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ALPHABET INC. (Nasdaq symbols GOOG $713 [class C: non-voting] and GOOGL $737 [class A: one vote per share]; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 680.2 million; Market cap: $491.0 billion; Price-tosales ratio: 6.8; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.abc.xyz) is the new parent company for Google’s Internet search business (still called Google) and other operations, such as self-driving cars and home thermostats. Each of these subsidiaries will function independently.

In the three months ended September 30, 2015, earnings gained 18.7%, to $5.1 billion from $4.3 billion a year earlier. Per-share profits rose 17.6%, to $7.35 from $6.25, on more shares outstanding. Revenue rose 13.0%, to $18.7 billion from $16.5 billion.

The number of paid clicks on advertisers’ads rose 23% in the latest quarter, helping offset an 11% drop in the average cost advertisers paid per click. More users are accessing the Internet with mobile devices, but advertisers pay lower rates for mobile ads because they’re harder to see on smaller screens.

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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: 13.9; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network, through which it processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions. The company’s systems can process over 56,000 transactions per second.

Visa gets most of its revenue from fees it charges the card issuers and merchants that use its network. These 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.

The company’s revenue jumped 57.5%, from $8.1 billion in fiscal 2010 to $12.7 billion in 2014 (fiscal years end September 30). Revenue likely rose to $13.9 billion in 2015. Earnings gained 83.3%, from $3.0 billion in 2010 to $5.4 billion in 2014. Visa is an aggressive buyer of its own shares, which is why its earnings per share soared 131.6%, from $0.98 to $2.27.

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New tech stocks can be among the market’s biggest winners and losers

It’s only natural to worry about high risk investments, but overcoming that worry is one of the most important traits a successful investor can have.

Many investors consider using stop-loss orders to protect their profits, particularly if the market begins to slide down after a period of gains.

Our view of one of the world’s largest mining stocks, Freeport-McMoRan, as activist investor Carl Icahn buys in and presses for change.

Learn when to sell stocks at the right time. Here’s our advice.

An American Depositary Receipt (ADR) is a certificate that lets investors invest in a foreign company on U.S. stock markets.

Our view on two international ETFs—one for Emerging Markets, one for South Korea—as a way to diversify your portfolio in today’s markets

Learn four risk factors and four rewards you face when you invest in tech penny stocks.

In changing agricultural markets, an increasing focus on retail outlets gives fertilizer producer Agrium extra traction as a growth stock.

D-BOX Technologies has a product that has caught on: moving theatre seats. Our take on whether this penny stock can sustain its success.

Is gold bullion a good investment? Find out why we think it’s a poor way to gain exposure to gold.

There are two practical solutions to the stressful problem of not having enough money saved for retirement—and neither involves banking on a big stock windfall.

These days, more investors suffer from what you might call “pre-retirement financial stress syndrome.” That’s the malady that strikes when it dawns on you that you don’t have enough money saved to be able to earn the retirement income stream you were banking on.

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Though it has slowed with the economy, we still rate CP Rail as a true blue chip stock. We like its ability to unlock hidden value.

Investing in profitable blue chip stocks will become second-nature to you after learning these tips!

Because its software is vital to the auto industry’s shift from mechanical to electronic systems, Mentor Graphics is a rising growth stock

Knowing how dividends are taxed in Canada can save you money

< p> METRO INC. $37 (www.metro.ca) spent $355.2 million on share buybacks in the 12 months ended September 9, 2015. That’s equal to 4% of its $8.9-billion market cap. Under its new authorization, the supermarket operator can repurchase up to 7.4% of its outstanding shares by September 9, 2016....

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $47 (www.rbi.com) plans to open over 150 Tim Hortons coffee-anddonut stores in Cincinnati, Ohio, over the next 10 years. The company currently has 4,776 Tim Hortons outlets in Canada, the U.S....

POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN $29 (www.potash corp.com) has dropped its $8.8-billion U.S. offer to buy German fertilizer producer K+S AG. That price is equal to 48% of Potash Corp.’s $23.8 billion (Canadian) market cap....

AGRIUM INC. $126 (Toronto symbol AGU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 142.8 million; Market cap: $18.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agrium.com) has shifted its focus in the past few years from making fertilizers to selling them, along with seeds and other products, to farmers. That has cut its exposure to volatile bulk-fertilizer prices.

< p>Agrium now gets 75% of its sales and 60% of its earnings from its retail stores, which consist of 1,500 locations in North America, South America and Australia. < p>The remaining 25% of sales and 40% of earnings comes from making nitrogen-based fertilizers from natural gas. Agrium also operates potash and phosphate fertilizer mines....

BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $1.75 and BBD.B $1.70; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.2; Dividend suspended in February 2015; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.bombardier.com) recently ended talks with European aircraft maker Airbus that would have given that company a controlling stake in Bombardier’s new CSeries passenger jet. In exchange, Airbus would have helped Bombardier pay for the new plane’s development costs.

< p>The company still plans to begin delivering the CSeries in 2016: it has firm orders for 243 planes worth roughly $16 billion U.S. However, ongoing delays have halted new orders. < p>Bombardier is still a hold....

< p>CAE INC. $15 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 268.6 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) has won several contracts for flight simulators and related equipment from the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy and the German Air Force. < p>In all, these deals are worth $100 million, or 5% of CAE’s $2.2 billion of annual revenue. The company’s military businesses supply 35% of its sales, which cuts its reliance on cyclical airlines. CAE is our #1 buy for 2015. < p> CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $21 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 833.2 million; Market cap: $17.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) is working on new phases at its Alberta oil sands projects that will boost its overall output by 25%. As a result, the company now plans to open a new marketing office in Houston, Texas, that will help it sell this additional crude to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast....

< p>TELUS CORP. $42 (Toronto symbol T; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 602.4 million; Market cap: $25.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) plans to speed up its fibre optic network in Vancouver. < p>Initially, clients will be able to connect at 150 megabits a second, or 50% faster than the network’s current top speed. Eventually, Telus plans to boost that to one gigabit (or 1,000 megabits) per second. < p>The company will spend $1 billion on this project over the next five years. Faster speeds should spur demand for Telus’s other services, like digital TV....