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INTEL CORP. $32 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.7 billion; Market cap: $150.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) has purchased Recon Instruments, a privately held Vancouver firm that makes heads-up displays for sports goggles and other specialized eyewear.

This is a small acquisition for Intel: the $175-million purchase price is just 9% of the $2.0 billion, or $0.41 a share, the chipmaker earned in the three months ended March 28, 2015. However, Recon’s technology will help Intel profit from rising sales of wearable devices, such as wristwatches that monitor heart rates and other biological data.

Intel is a buy.

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HONDA MOTOR CO. LTD. ADRs $33 (New York symbol HMC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $59.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.honda.com) is Japan’s second largest carmaker and the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer.

In its 2015 fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2015, Honda sold 4.36 million vehicles, up 0.9% from 2014. New models increased Asian sales by 10.8%, but sales fell 0.6% in the U.S., 1.2% in Europe and 7.0% in Japan. Motorcycle sales rose 4.4%. Unfavourable currency rates cut revenue by 8.3%, to $105.4 billion from $114.9 billion. Earnings per ADR declined 21.9%, to $2.42 from $3.10 (each ADR equals one common share).

The company expects its car sales to rise 8.0% in fiscal 2016, while motorcycle sales will gain 2.6%. That should lift its earnings to $2.68 per ADR, and the stock trades at 12.3 times that estimate. The $0.80 dividend yields 2.4%.

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TOYOTA MOTOR CO. ADRs $135 (New York symbol TM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $216.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.toyota.com) is the world’s largest carmaker. In its 2015 fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2015, Toyota sold 8.97 million vehicles, down 1.6% from 2014. North American sales rose 7.4%, thanks to strong demand for sport utility vehicles. European sales gained 1.8%. However, sales fell 8.9% in Japan and 7.5% in other parts of Asia.

Revenue declined 3.4%, to $241.0 billion from $249.5 billion, but revenue improved 6.0% in Japanese yen. Cost cuts and favourable exchange rates boosted earnings per ADR by 4.6%, to $12.31 from $11.77 (each American depositary receipt equals two Toyota common shares).

The company expects its fiscal 2016 sales to decline by 72,000 vehicles, to 8.9 million. Even so, its efficiency improvements should push up its earnings by 2.4%, to $12.60 per ADR. The stock trades at just 10.7 times that estimate. The $3.22 dividend yields 2.4%

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FEDEX CORP. $173 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 283.8 million; Market cap: $49.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) delivers packages and documents in the U.S. and 220 other countries through a fleet of 650 planes and 108,000 trucks and other ground vehicles.

The company recently agreed to buy TNT Express NV, a Netherlands-based courier that operates throughout Europe.

FedEx’s main rival, United Parcel Service (UPS), tried to buy TNT in 2012, but antitrust regulators rejected the deal because it would have given UPS too much of Europe’s courier market. Combined, FedEx and TNT would have about 17% of this business, so regulators will likely approve this purchase.

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CISCO SYSTEMS INC. $29 (Nasdaq symbol CSCO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.1 billion; Market cap: $147.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cisco.com) has seen falling sales of routers and other computer-networking equipment in China in the past few years.

That’s largely because of fears that U.S. intelligence agencies are secretly using the company’s gear to spy on foreign firms and governments. In the quarter ended April 25, 2015, Cisco’s Chinese sales fell 20% from a year earlier.

The company now aims to reverse the decline by investing in new partnerships with Chinese universities and other institutions. This should help Cisco develop new equipment to compete with products from domestic firms like Huawei Technologies.

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MCDONALD’S CORP. $97 (New York symbol MCD; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 958.5 million; Market cap: $93.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mcdonalds .com) earned $811.5 million in the three months ended March 31, 2015, down 32.6% from $1.2 billion a year earlier. Per-share profits fell 30.6%, to $0.84 from $1.21, on fewer shares outstanding.

The company is closing less-profitable restaurants, simplifying its menus and speeding up its drive-through lanes as part of a new restructuring plan. If you exclude unusual items and the negative impact of currency exchange rates, McDonald’s earned $1.10 a share in the latest quarter.

Sales fell 11.1%, to $6.0 billion from $6.7 billion. A drop in customer traffic cut same-store sales by 2.3%.

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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS INC. $52 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 119.9 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. It processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada. If you exclude one-time items, Broadridge earned $58.8 million, or $0.47 a share, in its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended March 31, 2015. That’s up 6.7% from $55.1 million, or $0.44 a share, a year earlier.

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DUN & BRADSTREET CORP. $128 (New York symbol DNB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 36.0 million; Market cap: $4.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dnb.com) provides credit reports on over 230 million companies. Its clients use this information to make lending and buying decisions.

Dun & Bradstreet gets 64% of its revenue from credit reports. The remaining 36% comes from other information products, like software businesses use to manage websites and customer data.

In 2010, the company sold subsidiary Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. (DBCC) to private investors for $10.0 million. DBCC sells credit reports and related services to U.S. small businesses; it pays licensing fees to use the Dun & Bradstreet brand.

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CONAGRA FOODS INC. $44 (New York symbol CAG; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 427.1 million; Market cap: $18.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.conagrafoods.com) bought Ralcorp Holdings, the largest private-label food maker in the U.S., for $4.75 billion in January 2013.

The purchase has not worked out as well as ConAgra had hoped, as strong competition hurt Ralcorp’s sales and earnings. As a result, the company has had to write down this investment by $2.1 billion.

In response, ConAgra has launched a restructuring plan aimed at improving Ralcorp’s profitability. This strategy includes better packaging, speeding up deliveries and launching new products. It has also cut its private-label prices, which should help improve Ralcorp’s market share.

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AT&T INC. $36 (New York symbol T; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 5.2 billion; Market cap: $187.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 5.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.att.com) is the largest wireless provider in the U.S., with 121.8 million subscribers. Wireless supplies 55% of its revenue and 75% of its earnings.

The remaining 45% of revenue and 25% of earnings comes from the company’s wireline division, which sells phone services, television packages and highspeed Internet access to 34.2 million customers.

AT&T’s revenue rose 6.5%, from $124.4 billion in 2010 to $132.4 billion in 2014. Earnings fell 3.9%, from $2.29 a share (or a total of $13.6 billion) in 2010 to $2.20 a share (or $13.1 billion) in 2011, but they recovered to $2.33 a share (or $13.7 billion) in 2012.

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VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. $47 (New York symbol VZ, Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 4.1 billion; Market cap: $192.7 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 4.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.verizon.com) gets 70% of its revenue and 95% of earnings from its 108.6 million wireless subscribers. The other 30% of revenue and 5% of earnings comes from its wireline business, which serves 19.5 million traditional phone customers and 26.4 million high-speed Internet and digital TV users. In 2014, the company bought the 45% of the Verizon Wireless joint venture it didn’t already own from U.K.-based Vodafone Group (Nasdaq symbol VOD). Verizon Wireless sells wireless services in the U.S.

Verizon paid $130 billion for Vodafone’s stake, including $58.9 billion in cash. It also issued $61.3 billion worth of common shares to Vodafone shareholders and borrowed most of the remaining $9.8 billion.

The Vodafone stake, along with strong wireless demand, boosted the company’s revenue by 19.3%, from $106.6 billion in 2010 to $127.1 billion in 2014. Earnings fell from $0.90 a share (or a total of $2.5 billion) in 2010 to $0.31 a share (or $875 million) in 2012, mainly due to a $7.2-billion charge related to a change in its pension plan accounting policies. Earnings jumped to $4.00 a share (or $11.5 billion) in 2013 but fell to $2.42 a share (or $9.6 billion) in 2014 as the Verizon Wireless purchase added more one-time charges and other operating costs.

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Our portfolio advice: when you find the best stocks to invest in, and the shares begin to rise, avoid the temptation to sell them too soon.

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DREAM OFFICE REIT $25.34 (Toronto symbol D.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-365-3535; www.dream.ca/office; Units outstanding: 108.4 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Dividend yield: 8.8%) (formerly Dundee REIT) owns and manages 176 properties comprising 24.1 million square feet of office space in major cities across Canada.

In Western Canada, the trust has 16% of its total square footage in Calgary and 20% elsewhere. In Eastern Canada, it holds 23% of its square footage in downtown Toronto, 17% in suburban Toronto and 24% elsewhere. Its occupancy rate is 92.8%.

In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Dream Office’s revenue fell 1.6%, to $205.2 million from $208.4 million a year earlier. The trust sold four properties to Dream Industrial REIT (symbol DIR.UN on Toronto) for $33.0 million in September 2014. Dream Office owns 24.2% of Dream Industrial.

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CHEMTRADE LOGISTICS INCOME FUND $19.98 (Toronto symbol CHE.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-496-5856; www.chemtradelogistics .com; Units outstanding: 68.6 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; Dividend yield: 6.0%) 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 March 31, 2015, the company’s revenue rose 22.5%, to $326.0 million from $266.1 million a year earlier.

Big acquisition working out well

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FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $30.49 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.6 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.6%) has completed the spinoff of its Colliers International subsidiary after handing out Colliers shares to its investors.

The new FirstService began trading on Tuesday, June 2, 2015, retaining its FSV stock symbol. Colliers International Group, $47.01, symbol CIG on Toronto, began trading on the same day under its new symbol. Shareholders won’t pay capital gains taxes on the transaction until they sell their FirstService or Colliers shares.

Colliers 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. In 2014, it had $1.7 billion U.S. of revenue.

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WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $84.04 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 120.0 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,670 franchised hotels worldwide.

In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares.

The company has just bought Vacation Palm Springs, which manages more than 450 upscale vacation properties, for an undisclosed amount. This is Wyndham’s first acquisition in California.

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RUSSEL METALS $23.29 (Toronto symbol RUS; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(905-819-7777; www.russelmetals.com; Shares outstanding: 61.7 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; Dividend yield: 6.5%) has completed its acquisition of Western Fiberglass Pipe Sales for an undisclosed amount.

Western Fiberglass is a leading distributor of fibreglass pipe for the oil and gas industry. It serves Western Canada through offices in Estevan, Saskatchewan, and Red Deer, Alberta.

The acquisition will add just $30 million to Russel’s annual revenue of $3.9 billion. However, it lets it offer oil and gas customers fibreglass pipe as an alternative to steel. The company feels this could help them save on installation costs and maintenance while improving flow capacity and increasing service life.

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AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $32.17 (Toronto symbol AGT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (306-525- 4490; www.alliancegrain.com; Shares outstanding: 23.1 million; Market cap: $755.8 million; Dividend yield: 1.9%) has bought the assets of West Central Road & Rail for $22 million. The acquisition includes five bulk-loading sites in Saskatchewan.

Purchases like this are important because they help ensure that AGT can supply its manufacturing plants and continue its growth.

AGT Food & Ingredients is still a buy.

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RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $37.46 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.0 million; Market cap: $17.5 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) has joined McDonald’s and KFC in bringing back old mascots.

The company’s Burger King chain is now using its big-headed “King” mascot in its advertising for the first time since 2011. The move follows KFC’s reintroduction of Colonel Sanders after a 21-year absence, while McDonald’s brought back the Hamburglar after more than a decade.

Burger King recently paid $200,000 to have the King appear live on TV at the Belmont Stakes horse race. In May, the company reportedly paid $1 million to have the King included in Floyd Mayweather’s entourage during his Las Vegas boxing match.

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CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL $606.84 (New York symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (303-595-4000; www.chipotle.com; Shares outstanding: 31.0 million; Market cap: $18.7 billion; No dividends paid) is a Denver- based Mexican restaurant chain. It charges slightly higher prices than fast food companies, but it offers better quality food, including naturally raised meat, and superior decor and service.

In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Chipotle’s sales jumped 20.4%, to $1.09 billion from $904.2 million a year earlier. Its restaurants attracted more customers during the quarter, which pushed up same-restaurant sales by 10.4%.

Chipotle opened 49 new outlets and now has a total of 1,831. It plans to add 140 to 155 more in 2015. Earnings gained 47.6%, to $122.6 million, or $3.95 a share, from $83.1 million, or $2.67. That’s partly because it raised the prices of some menu items last year, offsetting higher costs for beef and tortillas. The company is a well-established chain with a growing following, especially among health conscious, environmentally aware consumers.

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DOMINO’S PIZZA $110.92 (New York symbol DPZ; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(734-930-3008; www.dominos.com; Shares outstanding: 55.2 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.1%) is the world’s largest chain of pizza stores that offer takeout and delivery. It operates 11,700 outlets in the U.S. and 75 other countries. Franchisees run most of these stores.

In the three months ended March 22, 2015, the company’s earnings per share jumped 19.1%, to $0.81 from $0.68 a year earlier.

Sales gained 10.6%, to $502.0 million from $453.9 million. Same-store sales rose 7.8% internationally— but more important, they rose 14.5% in the U.S., home to most of the company’s stores.

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