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NVIDIA CORP. $22 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 549.8 million; Market cap: $12.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nvidia.com) is a leading designer of 3D-capable video chips, which make video games run more smoothly and appear more lifelike. The company outsources most of its production to Asian chipmakers.

In its 2015 fiscal year, which ended January 25, 2015, Nvidia’s revenue rose 13.3%, to a record $4.7 billion from $4.1 billion in 2014.

Earnings jumped 36.1%, to $801.0 million from $588.4 million. The company spent $813.6 million on share buybacks in the past year. As a result, its earnings per share rose 43.4%, to $1.42 from $0.99.

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ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $76 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 500.3 million; Market cap: $38.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 8.8; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) makes software for publishing companies and website developers.

The company’s main products include Adobe Acrobat, which lets users create and edit electronic documents in the widely used PDF format, and its Creative Suite package of desktop publishing and photo editing programs, including Photoshop.

In its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended February 27, 2015, Adobe earned $0.44 a share, up 46.7% from $0.30 a year earlier. Revenue rose 10.9%, to $1.11 billion from $1.00 billion. The company spends a high 20% of its revenue on research.

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APPLE INC. $129 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.8 billion; Market cap: $748.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.7; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apple.com) aims to cut its reliance on the iPhone smartphone, which supplies nearly 70% of its revenue, with several new products.

One example is its recently launched Apple Pay service, which lets users add their credit card information to their phones. They can then use them to make purchases at any tap-and-pay-enabled cash register and, in some cases, online. To prevent fraud, the phone will confirm the user’s identity by scanning their fingerprint.

So far, Apple Pay is only available in the U.S., but local banking rules could make it hard to bring the service to other countries. That could force the company to form alliances with foreign banks, payment processors and wireless carriers.

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GANNETT CO., INC. $35 (New York symbol GCI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector: Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.gannett.com) publishes newspapers in the U.S. and U.K., including USAToday, its flagship paper. The company also owns 46 TV stations and websites that attract over 39 million unique visitors a month.

In the three months ended March 29, 2015, Gannett’s revenue rose 4.9%, to $1.5 billion from $1.4 billion a year earlier. Strong gains at the broadcasting and digital divisions (49% of the total) offset an 8.8% decline at the publishing businesses (51%) due to weak ad revenue. Earnings improved 4.3%, to $0.49 a share from $0.47.

The company still plans to spin off its publishing operations as a separate firm that will keep the Gannett name. The remaining company, called Tegna (New York symbol TGNA), will own the broadcast and Internet businesses.

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $165 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 985.0 million; Market cap: $162.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) traces its history back to 1911. Today, it’s one of the world’s largest computer companies, with operations in over 175 countries. In the past few years, IBM has moved away from making computers to designing entire systems and managing them for businesses and government agencies. It provides these services under long-term contracts, which gives it predictable revenue streams. In 2014, computer services supplied 59% of the company’s revenue.

Meanwhile, IBM continues to build up its software business, which supplied 28% of its 2014 revenue.

Last year, the company sold its low-end server business to China’s Lenovo Group for $2.1 billion in cash and Lenovo shares.

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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions.

Q: What is your opinion of the following investment: First Capital Realty? Thanks.

A: First Capital Realty Inc. (symbol FCR on Toronto; www.firstcapitalrealty.ca) owns, develops and operates shopping centres throughout Canada. It focuses on big cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton.

First Capital owns interests in 157 properties. Supermarkets and drugstores account for 31% of its rental revenue, followed by national and discount retailers (15%), medical clinics, gyms and daycare facilities (14%), restaurants (13%) and banks and government offices (11%). Other retailers supply the remaining 16%.

The company’s largest tenants include Sobeys, Loblaw, Metro, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart and Dollarama.

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Getting back to industrial basics, General Electric shrinks GE Capital and finalizes its big deal with French nuclear power giant Alstrom.

Beware a few lucky wins with market timing, because all the random elements involved in timing the market inevitably lead to losses.

Meta Description: With its new 50% stake in the Ruby pipeline and an LNG plant in the works, Veresen can sustain big growth and its high dividend yield.

Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock or investment we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in it at this time.

SolarCity Corp. (symbol SCTY on Nasdaq; www.solarcity.com) provides rooftop solar systems for homeowners, businesses, schools and government agencies in the U.S.

The company creates a customized energy plan for each customer, then sells, finances, engineers, installs, monitors and maintains the system. Customers can “sell” any electricity they don’t use onto the power grid for credits they can use to “buy” electricity at night.

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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific stock advice as well as questions on investment strategy and the economy. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions.

Q: Pat: Could you give an update on Northland Power?

A: Northland Power Inc. (symbol NPI on; www.northlandpower.ca) develops, builds, owns and operates natural-gas-fired power plants, wind farms, solar projects and hydroelectric facilities. The company converted to a corporation from an income trust on January 1, 2011.

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ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $70.10 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340- 777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 15.9 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.7%) owns wireless and wireline telecom operations in the U.S. Southwest, New England, New York State, Guyana, Bermuda and parts of the Caribbean islands.

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

Big departure from telecom

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MENTOR GRAPHICS CORP. $24.33 (Nasdaq symbol MENT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (503- 685-7000; www.mentor.com; Shares outstanding: 116.1 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Dividend yield: 0.9%) makes hardware and software for improving the design of electronic products and speeding up their development.

For example, Mentor’s software lets automakers use less wiring in a car, identify potential safety issues and minimize electromagnetic effects on sensitive components.

In the quarter ended January 31, 2015, Mentor’s revenue rose 9.5%, to $439.1 million from $401.0 million a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share gained 18.5%, to $1.09 from $0.92.

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DOREL INDUSTRIES $35.02 (Toronto symbol DII.B; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (514-731-0000; www.dorel.com; Shares outstanding: 32.3 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Dividend yield: 4.3%) (All amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars) makes a number of items, including ready-to-assemble home and office furniture; juvenile products, such as car seats, strollers, high chairs, toddler beds and cribs; and sporting goods, mainly bicycles.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Dorel’s sales rose 10.7%, to $701.6 million from $633.5 million a year earlier. Sales rose 6.0% at the sports segment and 13.5% at the juvenile products division. Home furnishing sales gained 14.2%.

Excluding one-time items, earnings fell 9.1%, to $11.0 million, or $0.34 share, from $12.1 million, or $0.38. The high U.S. dollar made the company’s international sales less profitable.

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HECLA MINING COMPANY $3.33 (New York symbol HL; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (208-769- 4100; www.hecla-mining.com; Shares outstanding: 369.4 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion) explores for, mines and processes silver and gold in the U.S. and Mexico.

Recently, the company agreed to buy Revett Mining Company (symbol RVM on New York) for $20 million in Hecla shares.

Hecla will keep moving ahead with permitting on Revett Mining’s Rock Creek project in northwestern Montana.

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TEMPUR SEALY $58.80 (New York symbol TPX; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(800-878-8889; www.tempursealy.com; Shares outstanding: 61.0 million; Market cap: $3.5 billion; No dividends paid) continues to fend off attempts by activist investor H Partners Management to replace the company’s CEO.

H Partners, which owns 10% of Tempur Sealy’s shares, is best known for taking part in the turnaround of theme-park operator Six Flags Entertainment between 2010 and 2013. H Partners believes Tempur Sealy has performed poorly compared to other mattress makers since its 2013 purchase of Sealy Corp.

Whatever the outcome of H Partners’ investment, the activist investor’s involvement should draw attention to Tempur Sealy’s growth prospects.

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RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $38.99 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (212-333-3810; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.0 million; Market cap: $18.2 billion; Dividend yield: 0.2%) is testing a new premium coffee blend, called Three Peaks Colombian, at five of its Tim Hortons outlets in Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec.

This coffee comes from Colombia’s Cauca mountain region, where volcanic ash in the soil gives it what Tim Hortons describes as “a hint of caramel and a smooth finish.”

The chain will sell the new brew for 15% more than its current coffees. Right now, Tim Hortons makes its coffee from a blend of various beans from sources in different countries. This helps offset varying growing seasons, as well as local droughts and other supply disruptions.

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CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL $677.60 (New York symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (303-595-4000; www.chipotle.com; Shares outstanding: 31.0 million; Market cap: $21.1 billion; No dividends paid) offers only naturally raised meat that comes from animals that are raised humanely, never given antibiotics or hormones and fed a pure vegetarian diet.

Chipotle had a total of 1,783 outlets at the end of 2014 and plans to add 190 to 205 more this year. However, its strict adherence to its food standards could make continued expansion increasingly difficult.

That’s because demand for natural and humanely raised livestock is growing, especially in the U.S., where fast-food chains ranging from Dunkin’ Donuts to McDonald’s are switching over. In addition, new chains using naturally raised meat, like Five Guys and Shake Shack, are expanding rapidly.

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ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $76.03 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 500.3 million; Market cap: $38.0 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 first quarter, which ended February 27, 2015, Adobe earned $0.44 a share, up 46.7% from $0.30 a year earlier. Revenue gained 10.9%, to $1.11 billion from $1.00 billion.

Like Symantec, Adobe is shifting from selling software as a one-time purchase and toward a subscription model. It now gets 70% of its revenue from recurring sources, up from 52% a year ago.

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SYMANTEC CORP. $23.79 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 682.4 million; Market cap: $16.3 billion; Dividend yield: 2.5%) sells computersecurity technology, including antivirus and emailfiltering software, to businesses and consumers.

In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended January 2, 2015, Symantec earned $367 million, unchanged from a year earlier. However, per-share earnings rose 1.9%, to $0.53 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue slipped 3.9%, to $1.64 billion from $1.71 billion. But if you disregard the negative impact of the high U.S. dollar on the company’s overseas sales, revenue was flat.

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CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $16.02 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chk.com; Shares outstanding: 665.0 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%) has filed regulatory reports showing that its chairman, Archie W. Dunham, recently purchased one million of the company’s shares at prices ranging from $13.92 to $14.05, for a total of $14 million. Dunham now holds 2.6 million shares.

As well, activist investor Carl Icahn recently increased his stake in the company to 10.98% from 9.98%. He bought his shares for $14.15 each and now holds 73 million shares, up from 66 million. Icahn has a long history of pushing companies to make changes that increase shareholder value.

Investors can put too much weight on insider trading, since insiders can delude themselves about their employer just as easily as outsiders—and it pays to remember that insiders may sell for a variety of personal reasons that have nothing to do with the company. On the other hand, insiders only make substantial buys for one reason—they think the company has investment appeal.

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DELPHI ENERGY $1.78 (Toronto symbol DEE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares outstanding: 155.5 million; Market cap: $269.0 million; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta. Its average daily production of 12,035 barrels of oil equivalent is 69% gas and 31% oil.

In the quarter ended December 31, 2014, Delphi’s cash flow per share rose 42.9%, to $0.10 from $0.07. That’s because it raised its production by 33.9% and realized higher oil prices.

Like Birchcliff, Delphi will cut spending this year: its outlays will now total $50 million, down from $101 million in 2014. However, that should still let it keep production steady at today’s levels. The company could also raise its spending later this year if oil and gas prices move higher.

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BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $7.73 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www.birchcliffenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 152.3 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and gas, mainly in the Peace River Arch area near the Alberta/B.C. border. About 85% of its output is gas. The remaining 15% is oil.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Birchcliff’s cash flow per share rose 17.1%, to $0.41 from $0.35 a year earlier. The company raised its daily output by 32.8%, offsetting lower oil prices and boosting its cash flow.

Like many oil and gas producers, Birchcliff plans to cut back on exploration and development spending. This year, it will devote $266.7 million to this purpose, down from $450.0 million in 2014.

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IAMGOLD CORP. $2.67 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(1-888- 464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 391.3 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; No dividends paid) will sell its 1% revenue royalty on the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (symbol SSL on Toronto).

Diavik is Canada’s largest diamond mine and has been in operation since 2003.

Sandstorm will pay $52.5 million U.S. in cash plus three million warrants. IAMGold can exercise the warrants for up to five years after production from a new zone at Diavik starts up. The exercise price is $4.50; Sandstorm currently trades at $4.38.

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BMTC GROUP $16.50 (Toronto symbol GBT.A; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(514-648-5757; No website; Shares outstanding: 44.9 million; Market cap: $725.0 million; Dividend yield: 1.5%) is one of Quebec’s biggest retailers of furniture, electronics and appliances, with 37 outlets. It mainly sells these items through its two affiliates: Brault & Martineau and Ameublements Tanguay.

In March 2012, BMTC introduced a new banner, Economax, which offers lower-priced products. The company rebranded four outlets that it had operated as Brault & Martineau liquidation centres.

BMTC has opened seven more Economax stores since then. It has also bought land in Drummondville for a new store to open in late 2015.

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