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Top pick Newmont Corp. offers massive leverage to the red-hot gold market thanks to its control over its “Tier 1" gold assets.
Stanley Black & Decker Inc. offers a 3.7% yield as it continues its track record of 58 consecutive years of increases while trading cheaply at just 15.6 times rising earnings.
Motorola Solutions Inc. offers compelling value through its dominant market share, accelerating growth and strategic positioning for secular growth
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APACHE CORP. $50 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 378.3 million; Market cap: $18.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apachecorp.com) continues to sell overseas properties to focus on its less-risky onshore oil and gas operations here in North America. As a result, its production in 2015 fell 9.9%, to 486,775 barrels a day from 540,212 in 2014. Due to lower oil and gas prices, it lost $130 million, or $0.34 a share, in 2015 compared to a profit of $2.0 billion, or $5.21. The company plans to spend $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion on capital projects in 2016, down from $4.7 billion in 2015. That should let it continue to pay quarterly dividends of $0.25 a share, for an annualized yield of 2.0%. In 2015, dividend payments totaled $377 million....
DIAGEO PLC ADRs $107 (New York symbol DEO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; ADRs outstanding: 630.0 million; Market cap: $67.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.4; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.diageo.com) is the world’s largest premium alcoholic beverage company. Its major brands include Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker whisky and Captain Morgan rum. Diageo recently sold its wine operations in Australia and its Jamaican brewing operations. That freed up cash it can use to expand its main spirits businesses. They include its upcoming deal to buy Australian whisky maker Starward. In the six months ended December 31, 2015, Diageo’s sales fell 5.0% to 5.6 billion pounds from 5.9 billion a year earlier (1 pound=$1.85 Canadian). If you exclude the brands that Diageo recently sold and the negative impact of currency exchange rates, sales gained 1.8%. Earnings per ADR fell 4.7%, to 2.05 pounds from 2.15. (Each American Depositary Receipt represents four common shares.)...
EBAY INC. $24 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $28.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) operates online auction websites in over 30 countries. Sellers pay fees to list and sell their goods through these sites. In the past few years, eBay has expanded the availability of new merchandise: new items at fixed prices now account for 80% of eBay’s total transactions. The company also operates several other popular websites, including StubHub (ticket sales for live events), Shopping.com (comparison shopping) and Rent.com (apartment and house rentals). These services are in addition to its local websites. As a group, they sell classified ads in over 1,000 cities....
MOLSON COORS BREWING CO. $95 (New York symbol TAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 214.4 million; Market cap: $20.4 billion; Price-tosales ratio: 5.6; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.molsoncoors.com) is buying the 58% stake of MillerCoors it doesn’t already own. This business took its current form in 2008 when Molson and SABMiller combined their U.S. brewing operations. SABMiller is now merging with rival Anheuser- Busch InBev to create the world’s largest brewer. To satisfy competition regulators, SABMiller will sell its stake in MillerCoors to Molson for $12.0 billion. Paying for this business will add to Molson’s longterm debt of $2.9 billion, which is equal to 14% of its market cap. However, the deal will add $4.7 billion to its annual revenue. It totaled $3.6 billion in 2015....