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Alimentation Couche-Tard, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, is the largest convenience-store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. It also has over 3,500 U.S. stores. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. Couche-Tard sells fuel at over 68% of its stores. We analyze Couche-Tard in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that gives you Canadian stock tips for the part of your aggressive investing. In the three months ended April 24, 2011, earnings excluding one-time items rose 19.0%, to $64.0 million, or $0.35 a share. A year earlier, Couche-Tard earned $53.8 million, or $0.30 a share (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.30 a share....

J.C. Penney Co. Inc., symbol JCP on New York, operates more than 1,100 department stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It also sells its goods over the Internet.

J.C....

We’ve long relied on these 3 Canadian investing tips when picking stocks to recommend in our investment services and newsletters, including our flagship publication, The Successful Investor. We think they can help you earn higher Canadian investing profits, too.

• Canadian investing tip #1: Patience is crucial: Resist the ever-present urge to buy and sell. A sound portfolio, built through careful research, needs surprisingly few changes over the years. Trading less frequently is a good thing, because it gives you fewer occasions to make costly mistakes.
• Canadian investing tip #2: Stay away from automated stock-picking systems: Some investors use automated stock-picking systems to help them make investment decisions. These systems are typically marketed with impressive-looking performance records designed to make investors think they have strong track records.
  However, those records are typically derived by “back-testing” the program against past data. In other words, the promoters go back through old trading records and see what would have worked in the past....

AlarmForce Industries, symbol AF on Toronto, reported record quarterly revenue of $10.1 million in the three months ended April 30, 2011. That’s up 10.3% from $9.2 million a year earlier.

AlarmForce is one of the stocks we analyze in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that helps you make hot stock picks for the part of your portfolio you devote to aggressive investing.

Earnings fell 9.2%, to $949,000, or $0.08 a share, from $1.0 million, or $0.09 a share....

When a company splits its shares, it is simply cutting itself up into a different number of pieces, without changing its fundamental value.

La-Z-Boy (symbol LZB on New York) makes upholstered reclining chairs and sofas. It also imports wooden furniture, such as tables and entertainment centres. The company sells its products through both large department stores and 304 La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery stores....

One of the things that investors of all ages fear is that their retirement investing won’t generate enough income once they’ve stopped working. Addressing this concern is often a high priority for many clients of our Successful Investor Wealth Management service. The best overall retirement investing plan is to start saving as early in your working career as possible, and to invest a steady or rising amount of money in the stock market every year. Following this plan, you automatically profit from dollar-cost averaging. You’ll automatically buy more shares when prices are low, and fewer shares when prices are high....

ConAgra Foods Inc., symbol CAG on New York, makes a wide variety of packaged foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s Tomato Sauce, Peter Pan peanut butter and Orville Redenbacher popcorn. The company’s consumer foods segment accounts for 63% of its sales, while the remaining 37% from its commercial foods business. ConAgra is one of the companies we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that helps you spot the top stock picks in the U.S. markets. Sales in the fiscal year ended May 29, 2011 rose 2.4%, to $12.3 billion from $12.0 billion in 2010. Revenue for the consumer food segment increased by 0.8%, as lower volumes offset higher selling prices for cooking oil, frozen foods and snacks. Sales of commercial foods rose 5.5%, mainly because the company increased prices for its flour in response to rising wheat costs....

Members of our Inner Circle service ask for our advice on a wide range of investments from buying penny stocks to investing in shares of large, multinational companies. For example, an Inner Circle member interested in buying penny stocks recently asked our advice on North American Tungsten. The company’s projects are located in the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory. Tungsten is used in a wide range of products, from wind turbines to light bulbs. To give you a sense of how my Inner Circle service works, I’d like to share this question about buying penny stocks, and our answer, with you. I hope you enjoy and profit from it....

Nordstrom Inc., symbol JWN on New York, mainly sells upscale clothing, accessories and footwear. The company owns and operates 212 outlets in the United States. It expects to open another nine stores this year. In March 2011, Nordstrom paid $180 million for HauteLook. The Los Angeles-based online retailer has more than 4 million members and annual sales of over $100 million. The acquisition will dilute Nordstrom’s earnings by about $0.20 per share in 2011. In its 2011 first quarter, which ended April 30, the U.S. stock’s earnings rose 25.0%, to $145 million, or $0.65 a share, from $116 million, or $0.52, a year earlier. The figures for the recent quarter include a $0.04 charge related to the acquisition of HauteLook....

Our new FREE report, “Dividend Paying Stocks: How High Dividend Stocks Can Supercharge Your Income Investing,” is packed with all the advice and information you need to pick the right Canadian dividend stocks for your portfolio—and avoid the ones that could steer you into a financial disaster. Best of all, the report gives you full details on 4 of our favourite high dividend stocks, a dividend paying stock for aggressive investors—and 5 high dividend stocks you must avoid. Click here to download your FREE copy and get started right away. ...

Gennum Corp., Toronto symbol GND, makes equipment for TV broadcasters that stores, manipulates and transfers video signals. It also makes chips that make computer networks work more quickly. Gennum is one of the Canadian stock picks we analyze in The Successful Investor. On April 6, 2011, Gennum acquired Nanotech Semiconductor Limited for $35.9 million. Based in Bristol, U.K., Nanotech designs chips for high-speed communication networks....

It’s hard to believe it’s already been two years since we launched TSI Network. When we flicked the switch in the summer of 2009, after

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $19.21 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through a broker; 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. Most of the stocks in the index are high-quality companies. However, as it must ensure that all sectors are represented, it holds a few we wouldn’t include, such as Yellow Media Inc. The index’s top holdings are: Royal Bank, 6.9%; TD Bank, 6.3%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.4%; Suncor Energy, 5.2%; Potash Corp., 4.1%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.9%; Barrick Gold, 3.9%; Goldcorp, 3.2%; CN Railway, 3.1%; Bank of Montreal, 3.1%; Manulife Financial, 2.6%; CIBC, 2.6%; BCE, 2.5%; TransCanada Corp., 2.5%; Cenovus Energy, 2.3%; and Teck Resources, 2.2%....

ISHARES DOW JONES CANADA SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX FUND $21.64 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through a broker; 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 assets. The fund’s MER is 0.50%. It yields 2.7%. The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 6.4%; Bonterra Energy Corp., 6.0%; National Bank, 5.2%; Bank of Montreal, 5.2%; TD Bank, 5.1%; Telus, 4.6%; IGM Financial, 4.5%; AG Growth International, 4.2%; Royal Bank, 3.9%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 3.8%; BCE, 3.7%; and TMX Group, 3.6%. The fund holds 51.8% of its assets in financial stocks. Utilities are next, at 24.0%. 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....

General Mills Inc., New York symbol GIS, is one of the world’s largest food makers. Its top brands include Big G (cereal), Green Giant (canned and frozen vegetables), Pillsbury (baking dough), Old El Paso (tacos) and Progresso (soups and sauces). General Mills is one of the stocks we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that gives you advice and stock market news for U.S. investing. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended May 29, 2011, General Mills’ revenue rose 1.7%, to $14.9 billion from $14.6 billion in the previous year. Earnings rose 17.5%, to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion. The company spent $1.2 billion on share buybacks in the latest fiscal year. Because of fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 20.5%, to $2.70 from $2.24....

Many successful investors start researching a company by looking at its financial ratios, including its debt-to-equity ratio. This ratio

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $133.97 (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 Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Apple, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Chevron, General Electric, Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and AT&T. The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets....

McCormick & Co., Inc., New York symbol MKC, makes spices, herbs, seasonings, specialty foods and flavours, and markets them to the food industry. McCormick is one of the companies we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for investing in U.S. stocks. In its second quarter, which ended May 31, 2011, McCormick’s earnings rose 11.2%, to $73.6 million from $66.2 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.2%, to $0.55 from $0.49, on fewer shares outstanding....

You may think oil is set to rise sharply, due to fast growth in India and China. Or you may think prices could be set to fall, because high oil prices could prompt users to switch to cheaper natural gas. The truth is, no one knows the future direction of oil prices. That’s why, instead of trying to predict the future direction of oil prices, we continue to recommend that you stick with well-established oil stocks with high-quality reserves and rising production. In addition, you should limit your investments in oil stocks to a portion of your portfolio’s Resource holdings. ...

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $126.09 (New York Exchange 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, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s Corp., Coca-Cola Co., Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies and Boeing Co. The fund’s expenses are about 0.18% of its assets. SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy....

H&R Block, symbol HRB on New York, is the world’s largest provider of income-tax-preparation services. The company is one of the investments we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for U.S.A. stock market investing. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended April 30, 2011, H&R Block’s U.S. offices prepared 14.8 million tax returns, up 3.6% from fiscal 2010. The number of returns processed over the Internet jumped 28.7%....

In fact, when we’re conducting stock research we reject many potential new recommendations out of hand. After all, it’s relatively easy to

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $58.18 (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 firms from 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....

ISHARES MSCI CANADA INDEX FUND $31.84 (New York symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is like a market-cap-based index fund, but its managers try to improve performance by tinkering with the index-fund formula. They do this through their Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The fund has an MER of 0.50%. The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 6.0%; TD Bank, 5.4%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.8%; Suncor Energy, 4.7%; Potash Corp., 3.6%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.4%; Barrick Gold, 3.4%; Goldcorp, 2.9%; Bank of Montreal, 2.6%; CN Railway, 2.6%; CIBC, 2.4%; Manulife Financial, 2.3%; TransCanada Corp., 2.3%; and Teck Resources, 2.2%. If you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund. You’ll pay about a third of the management fees....