand its portfolio. As a result, its revenue jumped 39.8%, from $882 million in 2010 to $1.2 billion in 2014.

Due to gains and losses on property sales, earnings fell from $6.04 a unit (or a total of $1.5 billion) in 2010 to $3.25 (or $873 million) in 2011. Earnings rebounded to $4.57 a unit (or $1.3 billion) in 2012 but declined to $2.10 a unit (or $663 million) in 2014.

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LINAMAR CORP. $75 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 65.1 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.linamar.com) saw its sales rise 16.0% in 2014, to a record $4.2 billion from $3.6 billion in 2013.

Sales at its powertrain and driveline division (83% of the total) rose 14.7%, thanks to acquisitions and higher new car sales, which increased demand for Linamar’s transmissions and other auto parts. Sales at the industrial products division (17%) gained 23.3%, mainly due to strong demand for the company’s Skyjack selfpropelled, scissor-type elevating work platforms.

Earnings jumped 48.2% during the year, to a record $4.95 a share from $3.34. Linamar’s earnings could rise to $5.54 a share in 2015, and the stock trades at a moderate 13.5 times that forecast. The $0.40 dividend yields 0.5%.

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BLACKBERRY LTD. $13 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 528.8 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) plans to launch four new smartphones in 2015, including the Leap, which features a five-inch high-definition touch-screen display. The Leap features the company’s latest encryption technology, which should appeal to BlackBerry’s corporate and government clients.

The company has also extended its partnership with Samsung Electronics. Under the deal, Samsung will integrate BlackBerry’s mobile security software into its smartphones and tablets.

BlackBerry is a hold.

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SHAWCOR LTD. $35 (Toronto symbol SCL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.5 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.shawcor.com) lost $0.32 a share in the fourth quarter of 2014, mainly due to writedowns of its pipelinecoating facilities in Texas and a joint venture in Venezuela. Without these charges, it earned $0.76 a share, up 105.4% from $0.37 a year earlier.

Revenue rose 22.0%, to $500.0 million from $409.8 million, partly because the lower Canadian dollar enhanced its overseas projects’ results.

Lower oil prices will probably slow pipeline construction and hurt demand for ShawCor’s services. However, the company has $766 million worth of orders that it expects to complete in 2015. It is also bidding on other jobs worth a total of $800 million.

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