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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: “Bottom-up investors have the great advantage of basing their decisions on what they know about stocks, rather than trying to guess how stocks might be affected by a random series of events.”

In the early chapters of any good book on fundamental stock market advice, you will come across the two basic ways to make investment decisions: bottom-up and top-down....

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.

SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL (Toronto symbol S; www.sherritt.com) sold off all of its coal interests for $793 million in cash in April 2014.

The company is now focused on nickel production, with operations in Cuba and Canada. As well, it has a 40% interest in the Ambatovy nickel mine on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast. Sherritt also produces oil and gas in Cuba, Spain and Pakistan and manages 506 megawatts of power generation capacity in Cuba.

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ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $67.08 (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%) closed the sale of its Alltel wireless business to AT&T (symbol T on New York) late last year. As a result, it now holds cash of $423.7 million, or $26.65 a share, and has paid off its $271.1 million of debt.

Atlantic now has 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 upgrade its wireless capacity, cellular coverage and technology. That’s paying off as customers use more mobile data for profitable services like music downloads, mobile gaming and e-books.

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RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $42.73 (Toronto symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (212-333-3810; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 483.3 million; Market cap: $20.7 billion; Dividend yield: n/a) is the new company formed by the merger of Tim Hortons (old symbol THI) and Burger King Worldwide (old symbol BKW).

Restaurant Brands is the world’s thirdlargest fast-food chain, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with 14,000 Burger King restaurants and 4,590 Tim Hortons outlets in 100 countries. In all, these locations have annual sales of over $23 billion.

Roughly 72% of Tim Hortons shareholders opted to receive 3.0879 shares of the new company for each Tim Hortons share they held. A further 26% chose the default option of $65.50 (Canadian) in cash plus 0.8025 of a Restaurant Brands share, while 2% picked the all-cash option of $88.50 (Canadian) a share.

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ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD $42.54 (Toronto symbol ATD.B; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-800-361-2612; www.couche-tard.com; Shares outstanding: 565.8 million; Market cap: $24.4 billion; Dividend yield: 0.4%) has successfully rolled out its Simply Great Coffee program in Europe.

The company says the program’s launch at 20% of its Statoil Fuel & Retail locations last spring boosted those stores’ coffee sales by more than 10%.

Couche-Tard now plans to test the concept in more Canadian markets. It began selling its own brand of coffee in Sherbrooke, Quebec, this summer and will add about 20 locations in two different Canadian test markets in the coming months.

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STUART OLSON INC. $7.65 (Toronto symbol SOX; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (780-454-3667; www.stuartolson.com; Shares outstanding: 25.0 million; Market cap: $191.3 million; Dividend yield: 6.3%) has agreed to buy Red Deer, Alberta-based Studon Electric & Controls for $76.2 million. The price could increase by up to $25.8 million over the next three years if Studon meets certain profitability targets.

Studon, which employs 500 to 1,000 electricians and instrumentation tradespeople at any given time, offers construction and maintenance services to the Western Canadian oil and gas, pipeline and petrochemical industries.

This business’s management team will keep leading its day-to-day operations, while Studon will report its results as part of Stuart Olson’s Industrial Group.

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YAMANA GOLD $4.38 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(416-815-0220; www.- yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 880.8 million; Market cap: $3.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%) owns eight operating gold mines in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. It also holds a 12.5% stake in the Alumbrera copper/gold mine in Argentina and has a number of other properties in advanced stages of development.

Yamana now plans to form a subsidiary to hold some of its Brazilian assets. This will let the company focus on its main projects, including the Canadian Malartic gold mine in Quebec, in which it owns a 50% stake.

The new subsidiary, to be named Brio Gold Inc., will hold Yamana’s Fazenda Brasileiro and Pilar gold mines, as well as its C1 Santa Luz development project. Yamana will retain its Chapada and Jacobina mines in Brazil.

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FAIR ISAAC CORP. $68.40 (New York symbol FICO; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(415-472-2211; www.fairisaac.com; Shares outstanding: 32.1 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Dividend yield: 0.1%) earned $1.10 a share in its fiscal 2014 fourth quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That was up 39.2% from $0.79 a year earlier.

Sales rose 16.4%, to $221.6 million from $190.3 million. The company saw stronger sales at its applications division (66% of total revenue) on increased licensing revenue from software that detects bank fraud.

The company expects to earn $2.78 to $2.88 a share for all of fiscal 2015, and it trades at a high 24.2 times the midpoint of that range. As well, the banking industry supplies 75% of Fair Isaac’s revenue, and slowing mortgage demand could hurt sales of its credit-scoring software.

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ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $74.00 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 498.7 million; Market cap: $36.9 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. Graphic designers also use its programs to create print publications and web pages.

In its fiscal 2014 fourth quarter, which ended November 28, 2014, Adobe earned $180.3 million, up 9.5% from $164.6 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings improved 12.5%, to $0.36 from $0.32, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue rose 3.0%, to $1.07 billion from $1.04 billion.

Adobe continues to shift to a subscription-based model for selling software. It now gets 66% of its sales from recurring subscriptions, up from 44% a year ago.

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SYMANTEC CORP. $25.19 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 690.1 million; Market cap: $17.4 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%) sells computersecurity technology, including antivirus and emailfiltering software, to businesses and consumers.

In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended October 3, 2014, Symantec’s earnings fell 7.5%, to $332 million from $359 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings declined 5.9%, to $0.48 from $0.51, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue slipped 1.2%, to $1.62 billion from $1.64 billion.

The declines are mainly because consumers bought less security software and Symantec spent a high 17% of its revenue on research. But the company continues to restructure, including cutting jobs and simplifying product lines. That should lift its profits.

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DELPHI ENERGY $1.40 (Toronto symbol DEE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares outstanding: 155.4 million; Market cap: $217.6 million; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and natural gas. About 67% of its output is gas. The remaining 33% is oil.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Delphi’s production rose 7.5%, to 9,461 barrels of oil equivalent a day from 8,797 a year earlier. Production was down 9.0% from 10,397 barrels a day in the quarter ended June 30, 2014, but that was due to processing delays caused by outside companies.

Those issues, which were resolved at the end of August, cut Delphi’s production by about 1,700 barrels a day in the latest quarter. Its output averaged 11,500 barrels a day in September and October.

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BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $9.05 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www.birchcliffenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 152.2 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and gas, mainly in the Peace River Arch area near the Alberta/B.C. border. About 84% of its output is gas. The remaining 16% is oil.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Birchcliff’s production rose 38.8%, to 34,235 barrels of oil equivalent a day from 24,662 a year earlier. Cash flow per share jumped 66.7%, to $0.50 from $0.30, on the increased output and higher gas prices.

Birchcliff recently completed Phase 4 of its gasplant expansion in Pouce Coupe, Alberta. That raised the facility’s capacity by 20% and will let Birchcliff bring the additional gas it is now producing to market.

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MAJOR DRILLING $5.57 (Toronto symbol MDI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(1-866- 264-3986; www.majordrilling.com; Shares outstanding: 80.1 million; Market cap: $446.4 million; Dividend yield: 3.7%) is a large contract-drilling firm that mainly serves the mining industry.

In the three months ended October 31, 2014, Major’s revenue fell 5.5%, to $87.2 million from $92.3 million a year earlier. However, its revenue was up 29.0% from $67.6 million in the previous quarter. The company also reported a loss of $0.13 a share, less than its year-ago loss of $0.24.

Despite the significant mining industry downturn, the company continues to report positive cash flow. That should let it maintain its semi-annual dividend of $0.10 a share, which gives the stock a 3.6% yield.

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BMTC GROUP $16.30 (Toronto symbol GBT.A; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(514-648-5757; No website; Shares outstanding: 45.1 million; Market cap: $733.3 million; Dividend yield: 1.5%) is one of Quebec’s biggest retailers of furniture, electronics and appliances, with 36 outlets. It mainly sells these products through its two affiliates: Brault & Martineau and Ameublements Tanguay.

In March 2012, BMTC introduced a new banner, Economax, which offers lower-priced products. The company rebranded four outlets that it had operated as Brault & Martineau liquidation centres.

In 2013, BMTC opened four more EconoMax stores. It added another, in Joliette, in March 2014, and an additional one, in LaSalle, on October 24, 2014. BMTC is now considering purchasing land in Drummondville for a new store that would open in late 2015.

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REITMANS (CANADA) LTD. $6.43 (Toronto symbol RET.A; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (514-384- 1140; www.reitmans.com; Shares outstanding: 64.6 million; Market cap: $410.2 million; Dividend yield: 3.1%) owns 843 women’s clothing stores across Canada.

The chain consists of 343 Reitmans, 141 Penningtons, 107 Smart Set, 105 Addition Elle, 79 RW & Co. and 68 Thyme Maternity stores. It also has 21 Thyme Maternity boutiques in some Canadian Babies “R” Us locations.

In the three months ended November 1, 2014, Reitmans’ sales fell 4.5%, to $238.3 million from $249.4 million a year earlier. Same-store sales increased 0.2%. Sales fell because the company closed 52 underperforming stores.

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WESTJET AIRLINES $32.32 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.2 billion; Div. yield: 1.5%) has jumped to new all-time highs over the past month as fuel prices continue to drop along with oil prices. Fuel makes up around a third of an airline’s operating costs.

Meanwhile, the company’s load factor rose to 80.5% from 79.7% in November 2013. Load factor is the percentage of available seats occupied by paying passengers.

The increase was even more positive considering that the company increased its capacity by 6.9% to meet higher demand. Demand for WestJet’s flights remains high, and the launch of its new Canadian regional airline, WestJet Encore, has also gone well.

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RUSSEL METALS $27.18 (Toronto symbol RUS; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(905-819-7777; www.russelmetals.com; Shares outstanding: 61.6 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; Dividend yield: 5.6%) is one of North America’s largest metal distributors. It serves 39,000 clients at 53 locations in Canada and 12 in the U.S.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Russel’s revenue rose 30.4%, to $1.04 billion from $796.8 million a year earlier. The company’s metal-services business raised its prices in response to higher demand, increasing its revenue by 14%. The energy products division, which supplies pipes for oil and gas drillers, saw its revenue jump 41%.

Earnings gained 74.6%, to $33.0 million, or $0.54 a share. A year earlier, the company earned $18.9 million, or $0.31. Russel has invested in new plants and processing equipment in the past three years, which has cut its costs and improved its efficiency. That’s paying off with higher profit margins.

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GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO. $27.23 (Nasdaq symbol GT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (330-796-2122; www.goodyear.com; Shares outstanding: 274.6 million; Market cap: $7.5 billion; Dividend yield: 0.9%) dipped as low as $18.87 in October but has since rebounded. It’s now up 11.5% since we made it our #1 pick for 2014 in our February issue at $24.42. In U.S. dollar terms, the shares have gained 16.9%.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Goodyear’s sales fell 6.9%, to $4.7 billion from $5.0 billion a year earlier. The company sold 2% fewer tires worldwide, including a 4% drop in North America as car dealers stocked up on cheaper Chinese-made tires ahead of an expected U.S. tariff.

But even with the lower revenue, earnings jumped 39.9%, to $242.0 million, or $0.87 a share. A year earlier, it earned $190.0 million, or $0.68 a share.

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INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $81.73 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 131.5 million; Market cap: $10.8 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance, based on premiums. Its brands include Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink, belairdirect and Grey Power.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Intact’s revenue was virtually unchanged from a year earlier, at $1.91 billion. The company earned $204 million, or $1.55 a share, up sharply from $51 million, or $0.39. However, the year-earlier results include a pre-tax loss of $270 million, mostly related to weather. Similar losses in the 2014 quarter were $125 million.

Thanks to the lower catastrophe losses, Intact reported an improved combined ratio, or claims paid out divided by premiums taken in (the lower, the better) of 93.2% in the latest quarter, down from 102.8%.

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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific tips on stock investing 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 we had a question from an Inner Circle Member on a Canadian health care stock. Concordia Health Care takes a different approach from many larger drug firms, preferring to buy mature products as opposed to developing its own treatments. It recently acquired the rights to a second-generation epilepsy drug; its other main drug treats irritable bowel syndrome and enterocolitis. Concordia’s sales and share price have both risen. Pat looks at the challenges the company faces in finding new drugs and fighting off generic competition. Q: Hi: Would you give me your opinion on Concordia Health Care? Thank you.

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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.

IBM has a long history of drifting in and out of investor favour, mainly due to fear that new technologies will put it out of business.

However, IBM also has long history of shifting out of slowing businesses into faster-growing fields. For example, as computer prices fell in the 1990s, IBM expanded its more-profitable software and consulting operations. The company later unloaded its struggling personal computer operations, and is now selling its low-end server business. It will invest the proceeds in areas with better long-term potential, such as cloud computing and analytics software.

In addition, IBM’s well-known brand and global salesforce continue to give it a big advantage, particularly in developing countries.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (New York symbol IBM; www.ibm.com) started up in 1911 making machines that processed U.S. census data, as well as other industrial equipment such as time clocks and scales.

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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.

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. (Toronto symbol CTC.A; www.canadiantire.ca)operates 492 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods. It also owns other retail chains, such as Mark’s (casual clothing) and SportChek.

The company continues to add new locations and renovate older stores. It’s also benefiting from its 2011 purchase of the Forzani Group of sporting goods stores, including the popular SportChek banner. These moves are helping it compete with U.S.-based retailers like Wal-Mart.

Earlier this year Canadian Tire agreed to sell 20% of its credit card operations to Bank of Nova Scotia for $500 million. The company has an option to sell an additional 29% to the bank over the next 10 years.

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BELL ALIANT INC. $27 (Toronto symbol BA, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 7.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bellaliant.ca) ells telephone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada, as well as rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. It also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 45% of Bell Aliant.

The company continues to replace its copper-wire cables with fibre optic lines. This lets it sell more high-speed Internet and digital TV subscriptions, and offset declining sales of its regular phone services, which still supply 60% of its revenue.

Bell Aliant expects to spend $550 million to $600 million on network upgrades in 2012, compared to $573 million in 2011. Its fibre optic systems now reach 621,000 homes. The company plans to increase that to 650,000 by the end of 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. Adidas AG (ADR) (symbol ADDYY on the U.S. over-the-counter market; www.adidas.com) together with its subsidiaries, develops, makes and markets athletic equipment and clothing worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Wholesale, Retail, TaylorMade-Adidas Golf Company, Rockport, Reebok-CCM Hockey and Other Centrally Managed Brands....

ARC RESOURCES $26.76 (Toronto symbol ARX; Shares outstanding: 317.4 million; Market cap: $8.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; Dividend yield: 4.5%; www.arcresources.com) produces oil and natural gas in Western Canada. Its average daily output of 110,165 barrels of oil equivalent is 60% gas and 40% oil.

In the three months ended June 30, 2014, ARC’s cash flow per share jumped 43.1%, to $0.93 from $0.65 a year earlier.

Production gained 17.9%, even though maintenance on existing wells cost the company an estimated 2,400 barrels a day in the latest quarter. ARC’s realized gas price rose 28.3%. Oil prices increased 14.5%.

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