amazon.com Inc.

STANTEC INC. $31.42 (Toronto symbol STN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (780-917-7288; www.stantec.com; Shares outstanding: 93.8 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) (all figures adjusted for a 2-for-1 share split in November 2014) sells a range of consulting, project-delivery, design and technology services. Its clients operate in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, transportation and construction.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Stantec’s revenue rose 15.1%, to $519.6 million from $451.3 million. Earnings gained 6.7%, to $38.1 million, or $0.41 a share, from $35.7 million, or $0.38.

The company continues to grow through acquisitions. One of its latest is Sparling, a 130-person design firm with offices in Seattle, Portland and San Diego. Sparling focuses on electrical engineering and lighting design, and its recent contracts include the University of California San Diego Jacobs Medical Center and Amazon.com’s Seattle South Union Campus.

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Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock market index or sub-index. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the Good Friday holiday, our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 2, 2015. ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK, $70.37, symbol ATNI on Nasdaq, owns wireless and wireline telecom operations in the U.S. Southwest, New England, New York State, Guyana, Bermuda and parts of the Caribbean islands. The company continues to improve its technology and expand its wireless capacity and coverage. That’s paying off as customers use more mobile data for profitable services like music downloads, mobile gaming and e-books....

FEDEX CORP., $172.04, New York symbol FDX, earned $580 million in the third quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended February 28, 2015. That’s up 53.4% from $378 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 63.4%, to $2.01 from $1.23, beating the consensus forecast of $1.87. The gains mainly resulted from the company’s recent restructuring and a 30.4% drop in fuel costs. Harsh winter weather in the year-earlier quarter also disrupted ground deliveries and depressed FedEx’s earnings. Overall revenue rose 3.7%, to $11.7 billion from $11.3 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $11.8 billion....

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WAL-MART STORES INC. (New York symbol WMT; www.walmart.com) gets about 60% of its sales from its 4,516 stores in the U.S., including 3,407 supercentres, which sell both groceries and general merchandise. Groceries now supply 56% of Wal-Mart’s U.S. sales.

In 1991, the company opened its first store outside of the U.S. through a joint venture with a Mexican retailer. Its international division (29% of total sales) now operates 6,290 stores in 26 countries.

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Wal-Mart opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. It has since grown to become the world’s biggest retailer, with 11,453 locations in the U.S. and 26 other countries. The company was one of the first to use computerized cash registers. That not only sped up checkout lines but gave Wal-Mart valuable data it could use to identify popular products in its various markets. As a result, it was able to keep top-selling items in stock and cut down on clearance sales. At the same time, Wal-Mart’s continued growth let it negotiate better prices from suppliers. The retail business continues to change, particularly as consumers buy more goods online. As well, many younger shoppers in cities prefer local stores instead of driving to suburban malls....

AMAZON.COM $373.37 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 464.4 million; Market cap: $174.3 billion; No dividends paid) is a major online retailer. The company gets about 25% of its sales from books, music and videos. Other products, including electronics, computer games and toys, make up the other 75%. Amazon Marketplace lets other companies sell their products through Amazon’s websites. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Amazon earned $0.45 a share. That was down 11.8% from $0.51 a share a year earlier, but it was much better than the consensus estimate of $0.24. Sales rose 14.6%, to $29.3 billion from $25.6 billion. In early 2014, the company raised the price of its Amazon Prime free-shipping service to $99 a year from $79. This was the first increase since Amazon launched Prime in 2005....

WAL-MART STORES INC. $84 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio: Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.2 billion; Market cap: $268.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) gets about 60% of its sales from its 4,516 stores in the U.S., including 3,407 supercentres, which sell both groceries and general merchandise. Groceries now supply 56% of Wal-Mart’s U.S. sales.

In 1991, the company opened its first store outside of the U.S. through a joint venture with a Mexican retailer. Its international division (29% of total sales) now operates 6,290 stores in 26 countries.

The remaining 11% of Wal-Mart’s sales comes from its Sam’s Club warehouse stores. The company charges customers a $45 annual membership fee to shop at these stores, which sell a variety of goods at wholesale prices. There are currently 647 Sam’s Club stores in the U.S. and other countries.

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WESTJET AIRLINES LTD., $31.15, symbol WJA on Toronto, reports that its earnings jumped 33.8% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to a fourth-quarter record of $90.7 million from $67.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 34.6%, to $0.70 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding. That was well ahead of the consensus estimate of $0.28. This was WestJet’s 39th consecutive quarter of profitability. Revenue rose 7.3%, to $994.4 million from $926.4 million....

AMAZON.COM $373.37 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 464.4 million; Market cap: $174.3 billion; No dividends paid) is a major online retailer. The company gets about 25% of its sales from books, music and videos. Other products, including electronics, computer games and toys, make up the other 75%. Amazon Marketplace lets other companies sell their products through Amazon’s websites.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Amazon earned $0.45 a share. That was down 11.8% from $0.51 a share a year earlier, but it was much better than the consensus estimate of $0.24. Sales rose 14.6%, to $29.3 billion from $25.6 billion.

In early 2014, the company raised the price of its Amazon Prime free-shipping service to $99 a year from $79. This was the first increase since Amazon launched Prime in 2005.

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