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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. Virtus Oil and Gas Corp. (symbol VOIL on the OTCQB market; www.virtusoilandgas.com), began trading in June 2014. The OTCQB market, formerly called the U.S. over-the-counter bulletin board, has no minimum financial standards and includes shell companies and penny stocks with minimal operations....

3M COMPANY $139 (New York symbol MMM; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 648.0 million; Market cap: $90.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.3m.com) started up in 1902, when it was called the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company.

It now makes over 55,000 different products, including pressure-sensitive masking and packaging tape, air purifiers, medical device components and reflective highway signs. Top brands include Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation.

3M’s wide variety of products cuts its reliance on a single industry or customer. Sales from outside the U.S. account for two-thirds of its total.

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YUM! BRANDS INC. $69 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 437.5 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) earned $404 million in the three months ended September 6, 2014, up 165.8% from $152 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings rose 169.7%, to $0.89 from $0.33, on fewer shares outstanding.

If you disregard unusual items, including last year’s writedown of Yum’s investment in the Little Sheep restaurant chain in China, earnings rose 2.4%, to $0.87 a share from $0.85.

Sales declined 3.2%, to $3.35 billion from $3.5 billion. That’s mainly because a food-safety scare has cut traffic at Yum’s KFC outlets in China. As a result, the China division’s same-store sales fell 14%. However, same-store sales rose 3% at the company’s other KFC locations and 3% at Taco Bell. Same-store sales also rose 4% at the India division, while Pizza Hut saw a 1% decline.

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CEDAR FAIR L.P. $47 (New York symbol FUN; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Units outstanding: 55.9 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 6.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cedarfair.com) owns 11 amusement parks, three outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and five hotels.

The partnership reported record revenue of $939 million in the first eight months of 2014. Excluding a water park Cedar Fair sold in August 2013, comparable- park revenue improved by $12 million, or 1.3%, in 2014.

Colder-than-normal summer weather in the Great Lakes region cut attendance by 1%. However, visitors spent an average of 3% more in Cedar Fair’s parks.

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KRAFT FOODS GROUP INC. $57 (Nasdaq symbol KRFT; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 594.7 million; Market cap: $33.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.kraftfoodsgroup.com) makes a variety of grocery products, including Kraft macaroni and cheese, Oscar Mayer meats, Philadelphia cream cheese, Maxwell House coffee, Jell-O desserts and Miracle Whip salad dressing.

The company has raised its quarterly dividend by 4.8%, to $0.55 a share from $0.525. The new annual rate of $2.20 yields 3.9%. This is the second time Kraft has raised the payout since its spinoff from Mondelez International in October 2012.

Kraft Foods is a buy.

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NEWMONT MINING CORP. $23 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 498.8 million; Market cap: $11.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 0.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) has sold its 44% stake in a joint venture that owns the La Herradura gold mine in northern Mexico.

The company received $450 million for its stake. Including this sale, Newmont has now raised $1.3 billion by selling less important assets in the past year. That frees up cash for more promising projects, such as its Merian gold mine in Suriname, which will cost $1 billion and should open in late 2016. Merian’s reserves should last 11 years.

Newmont is a hold.

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CANON INC. ADRs $30 (New York symbol CAJ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $33.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canon.com) continues to see weak demand for printers and digital cameras. That’s because consumers are taking more photos with their smartphones. They’re also increasingly storing their pictures online instead of printing them.

As a result, Canon’s sales fell 6.0% in the three months ended June 30, 2014, to $9.2 billion from $9.8 billion a year earlier.

However, thanks to a successful cost-cutting plan, the company’s earnings jumped 19.2%, to $800.5 million from $671.7 million. Earnings per ADR rose 24.1%, to $0.72 from $0.58 (each American Depositary Receipt represents one common share), on fewer shares outstanding.

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HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. $34 (New York symbol HPQ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $64.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.hp.com) plans to break itself into two separate companies.

The first firm, called Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, will sell computing products, like servers and analytics software, to businesses and governments. It will also offer cloud computing services and financing. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will have annual revenue of $58.4 billion and gross profits of $6 billion.

Meg Whitman, Hewlett’s current chief executive officer, will become this firm’s CEO.

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SNAP-ON INC. $126 (New York symbol SNA; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 58.1 million; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.snapon.com) makes tools for auto mechanics and sells them through a fleet of franchised vans that visit garages. It also makes specialized tools for mining companies, electrical power plant operators and other industrial customers.

The company plans to spend $75 million to $80 million in 2014 on upgrades to its distribution network, developing new products and expanding in emerging markets (overseas customers supply around a third of its revenue).

Snap-On is also fueling its growth with acquisitions. In May 2013, it bought Challenger Lifts for $38.2 million. This business makes systems that raise cars off the ground. The purchase contributed $39.3 million to Snap-On’s 2013 revenue of $3.1 billion.

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MONSANTO CO. $113 (New York symbol MON, Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 524.4 million; Market cap: $59.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.monsanto.com) gets 70% of its revenue from genetically modified seeds for corn, soybeans and other crops. The remaining 30% comes from selling herbicides, mainly under the Roundup brand.

In its 2014 fiscal year, which ended August 31, 2014, Monsanto’s earnings rose 10.4%, to $2.7 billion from $2.5 billion in 2013. Per-share earnings gained 13.5%, to $5.22 from $4.60, on fewer shares outstanding. Without unusual items, such as costs to settle a lawsuit, earnings per share rose 14.7%, to $5.23 from $4.56.

Sales rose 6.7%, to $15.9 billion from $14.9 billion. Seed sales gained 3.9%, as record soybean seed demand offset weaker sales of corn seeds. Sales of other agricultural products rose 13.1%.

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PEPSICO INC. $94 (New York symbol PEP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $141.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pepsico.com) has launched Pepsi True, a new cola that has 30% less sugar than regular Pepsi.

This new drink uses stevia, an all-natural sweetener without the calories or health drawbacks of sugar. Pepsi True will also contain no artificial sweeteners or high-fructose corn syrup.

The launch follows a nine-year decline in U.S. soft drink sales as a result of increased health concerns spurred by research linking these drinks to obesity and other conditions.

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FAIR ISAAC CORP. $56 (New York symbol FICO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 32.2 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 0.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fico.com) makes FICO Scores, a computer program that helps businesses make better decisions about customer creditworthiness. It also makes software that helps credit card issuers control fraud and analyze their cardholders’spending patterns.

In its 2014 third quarter, which ended June 30, Fair Isaac earned $29.2 million, down 0.1% from $29.3 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 3.8%, to $0.83 from $0.80, on fewer shares outstanding.

Overall revenue gained 7.5%, to $197.6 million from $183.8 million. Revenue from its applications division (66% of the total) rose 12.9% on increased licensing fees from software that detects bank fraud.

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DUN & BRADSTREET CORP. $117 (New York symbol DNB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 36.3 million; Market cap: $4.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dnb.com) provides credit reports on over 230 million companies. Its clients use this information to make lending and buying decisions.

Credit reports supply two thirds of Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue. The remaining third comes from other information products, including software that helps businesses manage websites and customer data.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue rose 1.8%, to $393.0 million from $386.0 million a year earlier. Stronger demand for its credit reports and other products in North America (72% of total revenue) and Europe (16%) offset weaker sales in Asia (12%).

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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. $42 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 119.5 million; Market cap: $5.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; 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 $144.6 million in its fiscal 2014 fourth quarter, which ended June 30, 2014. That’s up 1.5% from $142.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 0.9%, to $1.16 from $1.15, on more shares outstanding.

Overall revenue gained 2.4%, to $885.9 million from $865.1 million. Revenue from contracts that pay recurring fees rose 7% and accounted for two-thirds of the total. The remaining third comes from one-time events, such as notifications of special shareholder meetings and sending out information when mutual funds change managers.

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STATE STREET CORP. $68 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 423.5 million; Market cap: $28.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to large institutional investors, like mutual funds and pension plans.

The company’s fee income rises and falls with the value of the mutual funds and other securities it administers. Thanks to improving stock markets and new contracts, its assets under custody and administration rose to $28.4 trillion as of June 30, 2014, up 10.3% from a year earlier.

These gains offset the lower interest income the company earned on bank deposits and certain securities. As a result, its overall revenue rose 3.7% in the three months ended June 30, 2014, to $2.7 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier.

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $162 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 997.6 million; Market cap: $161.6 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is selling its computer chip manufacturing operations to Globalfoundries Inc.

However, IBM will not get any payment for these assets. Instead, it will pay $1.5 billion to Globalfoundries to take over this money-losing business. IBM has also agreed to buy chips from Globalfoundries for the next 10 years.

This move is part of IBM’s plan to focus on its more-profitable computer services and software divisions.

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PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $84 (New York symbol PG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.7 billion; Market cap: $226.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pg.com) began operating in 1837 and is now one of the world’s largest makers of household and personal care products.

The company has five main business lines: fabric and home care products, such as Tide laundry detergent and Duracell batteries (32% of fiscal 2014 sales, 26% of earnings); baby and family care goods, including Pampers diapers (25%, 25%); beauty items like Olay cosmetics (24%, 23%); grooming products, including Gillette razors (10%, 17%); and health care items, such as Crest toothpaste (9%, 9%). Wal-Mart accounts for 14% of the company’s sales.

Procter’s sales rose 6.6%, from $78.9 billion in 2010 to $84.2 billion in 2013 (fiscal years end June 30). However, sales fell 1.3%, to $83.1 billion, in 2014. That’s because Procter sold 80% of its pet food business to Mars, Inc. for $2.9 billion. It expects to complete the sale of the remaining 20% in 2015.

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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. Last week an Inner Circle member asked us whether a well-known watch and jewellery distributor is a “steal” after its share price slumped following a recent surge. Movado does not make watches, but sells and distributes them under its own brand and through notable designer names. Pat assesses the company’s business and its growing market share and looks at Movado’s prospects of maintaining its leading position in the $500 to $1,500 price range for watches. Q: Movado is a steal, or so it appears: it surged to around $44 but has now slumped. Is this a buy, or are the fundamentals wrong in this overly competitive fashion business?...

Retirement is a subject we’re asked about all the time. And it’s one that we deal with on a practical day-to-day basis with our Successful Investor Wealth Management clients. That’s why I’ve just released a new Special Report: Your 12-Step Countdown to the Retirement You Want. Just like our other Special Reports, we make it available to our readers free of charge. You can download it here. In this report, we present a progression of 12 steps that successful investors take to ensure a secure and rewarding retirement. A fulfilling retirement is not simply a matter of accumulating sufficient wealth to give you peace of mind. It is equally a matter of knowing what you will do—in effect, ensuring that you will be as active and productive with your time as you were during your working days....

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 strategy, including stock trading advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Frequent portfolio turnover is a drain on your profits, so most of your investments should be ones you want to hold on to indefinitely.”...

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. VERESEN (Toronto symbol VSN; www.vereseninc.com) owns pipelines, power plants and gas-processing facilities across North America. A major holding is 50% of the Alliance gas line, which runs 3,000 kilometres between Chicago and Fort St. John, B.C. Veresen also owns the Alberta Ethane Gathering System, 42.7% of the Aux Sable NGL plant, and the Hythe/Steeprock natural gas gathering and processing complex in the Cutbank Ridge region of Alberta and B.C....

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. Leisureworld Senior Care Corp., $13.28, symbol LW on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 36.3 million; Market cap: $481.6 million; www.leisureworld.ca), is one of Canada’s largest operators of seniors’ housing and the biggest licensed long-term care provider in Ontario....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific investment 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 a leading Canadian specialty food maker. Premium Brands draws two-thirds of its revenue from retail and the rest from food services. The company continues to expand aggressively and Pat assesses the flurry of acquisitions it has made in recent years. He considers the high debt Premium has assumed to make its acquisitions and whether it can continue to maintain its high dividend. Q: Pat: Can you please give me your opinion of Premium Brands for income and gains in the specialty food sector? Thanks....

CALIAN TECHNOLOGIES $18.40 (Toronto symbol CTY; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (613- 599-8600; www.calian.com; Shares outstanding: 7.3 million; Market cap: $138.7 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 June 30, 2014, the company earned $2.9 million, or $0.39 a share. That’s down 12.5% from $3.3 million, or $0.43 a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined 7.4%, to $53.8 million from $58.1 million.

Government clients add stability

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STANTEC INC. $67.93 (Toronto symbol STN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (780-917-7288; www.stantec.com; Shares outstanding: 46.8 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.1%) sells a range of consulting, project-delivery, design and technology services. Its clients operate in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, transportation and construction.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, Stantec’s revenue rose 13.0%, to $530.3 million from $469.4 million a year earlier. Earnings gained 22.6%, to $44.3 million, or $0.95 a share, from $36.1 million, or $0.78.

Timely move into Quebec

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