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AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $36 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 332.0 million; Market cap: $12.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agilent.com) split into two publicly traded firms on November 1, 2014.

One company kept the Agilent name and stock symbol and focuses on testing equipment for medical research labs. The other firm, called Keysight Technologies (see right), makes testing systems for electronics.

Under the spinoff, Agilent shareholders received one Keysight share for every two shares they held.

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MONSANTO CO. $97 (New York symbol MON, Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 467.8 million; Market cap: $45.4 billion; Price-tosales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.monsanto.com) has dropped its takeover offer for Switzerland-based rival Syngenta AG, the world’s largest maker of pesticides, herbicides and other agricultural chemicals.

A merger would have let Monsanto and Syngenta jointly develop new genetically modified seeds for corn, soybeans and other crops. Syngenta’s expertise would also improve Monsanto’s pesticide products.

In addition, the new firm could cut costs and improve its efficiency by combining distribution networks. Monsanto recently increased its bid by 5%, to $47 billion in cash and shares.

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3M COMPANY $143 (New York symbol MMM; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 624.8 million; Market cap: $89.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) started up in 1902, when it was called the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company.

3M started off making sandpaper and abrasives for industrial clients. It later developed other consumer and manufacturing-related goods, such as pressure-sensitive masking and packaging tape, recording tape and reflective highway markings.

Today, 3M makes more than 55,000 items, including air purifiers, medical device components and bandages. Top-selling brands include Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation.

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Air Boss of America has enjoyed a big bounce in its shares with its rubber products. We look at whether this growth stock can keep rising.

Junior mining stocks Sherritt and Amerigo are adapting to lower commodity prices in different ways, but we see both as aggressive buys.

Takeovers help Genuine Parts sustain growth—and dividend hikes—in a cyclical field. Our take on how lower gasoline prices help its outlook.

Our outlook on blue chip stock Manitoba Telecom as its shares begin to recover in the wake of a strategic review and network upgrades.

ENERFLEX LTD. $11.23 (Toronto symbol EFX; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (403-387-6377; www.enerflex.com; Shares outstanding: 79.0 million; Market cap: $924.9 million; Dividend yield: 3.0%) rents and sells equipment and services for natural gas production, including compression and processing plants, refrigeration gear and power generators.

On June 30, 2014, the company closed its $431- million U.S. acquisition of two businesses owned by privately held Axip Energy Services: an international contract compression and processing subsidiary and a division that provides aftermarket services.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Enerflex’s revenue fell 8.3%, to $389.7 million from $424.9 million a year earlier. But earnings per share more than doubled, to $0.34 from $0.15. International contributions from the Axip businesses pushed up earnings and almost offset weaker revenue in the U.S. and Canada. However, falling oil and gas prices are now hurting the company’s orders.

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TOROMONT INDUSTRIES LTD. $36.75 (Toronto symbol TIH; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-667- 5511; www.toromont.com; Shares outstanding: 77.6 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%) distributes a broad range of industrial equipment, including machinery made by Caterpillar Inc. It also makes refrigeration systems through its CIMCO division.

The company completed the spinoff of Enerflex Ltd. (see right) in 2011. Shareholders received shares of both the new Toromont Industries and Enerflex.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2015, Toromont’s revenue rose 16.6%, to $484.5 million from $415.6 million a year earlier. Earnings gained 26.1%, to $36.4 million, or $0.47 a share, from $28.9 million or $0.37.

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SYMANTEC CORP. $21.86 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (650-527- 8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 680.7 million; Market cap: $14.8 billion; Dividend yield: 2.7%) sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers.

In 2014, Symantec said it would split into two publicly traded firms. One would keep the Symantec name and focus on antivirus and security software and services. The other, called Veritas Technologies, would consist of the company’s information management business, which makes products for data backup and recovery.

However, Symantec has now decided to sell Veritas to a group of private investors for $8.0 billion. It expects to close the deal on January 1, 2016.

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CAMECO CORP. $18.16 (Toronto symbol CCO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (306-956-6200; www.cameco.com; Shares outstanding: 395.8 million; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Dividend yield 2.2%) has rebounded 10.8% after falling to $16.73 on July 17, 2015. That’s partly because Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Company has restarted one of its nuclear reactors. This is the first nuclear station to restart since the country’s government shut them all down after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant, allowing radiation to escape. Kyushu plans to restart a second reactor in October.

Japan’s return to nuclear power likely won’t spur uranium prices, at least in the short term. That’s because the country’s power companies will have to use up their large inventories before buying more.

However, uranium’s long-term outlook is bright, particularly as China and India plan to build 93 new reactors by 2040.

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TEMPUR SEALY $78.04 (New York symbol TPX; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (800-878-8889; www.tempursealy.com; Shares outstanding: 61.9 million; Market cap: $4.8 billion; No dividends paid) has been forced to make changes to its management and board of directors after activist investor H Partners Management, which holds 10% of Tempur Sealy’s shares, won the support of enough investors at the company’s May 8, 2015, annual meeting.

H Partners believes Tempur Sealy has performed poorly compared to other mattress makers since it acquired rival Sealy in March 2013.

After the meeting, chief executive officer Marc Sarvaray, chairman P. Andrews McLane and board director Christopher Mastro resigned. H Partners executive Usman Nabi took Mastro’s spot on the board. Timothy Yaggi, Tempur Sealy’s current chief operating officer, became interim CEO as a search committee made up of Nabi and three independent directors looks for a replacement for Sarvaray. Board member Frank Doyle became chairman.

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AIMIA INC. $12.27 (Toronto symbol AIM; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (514-897-6800; www.aimia.com; Shares outstanding: 160.8 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; Dividend yield: 6.2%) has announced that its members can now earn and redeem points for travel on Brazilian airline Avianca. This brings Aeroplan’s total number of airline partners to 34.

Avianca offers 200 daily flights to 23 cities throughout Brazil, operating from its main hub at São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport.

Aimia is a buy.

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AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $29.79 (Toronto symbol AGT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (306-525-4490; www.alliancegrain.com; Shares outstanding: 23.1 million; Market cap: $684.0 million; Dividend yield: 2.0%) earned $0.44 a share in the three months ended June 30, 2015, up 2.3% from $0.43 a year earlier.

Revenue gained 5.1%, to $378.2 million from $359.8 million. The gains came from recent acquisitions and higher processing activity.

AGT continues to benefit from its plan to focus on more-profitable products, such as ingredients and packaged foods, as opposed to simply cleaning, splitting and bagging bulk crops. Food makers use these ingredients in products such as baked goods, soups and beverages, as well as pet food and animal feed.

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CHEMTRADE LOGISTICS INCOME FUND $18.83 (Toronto symbol CHE.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-496-5856; www.chemtradelogistics.com; Units outstanding: 69.0 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; Dividend yield: 6.3%) is one of North America’s largest providers of removal services for resource firms, such as oil refineries and base metal processors, whose operations create sulphur, acid and other by-products. Chemtrade converts these substances into useful chemicals, like sulphuric acid.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Chemtrade’s revenue rose 9.3%, to $338.8 million from $310.1 million a year earlier. The gain mainly came from the higher U.S. dollar, which increased the contribution from its operations in that country.

The trust’s overall cash flow rose 5.3%, to $47.0 million from $44.6 million, but cash flow per share declined 8.1%, to $0.68 from $0.74, on more shares outstanding.

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INTACT FINANCIAL $92.22 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 131.5 million; Market cap: $12.2 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance. Its brands include Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink and belairdirect.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Intact’s revenue rose 6.0%, to $2.34 billion from $2.21 billion a year earlier. Revenue improved across all of the company’s insurance lines and geographic regions. Its $197-million acquisition of Canadian Direct Insurance in early 2015 also added to its sales. Canadian Direct offers home, auto and travel insurance, mainly in Alberta and B.C.

Earnings rose 1.9%, to $210 million, or $1.56 a share, from $206 million, or $1.53. Intact continues to write more-profitable insurance policies and cut its operating costs.

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RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $42.61 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.0 million; Market cap: $19.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.1%) is the world’s thirdlargest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with 14,528 Burger King outlets and 4,776 Tim Hortons locations.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, the company earned $142.7 million, up 27.3% from $112.1 million a year earlier.

Earnings per share gained 25.0%, to $0.30 from $0.24, on more shares outstanding. Overall sales fell 1.6%, to $1.04 billion from $1.06 billion. That’s because the high U.S. dollar hurt the contribution from Restaurant Brands’ overseas operations.

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ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $74.34 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340- 777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 16.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%) owns wireless and wireline (traditional telephone and Internet) operations in the U.S. Southwest, New England, New York State, Guyana, Bermuda and parts of the Caribbean islands.

The company continues to expand its wireless capacity and coverage. That’s paying off as customers use more mobile data for services like music downloads, mobile gaming and e-books.

As well, earlier this year, Atlantic entered the solar energy market by acquiring 28 solar farms in Massachusetts, California and New Jersey. The company paid $103 million for these assets ($64 million in cash and the assumption of $39 million of debt).

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GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO. $32.22 (Nasdaq symbol GT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (330-796-2122; www.goodyear.com; Shares outstanding: 269.6 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Dividend yield: 0.7%) is the world’s largest tire maker, with 50 plants in 22 countries.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Goodyear’s revenue fell 10.4%, to $4.17 billion from $4.66 billion a year earlier. The rising U.S. dollar cut the contribution from the company’s foreign sales (particularly in Europe and Brazil) by $401 million.

Excluding one-time items, earnings rose 1.8%, to $229.0 million, or $0.84 a share, well ahead of the consensus estimate of $0.74. A year earlier, the company earned $225.0 million, or $0.80 a share.

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CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $7.34 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chk.com; Shares outstanding: 665.1 million; Market cap: $5.2 billion; No dividends paid) has eliminated its dividend to conserve cash in the face of low oil and gas prices. The company had been paying a quarterly dividend of $0.0875 a share. The cut will save it $240 million a year.

As well, Chesapeake will spend $3.5 billion to $4.0 billion on exploration and development in 2015, down from its earlier estimate of $4.0 billion to $5.0 billion. It spent $5.8 billion in 2014.

The stock now trades at just 1.3 times the company’s annual cash flow of $5.52 a share, based on the latest quarter.

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STANTEC INC. $31.87 (Toronto symbol STN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (780-917-7288; www.stantec.com; Shares outstanding: 94.0 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) sells a range of consulting, project-delivery, design and technology services. Its clients operate in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, transportation and construction.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Stantec’s acquisitions and the stronger U.S. dollar boosted its revenue by 12.0%, to $593.9 million from $530.3 million a year ago. However, earnings fell 2.6%, to $43.2 million, or $0.46 a share, from $44.3 million, or $0.47. The decline came from fewer oil and gas projects and the cost of integrating recently purchased firms.

Meantime, Stantec continues to grow through acquisitions. One of its latest is VI Engineering, a 30- person electrical-engineering firm based in Houston. VI’s clients include MidAmerican Energy, Statoil, Public Service Electric and Gas, Valero Refining, Bayer and Enterprise Products Partners.

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MITEL NETWORKS $10.41 (Toronto symbol MNW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(613-592-2122; www.mitel.ca; Shares outstanding: 120.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; No dividends paid) develops and markets products centred on business telephone systems, including technology that integrates land lines and mobile phones. The company also offers call centre and videoconferencing products.

In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Mitel’s revenue rose slightly, to $292.3 million from $291.7 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars).

Earnings per share fell 14.3%, to $0.18 from $0.21, as the stronger dollar lowered the value of the company’s international sales. However, the latest earnings matched the consensus estimate.

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ACI WORLDWIDE $22.65 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(402- 390-7600; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 117.8 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; No dividends paid) reported revenue of $265.8 million in the three months ended June 30, 2015, up 4.3% from $254.8 million a year earlier. The company earned $0.26 a share, up sharply from $0.12. Cost-cutting measures helped improve the latest quarterly results.

ACI’s growth by acquisition has increased its goodwill and intangible assets to $1.0 billion, or a high 37.0% of its market cap.

The company is well positioned to benefit from the global shift toward online payments. However, the stock trades at a high 30.2 times ACI’s forecast 2015 earnings of $0.75 a share. Any major problems integrating its acquisitions could sharply cut that estimate.

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FAIR ISAAC CORP. $87.87 (New York symbol FICO; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(415-472-2211; www.fairisaac.com; Shares outstanding: 31.1 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Dividend yield: 0.1%) makes FICO Scores, the program that dominates the market for software businesses use to evaluate customer creditworthiness. Fair Isaac also profits by selling programs that help credit card issuers control fraud and analyze cardholders’ spending patterns.

In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended June 30, 2015, Fair Isaac’s revenue rose 5.9%, to $209.3 million from $197.6 million a year earlier. Sales at its applications division (61% of the total) fell 2.1% on weaker demand for marketing and fraud-detection software. However, sales of credit-scoring programs (27%) jumped 23.0%, while sales of analytics software (12%) gained 18.1%.

The company earned $32.3 million, up 10.3% from $29.2 million. Earnings per share jumped 20.5%, to $1.00 from $0.83, on fewer shares outstanding. Fair Isaac spends around 12% of its revenue on research, which lets it produce innovative products that keep it ahead of the competition.

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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $55.76 (New York symbol BR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (201-714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 119.9 million; Market cap: $6.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.

Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $171.5 million in its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter, which ended June 30, 2015. That’s up 18.6% from $144.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 20.7%, to $1.40 from $1.16, on fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue gained 4.9%, to $929.6 million from $885.9 million. The company continues to add new clients and is doing a good job of holding on to existing ones. Recurring fee revenue rose 7% in the latest quarter and accounted for 65% of the total.

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