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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....

Buckeye Partners L.P., symbol BPL on New York, operates over 8,700 kilometres of pipelines in the northeastern and midwestern U.S. These lines pump gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products. Buckeye also owns oil and natural-gas storage terminals and other related businesses. Buckeye is one of the income investing picks we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster. In 2010, Buckeye’s revenue jumped 78.0%, to $3.2 billion from $1.8 billion in 2009. The gain mostly reflects the company’s recent acquisition of oil pipelines and storage terminals. In addition, the company is transporting more fuel due to the improving economy. Rising oil prices have also pushed up the company’s fee income....

A key part of our three-part tsinetwork.ca investment strategy is to diversify by spreading your money out across the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities). (The other two parts are to stick with well-established, dividend-paying companies, and downplay stocks in the broker/public-relations limelight.) Generally speaking, stocks in the Resources and Manufacturing & Industry sectors expose you to above-average volatility, and stocks in the Utilities and Canadian Finance sectors entail below-average volatility. Consumer stocks fall somewhere in the middle....

Telus Corp., symbol T.A on Toronto, provides telephone services in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. It also sells wireless services across Canada. In 2010, the dividend paying stock’s sales rose 1.8%, to $9.8 billion from $9.6 billion in 2009. Sales in the company’s wireless division rose 6.6%, and the wireline division’s sales fell 2.2%. Overall, Telus added 378,000 customers in 2010, bringing the total to 12.3 million. That figure includes 7.0 million wireless subscribers, 3.7 million wireline access lines, 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 314,000 “Optik TV” customers. (Optik TV is an Internet-based television service that operates through phone lines.)...

Cameco Corp., symbol CCO on Toronto, is the world’s largest uranium producer. The company supplies over 18% of global production, and has large, high-grade reserves, low-cost operations, significant market share and a number of uranium mines. The company also holds a 31.6% interest in Ontario’s Bruce Power partnership, which operates four of the eight reactors at the Bruce plant, North America’s largest nuclear-power complex. Uranium traded as low as $40 U.S. a pound in March 2010. Recently, it rose as high as $61, largely on news that China plans to raise its nuclear-power generation targets by 60%. Cameco recently signed two contracts with Chinese nuclear authorities: it will deliver 23 million pounds of uranium to China National Nuclear Corp., China’s largest nuclear-power producer, by 2020. It will also deliver 29 million pounds of uranium oxide to fast-growing nuclear producer China Guangdong Nuclear Power through 2025....

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 stock advice. 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: “Too many stocks are as bad as too few.” The right number of stocks for you to own depends in part on where you are in your investing career....

Kraft Foods Inc., symbol KFT on New York, is the world’s second-largest food company, after Switzerland-based Nestle. Kraft has 11 brands that generate over $1 billion each in yearly sales. Aside from Kraft (cheeses, pasta and salad dressings), the large cap stock’s brands include Philadelphia (cream cheese), Maxwell House (coffee), Nabisco (biscuits), Oreo (cookies), Trident (gum) and Oscar Meyer (meats). In April 2010, Kraft paid $18.5 billion in cash and stock for U.K.-based Cadbury plc, a leading maker of confectioneries, including chocolate, candy and gum. Cadbury’s well-known brands include Dentyne and Clorets (gum), Dairy Milk (chocolate bars) and Halls (cough drops)....

Some investors rely on technical analysis (or chart reading) when they’re looking to add high return investments to their portfolios. That’s because relying on charts seems much simpler than delving into and weighing a company’s fundamentals. We always do some technical analysis when we look for high return investments to recommend in our newsletters, including Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing. And some successful investors find it helps to know a little about charts. But if you rely on charts at all, you should view them as just one of many things to consider when you make investment decisions. ...

Teradata Corp., symbol TDC on New York, makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data. Teradata then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and trends. Teradata is taking advantage of the weak economy to hire new salespeople. That’s helping it enter new markets and offer more technology and services to its existing clients. In the year ended December 31, 2010, the tech stock’s sales climbed 13.5%, to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion. Sales rose 19% in the Americas, 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, and 3% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The tech stock’s earnings rose 18.5% in 2010, to $301 million from $254 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose to $1.77 from $1.46, on fewer shares outstanding. The company bought back 3 million of its own shares for $88 million in 2010....

Calian Technologies, symbol CTY on Toronto, operates in two areas: the business and technology services division, which accounts for 71% of the growth stock’s revenue, provides engineers, health-care workers and other skilled professional to clients on a contract basis. The systems-engineering division contributes the remaining 29% of revenue, and sells hardware and software that is used for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communications systems. In its first fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, 2010, the growth stock’s earnings fell 8.8%, to $3.1 million from $3.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share dropped 6.8%, to $0.41 from $0.44, on fewer shares outstanding. Calian saw slightly lower demand for its higher-profit-margin contract workers....

Sysco Corp., symbol SYY on New York, supplies food and kitchen supplies to over 400,000 restaurants, hotels and schools in North America and Ireland. In its fiscal 2011 second quarter, which ended January 1, 2011, the U.S. stock’s earnings fell 3.8%, to $258.2 million, or $0.44 a share. That fell short of the consensus earnings estimate of $0.47 a share. A year earlier, it earned $268.3 million, or $0.45 a share. The company’s labour, pension and fuel costs all rose during the quarter. Revenue rose 5.8%, to $9.4 billion from $8.9 billion. However, most of the gain came from a 4.5% rise in food prices (meat, dairy and seafood jumped more than 10%), which Sysco passed along to its customers. A year earlier, food prices had dropped 3.5%....

We’ve long relied on these 3 stock market investing tips to find stocks to recommend in our investment newsletters and services. We think they can help you pick winners, too. (Our special report, “Stock Market Investing Strategy: Pat McKeough’s Conservative Investing Guide for Making Money and Cutting Risk,” is full of lower-risk investing strategies you can easily put into practice right away. Click here to download your copy now.)

1. Think like a portfolio manager: Portfolio managers gather information from companies, industry studies and other sources. A good portfolio manager then tries to build his or her client a portfolio that makes money if things go well, but won’t lose too much if the opinions sometimes turn out to be faulty....

Visa Inc., symbol V on New York, 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 company generates revenue from fees it charges card issuers and merchants for using its network. These fees are based on payment volume, transactions processed and other factors. Visa continues to benefit from the global trend toward greater use of credit and debit cards. In its 2011 first quarter, which ended December 31, the company’s revenue rose 14.2%, to $2.24 billion from $1.96 billion a year earlier. Earnings rose 15.9%, to $884.0 million from $763.0 million....

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 mines and gold investments. For example, an Inner Circle member recently asked for our advice on Northern Abitibi Mining. The company has reported some promising drill results from its gold project in Newfoundland. 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....

Fortis Inc., symbol FTS on Toronto, is the main supplier of electrical power in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. It also operates power plants in other parts of Canada, as well as the U.S., Belize and the Cayman Islands. As well, Fortis operates hotels and other businesses in Canada. Fortis recently raised its quarterly dividend by 3.6%, to $0.29 a share from $0.28. The new annual rate of $1.16 yields 3.5%. The company has been working to lower its reliance on Atlantic Canada. In May 2004, Fortis bought regulated electrical utilities in Alberta and B.C. for $1.5 billion in cash and stock. In May 2007, it paid $3.7 billion for the regulated gas-distribution business of Terasen Inc. (formerly called BC Gas), which has 939,600 customers in B.C. Fortis issued $1.15 billion of new common shares to help pay for this purchase....

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. Tip of the week: “Focus your investing strategy on quality and diversification—not economic forecasts.” Economic forecasts attract way more investor attention than they deserve, in view of the meagre advantage, if any, that they add to your investing strategy. In fact, most experienced, successful investors feel skeptical, if not downright cynical, about economic forecasts, for three reasons....

Toyota Motor Co. (symbol TM on New York) has been the world’s largest carmaker since GM lost that position in 2008. The company is one of the world stock market investments we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In its third fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, 2010, Toyota’s earnings fell 33.7%, to $1.1 billion from $1.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings per ADR dropped 33.9%, to $0.72 from $1.09, on more ADRs outstanding. Toyota’s sales declined 4.3%, to $56.3 billion from $58.3 billion a year earlier. The strength of the yen against the U.S. dollar was the main reason for the decline (a strong yen lowers the value of Toyota’s exported vehicles.) As well, the Japanese government ended incentives for lower-emission cars....

As investors near retirement, their advisors often recommend that they move a larger part of their investments from stocks to bonds and other fixed-return investments. To some extent, this is an understandable strategy, since bonds provide steady income and a guarantee to repay the principal at maturity. ...

Precision Drilling Corp. (symbol PD on Toronto) provides contract-drilling services to oil and gas producers. Precision owns 355 drilling rigs in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Precision recently converted from an income trust to a regular corporation. Investors received one common share for each trust unit they held. The change is in response to Ottawa’s new tax on income-trust distributions, which came into effect on January 1, 2011. In 2010, the resource stock’s revenue rose 19.4%, to $1.4 billion from $1.2 billion in 2009. Higher drilling activity was the main reason for the gain. Precision earned $62.1 million, or $0.22 a share. That’s down 61.6% from $161.7 million, or $0.63 a share, in 2009....

Encana Corp. (symbol ECA on Toronto) earned $665 million, or $0.90 a share, in 2010 (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). The commodity stock’s latest earnings were down 62.4% from its 2009 earnings of $1.8 billion, or $2.35 per share. Cash flow per share fell to $6.00 from $6.68 in 2009. (Note: The 2009 figures assume that the breakup of the old EnCana Corp. into the new Encana and Cenovus Energy took place at the start of 2009 instead of December 1, 2009.) Depressed natural gas prices were the main reason for lower earnings and cash flow. (Natural gas accounts for more than 95% of the commodity stock’s average daily production.) Encana’s average selling price for gas fell 22.0 % in 2010, to $5.48 per thousand cubic feet from $7.03 in 2009. The price decline offset a 12.0 % rise in the company’s total production....

Canada’s oil sands continue to face strong opposition from environmentalists. That’s mainly because the process of recovering heavy oil from the oil sands produces higher carbon emissions than conventional sources. However, new technology has let oil stocks cut way down on their oil-sands emissions. As well, turmoil in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries highlights the oil sands’ strategic importance to the U.S. and Canada. These factors make it less likely that Ottawa will introduce regulations that would slow oil-sands development. ...

Western Union Co. (New York symbol WU) provides money-transfer and foreign-exchange services in over 200 countries. In 2010, Western Union reported revenue of $5.2 billion. That’s up 2.1% from $5.1 billion in 2009. If you exclude the negative impact of exchange rates, revenue would have risen 3%. The company earned $909.9 million in 2010, up 7.2% from $848.8 million in 2009. During the year, Western Union spent $584 million on share buybacks. Due to fewer shares outstanding, the growth stock pick’s earnings per share rose 12.4% to $1.36 from $1.21 the year before. If you exclude one-time items, including restructuring expenses, earnings per share would have risen 10.1%, to $1.42 from $1.29....

This time of year, you’ll often hear discussions about the proper “asset allocation”, or the mix of stocks, bonds and cash that you should hold in your portfolio at various stages of life. A Successful Investor Wealth Management client once asked a related question that rarely gets the attention it deserves. He asked where investing in real estate fits in your asset allocation. In reality, owning investment real estate doesn’t quite fit within any of asset allocation’s pigeonholes. It’s more of a small business than a passive investment like stocks and bonds. (I call them “passive” because you don’t need and aren’t expected to help manage the companies you are investing in. Of course, you do have to manage your investment portfolio, or hire somebody to do it for you.)...

C.R. Bard Inc. (symbol BCR on New York) makes medical devices in four main areas: urology products, such as vascular products, including stents and catheters (28% of 2010 sales); oncology products that detect and treat various types of cancer (27%); drainage and incontinence devices (26%); and surgical tools and other products (19%). Bard is one of the stock market picks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In 2010, Bard’s sales rose 7.3%, to $2.7 billion from $2.5 billion in 2009. Earnings rose 10.7%, to $509.2 million from $460.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share climbed 15.7% to $5.32 from $4.60, on fewer shares outstanding. If you exclude unusual items, such as merger costs, earnings per share would have risen 10.0%, to $5.60 from $5.09....