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NCR CORP. $11 (New York symbol NCR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 159.2 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; No dividends paid; WSSF Rating: Average) has a broader product line than Diebold, and gets just a third of its revenue from making and servicing ATMs. The rest comes from selling checkout scanners, cash registers and self-serve kiosks. NCR’s revenue rose slightly, from $6.0 billion in 2004 to $6.1 billion in 2006. Revenue fell to $5.0 billion in 2007, after NCR spun off Teradata Corp., but rose to $5.3 billion in 2008. Despite the slow sales growth, the company’s earnings rose from $0.89 a share (or a total of $171 million) in 2004 to $2.13 a share (or $389 million) in 2006. Earnings fell to $1.39 a share (or $254 million) in 2007, but rose to $1.61 a share (or $271 million) in 2008. Like Diebold, most of NCR’s earnings gains came from lower costs, mainly because it outsourced much of its ATM production to other companies. It’s also cutting 10% of its workforce. The layoffs should save it $250 million a year by the end of 2011....

DIEBOLD INC. $27 (New York symbol DBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 66.3 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 3.9%; WSSF Rating: Average) makes automated teller machines (ATMs), as well as safes, vaults and building security systems. To cut its reliance on ATMs and related equipment, Diebold is offering more services to its banking customers. These include managing ATM networks, processing customer transactions and upgrading software. Diebold now gets over half of its revenue from these types of services. The company recently sold its electronic-voting machine business (Premier Election Solutions, Inc.) for $12.1 million. That’s a lot less than the $24.7 million that Diebold paid for this business in 2002. If you account for the money that the company invested into this subsidiary over the years, Diebold incurred a $50.8-million pre-tax loss on the sale....

THE STANLEY WORKS $52 (New York symbol SWK, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 80.4 million; Market cap: $4.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.5%; WSSF Rating: Average) makes a wide variety of hand and power tools for consumer and industrial users. Top brands include Stanley, FatMax and Powerlock. Stanley has agreed to buy rival toolmaker Black & Decker Corp. (New York symbol BDK) for $4.5 billion in stock. Assuming both companies’ shareholders approve, the deal should close in the first half of 2010. Stanley shareholders will own 50.5% of the combined company (to be called Stanley Black & Decker). Black & Decker investors will own the remaining 49.5%. This looks like a good move for Stanley. Black & Decker specializes in power tools, so there’s little overlap with Stanley’s hand tools. Moreover, Black & Decker’s security products, which include door locks and keyless-entry systems, are a nice fit with Stanley’s building-security business....

SNAP-ON INC. $40 (New York symbol SNA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 57.7 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 3.0%; WSSF Rating: Average) makes hand and power tools for auto mechanics. It sells these through franchised vans that visit garages. This lets it build closer relationships with customers, which gives it an advantage over competitors. It also keeps Snap-On’s distribution costs down. Many U.S. carmakers have closed dealerships in response to weak sales. This has cut the number of repair shops that Snap-On can supply. Snap-On’s earnings fell 53.5% in the three months ended October 3, 2009, to $25.4 million, or $0.44 a share. A year earlier, it earned $54.6 million, or $0.94 a share....

BRIGGS & STRATTON CORP. $19 (New York symbol BGG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 50.0 million; Market cap: $950.0 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.3%; WSSF Rating: Above Average) gets 60% of its revenue from making lawn-mower engines. (The company is the world’s largest lawn-mower engine maker.) The remaining 40% comes from other home and garden equipment, such as pressure washers and snow blowers. Because of the weak economy and high unemployment, consumers are spending less on discretionary items, including lawn equipment. As well, major home-improvement retailers are ordering fewer of Briggs’s products. Moreover, 2009 saw fewer hurricanes than previous years. That lowered demand for portable generators. In its first quarter, which ended September 27, 2009, Briggs’s revenue fell 29.2%, to $324.6 million from $458.2 million a year earlier. Losses ballooned to $8.7 million, or $0.18 a share, from $2 million, or $0.04 a share. The lower sales and a higher income-tax rate were the main reasons behind the higher losses. Briggs typically loses money during its first quarter. That’s because demand for lawn mowers is weak during the fall....

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $31 (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 110.6 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 4.8%; WSSF Rating: Average) sells electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million customers in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. In the three months ended September 30, 2009, Alliant lost $43.3 million, or $0.39 a share. However, if you exclude a one-time charge related to the early repayment of debt, it would have earned $0.77 a share. In the year-earlier quarter, Alliant earned $109.1 million, or $0.99 a share. Revenue fell 9.7%, to $885.7 million from $980.3 million. The lower earnings and revenue were mainly caused by cooler-than-usual summer weather, which prompted consumers to use less power for air conditioning. Alliant wants to raise its rates by 17%. That would add $171 million to its annual revenue. Regulators recently let it increase rates by 8%. They will decide on the remainder in early 2010....

AMEREN CORP. $28 (New York symbol AEE; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 236.9 million; Market cap: $6.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 5.5%; WSSF Rating: Average) sells electricity and natural gas to 3.4 million customers in Illinois and Missouri. In the third quarter of 2009, Ameren’s earnings rose 3.7%, to $255 million from $246 million a year earlier. However, earnings per share fell 0.9%, to $1.16 from $1.17, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude several non-recurring charges, including the costs to close two generating units at one of its power plants. Revenue fell 11.9%, to $1.8 billion from $2.0 billion. Electricity sales to consumers fell 10%, as cool summer weather cut air-conditioner use. Sales to industrial customers fell 3%. Ameren is seeking approval to raise its power and gas rates. This would add $621 million to its annual revenue. Regulators will likely grant Ameren’s requests, because it needs the funds to cover higher operating and interest costs....

It’s particularly easy for investors to make costly mistakes during the year-end tax-loss selling season. That’s because the lure of a lower tax bill can be a temptation to dump high-quality stocks that are near the end of a downturn, and are set to move back up. A similar pitfall exists during the end-of-the-year rush to take advantage of certain tax shelters, including charitable donations. In our view, you should be as selective about giving money to charity as you are about buying stocks. In fact, bad charities tend to have something in common with bad stocks. ...

When investors are just starting out, they typically have modest amounts of money to invest. You can start your stock portfolio with as little as $10,000, say, but keep in mind that the less you invest at any one time, the higher the percentage your broker’s minimum commission takes from each trade. (Starting and building a portfolio, and how many stocks you should own at each stage of your investing career, are just two of the stock market basics we explore in our free report, “Canadian Stock Market Basics: How to Trade Stocks and Make Good Investments in Canada.” You can get a copy absolutely free. Click here to claim yours now.) ...

When you analyze a stock, it’s important to have an idea of how likely it is to survive a business slump and go on to prosper when economic growth resumes. A number of factors can help you to do that. These include the interest rate on the company’s debt, how sensitive it is to economic cycles, its advantages and disadvantages in relation to competitors and so on. (These are just a few of the factors we take into account in our stock market research when we manage the portfolios of our Successful Investor Wealth Management clients.) Many successful investors start their stock market research on a company by looking at its debt-to-equity ratio. This ratio comes in several variations, but the basic idea is that you measure a company’s financial leverage by comparing its debt with its shareholders’ equity....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer investors more benefits than ever before, mainly because of increased competition. That can make them good choices for certain parts of your portfolio — such as the portion you devote to global stock market investing. That’s because directly investing in foreign markets can be complicated and risky, and high-quality ETFs let you make global stock market investments with greater safety. (Below, we examine an ETF that may be appropriate for investors looking for exposure to emerging markets, such as Brazil and South Korea. Read on for further details.)...

Investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (a company’s total annual dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price) as volatile stock markets continue to recover. Companies are responding by doing their best to maintain, or even increase, their dividend payments. That’s good news for investors, because dividends are more dependable than capital gains as a source of income. In fact, dividends typically contribute up to a third of an investor’s long-term return. Tax cuts in recent years also mean that you pay roughly the same tax on dividend income and capital gains. ...

TORSTAR CORP. $6.25 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.0 million; Market cap: $493.8 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 5.2%; SI Rating: Above Average) publishes The Toronto Star, which is Canada’s largest daily newspaper in terms of circulation. The company also publishes three other daily papers and over 100 weeklies, mainly in southern Ontario. Newspapers and web sites 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. Harlequin also publishes non-fiction titles, such as self-help and diet books. Torstar’s aggressive cost cutting has helped it stay profitable in the face of falling advertising revenue and increased competition from the Internet. For example, it has cut roughly 8% of its workforce over the past year. These layoffs lowered the company’s expenses by $26.2 million in the first three quarters of 2009. Torstar expects to realize an additional $8.2 million in savings in the fourth quarter....

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $12 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.8 million; Market cap: $969.6 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 2.7%; SI Rating: Average) is the largest commercial printer in Canada, and the sixth-largest in North America. This business provides 60% of its revenue and profit. The company also publishes newspapers and magazines (25% of revenue, 30% of profit). As well, its marketing communications division (15%, 10%) designs direct mail and other advertising campaigns, and analyzes customer-purchasing data. These services help its clients expand sales and build loyalty. The stock fell to $5.42 last March. That’s because the recession hurt the company’s direct-mail volumes. As well, many of its clients are U.S.-based financial institutions. Higher credit losses prompted many of these customers to cut their advertising spending. Transcontinental has cut its costs in response. This involved closing a direct-mail plant in Pennsylvania and merging some printing plants. So far, these moves have lowered its costs by $50 million a year. It should achieve its goal of $100 million in annual savings sometime next year....

THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $34 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 829.7 million; Market cap: $28.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 3.5%; SI Rating: Above Average) has two main divisions: Markets accounts for 60% of revenue, and sells financial-information products to banks and other financial institutions. Professional (40% of revenue) sells specialized information to professionals in the legal, accounting, scientific and health-care fields. The company gets about 60% of its revenue from the Americas, followed by Europe (30%) and Asia (10%). The financial crisis prompted banks and brokerage firms to cut spending on information products. As a result, Thomson Reuters’ revenue fell 3.7% in the third quarter of 2009, to $3.2 billion from $3.3 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Earnings fell 8.5%, to $0.43 a share (or a total of $359 million), from $0.47 a share (or $392 million). Thomson is taking advantage of the slump in the financial industry to expand its operations. For example, it will pay an undisclosed sum for breakingviews.com, a privately held web site that supplies financial news and commentary....

METRO INC. $37 (Toronto symbol MRU.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 108.5 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 1.5%; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s third-largest supermarket operator, after Loblaw and Sobeys. Metro operates roughly 660 grocery stores in Quebec and Ontario. Its major banners include Metro, Super C and Food Basics. The company also operates or supplies around 270 drug stores. Eighty-one of these are located inside its supermarkets. Aside from its grocery business, Metro owns roughly 23% of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (Toronto symbol ATD.B). Couche-Tard has more than 3,500 convenience stores in the U.S., and is the largest convenience-store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. Based on Alimentation Couche-Tard’s current stock price, this investment accounts for 23% of Metro’s market cap. Couche-Tard is a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest, our publication for aggressive investors....

The rebounding global economy has pushed up commodity prices in recent months. But with the exception of gold, which has recently hit record highs, most commodities remain below their 2008 peaks. Still, resource demand should continue to improve with the global economy. Here are two profit-killing strategies to avoid when buying commodity investments. (We’ve also included our preferred approach, which you can read about below.) 1. Futures trading. Rising resource prices will likely tempt more investors to trade commodity futures. These include metals and minerals, fertilizers and agricultural products....

Stop-loss orders are a stock trading strategy investors use to sell a stock if it falls to a specific price. For example, if you own a $12 stock, you might tell your broker to sell it “on stop” if it hits $10. This may limit your losses if you paid more than $10. If you paid less, it may preserve some of your profits. ...

Ottawa’s new tax on income trusts comes into effect just over a year from now, on January 1, 2011. When it does, it will put trusts on an equal footing with regular corporations. Right now, trusts pay out a high percentage of their cash flows to their unitholders. This lets them avoid paying corporate taxes. It also gives many of them significantly higher yields than a lot of dividend-paying common stocks. The new tax will eliminate these income-tax benefits. That will prompt some income trusts to convert to conventional corporations. Others may choose to remain as trusts. (For our latest advice on income trust investing, and how trusts should fit into your overall portfolio, be sure to download our free report, “Canadian Stock Market Basics: How to Trade Stocks and Make Good Investments in Canada.”)...

There’s a random element in stock-price movements that you just can’t get away from. Stocks sometimes ignore bad news for long periods, then suddenly take note of it and collapse. Stocks may overreact to bad news, or react to downbeat but irrelevant news. To top it off, stocks that are headed for a big rise often start their move with a slump. You can’t overcome this random element by intense study, reading charts, expensive computer programs or stock investing advice that aims at fine-tuning your market timing. (But our system can help you minimize this random element. Read on to find out how.)...

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 you could benefit from it, I’d like to share a recent member question about index-linked GICs. I hope you enjoy and profit from it. Q: Hi Patrick. I am interested in your opinion of index-linked GICs. The returns are interest based, so I think they are best bought in your RRSP. Recent stock market volatility has us wanting to safeguard a portion of our portfolio. Thanks....

The federal government first made tax free savings accounts (TFSAs) available to investors in January 2009. These accounts let you earn investment income — including interest, dividends and capital gains — tax free. However, you could only contribute $5,000 in 2009 to start your tax free savings account. Every year, you gain an additional $5,000 of contribution room (indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500 on a yearly basis). Plus, you get to carry forward unused contribution room from previous years. So in 2010 you’ll have $10,000 of contribution room, $15,000 in 2011, and so on. (Read on for a simple strategy to help you choose between your TFSA and your RRSP, and cut your tax bill in retirement.)...

TRIMARK CANADIAN RESOURCES FUND $16.22 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (AIM Funds Management Inc., 5140 Yonge Street, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario M2N 6X7. Tel: 1-800-631-7008; Web site: www.invescotrimark.com. Buy or sell through brokers) includes firms with Successful Investor Ratings of “Speculative” in its top picks. However, we like Trimark Canadian Resources Fund’s value-seeking, conservative approach to picking stocks in the volatile resource sector. The $428.9-million fund’s top holdings are EnCana, Canadian Natural Resources, Inmet Mining Corp., Husky Energy, Nexen, Cameco, Mayr-Meinhof Karton AG, Goldcorp and Talisman Energy. Trimark Canadian Resources Fund holds 50.3% of its portfolio in the Energy sector, 26.4% in Metals & Minerals and 6.3% in Industrials....

TD RESOURCE FUND $27.63 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1P9. Tel: 1-800-386-3757; Web site:www.tdcanadatrust.ca. No load: deal directly with the bank) invests in companies that its managers see as having strong asset bases, proven management and the ability to internally finance growth. The $195.0-million TD Resource Fund’s top stock holdings mostly have Successful Investor Ratings of “Average” or higher. They include EnCana, Suncor Energy, Talisman Energy, Goldcorp, Yamana Gold, TransCanada Corp., BHP Billiton, Barrick Gold, Husky Energy, Chevron, Marathon Oil and Nexen. TD Resource Fund holds 57.1% of its portfolio in Energy and 38.3% in Metals & Minerals....

ISHARES S&P INDIA NIFTY 50 INDEX FUND $25.51 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers), is an ETF that aims to track the S&P CNX Nifty Index, which represents the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities on the National Stock Exchange of India. The fund’s top holdings are: Reliance Industries (conglomerate), 13.0%; Infosys Technologies (software), 7.9%; ICICI Bank, 6.9%; Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (conglomerate), 6.7%; ITC Ltd. (conglomerate), 4.7%; HDFC Bank, 4.3%; State Bank of India, 4.1%, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, 3.0%; and Tata Consulting Services (information technology), 2.4%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Banks, 17.1%; Refineries, 13.5%; Computers: Software, 12.1%; Engineering, 6.7%; Steel and Steel Products, 4.9%; Finance: Housing, 4.9%; Cigarettes, 4.7%; Power, 4.5%; Automobiles, 4.1%; and Electrical Equipment, 3.9%....