holding company

ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG $164.52 [class C: non-voting] and GOOGL $163.24 [class A: one vote per share], is your #1 Aggressive buy for 2024.

The company is the parent of Google, the world’s leading Internet search engine—it handles over 80% of global search requests....

BCE INC., $46.49, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares o/s: 912.3 million; Market cap: $42.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 8.6%) has now agreed to sell its 37.5% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) to Rogers Communications Inc....

MICROSOFT CORP., $428.02, Nasdaq symbol MSFT, remains a buy for aggressive investors.

The company is the world’s largest computer software firm. Its main product is the Windows operating system, which powers about 85% of the world’s personal computers....

BCE INC., $47.56, Toronto symbol BCE, remains your #1 Income Buy for 2024.

The company is Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider. It has 1.92 million residential customers in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces....

We keep an eye on activist investors, as they tend to look for the same things we do—companies with undervalued assets that they can sell or spin off to improve shareholder value. Two recent targets, Kinaxis and News Corp., have attractive assets. However, they will probably resist activist demands, which could hurt their stock prices.


KINAXIS INC....

SALESFORCE INC., $254.57, symbol CRM on New York, provides cloud-based software for customer relationship management applications such as sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.

Founded in 1999 by current CEO Marc Benioff and three other co-founders, the company pioneered the SaaS (software as a service) software model and subscription-based revenue.

Software-as-a-service is where subscribers pay a monthly or yearly fee for software implementation, support and upgrades....

Interactive Brokers Group Inc. reported 23% higher revenue and 33.4% higher earnings as it continues to add customer accounts and benefit from higher interest rates.

These two subsidiaries of the Power Corp. holding company are now realizing the benefits of a new plan to better focus on their core areas of expertise. We like both but still prefer IGM for your new buying.


GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $42 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 932.1 million; Market cap: $39.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest life insurer, after Manulife Financial....

We believe that virtually all investors should have some gold exposure, if only because inflation remains a risk for the long term. High-quality gold producers are your most practical choice. That’s because these stocks let you profit from increases in the price of gold, without the costs for storage and insurance that come with gold coin and bullion investment....

POWER CORP. OF CANADA $39 is a buy. The conglomerate (Toronto symbol POW; Conservative-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 649.2 million; Market cap: $25.3 billion; Dividend yield: 5.8%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.powercorporation.com) holds controlling stakes in Canadian financial services firms Great-West Lifeco (insurance) and IGM Financial (mutual funds)....