Growth Stocks

Although growth stock picks can be highly volatile, they can make good long-term investments. They may be well-known stars or quiet gems, but they do share one common attribute—they are growing at a higher-than-average rate within their industry, or within the market as a whole, and could keep growing for years or decades.

And keep in mind that we focus on growth stocks, which have a good long-term history and favourable prospects. We downplay momentum stocks that tend to attract many investors simply because they are moving faster than the market averages, but are liable to fall sharply when their momentum fades.

There’s room for growth stock investing in your portfolio, but make sure you follow our TSI Network three-part Successful Investor strategy for your overall portfolio:

  1. Invest mainly in well-established companies;
  2. Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);
  3. Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

Make better stock picks when you read this FREE Special Report, Canadian Growth Stocks: WestJet Stock, RioCan Stock and More.

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Stock Investing
Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock or investment we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in it at this time. Today an organic food store operator that has been among the most active stocks in the past year—but has seen its share price tumble.

Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. (symbol SFM on Nasdaq; www.sprouts.com) opened its first organic and natural food store in Arizona in 2002. It now has 200 outlets, mainly in the western U.S.

Sprouts first sold shares to the public at $18.00 each and began trading on Nasdaq in August 2013.

The company has grown quickly in the past few years. In 2011, it merged with Henry’s Holdings, which operated 43 stores. It later purchased 37 outlets operating under the Sunflower Farmers Market banner.

In addition to acquisitions, Sprouts continues to add new stores, opening 10 in the three months ended March 29, 2015. That increased its sales by 18.7% in the quarter, to $857.6 million from $722.6 million a year earlier. Same-store sales (which exclude recently opened and closed outlets) gained 4.8%.

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TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. $54 (Nasdaq symbol TXN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $54.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.3; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ti.com) gets 65% of its revenue from analog chips, which convert inputs like touch, sound and pressure into signals computers can understand. Manufacturers use these chips in a variety of products, such as cars, medical devices and appliances.

The company gets a further 20% of its revenue by making embedded processor chips, which perform mathematical calculations. Many clients supply their own software for these chips. This gives Texas Instruments an opportunity to form long-term relationships with these users, as it helps them adapt their software to the new chips. That makes these customers less likely to switch to other chipmakers.

Handheld calculators, specialized chips and licensing fees provide the remaining 15% of revenue.

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PEPSICO INC. $95 (New York symbol PEP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $142.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pepsico.com) earned $1.25 billion in the three months ended March 21, 2015, down 1.6% from $1.27 billion a year earlier. The company spent $1.1 billion on share buybacks in the latest quarter. As a result, earnings per share were unchanged at $0.83.

Sales declined 3.2%, to $12.2 billion from $12.6 billion. If you exclude businesses PepsiCo bought and sold in the past year, as well as unfavourable currency exchange rates (overseas markets supply 40% of the company’s sales), revenue rose 4.4%.

PepsiCo is still seeing strong demand for its snack foods, particularly in developing countries. However, soft drink sales have suffered as increasingly health-conscious consumers drink less soda.

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EBAY INC. $62 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $74.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.2; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) has settled a long-standing dispute with classified advertising website Craigslist.

In 2004, eBay acquired a 28.4% stake in the privately held company for $32 million. However, Craigslist accused eBay of using its confidential information to launch a rival classified ad service in the U.S. in 2007. Under the settlement, eBay has sold its shares back to Craigslist for an undisclosed amount.

The deal should help speed up eBay’s plan spin off its PayPal online payments division as a separate company later this year. The remaining firm will focus on auction websites.

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MACY’S INC. $70 (New York symbol M, Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 336.4 million; Market cap: $23.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.macysinc.com) has formed a partnership with zTailors to provide tailoring services to customers who buy clothes from Macy’s websites.

For an extra fee, a tailor will come to the customer’s home or office for a fitting and complete the alterations within a week. If initial trials in three test cities are successful, Macy’s and zTailors will expand the service to all of the U.S. by the end of 2015.

Macy’s is a buy.

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INTEL CORP. $32 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.7 billion; Market cap: $150.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) has purchased Recon Instruments, a privately held Vancouver firm that makes heads-up displays for sports goggles and other specialized eyewear.

This is a small acquisition for Intel: the $175-million purchase price is just 9% of the $2.0 billion, or $0.41 a share, the chipmaker earned in the three months ended March 28, 2015. However, Recon’s technology will help Intel profit from rising sales of wearable devices, such as wristwatches that monitor heart rates and other biological data.

Intel is a buy.

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HONDA MOTOR CO. LTD. ADRs $33 (New York symbol HMC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $59.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.honda.com) is Japan’s second largest carmaker and the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer.

In its 2015 fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2015, Honda sold 4.36 million vehicles, up 0.9% from 2014. New models increased Asian sales by 10.8%, but sales fell 0.6% in the U.S., 1.2% in Europe and 7.0% in Japan. Motorcycle sales rose 4.4%. Unfavourable currency rates cut revenue by 8.3%, to $105.4 billion from $114.9 billion. Earnings per ADR declined 21.9%, to $2.42 from $3.10 (each ADR equals one common share).

The company expects its car sales to rise 8.0% in fiscal 2016, while motorcycle sales will gain 2.6%. That should lift its earnings to $2.68 per ADR, and the stock trades at 12.3 times that estimate. The $0.80 dividend yields 2.4%.

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