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
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 304.8 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.9; Dividend yield: 5.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) continues to work with joint venture partners to buy mixed-use properties, particularly in urban areas. This way, the trust can apply its expertise to the retail portion of these developments, while leaving the residential and office aspects to its partners.

In the first quarter of 2014, RioCan paid $138 million for interests in six properties under development. It also bought two existing retail properties for $21 million.

Thanks to these moves, RioCan’s cash flow rose 2.4% in the quarter, to $127 million, or $0.42 a unit. A year earlier, its cash flow was $124 million, or $0.41 a unit. The lower Canadian dollar also boosted its U.S. properties’ contribution.

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target="_blank">www.blackberry.com) dropped 10% in response to a new alliance between Apple and IBM. Under the terms of the deal, IBM will develop business-related apps for Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad mobile devices. That could hurt sales of BlackBerry’s smartphones....
PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $15 (www.precisiondrilling.com) has sold some of its trucking operations in Texas and New Mexico for an undisclosed sum. These assets included trucks and related equipment that Precision uses to move its drilling rigs....
NORDION INC. $14 (www.nordion.com) recently accepted a $13.00 U.S.-a-share friendly takeover bid from Sterigenics, a privately held Illinois firm that sterilizes surgical tools, drug ingredients and other materials....
LINAMAR CORP. $64 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.8 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.linamar.com) gets around 80% of its revenue by making engines, transmissions and other precision-machined parts for automakers. It has 44 plants in North America, Europe and Asia.

The remaining 20% of Linamar’s revenue mainly comes from self-propelled, scissor-type elevating work platforms, which it sells under the Skyjack name. The company also makes other industrial machinery, such as parts for wind farms.

Pent-up car demand boosted results

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BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $3.81 and BBD.B $3.75; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $6.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has received new orders for up to 48 of its CSeries passenger jets.

These are the first orders since a problem with the plane’s engine forced Bombardier to suspend test flights in May 2014. The engine’s maker, Pratt & Whitney, has addressed this issue, and Bombardier expects to begin delivering these planes in 2015.

Including these new deals, the company now has firm orders for 205 CSeries planes. If buyers exercise all their options to buy additional aircraft, Bombardier’s total orders would rise to 495 planes and be worth about $35 billion U.S.

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ENBRIDGE INC. $52 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 834.8 million; Market cap: $43.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) had hoped to complete its new Flanagan South pipeline in the third quarter of 2014, but the company now says it will start up in the fourth quarter.

Flanagan South will connect Enbridge’s main oil-export pipeline in Illinois with storage facilities in Cushing, Oklahoma. From there, the company will pump the oil to refineries in Texas. The new line will let Enbridge transport up to 775,000 barrels a day on this route, up from just 175,000 on its existing Spearhead line.

Demand for this extra capacity should be strong, because it will let oil producers ship more of their crude from Western Canada and North Dakota’s Bakken area to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

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TORSTAR CORP. $7.98 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $637.6 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 6.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.torstar.com) is closing its free Metro daily newspapers in Regina, Saskatoon and London, Ontario, after they failed to attract enough advertisers. The company will keep publishing Metro papers in larger cities, including Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and Winnipeg. Torstar has also shut down The Grid, a money-losing free weekly paper in Toronto.

The company didn’t say how much it would pay in severance and other costs, but these moves should free up cash that it can invest in its websites.

Torstar is a buy.

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ENCANA CORP. $24 (Toronto symbol ECA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 740.9 million; Market cap: $17.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.encana.com) has agreed to sell its operations in Alberta’s Bighorn area to privately held Jupiter Resources.

Encana will get $1.8 billion when the sale closes in the next few weeks (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). To put that in context, the company earned $515 million, or $0.70 a share, in the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

The company is also selling a gas-fired power plant and its 50% stake in a second plant, both in Alberta, for an undisclosed sum.

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