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IGM FINANCIAL INC. $45 (Toronto symbol IGM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 251.4 million; Market cap: $11.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.8; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.igmfinancial.com) had $148.4 billion worth of assets under management as of March 31, 2015, up 8.1% from $137.3 billion a year earlier....

IMPERIAL OIL $51.60 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $44.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Div. yield: 1.0%; www.imperialoil.ca) is selling some of its conventional oil and natural gas properties in Alberta and B.C. to Whitecap Resources. These assets produce 15,000 barrels a day, which is equal to 5.1% of the 295,000 barrels a day that Imperial produced in 2013.

The company will receive $855 million when the sale closes in May 2014. That will help it pay for its plan to spend $5.5 billion on its main properties this year, including expanding its Cold Lake and Kearl oil sands developments. These investments should increase Imperial’s daily output by 150,000 barrels in 2015.

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PENN WEST $9.35 (Toronto symbol PWT; Shares outstanding: 490.7 million; Market cap: $4.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 6.0%; www.pennwest.com) is one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers.

Penn West continues to shore up its finances and take steps to boost its value since appointing Rick George as chairman and Allan Markin as vicechairman. These moves include cutting staff, selling assets and lowering its dividend.

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CRESCENT POINT ENERGY CORP. $40.44 (Toronto symbol CPG; Shares outstanding: 395.7 million; Market cap: $16.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.8%; www.crescentpointenergy.com) produces oil and natural gas in Western Canada. Its output is weighted 91% toward oil and 9% to gas.

The company continues to focus on its Bakken light oil development in southeastern Saskatchewan.

In the three months ended December 31, 2013, Crescent Point’s cash flow rose 23.9%, to $533.3 million from $430.4 million a year earlier.
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CANADIAN REIT $44.60 (Toronto symbol REF.UN; Units outstanding: 69.0 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 3.9%; www.creit.ca) owns 198 properties, including retail, industrial and office buildings, across Canada and in Chicago. These holdings contain over 24.0 million square feet of leasable area. The trust’s occupancy rate is 95.5%.

In the three months ended December 31, 2013, Canadian REIT’s revenue rose 8.6%, to $106.7 million from $98.2 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit gained 7.5%, to $0.72 from $0.67.

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PENGROWTH ENERGY CORP. $3.74 (Toronto symbol PGF; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 538.0 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 6.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.pengrowth.com) recently started up its Lindbergh oil sands project in eastern Alberta, which should produce 16,000 barrels a day by the end of 2015.

The company has shut down less profitable wells in response to weak oil and gas prices. That’s why its average production fell 7.7% in the first quarter of 2015, to 69,334 barrels a day (52% oil and liquids, 48% gas) from 75,102 a year earlier. Without unusual items, Pengrowth earned $64.8 million, compared to a loss of $2.8 million. Cash flow per share fell 22.2%, to $0.21 from $0.27.

For the remainder of 2015, the company has hedged 78% of its oil production at $93.87 (Canadian) a barrel, well above today’s price of $60.16 U.S. It has also hedged 57% of its gas output at $3.72 (Canadian) per thousand cubic feet, compared to the current price of $2.94 U.S. The company’s hedges were worth $354.3 million as of March 31, 2015.

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ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $34.29 (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Units outstanding: 68.7 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.alliedpropertiesreit.com) owns 133 office buildings, mostly in major Canadian cities. These mainly Class I properties contain over 9.5 million square feet of leasable area.

Class I refers to 19th- and early-20th-century light industrial buildings that have been converted to retail space. They usually feature exposed beams, interior brick and hardwood floors.

The trust bought $400 million worth of properties in 2012. In 2013, it added $182.4 million more.
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IBM $193.55 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $200.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.0%; www.ibm.com) continues to expand its cloud computing businesses.

Cloud computing involves storing data and software on one or more centralized computer networks. Users access these programs or files over the Internet or through some other computer network.

IBM recently paid an undisclosed sum for Cloudant, a private firm that creates large databases on remote servers. IBM feels Cloudant’s technology will also enhance its analytics services, which help businesses analyze large amounts of data and improve their efficiency. That’s a big growth area.
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TRANSCANADA CORP. $51.57 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 707.5 million; Market cap: $36.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.transcanada.com) operates 68,500 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in Canada and the U.S. It also has interests in over 11,800 megawatts of power generation, including the Bruce Power nuclear plant.

In the three months ended December 31, 2013, TransCanada’s revenue rose 11.6%, to $2.3 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 28.9%, to $0.58 from $0.45.

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ENBRIDGE INC. $51.24 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 831.5 million; Market cap: $42.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.enbridge.com) operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. It also distributes natural gas to consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. As well, Enbridge has interests in 1,800 megawatts of renewable and alternative energy.

In the three months ended December 31, 2013, the company’s revenue rose 18.4%, to $8.3 billion from $7.0 billion a year earlier. Before one-time items, earnings per share rose 4.8%, to $0.44 from $0.42.

In 2013, Enbridge brought 17 projects, worth a total of $5 billion, into service. It plans to start up a further $29 billion worth over the next four years. That includes a $7-billion replacement of part of its Mainline system, which pumps crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin.
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BCE INC. $48.01 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 777.0 million;Market cap: $37.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) reports that in the three months ended December 31, 2013, its earnings per share rose 16.7%, to $0.70 from $0.60 a year earlier. Revenue increased 4.3%, to $5.4 billion from $5.2 billion.

BCE added 93,700 new wireless subscribers, net of cancellations, in the latest quarter (it now has 7.8 million users across Canada). That’s 10.8% fewer than it added a year earlier, but 73% of its subscribers under long-term contracts now use smartphones, up from 62%. That’s good news, because smartphones generate higher fees for BCE than regular cellphones. Average revenue per user rose 2.1%.

BCE has just raised its quarterly dividend by 6.0%, to $0.6175 a share from $0.5825. The shares now yield 5.2%. As well, the stock trades at 15.1 times this year’s forecast earnings.
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MARKET VECTORS VIETNAM ETF $21.72 (New York symbol VNM; buy or sell through brokers) holds shares of Vietnamese companies or foreign firms that get a significant amount of their revenue from Vietnam.

The ETF’s top holdings are Masan Group (food, resources and banking conglomerate), 7.9%; Vincom Corp. (real estate), 7.6%; Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 6.9%; Baoviet Holdings (finance and insurance), 5.8%; PetroVietnam Fertilizer & Chemical, 5.7%; PetroVietnam Technical Services (oilfield services), 5.7%; and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (an Indian oil and gas firm), 4.8%.

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ISHARES FTSE/XINHUA CHINA 25 INDEX FUND $35.84 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index, which is made up of the 25 largest, most liquid Chinese stocks. All of the stocks in the index trade on the Hong Kong exchange. Some also trade as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on New York.

The fund’s top holdings are China Construction Bank, 9.0%; Tencent Holdings, 8.8%; China Mobile, 7.6%; Industrial & Commercial Bank, 6.9%; Bank of China, 6.2%; PetroChina, 4.2%; China Shenhua Energy, 4.1%; Agricultural Bank of China, 4.0%; China Life, 4.0% and China Petroleum, 4.0%.

The fund’s holdings give it the following industry breakdown: Financials, 56.2%; Telecommunications, 13.8%; Oil and Gas, 12.2%; Technology, 8.8%, Basic Materials, 4.1%; Consumer Goods, 2.4%; and Industrials, 2.4%. Its expense ratio is 0.74%.
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TORSTAR $6.54 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $462.4 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 8.0%; www.torstar.com) continues to attract the interest of Fairfax Financial (Toronto symbol FFH). Fairfax now owns 22.7% of Torstar’s class B non-voting shares, up from 19.3%. Insiders still control Torstar’s class A voting shares.

Fairfax’s CEO, Prem Watsa, has a reputation as a shrewd investor, and this move draws attention to Torstar’s value. Moreover, rising stock markets have cut the deficit in the company’s pension plan, so it won’t have to contribute as much this year. The extra cash will let it keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.13125 a share, for an 8.0% annualized yield.

Torstar is still a buy.

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ISHARES DEX UNIVERSE BOND INDEX FUND $30.37 (CWA Rating: Income) (Toronto symbol XBB; buy or sell through brokers) mirrors the performance of the DEX Universe Bond Index. The 784 bonds in the portfolio have an average term-to-maturity of 9.79 years. The fund’s MER is 0.33%.

The bonds in the index are 66.7% government and 33.3% corporate.

The fund yields 3.2%, compared to the Short-Term Bond Fund’s 2.6%. Its yield-to-maturity is 2.53%, 0.91% above the Short-Term Fund. That reflects the added risk of holding long-term bonds.
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ISHARES DEX SHORT-TERM BOND INDEX FUND $28.60 (CWA Rating: Income) (Toronto symbol XSB; buy or sell through brokers) mirrors the performance of the DEX Short-Term Bond Index.

This index consists of a wide range of investmentgrade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with between one- and five-year terms to maturity. The fund holds 384 bonds with an average term to maturity of 2.91 years. The bonds in the index are 60.2% government and 39.8% corporate. The fund’s MER is 0.28%.

iShares DEX Short-Term Bond Index Fund yields 2.6%. However, this high yield is due to the fact that some of the fund’s bonds pay above-market interest rates. As a result, they trade above their face value. When these bonds mature, holders will only get the bonds’ face value, which means the portfolio will incur predictable capital losses. These losses will offset some of the appeal of the above-market yields.
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ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS EASTERN EUROPE INDEX FUND $23.42 (New York symbol ESR; buy or sell through brokers) has 73.6% of its assets invested in Russia, followed by Poland at 20.3%; Czech Republic, 3.0%; and Hungary, 2.4%.

The fund’s top holdings are Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), 16.0%; Lukoil (Russia: oil), 10.0%; Sberbank (Russia: bank), 9.0%; Magnit OJSC (Russia: retailing), 5.0%; PKO Bank Polski (Poland: banking), 4.3%; Novatek (Russia: natural gas), 3.5%; and MMC Norilsk Nickel (Russia: mining), 3.3%.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index Fund’s expense ratio is 0.67%.
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BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE ENERGY PARTNERS L.P. $32.00 (Toronto symbol BEP.UN; Units outstanding: 265.2 million; Market cap: $8.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.7%; www.brpfund.com) is buying the wind power assets of the Irish government’s Bord Gais Energy for $960 million.

The purchase includes 321 megawatts of capacity across 17 projects in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Bord Gais has another 125 megawatts under construction and 300 megawatts in the planning stage.

To put the acquisition in perspective, Brookfield currently operates 196 hydroelectric generating stations, 11 wind farms and two natural-gas-fired plants. In all, it has 6,000 megawatts of generating capacity.
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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice, including stock trading advice that can help you reduce the risk of more aggressive investing. 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: “Although risk and volatility are magnified with thinly-traded stocks, if you can identify the stocks that will grow and prosper, the rewards could be tremendous.”...

SYMANTEC CORP. (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; www.symantec.com) sells computer-security technology, including anti-virus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software. In Symantec’s fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended December 27, 2013, its earnings per share rose 13.3%, to $0.51 from $0.45 a year earlier. The gains were mainly due to savings from a new restructuring plan that includes laying off 30% to 40% of its managers and simplifying its product lines....

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. (Toronto symbol CVE; www.cenovus.com) gets about 40% of its output from its oil sands projects in Alberta. Conventional oil and natural gas wells supply the other 60%. U.S.-based ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of Cenovus’s main Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sands projects in Alberta. These properties produce heavy bitumen, which Cenovus ships to its 50%-owned refineries in Illinois and Texas. Phillips 66 (New York symbol PSX) owns the other 50% of these refineries. In 2013, refining accounted for 66% of Cenovus’s revenue and 40% of its earnings....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice and stock 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 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 received a question from an Inner Circle member about a company that is in the “gaming” business. Glu Mobile develops games for smartphones and tablets and gives them away free, making money by selling additional content to players, and through advertising. Pat examines the company’s business, including its latest release and a recent celebrity partnership. He also looks at whether the company’s shares are likely to go on another run, after rising with the popularity of one game and then falling back....

These two small-cap Manufacturing & Industry picks are riskier than most of the large-cap selections in that sector we cover in Wall Street Stock Forecaster. However, they are both market leaders that are investing in new products and making acquisitions. TENNANT CO. (New York symbol TNC; www.tennantco.com) makes industrial floor-cleaning equipment, including scrubbers, sweepers and polishers. It also manufactures cleaning gear for garages, stadiums, parking lots and city streets....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you investment advice on stocks and other topics that will help you develop a successful approach to investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “There are times when the advantages touted in the marketing for an investment may actually turn out to be the biggest dangers for investors.”...

In our flagship Canadian advisory, The Successful Investor, we recommend that when you select investments in the financial sector, you start by looking at Canada’s big-five banks. But we also recommend diversifying your holdings with non-bank finance stocks. Two weeks ago, we covered one such stock that more aggressive investors might consider, Home Capital (see the article here). Today we examine two conservative non-bank stocks....