investment

Canadian Tire’s shares have jumped 24% in the past year, mainly thanks to its successful takeover of the Forzani chain of sporting goods stores. It has also made deals that have helped unlock the hidden value of its credit card business and real estate holdings. We feel the stock still has plenty of room to rise, for a number of reasons. For one, Canadian Tire’s new growth plan should help it compete with online sellers and attract younger shoppers. It also stands to gain from Target’s decision to close all 133 of its Canadian locations. CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $118 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 78.1 million; Market cap: $9.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) began operating in 1922 and is now one of Canada’s leading retailers....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on buying stocks 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. We give you Pat’s buy-hold-sell recommendation as well as his analysis of the stock. This is part of the specific buy, hold and sell advice we offer you in our daily posts. Every week you get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, and “U.S. Stock Picks” on Thursday. This week an Inner Circle member asked about a company whose rental trucks are a familiar sight on North American highways. Ryder System makes the bulk of its revenue leasing truck fleets under long-term deals. It extends its service to helping clients manage warehousing and distribution. The company has also entered into a venture with a clean energy firm to develop a truck to run on compressed natural gas, potentially a money-saver when gasoline prices are higher. Pat examines the company’s financial situation and assesses its growth prospects. ...

Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

CINTAS CORP. (Nasdaq symbol CTAS; www.cintas.com) provides a range of products and services to over one million businesses, mainly in North America.

The company gets 71% of its revenue by renting uniforms that it makes and cleans. This business also rents a variety of related products, such as mats, towels, mops and cleaning supplies. Cintas gets a further 10% of its revenue by selling uniforms.

In addition, the company sells first aid kits, fire extinguishers, sprinklers and emergency-exit lights (11%). It also shreds corporate documents (8%). In April 2014, it merged its shredding operations with Shred-it International. In exchange, Cintas received 42% of the combined company, which uses the Shred-it brand, plus $180 million in cash.

Cintas used the proceeds from the deal to pay a special dividend of $0.85 a share. It also increased its regular annual dividend by 10.4%, to $0.85 a share from $0.77. The new rate yields 1.1%. The company has now raised the payout annually for the past 31 years.

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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. $54 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 120.9 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. It processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.

Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $39.9 million, or $0.32 a share, in its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended December 31, 2014. That’s up 27.9% from $31.2 million, or $0.25 a share, a year earlier. The company continues to add new clients and is doing a good job of holding on to existing ones. Revenue gained 10.4%, to $574.6 million from $520.6 million.

Broadridge typically makes half of its profits in its fourth quarter, which ends June 30. This is the busiest time for processing proxies and annual reports.

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Nearly 50% of Canadians do not have a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). And many of those that do are not making regular contributions. This is a shame. It means that many are missing out on a savings plan that can contribute substantially to building wealth and accumulating a strong cash reserve that’s there when you need it.

Since their inception in 2009 tax free savings accounts have given Canadians an excellent opportunity to earn investment income, on interest, dividends and capital gains, tax free.

To ensure that you can take the greatest possible advantage of your TFSA, noted financial columnist Jonathan Chevreau and I have assembled a special report, Make the Most of Your Tax Free Savings Account.

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Extendicare Inc., $6.75, symbol EXE on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 88.2 million; Market cap: $598.0 million; www.extendicare.com), is one of North America’s largest retirement- and nursing-home operators. Its 259 long- and short-term senior-care facilities can house 28,401 residents. The stock fell sharply in November 2014, from over $8, when Extendicare announced an agreement to sell most of its U.S. business for $870 million U.S. in a deal with two investment firms, Formation Capital and an affiliate of Safanad Inc. These operations generated $868.9 million U.S. of revenue in the first nine months of 2014—more than half of Extendicare’s $1.6-billion U.S. total in that period....

Keppel Corp., $8.60 SGD (1 Singapore dollar = $0.93 Canadian), symbol BN4 on the Singapore Exchange (Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $16.3 billion; www.kepcorp.com), is the world’s largest builder of offshore oil rigs. It also has interests in power generation and real estate. You can buy shares of Singapore-listed stocks from major brokers such as TD Waterhouse. Keppel Land (formerly Straits Steamship Land) is a real estate subsidiary of Keppel Corp....

Every Monday we feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock or investment we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in it at this time.

Metalore Resources (symbol MET on Toronto; www.metaloreresources.com) produces natural gas in Southwestern Ontario. It owns or controls approximately 40,000 of petroleum, natural gas and mineral leases in Norfolk County.

Right now, the company is producing gas from 85 wells. It also distributes gas to 85 businesses and consumers along its gathering pipelines through an agreement with Union Gas Ltd.

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SYMANTEC CORP., $24.77, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. The company sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended January 2, 2015, Symantec earned $367 million, unchanged from a year earlier. However, per-share earnings rose 1.9%, to $0.53 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus forecast of $0.48....

WESTJET AIRLINES LTD., $31.15, symbol WJA on Toronto, reports that its earnings jumped 33.8% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to a fourth-quarter record of $90.7 million from $67.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 34.6%, to $0.70 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding. That was well ahead of the consensus estimate of $0.28. This was WestJet’s 39th consecutive quarter of profitability. Revenue rose 7.3%, to $994.4 million from $926.4 million....