diversification

ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $71.94 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (340-777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares o/s: 16.1 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) owns wireless and land-line operations in the U.S., Bermuda, the Caribbean and Guyana. It also owns solar power plants that sell electricity under long-term contracts. The company has now purchased the development business of U.K.-based Armstrong Energy Global. Armstrong develops, builds and owns solar farms in India. Over the next six to nine months, Atlantic plans to build solar plants in India with generating capacity of 50 megawatts. The company sees India’s favourable climate and unmet energy needs as ideal for solar power operations. It believes that solar energy development costs in many regions of India have reached grid parity. That means Atlantic can generate electricity at a profit without relying on direct government subsidies— something rarely, if ever, accomplished....

Open Range Energy, $6.82, symbol ONR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 60.9 million; Market cap: $468.2 million; www.openrangeenergy.com), is an oil and natural gas producer that operates in Alberta. In June 2010, Open Range began a new business: renting its Poseidon Concepts fracturing fluid tanks to producers of shale oil and shale gas. Shale gas and shale oil are trapped in rock formations. To extract them, companies must pump water and chemicals (fracturing fluids) into the rock. This fractures the rock and releases the natural gas or oil. Open Range now rents 100 tank systems across North America. The company believes that its large tanks are more efficient than other tanks, because they can hold much more fracturing fluid, are easier to transport, and have a more efficient fluid-heating process. Open Range designed the tanks, but other companies make them....

WESTJET AIRLINES, $20.49, symbol WJA on Toronto, carried a record 5.3 million passengers in March 2016, up 8.4% from 4.9 million a year earlier. The company’s load factor rose to 83.2% from 81.3%. Load factor is the percentage of available seats that are occupied by paying passengers. Revenue passenger miles (the total number of paying passengers on each plane multiplied by the distance travelled in miles) rose 7.2% in the latest quarter....

ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $72.81 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340- 777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 16.1 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) owns wireless and wireline (traditional telephone and Internet) operations in the U.S. Southwest, New England, New York State, Bermuda, parts of the Caribbean, and Guyana. It also owns solar power plants that sell their electricity under long-term contracts. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, the company’s revenue fell 6.3%, to $82.9 million from $88.5 million a year earlier. The decline was mostly due to the sale of its Turks and Caicos business in early 2015. At the same time, Atlantic spent heavily on its network to support increased traffic. Earnings per share dropped 69.4%, to $0.22 from $0.72, on more shares outstanding....

WEIGHT WATCHERS INTERNATIONAL $13.70 (New York symbol WTW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (212-589-2700; www.weightwatchers.com; Shares outstanding: 63.6 million; Market cap: $852.9 million; No dividends paid) offers weight-loss services in 23 countries. The company promotes a program of lifestyle changes through 36,000 weekly meetings and its website. Oprah Winfrey bought 10% of the company in October 2015. She also joined its board of directors. Her goal has been to promote the company and help it reverse a steady decline over the last few years. In the three months ended January 2, 2016, Weight Watchers’ revenue fell 20.8% to $259.2 million from $327.8 million a year earlier. The company lost $0.03 a share in the latest quarter, compared to a profit of $0.09 a year ago....

A well-diversified stock portfolio should be tailored to your personal investment goals and temperament.

Energy sector stocks can round out any well balanced portfolio—and there is a crucial role they can play

ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $31.82 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The fund’s geographic breakdown includes China, 24.0%; South Korea, 15.3%; Taiwan, 12.8%; India, 8.0%; South Africa, 6.4%; Brazil, 5.7%; Mexico, 4.6%; Russia, 3.7%; Malaysia, 3.5%; Indonesia, 3.0%; Thailand, 2.3%; and Turkey, 1.5%. Its top holdings are Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 3.8%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 3.4%; Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), 2.9%; China Mobile, 2.0%; China Construction Bank, 1.5%; Naspers (South Africa: media and Internet), 1.5%; Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 1.1%; and Hon Hai Precision (Taiwan), 1.0%....

We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus. The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks. Here’s a look at four international ETFs we see as buys, and two we feel you should hang on to:...

DREAM OFFICE REIT, $19.85, symbol D.UN on Toronto, owns and manages 166 properties comprising 23.0 million square feet of office and retail space in major Canadian cities. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Dream Office’s revenue fell 4.4%, to $196.2 million from $205.2 million a year earlier. The trust’s cash flow gained 3.4%, to $70.9 million from $68.6 million, while cash flow per unit fell 1.6% to $0.62 from $0.63 on more units outstanding. Dream is up more than 21% over the last week since it announced a three-year strategic plan to push up its unit price....