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WELLS FARGO & CO. $49 (New York symbol WFC; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 5.1 billion; Market cap: $249.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wellsfargo .com) earned $21.6 billion in 2015, down 1.0% from $21.8 billion in 2014. However, earnings per share rose 1.2%, to $4.15 from $4.10, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue gained 2.0%, to $86.1 billion from $84.3 billion. Low interest rates continue to spur demand for residential mortgages, business and car loans while encouraging consumers to make more credit card purchases. The bank also recently bought the commercial lending and leasing operations of General Electric (see page 18). Those businesses offer loans to help manufacturers boost their inventory, as well as other forms of financing. However, Wells Fargo is earning less interest income on its loans, which hurts its earnings. Higher salaries and federal deposit insurance premiums also slowed its profit growth....

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $28 (New York symbol GE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 10.1 billion; Market cap: $282.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ge.com) has agreed to sell $157 billion in assets of its GE Capital financing division. So far, it has completed transactions equalling $104 billion. These sales are part of GE’s plan to focus on its industrial businesses, including jet engines, power plant equipment, medical gear and locomotives. ...

TENNANT CO. $52 (www.tennantco.com) continues to see strong demand for its floor-cleaning machines featuring its ec-H20 technology; that uses electricity to make tap water act like a detergent. Earnings per share in the third quarter of 2015 rose 7.9%, to $0.68 from $0.63 a year earlier....

DIEBOLD INC. $27 (www.diebold.com) has formed a new joint venture with Inspur Group, a Chinese cloud computing and data centre company. Diebold will own 49% of this business, which will develop automated teller machines (ATMs) and self-serve kiosks for Chinese banks....

Selling your oil company stocks at the bottom is a bad idea.

FORD MOTOR CO. $12 (www.ford.com) will pay a special dividend of $0.25 a share in March 2016. That’s in addition to its regular quarterly dividend of $0.15; the annual rate of $0.60 yields 5.0%. Buy.

Penny stock SQI Diagnostics has developed equipment to speed up disease detection but has no sales

Broadridge Financial Solutions boosts earnings through acquisition and niche investment services.

IPO investing issues typically come to market when it’s a good time for the company or its insiders to sell. That’s often a bad time for you to buy

Sell stocks in a way that consistently improves your portfolio without predicting when to “buy low and sell high.”

If you let share price fluctuations dictate your buying and selling, you’re almost certain to lose money.

An ETF investment can be a great low-fee way to hold shares in multiple companies with a single investment.

WESTJET AIRLINES $18.52 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 123.3 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Dividend yield: 3.0%) serves 100 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Its fleet of 108 modern Boeing 737s are 30% more fuel efficient than older jets. In June 2013, the company launched WestJet Encore, its Canadian regional airline. This business now operates 23 Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop planes, which seat 78 passengers. The Canadian airline market remains highly competitive, especially with Air Canada expanding its Rouge budget airline to serve more leisure destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and the U.S....

SYMANTEC CORP. $18.82 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (650-527-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 675.5 million; Market cap: $12.9 billion; Dividend yield: 3.2%) continues to strengthen its fast-growing cybersecurity business. It’s also selling its data backup and recovery operation. In its fiscal 2016 second quarter, which ended October 2, 2015, Symantec’s earnings fell 9.3%, to $301 million, or $0.44 a share, from $332 million, or $0.48. Sales declined 7.4%, to $1.5 billion from $1.6 billion. Businesses continue to spend heavily to protect their data from online intruders. However, sales to consumers fell as the company shifts users to a cloudbased service. That will make it easier for them to receive security updates and encourage them to renew their subscriptions. Symantec expects to complete these conversions in mid-2016....

AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $36.50 (Toronto symbol AGT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (604-231-1100; www.agtfoods.com; Shares outstanding: 23.8 million; Market cap: $862.3 million; Dividend yield: 1.6%) buys and processes a range of pulses—which include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas—as well as other specialty crops.

Saskatchewan-based AGT owns 13 processing plants in Canada, nine in Turkey, four in Australia, two in the U.S., one in China and one in South Africa.

In the three months ended September 30, 2015, AGT earned $0.51 a share, up 10.9% from $0.46 a year earlier....

BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $3.35 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www.birchcliffenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 152.3 million; Market cap: $461.5 million; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and gas in Western Canada. In the quarter ended September 30, 2015, Birchcliff’s cash flow per share dropped 42.0%, to $0.29 from $0.50 a year earlier. Sharply lower oil and gas prices offset a 12.3% production rise. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for oil and gas producers to have sound balance sheets that can weather a long downturn....

NISSAN MOTOR (ADR) $18.07 (Nasdaq symbol NSANY; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average) (310-771-3111; www.nissan-global.com; ADRs outstanding 2.3 billion; Market cap: $42.8 billion; Yield: 3.3%) is Japan’s second-largest automaker, after Toyota and ahead of Honda. In December 2015, the company sold a record 139,300 vehicles in the U.S., up 18.7% from 117,318 in December 2014. Sales of crossovers, trucks and SUVs (46% of the total) jumped 43.9%, thanks to new models such as its updated Rogue (up 78.0%) and Murano (up 62.2%)....

COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL GROUP $58.39 (Toronto symbol CIG ; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-202-695-4200; www.colliers.com; Shares o/s: 36.7 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Divd. yield: 0.2%) is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Latin America. The company has 16,300 employees operating from 502 offices in 67 countries. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Colliers’ revenue rose 12.8%, to $420.3 million from $372.6 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). If you exclude one-time items, the company’s earnings jumped 57.7%, to $20.0 million from $12.7 million. Per-share profits rose 48.6%, to $0.52 from $0.35, on more shares outstanding....

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $50.53 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.7 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.1%) spun off its Colliers International subsidiary (see below) on June 2, 2015, when it handed out Colliers shares to its investors. Shareholders are only liable for capital gains taxes on the transaction when they sell their FirstService or Colliers shares. Now that the spinoff is complete, FirstService is carrying on with its residential property management and property-improvement businesses. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, the company’s revenue gained 12.0%, to $349.5 million from $312.0 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). If you set aside one-time items, earnings per share jumped 28.2%, to $0.50 from $0.39. The second and third quarters are FirstService’s busiest....

CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL $465.50 (New York symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (303-595-4000; www.chipotle.com; Shares outstanding: 31.2 million; Market cap: $14.6 billion; No dividends paid) continues to suffer as it copes with food-safety concerns at its restaurants. In October and November 2015, E. coli infections sickened 52 customers at Chipotle locations in nine states and forced the company to temporarily close some outlets. Recent norovirus outbreaks at restaurants in California and Massachusetts have added to the bad publicity. Norovirus, which causes stomach problems, is highly infectious, though not fatal. Chipotle now believes these problems cut its same-restaurant sales by 14.6% in the fourth quarter of 2015. It also expects to spend $14.0 million to $16.0 million to test and replace food and improve its food-safety procedures....

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $87.94 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 498.8 million; Market cap: $44.4 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. Graphic designers also use its programs to create print publications and web pages. In its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter, which ended November 27, 2015, Adobe earned $0.62 a share, up 59.0% from $0.39 a year earlier. Revenue jumped 21.7%, to a record $1.31 billion from $1.07 billion. In the latest quarter, the company added 833,000 Creative Cloud subscribers (net of cancellations). This service now has 6.2 million users, up 78.6% from a year ago. Adobe is also seeing strong demand for its newer cloud-based offerings, including Document Cloud, which lets users create, manage and sign online documents for a monthly fee....

ACI WORLDWIDE $18.83 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-390-7600; www.aciworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 118.3 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; No dividends paid) makes software for processing transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments. Its products also help cut fraud. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, ACI’s revenue fell 4.3% to $238.7 million from $249.6 million a year earlier. Earnings declined 6.1%, to $14.8 million, or $0.13 a share, from $15.7 million, or $0.14. The higher U.S. dollar cut revenue and earnings at the company’s international operations. ACI is benefiting from the shift to chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards. That migration is the result of a liability shift for the EMV (EuroPay, MaterCard and VISA) payment networks, which came into effect in October 2015....

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $85.25 (New York symbol FICO; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (415-472-2211; www.fairisaac.com; Shares outstanding: 31.1 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; Dividend yield: 0.1%) spends around 12% of its revenue on research, which lets it keep ahead of the competition. For example, it recently incorporated new data into its software. Previously, FICO Scores didn’t distinguish between people who carry balances on their credit cards (higher credit risk) and those who’ve never had a credit card but pay their cable, cellphone, electric, water and other bills every month (lower risk). In addition, the company plans to add information people publicly share on social media websites like Facebook. Both moves should make FICO Scores more accurate....

IAMGOLD $1.84 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 391.4 million; Market cap: $660.9 million; No dividends paid) owns 41% of the Sadiola mine and 40% of the Yatela mine, both located in Mali; 90% of the Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso; 100% of the Doyon mine in Quebec; and 95% of the Rosebel mine in Suriname, South America. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, IAMGold’s revenue fell 27.6%, to $207.6 million from $286.7 million a year earlier. Cash flow per share dropped to $0.09 from $0.24. Lower gold prices and production caused the declines. IAMGold’s long-term production outlook is positive. Meantime, the company holds a high $730.2 million U.S. in cash and gold bullion. A large part of that cash came from the $500-million sale of its Niobec niobium mine in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region in early 2015. When used as an additive, niobium makes steel stronger, more heat-resistant and easier to weld....

YAMANA GOLD $2.13 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www. yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 946.6 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) owns eight operating gold mines in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. It also holds a 12.5% stake in the Alumbrera copper/gold mine in Argentina and has a number of other properties in advanced stages of development. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, the company’s gold production fell 1.9%, to 325,897 ounces from 332,344 a year earlier. The decline mainly resulted from lower ore grades at two of its mines. Gold prices fell 12.1% in the latest quarter. That, plus the lower production, cut Yamana’s cash flow by 25.9%, to $133.9 million from $180.7 million. Cash flow per share declined 39.1%, to $0.14 from $0.23, on more shares outstanding....