Search

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $57.14 (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 Teva Pharmaceuticals....

Members of our Inner Circle service often ask for our advice on stocks they are thinking of buying that we don’t cover in our newsletters. These companies range from large multinational companies to the most speculative penny stocks. For example, an Inner Circle member recently asked our advice on Gippsland Resources. The Australia-based penny stock’s two main properties are both located in Egypt, and contain deposits of tantalum, a rust-resistant metal with many industrial uses. To give you a sense of how my Inner Circle service works, I’d like to share this question, and our answer, with you. I hope you enjoy and profit from it....

Tim Hortons, symbol THI on Toronto symbol THI, sold its half of Maidstone Bakeries business to Aryzta AG of Switzerland last year for $475 million. That helped the company buy back $341.1 million of its stock under its current repurchase program, which ended February 17, 2011. Under its new program, the company plans to spend up to $445 million on share repurchases over the next year. Meanwhile, the growth stock pick’s sales rose 4.0%, to $2.5 billion in 2010 from $2.4 billion in 2009. During the year, the company opened 149 new restaurants in Canada. That brings its total number of Canadian stores up to 3,148. Same-stores sales in Canada rose 4.9%. In the U.S., Tim Hortons opened 44 restaurants and 52 self-serve kiosks. It now has 602 U.S. outlets. Same-store sales in the U.S. rose 3.9%. The company’s earnings for 2010 jumped 110.5%, to $624.0 million from $296.4 million in 2009. Earnings per share rose 118.3%, to $3.58 from $1.64, on fewer shares outstanding. This was mostly due to a $361.1-million gain on the sale of Maidstone. New restaurants and menu items also contributed to the higher earnings....

We think the long-term outlook for China — and Chinese stocks — is bright. That’s because the country’s huge population is generally younger than North Americans, and large numbers of Chinese have the potential to advance from poverty into the middle class. (One of the best ways for investors to tap into Chinese growth is through low-fee exchange-traded funds. The SPDR S&P China ETF is one example of an exchange traded fund that focuses on China. You can get our very latest buy/sell/hold advice on this fund in the latest issue of Canadian Wealth Advisor. See below for further details.) ...

ISHARES MSCI CANADA INDEX FUND $33.63 (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, 5.8%; TD Bank, 5.0%; Suncor Energy, 5.0%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.4%; Potash Corp., 4.0%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.7%; Barrick Gold, 3.6%; Teck Resources, 2.7%; Bank of Montreal, 2.5%; Goldcorp, 2.4%; CN Railway, 2.4%; Manulife Financial, 2.4%; CIBC, 2.3% and Research in Motion, 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....

SPDR S&P CHINA ETF $75.92 (New York Exchange symbol GXC; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com), is an exchange-traded fund that aims to track the S&P China BMI Index. This index is made up of all of the publicly traded Chinese stocks that are available to foreign investors. Right now, SPDR S&P China ETF holds 147 stocks. The $669.0-million fund’s top holdings are: China Construction Bank, 7.6%; China Mobile, 6.5%; Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 5.3%; CNOOC Ltd., 4.8%; Baidu Inc., 4.6%; Bank of China, 4.4%; China Life Insurance, 3.9%; Petro-China, 3.9%; Tencent Holdings Ltd., 3.0%; and China Petroleum & Chemical, 2.5%. The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Financials, 32.5%; Oil and Gas, 16.0%; Information Technology, 13.1%; Telecommunication Services, 9.0%; Consumer Discretionary, 6.2%; Basic Materials, 5.8%; Consumer Staples, 4.6%; Utilities, 1.9%; and Health Care, 1.0%....

GUGGENHEIM CHINA SMALL CAP ETF $28.35 (New York Exchange symbol HAO; buy or sell through brokers; www.guggenheimfunds.com) aims to track the AlphaShares China Small Cap Index. This index is made up of all investable Chinese stocks with market caps between $200 million and $1.5 billion. The $374.8-million fund’s top holdings are Zhaojin Mining Industry, 1.5%; China Everbright, 1.3%; China Shipping Container Lines, 1.3%; BBMG Corp., 1.3%; Semiconductor Manufacturing International, 1.2%; Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co., 1.2%; Great Wall Motor Corp., 1.2%; Shanda Interactive Entertainment, 1.2%: China BlueChemical, 1.2%; and China Shanshui Cement Group, 1.1%. As China’s economy matures, and consumers feel more protected by the expanding social-safety net, domestic spending should rise. The ongoing Arab revolution could also spur China’s leaders to boost spending on social programs and services to ease the growing gap between the rich and poor. This fund is well positioned to benefit from these trends....

APACHE CORP. $121 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 364.6 million; Market cap: $44.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.6; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apachecorp.com) gets 20% of its oil and natural gas from Egypt....

IMPERIAL OIL $51.49 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $43.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.9%; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s largest integrated oil company. Imperial earned $0.95 a share in the three months ended December 31, 2010. That’s up 50.8%, from $0.63 a share a year earlier. The rise was mainly the result of higher oil and gas prices, and improved profits at Imperial’s refineries. Revenue rose 18.2%, to $6.9 billion from $5.9 billion. The company’s production is set to rise in the long term, thanks to its new oil-sands projects, including the $8-billion Kearl project, which is more than 50% complete. When it starts operating in 2012, Kearl should add 78,100 barrels of oil to Imperial’s daily production of 294,000 barrels. Imperial owns 71% of Kearl. ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM) owns the remaining 29%. Exxon also holds a 69.6% interest in Imperial....

Wyndham Worldwide, symbol WYN on New York, is the third-largest hotel company in the world, with 7,110 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 investing in your aggressive portfolio. In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages a number of vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. This wide range of operations gives Wyndham more consistent cash flow than most of its competitors, who mainly focus on hotels....

NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC. $20 (New York symbol NWL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 290.3 million; Market cap: $5.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 1.0%; 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, Waterman and Levolor. The company has three divisions: Home & Family, which supplied 41% of its 2010 sales and 35% of its earnings; Office Products (30%, 34%) and Tools, Hardware and Commercial Products (29%, 31%). Newell recently finished a multi-year restructuring, which included closing plants and getting out of lessprofitable businesses. These moves will cut its yearly costs by $220 million by the end of 2011....

CHEVRON CORP. $102 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $204.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) began exploring for oil in Libya in 2005, after the U.S....

Cenovus Energy Inc., symbol CVE on Toronto, 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. Cenovus split off from EnCana Corp. in December 2009. In 2010, Cenovus earned $993.0 million, or $1.32 a share. That’s up 21.4% from $818.0 million, or $1.09 a share, in 2009. The oil stock’s production rose, as did oil prices. These were the main reasons for the higher earnings. These gains were somewhat offset by higher costs for shipping oil due to problems along the Enbridge pipeline system, and costs to upgrade its U.S. refineries. The oil stock’s cash flow fell 15.1% in 2010, to $2.4 billion, or $3.21 a share, from $2.8 billion, or $3.79 a share in 2009. Lower volumes and selling prices for natural gas were the main reasons for the declines....

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO. $83 (New York symbol SHW; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 107.9 million; Market cap: $9.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.sherwin-williams.com) is North America’s largest paint producer. The company also operates 3,400 paint stores, which account for 55% of its sales. In 2010, Sherwin expanded its wood-coating operations by purchasing two European companies: In April, it paid $53.8 million for Italy’s Sayerlack. In September, it bought Sweden’s Becker Acroma for $230.4 million. These new businesses are part of the reason why Sherwin’s sales rose 9.6% in 2010, to $7.8 billion from $7.1 billion in 2009. However, integration costs will keep them from contributing to Sherwin’s earnings until mid-2011....

LoJack Corp., symbol LOJN on Nasdaq, sells systems that help track and recover stolen vehicles. LoJack sells its products in the U.S. and 30 other countries. The company’s Canadian subsidiary is Boomerang Tracking. LoJack is one of the aggressive investing stocks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, LoJack’s revenue rose 12.4%, to $40.0 million from $35.6 million a year earlier. The international division’s revenue jumped 27.1%, to $16.4 million from $12.9 million a year earlier. Sales in Italy were especially strong in the latest quarter: the company added 2,200 clients in the country, and now has a total of 13,000 Italian clients....

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 investing money. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Our advice on 2 ways of investing money in the stock market” Most investors place two types of orders when buying stocks: “market orders” or “limit orders.”...

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $64 (New York symbol PG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.8 billion; Market cap: $179.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pg.com) is one of the world’s largest makers of household and personal-care products. Some of its top brands are Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste, Head & Shoulders shampoo and Pampers diapers. The company gets 60% of its sales from outside the U.S. Procter is streamlining its business. That includes dropping some less-profitable brands and cutting a third of its suppliers. These moves should free up more cash for advertising and marketing. As well, lower costs will give Procter more flexibility to cut its prices without hurting its profit margins. Meanwhile, the company earned $3.3 billion in its 2011 second quarter, which ended December 31, 2010. That’s up 5.8% from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 9.9%, to $1.11 from $1.01, on fewer shares outstanding. If you exclude an unusual tax gain and costs related to an investigation of the company by European competition regulators, earnings per share would have risen 2.7%, to $1.13 from $1.10....

Nvidia Corp., Nasdaq symbol NVDA, designs graphic chips that make computer games run more smoothly and appear more lifelike. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended January 30, 2011, Nvidia earned $253.1 million. It lost $68.0 million in 2010. Earnings per share jumped to $0.43 from a loss of $0.12. Excluding one-time items, the technology stock’s earnings per share rose 160.0%, to $0.65 from $0.45. Nvidia spent 24.0% of its sales on research in fiscal 2011, so it’s more profitable than it seems. Sales rose 6.5%, to $3.5 billion from $3.3 billion. That’s largely due to strong demand for the technology stock’s new Tegra chips, which greatly enhance displays on cellphones and other mobile devices. The company is also seeing strong interest from computer makers for its chips that can process data as well as display graphics....

Investors generally look to aggressive stocks for capital gains and to more conservative stocks, like utilities, for income. However, there are some aggressive Canadian dividend paying stocks whose payouts are as high — or even higher — than more established companies. (We updated our buy/sell/hold advice on a high-dividend aggressive stock in the February 25, 2011, Stock Pickers Digest hotline. See below for further details.) ...

DUN & BRADSTREET CORP. $81 (New York symbol DNB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 49.8 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dnb.com) is the world’s largest provider of credit reports on individual companies. Businesses use these reports to make buying decisions and protect themselves from credit losses. Dun & Bradstreet has built up its international operations over the past few years. For example, in August 2010 it bought full control of its Australian credit-rating business for $207.9 million. The purchase is helping Dun & Bradstreet profit from rising demand for reliable credit ratings in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region. The company’s growing overseas operations are also helping it offset slower growth in North America, which still supplies 75% of its revenue. In 2010, Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue rose 3.1%, to $1.64 billion from $1.59 billion. International revenue rose 17%. That more than offset a 1% decline in North American revenue....

Campbell Soup Co., symbol CBB 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. The company gets 19.8% of its sales from international markets. Its biggest foreign markets are Australia and Europe. In the three months ended January 30, 2011, company’s sales fell 1.2%, to $2.13 billion from $2.15 billion. Soup sales fell 4.0% in the U.S. The company continues to face strong competition from generic brands. In response, it ran promotions that discounted the prices of some of its brands, particularly ready-to-serve soups. Earnings fell 7.7%, to $239.0 million from $259.0 million a year earlier. The company spent $417 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 4.1% to $0.71 from $0.74. The lower sales and higher advertising spending were the main reasons for the decline....

Copper continues to attract a lot of attention from investors in commodity stocks. That’s because the metal recently hit an all-time high of $4.62 U.S. a pound. That’s up sharply from its low of $1.25 U.S. in late 2008. Right now, copper trades at around $4.47 U.S. a pound. Traditionally, investors have bought copper as a way to profit from general economic growth. That’s because, unlike gold, silver and many other precious metals, copper has a wide range of industrial uses. For example, it’s a key element in electrical wire and pipe. ...

MOODY’S CORP. $30 (New York symbol MCO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 234.2 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.moodys.com) provides independent credit ratings and other information on bonds and other securities. Credit ratings account for 70% of Moody’s revenue. It gets the remaining 30% from selling credit-assessment software to banks and other lenders. As the economy improves, more businesses are issuing new bonds to fund expansion projects. That’s pushing up demand for Moody’s credit ratings. As a result, Moody’s revenue rose 13.1% in 2010, to $2.0 billion from $1.8 billion in 2009. Revenue from the U.S. (54% of overall revenue), rose 18.3%. Revenue at the company’s international operations (46% of revenue) rose 7.5%....

MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES INC. $38 (New York symbol MHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 307.0 million; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mcgraw-hill.com) gets 70% of its earnings and 45% of its revenue from its Standard & Poor’s division, which provides financial information, including credit ratings on bonds. The company also publishes textbooks and magazines, and owns nine television stations. In 2010, McGraw-Hill’s revenue rose 3.6%, to $6.2 billion from $6.0 billion. Revenue from Standard & Poor’s rose 8.3%, as businesses took advantage of low interest rates to issue more bonds. The textbook division’s revenue rose 1.9%, thanks to higher college enrolment and rising demand for electronic versions of its books. That offset slower demand for new elementary and high-school textbooks. Revenue at McGraw-Hill’s media operations fell 4.9%, mainly because the company sold BusinessWeek magazine in 2009. Without this sale, this division’s revenue would have risen 6.2%....

Yum! Brands Inc., New York symbol YUM, operates over 37,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food) and Long John Silver’s (seafood). The company continues to grow strongly in China. That offsets slower growth in the U.S. and other parts of the world. In 2010, Yum’s sales rose 4.7%, to $11.3 billion from $10.8 billion in fiscal 2019. Overall sales rose 17% in China, while same-store sales in China grew 6%. Yum opened 507 new restaurants in China in 2010, along with another 884 international outlets outside China....