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CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $33 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 755.6 million; Market cap: $24.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) produced an average of 156,850 barrels of oil per day in the three months ended March 31, 2012. That’s up 14.2% from 137,355 barrels a day a year earlier.

The gain is mostly the result of Cenovus’s ongoing expansion of its Alberta oil sands properties. Production of conventional oil also rose 10.2%.

The company recently started shipping oil to Asia. That lets it sell this oil at international prices, which are higher than what it can get from North American refineries.

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TRANSCANADA CORP. $43 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 704.0 million; Market cap: $30.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) has settled on a new route for its proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would avoid environmentally sensitive areas in Nebraska. When the pipeline is finished, it will pump crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The U.S. government initially refused to approve the project, but TransCanada feels this new route will help it win the necessary permits. The company aims to begin building the pipeline in early 2013. It could begin operating by the end of 2014.

TransCanada is a buy.

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TORSTAR CORP. $9.95 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.5 million; Market cap: $791.0 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.torstar.com) publishes The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper by circulation. It also publishes three other daily newspapers and over 110 weeklies, mainly in Southern Ontario. Torstar’s newspapers and related websites provide about 70% of its revenue and 60% of its earnings.

The company’s other main business is wholly owned Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., the world’s leading romance novel publisher. Harlequin publishes over 110 titles a month in 34 languages in 114 countries. It gets 95% of its revenue from outside of Canada.

Torstar continues to expand its websites. That’s helping it offset weaker advertising revenue at its newspapers.

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TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $11 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.0 million; Market cap: $891.0 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) is the largest commercial printer in Canada, and the fourthbiggest in North America. It also publishes newspapers and magazines.

Transcontinental continues to invest heavily in its online division. The company now has over 1,000 websites, which supply 10% of its revenue. Their contribution will continue to rise over the next few years as advertisers spend more on the Internet than on printed publications.

The company recently swapped its printing plants in Mexico for six facilities in Canada. This deal should ultimately add $230 million to Transcontinental’s yearly revenue.

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THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $30 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 829.2 million; Market cap: $24.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.thomsonreuters.com) gets 58% of its revenue and 48% of its earnings by selling news and information products to professionals in the banking industry and the legal (25%, 32%), accounting (10%, 11%) and scientific research (7%, 9%) fields.

Over 85% of the company’s revenue comes from products it sells under subscriptions and contracts. That gives it predictable revenue streams and cuts its risk. As well, more of its customers are switching from printed to electronic products; that’s lowering its printing and postage costs.

Thomson Reuters recently agreed to sell its health care business, which provides data and software that helps hospitals and clinics lower their costs and cut fraud. This business supplied 6% of the company’s revenue. Thomson Reuters will get $1.25 billion when the sale closes by the end of 2012 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars).

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HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $45 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 34.8 million; Market cap; $1.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.homecapital.com) offers mortgages and other loans to borrowers who don’t meet the stricter criteria of larger, traditional lenders.

The company is seeing higher demand for mortgages. That’s mainly because fears of higher interest rates and slowing housing prices have prompted Canada’s big banks to make fewer loans to riskier borrowers.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Home Capital’s revenue rose 16.3%, to $214.7 million from $184.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 16.0%, to $1.52 from $1.31.

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CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $67 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.5 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) gets 90% of its revenue and 80% of its earnings from its various retail stores.

These outlets include 488 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods. The company owns these stores, but franchisees operate most of them. Canadian Tire also operates 289 gas stations and 87 PartSource auto parts stores.

The company has added a number of new product lines by purchasing other retailers. For example, in 2001 it bought the Mark’s Work Wearhouse chain of casual clothing stores. The company now has 385 Mark’s stores and carries a variety of Mark’s products in its main Canadian Tire stores.

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AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $41 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 348.0 million; Market cap: $14.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agilent.com) makes testing systems that help improve electronic products, such as cellphones and computer equipment.

To cut its exposure to the cyclical electronics industry, Agilent is expanding its medical and drug-testing businesses, mainly through acquisitions. In May 2010, it paid $1.5 billion for Varian Inc., which makes testing equipment for medical research labs.

As well, the company recently announced that it will pay $2.2 billion for Dako, a Denmark-based firm that makes equipment that detects cancers in blood and other tissue samples. Thanks to deals like these, medical- and chemical-testing equipment now supplies half of Agilent’s overall sales.

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FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP. $3.50 (New York symbol FTR; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 998.5 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 11.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.frontier.com) earned $52.5 million in three months ended March 31, 2012, down 4.0% from $54.7 million a year earlier. Earnings per share were unchanged at $0.05 on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude costs related to Frontier’s July 2010 purchase of traditional phone (or land line) accounts from Verizon. Revenue fell 5.8%, to $1.3 billion from $1.35 billion. That’s because Frontier continues to lose residential (down 9.2%) and business (down 5.7%) customers.

However, the $0.10-a-share quarterly dividend still seems safe: the payout accounted for a moderate 39% of Frontier’s free cash flow (cash flow less capital expenditures) in the latest quarter.

Frontier Communications is still a hold.

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KRAFT FOODS INC. $38 (New York symbol KFT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $64.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.kraft.com) plans to break itself into two separate, publicly traded companies by the end of 2012.

One company, called Mondelez International, will sell snack foods, such as Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates. The other, called Kraft Foods Group, will consist of Kraft’s slower-growing grocery business.

Kraft hasn’t announced the details of the split, but the Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that the break-up will be a tax-free transaction: shareholders won’t have to pay capital gains taxes until they sell their new shares.

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NORDSTROM INC. $50 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 208.6 million; Market cap: $10.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nordstrom.com) continues to add new Nordstrom Rack stores, which sell clearance merchandise from the company’s regular stores. That helps it attract cost-conscious shoppers.

The new stores increased sales by 13.2% in the quarter ended April 28, 2012, to $2.6 billion from $2.3 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 8.5%.

Earnings rose at a slower pace of 2.8%, to $149 million from $145 million. Per-share earnings rose 7.7%, to $0.70 from $0.65, on fewer shares outstanding. Nordstrom’s profit margins fell because it introduced new loyalty programs and free shipping to compete with other retailers.

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J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $34 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.8 billion; Market cap: $129.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jpmorganchase.com) recently announced a $2-billion loss on complex hedging contracts that it uses to cut the risk on corporate bonds it holds.

This unexpected trading loss has prompted the bank to suspend its plan to repurchase $15 billion of its shares by March 31, 2013. However, it will continue to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.30 a share, for an annualized yield of 3.5%.

J.P. Morgan Chase is still a hold.

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CEDAR FAIR L.P. $26 (New York symbol FUN; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Units outstanding: 55.5 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 6.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cedarfair.com) owns 11 amusement parks, seven water parks and one hotel.

The partnership typically earns most of its money in the summer, as only one of its parks (Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California) stays open year round. Still, Cedar Fair’s revenue rose 4.9% in the first quarter of 2012, to $28.2 million from $26.7 million a year earlier. Its loss narrowed to $65.2 million, or $1.18 a unit, from $84.7 million, or $1.53 a unit.

Cedar Fair keeps upgrading its parks: it will spend $90 million on new roller coasters and other attractions in 2012. That’s similar to what it spent in 2011.

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BUCKEYE PARTNERS L.P. $48 (New York symbol BPL; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Units outstanding: 97.8 million; Market cap: $4.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 8.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.buckeye.com) operates over 9,600 kilometres of pipelines in the northeastern and midwestern U.S. Its network pumps gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products. Buckeye also owns oil and natural gas storage terminals and other related businesses.

The partnership continues to expand by acquisition. In February 2012, it agreed to buy a terminal in New York Harbour. That gives it access to the Atlantic Ocean, which makes it easier for Buckeye to import oil from foreign producers. From there, it can pump the oil through its pipelines to its customers.

Buckeye will pay $260 million for this terminal when the purchase closes later this year. It recently sold $250 million of new units to cover most of this cost.

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WEYERHAEUSER CO. $20 (New York symbol WY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 537.5 million; Market cap: $10.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.weyerhaeuser.com) is a leading maker of forest products, including paper and packaging. The company owns or leases over 20.3 million acres of timberland in the U.S. and Canada.

In 2010, Weyerhaeuser converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT). REITs pay little or no income tax, and must pay 90% of their earnings to their shareholders as dividends. Right now, Weyerhaeuser pays a regular quarterly dividend of $0.15 a share, for a 3.0% annualized yield.

The company continues to sell less profitable assets: in 2011, it sold $838 million of real estate.

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GOOGLE INC. $609 (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 326.0 million; Market cap: $198.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.9; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) has completed its $12.5-billion purchase of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (New York symbol MMI).

Owning Motorola gives Google access to patents that it can use to defend itself against lawsuits from other mobile phone makers. It will also make it easier for Google to integrate its popular Android operating system with new smartphones and tablet computers.

Google is a buy.

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XEROX CORP. $7.19 (New York symbol XRX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $10.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.xerox.com) recently started providing services to businesses, such as processing credit card applications and insurance claims. That’s helping the company lower its reliance on more cyclical sales of office equipment, like copiers and printers.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Xerox’s revenue rose 0.7%, to $5.50 billion from $5.47 billion a year earlier. However, ongoing investments to expand its services operations cut its earnings by 4.5%, to $319 million from $334 million a year earlier. Earnings per share were unchanged at $0.23.

Xerox is a hold.

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ABB LTD. ADRs $16 (New York symbol ABB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.3 billion; Market cap: $36.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 4.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.abb.com) is a leading maker of power technologies for utilities. The Switzerland-based company’s products include transformers, transmission systems and circuit breakers. It also makes automation systems and robotics. Clients in a range of industries use ABB’s systems to make their facilities more productive.

The company is taking advantage of the slow economy to expand its U.S. operations. In January 2011, it paid $4.2 billion for Arkansas-based Baldor Electric Co., which makes electric motors and related products, such as conveyor belts, fans and pumps.

Baldor’s contribution increased ABB’s revenue by 6.0% in the first quarter of 2012, to $8.9 billion from $8.4 billion a year earlier. Strong gains in the Americas helped offset weaker demand in Europe and Asia.

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CANON INC. ADRs $41 (New York symbol CAJ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $49.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canon.com) gets 49% of its revenue by making printers; consumer products, such as cameras and inkjet printers (40% of revenue); and industrial products, such as chips and other components for TV sets, medical equipment and mobile devices (11%).

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Canon’s earnings rose 12.3%, to $750.5 million from $668.2 million a year earlier. Earnings per ADR rose 16.7%, to $0.63 from $0.54, on fewer ADRs outstanding (each ADR represents one common share).

The gains were largely due to lower costs. For example, Canon is using more robots to assemble its products.

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BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $63 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.7 billion; Market cap: $170.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) is the world’s largest mining company, with operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the U.K. It produces iron ore, coal, oil, natural gas, aluminum, manganese, diamonds and titanium.

In 2011, BHP expanded its oil and gas business with two major purchases: it paid $12.0 billion for Petrohawk Energy Corp., which produces oil and natural gas in Texas and Louisiana; and $4.75 billion for shale gas properties in Arkansas.

These acquisitions increased BHP’s oil and gas production by 58% in three months ended March 31, 2012, to 56.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (including gas) from a year earlier.

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PETSMART INC. $63 (Nasdaq symbol PETM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 108.4 million; Market cap: $6.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.petsmart.com) recently hit a new all-time high after it reported strong earnings and sales for its latest quarter. The stock is now up 96.9% since we first recommended it at $32 in our October 2007 issue.

The company is the biggest petsupply chain in the U.S. In all, it operates 1,241 pet stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also has 194 in-store PetsHotels, which look after pets while their owners are away.

In the first quarter of PetSmart’s 2013 fiscal year, which ended April 29, 2012, its earnings rose 33.5%, to $94.7 million from $70.9 million a year earlier. The company spent $175 million buying back its shares during the quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 39.3%, to $0.85 from $0.61.

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NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC. $18 (New York symbol NWL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 289.9 million; Market cap: $5.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newellrubbermaid.com) makes plastic storage bins, tools, window blinds, pens and a number of other household items. Its top brands include Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Paper Mate, Parker, Graco, Irwin, Waterman and Levolor.

The company has three divisions: Newell Consumer (which supplies 50% of Newell’s sales and 45% of its earnings); Newell Professional (35%, 40%) and Baby and Parenting (15%, 15%). Wal-Mart accounted for 11.0% of Newell’s sales in 2011.

The company’s sales rose 1.0%, from $6.4 billion in 2007 to $6.5 billion in 2008, but the recession lowered its sales by 13.8%, to $5.6 billion, in 2009. Sales rebounded by 3.3%, to $5.8 billion, in 2010, and climbed to $5.9 billion in 2011.

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A bargain is generally regarded as a good thing. What could be a better bargain for investors than buying shares of a stock at lower prices? “Averaging down” is the well-known market tactic by which investors buy more shares of a stock that has come down in price....

The Canadian penny is on its way out, and cash transactions are increasingly rare as well. Although it may not be a household name, this maker of transaction-processing software is aggressively seeking an even greater share of the market in credit card, debit card and smartphone payments. ACI WORLDWIDE (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; www.tsainc.com) makes software that is used to process transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific 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, one Inner Circle member asked about one of the dividend stocks in his portfolio. Pat replies with a look at whether this leader in diabetes products can sustain its growth with new products and expanded international markets. ...