investment
An investment is an asset or property acquired to generate income or gain appreciation. Appreciation is the increase in the value of an asset over time. It requires the outlay of a resource today, like time, effort, and money, for a greater payoff in the future or for generating a profit.
An investment involves using capital in the present to increase an asset’s value over time.
Investments may include bonds, stocks, real estate, or alternative investments.
Investments can be diversified to reduce risk, though this may reduce the amount of earning potential.
In business contexts, investments are financial; however, consider how some people spend time to make higher incomes in the future (i.e. invest in a college education).
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Green Timiskaming, the issuer of Northern Solar Bonds, was established in 2009 as a community-owned, not-for-profit co-operative devoted to building a “greener way of life” for the people of Timiskaming, in Northern Ontario. The bonds will finance a 250-kilowatt solar system to be installed at the Armstrong Township Arena in Earlton, Ontario, and another nine 500-kilowatt projects in Chamberlain Township. Northern Solar Bonds have very high yields: investors buying five-year bonds will get a yield of 4.5% annually (in contrast, a five-year GIC yields 1.80%); the 20-year bond has an effective rate of around 7% annually....
Gluskin Sheff + Associates, $27.25, symbol GS on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 31.7 million; Market cap: $839.5 million; www.gluskinsheff.com), is a Toronto-based wealth management firm that serves high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. It has around $8.2 billion in assets under management. In August 2014, the company acquired Blair Franklin Asset Management Holdings, which specializes in fixed-income investments and has $635 million in assets under management. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Gluskin earned $27.2 million, or $0.93 a share, down 54.9% from $60.3 million, or $2.10, a year earlier. Revenue fell 42.7%, to $69.3 million from $120.9 million....
“Smart glass” technology lets users control the tint, but Research Frontiers’s sales are still confined to a narrow, high-end market.
REITMANS (CANADA) LTD., $7.48, symbol RET.A on Toronto, shot up over 15% this week after reporting a return to profitability in the latest quarter. Reitmans owns 823 women’s clothing stores across Canada, including 341 Reitmans stores, 139 Penningtons, 105 Addition Elle, 76 RW & Co., 68 Thyme Maternity and 94 Smart Set locations. It also has 21 Thyme Maternity boutiques in some Canadian Babies “R” Us locations. In the three months ended January 31, 2015, Reitmans’ sales fell 1.8%, to $236.3 million from $240.7 million a year earlier. Sales declined because the company closed 55 less-profitable stores. Same-store sales gained 2.1%....
CAE INC., $14.74, Toronto symbol CAE, announced this week that it has sold five flight simulators to airlines in the U.S. and Asia. It will also build a new facility in Bogota, Colombia, to train pilots for the Viva Colombia airline under a long-term agreement. With these deals, CAE sold 41 simulators in its 2015 fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2015. It sold a record 48 simulators in fiscal 2014. The company has also won several contracts to upgrade flight simulators and train aircrews for the U.S., U.K., Australian and Italian air forces. CAE’s military businesses supply 40% of its revenue, which cuts its reliance on cyclical commercial airlines....
Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle. 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.
Q: What is your opinion of the following investment: First Capital Realty? Thanks.
A: First Capital Realty Inc. (symbol FCR on Toronto; www.firstcapitalrealty.ca) owns, develops and operates shopping centres throughout Canada. It focuses on big cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton.
First Capital owns interests in 157 properties. Supermarkets and drugstores account for 31% of its rental revenue, followed by national and discount retailers (15%), medical clinics, gyms and daycare facilities (14%), restaurants (13%) and banks and government offices (11%). Other retailers supply the remaining 16%.
The company’s largest tenants include Sobeys, Loblaw, Metro, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart and Dollarama.
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Q: What is your opinion of the following investment: First Capital Realty? Thanks.
A: First Capital Realty Inc. (symbol FCR on Toronto; www.firstcapitalrealty.ca) owns, develops and operates shopping centres throughout Canada. It focuses on big cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton.
First Capital owns interests in 157 properties. Supermarkets and drugstores account for 31% of its rental revenue, followed by national and discount retailers (15%), medical clinics, gyms and daycare facilities (14%), restaurants (13%) and banks and government offices (11%). Other retailers supply the remaining 16%.
The company’s largest tenants include Sobeys, Loblaw, Metro, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart and Dollarama.
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Getting back to industrial basics, General Electric shrinks GE Capital and finalizes its big deal with French nuclear power giant Alstrom.
Beware a few lucky wins with market timing, because all the random elements involved in timing the market inevitably lead to losses.
“Averaging down” and “averaging in” sound similar, but a wide gap separates the two. Mixing them up can cost you money. Averaging down is the well-known trader’s tactic of buying more shares of a stock you own as the price falls. The idea is that this will cut your average cost per share. That way, you make more money (per share, at least) when the stock turns around and goes up. One problem with averaging down is you are betting you were right when you bought the stock the first time. You assume the $20 stock you bought is an even better buy at $15. You may be right. You may be ignoring warning signs, because you don’t want to admit you were wrong....
Precision Castparts Corp., $213.79, symbol PCP on New York (Shares outstanding: 141.8 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; www.precast.com), makes complex metal components and other products for aerospace and industrial firms. The company has three divisions:
- Forged Products (42% of total sales) manufactures specialized parts for jet engines, landing gear and other aerospace machinery, as well as industrial gas turbines and pipes. It makes these products from nickel alloys, steel and titanium.
- Airframe Products (32%) makes aircraft wings, fuselages, passenger doors and fasteners. It also produces parts for the power-generation and industrial markets.