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TRANSCANADA CORP. (Toronto symbol TRP; www.transcanada.com) operates a 68,500-kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to Eastern Canada and the U.S. The company’s pipelines supply 20% of North America’s natural gas. In 2013, they provided 51% of TransCanada’s revenue and 53% of its earnings. The company also owns or invests in power plants in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern U.S. In all, these facilities have over 11,800 megawatts of generating capacity. TransCanada’s electricity operations now supply 36% of its revenue and 30% of its earnings. In 2011, the company started up its oil pipeline division. This business mainly consists of the Keystone pipeline, which pumps oil from Alberta to refineries in Illinois, and a distribution hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. Oil pipelines supply the remaining 13% of TransCanada’s revenue and 7% of its earnings....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST (Toronto symbol REI.UN; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT), with interests in 340 shopping malls containing over 82 million square feet of leasable area. That total includes 47 U.S. malls with over 13 million square feet. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, RioCan’s revenue increased 6.4%, to $299 million from $281 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit rose 2.4%, to $0.42 from $0.41, on more units outstanding. RioCan continues to see growth opportunities in Canada and the U.S. In 2013, it spent $849 million on 32 properties. In the first quarter of 2014, it bought two more for a total of $21 million....

YUM! BRANDS INC. $82 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 411.4 million; Market cap: $33.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) has 40,324 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food). Franchisees operate 80% of these outlets.

The company was the first fast-food chain to enter China, in 1987, and is now a leader in that country. Its 6,332 Chinese outlets now supply 53% of its sales and 35% of its earnings. Other markets include the U.S. (23% of sales, 31% of earnings), and other countries (24%, 34%).

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UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. $116 (New York symbol UTX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 916.7 million; Market cap: $106.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.utc.com) has amended its deal to build 28 Sikorsky Cyclone helicopters for the Canadian government. The company had planned to deliver these helicopters in 2012, but disputes over prices and support prompted it to suspend the program. It now plans to begin deliveries in 2015.

The original contract was worth $4.6 billion. But due to the delays in starting up production, United Technologies will record a one-time charge of $440 million in the second quarter of 2014. However, it feels other unusual gains will offset this charge.

As a result, the company still expects to earn $6.65 to $6.85 a share for all of 2014. The stock trades at 17.2 times the midpoint of that range. That’s a reasonable p/e ratio in light of its leading market share in its various niche industries (jet engines, elevators and heating and air conditioning equipment) and wide global reach (overseas markets account for 60% of its revenue).

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GENUINE PARTS CO. $87 (New York symbol GPC; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 153.6 million; Marketcap: $13.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.genpt.com) has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for Toledo, Ohio-based Impact Products. This privately held firm sells janitorial equipment, such as mops, pails, safety glasses and first aid kits, to businesses.

Expanding by acquisition adds risk, but the purchase looks like a good fit with Genuine’s office supplies and furniture business. The new operations will also add $85 million to Genuine’s $14.1 billion of annual sales. Moreover, small purchases like this tend to be easier to integrate.

The stock now trades at 19.0 times the company’s projected 2014 earnings of $4.58 a share. That’s a high p/e for a firm that supplies clients in cyclical industries like auto parts and manufacturing.

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GANNETT CO., INC. $31 (New York symbol GCI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector: Shares outstanding: 226.8 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.gannett.com) has completed the sale of two TV stations in Phoenix and one in St. Louis for a total of $407.5 million.

The cash will help Gannett pay for its recent deal to buy six Texas TV stations from London Broadcasting Co. The company will pay $215 million when the deal closes in the next few months. To put these figures in context, Gannett earned $108.4 million, or $0.47 a share, in the first quarter of 2014.

Gannett is a buy.

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APPLE INC. $90 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.0 billion; Market cap: $540.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apple.com) has agreed to a settle a lawsuit that accused the company and five publishers of working together to illegally increase e-book prices.

The company did not say how much it would pay, but the lawsuit was seeking $840 million in damages. To put this in context, Apple held cash and investments of $150.6 billion, or $24.96 a share, as of March 29, 2014 (all per-share amounts adjusted for a 7-for-1 stock split in June 2014).

Apple is a hold.

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DIEBOLD INC. $39 (New York symbol DBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.6 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.diebold.com) is a leading maker of automated teller machines. It also makes safes, vaults and building-security systems. The company gets 55% of its revenue from outside North America.

In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Diebold’s revenue rose 8.6% to $688.3 million from $633.5 million a year earlier. If you exclude the negative impact of currency exchange rates, revenue rose 12.2%. That’s mainly because the company completed two large orders for election and lottery machines in Brazil.

Diebold is shifting toward services and software, which give it recurring revenue and cut its reliance on ATM sales. Services and software accounted for 56% of its first quarter revenue.

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NCR CORP. $33 (New York symbol NCR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 167.9 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ncr.com) gets 52% of its revenue from ATMs. It also makes cash registers and self-serve checkouts (32% of revenue) and kiosks for theatres and arenas (10%). Maintenance services supply the other 6%. Overseas markets account for 60% of NCR’s revenue.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2014, NCR’s revenue rose 7.7%, to $1.5 billion from $1.4 billion a year earlier. That’s partly due to its January 2014 purchase of privately held Digital Insight Corp., whose software helps over 1,000 banks and credit unions manage their online and mobile transactions.

NCR paid $1.65 billion for this firm, which should add $350 million to its yearly revenue. Earnings fell 14.5%, to $53 million from $62 million. Pershare earnings declined 16.2%, to $0.31 from $0.37, on more shares outstanding.

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PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $79 (New York symbol PG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.7 billion; Market cap: $213.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pg.com) is selling most of its pet food business to privately held Mars Inc. The sale will let Procter focus on its more-profitable household and personal care products.

The company will receive $2.9 billion when the deal closes in the next few months. To put that in context, Procter earned $2.6 billion, or $0.90 a share, in the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The company will likely use the cash to buy back more shares.

Procter & Gamble is a buy.

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INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $104 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.3 million; Market cap: $8.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) makes over 36,000 compounds that improve the taste of foods and the smell of consumer products.

In January 2014, the company paid $102.5 million for Aromor Flavors and Fragrances, a private Israeli firm that is also one of IFF’s ingredient suppliers.

This purchase helped increase IFF’s sales by 5.8% in the three months ended March 31, 2014, to $770.2 million from $727.8 million a year earlier. The company gets 75% of its sales from outside the U.S. and nearly 50% from emerging markets. If you exclude currency exchange rates, sales rose 7%.

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MCCORMICK & CO. INC. $71 (New York symbol MKC; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 119.0 million; Market cap: $8.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mccormick.com) makes spices, herbs, seasonings and flavours. It sells these products to consumers and industrial clients. In its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended May 31, 2014, McCormick’s sales rose 3.1%, to $1.03 billion from $1.00 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly because McCormick bought a Chinese bouillon maker for $144.8 million in May 2013. This purchase offset lower sales in the Americas.

Earnings gained 7.5%, to $84.5 million, or $0.64 a share, from $78.6 million, or $0.59, a year earlier.

McCormick continues to benefit from its ongoing cost cuts, which should save it $45 million in fiscal 2014. That will help fund the additional $25 million it plans to spend on advertising this year.

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ALCOA INC. $15 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $18.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) plans to upgrade its Hampton, Virginia, plant to make lightweight aluminum blades that help cut new jet engines’fuel consumption by 20% over older models.

Alcoa will spend $25 million on this project. To put that in context, it earned $98 million, or $0.09 a share, in the three months ended
March 31, 2014.

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INTEL CORP. $31 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.0 billion; Market cap: $155.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) now expects $13.7 billion of revenue in the second quarter of 2014, up from its earlier forecast of $13.0 billion. That’s because businesses are replacing their older computers at a faster-than-expected pace.

The stock has gained 19% since the start of the year and trades at 15.2 times the $2.04 a share that Intel will probably earn in 2014. That’s a particularly attractive p/e ratio for a tech leader that spends a high 22% of its revenue on research.

Intel is a buy.

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FEDEX CORP. $151 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 318.0 million; Market cap: $48.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) delivers packages and documents in the U.S. and over 220 other countries through its fleet of 650 planes and over 108,000 trucks and other surface vehicles.

The company recently changed the way it charges for shipping bulky packages by truck. In the past, it based its fee on weight, but it will now charge according to size. This makes it more expensive to ship lighter items that take up significant space, such as diapers. FedEx has also raised its fuel surcharge, which will help offset its rising fuel costs.

Meanwhile, the company earned $2.10 billion in its 2014 fiscal year, which ended May 31, 2014. That’s up 6.1% from $1.98 billion in fiscal 2013. FedEx spent $4.9 billion on share buybacks in its latest fiscal year. As a result, its earnings per share rose 8.3%, to $6.75 from $6.23. Revenue gained 2.9%, to $45.6 billion from $44.3 billion.

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EBAY INC. $49 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $63.7 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 3.8; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) gets 51% of its revenue by charging users fees to sell goods on its shopping websites, including its main auction site, which it launched in September 1995. This site now has 145.1 million users.

eBay gets a further 43% of its revenue from processing online transactions, mostly through its wholly owned PayPal subsidiary. This business now has 148.4 million users. The remaining 6% of eBay’s revenue comes from its Enterprise division, which helps businesses process online orders.

The company lost $2.4 billion, or $1.82 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2014. That’s mainly because it transferred $9.0 billion in cash from its overseas businesses to its U.S. headquarters, triggering a $3.0-billion tax bill.

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VISA INC. $209 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 628.4 million; Market cap: $131.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 10.9; Dividend yield: 0.8%; 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 card issuers and merchants for using its network. It bases its fees on payment volume, transactions processed and other factors. The banks that issue the cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa.

In its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended March 31, 2014, Visa’s earnings jumped 25.8%, to $1.6 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier. Per-share earnings rose 31.3%, to $2.52 from $1.92, on fewer shares outstanding. However, if you exclude a one-time tax benefit in the latest quarter, earnings per share rose 14.6%, to $2.20.

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AT&T INC. $35 (New York symbol T; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 5.2 billion; Market cap: $182.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.att.com) is buying satellite TV provider DirecTV (Nasdaq symbol DTV) for $48.5 billion (70% stock and 30% cash).

Satellite TV demand has slowed in the past few years as consumers switch to online services like Netflix. However, DirecTV’s rural customers are a good fit with AT&T’s urban U-verse fibre optic TV service. It’s a bold move, but it could pay off.

The takeover will make AT&T the second-largest provider of pay-TV services in the U.S., with 27 million subscribers. That will help it compete with Comcast, which will have 30 million customers after it buys rival Time Warner Cable. It will also give AT&T more clout when buying entertainment and sports programming.

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GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $26 (New York symbol GE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 10.0 billion; Market cap: $260.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ge.com) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers. It makes machinery for power generation and distribution, such as turbines, as well as other products, like jet engines, medical equipment, appliances, lighting and locomotives.

The company also operates GE Capital, which mainly provides loans to GE’s clients. The company scaled back GE Capital after the division suffered big losses in the 2008/09 financial crisis. It now accounts for 30% of GE’s revenue and 37% of its earnings.

As part of these reductions, GE Capital will soon unload its North American consumer lending business as a separate firm called Synchrony Financial (New York symbol SYF). GE will sell 20% of Synchrony’s shares through an initial public offering. After that, the company will give its shareholders the chance to swap their GE stock for Synchrony shares.

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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 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 on one of the many tech stocks on the Nasdaq market. ON Semiconductor serves a diverse clientele, although almost a third of its customers are in the automotive industry. The company is pursuing growth by acquisition. Pat examines this strategy as well as the company’s financial outlook and its ability to increase its chip sales in the competitive markets in which it operates. Q: Pat: What is your opinion on ON Semiconductor Corp.?...

IAMGOLD (Toronto symbol IMG; www.iamgold.com) owns 41% of the Sadiola mine and 40% of the Yatela mine, both located in Mali; 90% of its Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso; 100% of the Doyon mine in Quebec; and 95% of the Rosebel mine in Suriname, South America. In addition, IAMGold has a 1% royalty interest in the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. It also owns the Niobec niobium mine in Quebec. When used as an additive, niobium makes steel stronger, more heat-resistant and easier to weld. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, IAMGold’s revenue fell 8.5%, to $279.3 million from $305.3 million a year earlier. Cash flow per share dropped to $0.17 from $0.31. The declines were mostly due to 21.2% lower gold prices and an 8.5% production decrease....

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $93 (New York symbol FICO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 31.1 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; 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. FICO Scores dominates this niche market. Fair Isaac also sells software that helps credit card issuers control fraud and analyze cardholders’ spending patterns.

In January 2015, Fair Isaac paid $59.6 million for Tonbeller, a German firm whose software helps banks and insurance companies detect and prevent money laundering and fraud.

In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended March 31, 2015, the company’s revenue increased 11.7%, to $207.1 million from $185.5 million a year earlier. Tonbeller contributed $3.2 million to revenue in the latest quarter.

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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 advice on 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: “Value investing’s good reputation owes a great deal to Warren Buffett, but he and other successful investors owe their success to much more than just one relatively narrow approach to the market.” In last week’s Investor Toolkit, I pointed out that learning what not to do can be the hardest and costliest part of an investor’s education (see the Toolkit here). I focused on how this applies to technical analysis—the practice of trying to base investment decisions on past trading and market history. This week I want to expand on what I said, since the idea applies to a wide range of narrow approaches to investing....

PEYTO EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT CORP. (Toronto symbol PEY; www.peyto.com) produces and explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta. Its average daily production of 72,209 barrels of oil equivalent is 90% gas and 10% oil. In the quarter ended March 31, 2014, Peyto’s cash flow rose 53.6%, to $1.06 a share from $0.69 a year earlier. That’s because the company raised its production by 30.4%. Gas prices also gained 27.5%, to an average of $4.45 per thousand cubic feet from $3.49, while oil prices rose 6.1%, to $80.49 a barrel from $75.88. Peyto plans to spend $625 million on exploration and development in 2014, which will let it drill 110 to 125 wells. To put that in context, the company spent $578 million to drill 99 wells in 2013....

Businesses will likely spend more on software this year, as the global economy continues to recover. That’s good news for two market leaders we cover regularly in our advisory on U.S. stocks, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. We analyze which is in a better position to benefit as more companies adopt cloud computing. Note: This article updates our recent report on Symantec, issued just after the company had fired its CEO (see the article here). ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; www.adobe.com) earned $151.3 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2014 first quarter, which ended February 28, 2014. That’s down 14.9% from $177.9 million, or $0.35, a year ago. Revenue fell 0.8%, to $1.00 billion from $1.01 billion. The declines are mainly because Adobe is now selling its Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs as a subscription instead of a one-time purchase. That hurts the company’s short-term growth, but it should provide stable revenue streams as more users switch over. Subscriptions now supply over half of Adobe’s revenue....