dividends paid

ACI WORLDWIDE $29 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-334-5101; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 33.9 million; Market cap: $967.4 million; No dividends paid) makes software used to process credit card, debit card, ATM, point-of-sale terminal and interbank payment transactions. ACI has more than 750 clients worldwide. Its customers include more than 100 of the world’s 500 largest banks and seven of the top 12 retailers in the U.S. In March 2011, ACI bought ICD Corp. for an undisclosed amount. ICD has over 140 customers who use its software to authorize credit- and debit-card transactions through over 70 different payment processors, including banks and credit card companies....

BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $13.66 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www.birchcliffenergy.com; Units outstanding: 127.7 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion: No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and natural gas, mainly in the Peace River Arch area near the Alberta/B.C. border. About 76% of Birchcliff’s production is natural gas. The remaining 24% is oil. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Birchcliff’s production jumped 70.5%, to 17,742 barrels of oil equivalent per day (including natural gas) from 10,407 barrels a year earlier. Cash flow per share rose 52.9%, to $0.26 from $0.17.The production increase and higher oil prices were the main reasons why Birchcliff’s cash flow rose....

AEROPOSTALE INC. $17.60 (New York symbol ARO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (646-485-5410; www.aeropostale.com; Shares outstanding: 92.8 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; No dividends paid) reported 1.2% higher sales in the three months ended April 30, 2011, to $469.2 million from $463.6 million. Even so, earnings per share fell 58.3%, to $0.20 from $0.48. The company’s costs rose sharply in the latest quarter, especially for clothing, due to a sharp rise in cotton prices. Aeropostale also had to offer big discounts to clear spring inventory to position itself for the key back-to-school shopping season. Aeropostale operates in a highly competitive market. That makes it hard for the company to pass on higher costs to its customers. However, its online sales continue to grow rapidly. As well, Aeropostale should continue to grow internationally over the longer term, especially in Asia and Latin America....

SYMANTEC CORP. $18.59 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 789.3 million; Market cap: $14.5 billion; No dividends paid) sells Internet security technology, including anti-virus and email filtering software. It also sells software and services for backing up and archiving data. Demand for data-security products is rising, particularly as more businesses switch to cloud computing. That’s where data and software are kept on remote servers. Users access these servers over the Internet. To meet this demand, Symantec plans to spend as much as $1.25 billion to buy other software firms this year, especially those that add to its cloud computing expertise....

DOMINO’S PIZZA $23.67 (New York symbol DPZ; TSINetwork Rating: Average)(734-930-3030; www.dominos.com; Shares outstanding: 60.8 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; No dividends paid) is the world’s largest chain of pizza stores that offer takeout and delivery. The company operates 9,379 stores in the U.S. and over 70 other countries. Franchisees run most of these outlets. Excluding one-time items, Domino’s earnings per share jumped 20% in the three months ended March 27, 2011, to $0.42 from $0.35. The company paid more for food ingredients, but that was offset by lower costs for labour, rent and interest. Sales rose 2.1%, to $389.2 million from $381.1 million. U.S. same-store sales fell 1.4%. However, international same-store sales gained 8.3%....

With today’s low interest rates, investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (a company’s total annual dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price). The best Canadian dividend stocks are responding by doing their best to maintain, or even increase, their payouts. That’s great news for Canadian investors. That’s because dividends are far more reliable than capital gains. More important, a dividend is a sign of investment quality. After all, dividends are impossible to fake — either the company has the cash to pay dividends or it doesn’t. What’s more, dividends can now contribute up to a third of your long-term investment return, without even considering the benefits of the dividend tax credit....

NVIDIA CORP. $18 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 595.1 million; Market cap: $10.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nvidia.com) is buying privately held Icera, which designs energy-efficient chips for cellphones....

EUROPEAN GOLDFIELDS $12.14 (Toronto symbol EGU; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (44 (20) 7408 9534; www.egoldfields.com; Shares outstanding: 184.8 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; No dividends paid) holds a 95% interest in Hellas Gold. Aktor S.A., Greece’s largest construction company, owns the other 5% of Hellas, as well as 19.3% of European Goldfields’ shares. Hellas owns three gold and base-metal deposits in Greece: the Stratoni zinc/lead/silver property, the Olympias gold/zinc/lead/silver project and the Skouries copper/gold property. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, European Goldfields’ revenue fell 2.6%, to $18.2 million from $18.7 million a year earlier on lower overall production. (All figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars.) The company lost $0.09 a share in the latest quarter, compared to a loss of $0.04 share. It holds cash of $57.1 million, or $0.31 a share, and has no debt....

ZHONGPIN INC. $15.81 (Nasdaq symbol HOGS; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (086-10-8286-1788; www.zpfood.com; Shares outstanding: 40.4 million; Market cap: $638.0 million; No dividends paid) is a China-based company that processes meat and other foods. Zhongpin specializes in pork and pork products, as well as fruit and vegetables. It sells 390 meat products, including chilled pork, frozen pork and prepared meats, as well as 35 fruit and vegetable products. Zhongpin focuses on prepared meat, with its higher profit margins, rather than bulk pork. The company has 13 processing plants, and sells its foods through over 3,200 retail stores, including 157 independently owned Zhongpin specialty boutiques, 1,072 Zhongpin retail stores and 2,097 exclusive supermarket counter locations. It also sells its foods to 31 domestic and international fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s and KFC. Other customers include school cafeterias, factory canteens and army posts. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Zhongpin’s revenue jumped 39.9%, to $285.8 million from $204.3 million a year earlier. Earnings rose 27.1%, to $16.9 million from $13.3 million. Earnings per share rose 23.7%, to $0.47 from $0.38, on more shares outstanding. The company’s $293.1 million of debt is a somewhat high 45.9% of its market cap. However, the company also holds cash of $177.6 million....

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $34.87 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 504.5 million; Market cap: $17.5 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. As well, graphic designers use Adobe’s software to create print publications and web pages. The company also makes Adobe Flash, which lets web site developers make web pages more interactive by adding animation and video. Computer users can download Adobe’s Flash Player viewer for free....