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In the April 21, 2011, Successful Investor Email/Telephone Hotline, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on grocery retailer Metro Inc. (symbol MRU.A on Toronto). Metro is a good example of a stock that has graduated from Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investors, to The Successful Investor, which focuses on more conservative selections....

Yum! Brands Inc., symbol YUM on New York, operates nearly 38,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food). Yum has announced it will sell its Long John Silver’s (seafood) and its A&W (burgers) chains. You can get our full analysis, including our clear stock advice, on Yum in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that covers the U.S. markets. In the three months ended March 19, 2011, Yum’s sales rose 3.4%, to $2.43 billion from $2.35 billion a year earlier. Overall sales rose 28% in China, where same-store sales rose 13%. Yum also opened 92 new restaurants there. The international division, which excludes China, opened 131 new restaurants....

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 how to use financial ratios. 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: “How we use financial ratios to spot bargain stocks.” If you want to shop for bargain stocks, it’s best to focus on shares of high-quality companies that have a history of sales and earnings, plus a strong hold on a growing clientele....

International Business Machines Corp., symbol IBM on New York, reported higher-than-expected earnings in the latest quarter. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, the large cap stock’s earnings rose 10.1%, to $2.9 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 17.3%, to $2.31 from $1.97, on fewer shares outstanding. Excluding one-time items, such as costs related to acquisitions, IBM earned $2.41 a share. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $2.29. Revenue rose 7.7%, to $24.6 billion from $22.9 billion a year earlier. That was higher than the consensus revenue estimate of $24.0 billion. Revenue from Brazil, Russia, India and China (which together account for 21% of IBM’s overall revenue), jumped 26%. The company is also seeing strong demand for its new System Z mainframe computer....

Canadians can still get rich as employees—ask any Canadian bank president. However, high-paying jobs are hard to find. Most corporate structures are pyramid-shaped, with a few high-paying positions at the top and many lower-paying jobs down below. Your best chance of getting rich is by investing money in your own business. But this is risky, because many new businesses wind up failing. As many as 80% go bankrupt or simply shut down in their first five years, according to surveys. Many owners of failed enterprises lose their life savings by investing money in their businesses, if not their homes and marriages. ...

Genuine Parts Co., symbol GPC on New York, distributes auto parts through more than 5,700 NAPA Auto Parts stores in the U.S. and 690 wholesalers in Canada. The company also distributes industrial parts, office furniture, and electrical equipment. We analyze Genuine Parts in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that helps you find the best stocks in the U.S. markets. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Genuine Parts earned $126.5 million. That’s up 25.7% from $100.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 27.0% to $0.80 from $0.63, on fewer shares outstanding....

We hardly ever recommend buying new issues when they are first sold to the public, and often stay away from them for months, if not years, afterward. That’s because new issues often come to market when it’s a good time for the company and/or its insiders to sell, but that’s not necessarily a good time for you to buy. Spinoffs are in many ways the opposite of new issues. Companies often do spinoffs when they feel it isn’t a good time to sell. Instead, they choose to hand out shares of the new firm to their shareholders. That often results in buying opportunities in undervalued stocks. (In a just-published issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for investing in the U.S. markets, we update our buy/sell/hold advice on a spinoff whose shares have soared 79% for us since September 2010. See below for further details on this potentially undervalued stock’s outlook.)...

Intuitive Surgical, symbol ISRG on Nasdaq, makes the “da Vinci,” a computerized surgical system. Intuitive trades at a high price per share, but you can buy as few as you wish through any broker. You can get our stock advice on Intuitive and other aggressive picks in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. Guided by a miniature camera connected to a 3-D monitor, surgeons use the da Vinci to operate by remotely manipulating tiny robotic arms. This is safer and far less invasive than regular surgery. It reduces the patient’s recovery time, post-operative discomfort, scarring and infection risk....

Today, many investors might not immediately recognize the name of master investor John Templeton. In the final quarter of the last century, however, Templeton was as famous and highly regarded as Warren Buffett is today. Templeton got his start as an investor during the 1930s Depression. At the time, he felt investors were way more pessimistic than the facts warranted. Instead of dwelling on negative predictions, Templeton focused his investing strategy on the low p/e ratios, high dividend yields and other value indicators he saw in the market. In 1939, Templeton famously ordered his broker to buy 100 shares of every New York Stock Exchange stock that traded for less than $1....

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $15 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.transcontinental.com) is the largest commercial printer in Canada and Mexico, and the fourth-largest in North America. It also publishes newspapers and magazines. Transcontinental also has over 250 web sites. These web sites will become more important to its growth in the next few years, as advertisers spend more on the Internet than print products. In the first quarter of fiscal 2011, which ended January 31, 2011, Transcontinental earned $29.9 million, or $0.37 a share. That’s up 10.3% from $27.1 million, or $0.34 a share, a year earlier. These figures exclude writedowns and other non-recurring items. Revenue rose 3.6%, to $530.1 million from $511.6 million....

Supervalu Inc., New York symbol SVU operates 2,394 company-owned and franchised supermarkets. The Wall Street stock’s major banners include Save-A-Lot, Albertsons and Jewel-Osco. Supervalu gets 77% of its revenue from its retail stores. It gets the remaining 23% by supplying food to 1,900 independent grocery stores. The company continues to focus on its core business of food retailing, and has stopped selling other items, such as automotive goods and perfumes, in its stores. In its fiscal 2011 ended February 26, 2011, the Wall Street stock’s sales fell 7.5%, to $37.5 billion from $40.6 billion in fiscal 2010. Same-store sales fell 6.0%. The company closed underperforming stores, and was forced to cut its prices due to stronger competition from discount retailers, including Wal-Mart, which is selling more groceries in its stores....

If you subscribe to Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that recommends stocks for your aggressive portfolio, you’ll want to take a very close look at the current issue. In it, we reveal the names of 12 stocks you should sell right away—and avoid the potential for big losses. (Note: if you are a current Stock Pickers Digest subscriber or Inner Circle member, click here to view the latest issue, which contains these 12 sell recommendations. Be sure to log in first.) If you’re a long-time subscriber to one or more of our newsletters, you likely know that we downplay market-timing and stock-price predictions in the advice we give you. Instead, we focus on investment quality. This includes the stocks for your aggressive portfolio that we recommend in Stock Pickers Digest....

TORSTAR CORP. $15 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.1 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.torstar.com) publishes The Toronto Star, which is Canada’s largest daily newspaper by circulation. The company also publishes three other daily newspapers and over 100 weeklies, mainly in southern Ontario. Newspapers account for about 70% of Torstar’s revenue, and 60% of its earnings. The company’s other main business is wholly owned Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., the world’s leading publisher of romance novels. Torstar recently received $291.6 million from the sale of its 20% stake in CTVglobemedia to BCE Inc. (Toronto symbol BCE). This business owns CTV Television and other broadcasting businesses....

Alcoa Inc., symbol AA on New York, is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The U.S. stock’s customers are mainly in the aerospace, automotive, construction and beverage industries. Alcoa operates in 31 countries. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, the U.S. stock’s sales rose 21.9 %, to $6.0 billion from $4.9 billion a year earlier. Even so, the latest sales fell short of the consensus estimate of $6.1 billion. Alcoa earned $309 million, or $0.27 a share. If you exclude unusual items, such as costs to integrate firms Alcoa recently bought, it would have earned $0.28 a share. On that basis, the U.S. stock’s latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.27 a share. A year earlier, Alcoa lost $194 million, or $0.19 a share....

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. 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: “How to invest in the stock market with less risk” Many people come up with unrealistic answers to the question of how much risk is right for them. For instance, when they’re young and just starting out, many investors decide to move away from a conservative investment strategy and speculate. They expect to build a small portfolio into a big one in a hurry, then shift their money into boring, but more dependable investments. Key points to remember:...

Reitmans (Canada) Ltd., symbol RET.A on Toronto, owns 968 women’s clothing stores across Canada. We analyze Reitmans in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing in today’s stock market. These include 364 Reitmans, 161 Penningtons, 158 Smart Set, 121 Addition Elle, 75 Thyme Maternity, 67 RW & Co. and 22 Cassis stores. Reitmans continues to actively monitor its regional markets, and open and close stores as necessary....

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) resemble income trusts, but with a key difference: REITs invest in income-producing real estate, such as office buildings and hotels. High-quality real estate investment trusts can make attractive, lower-risk additions to your portfolio. Even so, we continue to advise against overindulging in REITs. But if you’re thinking of investing in some of Canada’s top REITs, here are 2 reasons why now is a great time to do so:...

TRANSCANADA CORP. $39 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 699.5 million; Market cap: $27.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) operates a 60,000-kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. TransCanada also owns, or has interests in, over 10,900 megawatts of power generation. That includes Bruce Power LP, a nuclear facility in Ontario, and the Ravenswood facility, which serves New York City. TransCanada has spent about $10 billion of the $20 billion it has set aside for new growth projects. It will spend the remaining $10 billion over the next two years. Its biggest project is the Keystone pipeline, which it is building in three phases. Keystone’s first phase is now pumping crude oil from Alberta to refineries in Illinois. The second phase will extend to Oklahoma, and should be ready in 2011. The third phase, called Keystone XL, will pump oil to refineries in Texas. U.S. environmentalists and politicians have criticized this project. Even so, TransCanada aims to finish Keystone XL by the end of 2013....

Linamar Corp., symbol LNR on Toronto, is an international engineering company that mainly makes transmission and driveline systems for carmakers in North America, Europe and Asia. The growth stock’s products also include engines and self-propelled, scissor-type elevating work platforms, which it makes under the Skyjack name, plus consumer products, such as lawn mowers and cargo trailers. Excluding one-time items, such as writedowns and severance costs, Linamar earned $86.1 million, or $1.33 a share, in 2010. That’s a big improvement over the $1.1 million, or $0.02 a share, that Linamar earned in 2009. The 2010 turnaround reflects the recovery of worldwide vehicle sales from the depressed levels of 2009. The growth stock’s sales rose 33.0%, to $2.2 billion from $1.7 billion. Most of the gain was the result of a 37.1% increase in sales at the powertrain/driveline division, which accounted for 93.1% of the growth stock’s total 2010 sales....

These 3 tips for finding the best Canadian stocks have long been part of the advice we give you in our investment services and newsletters, including Canadian Wealth Advisor, our newsletter for conservative investing. We think they can help you spot the best Canadian stocks for your portfolio, too.

1. No stock can ever be so undervalued or desirable that it overcomes a lack of integrity on the part of company insiders: If you have any doubts about the integrity of insiders, sell immediately. There are no limits to the ways in which unscrupulous operators can and will cheat you.
   However, to enhance your long-term returns, not just avoid loss, you need to apply this tip in a moderate fashion. You need to distinguish between lack of integrity on the one hand, and naivete or poor judgment on the other. Many of the best Canadian stocks eventually run afoul of tax rules or regulatory decisions, for instance. If you take that as a sign of low integrity, you can wind up selling solid investments at market lows.

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FirstService Corp., symbol FSV on Toronto, serves the following areas of the real-estate market: commercial real estate; residential property management; and property improvement. FirstService is one of the stocks we cover in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, the real estate investment’s revenue jumped 18.5%, to $552.1 million from $465.8 million a year earlier. (All figures except share prices in U.S. dollars.) Earnings per share rose 37.0%, to $0.37 from $0.27....

Tonight at 6 p.m., we’ll issue 2 urgent “sell” recommendations in our Successful Investor Email/Telephone Hotlines. If you’re holding these 2 companies, we think it’s crucial that you sell them immediately to take profits—and avoid the potential for big losses—in your investment portfolio. Read on to learn how you can be among the first to get full details on these stocks with no cost and no obligation. ...

Cintas Corp., Nasdaq symbol CTAS, designs, makes and sells uniforms to about 800,000 business, mainly in North America. Cintas also offers related services, including office cleaning and document shredding. Cintas is one of the U.S. stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In the three months ended February 28, 2011, the company’s sales rose 8.8%, to $937.8 million from $861.8 million a year earlier (all figures in U.S. dollars). Earnings rose 20.6%, to $59.1 million from $49.0 million. Earnings per share rose 28.1%, to $0.41 from $0.32, on more shares outstanding. The latest earnings easily beat the consensus estimate of $0.36 a share....

There’s no limit to the types of investment questions Inner Circle members can ask me and my team of investment experts. Members often ask us about the best ways to profit from specific trends in society. For example, we’ve gotten more questions from members about green energy stocks as concern for the environment has risen. An Inner Circle member recently asked for our recommendation on Electrovaya Inc. This green energy stock’s lightweight batteries can be used in renewable-energy projects and hybrid cars. To give you a sense of how the Inner Circle works, I’d like to share this question, and our answer, with you. I hope you enjoy and profit from it. Q: Hello Mr. McKeough: Recently there has been interest in Electrovaya Inc., which has signed an agreement to provide batteries to Chrysler. What is your opinion on this stock? Regards....

Delphi Energy, symbol DEE on Toronto, explores for oil and gas in Alberta and B.C. Natural gas makes up 76% of its daily output; the remaining 24% is oil. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, the commodity investment reported combined daily output of natural gas, liquid natural gas and crude oil rose 24.0%, to 8,539 barrels of oil equivalent from 6,888 barrels a year earlier. Delphi’s cash flow rose 26.5%, to $18.0 million from $14.2 million. Its cash flow per share rose 14.3%, to $0.16 a share from $0.14 a share....