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INTEL CORP. $34 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.9 billion; Market cap: $166.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) is the world’s leading computer chip maker. Its products power 80% of all personal computers.

The company continues to benefit as businesses upgrade their computers after Microsoft (see box) stopped supporting its old Windows XP operating system. Strong demand for Internet services has also spurred sales of server computers.

As a result, Intel’s 2014 sales rose 6.0%, to $55.9 billion from $52.7 billion in 2013. Earnings jumped 21.7%, to $11.7 billion, or $2.31 a share, from $9.6 billion, or $1.89.

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CONAGRA FOODS INC. $37 (New York symbol CAG; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 431.0 million; Market cap: $15.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.conagrafoods.com) bought Ralcorp Holdings, the largest private-label food maker in the U.S., for $4.75 billion in January 2013.

The company has had trouble integrating this business. Ralcorp also faces strong price competition that has hurt its sales and earnings. In response, ConAgra has adjusted the prices of its private-label products. That should help improve Ralcorp’s market share. Efforts to streamline Ralcorp should also help it adjust to rising ingredient costs and improve its profitability by 2016.

ConAgra is a buy.

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FEDEX CORP. $171 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 283.3 million; Market cap: $48.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) continues to profit from the rise of online shopping, which has boosted demand for its delivery services.

The company stands to gain from lower oil prices and new fuel-efficient planes. It has also undertaken an aggressive cost-cutting plan, the benefits of which should begin to appear in 2015.

In addition, FedEx’s largely non-unionized workforce helps keep its labour costs down, and the company should see higher revenue now that it’s basing its shipping fees on a parcel’s size rather than its weight.

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VISA INC. $246 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 618.3 million; Market cap: $152.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 12.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) gets most of its revenue from fees it charges card issuers and merchants for using its network. It bases its fees on payment volume and transactions processed, among other factors. The banks that issue the cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa.

The company continues to profit as more people shop online, and debit cards are quickly replacing cash for smaller transactions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear an appeal of a class-action lawsuit by retailers seeking to lower the fees credit card companies charge. That cuts Visa’s risk.

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NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC. $37 (New York symbol NWL; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 271.1 million; Market cap: $10.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newellrubbermaid.com) has gained 23% since we made it our Stock of the Year for 2014.

The company makes plastic storage bins, tools, window blinds, pens and many other household goods.

In the past few years, Newell has aggressively cut its costs, including closing plants. That has freed up cash that it can use to acquire businesses with strong long-term prospects.

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SYMANTEC CORP. $25 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 690.2 million; Market cap: $17.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) began operating in 1982. It’s now the world’s largest maker of security software.

Symantec is best known for its Norton anti-virus software, which helps protect computers from viruses and online attacks. It mainly sells Norton to consumers, but it also has agreements to pre-install it on new computers.

In addition to virus protection, Symantec has developed a range of other security programs under the Norton name, including software that guards against identity theft.

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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from Members of his Inner Circle for advice on specific investments 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 “U.S. Stock Picks” on Thursday. This week an Inner Circle member asked us about several real estate investment trusts (REITs) that focus on industrial properties. Dream Industrial REIT, formerly Dundee Industrial REIT, owns buildings spread fairly evenly across Canada. Pure Industrial REIT also owns buildings across the country, but with almost half of them in Ontario. Both host a number of well-established tenants. Pat looks at the revenues and cash flow generated by these two REITs and their ability to sustain their distributions and high dividend yields. Q: Hi, Pat. I have a significant weighting in real estate investment trusts, including these two industrial REITs: Dream Industrial REIT and Pure Industrial REIT. Can you please comment on industrial REITs in general and these specifically? Thanks....

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.

C.R. BARD INC. (New York symbol BCR; www.crbard.com) makes over 15,000 medical devices in four main areas: oncology products that detect and treat various types of cancer (28% of 2013 sales); vascular products, like stents and catheters (27%); urology goods, such as drainage and incontinence devices (26%); and surgical tools (16%). Other medical products supply the remaining 3%.

The company’s products are typically only used once, so customers must continually buy new ones.

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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: “There are three ways you can ensure that you get the maximum profit, and tax benefit, from your tax free savings account.”

The federal government first made the tax free savings account (TFSA) available to investors in January 2009. These accounts let you earn investment income — including interest, dividends and capital gains — tax free. You could contribute $5,000 in 2009 to start your tax free savings account.

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Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendations 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.

THOMSON REUTERS CORP. (Toronto symbol TRI; www.thomsonreuters.com) is seeing higher demand for its financial information products for the first time since the 2008 economic crisis. Sales at its legal and tax and accounting businesses are also improving.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Thomson’s overall revenue rose 1.1%, to $3.11 billion from $3.07 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars).

The financial division’s revenue (54% of the total) fell 0.7%. But banks and other clients are buying more products than they’re cancelling, which should raise this division’s future revenue.

Revenue rose 1.3% at the legal-products division (28%), 11.5% at tax and accounting (10%) and 3.3% at intellectual property and science (8%).

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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.

Cardiff Energy (symbol CRS on Toronto; www.cardiffenergy.com), is a junior oil and gas exploration firm. It first sold shares to the public and began trading in April 2012.

Cardiff holds interests in 15 producing oil wells, one producing gas well and three shut-in oil wells in the Lincoln County area of central Oklahoma. It also has holdings in other parts of the state, including seven producing oil and gas wells in the Garvin County area and interests in the Buzzard Sand oil property in Osage County.

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ENERFLEX LTD. $15.48 (Toronto symbol EFX; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(403-387-6377; www.enerflex.com; Shares outstanding: 78.6 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%) rents and sells equipment and services for natural gas production, including compression and processing plants, refrigeration gear and power generators.

On June 30, 2014, Enerflex completed its $431- million U.S. acquisition of two businesses owned by privately held Axip Energy Services LP: an international contract compression and processing subsidiary and a division that provides aftermarket services.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Enerflex’s revenue rose 22.6%, to $479.0 million from $390.7 million a year earlier. Earnings per share jumped 37.5%, to $0.33 from $0.24.

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CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL $703.89 (New York symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (303-595-4000; www.chipotle.com; Shares outstanding: 31.0 million; Market cap: $21.8 billion; No dividends paid) halted sales of pork items at one-third of its nearly 1,800 U.S. restaurants in mid-January 2015. That’s because it learned that a key supplier had failed to meet Chipotle’s humane pig-housing standards.

The company uses pork in around 7% of the burritos, tacos, bowls and salads it sells.

Chipotle believes most customers will simply substitute pork with other meats on the menu, but some may go elsewhere.

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SYMANTEC CORP. $25.62 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 690.2 million; Market cap: $17.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) is hiring engineers and licensing certain technology from Narus, a computer-security firm owned by Boeing Co. (symbol BA on New York). Narus has developed algorithms and software that can analyze large amounts of Internet traffic and filter out certain data. Its clients include the U.S. National Security Agency.

Symantec will use Narus’s technology to develop security software for corporations. Demand for these products should be strong, particularly after highprofile cyber attacks on Sony, Home Depot and Target.

Symantec is a buy.

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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.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Hecla produced 3.2 million ounces of silver, up 29.1% from 2.5 million a year earlier. Gold output rose 16.1%, to 54,671 ounces from 47,108.

All of Hecla’s mines have potential for higher output, although it’s cutting back on capital spending for now while it waits for higher gold and silver prices.

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CARFINCO FINANCIAL $8.80 (Toronto symbol CFN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-486-4356; www.carfinco.com; Shares outstanding: 26.5 million; Market cap: $232.9 million; Dividend yield: 3.4%) is down sharply since mid-January from $11.25 to today’s price. The company provides car loans to consumers who don’t meet the criteria of traditional lenders, like banks.

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). The company’s directors and executive officers, who collectively own a 12.9% stake, also agreed to support the sale.

But neither Carfinco nor Santander have announced anything about the $268-million deal, which was expected to close by the end of 2014 or early this year. Santander has been in the news lately with the appointment of a new executive chairman, a share issue to raise 7.5 billion euros ($10.4 billion Canadian) to shore up its capital base and a dividend cut.

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AEROPOSTALE INC. $2.78 (New York symbol ARO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(646-485-5410; www.aeropostale.com; Shares outstanding: 79.1 million; Market cap: $220.0 million; No dividends paid) has risen over 20% since the clothing retailer said in early January 2015 that it expects to report a much smaller than expected loss in its 2014 fourth quarter.

The company now expects a fourthquarter loss of $0.25 to $0.31 share, compared to its earlier forecast of a $0.44-ashare loss. It has been cutting costs and selling more high-profit-margin clothing.

Aeropostale continues to face intense competition from other teen-clothing retailers. To restore its profitability, it plans to better market its products and keep cutting costs and refreshing its clothing lines. It’s also closing underperforming stores.

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FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $63.43 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.5 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Dividend yield: 0.7%) serves the following areas of the real estate market: commercial real estate, residential property management and property improvement. The company has more than 24,000 employees worldwide.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, FirstService’s revenue rose 13.5%, to $684.6 million from $603.0 million a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). Excluding one-time items, earnings per share were $0.75, up 8.7% from $0.69.

Revenue rose at all three of FirstService’s divisions: Colliers International (commercial real estate), up 16%; FirstService Residential (residential property management), up 10%; and FirstService Brands (property services), up 12%. (FirstService Brands operates Paul Davis Restoration, California Closets and CertaPro Painters.)

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WESTJET AIRLINES $32.05 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) serves 91 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Its fleet of 109 modern Boeing 737s are 30% more fuel efficient than older jets.

In June 2013, the company launched WestJet Encore, its Canadian regional airline. This business now operates 14 Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop planes, which seat 78 passengers.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, WestJet’s earnings, excluding one-time items, jumped 30.9%, to a third-quarter record of $85.4 million from $65.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 32.0%, to $0.66 from $0.50, on fewer shares outstanding. This was WestJet’s 38th consecutive quarter of profitability. Revenue rose 9.2%, to $1.0 billion from $924.8 million.

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GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO. $25.57 (Nasdaq symbol GT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (330-796-2122; www.goodyear.com; Shares outstanding: 274.6 million; Market cap: $6.8 billion; Dividend yield: 0.9%) expects to report lowerthan- expected profits in its soon-to-bereleased 2014 fourth-quarter results.

The company now expects fourth-quarter operating income growth to be below the 10% to 15% it originally forecast in October 2014. That’s because weak European sales and a decline in foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar are hurting the value of its international sales. Warmer-than-expected weather also hurt demand for winter tires.

However, Goodyear reaffirmed its 2015 targets and expects operating income growth of 10% to 15% to resume this year. The stock trades at just 8.1 times the company’s forecast 2015 earnings of $3.15 a share.

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CALIAN TECHNOLOGIES $18.47 (Toronto symbol CTY; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (613- 599-8600; www.calian.com; Shares outstanding: 7.4 million; Market cap: $135.8 million; Dividend yield: 6.1%) operates in two areas: the business and technology services division (which supplies 70% of the company’s revenue) provides engineers, health care workers and other skilled professionals on a contract basis. The systems engineering division (30% of revenue) sells hardware and software for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communication systems.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, the company earned $2.8 million, or $0.38 a share. That’s down 6.7% from $3.0 million, or $0.41, a year earlier. Revenue declined 5.4% in the latest quarter, to $54.4 million from $57.5 million.

The business and technology services division continues to benefit from recurring orders from Canadian federal government departments, including the Department of National Defence. This division’s revenue rose 5.4%.

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SASOL LTD. (ADR) $34.47 (New York symbol SSL; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(082- 883-9697; www.sasol.com; ADRs outstanding: 650.8 million; Market cap: $22.5 billion; Dividend yield: 7.1%) has announced that it will proceed with building an $8.1-billion facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana that will convert natural gas into plastics and other products. The project, which will triple Sasol’s U.S. chemical production, will start up in 2018.

Major developments like this can add a lot of risk. But the plant will take advantage of cheap and abundant U.S. shale gas, as well as ethane-shipping infrastructure that’s already in place on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Expanding in the U.S. will also help Sasol offset some of the political and currency risks of operating mainly in South Africa.

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CIMAREX ENERGY $102.82 (New York symbol XEC; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (303-295-3995; www.cimarex.com; Shares outstanding: 87.2 million; Market cap: $8.6 billion; Dividend yield: 0.6%) produces and explores for natural gas and oil. Gas makes up 50% of the company’s output.

Cimarex’s properties are mostly in the Wolfcamp shale area of the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, as well as the Cana-Woodford shale region in western Oklahoma.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Cimarex’s production averaged 942.4 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent a day, up 31.5% from 716.8 million cubic feet a year earlier.

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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 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 “U.S. Stock Picks” on Thursday.

Recently we had a question from an Inner Circle member about one of America’s best-known venture capital firms, KKR &Co. Previously known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the company earned notoriety when its leveraged buyout of Nabisco in the 1980s became the subject of a best-selling book and TV movie, Barbarians at the Gate. Pat looks at the company’s varied activities in the public, private and capital markets. He also assesses the strategies it is pursuing as it makes a flurry of deals aided by low borrowing rates.

Q: Pat: I was wondering if you could give me any information about KKR & Co. Your thoughts on it would be appreciated.

A: KKR & Co. LP (formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP; symbol KKR on New York; www.kkr.com) is an asset manager with 14 offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

The company serves three main markets: private (investment funds); public (leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, special situation assets, distressed assets and rescue, debtor-in-possession and exit financings); and capital (debt/equity financing).

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ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $65.04 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340-777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 15.9 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) is entering the solar energy market by acquiring 28 solar projects in Massachusetts, California and New Jersey for $103 million.

Atlantic will now operate the assets, which have 45.7 megawatts of capacity, through its newly created Ahana Renewable subsidiary. The projects’ power-purchase agreements range from 10 to 25 years.

Before the purchase, Atlantic held cash of $395.6 million, or $24.87 a share, so it can easily afford this acquisition.

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