Search

On Friday, January 14, The Successful Investor will unveil a stock that’s primed for explosive growth in 2011. In fact, we think this company’s prospects are so bright we’ve named it The Successful Investor’s #1 stock pick for the coming year. More on how you can get all the details on this exciting #1 pick in a moment, but first we’d like to share with you... ...

ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $24.91 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index. This index is made up of gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The weight of any one company is capped at 25% of the index’s market capitalization. The fund’s MER is 0.55%. iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund began trading on March 23, 2001. The fund’s top-ten holdings are Barrick Gold at 18.4%; Goldcorp., 12.7%; Newmont Mining, 10.5%; Kinross, 7.5%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 6.5%; Agnico-Eagle, 4.5%; Gold Fields (ADR), 4.4%; Eldorado Gold, 3.5%; Yamana Gold, 3.3%; and Randgold Resources (ADR), 2.6%....

Ottawa’s new tax on income trusts came into effect nine days ago, on January 1, 2011. The new tax puts income trusts on an equal footing with regular corporations. Some income trusts converted to conventional corporations before the new tax came into effect, or plan to do so in the coming months. Others will continue to operate as trusts. (In light of the new tax, we’ve analyzed some trusts that may be appropriate for income-seeking investors in a just-published issue of Canadian Wealth Advisor, our newsletter for conservative investing. One of these trusts has made a number of big investments in wind power. Read on for further details.)...

ISHARES MSCI BRAZIL INDEX FUND $77.55 (New York Exchange symbol EWZ; buy or sell through brokers), is an exchange-traded fund that is designed to track the Brazilian stock market. The fund’s top holdings are Petrobras preferred shares (energy), 10.3%; Cia Vale do Rio Doce (mining) preferred, 9.8%; Itau Unibanco Multiplo SA (banking), 9.2%; Petrobras common, 8.2%; Cia Vale do Rio Doce common, 7.2%; Banco Bradesco preferred (banking), 5.1%; Cia de Bebidas das Americas preferred (beer and other beverages), 3.5%; Itausa-Investimentos Itau (conglomerate), 3.1%; OGX Petroleo e Gas Patricipa (energy), 2.6%; and BM&F Bovespa (Brazilian stock exchange), 2.6%. The ETF’s industry breakdown is as follows: Materials, 25.4%; Financials, 25.0%; Energy, 21.9%; Consumer Staples, 9.1%; Utilities, 5.3%; Consumer Discretionary, 4.8%; Industrials, 3.4%; Telecommunication Services, 2.6%; and Information Technology, 1.7%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.61%....

ISHARES S&P INDIA NIFTY 50 INDEX FUND $30.91 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com), is an ETF that aims to track the S&P CNX Nifty Index, which represents the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities. The fund’s top holdings are Reliance Industries (conglomerate), 9.8%; Infosys Technologies (software), 9.1%; ICICI Bank, 7.2%; Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (conglomerate), 5.8%; Housing Development Finance, 5.2%; ITC Ltd. (conglomerate), 5.1%; HDFC Bank, 4.7%; State Bank of India, 4.1%; Tata Consultancy Services (information technology), 3.2%; and Bharti Airtel (wireless), 2.4%. The fund’s industry breakdown includes: Banks, 18.9%; Software, 14.2%; Refineries, 10.2%; Engineering, 5.8%; Automobiles, 4.3%; Finance: Housing, 5.2%; Cigarettes, 5.1%; Power, 4.5%; and Steel, 4.5%. The ETF has an expense ratio of 0.89%....

Ruby Tuesday (New York symbol RT) owns 676 restaurants in the U.S. Franchisees run another 140 U.S. outlets, and international franchisees operate 58 restaurants overseas. Ruby Tuesday is one of the stocks we analyze in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing. Ruby Tuesday offers casual American dining. The company’s fall menu contains a number of new offerings, including Fit & Trim entrees, complimentary garlic cheese biscuits, additional side items and an improved Sunday brunch....

ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS EASTERN EUROPE INDEX FUND $32.44 (New York Exchange symbol ESR; buy or sell through brokers), is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index. The fund’s geographic breakdown is as follows: Russia, 70.6%; Poland, 18.2%; Hungary, 5.1%; and Czech Republic 4.8%. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe’s top holdings are Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), 19.5%; Sberbank (Russia: bank), 9.5%; Lukoil (Russia: oil), 8.9%; MMC Norilsk Nickel (Russia: mining), 5.4%; Mobile TeleSystems (Russia: wireless), 3.9%; Rosneft Oil (Russia: oil), 3.5%; Novatek (Russia: natural gas), 3.2%; PKO Bank Polski SA (Poland: bank), 3.0%; Magnit (Russia: retailing), 2.8%; and Surgutneftegas (Russia: oil & gas), 2.8%....

LOBLAW COMPANIES $39.72 (Toronto symbol L; Shares o/s: 278.4 million; Market cap: $11.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.1%; www.loblaw.ca) is Canada’s largest food retailer. It now has around 1,000 company-owned and franchised stores. George Weston Ltd. owns 62% of Loblaw’s shares. In the three months ended October 9, 2010, Loblaw’s earnings per share rose 11.6%, to $0.77 from $0.69 a year earlier. Restructuring costs lowered its earnings per share by $0.12 in the latest quarter. Overall sales rose 1.3% in the latest quarter, to $9.6 billion from $9.5 billion. The gain was largely due to T&T Supermarket Inc., Canada’s largest Asian food retailer, which Loblaw bought in 2009. Loblaw’s same-store sales fell 0.4%. Lower sales of drugs and general merchandise offset stronger clothing sales. Food sales were flat....

When you practice a “dollar-cost averaging” investing strategy, you invest equal amounts of money (say $300 a month) over a specific period. It’s a little like systematic saving, except you put your money into stocks instead of a bank account. (Dollar-cost averaging is one of many low-risk strategies you’ll learn about in our new free report, Stock Market Investing Strategy: Pat McKeough’s Conservative Investing Guide for Making Money & Cutting Risk. Click here to download yours right away.) ...

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 the most speculative penny mines to large multinational growth stock picks. For example, an Inner Circle member recently asked for our advice on hotel and casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. The growth stock pick’s shares have risen sharply over the past year, and it is opening new resorts in Asia and the U.S. 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....

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 successful investing, including tax shelters. 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: “These 3 powerful strategies will help you make the most of your RRSP tax shelters” Registered Retirement Savings Plans, or RRSPs, are the best-known and most widely used tax shelters in Canada....

When investing in the stock market, as in life, it pays to remember that most things we worry about never happen. It’s in our nature. As humans, we are bred to overreact to, dwell on or even brood over any hint of risk. Today’s common investment-related worries include the possibility of Japanese–style deflation in North America, currency wars, the threat of war on the Korean peninsula and the potential need for more European bailouts. ...

We’re optimistic about the stock market in 2011. The recent U.S. midterm election results support our view that the Obama administration is likely to tone down its investor-unsettling policies. Moreover, the stock market has stayed reasonably strong, despite reports of new European financial strains. Year-end retail sales seem to be strengthening. All these are good signs. To put yourself in the best position to profit in 2011, it pays to remember these 3 keys to successful investing:

1. Invest for the long term: As a general rule, it’s a mistake to try to read too much into short-term market moves, or the failure of a stock to make a new high. There’s a random element in all short-term stock direction. That’s especially so of junior companies. Many times stocks rise on the expectation of good news, then drop when the good news becomes public. This principal gets summed up in the old-time investor saying about how to trade stocks, “Buy on mystery, sell on history.”
2. Resist the urge to invest based on popular themes or fads: When you indulge in theme investing, you allow a theme or concept to take a central place when deciding what to add to your stock portfolio. Today’s popular investment themes include alternative energy, such as solar wind and geothermal, and “cloud computing” (companies that provide software and data storage that you communicate with via the Internet)....

Our top stock picks seem to attract way more than an average number of takeover bids. We think this is because we zero in on a company’s earnings potential, rather than basing decisions on predictions for next year’s earnings. Corporate buyers and big investors usually see things the same way. Many investors tell us that until they began following our advice, they never had the pleasure of watching a stock they own jump 25% in a few days, due to takeover news. Though we’re used to takeovers, we’ve seen more of our top stock picks attract takeover bids in the past few weeks than at any other time in our history. Here’s a recap:...

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 successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “2 risks of following a sector rotation investment strategy” Some investors follow a “sector rotation” approach to investing. That’s when you try to hop from sector to sector, underweighting or overweighting your holdings in certain sectors of the stock market depending on a forecast of the stage of the economic cycle, or other factors....

Yesterday on TSI Network, we gave you our stock trading advice on Aastra Technologies (symbol AAH on Toronto), one of the investments we recommend in our new free report, “Tax-Loss Selling: 7 Christmas Stocks That Could Give You Huge Gains in the New Year.” Today, we analyze another company that could soar in the wake of tax-loss selling season, Manitoba Telecom Services Ltd. (symbol MBT on Toronto). The company’s shares are down 19.2% from their 2010 high of $35.39. Manitoba Tel gets 52% of its revenue from its MTS division, which mainly sells traditional and wireless telephone services to consumers in Manitoba. The remaining 48% of its revenue comes from its Allstream business-communications division, which operates across Canada....

The year-end tax-loss selling season can create great stock-market bargains, because it puts temporary downward pressure on stocks that have been weak during the year. But the best of the bunch can put on spectacular recoveries after the season ends on December 24. In our new special report, “Tax-Loss Selling: 7 Christmas Stocks That Could Give You Huge Gains in the New Year,” you learn about 7 companies that have the potential to skyrocket in early 2011. Click here to download your free copy of this new report right away. One of these firms is Aastra Technologies (symbol AAH on Toronto). The company’s shares are down 37.9% from their 2010 high of $36.99....

Investing is different from many other pursuits in one crucial way: doing the wrong thing as an investor can actually make money for you, but only temporarily. Buying low-quality Canadian penny stocks is a mistake that many investors make. Some get hooked on it, since low-quality stocks can be highly profitable over short periods. That’s because they are generally more volatile than the high-quality stocks (the kind that have a history of earnings, if not dividends) that we recommend in our Successful Investor newsletter. Here are 2 risks you face when you overindulge in Canadian penny stocks:...

You’ve probably heard of Facebook, a “social-networking” site with more than 500 million users worldwide. Facebook was started by a group of Harvard University students in 2004. It then expanded to other schools before it was opened to anyone aged 13 and over. In just six years, Facebook has expanded way past the circle of students who started it. The site now attracts users of all ages. In fact, according to a 2009 study by Washington, D.C.-based iStrategyLabs, the number of Facebook users aged 55 and over jumped 514% in the first six months of 2009. By comparison, Facebook users between 18 and 24 years of age only rose by 5% during that time.

...

ConAgra Foods Inc. (New York symbol CAG) 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 gets 67% of its revenue by selling its products to consumers. It gets the remaining 33% by selling foods to businesses. In its 2011 second quarter, which ended November 28, 2010, ConAgra’s sales rose 2.0%, to $3.2 billion from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Sales rose 1.0% at the consumer foods division, to $2.1 billion from $2.07 billion. The commercial foods division’s sales rose 3.0%, to $1.1 billion from $1.0 billion. The company sold more of its Lamb Weston specialty potato products. As well, ConAgra’s flour-milling operations raised their prices to offset higher wheat costs....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” investing advice series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing advice and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Sometimes it pays to pay a little extra and get a vote.” Some Canadian companies, such as Bombardier and Teck Resources, have two classes of common shares: voting and non-voting (or multiple voting and subordinate voting)....

Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq symbol ADBE) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. As well, graphic designers use Adobe’s software to create print publications and web pages. The company also makes Adobe Flash, which lets web site developers make web pages more interactive by adding animation and video. Computer users can download Adobe’s Flash Player viewer for free. We analyze Adobe in our Stock Pickers Digest and Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletters....

When you’re looking for high return investments, it pays to be skeptical of companies that rely too heavily on acquisitions. That’s because the buyer of something rarely knows as much about it as the seller. So it follows that if a company makes enough acquisitions, it might eventually buy something that has hidden problems. At some point, those problems will come out into the open and hurt the buyer’s earnings. ...

ALCOA INC. $14 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $14.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. Its customers are mainly in the aerospace, automotive and construction industries. The company produced 12.0% more raw alumina ore in its latest quarter than a year ago. That helped offset a 5% drop in selling prices. That’s why Alcoa’s revenue rose 14.6% in the three months ended September 30, 2010, to $5.3 billion from $4.6 billion a year earlier. The higher revenue helped spur a 31.5% jump in Alcoa’s earnings, to $96 million from $73 million. Earnings per share rose 28.6%, to $0.09 from $0.07, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, including repair costs after a flood damaged the company’s smelter in Spain....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $61 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 493.1 million; Market cap: $30.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. Newmont has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru. Gold accounts for about 85% of Newmont’s revenue. The remaining 15% comes from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from its 35.4% stake in the large Batu Hijau mining complex in Indonesia. Gold has jumped 35%, from $1,062 an ounce in February 2010 to a new all-time high of $1,433 in December 2010. Newmont prefers to sell its gold at the market price instead of through long-term hedging contracts that lock in prices. This policy has helped it take full advantage of rising gold prices....