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Campbell Soup Co., symbol CPB on New York, is the world’s largest maker of canned soups. It also makes Prego canned pasta and sauces, Pepperidge Farm cookies and V8 vegetable juices. In the three months ended May 1, 2011, the large cap stock’s earnings rose 11.3%, to $187 million from $168 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 16.3%, to $0.57 from $0.49, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus earnings estimate of $0.52 a share. If you exclude one-time charges in the year-earlier period related to a restructuring and changes in the new U.S. health-care law, earnings per share would have risen 5.6%. Revenue rose just 0.6%, to $1.81 billion from $1.80 billion. Sales at the large cap stock’s U.S. Soups, Sauces and Beverages division (43% of total revenue) fell 8%. That’s mainly because the company raised its prices to offset higher ingredient costs. This business is also facing stronger competition from other ready-to-eat foods, such as frozen pizza....

You pay commissions each time you buy or sell stock options. Commissions eat up a large part of any stock option investing profits you make

Aeropostale Inc., symbol ARO on New York, is a mall-based retailer of casual clothing and accessories. The company has 974 Aeropostale stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. It mainly sells its clothing to 14-to-17-year-olds. Aeropostale’s 57 “P.S. from Aeropostale” stores in the U.S. are aimed at seven-to-12-year-old elementary-school children. We analyze Aeropostale in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive stock trading. In the three months ended April 30, 2011, Aeropostale’s sales rose 1.2%, to $469.2 million from $463.6 million. Same-store sales declined 7%, compared with an increase of 8% a year earlier. Sales from the company’s e-commerce business jumped 18.5%, to $28.2 million from $23.8 million....

When you own a stock that’s being taken over, our investment advice is that it generally pays to hang on and wait for the deal to go through, then submit your shares to whoever’s making the takeover bid. Selling early will cost you money in the long run. Weeks before a takeover is announced, speculators usually buy the stock on rumours, and drive up its price. (Mind you, speculators also drive up prices of stocks that are falsely rumoured to be takeover candidates.)

Investment advice: Patience is the key to takeover profits

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DUNDEE REIT, symbol D.UN on Toronto, owns and manages 14.7 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space, including 88 office buildings and 49 industrial properties. The real estate investment trust’s occupancy rate is 96.1%. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Dundee’s revenue rose 57.4%, to $91.0 million from $57.8 million a year earlier. Most of the rise came from properties the trust recently purchased. The best way to look at a real estate investment trust’s operating performance is to look at its cash flow, and Dundee’s cash flow rose 72.9% in the latest quarter, to $28.8 million from $16.6 million. Cash flow per unit rose just 1.9%, to $0.55 from $0.54, due to more units outstanding. (The trust issued new units to pay for the acquired properties.)...

ISHARES DEX UNIVERSE BOND INDEX FUND $29.98 (CWA Rating: Income) (Toronto symbol XBB; buy or sell through a broker) mirrors the performance of the DEX Universe Bond Index. The 473 bonds in the portfolio have an average term to maturity of 9.02 years. The fund’s MER is 0.32%. The bonds in the index are 68.8% government and 31.2% corporate. The fund yields 3.8%, compared to the Short Term Bond Fund’s 3.2%. Its yield to maturity is 3.02%, 1.00% above the Short Term Fund. That reflects the added risk of holding long-term bonds....

The German government recently announced that it plans to shut down all of its nuclear reactors by 2022. Germany’s decision is the result of anti-nuclear sentiment in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which damaged the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Right now, nuclear reactors supply about a quarter of Germany’s electric power. It’s doubtful that the country can replace that with wind and solar. What’s more likely is that Germany will have to increase its already large imports of electricity from France, where nuclear already accounts for about 80% of electricity generation....

ISHARES DEX SHORT TERM BOND INDEX FUND $28.98 (CWA Rating: Income) (Toronto symbol XSB; buy or sell through a broker) mirrors the performance of the DEX Short-Term Bond Index. This index consists of a wide range of investment-grade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with between one- and five-year terms to maturity. The fund holds 252 bonds with an average term to maturity of 2.73 years. The bonds in the index are 67.4% government and 32.6% corporate. The fund’s MER is 0.26%. iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund yields 3.2%. However, this high yield is due to the fact that some of the fund’s bonds pay above-market interest rates. But 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....

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $34.01 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.mts.ca) gets 53% of its revenue from its MTS division, which mainly sells traditional and wireless telephone services to consumers in Manitoba. The remaining 47% comes from its Allstream division, which sells communication services to businesses across Canada. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Manitoba Telecom’s revenue fell slightly, to $439.3 million from $442 million a year earlier. The MTS division’s revenue rose 3%. Allstream’s revenue fell 4.5%, mostly because it is closing less-profitable businesses. Earnings per share jumped 59.5%, to $0.67 from $0.42. The gains came from cost-saving measures, including layoffs. More important, its restructured Allstream division is showing improved results....

ABB LTD. ADRs, New York symbol ABB, manufactures transformers, transmission switches and other equipment for distributing electricity. It also makes automation systems and robotics that increase the productivity of manufacturing plants. Switzerland-based ABB has clients in a variety of industries. The company is one of the world stock market investments we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter The company earned $655 million in the three months ended March 31, 2011, up 41.2% from $464 million a year earlier. Earnings per ADR gained 45.0%, to $0.29 from $0.20, on fewer ADRs outstanding. (Each American Depositary Receipt represents one ABB common share.) Revenue rose 21.2% to $8.4 billion from $6.9 billion. Rising industrial development and higher commodity prices are prompting the company’s clients to increase their capacity and make their plants more efficient. These factors are pushing up demand for ABB’s products. Orders for new equipment rose 25% during the quarter. The company’s order backlog is now a record $29.3 billion....

We’ve long recommended that all Canadian investors own shares of two or more of the big-five Canadian banks. That’s mainly because of the banks’ importance to Canada’s economy. However, each of the big five banks have different objectives, so they’re not all suitable for every investor.

Dividend paying stocks: Scotia is Canada’s most international bank

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Breakwater Resources, symbol BWR on Toronto, mainly produces zinc. The Canadian mining stocks operations include the Myra Falls mine in B.C., the Mochito mine in Honduras and the Toqui mine in Chile. Work is on schedule to restart the Langlois Mine in Quebec in the first quarter of 2012. We analyze Breakwater in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Breakwater earned $30.8 million, or $0.39 a share. Of this, $19.0 million, or $0.24 a share, was from an income-tax recovery. In the first quarter of 2010, the company earned $24.9 million, or $0.36 a share....

H&R BLOCK INC. $16 (New York symbol HRB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 305.3 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.hrblock.com) is the world’s largest provider of income-tax-preparation services. H&R Block’s U.S. offices prepared 20.8 million tax returns between November 1, 2010 and April 18, 2011. That’s up 6.1% from 19.6 million for the same period a year earlier. Most of this growth came from a 26.8% jump in returns processed over the Internet. However, the average fee per return fell 3.3%. The stock has gained over 40% since the start of 2011, but it has fallen lately due to H&R Block’s involvement with subprime mortgages. Even though it shut down its Option One mortgage business in December 2007, holders of bonds backed by Option One’s mortgages now aim to force H&R Block to buy back these securities. The cost would likely be much higher than the company’s $4.9-billion market cap. Still, it will likely take years to settle these claims....

WESTERN UNION CO. $21 (New York symbol WU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 632.3 million; Market cap: $13.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.westernunion.com) provides money-transfer and foreign-exchange services in over 200 countries. The company earned $210.2 million in the three months ended March 31, 2011, up 1.1% from $207.9 million a year earlier. Western Union spent $525.2 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 6.7%, to $0.32 from $0.30. Excluding costs related to the company’s restructuring, which mainly consisted of layoffs, it earned $0.35 in the latest quarter. Revenue rose 4.1%, to $1.3 billion from $1.2 billion. Growth was strong in the Asia Pacific region, the Americas and much of Europe....

FirstService Corp., symbol FSV on Toronto, serves the following areas of the real-estate market: commercial real estate; residential property management; and property improvement. We analyze FirstService in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that gives you our aggressive stock market recommendations. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, FirstService’s revenue jumped 18.9%, to $478.4 million from $402.4 million a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars)....

In our view, your goal, particularly if you’re a conservative investor, is to make an attractive return on your investments over a period of years or decades.

Diebold Inc., symbol DBD on New York, is a leading maker of automated teller machines (ATMs). It also makes safes, vaults and building-security systems. Diebold recently raised its quarterly dividend by 3.7%, to $0.28 a share from $0.27. The dividend stock’s new annual rate of $1.12 yields 3.5%. The company has raised its dividend each year for the past 58 years. The company earned $2.5 million, or $0.04 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2011. That’s down sharply from $24.9 million, or $0.37 a share, a year earlier. If you exclude costs related to the dividend stock’s restructuring and other one-time items, earnings per share fell 32.4%, to $0.23 from $0.34....

T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. $62 (Nasdaq symbol TROW; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 259.8 million; Market cap: $16.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.troweprice.com) sells mutual funds and wealth-management services. Rising stock markets have lifted the value of the assets that T. Rowe Price manages. On March 31, 2011, these assets were worth a record $509.9 billion, up from $482.0 billion at the end of 2010. The company’s fees vary with the value of these assets. That’s why its revenue rose 22.7% in the first three months of 2011, to $682.4 million from $556.2 million a year earlier. Earnings rose 27.2%, to $194.6 million, or $0.72 a share, from $153.0 million, or $0.57 a share....

PetSmart Inc., Nasdaq symbol PETM, operates 1,192 pet stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also has 184 in-store PetsHotel dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart is one of the stocks we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for U.S.A. stock market investing. In its 2012 first quarter, which ended May 1, 2011, PetSmart’s earnings rose 27.5%, to $70.9 million from $55.6 million a year earlier. The company spent $102 million on share buybacks in the quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 32.6%, to $0.61 from $0.46. That easily beat the consensus earnings forecast of $0.49 a share....

Investors continue to be concerned about high debt levels in many European countries. That’s especially true of the so-called PIIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain). Portugal recently accepted a 78-billion euro ($107 billion Canadian) bailout package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. That’s in addition to previous bailouts for Ireland (67 billion euros) and Greece (110 billion euros). Worries persist that Greece, in particular, may not be able to cut its spending enough to avoid defaulting on its debt.

Why we recommend that you focus on Canadian stocks—and limit your European holdings

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Dorel Industries (Toronto symbol DII.B) makes a wide range of products, including ready-to-assemble home and office furniture; juvenile products, such as car seats, strollers, high chairs, toddler beds and cribs; home furnishings, including chairs, tables, bunk beds, futons and step stools; and recreational products, including bicycles. It has 4,700 employees, and plants in 19 countries. We analyze Dorel in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive stock market trading. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Dorel’s revenue rose 1.9% to $607.8 million from $596.3 million on higher home furnishing and recreation/leisure sales. (All figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars.)...

STATE STREET CORP. $45 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 504.0 million; Market cap: $22.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to large institutional investors, such as mutual funds and pension plans. State Street continues to benefit from rising stock markets. Its fee income rises and falls with the value of the mutual funds and other securities it manages, so the company’s revenue and earnings benefit when the value of these assets rises. The company is also cutting its long-term costs with a new restructuring plan, which mainly involves cutting 1,400 jobs (or 5% of its workforce) and selling surplus real estate. The plan will cost State Street $400 million to $450 million over the next four years. However, it should lower its annual expenses by $575 million to $625 million by the end of 2014....

The improving U.S. economy is helping more consumers repay their loans on time. That’s pushing down loan losses at a number of U.S. banks, and improving their profits. However, the outlook for the U.S. banking industry remains uncertain. High unemployment continues to hurt demand for new loans, and the industry faces greater regulations in the wake of the financial crisis.

Stock advice: Diversification is the key to lowering your risk in the U.S. finance sector

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AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $50 (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $60.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.americanexpress.com) gets most of its revenue from the fees it charges merchants when consumers use its credit and charge cards. It also provides travel-agency services. The company’s cardholders have above-average credit scores and income. As a result, most of them pay their bills on time. The improving economy is also pushing up its travel-related fees. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, American Express earned $1.2 billion, or $0.97 a share. That’s up 33.0% from $885 million, or $0.73 a share, a year earlier. The company continues to set aside less money to cover bad loans: its loan-loss provisions fell 89.7%, to $97 million from $943 million....

VISA INC. $78 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 830.1 million; Market cap: $64.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest retail electronic-payments network. The company processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. The stock fell to $67 in December 2010 after the U.S. Federal Reserve proposed new limits on fees banks can charge for debit-card transactions. Visa gets about 20% of its revenue from debit-card transactions in the U.S. Regulators now aim to make a final ruling on these fees by July 21, 2011. However, a new bill in the U.S. Senate would delay any changes to the current system for two years....