Latest Stock Advice
Aggressive investors looking at high-risk stocks to invest in should only allocate a small part of their portfolios to those investments
Long-term favourite Suncor Energy Inc. has now earmarked a lot of its growing cash flow for shareholders
ResMed Inc. is a leader in the global sleep apnea device market with a near-monopoly in its niche as its total addressable market keeps expanding.
Extendicare Inc. is pivoting toward the high-demand, high-margin service sector as aging demographics continue to work strongly in its favour.
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MONSANTO CO. $112 (New York symbol MON, Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 436.8 million; Market cap: $48.9 billion; Price-tosales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.monsanto.com) develops and sells technology-based agricultural products, such as genetically modified seeds, to farmers, grain processors and food companies. It also sells weed- and pest-control products. The company is now the target of a $122.00-a-share, all-cash takeover bid by Bayer AG— the German farm chemical and drugmaker. Bayer feels the merger would help both firms compete with rivals Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co., which plan to merge later this year. As well, China National Chemical Corp. agreed in February 2016 to acquire Switzerland- based Syngenta AG....
VISA INC. $79 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $189.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 13.3; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network. It can process over 65,000 credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions per second. Visa gets most of its revenue from the fees it charges card issuers and merchants that use its network. These fees are based on transaction volumes and other factors. The banks that issue the credit cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa....
AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $65 (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 951.0 million; Market cap: $61.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.americanexpress.com) is one of the world’s largest issuers of payment cards, with 118.6 million cards in use across 130 countries. Amex issues two types of cards: charge cards, which have no preset spending limit and must be paid in full each month; and traditional credit cards, which let users carry a balance. The company is also a bank that accepts deposits and makes loans. It cuts its credit risk by mainly catering to clients with above-average incomes and good credit histories. In the first quarter of 2016, Amex wrote off just 2.0% of its U.S. loans compared to 2.3% a year earlier. Its international write-off rate fell to 2.1% from 2.4%....
T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. $77 (Nasdaq symbol TROW; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 248.2 million; Market cap: $19.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.troweprice.com) sells mutual funds and wealth management services. Due to the downturn in stock markets since the start of the year, T. Rowe Price’s assets under management fell 1.0%, to $764.6 million as of March 31, 2016, from $772.7 billion a year earlier. However, its assets under management have increased 0.2% from $763.1 billion at the end of 2015. T. Rowe Price’s fee income varies with the value of the securities it administers, so its revenue during the first quarter of 2016 declined 3.2%, to $994.1 million from $1.0 billion....