Adobe Inc.

DUNDEEWEALTH INC. $18.65 (Toronto symbol DW; SI Rating: Speculative) (1-800-301-6745; www.dundeewealth.com; Shares outstanding: 144.3 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion) is up over 40% since CI Financial Income Fund, symbol CIX.UN on Toronto, launched a hostile $2.36 billion takeover bid for the company. CI Financial will pay 0.75 of a CI unit for each DundeeWealth share. Based on today’s CI Financial unit price of $27.07, the 0.75 per unit offer is worth $20.33 per DundeeWealth share. Dundee Corp., DundeeWealth’s controlling shareholder, has rejected the offer. One condition of CI Financial’s initial purchase offer was that DundeeWealth drop its plan to sell 27.3 million new DundeeWealth shares to Scotiabank at $12.76 a share. The sale would give Scotiabank an 18% interest in DundeeWealth. However, CI Financial dropped this condition in an effort to persuade Dundee Corp. to accept its offer, and Scotiabank has since purchased the shares....

AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $59.28, New York symbol AXP, has agreed to sell its international banking business for $1.1 billion. That figure includes $212 million that Amex will receive over the next 18 months from the transfer of a related operation. To put these amounts in perspective, Amex earned $1.06 billion or $0.88 a share in the second quarter of 2007. The company will probably invest most of the cash in its core card and travel operations, or buy back shares. American Express is a buy....

SYMANTEC CORP. $18.70 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; SI Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 882.5 million; Market cap: $16.5 billion) is now starting to realize some of the benefits of its 2005 acquisition of Veritas, which has strengthened its corporate security products. The $13.5 billion deal was one of the biggest software industry acquisitions ever. Meanwhile, Symantec’s consumer business continues to do well, including benefiting from the new Microsoft Vista operating system. In the three months ended June 30, 2007, Symantec’s sales rose 7.7%, to $1.4 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier (all amounts in U.S. dollars). Earnings per share were unchanged at $0.10. But excluding unusual items, earnings per share were $0.29 in the latest quarter, up 20.8% from a year earlier. Symantec continues to implement its restructuring plan to cut costs. The plan includes a 5% reduction in its workforce. It’s also buying back shares issued in the Veritas purchase. The company spent $1 billion on share repurchases earlier this year and plans to buy back a further $2 billion worth of its stock....

SONY CORP. ADRs $51 (New York symbol SNE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $51.0 billion; WSSF Rating: Above average) has outfitted its new PlayStation 3 video game player with its Blu-ray high-definition DVD technology. Sony feels this will help Blu-ray become the dominant format for high-definition DVDs. The plan seems to be working. Blu-ray now has about 70% of the market. Video rental chain Blockbuster now plans to carry only Blu-ray titles, which should spur more demand for Blu-ray players. Sony is a buy....

TD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FUND $14.94 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario. M5W1P9. 1-800-461-3863; Web site: www.tdcanadatrust.com. No load — deal directly with the company) invests mostly in U.S. firms. The fund’s gain in Canadian dollars over the last year was 3.4%. The Nasdaq index rose 7.4% in Canadian funds. The $122.6 million fund’s manager is well-respected U.S. mutual fund manager T. Rowe Price Associates. Its MER is 2.78%. TD Science & Technology’s top holdings include: Microsoft, Juniper Networks, Broadcom, Yahoo!, American Tower, Google, Foxconn International Holdings, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems. TD Science & Technology Fund is a buy for aggressive investors only.

The outlook for technology stocks is positive over the next few years. However, if you want to invest in tech funds, limit your investment to modest quantities. And these funds should only make up a portion of the manufacturing sector holdings in your portfolio. Above all, invest only in funds, like these two, plus Fidelity Focus Technology, above, that focus on established businesses rather than start-ups. TD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FUND $14.94 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario. M5W1P9. 1-800-461-3863; Web site: www.tdcanadatrust.com. No load — deal directly with the company) invests mostly in U.S. firms. The fund’s gain in Canadian dollars over the last year was 3.4%. The Nasdaq index rose 7.4% in Canadian funds. The $122.6 million fund’s manager is well-respected U.S. mutual fund manager T. Rowe Price Associates. Its MER is 2.78%. TD Science & Technology’s top holdings include: Microsoft, Juniper Networks, Broadcom, Yahoo!, American Tower, Google, Foxconn International Holdings, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems....

FORD MOTOR CO. $8 (New York symbol F) stopped paying dividends last year as part of its major restructuring plan. Consequently, we’ve dropped Ford from our Income Portfolio, and added it to our Aggressive Growth Portfolio. It could take several years for the company to bring its costs in line with sales, which adds to its uncertainty. Ford could improve its prospects with asset sales, or possibly merging with another carmaker. Hold. NCR CORP. $50 (New York symbol NCR) aims to spin off its Teradata division as a separate company in the third quarter of 2007. NCR will finalize the terms of the spin-off in the next month or so. Teradata helps businesses capture and analyze data such as customer buying habits and trends. The spin-off should help unlock NCR’s value. Buy. ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $43 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE) recently released Creative Suite 3, a collection of programs for graphic design professionals. That should spur sales, but the company is facing growing competition from cheaper alternatives. Hold.

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $42 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 588.0 million; Market cap: $24.7 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) earned $0.30 a share in its first fiscal quarter ended March 2, 2007, down 6.3% from $0.32 a year earlier. These figures exclude costs related to the integration of Macromedia Inc. and other unusual items. Revenue fell 0.9%, to $649.4 million from $655.5 million. Customers are holding off upgrading their photo editing and design programs until Adobe releases new versions later this year. The company continues to spend over 20% of its revenue on research, so it’s more profitable than it looks. But at nearly 50 times earnings, the stock is vulnerable to bad news. Adobe also faces competition from freeware versions of some of its software....

BARNES & NOBLE INC. $39 (New York symbol BKS) reported that same-store sales at its main Barnes & Noble chain fell 0.1% in the nine week period ended December 30, 2006. However, online sales rose 2.7%. Spending on new promotions will probably weigh on earnings, but sales should pick up later this year with the release of the next Harry Potter book. Buy. CINTAS CORP. $42 (NASDAQ symbol CTAS) has raised its annual dividend each year since becoming a public company in 1983. The new rate of $0.39 a share, up 11.4% from the old rate of $0.35, yields 0.9%. Buy. ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $40 (NASDAQ symbol ADBE) earned $0.33 a share before one-time items in its fourth fiscal quarter ended December 1, 2006, up 10% from $0.30 a year earlier. Revenue grew 33.7%, to $682.2 million from $510.4 million. Adobe spends 21% of its revenue on research, so it’s more profitable than it seems. However, the company faces growing competition from larger software makers and freeware versions of its products. Hold.

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $40.20 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; SI Rating: Average) (408-536- 6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 583.3 million; Market cap: $23.5 billion) reported 33.7% higher revenues in the three months ended December 1, 2006, up to $682.2 million from $510.4 million. Ongoing earnings per share rose 6.5%, to $0.33 from $0.31. Adobe holds cash of $2.3 billion or $3.91 a share, and it has no long-term debt. The company has plenty of financing for new product development. Adobe spends a high 21% of sales on research and development. However, it faces competition from freeware versions of some of its software. As well, Adobe’s high p/e of 34 makes it vulnerable to any bad news....