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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific stock investing 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 a report on one of the stocks profiled in these Q&A sessions. We give you Pat’s buy-hold-sell recommendation as well as his analysis of the stock. This is part of the specific buy, hold and sell advice we offer you in our daily posts. Every week you get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, and “Our Top U.S. Stocks” on Thursday.

Recently an Inner Circle member asked us about Parkland Fuel, a company that sells gasoline and operates convenience stores through its own brands and under license to bigger companies like Imperial Oil. Parkland recently lost a major supply contract with Suncor Energy and Pat examines the company’s attempts to replace that business with new acquisitions. He also looks at the impact of lower oil prices on Parkland’s profits.

Q: Hi Pat: Could you give us an update on Parkland Fuels? They are continuing to make acquisitions, and the stock continues to rise. Would you consider it a buy now? Regards.

A: Parkland Fuel Corp. (symbol PKI on Toronto; www.parkland.ca) operates gas stations, convenience stores and a fuel distribution business, mostly in Western Canada and Ontario. It was called Parkland Income Fund before it converted to a dividend-paying corporation on December 31, 2010.

The company owns 144 rural gas stations and convenience stores. Brands include Fas Gas Plus, Race Trac Gas and Short Stop. Many of Parkland’s stations sell propane in addition to gasoline and diesel fuel. The company also operates Esso stations in Western Canada and Ontario under a licensing deal with Imperial Oil (symbol IMO on Toronto). It recently signed an agreement to use the Chevron brand in B.C.

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Every Thursday we bring you 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 company provides vital services in the investment industry. It’s a market leader with a well-established brand, which makes it hard for competitors to lure away its customers.

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. (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 85% of all proxy votes in the U.S.

Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $0.30 a share in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 23.1% from $0.39 a year earlier. The decline came from higher compensation, plus expanded sales and marketing costs, related to new business.

Overall revenue gained 1.9%, to $555.8 million from $545.2 million. Revenue from contracts that pay recurring fees rose 4% and accounted for two-thirds of the total. The remaining third comes from one-time events, such as notifications of special shareholder meetings and distributing information when mutual funds change managers.

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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 tips and stock market advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “While stock options frequently make a lot of money for brokers, but most investors are more likely to lose with options. Here are seven ways they can cost you money.”...

Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor.

BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE ENERGY PARTNERS L.P. (Toronto symbol BEP.UN; www.brookfieldrenewable.com) owns 196 hydroelectric generating stations, 11 wind farms and two natural-gas-fired plants. In all, it has 6,700 megawatts of generating capacity.

Roughly 31% of that capacity is in Canada, with another 52% in the U.S. and 17% in Brazil.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Brookfield’s cash flow per share fell 46.3%, to $0.22 from $0.41 a year earlier. That’s because below-normal rainfall slowed the company’s hydroelectric production. However, rainfall averages out over time: in the nine months ended September 30, cash flow per share fell just 4.1%, to $1.65 from $1.72....

T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. $83 (www.troweprice.com) earned $1.12 a share in the third quarter of 2014, up 12.0% from $1.00 a year earlier. Revenue rose 15.4%, to $1.0 billion from $884.4 million. Assets under management have risen 5.6% since the start of 2014, to $731.2 billion....

AMEREN CORP. $43 (www.ameren.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 2.5%, to $0.41 a share from $0.40. The new annual rate of $1.64 yields 3.8%. Ameren should benefit from recent rate increases at its gas-distribution operations. However, most of its power plants burn coal, so it will have to convert them to gas and other fuels to comply with tougher environmental regulations....

GENUINE PARTS CO. $102 (www.genpt.com) earned $1.24 a share in the quarter ended September 30, 2014, up 10.7% from $1.12 a year earlier. Sales rose 8.2%, to a record $4.0 billion from $3.7 billion. Sales at its auto parts business (52% of the total) rose 4.1%....

VISA INC. $257 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 620.0 million; Market cap: $159.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 12.8; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network, through which it processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial transactions. Visa gets most of its revenue from fees it charges the card issuers and merchants that use its network. It bases these fees on transaction volumes and other factors. The banks that issue the cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa.

Thanks to the continued growth of online shopping, which has encouraged more credit and debit card use, Visa’s revenue rose 57.5%, from $8.1 billion in fiscal 2010 to $12.7 billion in 2014 (fiscal years end September 30).

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BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. $72 (New York symbol BAX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 542.0 million; Market cap: $39.0 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.baxter.com) earned $1.35 a share in the three months ended September 30, 2014, up 8.9% from $1.24 a year earlier. Sales rose 13.1%, to $4.2 billion from $3.7 billion.

Baxter’s medical products business (60% of total revenue) reported 17.2% higher sales, thanks to Gambro, a dialysisequipment maker the company bought for $3.9 billion in September 2013. Without Gambro, medical product sales rose 5%.

Sales at the BioScience division (40% of the total) gained 7.5%, mainly due to stronger demand for its Advate hemophilia drug.

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IDEXX LABORATORIES INC. $149 (Nasdaq symbol IDXX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 47.7 million; Market cap: $7.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.2; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.idexx.com) earned $1.05 a share in the quarter ended September 30, 2014, up 25.0% from $0.84 a year earlier. Sales rose 13.4%, to $383.5 million from $338.3 million.

These gains are mainly because veterinarians are buying more of Idexx’s equipment for detecting diseases in pets. That’s also spurring more demand for consumable products that vets must continuously replenish.

However, the stock has jumped 40% since the start of 2014 and now trades at a high 38.4 times the $3.88 a share that Idexx will likely earn over the full year.

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APACHE CORP. $72 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 376.8 million; Market cap: $27.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apachecorp.com) is selling some of its less important oil and gas properties in Texas and Oklahoma.

It will receive $1.4 billion when it completes the sale by the end of 2014. To put that in context, Apache earned $528 million, or $1.38 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2014.

The company will probably invest the cash in its more promising shale oil properties in the U.S. Apache is a hold.

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DIEBOLD INC. $36 (New York symbol DBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.6 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. diebold.com) aims to save a total of $150 million by the end of 2015, mainly through layoffs and plant closures.

In the third quarter of 2014, the company earned $33.0 million, or $0.51 a share, up from a year-earlier loss of $21.7 million, or $0.34. Without unusual items, earnings per share fell 3.6%, to $0.54 from $0.56.

Sales gained 8.9%, to $768.0 million from $705.4 million. Stronger demand for automated teller machines in Europe and Asia offset slower sales in North America and Latin America. Diebold also sold more security systems.

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FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP. $7.06 (Nasdaq symbol FTR; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $7.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 5.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.frontier.com) recently paid $2.0 billion for AT&T’s traditional phone business in Connecticut. The company now has 3.0 million residential and business customers in 28 states.

Excluding acquisition-related costs, Frontier earned $47.7 million, or $0.05 a share, in the third quarter of 2014. That’s down 15.6% from $56.5 million, or $0.06 a share, a year earlier. Even with the AT&T operations, revenue fell 3.7%, to $1.14 billion from $1.19 billion, as lower telephone revenue offset higher sales of Internet services.

The company borrowed most of the cash it needed for this purchase, which increased its long-term debt to $9.2 billion, or 1.3 times its market cap.

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WINDSTREAM HOLDINGS INC. $10 (Nasdaq symbol WIN; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 602.8 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 10.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.windstream.com) gets 73% of its revenue by selling high-speed Internet and other communication services to 357,700 businesses.

The other 27% comes from selling phone, Internet and video services to 3.2 million residential customers, mainly in the rural U.S.

In July 2014, the company announced that it would transfer its fibre optic and copper networks, some land and buildings to a new real estate investment trust (REIT). Windstream will then lease these assets from the REIT for at least the next 15 years at $650.0 million annually.

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TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP. $66 (New York symbol TUP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 50.4 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.tupperwarebrands.com) makes household goods, mainly plastic food and beverage containers, as well as cosmetics and fragrances.

The stock is down 32% from its peak of $97 in December 2013. That’s mainly because the company gets 75% of its sales from outside North America, and the recent rise in the U.S. dollar has hurt the contribution of its overseas operations.

In the quarter ended September 27, 2014, Tupperware’s sales fell 2.4%, to $588.7 million from $603.2 million a year earlier. But if you exclude the negative impact of currency rates, sales rose 4%. Gains in emerging nations like Indonesia and Brazil offset declines in established markets, particularly Germany.

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INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $100 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.0 million; Market cap: $8.1 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) makes over 36,000 compounds that improve the taste of food and the smell of consumer products.

In the third quarter of 2014, IFF’s sales rose 4.3%, to $773.8 million from $742.3 million a year earlier. That’s partly due to Israel-based Aromor Flavors and Fragrances, which IFF bought for $102.5 million in January 2014. Stronger demand in developing countries also contributed to the gain.

Earnings improved 8.4%, to $107.4 million from $99.0 million. Per-share earnings rose 9.2%, to $1.31 from $1.20, on fewer shares outstanding. Excluding unusual items, such as costs to integrate Aromor, earnings per share gained 8.2%, to $1.32 from $1.22. IFF spends over 8% of its sales on research, so it’s more profitable than it appears.

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INTEL CORP. $37 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.9 billion; Market cap: $181.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) expects its revenue to rise by about 5% in 2015, compared to the consensus forecast of a 3.4% increase. That’s because businesses are replacing their older computers more quickly than expected.

Intel only recently started making chips for mobile devices, so it offered manufacturers special discounts to encourage them to switch over. However, it expects to cut these subsidies, as it will soon launch a new mobile chip that combines a processor with a wireless modem. That cuts the need for two separate chips.

The company has also raised its dividend by 6.7%. The new annual rate of $0.96 a share yields 2.6%.

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TERADATA CORP. $45 (New York symbol TDC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 153.0 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.teradata.com) makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data, including its sales and inventory. It then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and other trends. That helps its clients maker better business decisions.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Teradata’s earnings fell 4.3%, to $111 million from $116 million a year earlier. But per-share earnings rose 1.4%, to $0.71 from $0.70, on fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue gained just 0.2%, to $667 million from $666 million. Revenue in the Americas (61% of the total) fell 1.0%, mainly because many of Teradata’s customers have already upgraded their data analytics systems, weakening demand for new equipment. However, revenue from Teradata’s international operations (39%) gained 1.9%.

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ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $73 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 498.7 million; Market cap: $36.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 8.9; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) makes software for publishing companies and website developers.

Its 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 photo editing (Photoshop) and desktop publishing programs.

In 2012, Adobe started selling its Creative Suite software as a cloud-based service called Creative Cloud. Users pay a monthly subscription fee that lets them access the software and store documents online. That gives Adobe more predictable revenue streams than selling its products as a one-time purchase.

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APPLE INC. $119 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.9 billion; Market cap: $702.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apple.com) continues to profit from strong demand for its iPhone smartphone, which accounts for 56% of its sales. Other products include Mac computers (16%), iPad tablets (13%) and iPod music players and other services (15%).

In its 2014 fiscal year, which ended September 27, 2014, Apple’s earnings rose 6.7%, to $39.5 billion from $37.0 billion in 2013. The company spent $45.0 billion on share buybacks in the past year. As a result, earnings per share gained 13.6%, to $6.45 from $5.68 (all per-share amounts adjusted for a 7-for-1 split in June 2014). Sales rose 7.0%, to $182.8 billion from $170.9 billion.

The company recently launched a new mobile payment system called Apple Pay. This service lets users add credit card information to their phones and use them to make purchases at tap-and-payenabled cash registers and, in some cases, online. To prevent fraud, the phone will confirm the user’s identity with a fingerprint scan.

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BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $55 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $88.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 4.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) still plans to spin off its aluminum, manganese, nickel and silver operations, as well as some coal mines, into a separate company in the first half of 2015.

After the spinoff, BHP will focus on four main commodities: metallurgical coal, iron ore, copper and oil. In all, they account for 96% of its earnings.

Prices of these commodities have declined in the past few months, mainly due to slowing growth in China, Japan and Europe. In response, the company is laying off workers and making its main properties more productive.

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UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. $110 (New York symbol UTX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 911.7 million; Market cap: $100.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.utc.com) has five main divisions: Climate, Controls & Security (26% of 2013 revenue, 27% of earnings) makes heating and air conditioning equipment under the Carrier brand, as well as burglar alarms and fire-safety products; Pratt & Whitney (23%, 19%) manufactures aircraft engines; Aerospace Systems (21%, 21%) makes engine control systems and other parts for aircraft; Otis (20%, 27%) makes elevators; and Sikorsky (10%, 6%) makes helicopters.

The company’s revenue rose 10.0%, from $52.9 billion in 2009 to $58.2 billion in 2011.

In 2012, it bought North Carolina-based Goodrich Corp., which makes aircraft parts (including landing gear, wheels and brakes) and maintains and fixes planes. United Technologies paid $18.3 billion, including assuming $1.9 billion of Goodrich’s debt. However, it also sold some less important businesses, so its revenue fell 0.8%, to $57.7 billion, in 2012.

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Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. (symbol WTE on Toronto; www.westshore.com) owns a coal storage and loading terminal at Roberts Bank, B.C., about 30 kilometres south of Vancouver. The terminal started up in 1970....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on stock investment 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 a report on one of the stocks profiled in these Q&A sessions. We give you Pat’s buy-hold-sell recommendation as well as his analysis of the stock. This is part of the specific buy, hold and sell advice we offer you in our daily posts. Every week you get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, and “Our Top U.S. Stocks” on Thursday.

This week an Inner Circle member asked us about the biggest retailer of natural and organic foods in the U.S. Whole Foods is the clear leader in its niche market and has expanded beyond the United States with nine stores in Canada and nine in the U.K. Pat assesses the company’s success in tapping into the growing interest in natural foods, its ambitious expansion plans and the state of its balance sheet. He also looks at its ability to improve efficiency and keep prices in line as it attempts to capture a growing share of the increasingly health-conscious baby boom generation.

Q: Hi, Pat. Thanks for your many years of great advice. Could you please give me your thoughts on Whole Foods?

A: Whole Foods Market Inc. (symbol WFM on Nasdaq; www.wholefoodsmarket.com), is the largest retailer of natural and organic foods in the U.S. The company was founded in Austin, Texas, in 1980, when three local businessmen decided the natural food industry was ready for a supermarket format.

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Every Thursday we bring you 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. Today’s stock is covered in our advisory on more aggressive investing, Stock Pickers Digest.

DEVON ENERGY CORP. (New York symbol DVN; www.dvn.com) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 48% gas and 52% oil.

In 2011, Devon sold all of its international and Gulf of Mexico properties, which it saw as risky and expensive to develop.

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

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