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
GLOBAL X COPPER MINERS ETF $10.23 (New York symbol COPX; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, which includes between 20 and 40 international companies that mine, refine or explore for copper. Germanybased Structured Solutions AG created this index.

Canadian companies make up 48.3% of the fund’s holdings. It also includes companies based in Australia (7.2%), Poland (5.0%), Peru (5.7%) and Mexico (6.7%). Global X Copper Miners ETF’s MER is 0.65%.

Its top 10 holdings are Turquoise Hill Resources at 5.8%; Capstone Mining, 5.5%; Vendanta Resources, 5.5%; Freeport Copper, 5.1%; First Quantum Minerals, 5.1%; Taseko Mines, 5.0%; Cudeco Ltd., 5.0%; Lundin Mining, 4.9%; Antofagasta plc, 4.9%; and Jiangxi Copper Company, 4.8%.
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GLOBAL X SILVER MINERS ETF $14.42 (New York symbol SIL; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Silver Miners Index.

This index includes 31 international companies that mine, refine or explore for silver. Germanybased Structured Solutions AG developed the Global X Silver Miners Index.

Canadian companies make up 46.6% of the fund’s holdings, but it also includes companies based in the U.S. (11.0%) and Mexico (14.6%). The ETF’s MER is 0.65%.
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ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $12.91 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index.

This index is made up of 54 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The fund’s MER is 0.60%. iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund began trading on March 23, 2001.

The fund’s top 10 holdings are Goldcorp at 13.1%; Barrick Gold, 13.8%; Newmont Mining, 11.3%; Yamana Gold, 5.8%; Kinross, 4.9%; Randgold Resources (ADR), 4.8%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 4.6%; Franco Nevada, 4.1%, Eldorado Gold, 3.8%; and Agnico-Eagle Mines, 3.7%.
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MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $35.75 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 67.5 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.mts.ca) has agreed to sell its Allstream subsidiary to Accelero Capital Holdings, a private firm controlled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.

In 2004, the company paid $1.6 billion for Allstream, which provides integrated telephone, Internet and other communication services to over 50,000 businesses across Canada.

The sale price is $520 million, which is equal to 22% of Manitoba Telecom’s $2.4-billion market cap. If you disregard closing costs, Manitoba Telecom will receive $405 million. Assuming regulators approve, the company expects to complete the sale in the second half of 2013.
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IMPERIAL OIL $39.57 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $34.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.2%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated oil company with oil sands projects in Alberta and conventional oil and gas operations across Western Canada. Imperial also owns four refineries and operates 1,850 Esso gas stations.

Imperial produced 284,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the latest quarter, down 1.7% from 289,000 barrels a year earlier. The decline was mainly the result of planned maintenance at the Syncrude oil sands project, in which Imperial owns a 25.0% stake.

In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Imperial’s earnings fell 21.4%, to $798 million, or $0.94 a share, due to an 8% drop in the company’s selling price for oil. A year earlier, it earned $1.0 billion, or $1.19 a share. Cash flow per share fell 17.4%, to $1.19 from $1.44. However, revenue rose 3.3%, to $8.0 billion from $7.5 billion, largely because downstream sales (refineries and gas stations) rose 10.0%.
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Israeli drone maker seeks out greater profits
Pat McKeough responds to many requests for specific advice on the best stocks to invest in and other questions on investment strategy and the economy from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle. This week, we received a question from an Inner Circle member about a stock that may not be well known to Canadian investors, but has a product which has made headlines. Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems has seen its profits rise thanks to the sale of unmanned air vehicles, or drones. Pat looks at the company’s overall outlook and how much emphasis investors should put on one ‘hot’ product like drones....
Two South American ETFs look for resource rebound
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. The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. Here are two international ETFs that we follow regularly. ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND (New York Exchange symbol ECH; us.ishares.com; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Chile Investable Market Index, which consists of stocks that are mainly traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange....
FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $22 (www.finning.com) has increased its quarterly dividend by 8.9%, to $0.1525 a share from $0.14. The new annual rate of $0.61 yields 2.8%. Finning sells heavy equipment to the mining industry, and lower commodity prices have hurt the stock....
IGM FINANCIAL INC. $45 (www.igmfinancial.com) reported that it had $127.1 billion of assets under management on May 31, 2013, up 8.6% from $117.0 billion a year earlier. Improving stock markets were the main reason for the increase: IGM’s fee income rises and falls with the value of the investments it manages, and the market rose 5.3% in the past year....