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AURICO GOLD $4.15 (Toronto symbol AUQ; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(604-681-2802; www.auricogold.com; Shares outstanding: 250.0 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; Dividend yield: 2.8%) has agreed to merge with Alamos Gold (symbol AGI on Toronto).

AuRico owns the Young- Davidson mine in northern Ontario, which holds as much as 5.6 million ounces of gold. The mine started up in 2013 and will reach full production in 2016. But meanwhile, it’s moving from open pit to underground mining, which will sharply increase its costs.

Alamos owns the Mulatos mine in Mexico, but its main asset is its $358.0 million cash holding. The combined entity, called Alamos Gold, will use that cash to fund Young-Davidson, and boost the company’s gold output from 400,000 ounces this year to 700,000 in 2018.

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AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS $28.09 (Toronto symbol AGT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (604-231-1100; www.alliancegrain.com; Shares outstanding: 23.1 million; Market cap: $656.1 million; Dividend yield: 2.1%) 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.

AGT has grown quickly in the past five years, with revenue rising 111.8%, from $642.1 million in 2010 to $1.36 billion in 2014. Before one-time items, it made $1.76 a share in 2014, up sharply from $1.09 in 2013.

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Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

On Tuesday, we profiled a Canadian company in the chemical waste business with a high dividend yield (see the article here). Today we report on a U.S. chemical stock that’s not widely known, but also has an admirable record with dividends.

QUAKER CHEMICAL CORP. (New York symbol KWR; www.quakerchem.com) began operating in 1918 and currently operates 34 plants in 21 countries. These facilities make lubricants and chemicals that keep mechanical parts from rusting.

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Are TV financial pundits guilty of pump and dump schemes?

One of Canada’s last income trusts, Chemtrade Logistics turns industrial waste services and a big acquisition into a high dividend yield.

Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. We give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in it at this time.

Liquor Stores N.A. Ltd. (symbol LIQ on Toronto; www.liquorstoresna.ca) is North America’s largest private liquor store operator, with 244 outlets. Of that total, 173 are in Alberta, 35 are in B.C., 23 are in Alaska and 13 are in Kentucky.

Liquor Stores’ banners include Liquor Depot, Liquor Barn and Brown Jug.

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A big change for Hershey after 110 years in business, as it moves to “healthier,” more natural ingredients in its chocolate bars and candies.

Shrugging off a slow first quarter, Goodyear sees a good year ahead, thanks to falling costs of rubber and oil and a good labour deal

Despite pessimistic media forecasts, Canada’s banks remain strong and international exposure helps make Scotiabank a best buy.

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.

North American Palladium (symbol PDL on Toronto; www.napalladium.com) owns the Lac des Iles palladium mine near Thunder Bay. It also owns the Vezza gold project in Quebec’s Abitibi region.

Palladium is mainly used in catalytic converters for automobiles, as well as in jewellery.

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TRANSCANADA CORP. $54 (www.transcanada.com) has increased its quarterly dividend by 8.3%, to $0.52 a share from $0.48. The new annual rate of $2.08 yields 3.9%. TransCanada has raised its payout each year since 2000. Best Buy.

ENBRIDGE INC. $58 (www.enbridge.com) plans to increase the capacity of a proposed pipeline project that will pump crude from oil sands projects in Alberta. It will mainly do this by increasing the diameter of part of the pipeline and boosting another section’s pumping power....

TELUS CORP. $42 (www.telus.com) is paying $1.5 billion for new radio frequencies (or spectrum) covering urban and rural areas in Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec. The price is slightly more than the $1.49 billion, or $2.41 a share, that Telus earned in 2014....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $28 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 315.4 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.0; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 292 shopping centres in Canada, including 15 under development. These holdings account for 84% of the REIT’s rental revenue. The remaining 16% comes from 48 malls in the U.S.

In the past few years, RioCan took advantage of lower property values and interest rates to expand its portfolio. As a result, its revenue jumped 39.8%, from $882 million in 2010 to $1.2 billion in 2014.

Due to gains and losses on property sales, earnings fell from $6.04 a unit (or a total of $1.5 billion) in 2010 to $3.25 (or $873 million) in 2011. Earnings rebounded to $4.57 a unit (or $1.3 billion) in 2012 but declined to $2.10 a unit (or $663 million) in 2014.

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LINAMAR CORP. $75 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 65.1 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.linamar.com) saw its sales rise 16.0% in 2014, to a record $4.2 billion from $3.6 billion in 2013.

Sales at its powertrain and driveline division (83% of the total) rose 14.7%, thanks to acquisitions and higher new car sales, which increased demand for Linamar’s transmissions and other auto parts. Sales at the industrial products division (17%) gained 23.3%, mainly due to strong demand for the company’s Skyjack selfpropelled, scissor-type elevating work platforms.

Earnings jumped 48.2% during the year, to a record $4.95 a share from $3.34. Linamar’s earnings could rise to $5.54 a share in 2015, and the stock trades at a moderate 13.5 times that forecast. The $0.40 dividend yields 0.5%.

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BLACKBERRY LTD. $13 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 528.8 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) plans to launch four new smartphones in 2015, including the Leap, which features a five-inch high-definition touch-screen display. The Leap features the company’s latest encryption technology, which should appeal to BlackBerry’s corporate and government clients.

The company has also extended its partnership with Samsung Electronics. Under the deal, Samsung will integrate BlackBerry’s mobile security software into its smartphones and tablets.

BlackBerry is a hold.

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SHAWCOR LTD. $35 (Toronto symbol SCL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.5 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.shawcor.com) lost $0.32 a share in the fourth quarter of 2014, mainly due to writedowns of its pipelinecoating facilities in Texas and a joint venture in Venezuela. Without these charges, it earned $0.76 a share, up 105.4% from $0.37 a year earlier.

Revenue rose 22.0%, to $500.0 million from $409.8 million, partly because the lower Canadian dollar enhanced its overseas projects’ results.

Lower oil prices will probably slow pipeline construction and hurt demand for ShawCor’s services. However, the company has $766 million worth of orders that it expects to complete in 2015. It is also bidding on other jobs worth a total of $800 million.

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BCE INC. $53 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 840.5 million; Market cap: $44.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) has signed a new deal with Sun Life Financial (Toronto symbol SLF) that will cut some of the risk in its Bell Canada employees’ pension plan.

Retired employees currently receive a monthly payment for the rest of their lives. However, many of these pensioners are living longer than expected, which is increasing BCE’s pension obligations.

Under this new deal, BCE will pay monthly premiums to Sun Life, which will then make monthly payments into the plan for the lifetime of existing pensioners.

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PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $7.69 (Toronto symbol PD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resource sector; Shares outstanding: 292.8 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.precisiondrilling.com) plans to spend $467.0 million on capital upgrades in 2015, down 38.1% from $754.9 million in 2014. That’s because lower oil prices have prompted producers to curtail drilling, hurting demand for new rigs.

Even with the lower capital spending, Precision expects to deliver 17 new rigs in 2015 (13 for the U.S., three for Canada and one for Kuwait), up from 15 in 2014. The company has already signed agreements with drillers to operate these rigs, which cuts the risk of these projects.

Due to the drop in oil prices and drilling activity, Precision will probably earn just $0.11 a share in 2015. The stock trades at 69.9 times that depressed estimate. However, Precision’s earnings could recover to $0.25 a share in 2016, and it trades at a more reasonable 30.8 times that forecast.

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FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $24 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 172.4 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) is the world’s largest dealer of tractors, bulldozers and trucks made by Caterpillar Inc. (New York symbol CAT). It also sells heavy equipment made by other firms. Finning’s clients are mainly in the mining, forest products and construction industries.

Weaker commodity prices have hurt sales of new equipment and support services in Western Canada. In response, Finning plans to cut 500 jobs, or 9% of its Canadian workforce. The company didn’t say how much it would pay in severance and other costs or how much it expects to save.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Finning’s earnings per share rose 14.8%, to $0.62 from $0.54 a year earlier. Without one-time items, mainly positive changes related to new tax laws in Argentina, the company earned $0.55 a share. Overall revenue was flat at $1.8 billion.

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LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $61 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 412.5 million; Market cap: $25.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) reported that its sales jumped 49.4% in the three months ended January 3, 2015, to $11.4 billion from $7.6 billion a year earlier.

The gain is mainly due to the Shoppers Drug Mart drugstore chain, which Loblaw bought in March 2014. Same-store sales rose 3.3% at Loblaw’s supermarkets and 3.8% at Shoppers.

Excluding integration costs and other unusual items, earnings jumped 146.0%, to $396 million from $161 million. Per-share profits gained 68.4%, to $0.96 from $0.57, on more shares outstanding.

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vGLOBAL X COPPER MINERS ETF $6.99 (New York symbol COPX; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, which includes 20 to 40 international companies that mine, refine or explore for copper. Germany-based Structured Solutions AG created this index.

Canadian firms make up 41.0% of the ETF’s holdings. It also includes companies based in Australia (15.5%), China (5.4%), Peru (5.0%) and Mexico (4.6%). The fund’s MER is 0.65%.

Its top holdings are Hudbay Minerals at 6.4%; Imperial Metals, 6.4%; Antofagasta plc, 5.8%; Teck Resources, 5.6%; Southern Copper, 5.6%; Jiangxi Copper, 5.5%; Lundin Mining, 5.2%; Kazakhmys, 5.2%; Turquoise Hill, 5.1%; Grupo Mexico, 5.0%; and Glencore International, 4.8%.

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GLOBAL X SILVER MINERS ETF $9.11 (New York symbol SIL; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Silver Miners Index.

This index includes 25 international firms that mine, refine or explore for silver. It was developed by Germany-based Structured Solutions AG.

Canadian firms make up 55.1% of the fund’s holdings, but it also includes miners in the U.S. (14.3%) and Mexico (12.3%). Its MER is 0.65%.

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ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $10.63 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index.

This index is made up of 38 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund’s MER is 0.61%. It began trading on March 23, 2001.

The fund’s top holdings are Goldcorp at 15.8%; Barrick Gold, 13.3%; Newmont Mining, 11.6%; Franco Nevada, 7.2%; Randgold Resources (ADR), 6.3%; Agnico-Eagle Mines, 5.9%; Royal Gold, 4.1%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 4.1%; Eldorado Gold, 3.4%; and Yamana Gold, 3.1%.

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ISHARES INDIA 50 ETF $33.02 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an ETF that invests in the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities.

Indian stocks have moved up 34%, to record highs, since the May 2014 election of Narendra Modi as prime minister.

The government has just introduced its first full-year budget, and the $290-billion spending plan includes an additional $12 billion to address one of the country’s most pressing needs—modernizing its transportation, communications and electrical infrastructure.

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