In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.
Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.
If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)
If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.
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Keystone XL would pump crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Due to various delays, the company now expects Keystone XL to cost $8.0 billion U.S.
Meanwhile, TransCanada has improved its efficiency and adopted new technologies, both of which are helping it pump more oil through its existing Keystone pipeline between Alberta and refineries in Illinois.
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A major holding is 50% of the Alliance gas line, which runs 3,000 kilometres between Chicago and Fort St. John, B.C. Veresen also owns the Alberta Ethane Gathering System, 42.7% of the Aux Sable NGL plant and the Hythe/Steeprock natural gas gathering and processing complex in the Cutbank Ridge region of Alberta and B.C.
In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Veresen’s cash flow per share fell 24.1%, to $0.22 from $0.29 a year earlier.
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Pembina also owns extensive facilities to extract, process and store NGLs.
In the three months ended March 31, 2015, the company’s cash flow per share fell 24.1%, to $0.63 from $0.83 a year earlier. That’s mainly because lower oil and gas prices cut profit margins and volumes at its NGL extraction business.
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CP continues to benefit from lower fuel prices and an aggressive cost-cutting plan, but the slowing economy is hurting its freight volumes and revenue. That has caused the shares to fall about 14% from earlier this year.
In the three months ended June 30, 2015, the railway earned $404 million, up 8.9% from $371 million a year earlier. Per-share profits jumped 16.1%, to $2.45 from $2.11, on fewer shares outstanding.
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Loblaw plans to close 52 underperforming stores in the next year, including supermarkets, gas bars and stand-alone Joe Fresh clothing outlets. Following these closures, it will operate roughly 2,400 stores, including 1,250 Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies.
The move will cut Loblaw’s yearly sales by $300 million, but it should add $35 million to $40 million to its annual gross profits. It also expects to save at least $200 million this year by merging its warehouses and other operations with Shoppers.
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Telus paid $28 million for the 113-store Black’s chain in 2009. It felt these outlets would help it sell more mobile phones and service plans. However, digital camera sales have suffered as more people take pictures with their smartphones.
The company will transfer many Black’s employees to its other retail outlets, so any severance costs will be low.
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In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Manulife’s earnings per share gained 5.4%, to $0.39 from $0.37 a year earlier. Revenue rose 25.1%, to $7.83 billion from $6.26 billion.
The company continues to expand in growing Asian markets. Right now, about 40% of its insurance premiums come from that region, which is adding to its revenue and profits.
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In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Sun Life’s revenue rose 2.2%, to $3.72 billion from $3.64 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 16.7%, to $0.84 from $0.72.
The company continues to expand its asset management business, which generates high profit margins and requires little capital investment. It recently paid $560 million for Bentall Kennedy Group, which manages more than $27 billion in real estate for over 550 institutional clients across the U.S. and Canada.
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Loblaw received $201.3 million, which is equal to 66.9% of the $301.0 million, or $0.73 a share, it earned in the three months ended March 28, 2015.
That total included $102.2 million worth of Choice Properties’ units. As a result, Loblaw now owns 83.1% of this REIT. It also accounts for 91.0% of Choice’s earnings.
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Cripple Creek will produce 350,000 to 400,000 ounces of gold a year once it finishes an expansion in 2016. To put that in context, Newmont expects to produce 4.6 million to 4.9 million ounces this year. The mine should last until at least 2026.
To help pay for Cripple Creek, the company will sell 29.0 million common shares for a total of $682 million. Newmont also recently agreed to sell its Waihi gold mine in New Zealand for $101 million.
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