dividends paid

ALAMOS GOLD $3.40 (Toronto symbol AGI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681- 2802; www.alamosgold.com; Shares outstanding: 255.5 million; Market cap: $921.0 million; No dividends paid) took its current form in July 2015, when Alamos Gold merged with Stock Pickers Digest recommendation AuRico Gold. The combined firm owns the Mulatos mine in Mexico and the Young-Davidson project in northern Ontario, which holds as much as 5.6 million ounces of gold. Young- Davidson started up in 2013 and will reach full production this year. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Alamos’s gold production rose 5.7%, to a record 104,734 ounces from 99,083 a year earlier. The company holds cash of $320.8 million U.S., which it will use to complete Young-Davidson and increase its gold output from 380,000 ounces in 2015 to over 400,000 this year....

YAMANA GOLD $2.13 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www. yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 946.6 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) owns eight operating gold mines in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. It also holds a 12.5% stake in the Alumbrera copper/gold mine in Argentina and has a number of other properties in advanced stages of development. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, the company’s gold production fell 1.9%, to 325,897 ounces from 332,344 a year earlier. The decline mainly resulted from lower ore grades at two of its mines. Gold prices fell 12.1% in the latest quarter. That, plus the lower production, cut Yamana’s cash flow by 25.9%, to $133.9 million from $180.7 million. Cash flow per share declined 39.1%, to $0.14 from $0.23, on more shares outstanding....

ALAMOS GOLD $3.40 (Toronto symbol AGI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681- 2802; www.alamosgold.com; Shares outstanding: 255.5 million; Market cap: $921.0 million; No dividends paid) took its current form in July 2015, when Alamos Gold merged with Stock Pickers Digest recommendation AuRico Gold.

The combined firm owns the Mulatos mine in Mexico and the Young-Davidson project in northern Ontario, which holds as much as 5.6 million ounces of gold....

SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL $0.65 (Toronto symbol S; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800-704-6698; www.sherritt.com; Shares outstanding: 293.9 million; Market cap: $199.8 million; No dividends paid) owns 40% of the Ambatovy nickel mine on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast. The $5.3-billion U.S. project started up in 2015. However, nickel prices have fallen sharply, from $12.00 U.S. a pound in January 2011 to $3.87 today. To reflect the lower value of the mine’s reserves, Sherritt will now take a $1.6-billion after-tax writedown on the value of its Ambatovy stake. The charge will show up in its 2015 fourth-quarter results....

SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL $0.65 (Toronto symbol S; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800-704-6698; www.sherritt.com; Shares outstanding: 293.9 million; Market cap: $199.8 million; No dividends paid) owns 40% of the Ambatovy nickel mine on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast.

The $5.3-billion U.S....

We’re still positive on the long-term outlook for stocks. But in a time of rising market volatility, plunging commodity prices and international tension, it’s more important than ever to diversify, rather than focus on a single stock of the year. Moreover, we find lots of attractive long-term buys among stocks we cover. With that in mind, we’ve chosen to highlight one pick from each of our portfolios (Conservative, Aggressive and Income) for 2016. All three of these high-quality stocks offer strong growth prospects and trade at reasonable multiples to earnings. CAE INC. $15 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 269.2 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) is the world’s leading maker of flight simulators, which help teach airline and military pilots how to take off, land and handle a variety of emergency situations....

BLACKBERRY LTD. $10 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 525.7 million; Market cap: $5.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) continues to expand its software business, which provides it with recurring licensing fees and cuts its reliance on selling smartphones. The company recently paid $250 million for AtHoc, whose software lets users securely exchange messages during crises (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars.). AtHoc’s clients include the U.S. defence and homeland security departments. BlackBerry also bought Good Technology, whose software improves the security of messages sent through mobile devices, for $425 million....

BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $3.62 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www.birchcliffenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 152.3 million; Market cap: $542.2 million; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and gas, mainly in the Peace River Arch area near the Alberta/B.C. border. About 87% of its output is gas. The remaining 13% is oil. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Birchcliff’s cash flow per share dropped 42.0%, to $0.29 from $0.50 a year earlier. Sharply lower oil and gas prices offset a 12.3% rise in daily production. The company continues to support its cash flow with cost cuts. As well, in response to low prices, Birchcliff cut back on exploration and development spending for 2015. It will likely spend $249 million during the full year, down 45.0% from $451 million in 2014. It hasn’t yet announced its 2016 spending plans....

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $95.56 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 498.8 million; Market cap: $46.9 billion; No dividends paid) reported that its revenue jumped 21.7% in the three months ended November 27, 2015, to a record $1.31 billion from $1.07 billion a year earlier. The company’s earnings per share rose 59.0%, to $0.62 from $0.39. The gains came from rising demand for its subscription services, particularly the Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs. However, the stock has gained 32% in the past year and now trades at a high 34.0 times the $2.81 a share Adobe will likely earn in fiscal 2016. Moreover, the company gets 40% of its revenue from outside the U.S., so the rising U.S. dollar is a risk factor....

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $74.20 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 116.1 million; Market cap: $8.5 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,700 franchised hotels worldwide. Wyndham also manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. It currently has around 110,000 vacation-rental properties in 100 countries. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Wyndham’s revenue rose 3.3%, to $1.56 billion from $1.51 billion a year earlier. The company gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That helped increase its occupancy rate by 1.7%....