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YAMANA GOLD $5.01 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(416-815-0220; www.yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 880.8 million; Market cap: $4.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) has decided to go ahead with building a $398.0-million mine at its Cerro Moro gold and silver property in Argentina. Production could begin as soon as late 2017.

The mine will produce an average of 102,000 ounces of gold and 5.0 million ounces of silver over its eight-year life—and its lifespan could be extended with further exploration drilling.

Yamana Gold is still a buy.

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CARFINCO FINANCIAL $10.96 (Toronto symbol CFN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-486-4356; www.carfinco.com; Shares outstanding: 26.5 million; Market cap: $281.1 million; Dividend yield: 2.7%) has rebounded closer to its takeover price of $11.25 a share after falling as low as $8.30 in January 2015.

In November 2014, Carfinco’s shareholders voted to accept a friendly $11.25-a-share takeover bid from Spain’s Banco Santander SA (ADR symbol SAN on New York).

Carfinco is confident the deal will go through, and the last two conditions were recently met: Spanish regulators granted their approval and Carfinco entered into an agreement to sell Persian Acceptance Corp., its U.S. subsidiary.

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INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $90.64 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341- 1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 131.5 million; Market cap: $11.9 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) is expanding in Western Canada by purchasing Canadian Direct Insurance from Canadian Western Bank (symbol CWB on Toronto) for $197 million. Canadian Direct offers home, auto and travel insurance, mainly in Alberta and B.C.

The acquisition also lets Intact expand its higherprofit- margin direct-to-consumer distribution channel. Direct distribution lets consumers get initial online quotes at any time and then use extended call centre hours to speak with—and purchase policies from— licensed insurance representatives.

In conjunction with this purchase, Intact plans to merge its Grey Power brand into its belairdirect brand to reduce the number of banners it offers. However, it will continue to offer Grey Power’s discount rates to drivers over the age of 50.

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WESTJET AIRLINES $30.63 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(1- 877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) reports that its earnings per share jumped 34.6% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to $0.70 from $0.52 a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.3%, to $994.4 million from $926.4 million.

Fuel makes up around a third of an airline’s operating expenses, and WestJet continues to benefit as its fuel costs drop along with oil prices.

The company is returning some of its higher profits to shareholders: it has just raised its quarterly dividend by 16.7% with the March 2015 payment, to $0.14 from $0.12. The stock now yields 1.8%.

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CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL $674.57 (New York symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (303- 595-4000; www.chipotle.com; Shares outstanding: 31.0 million; Market cap: $20.8 billion; No dividends paid) is a Denverbased 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 December 31, 2014, Chipotle’s sales jumped 26.7%, to $1.07 billion from $844.1 million a year earlier. Its restaurants attracted more customers during the quarter, which pushed up same-restaurant sales by 16.1%.

Chipotle opened 60 new outlets and now has a total of 1,783. It plans to add 190 to 205 more in 2015.

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AMAZON.COM $373.37 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 464.4 million; Market cap: $174.3 billion; No dividends paid) is a major online retailer. The company gets about 25% of its sales from books, music and videos. Other products, including electronics, computer games and toys, make up the other 75%. Amazon Marketplace lets other companies sell their products through Amazon’s websites.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Amazon earned $0.45 a share. That was down 11.8% from $0.51 a share a year earlier, but it was much better than the consensus estimate of $0.24. Sales rose 14.6%, to $29.3 billion from $25.6 billion.

In early 2014, the company raised the price of its Amazon Prime free-shipping service to $99 a year from $79. This was the first increase since Amazon launched Prime in 2005.

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IAMGOLD $2.90 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 376.9 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; No dividends paid) now holds over $800 million U.S. of cash and gold bullion after the sale of its Niobec niobium mine in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.

IAMGold received $500 million U.S. for the sale of Niobec. It will get another $30 million U.S. when an adjacent deposit of rare earth elements goes into production.

The company’s big cash and gold holding puts it in a strong position to pay down its long-term debt of $641 million U.S. It could also expand its existing gold projects, pay dividends, buy back shares or make timely acquisitions from distressed sellers at low prices.

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ALARMFORCE INDUSTRIES $10.08 (Toronto symbol AF; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800- 267-2001; www.alarmforce.com; Shares outstanding: 11.7 million; Market cap: $121.1 million; Dividend yield: 1.2%) sells twoway voice-alarm systems and monitoring services in Canada and increasingly in the U.S.

In the three months ended October 31, 2014, the company’s sales rose 5.2%, to $13.3 million from $12.6 million a year earlier. It earned $0.17 a share, down 19.0% from $0.21.

AlarmForce’s revenue rose along with its subscriber base and higher monthly revenue per customer. Earnings declined because it spent more on product development and marketing.

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RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $40.97 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (212-333-3810; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.1 million; Market cap: $19.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.9%) took its current form on December 12, 2014, as a result of Burger King Worldwide’s (old symbol BKW) acquisition of Tim Hortons Inc. (old symbol THI).

Restaurant Brands is the world’s third-largest fastfood operator, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with 14,372 Burger King restaurants and 4,671 Tim Hortons outlets in 100 countries.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, the company lost $514.2 million, or $2.52 a share, compared to a profit of $66.8 million, or $0.19 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Excluding merger-related costs and other unusual items, operating earnings rose 23.1%.

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BELLATRIX EXPLORATION $3.50 (Toronto symbol BXE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-266-8670; www.bellatrixexploration.com; Shares outstanding: 191.5 million; Market cap: $735.5 million; No dividends paid) will cut its 2015 exploration and development spending by 33.3%, to $200 million from $300 million in 2014, in response to low oil and gas prices.

However, Bellatrix can still draw on $85 million from its joint venture partners, bringing total spending to $285 million this year.

As a result of the spending cut, the company now expects to produce an average of 43,000 to 44,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2015. That’s down from its original forecast of 47,000 to 48,000 but about 14% higher than its 2014 average production of 38,100 barrels a day.

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PASON SYSTEMS $18.47 (Toronto symbol PSI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(403-301-3400; www.pason.com; Shares outstanding: 83.4 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Dividend yield: 3.7%) rents equipment for monitoring and managing oil and gas rigs. It also sells communication technology, such as its satellite system, which companies use to remotely collect data from their drilling operations. Pason serves oil and gas producers and drilling contractors in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Australia.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, the company’s revenue rose 28.9%, to $134.0 million from $104.0 million a year earlier. Pason saw higher sales of its technology in all of its major markets, but especially in the U.S.

The company earned $26.5 million, or $0.32 a share, in the latest quarter, up from $9.1 million, or $0.11. Earnings rose on the higher revenue and an increased contribution from Pason’s U.S. profits because of the stronger U.S. dollar.

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COMPUTER MODELLING GROUP $12.73 (Toronto symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-531-1300; www.cmgl.ca; Shares outstanding: 78.6 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; Dividend yield: 3.1%) sells software and consulting services that help conventional oil and gas producers create complex 3D models of reservoirs. That lets them squeeze more out of those reservoirs using advanced recovery techniques such as injecting steam or chemicals. Typically, only 25% to 30% of oil and gas is recovered during primary production.

Unconventional producers, using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of oil and gas-bearing shale, can also use Computer Modelling’s software to determine optimal drilling locations and depths.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Computer Modelling’s revenue rose 31.1%, to $25.2 million from $19.2 million a year earlier. Software licensing revenue (92% of the total) rose 34.8%, and consulting and professional services revenue (8%) was virtually unchanged.

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FAIR ISAAC CORP. $81.96 (New York symbol FICO; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(415-472-2211; www.fairisaac.com; Shares outstanding: 31.4 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Dividend yield: 0.1%) makes FICO Scores, a computer program that helps businesses make better decisions about customer creditworthiness. Fair Isaac also sells software that helps credit card issuers control fraud and analyze cardholders’ spending patterns.

In its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended December 31, 2014, Fair Isaac’s revenue rose 2.8%, to $189.6 million from $184.3 million a year earlier.

Earnings per share fell 6.8%, to $0.68 from $0.73. Fair Isaac spent more on research and marketing, and that hurt profits.

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HECLA MINING COMPANY $3.35 (New York symbol HL; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (208-769- 4100; www.hecla-mining.com; Shares outstanding: 367.4 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion) explores for, mines and processes silver and gold in the U.S. and Mexico.

Most of the company’s silver output comes from its Greens Creek mine in Alaska and its Lucky Friday project in Idaho. Hecla’s Casa Berardi mine in Quebec supplies the majority of its gold production.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Hecla produced 3.2 million ounces of silver, up 29.1% from 2.5 million ounces a year earlier. Gold output rose 16.1%, to 54,674 ounces from 47,108. Cash flow per share climbed 18.2%, to $0.13 from $0.11.

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CAMECO CORP. $19.80 (Toronto symbol CCO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(306-956-6200; www.cameco.com; Shares outstanding: 395.8 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Dividend yield 2.0%) is the world’s largest uranium producer. It supplies 16% of global mine production and has large, high-grade reserves, low-cost operations, significant market share and many mines.

Cameco is also one of the western world’s largest converters of enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors. In addition, it owns NUKEM, a nuclear-fuel trader and broker.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Cameco’s revenue fell 9.0%, to $889 million from $977 million a year earlier. It sold more uranium at higher prices in the latest quarter. However, the yearago quarter included revenue from the company’s 31.6% stake in Ontario’s Bruce Power partnership, which it sold in early 2014.

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p>FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $72.00 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960- 9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.5 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Div. yield: 0.7%) plans to spin off its Colliers International business into a new firm called Colliers International Group. FirstService will hand out Colliers shares to its own investors. Colliers is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services around the globe. In 2014, it had revenue of $1.7 billion U.S.

After the spinoff, FirstService will carry on with residential property management and improvement, which had $1.1 billion U.S. of revenue in 2014. FirstService shareholders won’t pay income taxes on the transaction until they sell shares of the new FirstService or Colliers International.

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MENTOR GRAPHICS CORP. $24.74 (Nasdaq symbol MENT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (503-685-7000; www.mentor.com; Shares outstanding: 115.1 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Dividend yield: 0.8%) 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.

The company sells its products and services worldwide, mainly to large firms in the communications, technology, military and transportation industries.

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TOROMONT INDUSTRIES LTD. $27.71 (Toronto symbol TIH; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-667- 5511; www.toromont.com; Shares outstanding: 77.1 million; Market cap: $2.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%) 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 three months ended September 30, 2014, Toromont’s revenue fell 6.2%, to $467.4 million from $498.3 million a year earlier.

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STANTEC INC. $30.05 (Toronto symbol STN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (780-917-7288; www.stantec.com; Shares outstanding: 93.8 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.2%) (all figures adjusted for a 2-for-1 share split in November 2014) sells a range of consulting, project-delivery, design and technology services. The company’s clients operate in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, transportation and construction.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Stantec’s revenue rose 12.2%, to $544.2 million from $484.8 million a year earlier. Earnings gained 5.7%, to $48.6 million, or $1.04 a share, from $46.0 million, or $0.99.

Stantec continues to grow by acquisition. It has now completed its purchase of Montreal-based Dessau, a distressed firm that’s one of a number of companies caught up in a Quebec government inquiry into corruption in the construction industry. Under the deal, Stantec won’t be responsible for any of the millions of dollars in fines or penalties Dessau may have to pay.

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DEVON ENERGY CORP. $61.60 (New York symbol DVN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (405-235- 3611; www.dvn.com; Shares outstanding: 409.1 million; Market cap: $24.4 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 46% gas and 54% oil.

The company narrowed its focus with its July 2014 sale of some of its properties to Linn Energy for $2.3 billion. The deal included Devon’s holdings in the Rockies, the onshore Gulf Coast and the Mid- Continent region (which includes Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas).

The sale lets Devon focus on what it views as lowrisk/ high-reward properties, especially the oilproducing assets it bought in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation for $6 billion in 2013.

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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.

Gogo Inc. (symbol GOGO on Nasdaq; www.gogoair.com), offers a service that lets passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices get online on Gogo-equipped aircraft.

The company offers Internet access on more than 10 major airlines and 2,000 individual airliners. Over 6,000 business jets also use its systems. Gogo charges $59.95 a month or $16 for an all-day pass.

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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific stock tips 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. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle.

This week we had a question from an Inner Circle Member about Golar LNG, which ships liquefied natural gas (LNG). The company operates LNG tankers and oversees projects converting gas into liquid. Pat takes a closer look at Golar’s business and the current state of the LNG trade as it flows from the Middle East to the Pacific. He assesses Golar’s prospects of capturing a greater share of the growing export trade to Asia at a time when shipping rates have fallen due to the global expansion of LNG carrier fleets.

Q: Hello: would you be able to give me your opinion on Golar LNG, in which I have a position.

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Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. This week’s U.S. pick comes from our advisory for more aggressive investors, Stock Pickers Digest.

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS (New York symbol BR; www.broadridge.com) 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.

Broadridge began trading on April 2, 2007, after former parent Automatic Data Processing handed out Broadridge stock to its own investors as a special dividend.

Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $37.0 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 22.9% from $48.0 million, or $0.39 a share, a year earlier.

The company paid employees higher commissions on new sales and performance bonuses. It also expanded its sales and marketing capabilities.


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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away.

Today’s tip: “If you’re going to dip into your RRSP to raise cash, you can make it a positive transaction that actually strengthens the portfolio within your RRSP.”

Two weeks ago, we wrote about how to achieve a double win—and avoid a double loss—in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). View the post here. Last week, we discussed making the right retirement calculations. View the post here.

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Yes, you can collect up to $49,284 in dividends every year, and not pay a single dime in income tax. You simply have to know how to invest with the tax code in mind. You need a guide in front of you that cuts through the maze of Canada’s tax laws and concentrates on the rulings that are most important to investors. You have to know where you can save and where you can gain with smart tax planning. That’s why we put together the TSI Network Tax Guide for Canadian Investors 2015.

Our tax guide is written from an investor’s point of view. This sets it apart from most tax guides. It is invaluable for both tax planning and overall portfolio planning. It puts special focus on the tax laws and tax strategies that mean the most to Canadian investors. We draw on our long experience in investment advice. With this background, we have created a concise guide, complete with seven tables for quick and easy reference.

With this guide, you approach your taxes, and the person you have chosen as your tax preparer or advisor, with a strong base of knowledge. You’ll have the ability to ask your tax accountant the right questions, or even handle your own taxes with confidence.

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