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Companies in the highly competitive and fickle fast-food market are always looking for new ways to grow. Sometimes this involves introducing new products to try to take advantage of changing customer tastes. McDonald’s, for instance, has recently started selling premium coffee and healthier foods. Another way fast-food firms try to grow is through aggressive expansion into overseas markets. This is an area that Yum! Brands (symbol YUM on New York), which we’ve covered for some time in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter, has a particular talent for.

This large cap stock’s dominance in China gives it an edge

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At Successful Investor Wealth Management, we sometimes get questions from investors who are looking for one great stock pick, or one big idea, that can quickly make them rich.

Beginning investors often start their portfolio investing with these types of ideas....

ARKANSAS BEST CORP. $26 (Nasdaq symbol ABFS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 25.0 million; Market cap: $650.0 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; WSSF Rating: Average) specializes in “less-than-truckload” shipping. This involves loading freight from a number of customers onto a single truck. Arkansas Best carries a range of goods, including food, textiles, clothing and furniture. The company operates in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In the three months ended September 30, 2009, Arkansas Best’s total tonnage hauled fell 10.1% from a year earlier. However, it rose 5.8% from the previous quarter. As well, weak demand is forcing the company to lower its prices to stay competitive. As a result, Arkansas Best’s revenue fell 19.5% in the most recent quarter, to $399.0 million from $495.8 million a year earlier. The company lost $0.23 a share, compared to earnings of $0.60....

FEDEX CORP. $74 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 312.5 million; Market cap: $23.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; WSSF Rating: Average) delivers packages and documents in the U.S. and over 220 other countries. FedEx earned $0.58 a share in its first quarter, which ended August 31, 2009. That’s down 52.8% from $1.23 a year earlier. Revenue fell 19.7%, to $8 billion from $10 billion. Like most shipping companies, FedEx added a surcharge to its fees when fuel costs were rising. But now that oil prices have fallen to around $77 a barrel from last year’s peak of $148, FedEx is getting less revenue from these surcharges. Despite the drop in fuel-surcharge revenue, lower fuel costs should help FedEx increase its profits as an economic recovery pushes up shipping volumes. As well, European-based courier DHL Express exited the U.S. domestic delivery market last year due to growing losses. This gives FedEx an opportunity to expand its market share....

INVACARE CORP. $23 (New York symbol IVC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 32.1 million; Market cap: $738.3 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; WSSF Rating: Average) makes wheelchairs, motorized scooters and other mobility and home-care products. Invacare spends much less on research than Baxter, Bard and Beckman— typically less than 2% of its revenue. That’s because it mainly focuses on improving its current products, rather than developing new ones. Simplifying its products, along with shifting production to low-cost countries, has also lowered the company’s operating costs. In the three months ended September 30, 2009, earnings before restructuring costs rose 23.8%, to $0.52 a share from $0.42 a year earlier. Sales fell 6.0%, to $434.0 million from $461.8 million. If you exclude an acquisition and currency-exchange rates, sales would have fallen by 2.2%....

C.R. BARD INC. $76 (New York symbol BCR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 96.5 million; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; WSSF Rating: Above Average) makes medical devices in four main areas: urology products, such as drainage and incontinence devices (29% of 2008 sales); vascular products, such as stents and catheters (26%); oncology products that detect and treat various types of cancer (26%); and surgical tools (15%). Other medical products supply the remaining 4%. Bard is looking to add to the number of products it offers over the next few years. This should help it hang onto more of its customers, which mainly consist of hospitals and clinics. The company spends 8% of its revenue on research, and is increasing this spending to develop more new products. Bard also plans to buy other medical-device makers. The company’s strong balance sheet will help support both its research and its acquisition efforts. It holds cash of $632.1 million, or $6.55 a share, and its total debt is just $149.8 million. Bard earned $129.5 million in the three months ended September 30, 2009. That’s up 15.2% from $112.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share climbed 20.2%, to $1.31 from $1.09, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales rose 3.3%, to $637.0 million from $616.8 million. Bard gets 30% of its sales from outside the U.S., so the higher U.S. dollar hurt the value of its overseas sales. If you disregard currency rates, Bard’s sales would have risen by 6%....

BECKMAN COULTER INC. $66 (New York symbol BEC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 68.6 million; Market cap: $4.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; WSSF Rating: Average) makes lab equipment that doctors and researchers use to detect substances in bodily fluids. Beckman gets 90% of its sales from hospitals and clinics. Research labs account for the remaining 10%. In August 2009, Beckman paid $780 million for the diagnostic-systems business of Olympus Corp. of Japan. This was a big purchase for Beckman, which earned $233.9 million, or $3.63 a share, in 2008. To help pay for this business, the company issued $495 million in new notes and sold $240 million of new common shares. As of June 30, 2009, Beckman’s long-term debt was just $1.3 billion (29% of market cap), so it has plenty of room for further borrowings....

BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. $55 (New York symbol BAX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 602.7 million; Market cap: $33.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; WSSF Rating: Average) makes medical equipment through three main divisions. BioScience (43% of 2008 sales), makes vaccines and drugs; Medical Delivery (37%) makes intravenous equipment and systems; and Renal (19%) makes dialysis equipment. Other products account for the remaining 1% of sales. Baxter spends about 7% of its revenue on research. The resulting new products should help it maintain its leading position in key markets. The company is expanding its drug operations, which generate higher profits than its other products. A good example is Advate, a hemophilia drug that contains no human or animal proteins. This greatly cuts the risk of disease. Since its launch in 2004, Advate has claimed 70% of the U.S. hemophilia-drug market....

GENERAL MILLS INC. $65 (New York symbol GIS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 326.6 million; Market cap: $21.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; WSSF Rating: Above Average) is the second-largest cereal maker in the U.S., after Kellogg. Its main brands include Cheerios, Wheaties, Lucky Charms, Total and Chex. The company also makes a wide variety of other foods. These include Yoplait yogurt, Green Giant canned and frozen vegetables, Betty Crocker baking mixes, Pillsbury frozen dough, Progresso canned soups and Haagen-Dazs ice cream. General Mills has three main divisions: The U.S. retail division (68% of sales) sells products to supermarkets and other mass merchandisers. (Wal-Mart accounts for around 20% of the company’s total sales.) The international division (18% of sales) manages General Mills’ overseas operations. The bakeries and food-services division (14%) mainly sells to restaurants, school cafeterias and vending-machine operators....

Investors often comment that we sometimes differ with the mainstream view on which stocks make good investments. That’s especially true with drug stocks. The general view on these stocks seems to be that they are can’t-miss investments because the baby boomers are reaching an age when they will need drugs for a number of medical conditions, and are willing to pay for them. As well, some investors feel that these companies stand to benefit from developing treatments for new diseases, such as the H1N1 influenza virus. (Below, we spotlight a stock that’s making a vaccine for H1N1, but faces fewer of the risks of drug companies. Read on for further details.)...

Copper continues to attract a lot of attention from investors in commodity stocks. That’s because the metal has more than doubled in price, from a low of $1.25 U.S. in December 2008 to around $3.03 U.S. today. Traditionally, investors have bought copper as a way to profit from general economic growth. That’s because, unlike gold or silver, copper has a wide range of industrial uses. For example, it’s a key element in electrical wire and pipe.

Higher copper will brighten this commodity stock’s prospects

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With commodity prices on an upswing, many investors have turned their attention to companies that produce and explore for minerals. These include Canadian gold stocks, especially in light of gold’s recent rise to over $1,030 U.S. an ounce. (In the current Stock Pickers Digest, we take a close look at a junior gold explorer we’ve recommended in the past. It has a presence in one of the world’s most productive gold-producing regions. What’s more, it’s up 72.2% for us since early this year. Read on for further details.)

Look beyond gold prices when investing in junior exploration firms

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When you join my Inner Circle service, you get to ask me your own personal investment questions, plus you get to see what other Inner Circle members have asked, along with our answers. So you can see how the service works, and get a sense of how it might help your portfolio, I’d like to share a member question about investment timing and stock market trends. I hope you enjoy and profit from it. Q: Dear Pat, I just received $300,000 that I have to invest carefully. I have been investing in stocks and mutual funds for more than 10 years, but this new amount is very important for my retirement in about 10 years. The market has risen lately, and I’m concerned that there may soon be a correction. I would like to know if I should invest in one shot or spread the investment over a certain period of time. Please suggest a type of time frame, considering I am a “moderate” investor. My current portfolio is about 70% stocks, with 60% in Canada. Thank you for your help. A: Buying gradually may make you more comfortable than plunging right in. However, because of the way stock market trends typically unfold, it’s likely to cost you money in the long run. If you can afford to keep your money in the market for, say, five years, then the sooner you buy the better....

You’ll find our mutual-fund ratings (Aggressive, Conservative or Income) displayed next to every fund we recommend in our Canadian Wealth Advisor newsletter. They’re key to helping us find top-performing funds, including those that are suitable for income investing. (To show you how our system works, we’d like to share one of the income investing fund buys we recently recommended in Canadian Wealth Advisor. Please read on for full details.) Rating mutual funds is more complex than rating individual companies. When we judge a company’s investment quality, we take nine key factors into account....

BAFFINLAND IRON MINES $0.66 (Toronto symbol BIM; SI Rating: Start-up) (416-364-8820; www.baffinland.com; Shares outstanding: 255.3 million; Market cap: $168.5 million) continues to add to reserves through exploration at its Mary River iron-ore project on Baffin Island. Baffinland aims to build an open-pit mine at Mary River over a four-year period. It then plans to produce 18 million tonnes of ore a year for over 21 years. The company has signed contracts to sell the ore to steelmaking giants ThyssenKrupp and ArcelorMittal. However, the project’s timing depends on a continued economic rebound and a rise in steel demand. Baffinland holds a high cash balance of $25 million....

CANALASKA URANIUM $0.18 (Toronto symbol CVV; SI Rating: Start-up) (1-800-667-1870; www.canalaska.com; Shares outstanding: 137.8 million; Market cap: $24.8 million) continues to sign joint-venture partnerships to fund exploration drilling on its seventeen 100%-owned uranium properties in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin region. The company’s partners include Japan’s giant Mitsubishi Corp., Chinese mining firm East Resources Inc. and a consortium of Korean companies that consists of Hanwha Corporation, Korea Electric Power, Korea Resources and SK Energy. CanAlaska holds cash of $8.6 million. CanAlaska owns a large amount of land that contains lots of drilling prospects. Moreover, it has personnel with expertise in exploration and mine building, specifically in the Athabasca Basin region. The company is budgeting for an extensive fall-winter exploration program, which will be partly financed by its joint venture partnerships....

MIRANDA GOLD $0.44 (Toronto symbol MAD; SI Rating: Start-up) (604-689-1659; www.mirandagold.com; Shares outstanding: 44.9 million; Market cap: $19.5 million) explores for gold, mainly in the Cortez Trend and Battle Mountain-Eureka regions of Nevada. Miranda has 13 properties in various stages of production in these areas, which are two of the world’s most productive gold belts. The company takes part in a number of joint ventures. These are crucial for junior-exploration firms, as they give them a way to fund further exploration on properties where they have already discovered minerals. The agreements also let juniors retain an interest in the properties without taking on debt or resorting to dilutive share issues. Miranda has joint ventures with Montezuma Mines, NuLegacy Gold, Newcrest Resources, Piedmont Mining, White Bear Resources and Queensgate Resources. The company holds $10.5 million in cash, which is enough for over five years of exploration....

COMPTON PETROLEUM $1.24 (Toronto symbol CMT; SI Rating: Speculative) (403-237-9400; www.comptonpetroleum.com; Shares outstanding: 263.6 million; Market cap: $326.8 million) explores for oil and natural gas in western Canada. About 83% of its production is natural gas. In the three months ended June 30, 2009, Compton’s cash flow per share fell sharply, to $0.08 from $0.59 a year earlier. Revenue fell 71.0%, to $54.1 million from $186.8 million. Lower oil and gas prices contributed to the declines. As well, the company saw a 29.8% drop in production because it sold land to pay down debt. Compton’s debt of $853.9 million is a high 2.6 times its $326.8-million market cap. The company is further lowering its debt by selling overriding royalties on its production. Overriding royalties give the buyer ownership of a percentage of production revenue, before any costs....

DELPHI ENERGY $1.68 (Toronto symbol DEE; SI Rating: Speculative) (403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares outstanding: 92.3 million; Market cap: $155.1 million) explores for oil and gas in Alberta and B.C. Natural gas makes up 87% of its overall daily output. In the three months ended June 30, 2009, Delphi’s average daily output rose 9.8%, to 6,809 barrels of oil equivalent (this measurement includes natural gas) from 6,202 barrels. Despite the higher production, Delphi’s cash flow per share fell 44.8%, to $0.16 from $0.29 a year earlier. That’s because of lower oil and gas prices....

I hope you are enjoying and profiting from my daily updates on TSI Network. Aside from the daily updates, TSI Network offers a range of other benefits, including over 2,000 articles on individual investments and how you can use our time-tested approach to maximize and protect your profits. Finding what you’re looking for couldn’t be easier. TSI Network gives you a wide range of easy-to-use tools to help you zero in on specific investment information. One of these is the handy list of 27 investing topics on the left-hand side of the site’s homepage....

Here are 4 rules we stick to when we’re researching mutual funds to include in our newsletters and investment services. While there is never any guarantee of a mutual fund’s performance, following these rules should help you avoid making poor choices. (For more on our fund-picking strategy, including our top ten fund picks, be sure to download our new special report, “Mutual Funds Canada: Inside the Top 10 Canadian Mutual Funds.”)

Avoid funds that trade in derivatives

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No matter whether you are a new investor or a seasoned veteran, these four key tips can help you learn how to trade stocks and make greater profits with less risk. They’re at the core of the advice we give in our investment services, including Canadian Wealth Advisor, our newsletter for more conservative investors.

Successful Investor Tip #1: Hold mainly high-quality, dividend paying stocks or mutual funds that hold those stocks

We think investors will profit most — and with the least risk — by buying shares of well-established companies with strong business prospects. These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to stay competitive in a changing market.

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With the Canadian dollar trading near $0.97 U.S., and outperforming many of the world’s major currencies, interest in forex (or foreign exchange) investments has picked up lately. Forex investments involve dealing in foreign currency futures or options. This can make sense for a business that is forced to take on unacceptable currency risk. Futures or options let the business pass that risk on to speculators who wish to accept it.

Investors are typically the biggest losers in forex investments

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Giant computer maker Dell Inc. recently caught the attention of a number of tech stock investors when it bought Perot Systems, a computer outsourcing firm. But it wasn’t the takeover itself that was surprising; it was the tech stock’s $3.9 billion offer for Perot that caused eyeballs to pop. That’s a 60% premium over Perot’s share price at the time of the takeover.

Dell’s offer throws the spotlight on tech stocks that provide consulting services

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CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU [class A non-voting] $39 and CU.X [class B voting] $39; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 125.6 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; SI Rating: Above Average) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta. It also operates power plants in other parts of Canada, and in the U.K. and Australia. In August, Canadian Utilities received preliminary approval from the Alberta government to build and operate a new high-voltage transmission line between Edmonton and Calgary. Final approval for this project should come later this year. The line is part of a wider plan to make Alberta’s electricity grid more reliable. This new line will cost $1.65 billion, and will probably take several years to complete. To put this in context, Canadian Utilities earned $73.5 million, or $0.59 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2009....