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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 stock market advice 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: “Relying on just one or two indicators to help you choose stocks can increase your risk rather than diminish it.”...

Encana took its present form on December 1, 2009, after the old EnCana Corp. split itself into two new companies: the new Encana, which focuses on natural gas, and Cenovus Energy, which specializes in oil sands. Falling gas prices have pushed Encana’s shares down about 30% since the split. Oil prices have weakened lately, but Cenovus’ shares are up about 14%. ENCANA CORP (Toronto symbol ECA; www.encana.com) is one of North America’s largest natural gas producers. Its reserves should last over 11 years....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on potential stock picks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. 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 the Inner Circle. This week, an Inner Circle member asked about a stock that practices a form of socially responsible investing. This coffee maker emphasizes fair trade principles in its business dealings—and Pat assesses just how well the company is doing under those conditions. ...

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $53.52 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 142.2 million; Market cap: $7.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.7%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,170 franchised hotels worldwide. Aside from Wyndham and Ramada, it owns a variety of other brands, including Days Inn, Super 8, Wingate, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inns & Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge and AmeriHost Inn.

In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. The company now has 100,000 vacation rental properties worldwide. This wide range of operations gives it more consistent cash flow than most of its competitors, which mainly focus on hotels.

Vacation travel remains strong

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ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $42.74 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340- 777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 15.6 million;Market cap: $666.7 million; Yield: 2.3%) sells telecommunications services, mainly in rural areas in the U.S., Bermuda
and the Caribbean region.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Atlantic’s revenue fell 4.4%, to $185.3 million from $193.8 million a year ago. However, earnings jumped to $10.5 million, or $0.67 a share, from $1.8 million, or $0.12.

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DOMINO’S PIZZA $34.44 (New York symbol DPZ; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (734-930- 3030; www.dominos.com; Shares outstanding: 56.7 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; No dividends paid) now operates in over 70 markets worldwide. Its international stores supply almost half of its sales and about a third of its earnings. The company still has considerable room to grow internationally.

For example, Jubilant Foodworks just opened the 500th Domino’s outlet in India. This company, which has the exclusive rights to operate Domino’s restaurants in that country, aims to continue its aggressive expansion by opening 100 new restaurants over the next year.

Jubilant also has franchise rights for Domino’s in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

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HECLA MINING COMPANY $6.61 (New York symbol HL; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (208-769-4100; www.hecla-mining.com; Shares outstanding: 285.5 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion) has agreed to pay $3.2 million for a 19.9% stake in Dolly Varden Silver Corp., symbol DV on Toronto. Dolly Varden owns several silver properties in northwestern B.C., including the pastproducing Dolly Varden and Torbit mines.

Hecla’s expertise should help Dolly Varden develop its properties, which are geologically similar to Hecla’s Greens Creek project.

Hecla Mining is a hold.

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FAIR ISAAC CORP. $44.95 (New York symbol FICO; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (415-472-2211; www.fairisaac.com; Shares outstanding: 33.8 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Dividend yield: 0.2%) has been awarded seven patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That brings the company’s total number of patent awards to 128.

Two of the new patents relate to Fair Isaac’s FICO Insurance Fraud Manager software, which detects fraud, waste and abuse in health care claims. These patents cover a method for analyzing codes that health care providers enter to represent specific medical procedures. That helps the program catch both potential and ongoing systematic fraud.

Four of the seven patents were for inventions used in FICO’s Blaze Advisor decision-management software. Additionally, FICO was awarded a patent for an invention related to the FICO Score, the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the U.S. This helps determine the conditions in credit scoring in which additional information is needed. FICO spends a high 9% of its revenue on research and development. That lets it stay ahead of the competition—and patent awards like these help reinforce its research efforts.

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ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD $45.20 (Toronto symbol ATD.B: TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-800-361-2612; www.couche-tard.com; Shares outstanding: 179.4 million; Market cap: $8.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.7%) has reported sharply higher sales and earnings in its latest quarter. Without one-time costs related to its $2.7-billion purchase of Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA, the company’s earnings per share rose 26.7%, to $0.95 from $0.75 (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Sales rose 16.1% to $6.0 billion from $5.2 billion.

The gains came from higher fuel prices, acquisitions and higher merchandise sales. (The company gets about 30% of its sales by selling merchandise.) The results also included 11 days of operations from the Statoil gas station chain.

Alimentation Couche-Tard is still our #1 buy for 2012.

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SASOL LTD. (ADR) $46.39 (New York symbol SSL; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (082-883-9697; www.sasol.com; ADRs outstanding: 645.0 million; Market cap: $29.9 billion; Dividend yield: 3.1%) reports that in its fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, revenue rose 19.0%, to $20.3 billion from $17.1 billion in the previous fiscal year (all figures in U.S. dollars). Earnings per ADR rose 25.8%, to $5.05 from $3.99.

Higher oil prices were the main reason for the gains. The U.S. dollar also rose against the South African rand; that pushed up the value of Sasol’s sales outside South Africa.

The company plans to build an $8-billion to $9-billion gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Louisiana. It has also completed a feasibility study for an $8-billion GTL plant in Alberta.

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DELPHI ENERGY $1.19 (Toronto symbol DEE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares outstanding: 131.2 million; Market cap: $156.1 million; No dividends paid) explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta and B.C. Gas makes up 74% of Delphi’s daily output; the remaining 26% is oil. In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Delphi’s average daily output fell 3.0%, to 8,636 barrels of oil equivalent (including natural gas) from 8,906 barrels a year earlier. Disruptions at third-party processing facilities were the main reason for the decline.

The lower production, plus lower natural gas prices, pushed down Delphi’s cash flow to $0.05 a share from $0.15.

The company’s debt of $134.4 million is a high 86.1% of its market cap. However, Delphi trades at 4.4 times its forecast 2012 cash flow of $0.27 a share, and only 3.1 times the 2012 forecast cash flow of $0.38 a share.

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BELLATRIX EXPLORATION $3.82 (Toronto symbol BXE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-266- 8670; www.bellatrixexploration.com; Shares outstanding: 107.5 million; Market cap: $410.7 million; No dividends paid) produces oil and natural gas in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. Gas makes up about 63% of its output; the remaining 37% is oil.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Bellatrix’s production rose 42.3%, to 16,569 barrels of oil equivalent per day (including natural gas) from 11,643 barrels. The company’s highly effective drilling continues to add to its production: in the latest quarter, it drilled 15 wells with a 100% success rate.

Cash flow per share rose 4.3%, to $0.24 from $0.23. Bellatrix’s selling price for gas fell 50%, to $2.03 U.S. per thousand cubic feet from $4.06 U.S. a year ago. However, the big production increase offset that decline. The company’s long-term debt is $164.1 million, or a manageable 40% of its market cap.

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TIM HORTONS $51.37 (Toronto symbol THI; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.timhortons.com; Shares outstanding: 154.9 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%) aims to take advantage of fast-growing interest in home coffee systems.

Under a new agreement, Kraft Foods and Tim Hortons will make and sell plastic cups, called T-Discs, filled with Tim Hortons premium blend coffee, including decaf and latte, and sealed with a foil top.

Kraft’s Tassimo beverage machine pierces the foil and brews a fresh single cup. The Tassimo system also scans a barcode on the T-Disc that tells it how much water to use, how long to brew the coffee and how hot it should be.

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RUSSEL METALS $27.96 (Toronto symbol RUS; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (905-819-7777; www.russelmetals.com; Shares outstanding: 60.1 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; Dividend yield: 5.0%) is one of North America’s largest metal distributors. The company serves its roughly 33,000 customers through a network of 51 locations in Canada and 12 in the U.S.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Russel’s revenue rose 16.2%, to $718.7 million from $618.6 million a year earlier. All three of the company’s divisions saw gains: higher sales volumes pushed up revenue by 11% at both the steel-distribution and metalservices businesses. And revenue jumped 32% at the energy tubular products division, which supplies pipes for oil and gas firms, thanks to an increase in drilling activity.

Without one-time items, earnings per share fell 13.5%, to $0.45 from $0.52 a year earlier. The company’s earnings fell despite the higher revenue because steel prices declined in the latest quarter. That cuts Russel’s profit margins and causes it to suffer losses on its current inventory.

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GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO. $13.48 (NewYork symbol GT; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (330-796-2122; www.goodyear.com; Shares outstanding: 244.7 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; No dividends paid) is the world’s largest tire maker, with over 60 plants in 25 countries.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, the company’s sales fell 8.4%, to $5.15 billion from $5.62 billion a year earlier.

North American sales rose 1.7%, to $2.5 billion from $2.4 billion, but weak economic growth cut sales by 21.4% in Latin America; 17.9% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and 4.2% in Asia. Unfavourable foreign currency moves also lowered Goodyear’s overall sales by 6%.

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MAJOR DRILLING $11.01 (Toronto symbol MDI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-866- 264-3986; www.majordrilling.com; Shares outstanding: 79.1 million; Market cap: $870.9 million; Dividend yield: 1.8%) has hiked its dividend and announced record quarterly revenue and earnings.

In the three months ended July 31, 2012, Major’s revenue jumped 44.7%, to a record $237.6 million from $164.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share jumped 60.0%, to $0.40 from $0.25.

The strong results have prompted Major to raise its twice-yearly dividend by 11.1%, to $0.10 from $0.09. This follows a 12.5% hike in May, to $0.09 from $0.08. The stock now yields 1.8%.

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COMPUTER MODELLING GROUP $18.53 (Toronto symbol CMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-531-1300; www.cmgroup.com; Shares outstanding: 37.4 million; Market cap: $693.0 million; Dividend yield: 4.0%) sells consulting services and software that help oil and gas producers get more out of their existing wells. Computer Modelling has clients in over 50 countries.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, the company’s revenue rose 3.3%, to $16.5 million from $15.9 million a year earlier. An increase in software licence sales more than offset a drop in consulting and professional services revenue. (It consulted on some large one-time projects in the year-earlier quarter.)

Earnings fell 8.6%, to $6.1 million, or $0.16 a share, from $6.7 million, or $0.18 a share. The company hired new employees to handle its growing business. That meant it also had to acquire more office space, computers, furniture and fixtures. It now has 164 employees, up from 144 a year ago.

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PASON SYSTEMS $15.76 (Toronto symbol PSI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-301-3400; www.pason.com; Shares outstanding: 82.0 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; Dividend yield: 2.8%) rents equipment for monitoring and managing oil and gas rigs. It also sells communication systems, such as its satellite system, which companies use to remotely collect data from their drilling operations. Pason serves oil and gas producers and drilling contractors throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Australia.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Pason’s revenue rose 29.8%, to $81.1 million from $62.4 million a year earlier. Cash flow rose 31.5%, to $30.1 million, or $0.37 a share, from $22.9 million, or $0.28.

Even with declining oil prices and continued low gas prices, drilling activity rose 6% in Canada and the U.S. in the latest quarter, with a combined 188,291 active days and a rig count of 2,069, compared to 177,791 days and 1,954 rigs a year earlier.

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SYMANTEC CORP. $18.94 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 701.9 million; Market cap: $13.3 billion; No dividends paid) sells computer-security technology, including anti-virus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software that helps its clients meet increasingly strict regulatory and compliance standards.

In the three months ended June 29, 2012, Symantec’s earnings per share excluding one-time items rose 7.5%, to $0.43 from $0.40. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.33.

Revenue rose just 0.9%, to $1.67 billion from $1.65 billion. Stronger sales of security software to businesses offset lower sales to consumers, who account for about 30% of Symantec’s overall revenue. As well, higher sales in the Americas and Asia helped overcome declines in Europe.

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ACI WORLDWIDE $42.71 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-334-5101; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 39.8 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that is used to process transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments.

In mid-February 2012, ACI completed its purchase of S1 Corp. for $540 million in cash and stock. This acquisition is a good fit: S1 sells transaction software for banks, credit unions, retailers and other payment processors. It has over 3,000 clients worldwide.

In the second quarter of 2012, ACI’s revenue rose 32.1%, to $149.8 million from $113.4 million a year earlier. S1′s $43.1-million contribution was the main reason for the gain.

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SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL $4.90(Toronto symbol S; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800- 704-6698; www.sherritt.com; Shares outstanding: 296.9 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Dividend yield: 3.1%) recently finished building a mine at its 40%-owned Ambatovy project on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast.

The government of Madagascar has just signed an operating permit that will let Sherritt and its partners begin production at Ambatovy, which will be one of the world’s biggest nickel mines.

The $5.5-billion project will be able to produce 60,000 tonnes of refined nickel a year for the next three decades.

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WESTJET AIRLINES $17.28 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 126.9 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%) was trading at $14.10 when we made it our #1 Stock of the Year for 2011. It was a year late getting started, but it’s now hitting new highs.

The company serves 81 destinations in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Its fleet of 99 modern Boeing 737s are 30% more fuel efficient than older aircraft. WestJet is scheduled to receive 36 more 737s through 2018.

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, WestJet’s revenue rose 9.0%, to $809.3 million from $742.3 million a year earlier. Demand for its flights remains high, and it has entered into new partnerships with other airlines; these were the main reasons for the higher revenue.

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Most experienced investors recognize that it’s hard to outperform the market on a regular basis over long periods. However, only the successful minority recognize as well that it’s all too easy to underperform the market, often by a wide margin. Our advice is that the best way to try to outperform is to apply our three key investing principles: invest mainly in well-established companies; spread your money out across the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing, Resources, Consumer, Finance and Utilities); and downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight, where unpleasant surprises can lead to brutal declines. But applying these principles to buying stocks requires a good deal of judgment and attention. Even then, you won’t beat the market every year....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on potential stock picks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. 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 the Inner Circle. This week, an Inner Circle member asked about a medical products stock that specializes in breathing and sleeping problems. This U.S. firm, which makes equipment to deal with respiratory disorders such as sleep apnea, is growing through acquisitions and the development of new products. ...

We continue to advise that you shouldn’t let the current or recent investment situation play too big a role in setting your investment objectives and investment strategy. Instead, try to pursue what you might call an “evergreen” investment approach. You want to invest in such a way that you profit in good times but don’t suffer too badly during the inevitable market setbacks. Above all, you want to make sure that you don’t make the mistake of losing out on some of your best investments....