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Toromont Industries Ltd., $30.60, symbol TIH on Toronto, operates two divisions: the equipment group distributes a broad range of Caterpillar and industrial equipment; the compression group builds natural-gas compression units. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, the Canadian stock pick’s revenue jumped 38.3% to $588.0 million from $425.3 million a year earlier. Enerflex Systems, which Toromont bought for $613 million in January 2010, was the main reason for the increase. Enerflex brought new oil and gas compression customers to Toromont. It also expanded Toromont’s international presence. Earnings rose 13%, to $0.26 a share from $0.23 a share. Order bookings were up 27% in the latest quarter from a year earlier. The company’s total backlog now stands at $1 billion, up 59% from a year ago....

You may have an old stock certificate or two in your files, issued by an unfamiliar firm. Perhaps you bought the stock yourself, or inherited it. The stock market pick’s certificate may be registered in your name, or in the name of an earlier owner — the friend or relation who left it to you, or a total stranger. One way to determine the value of a certificate like this, if any, is to try to deposit it in an account with a discount broker. If the issuing company’s corporate charter has been cancelled, the discount broker will reject the certificate and return it to you. If the stock has been taken over by another company, the discount broker will try to collect the securities or cash that the buying company paid for it. ...

Stanley Black & Decker Inc., New York symbol SWK, makes power and hand tools and security devices. It took its current form on March 12, 2010. That’s when Stanley Works bought the Black & Decker Corp. for $3.5 billion in stock. At the time of the merger, Stanley shareholders owned 50.5% of the combined company, and Black & Decker investors owned the remaining 49.5%. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, the company earned $157.8 million, or $0.92 a share, compared to a loss of $108.6 million, or $1.11 a share, a year earlier. Excluding charges relating to the merger, the growth stock’s earnings per share would have risen 54.3%, to $1.08 from $0.70. The growth stock’s sales rose 89.0% in the quarter, to $2.4 billion from $1.3 billion. If you assume the purchase occurred at the start of 2010, sales would have risen 4%....

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 advice on how to spot good investments. 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: “3 ways to miss out on good investments.”

Here are 3 classic errors that can seriously hinder your returns, and cause you to miss out on good investments. All investors make them from time to time.

1. Too little diversification among the 5 sectors: Manufacturing and Resource stocks involve extra risk, Canadian Finance and Utilities involve lower risk, and Consumer falls in the middle. Sectors go in and out of investor favour, depending on economic conditions, corporate earnings, and investor whim. But in the long run, winners and losers appear in all five.
   
   If you stick to one or two sectors, you may get lucky and all of your picks will turn out to be good investments. Or, all your stocks may wind up out of favour and depressed. If you have to sell, you’ll do so at a low. So, spread your money out to eliminate luck. That way, you’ll always have exposure to the year’s most profitable investments, a key to successful investing.
   

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PASON SYSTEMS, symbol PSI on Toronto, rents equipment that its customers use to monitor and manage land-based oil rigs. The stock market pick also provides communication systems, such as its satellite system, which companies use to remotely collect data from their drilling operations. Pason serves oil and gas companies and drilling contractors throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Argentina. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Pason’s revenue jumped 50.0%, to $84.7 million from $56.4 million a year earlier. The company’s Canadian operations benefited from a cold winter that allowed rig movement on frozen ground until the end of March. Earnings climbed 125.3%, to $17.9 million, or $0.22 a share, from $7.9 million, or $0.10 a share. Stronger oil and gas industry drilling and higher selling prices for the company’s equipment pushed up results....

TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $52 and T.A $50; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 324 million; Market cap: $16.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) is Canada’s second-largest telephone company after BCE Inc. (Toronto symbol BCE). Telus has been expanding its wireless operations over the past few years. As a result, it now gets 52% of its earnings from its 7.0 million wireless subscribers across Canada. Telus now has 28% of the wireless market. Market leader Rogers Communications Inc. (Toronto symbol RCI.B) has 36%. The remaining 48% of the company’s earnings come from its traditional phone business, which has 3.7 million customers in British Columbia, Alberta and eastern Quebec. Telus also has 1.2 million Internet subscribers....

The U.S. consumer sector is highly competitive. As well, retailers are more exposed to swings in the overall economy than companies in some other sectors, such as utilities. However, U.S. consumer stocks also hold the potential for strong gains. To cut your risk and earn higher profits when investing in this volatile sector, it’s especially important to focus on chains that can adapt quickly and prosper in the fast-changing retail landscape. ...

Tim Hortons Inc., Toronto symbol THI, saw less traffic at its Canadian coffee-and-donut stores in the first quarter of 2011, due to bad winter weather. As well, the company spent more on promotions, which hurt its earnings growth.

We analyze Tim Hortons in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for portfolio investing in aggressive stocks.

In the three months ended April 3, 2011, Tim Hortons’ earnings rose 2.3%, to $80.7 million from $78.9 million....

If you’re a member of our Inner Circle service or a subscriber to one of our newsletters—or if you’re thinking of becoming a subscriber—you’ll want to make sure you “like” our Facebook page right away. That’s because, every Wednesday afternoon, you learn “what’s on Pat’s mind”. That’s when Pat gives you a special advance preview of what he’s working on for the upcoming issue of his newsletters (The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest, Canadian Wealth Advisor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster). We send a new issue to Inner Circle members and newsletter subscribers every Friday. If you haven’t yet visited the page — www.tsinetwork.ca/facebook — you really should. Nearly 500 investors now follow our Facebook page....

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $33 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 753.9 million; Market cap: $24.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) operates three oil-sands properties in Alberta, and one in Saskatchewan. Cenovus ships the heavy bitumen from these projects to refineries in Illinois and Texas. ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of these refineries, as well as 50% of Cenovus’ two main oil-sands projects. Cenovus also owns conventional oil and natural-gas properties. The company has received approval from regulators to expand its Christina Lake oil-sands project in Alberta. It will build this project in three phases; each phase will add 40,000 barrels per day to Christina Lake’s current production of 18,000 barrels per day. Cenovus will complete the first phase in 2014, the second phase in 2016 and the third phase in 2017....

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $46 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $39.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated-oil company. U.S.-based ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial’s shares. Most of the Imperial’s production comes from its oil-sands projects in Alberta. It also has conventional oil and natural-gas operations in western Canada, and holds interests in offshore projects in Atlantic Canada. The company’s other operations include four refineries and roughly 1,900 Esso gas stations. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Imperial earned $781 million, or $0.91 a share. That’s up 64.1% from $476 million, or $0.56 a share. Cash flow per share rose 4.7%, to $1.12 to $1.07. Revenue rose 11.4%, to $6.9 billion from $6.2 billion....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $39 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $62.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) merged with Petro-Canada in August 2009 to become Canada’s largest integrated-oil company. The company recently formed a joint venture with French oil company Total S.A., to develop two oil-sands projects. Under the terms of the deal, Suncor acquired 36.75% of Total’s Joslyn oil-sands project, which should begin operating in 2017. In exchange, Total received 49% of Suncor’s Voyageur facility, which converts tar-like bitumen from the oil sands into synthetic crude oil. Total also got part of Suncor’s stake in the Fort Hills oil-sands project....

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $61 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 169.4 million; Market cap: $10.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) transports freight between Montreal and Vancouver. It also connects with major hubs in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, CP’s earnings per share fell 66.7%, to $0.20 from $0.60 a year earlier. That’s mainly because a strike at Teck Resources Ltd. (Toronto symbol TCK.B) cut coal shipments (CP is Teck’s main railway). Bad winter weather in B.C. and a 28% jump in fuel prices also weighed on its earnings. CP’s revenue was unchanged at $1.2 billion. CP’s operating ratio worsened to 90.6% from 82.3% a year earlier. The company feels it can lower its operating ratio to around 70% in the next two to four years, mainly by increasing the speed and length of its trains. CP is also introducing new surcharges to help offset its higher fuel costs....

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $73 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 461.8 million; Market cap: $33.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) operates Canada’s largest freight-rail network, and serves 16 U.S. states. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is CN’s largest shareholder, with just over 10% of the shares. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, CN earned $668 million. That’s up 30.7% from $511 million a year earlier. The company spent $340 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Because of fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 34.3%, to, $1.45 from $1.08. If you exclude one-time items in both quarters, mainly gains on sales of rail lines in southern Ontario, earnings per share would have risen 12.5%, to $0.90 from $0.80. Revenue rose 6.1%, to $2.1 billion from $2.0 billion....

C.R. Bard Inc, symbol BCR on New York, makes medical devices in four main areas: vascular products (28% of sales) such as stents and catheters; oncology products (27%) that detect and treat various types of cancer; urology products (26%) such as drainage and incontinence devices; and surgical tools (16%). Other medical products supply the remaining 3%. We analyze C.R. Bard in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for investing in the U.S. stock market. In the first quarter of 2011, Bard’s sales rose 7.6%, to $700.3 million from $650.8 million a year earlier. Earnings gained 9.1% to $131.9 million, or $1.49 per share. The stock market pick earned $121.2 million, or $1.24 a share, a year earlier....

Most investors are aware of the usual stock market investing risk factors, such as falling profits, dividend cuts, police investigations, etc. But it pays to stay alert for more subtle signs of coming problems. Here are 3 hints that a company could soon be facing big trouble. (How to spot hints of trouble in your stocks is just one of the strategies we cover in our free report, “Stock Market Investing Strategy: Pat McKeough’s Conservative Investing Guide for Making Money & Cutting Risk.” Click here to download your copy now.)

1. Strong reactions to outside criticism: When outsiders criticize a company’s accounting and the criticism is unjustified, most corporate insiders simply ignore it. But if insiders have something to hide, they may squawk loudly — that is, threaten to sue critics of their accounting practices, in hopes of shutting them up....

Cash Store Financial, symbol CSF on Toronto, operates 573 stores in Canada under two banners: Cash Store Financial and Instaloans. It also has six Cash Store outlets in the U.K. Both stores offer consumer payday loans (advances on upcoming paycheques). In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Cash Store earned $0.14 a share. That’s up 7.7% from $0.13 a share a year earlier. Revenue rose 15.7% in the latest quarter, to $47.2 million from $40.8 million, mainly because the company opened seven new branches in Canada and two new outlets in the U.K. Cash Store aims to increase its profitability by slowing its expansion, except in the U.K., where its stores’ profit margins are high. It is also offering a wider variety of bank accounts through an alliance with Calgary-based DirectCash Bank....

We agree with the widely held view that inflation is likely to be higher in the next few years than in the last few. However, we disagree with the fear that inflation will come roaring back and surpass the peaks it hit in the 1970s and 1980s. Investors who expect severe inflation are focusing on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s efforts to expand the money supply and speed up economic growth. Growth in the money supply creates the potential for rising prices throughout the economy. However, it takes something more to turn that potential into reality. Money-supply growth alone failed to spur inflation in Japan in the past couple of decades, for instance. That’s because Japanese banks were reluctant to make loans, and Japanese consumers were reluctant to borrow. Something like that could also happen here....

Aastra Technologies, symbol AAH on Toronto, develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its technology is centered around business telephone systems, and includes products that integrate traditional and mobile phones. Aastra is one of the aggressive stock market picks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. The company reports that its sales fell 4.9%, in the three months ended March 31, 2011, to $162.7 million from $171.1 million a year earlier. Earnings fell sharply, to $200,000, or $0.01 a share, from $4.1 million, or $0.29 a share, a year earlier....

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, including tips for lower-risk aggressive investing. 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: “What you need to know about ‘thin traders’” Many speculative stocks, including some of our recommendations in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, are inactive or “thin” traders. They trade a few hundred to a few thousand shares daily, compared to hundreds of thousands, if not several million, for a Canadian bank....

Wyndham Worldwide Corp., symbol WYN on New York, is the third-largest hotel company in the world with 7,190 franchised hotels. It operates under a number of brands, including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, Wingate by Wyndham, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inns & Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Knights Inn and Ameri-host Inn. We analyze Wyndham in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for stocks that are appropriate for your aggressive portfolio. In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages a number of vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. The aggressive portfolio stock now has 97,000 vacation rental properties worldwide....

Some investors think by focusing our portfolio management strategy on stocks, and staying out of bonds and fixed-return investments, we’re missing out on bonds’ ability to lower portfolio volatility.

It’s true that bonds do tend to reduce your portfolio’s volatility, since they tend to rise when stock prices fall....

Verizon Communications Inc., symbol VZ on New York, owns 55% of Verizon Wireless, which is the largest wireless provider in the U.S.; U.K.-based Vodafone plc owns the other 45%. This business has 104 million customers in 50 states, and accounts for 63% of Verizon’s revenue. The remaining 37% comes from its wireline division, which sells local and long-distance telephone service to over 25 million customers in 28 states. The high dividend stock’s annual payout rate is $1.95 a share, for a yield of 5.2%. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Verizon earned $0.51 per share, up 218.8% from $0.16 a year earlier. If you exclude costs related to the spinoff of a subsidiary and other unusual items in the year-earlier quarter, earnings per share would have risen 6.3%. Sales rose just 0.3%, to $27.0 billion from $26.9 billion a year earlier....

Today’s fast-changing technology offers huge opportunities in tech stocks. However, fast change also brings danger. Here are 4 risk factors you face when investing in tech stocks (below we look at 4 ways you can minimize these risks—and increase your profits).

1. Marketing is as hard as inventing: Even a great new product or computer program may fail to overcome retailer and customer skepticism.
2. A tech stock’s acquisitions can bring “time-bomb” risk: Companies sometimes grow quickly by buying other companies. But sellers may simply want out of a losing situation.
3. Major tech stocks also make mistakes: Junior tech stocks often trumpet their deals with major firms, such as Apple. Apple has vastly more knowledge and bargaining clout than any individual investor. But it still invests in products that fail.
4. High-tech shams are common: It’s easier to set up a company and sell stock to investors than to perfect a technological advance. Be especially wary when junior technology stocks splurge on elaborate web sites and glossy investor brochures.

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AT&T, symbol T on New York, was the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Apple iPhone, until Verizon started selling it in February. However, AT&T is rapidly upgrading its wireless networks, which should help it hang on to its current iPhone customers. Despite iPhone competition from Verizon, AT&T still activated nearly 3.6 million iPhones in the first quarter, with 23% of those being new customers for AT&T. In all, it sold 5.5 million smartphones in the quarter. Besides the iPhone, AT&T is benefiting from rising use of other wireless devices, such as the iPad and electronic-book readers. The company added 2 million wireless customers in the quarter, and now has 97.5 million....