dividends paid

EBAY INC. $49 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $63.7 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 3.8; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) gets 51% of its revenue by charging users fees to sell goods on its shopping websites, including its main auction site, which it launched in September 1995. This site now has 145.1 million users.

eBay gets a further 43% of its revenue from processing online transactions, mostly through its wholly owned PayPal subsidiary. This business now has 148.4 million users. The remaining 6% of eBay’s revenue comes from its Enterprise division, which helps businesses process online orders.

The company lost $2.4 billion, or $1.82 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2014. That’s mainly because it transferred $9.0 billion in cash from its overseas businesses to its U.S. headquarters, triggering a $3.0-billion tax bill.

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TECK RESOURCES LTD. $24 (Toronto symbol TCK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 566.9 million; Market cap: $13.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.teck.com) has decided against building a pipeline that would pump treated waste water from its Red Dog open-pit zinc mine in northern Alaska to the Arctic Ocean. Under an agreement with environmental regulators, Teck spent $1.7 million studying the line. However, seasonal freezing and thawing would likely damage it if it ran underground. Teck also concluded that an above-ground line, which would have cost $261 million U.S., was not viable. Instead, Teck will keep processing waste water at the mine and releasing it into the local creek. The decision to not build a pipeline also means it has to pay an $8-million U.S. fine. That’s equal to 8% of Teck’s 2014 first quarter earnings of $105 million (Canadian), or $0.18 a share....

IAMGOLD $4.39 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 376.7 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; No dividends paid) has signed an agreement with Calibre Mining (symbol CXB on Toronto) that gives it the option to invest in a proposed gold-silver mine in Nicaragua.

Under the deal, IAMGold can earn a 51% stake in Calibre’s Easter Borosi project over the next three years if it pays $450,000 and spends $5.0 million to develop the property (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars).

After that, IAMGold can earn an additional 19% interest if pays Calibre another $450,000 and contributes $5.0 million more to development costs.

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ACI WORLDWIDE $55.40 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-334-5101; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 37.9 million; Market cap: $2.1 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that processes transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments. Its products also help cut fraud.

The company has added another major client for its Postilion retail point-to-point encryption (PSPE) software. This technology encrypts credit card numbers and other sensitive information from the point of entry (card swipe) at the merchant to the other end (issuing bank or other payment processor).

The client is Ecentric Payment Systems, South Africa’s leading payment processor. Ecentric processes nearly 400 million transactions a year for retailers. This number should rise as African markets continue to develop and South African retailers expand into other countries on the continent.

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BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $14.75 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating:Speculative) (403-261-6401;www.birchcliffenergy.com; Units outstanding: 145.0million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; No dividends paid) reports that its daily production rose 21.6% in the three months ended March 31, 2014, to 31,749 barrels of oil equivalent from 26,108 a year earlier. Cash flow per share jumped 122.2%, to $0.60 from $0.27, on the increased production and higher oil and gas prices.

The company plans to spend $291 million on exploration and development this year, which should boost its 2014 output to a record 34,000 barrels a day. Birchcliff expects to generate full-year cash flow of $331 million, or $2.30 a share, so it can comfortably afford these outlays.

Birchcliff Energy is still a buy.

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AEROPOSTALE $3.55 (New York symbol ARO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (646-485-5410; www.aeropostale.com; Shares outstanding:78.5 million; Market cap: $277.6 million; No dividends paid) reported better-than-expected earnings this week. However, the high teenage unemployment rate is still weighing on its sales.

In the three months ended May 3, 2014, Aeropostale’s sales fell 12.5%, to $395.9 million from $452.3 million a year earlier. Samestore sales declined 13%.

The company is now closing all 125 of its mall-based P.S. from Aeropostale stores. If you exclude closure and other costs, it lost $0.52 a share. That was better than the consensus forecast of a $0.72-a-share loss. A year earlier, Aeropostale lost $0.16 a share.

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AMAZON.COM $334.38 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206- 266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 460.2 million; Market cap: $150.8 billion; No dividends paid) has launched Prime Music, a music streaming service that’s now bundled with a $99-a-year Amazon Prime subscription.

This is the fourth part of the Amazon Prime service. The other three are unlimited shipping, a Kindle e-book library and Prime Instant Video (streaming movies and TV shows). Prime customers spend three to four times more than regular Amazon shoppers.

The company’s music service will start off with just over a million songs, with no ads and no limit on how much users can listen. It will also offer playlists curated by music experts Amazon will hire.

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GOOGLE INC. $562 (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 674.5 million; Market cap: $379.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.1; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) recently handed out its new class C non-voting shares to its class A (one vote per share) and class B (10 votes per share) shareholders....

Businesses will likely spend more on software this year, as the global economy continues to recover. That’s good news for these market leaders, but Symantec’s focus on security puts it in a better position to benefit as more companies adopt cloud computing. ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $65 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 497.7 million; Market cap: $32.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 8.3; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) earned $151.3 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2014 first quarter, which ended February 28, 2014. That’s down 14.9% from $177.9 million, or $0.35, a year ago. Revenue fell 0.8%, to $1.00 billion from $1.01 billion. The declines are mainly because Adobe is now selling its Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs as a subscription instead of a one-time purchase. That hurts the company’s short-term growth, but it should provide stable revenue streams as more users switch over. Subscriptions now supply over half of Adobe’s revenue....

MITEL NETWORKS $12.03 (Toronto symbol MNW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (613-592-2122; www.mitel.ca; Shares outstanding: 99.9 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; No dividends paid) is now #1 in business communications products in Europe, and #3 in North American behind Avaya and Cisco, after its January 31, 2014 friendly takeover of Aastra Technologies.

Aastra, a Stock Pickers Digest recommendation, mostly makes business telephone equipment....