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
H&R REIT $22.71 (Toronto symbol HR.UN; Units outstanding: 274.1 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 5.9%; www.hr-reit.com) is selling part ownership of 101 industrial properties in Canada and the U.S. for $731 million. In all, these buildings comprise 19.5 million square feet. The buyers include the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

H&R will keep a 50% interest in the Canadian properties and a 49.5% stake in the U.S. portfolio. It will keep managing these assets and will receive fees for doing so. H&R will retain full ownership of 14 other industrial properties.

The REIT will use the proceeds to pay down debt and buy more shopping malls and office buildings.

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MARKET VECTORS VIETNAM ETF $18.84 (New York symbol VNM; buy or sell through brokers) holds shares of Vietnamese companies or foreign firms that get a significant amount of their revenue from Vietnam.

The ETF’s top holdings are Masan Group (food, resources and banking conglomerate), 8.7%; Vincom Corp. (real estate), 7.9%; Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 7.6%; Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank, 6.8%; Gamuda Bhd (a Malaysia-based construction group), 5.3%; Minor International (a Thailand- based firm with hotels and fast-food restaurants in Vietnam), 5.2%; and PetroVietnam Technical Services (oil field services), 4.8%.

Market Vectors Vietnam ETF’s industry breakdown is as follows: Financials, 37.6%; Energy, 16.1%; Consumer Staples, 13.3%; Industrials, 11.6%; Consumer Discretionary, 10.6%; Materials, 4.3%; and Utilities, 3.3%. Its expense ratio is 0.76%.

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ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $42.10 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the FTSE China 50 Index, which is made up of the 50 largest, most liquid Chinese stocks. All of the companies in the index trade on the Hong Kong exchange. Some also trade as American depositary receipts (ADRs) on New York.

The fund’s top holdings are Tencent Holdings, 8.4%; China Construction Bank, 7.9%; China Mobile, 7.7%; Industrial & Commercial Bank, 7.2%; Bank of China, 6.1%; China Life, 4.8%; Ping An Insurance, 4.5%; PetroChina, 4.1%; CNOOC Ltd., 3.9%; China Petroleum and Chemical, 3.7%; Agricultural Bank of China, 2.5%; and China Pacific Insurance, 2.5%.

The fund’s holdings give it the following industry breakdown: Financials, 50.3%; Oil and Gas, 13.8%; Telecommunications, 11.1%; Technology, 9.9%; Consumer Goods, 6.3%; Industrials, 4.2%; and Basic Materials, 2.4%. Its expense ratio is 0.74%.

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PENGROWTH ENERGY $3.35 (Toronto symbol PGF; Shares outstanding: 530.1 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 14.3%; www.pengrowth.com) has started injecting steam into its Lindbergh oil sands project in Alberta to loosen the tar-like bitumen and pump it to the surface.

Pengrowth believes that Lindbergh’s low operating costs will let it generate positive cash flow, even at today’s depressed oil prices.

As well, now that construction on Lindbergh has ended, the company’s 2015 capital spending will fall sharply from the $740 million to $770 million it probably spent in 2014.

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BCE INC. $54.40 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 839.6 million; Market cap: $44.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.5%; www.bce.ca) recently agreed to buy Glentel Inc. (Toronto symbol GLN) for $670 million.

Glentel sells mobile phones and subscription plans through 494 Canadian stores, mainly under the Wireless Wave banner. Glentel also has 735 U.S. outlets and 147 in Australia and the Philippines.

However, rival wireless carrier Rogers Communications (Toronto symbol RCI.B) legally challenged the takeover. Rogers claims that its existing deal with Glentel gives it the right to block any change in control.

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POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $101.36 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares- .com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index, which consists of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap.

The Nasdaq 100 Index contains shares of companies in a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The fund’s expenses are about 0.20% of its assets.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Amgen, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel, Amazon.com, Gilead Sciences, Comcast Corp. and Facebook.

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SPDR S&P 500 ETF $202.31 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. companies that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, J.P. Morgan Chase, Chevron, General Electric, Berkshire Hathaway, and Wells Fargo & Co. The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets.

If you want exposure to the S&P 500 Index, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF is a buy.

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ISHARES CANADIAN SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX ETF $24.27 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds 30 of the highestyielding Canadian stocks. Its selections are based on dividend growth, yield and payout ratio. The weight of any one stock is limited to 10% of the ETF’s assets. The fund’s MER is 0.55%, and it yields 3.9%.

The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 7.3%; TD Bank, 6.8%, National Bank, 6.7%; Bank of Montreal, 6.1%; Royal Bank, 5.5%; BCE, 4.8%; Ag Growth International, 4.6%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.5%; Bonterra Energy, 4.2%; and Laurentian Bank of Canada, 3.9%.

The ETF holds 55.2% of its assets in financial stocks. The top Canadian finance stocks have sound prospects. However, if you invest in this ETF, be sure to adjust the rest of your portfolio so it won’t be overly concentrated in the financial sector.

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IBM $155.05 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 989.7 million; Market cap: $197.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.ibm.com) has signed several new cloud computing contracts. These deals will help boost its cloud computing revenue to $7 billion in 2015, or about 7% of its total projected revenue of $99 billion.

Among them is a 10-year, $2.0-billion deal to build and manage a cloud platform for ABN Amro, one of the Netherlands’ leading banks.

The company has also signed a seven-year, $1.25-billion contract to build a cloud-based system for U.K.-based advertising agency WPP plc. Under the deal, IBM will combine WPP’s mainframe computers with new remote servers.

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