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.

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When we get questions about investing in stocks through split-share, our advice is, avoid the risk and invest in good stocks individually
TRANSCANADA CORP. $51.93 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 708.0 million; Market cap: $36.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.transcanada.com) has agreed to build a $1.9-billion, 260-kilometre pipeline that would pump natural gas from northeastern B.C.’s Dawson Creek area to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Kitimat, on the
province’s coast.

The plant is a joint venture between Chevron Corp. (New York symbol CVX) and Apache Corp. (New York symbol APA). Both are recommendations of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks.

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CANADIAN REIT $44.97 (Toronto symbol REF.UN; Units outstanding: 69.2 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 3.9%; www.creit.ca) owns 197 properties, including retail, industrial and office buildings, across Canada and in Chicago. These holdings contain almost 24.0 million square feet of leasable area. The trust’s occupancy rate is 95.1%.

In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Canadian REIT’s revenue rose 6.9%, to $102.8 million from $96.1 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit gained 8.2%, to $0.66 from $0.61.

Canadian REIT added $191.1 million worth of new buildings in 2013. That followed property purchases totalling $401.9 million in 2012, including a 50% stake in Calgary Place, a 575,000-square-foot office and retail complex, for $156.0 million. So far this year, it has not made any acquisitions.

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ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $34.31 (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Units outstanding: 69.5 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.alliedpropertiesreit.com) owns 138 office buildings, mostly in major Canadian cities. These mainly Class I properties contain over 9.9 million square feet of leasable area.

Class I refers to 19th- and early-20th-century light industrial buildings that have been converted to retail space. They usually feature exposed beams, interior brick and hardwood floors.

The trust bought $400 million worth of properties in 2012 and $182.4 million more in 2013. So far in 2014, it has added five more for $101.7 million.

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GREAT-WEST LIFECO $30.65 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 999.0 million; Market cap: $30.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 4.0%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s largest insurance company. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2014, earnings per share rose 9.3%, to $0.59 from $0.54 a year earlier. Great-West has $805.9 billion of assets under administration.

Earnings at the Canadian division (50% of the total) rose 10.9%. The European division (44%)—including Irish Life, acquired in July 2013—saw 34.9% higher profits. Losses widened at the U.S. division’s Putnam mutual fund business, cutting overall U.S. earnings by 42.3%, but the U.S. makes up just 6% of total profits.

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MANULIFE FINANCIAL $21.67 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $40.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.4%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services. The company operates globally and has $635 billion of assets under management.

In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Manulife’s earnings per share rose 15.6%, to $0.37 from $0.32 a year earlier. Revenue gained 2.1%, to $9.0 billion from $8.8 billion, as its assets under management grew and its foreign operations benefited from favourable currency movements.

Manulife has made substantial progress cutting its U.S. insurance business’s exposure to unpredictable stock markets and interest rates.

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SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $39.88 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 610.6 million; Market cap: $24.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%; www.sunlife.ca) sells savings, retirement, pension and life insurance products to individuals and corporations.

The company mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., but it continues to expand into Asia. It has $671.1 billion of assets under management.

In August 2013, Sun Life sold its riskier, money-losing U.S. annuity business, which offers products that guarantee minimum long-term returns, even if markets fall.

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BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $72.16 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $87.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%, www.scotiabank.com) began expanding in Latin America in the 1990s. It’s now focused on Peru, Mexico, Chile and Colombia, but it has a strong presence across the region.

There’s still lots of room to expand banking services throughout Latin America, especially as its growing middle class looks for stable deposit and consumer-lending services.

Bank of Nova Scotia now gets 34% of its revenue from its international division, which provides financial services not just in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in Asia and other emerging markets.

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BCE INC. $48.28 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 777.3 million; Market cap: $37.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.1%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone, Internet and wireless services. It also offers satellite and Internet TV across the country.

In the three months ended March 31, 2014, BCE’s earnings per share rose 5.2%, to $0.81 from $0.77 a year earlier. Revenue increased 4.4%, to $4.54 billion from $4.35 billion.

Revenue from wireless services (32% of total revenue) rose 4.6%. The company’s network upgrades continue to attract new wireless subscribers, and it’s benefiting from rising use of smartphones, which generate higher monthly fees than regular cellphones.

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Stock Market Advice
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 stock market advice that will help you develop a successful approach to investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “If you rely on one or two simple rules to cut your risk when you pick stocks, you may simply cut your profits.” Investors are always looking for simple ways to avoid risk in their investments. They want a rule that is easy to follow, foolproof, and compact enough to fit on a T-shirt....