dividends paid

ENDEAVOUR SILVER CORP. $11.19 (Toronto symbol EDR: TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-877-685-9775; www.edrsilver.com; Shares outstanding: 81.3 million; Market cap: $909.6 million; No dividends paid) operates two silver mines in Mexico, Guanacevi and Guanajuato. Endeavour has just released preliminary results for the three months ended March 31, 2011. In the quarter, its silver production rose 17%, to a record 900,133 ounces. That, plus higher silver prices, pushed up revenue by 95%, to $35.4 million. (All amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars.) The company plans to increase the Guanajuato mine’s processing capacity by 67% this year. That will let Endeavour produce a total of 3.7 million ounces of silver in 2011....

TEMPUR-PEDIC $58.63 (New York symbol TPX; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative)(800-878-8889; www.tempurpedic.com; Shares outstanding: 68.6 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; No dividends paid) is up over 15% since the company raised its 2011 earnings forecast to between $2.80 to $2.95 a share on revenue of $1.31 billion to $1.36 billion. That’s significantly higher than its previous forecast of $2.72 a share on revenue of $1.26 billion. Tempur-Pedic’s long-term prospects are bright. However, the stock trades at a high 20.1 times the midpoint of its new forecast earnings range....

DELPHI ENERGY $2.67 (Toronto symbol DEE; TSI Network Rating: Speculative) (403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares outstanding: 116.5 million; Market cap: $311.2 million; No dividends paid) explores for oil and gas in Alberta and B.C. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Delphi’s combined daily output of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil rose 24.0%, to 8,539 barrels of oil equivalent from 6,888 barrels a year earlier. Delphi’s cash flow rose 26.5%, to $18.0 million from $14.2 million. Its cash flow per share rose 14.3%, to $0.16 from $0.14....

NEW GOLD $10.02 (Toronto symbol NGD; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (888-315- 9715; www.newgold.com; Shares outstanding: 399.1 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; No dividends paid) has agreed to buy Richfield Ventures (symbol RVC on Toronto) for $550 million in New Gold shares. New Gold holds cash of $491 million, or $1.25 a share, so it could use some of those funds for the purchase. However, its shares are trading near their all-time highs, so the company decided to pay with stock instead. Richfield owns the Blackwater gold project in central British Columbia, about 450 kilometres north of New Gold’s New Afton project. New Afton is forecast to begin production in mid-2012. The Blackwater project holds as much as 3.8 million ounces of gold. The project is accessible by road, and is near a BC Hydro power line....

These companies on this page offer investors a way to diversify their Finance sector holdings beyond the big five banks. However, they are only for investors who can tolerate the added risk. DUNDEE CORP. $25 (Toronto symbol DC.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 70.7 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dundeecorp.com) is a holding company that invests in publicly listed and private companies in three main areas: wealth management, real estate and resources. The company recently sold its 48% stake (60% voting interest) in DundeeWealth Inc. to Bank of Nova Scotia (Toronto symbol BNS). DundeeWealth owns the Dynamic family of mutual funds....

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $44 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 345.1 million; Market cap: $15.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agilent.com) makes testing systems that help improve electronic products, such as cellphones and computer-networking equipment. Agilent was a unit of Hewlett-Packard Co. until 1999, when Hewlett spun it off as a separate company. The company has gone through a lot of changes since. In 2005, it sold its struggling chip-making operations. In 2006, it spun off Verigy Ltd., its computer-chip-testing business. Agilent has also aggressively cut its costs in the past few years, mainly by closing plants and cutting jobs....

We’ve often pointed out that spinoffs like Agilent tend to perform better than comparable stocks in the first few years. Agilent shot up to $162 after it became an independent company in 1999. However, it dropped below $11 when the tech-stock boom ended in 2002. It rose to $40 in 2007, but fell back to $12 in 2009. Even with its erratic history, Agilent still outperformed larger tech stocks, such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems and its former parent, Hewlett-Packard. Agilent’s recent shift into medical-testing products should give it more predictable earnings, and make the stock less volatile. As well, demand for its electronic-testing products is rising with the economy. AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $44 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 345.1 million; Market cap: $15.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agilent.com) makes testing systems that help improve electronic products, such as cellphones and computer-networking equipment....

VERIGY LTD. $14 (Nasdaq symbol VRGY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 60.7 million; Market cap: $849.8 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.verigy.com) jumped to $29 in its first year following its spinoff from Agilent in 2006. However, it has not rebounded as strongly from the recession as its former parent. That’s why Verigy is now a takeover target. In November 2010, Verigy agreed to acquire LTX-Credence Corp. (Nasdaq symbol LTXC), a rival maker of computer-chip testing equipment. However, in December 2010, Japan-based Advantest Corp. (New York symbol ATE) offered to buy Verigy for $15.00 a share. Advantest is the world’s largest maker of chip-testing equipment....

NCR CORP. $19 (New York symbol NCR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 160.1 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ncr.com) is a leading maker of automated teller machines (ATMs), checkout scanners, cash registers and self-serve kiosks. The company gets half of its revenue from selling and installing this equipment. The other half comes from selling supplies and maintenance services. NCR continues to see strong demand for its self-serve checkout systems. That’s because these devices help retailers cut their labour costs. However, ATM demand remains weak, as banks continue to conserve cash in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The company aims to spur growth by applying its expertise to new markets. For example, two years ago it started renting and selling DVD movies under the “BlockBuster Express” name through 8,000 self-serve kiosks in the U.S. (NCR licenses the name, so BlockBuster’s bankruptcy should have little impact on its DVD business.) Right now, DVDs account for less than 5% of NCR’s revenue....

HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. $42 (New York symbol HPQ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 2.2 billion; Market cap: $92.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.hp.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 50.0%, to $0.12 a share from $0.08. The new annual rate of $0.48 yields 1.1%. Like Verizon (later in this issue), Hewlett plans to grow by aggressively expanding into cloud computing. Hewlett will aim its cloud-computing products at smaller businesses, instead of big corporate and government clients. That way, it will avoid directly competing with larger companies like IBM (also in this issue). Hewlett will also let software developers use its new cloud-computing platform to test and secure their programs, and sell them to businesses and consumers. This new platform will also help Hewlett sell more of its own software....