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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on stocks to buy as well as questions on investment strategy and the economy. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle. This week an Inner Circle members asked us about one of the world’s best known entertainment companies. Walt Disney now has five separate businesses and continues to add to its assets. Pat examines the company’s entertainment empire and the impact of several recent high-profile acquisitions. He also consider the company’s financial outlook and whether the shares can continue their recent rise. Q: What is your opinion about Disney? Thanks....

Walt Disney Co., $83.30, symbol DIS on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $144.3 billion; www.thewaltdisneycompany.com), is an entertainment and media company that focuses on families. It’s also the world’s largest theme park operator. In 1991, Dow Jones added Disney to its widely followed Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 major U.S. stocks. The company has five main business segments:...

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “When you see performance numbers issued by brokers, money managers and newsletter publishers, ask yourself just how hypothetical those figures might be.”...

I’ve mentioned here, and in recent letters to our portfolio-management clients, that I’m optimistic about the stock market’s direction. In fact, I suspect that a secular bull market began in March 2009, when the market began rising after the recession. Secular bull markets take a variety of shapes. Stock prices still go up and down, of course. But the key difference with a secular bull market is that each new upward thrust takes the market to higher peaks than those of the preceding rise. The post-World War Two market rise ran from the late 1940s through the late 1960s. It was a highly rewarding period for investors who followed a conservative, fundamentally based approach like ours. Another secular bull market took place from the late 1980s through around 2007. It was also a profitable time for investors who followed an approach like ours....

Tricon Capital Group, $7.36, symbol TCN on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 90.5 million; Market cap: $674.3 million; www.triconcapital.com), is focused on North American residential real estate development. It has about $1.9 billion of assets under management. Tricon manages limited partnerships that provide financing to developers, usually in the form of loans, mainly for single- and multi-family construction and retail developed in conjunction with residential projects. Since its inception in 1988, Tricon has financed about 160 transactions for over $11 billion worth of developments. The company currently owns 22,500 single-family lots and 6,300 apartment units, as well as over 3,300 single-family rental homes in the U.S....

APPLE INC., $571.94, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, rose 9% this week after it announced several moves to enhance its investment appeal. These initiatives include raising its quarterly dividend by 7.9%, to $3.29 a share from $3.05. The new annual rate of $13.16 yields 2.3%. Apple also increased its share buyback program by $30 billion. It can now repurchase up to $90 billion worth of its stock by the end of 2015. That’s equal to 18% of its $492.9-billion market cap. Apple will also split its outstanding shares on a 7-for-1 basis in June 2014. In addition to making its shares more affordable, the split would make Apple a candidate for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. If Apple does join the widely followed Dow, mutual funds and exchange traded funds that mimic the index would have to buy the stock, which would push up the share price....

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 600 points in a little over a week. Speculative stocks such as Facebook are down around 20% from their peaks of the previous month. Meanwhile, Russia is concentrating its troops on Ukraine’s eastern border, and Ukrainian troops clashed with pro-Russian protesters who have occupied government buildings in the eastern part of the country. Meanwhile, China says it is restructuring its economy, and this is likely to cut its rate of economic growth. It has allowed its yuan to creep downward in foreign exchange markets in the past year, which will make its exports cheaper in world markets. In response, the European Central Bank has hinted that it may act to weaken the euro, to remain competitive. Many investors wonder what, if anything, they should do with their investments in response to any or all of these news items. The answer depends on what investments you already hold....

The Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF, $45.86, symbol SCHB on New York (Units outstanding: 67.4 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; www.schwabetfs.com), aims to offer diversified exposure across large- and small-cap U.S. stocks. It tracks the roughly 2,500 stocks in the Dow Jones U.S. Broad Stock Market Index. The ETF has an MER of just 0.04%. It yields 1.8%. The index’s 10 highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Google, Chevron, Wells Fargo, Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan Chase....

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $163.35 (New York symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The SPDR Dow Jones ETF’s top holdings are Visa, IBM, Goldman Sachs Group, ExxonMobil, Chevron, 3M, McDonald’s, Caterpillar, United Technologies and Boeing. The fund’s expenses are about 0.17% of its assets.

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ISHARES DOW JONES CANADA SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX FUND $24.40 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds 30 of the highest-yielding Canadian stocks. Its selections are based on dividend growth, yield and payout ratio. The weight of any one stock is limited to 10% of its assets. The fund’s MER is 0.55%. It yields 3.8%.

The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 7.0%; TD Bank, 6.3%; National Bank, 6.2%; Bonterra Energy, 6.0%; Bank of Montreal, 5.6%; Royal Bank, 5.1%; BCE, 4.3%; AG Growth International, 4.3%; and IGM Financial, 3.9%.

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