Top pick Barrick Mining just raised its dividend a whopping 140% as it generates record earnings and continues its strategic asset reorganization.
Warner Music Group Corp. is well-positioned for higher-margin catalog revenues, added streaming adoption, and new AI monetization opportunities.
ARC Resources keeps returning its cash flow to shareholders through a growing dividend and substantial share buybacks.
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TORSTAR CORP. $1.83 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.6 million; Market cap: $147.5 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.2; Dividend yield: 14.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.torstar.com) recently paid $178 million for 56% of Vertical- Scope, a private firm that operates over 600 online forums and a variety of websites. The company has also launched a digital version of The Toronto Star, its flagship newspaper, for tablet computers. It will take a year or so for these new operations to begin contributing to Torstar’s sales. But they should help reduce its reliance on slower advertising revenue at its newspapers. Meantime, in the first quarter of 2016, Torstar’s losses worsened to $53.5 million, or $0.66 a share, from $459,000, or $0.01, a year earlier. Excluding unusual items, it lost $0.40 a share in the quarter, compared to a profit of $0.02. Revenue fell 9.1%, to $174.8 million from $192.3 million. Job cuts and other restructuring actions should save the company $20.7 million for all of 2016. It remains debt free, and holds cash of $32.5 million, or $0.40 a share. The $0.26-a-share dividend yields a high 14.2%. The company may reduce that payout, but is unlikely to completely eliminate it....
RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $53 (Toronto symbol QSR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 429.3 million; Market cap: $22.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.rbi.com) operates 4,438 Tim Hortons coffee and donut locations and 15,008 Burger King outlets in 100 countries. If you exclude restructuring costs and other unusual items, Restaurant Brands earned $142.1 million in the three months ended March 31, 2016 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). That’s up 92.3% from $73.9 million a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 87.5%, to $0.30 from $0.16. The higher profits came mainly from lower costs and the introduction of more high-profit menu items. Sales fell 1.6%, to $918.5 million from $933.3 million. However, if you exclude the negative impact of the U.S. dollar on Restaurant Brands’ overseas operations, sales in the quarter gained 6.0%....
TRANSCANADA CORP. $52 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 702.4 million; Market cap: $36.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) has received the final permits necessary for its $4.8 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline. It would pump natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Kitimat, B.C. From there, tankers would ship the LNG to Asia. The companies behind the LNG plant will make a final decision by the end of 2016. If they proceed, TransCanada will begin building the pipeline and related facilities in early 2017. TransCanada is a buy....
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $28 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 324.8 million; Market cap: $9.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 8.1; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 303 shopping centres in Canada, including 16 under development. The trust cuts its risk to online shopping and declining mall traffic in several ways. For example, It focuses on Canada’s six largest cities—Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. They account for 75.0% of its rental revenue. High-quality tenants draw shoppers ...