Search

MART RESOURCES $1.50 (Toronto symbol MMT; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-270 -1841; www.martresources.com; Shares outstanding: 337.0 million; Market cap: $505.5 million; Dividend yield: 13.3%) is up over 40% since late June, when it declared a special dividend of $0.10 a share, payable on August 8. Mart will then pay quarterly dividends of $0.05 a share starting in September.

The stock is now up 328.6% since we first recommended it in our May 2010 issue at $0.35.

Mart produces oil at its 50%- held Umusadege field in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria.

...

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $21.70 (New York symbol BR: TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (201-714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 124.9 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; Dividend yield: 3.0%) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications; securities processing; and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S.

Broadridge’s earnings rose 11.0% in the three months ended March 31, 2012, to $36.2 million from $32.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.0%, to $0.28 from $0.25, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales rose 3.8%, to $547.0 million from $527.1 million.

Contributions from recently purchased companies helped push up Broadridge’s latest results. As well, the company continues to do a good job of attracting new clients and holding on to existing ones.

...

This is the latest in a series of video interviews in which Pat McKeough will give his advice on a variety of topics. Some will deal with his overall investment philosophy, others on specific investment strategies, and still others will be comments on events that are affecting the markets and the economy. This time, the subject is real estate investing, as Pat replies to questions that followed his earlier video on the home as an investment. (View the post here: Do You Think of Your House as an Investment?) Several readers insisted that they saw their houses as a good source of building net worth, whether through its intrinsic value or as a source of collateral for buying stocks. Pat has a few words of caution on both of those points.
Real Estate Investing: Your House as a Source of Building Wealth ...

We’ve always placed a high value on a strong record of paying dividends, mainly because it provides something of a pedigree for stocks we recommend. After all, you can’t fake a record of dividends. It takes a lot of success and high-quality management for a company to have the cash and the determination to declare and pay a dividend every year for five or 10 years or more. It’s not something you can create on the spur of the moment. Now many investors have come to share our high regard for dividends, especially as a source of retirement income. However, some take this reliance on dividend stocks to extremes. They put too much faith in a history of dividend payments. They think of a stock with a good dividend history as the next best thing to a government bond....

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. 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: “Starting out your investing career the wrong way could force you into years of catching up.”...

STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC. (New York symbol SWK; www.stanleyblackanddecker.com) is one of the world’s largest makers of hand and power tools for consumers. Its top-selling brands include Stanley, Black & Decker, FatMax and Powerlock. This business supplied 51% of Stanley’s 2011 sales and 46% of its earnings. The company’s building-security division makes locks, automatic doors and gates. It also monitors properties for its clients, typically through closed-circuit audio and TV systems. This division accounts for 25% of Stanley’s sales and 27% of its earnings....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on buying stocks 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. This past week, an Inner Circle member asked us about a company that clearly benefits when the global economy is doing well. This American heavy-equipment manufacturer already makes the majority of its sales outside the U.S. and it’s looking to developing economies to fuel even more growth....

H&R REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $24.16 (Toronto symbol HR.UN; Units outstanding: 181.0 million; Market cap: $4.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.hr-reit.com) and Dundee REIT (Toronto symbol D.UN) have agreed to buy Scotia Plaza, a 68-storey office building in downtown Toronto, from Bank of Nova Scotia (see page 41) for $1.3 billion.

Dundee REIT will own two-thirds of the property, and H&R will own the remaining third.

Scotia Plaza contains about 2 million square feet of office and retail space across four connected buildings. Scotiabank will remain as the anchor tenant.

...

PRIMARIS RETAIL REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $22.79 (Toronto symbol PMZ.UN; Units outstanding: 87.8 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 5.4%; www.primarisreit.com) owns large malls in medium-sized Canadian cities and suburban areas. In all, it owns 33 properties that contain 13.7 million square feet of leasable area.

Primaris has 43% of its properties in Ontario, followed by Alberta, 16%; B.C., 14%; Quebec, 14%; Saskatchewan, 9%; Manitoba, 3% and New Brunswick, 1%. Primaris has a 96.7% occupancy rate.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, acquisitions pushed up Primaris’s revenue by 22.6%, to $100.4 million from $81.9 million a year earlier. Cash flow rose 30.8%, to $32.7 million from $25.0 million. Cash flow per unit rose 8.3%, to $0.393 from $0.363, on more units outstanding. The trust yields 5.4%.

...

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $26.57 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 285.0 million; Market cap: $7.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest REIT. It has interests in 333 shopping malls in Canada, including 10 under development. These properties contain over 91 million square feet of leasable area.

RioCan also owns stakes in 46 malls in the U.S. through joint ventures. In addition, it owns 14% of Cedar Shopping Centers, a U.S. REIT whose malls are mainly in the northeastern U.S.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, RioCan’s revenue rose 15.6%, to $274 million from $237 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit rose 5.7%, to $0.37 from $0.35. The units yield 5.2%.

...

BELL ALIANT INC. $26 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 7.3%; www.aliant.ca) earned $0.45 a share in the three months ended March 31, 2012. That’s up 2.3% from $0.44 a year earlier. Revenue was unchanged at $682.0 million.

Strong demand for high-speed Internet and TV services offset lower revenue from traditional phone (or land line) subscribers and long-distance calls.

Bell Aliant’s high-speed fibre optic systems now reach 516,000 homes. It plans to expand this to 650,000 homes by the end of 2012.

...

BCE INC. $41.54 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 773.6 million; Market cap: $32.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) is teaming up with a group of other investors, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, to buy privately held Q9 networks Inc.

Toronto-based Q9 provides data-storage and web-hosting services to businesses across Canada. It has 11 data centres in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

This investment will help BCE take advantage of growing demand from business clients for reliable cloud-computing services (the general term for shifting software and data off of users’ machines and onto service providers’ machines via the Internet). The company already operates six data centres. It will open a seventh later this year.

...

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $62.52 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares.com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds the stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index. That index is made up of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap.

The Nasdaq 100 Index contains shares of companies in a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The fund’s expenses are about 0.20% of its assets.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel, Amazon.com, Oracle Corp., Comcast Corp. and Amgen Inc.

...

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $123.93 (New York symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The fund’s top holdings are IBM, ExxonMobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Wal-Mart Stores, McDonald’s Corp., Coca-Cola Co., Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies and Boeing. The fund’s expenses are about 0.18% of its assets.

SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy.

...

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $131.97 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. stocks that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple Inc., ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Wells Fargo & Co., Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Chevron, General Electric, Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Google and AT&T.

The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets.

...

ISHARES DOW JONES CANADA SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX FUND $20.08 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds 30 of the highest-yielding Canadian stocks. Its selections are based on dividend growth, yield and payout ratio. The weight of any one stock is limited to 10% of its assets. The fund’s MER is 0.50%. It yields 4.5%.

The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 6.9%; National Bank, 6.0%; TD Bank, 5.6%; Bank of Montreal, 5.2%; Bonterra Energy, 5.2%; AG Growth International, 4.8%; Royal Bank of Canada, 4.3%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.3%; and BCE Inc., 4.0%.

The fund holds 54.1% of its assets in financial stocks. Utilities are next, at 21.4%. The top Canadian finance stocks have sound prospects. However, if you invest in this ETF, be sure to adjust the rest of your portfolio so it won’t be overly concentrated in the financial sector.

...

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $16.65 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good, low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, as the fund must ensure that all sectors are represented, it holds a few stocks we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 7.2%; TD Bank, 7.0%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.9%; Barrick Gold, 4.4%; Suncor Energy, 4.3%; CN Railway, 3.7%; Bank of Montreal, 3.5%; Potash Corp., 3.4%; Goldcorp, 3.3%; BCE Inc., 3.2%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.2%; Enbridge, 3.1%; TransCanada Corp., 3.0%; CIBC, 2.8%; Cenovus Energy, 2.3%; and Telus Corp., 1.9%.

...

TRANSCANADA CORP. $42.76 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 704.2 million; Market cap: $30.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.transcanada.com) has won a contract to build and operate a $4-billion, 700-kilometre pipeline for Shell Canada and its partners Korea Gas, Mitsubishi and PetroChina.

The pipeline will pump natural gas from the Montney region of eastern B.C. to a proposed liquefied natural gas facility at the port of Kitimat, B.C. From there, tanker ships will transport the liquefied gas to customers in Asia.

TransCanada aims to begin operating the new line by 2020.

...

INNERGEX RENEWABLE ENERGY $10.55 (Toronto symbol INE; Shares outstanding: 81.3 million; Market cap: $857.7 million; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield 5.5%; www.innergex.com) owns and operates 25 hydroelectric and wind-power facilities in Quebec, Ontario, B.C. and Idaho.

Innergex gets 80% of its power from hydroelectric plants. Wind farms supply the remaining 20%. Wind power is heavily reliant on politically sensitive government subsidies. To cut its risk, Innergex makes sure it has firm long-term powerpurchase contracts in place before it makes acquisitions or starts building new plants.

In April 2011, Innergex bought Cloudworks Energy for $187 million. That added stakes in six operating hydroelectric plants in B.C. and other projects that are still under development.

...

ALGONQUIN POWER & UTILITIES CORP. $6.55 (Toronto symbol AQN; Shares outstanding: 159.1 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.algonquinpower.com) holds interests in 45 hydroelectric plants in Canada and the northeastern U.S. It also owns 12 thermal energy facilities. Algonquin’s wholly owned subsidiary, Liberty Water Co., owns 19 water-distribution and sewagetreatment plants in the U.S.

The company also has a partnership with Emera Inc. (Toronto symbol EMA), which is a recommendation of The Successful Investor, our conservative growth advisory. Emera holds a 25% interest in Algonquin. This partnership, called Liberty Energy Utilities, continues to make acquisitions.

Liberty Energy’s purchases include NV Energy, which sells power to 47,000 customers near Lake Tahoe; Atmos Energy, which distributes natural gas to 77,000 customers in Missouri, Iowa and Illinois; and two other utilities that sell electricity and natural gas to 126,000 customers in New Hampshire.

...

CENOVUS ENERGY $32.47 (Toronto symbol CVE; Shares outstanding: 754.7 million; Market cap: $24.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 2.7%; www.cenovus.com) has received regulatory approval to develop its Narrows Lake oil sands project in northern Alberta; U.S.-based ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of this property.

Narrows Lake, which could start up in 2017, is expected to produce 130,000 barrels a day (Cenovus’s share is 65,000 barrels). To put that in context, Cenovus produced an average of 156,850 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2012. The property’s reserves should last 40 years.

The company plans to use a new technique, called a solvent-aided process, to extract the oil from Narrows Lake. That will add to the project’s development costs, but it should let the partners recover up to 15% more oil than they could using today’s methods.

...

BONAVISTA ENERGY $17.42 (Toronto symbol BNP; Shares outstanding: 145.8 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 8.3%; www.bonavistaenergy.com) explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.

Bonavista produces an average of 70,202 barrels of oil equivalent per day, weighted 60% to gas and 40% to oil.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, the company’s cash flow per share fell 23.2%, to $0.63 from $0.82 a year earlier. Lower gas prices more than offset a 6.1% production increase.

...

PEYTO EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT CORP. $18.17 (Toronto symbol PEY; Shares outstanding: 138.5 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.peyto.com) produces and explores for oil and natural gas in Alberta.

Peyto’s average daily production of 40,903 barrels of oil equivalent is 90% gas and 10% oil.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, the company’s cash flow was $0.56 a share, unchanged from a year earlier. Lower gas prices offset a 29.7% rise in production.

...

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $52.20 (Toronto symbol BNS: Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $57.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Div. yield: 4.2%, www.scotiabank.com) is the third-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with assets of $659.7 billion.

Without one-time items, the bank earned $1.15 a share in the quarter ended April 30, 2012, up 8.5% from $1.06 a share a year earlier. It is also setting aside less money to cover bad loans: loan-loss provisions fell 2.2%, to $264 million from $270 million a year ago.

The Canadian banking division’s earnings jumped 23.3% due to an increase in deposits and higher demand for loans. The division also did a good job of controlling its costs.

...

BCE INC. $42 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 775.9 million; Market cap: $32.6 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 5.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) has 5.4 million telephone customers in Ontario and Quebec, as well as 2.1 million high-speed Internet subscribers and 2.2 million TV clients. In addition, the company’s wireless business now has 7.7 million subscribers across Canada. BCE also owns 45% of Bell Aliant (see box this page).

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, the company’s earnings fell 20.5%, to $594 million, or $0.77 a share. A year earlier, it earned $747 million, or $0.97. The drop is mainly due to non-cash losses on hedges the company uses to cut the risk of its employee stock option plans.

Revenue rose 1.5%, to $5.0 billion from $4.9 billion. Revenue from its wireline division (traditional telephone, Internet and TV; 48% of total revenue) fell 0.9%. That’s partly because more of its customers are switching to wireless service. Revenue at BCE’s wireless division (28% of revenue) rose 5.4%, thanks to strong demand for smartphones and rising mobile data use.
...