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
Turnaround in resource prices would help these two South American ETFs
We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus....
INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $86 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.5 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) makes over 36,000 unique compounds that improve the taste of foods and the smell of a wide variety of consumer products. Major clients include Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Kraft, Unilever and General Mills.

The company has two divisions: Flavors, which makes ingredients for soups, soft drinks and gum; and Fragrances, which produces compounds for soaps, detergents and air fresheners. Each business supplies roughly half of IFF’s sales and earnings.


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INTEL CORP. $25 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.0 billion; Market cap: $125.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) is selling its Intel Media business, which is developing a service calle...
BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $64 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.7 billion; Market cap: $172.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) produced a record 97.8 million tonnes of iron ore in the six months ended December 31, 2013, up 19.3% from a year earlier. That’s mainly due to the start-up of its 85%-owned Jimblebar mine in Western Australia. BHP still expects to produce 192 million tonnes of iron ore for its full 2014 fiscal year.

The company also produced more metallurgical coal (up 21.9%), alumina (up 8.4%) and copper (up 6.2%). As well, new onshore oil wells in the U.S. pushed up its oil output by 6.3%. However, natural gas production fell 6.7% as BHP shifts its focus to its more profitable oil operations.

BHP Billiton is a buy....
FEDEX CORP. $132 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 312.2 million; Market cap: $41.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) plans to sell $2 billion worth of new long-term notes. The delivery firm will use the cash to buy back 11.4 million of its common shares, or 4% of the total outstanding, at current market prices. It aims to complete these purchases by May 31, 2014.

Share buybacks raise earnings per share and other per-share calculations and give the remaining shareholders a larger stake in the company.

The notes will raise the company’s long-term debt to around $4.7 billion. That’s still a low 11% of its market cap. FedEx also held cash of $3.9 billion, or $12.37 a share, as of November 30, 2013.
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THE BOEING CO. $130 (New York symbol BA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 751.5 million; Market cap: $97.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.boeing.com) delivered a record 648 passenger jets in 2013, beating its earlier forecast of 645. The 2013 figure is also 7.8% higher than the 601 planes the company delivered in 2012.

In addition, Boeing won orders for 1,531 commercial planes in 2013 (or 1,355 after cancellations). It ended the year with a record backlog of 5,080 aircraft orders.

Boeing is a buy.
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MCKESSON CORP. $173 (New York symbol MCK; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 229.7 million; Market cap: $39.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mckesson- .com) has agreed to buy shares of Celesio AG, a German firm that distributes prescription drugs in Europe and Brazil, from its two largest investors. The move will give McKesson about 75% of Celesio. It then plans to buy the remaining 25%.

Buying all of Celesio will cost $8.4 billion, including its debt. However, the purchase should add $1.00 to $1.20 a share to McKesson’s annual earnings; it earned $6.33 a share in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013.

McKesson is a buy....
NEWMONT MINING CORP. $25 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 493.1 million; Market cap: $12.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) owns 48.5% of the Batu Hijau copper/gold mine in Indonesia, which supplies 7% of its revenue.

The Indonesian government wants miners to process more ore in the country, so it recently announced a ban on mineral exports. Batu Hijau can still export its ore until 2016, but it will face a new export tax in the meantime. Newmont will challenge these changes, because its contract exempts it from extra taxes and fees.

Newmont is still a hold....
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $176 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $193.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is selling its low-end server operations to China’s Lenovo Group, the same company that acquired IBM’s personal computer division in 2005. IBM will hang on to its more profitable mainframe computer business.

Because Lenovo is a Chinese company, the deal could run into trouble on national security grounds. But if regulators approve, IBM will receive $2 billion in cash and $300 million in Lenovo shares. The cash would help the company expand in areas with greater potential, including cloud computing and analytics services, which help businesses analyze large amounts of data and improve their efficiency.

IBM is a buy....