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PEPSICO INC. $97 (New York symbol PEP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $145.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www. pepsico.com) has replaced rival Coca-Cola (New York symbol KO) as the official soft drink sponsor of the National Basketball Association.

Coca-Cola still has marketing deals with some NBA teams and players, but this new multi-year agreement will let PepsiCo promote a wider range of products, such as Gatorade sports drinks and Frito-Lay snack foods, on NBA television broadcasts and other league events.

PepsiCo is a hold.

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HONDA MOTOR CO. LTD. ADRs $35 (New York symbol HMC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $63.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.honda.com) is spending $61 million to increase capacity at its plant in Tapukara, India, by 50%, to 180,000 cars a year. The company expects to complete these upgrades in 2016. Honda’s other Indian facility makes 120,000 cars a year.

The extra capacity will help Honda take advantage of rising car demand in the country: in the 11 months ended February 28, 2015, it sold 166,366 cars in India, up 43.5% from the same period a year earlier.

At the same time, Honda plans to produce 39% more motorcycles in India by 2016. This expansion will cost the company $94.3 million.

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INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $116 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.7 million; Market cap: $9.4 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) is buying Henry H. Ottens Manufacturing, a private Philadelphia-based firm that makes flavourings for major food makers.

IFF didn’t say how much it’s paying, but Ottens should add $60 million to its $3.1 billion of annual revenue. IFF expects to complete the purchase by June 30, 2015.

The company has a history of using acquisitions to expand, which adds risk. However, this purchase gives IFF access to Ottens’ high-quality clients, particularly in the U.K.

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APACHE CORP. $68 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 376.9 million; Market cap: $25.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apachecorp.com) is selling its remaining Australian oil and natural gas properties to a group of private investors for $2.1 billion. It held on to its 49% stake in Australian fertilizer maker Yara Pilbara.

As well, the company has now sold its interests in two large liquefied natural gas developments: a 13% stake in Australia’s Wheatstone project and 50% of a proposed terminal in Kitimat, B.C. It received a total of $3.67 billion in return.

The sales are part of Apache’s plan to focus on its less risky onshore operations in North America.

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CHEVRON CORP. $110 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $209.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www. chevron.com) recently sold its 50% stake in Caltex Australia, which owns an oil refinery and 1,800 gas stations in Australia, for $3.6 billion.

The deal is part of Chevron’s plan to sell $15 billion worth of nonessential businesses by 2017. Even with these sales, the company’s oil output will probably average 3.1 million barrels a day in 2017, up 20.6% from 2.57 million in 2014.

That’s mainly because Chevron still plans to start up two big offshore gas projects: the Gorgon field, off Australia’s northwest coast (47.3% owned by Chevron) and the nearby Wheatstone field (64.14%-owned). Each will also have a plant to convert the gas into a liquid for shipment to clients in Asia.

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NCR CORP. $30 (New York symbol NCR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 168.6 million; Market cap: $5.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ncr.com) gets 54% of its revenue from automated teller machines (ATMs). It also makes cash registers and self-serve checkouts (31% of revenue) and kiosks for theatres and arenas (10%). The remaining 5% comes from maintaining this equipment.

NCR is cutting its reliance on ATMs by purchasing other companies. In February 2013, it paid $788 million for Israel-based Retalix, whose software helps retailers manage their sales and track inventory. Companies with a combined 70,000 locations in over 50 countries use Retalix’s products.

In January 2014, NCR acquired Digital Insight, whose software helps over 1,000 banks and credit unions manage online and mobile transactions, for $1.65 billion.

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GOOGLE INC. (Nasdaq symbols GOOG $539 [class C non-voting] and GOOGL $549 [class A voting]); Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 680.6 million; Market cap: $366.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.5; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) may launch a paid version of its popular YouTube video-streaming website later this year. By paying a monthly fee, viewers would be able to watch videos without advertising. That would help YouTube compete with other streaming services, including Netflix and Hulu, and cut its reliance on selling ads.

The company would have to share most of these subscription fees with content providers. Still, a subscription service could generate $2 billion of additional revenue a year for Google; the company’s total revenue was $66.0 billion in 2014.

Shareholders should continue to hold their class A shares, but we recommend the cheaper class C stock for new buying.

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GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $27 (New York symbol GE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 10.1 billion; Market cap: $272.7 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ge.com) is selling most office buildings and real estate loans belonging to GE Capital, its financing subsidiary, to a group of investors for $26.5 billion.

The company will also hand out its remaining 85% stake in Synchrony Financial (New York symbol SYF), which provides credit card loans through retailers. GE will give its shareholders the chance to swap their stock for Synchrony shares.

It will take two years for GE to complete these transactions. After that, the financing business will supply just 10% of its earnings, down from 42% in 2014. The company plans to use the funds from these sales to buy back $50 billion worth of its shares.

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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.

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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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