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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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle on specific stock picks 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 Member asked us about a stock that has risen and fallen sharply in the past year. AutoCanada has almost four dozen franchised auto dealerships across Canada and continues to add more through takeovers. While the company has benefited from a rebound in car sales, it also faces several challenges in a cyclical, competitive business. Pat examines the risk of its growth-by-acquisition strategy and the potential impact of lower oil prices on Western Canadian car sales.
Q: Pat: I am a new member and I have a question. What is your current view of AutoCanada? Thanks.
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This week an Inner Circle Member asked us about a stock that has risen and fallen sharply in the past year. AutoCanada has almost four dozen franchised auto dealerships across Canada and continues to add more through takeovers. While the company has benefited from a rebound in car sales, it also faces several challenges in a cyclical, competitive business. Pat examines the risk of its growth-by-acquisition strategy and the potential impact of lower oil prices on Western Canadian car sales.
Q: Pat: I am a new member and I have a question. What is your current view of AutoCanada? Thanks.
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RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $29.55 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 313.9 million; Market cap: $9.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.riocan.com) should be able to weather Target Corp.’s decision to close its 133 Canadian stores with minimal effect on its revenue and profits. RioCan has Target as its seventh-largest tenant, with 26 locations, but the stores account for just 1.9% of the REIT’s annualized rental revenue. Many of the Target stores are in established malls, so RioCan should be able to rent them to new tenants, perhaps at higher rates. Meanwhile, RioCan says the leases on the 26 locations are guaranteed by the U.S. parent company, Target Corp., for more than a decade....
Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment-management companies. The group administers over $2 trillion U.S. in 170 mutual funds. Vanguard, which went into business in 1975, offers low-fee index mutual funds. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds aren’t available in all provinces. Canadians can, however, buy Vanguard exchange traded funds (ETFs) that trade on stock exchanges. We don’t recommend all of Vanguard’s ETFs, but here are two we do see as low-fee buys....
ISHARES CDN REIT SECTOR INDEX FUND $17.54 (Toronto symbol XRE; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds the 15 Canadian real estate investment trusts in the S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index. iShares CDN REIT’s expenses are 0.60% of its assets. The fund yields 4.7%. The ETF’s largest holding is RioCan REIT at 19.7%, followed by H&R REIT (14.6%), Canadian REIT (7.5%), Calloway REIT (7.1%), Canadian Apartment REIT (6.9%), Allied Properties REIT (6.4%), Dream Office REIT (6.4%), Cominar REIT (6.1%), Boardwalk REIT (4.9%), Chartwell REIT (4.8%), Artis REIT (4.6%), Granite REIT (4.6%), Crombie REIT (2.2%), Dream Global REIT (2.1%) and Northern REIT (1.7%)....
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 tips and stock market advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away.
Today’s tip: “Despite their promise to ease your tax burden on withdrawals, RRSP meltdown strategies are usually more lucrative for brokers than for investors.”
Investors sometimes ask us what we think of the so-called “RRSP meltdown.” This is a strategy that would let them make withdrawals from their RRSPs without paying income tax.
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Today’s tip: “Despite their promise to ease your tax burden on withdrawals, RRSP meltdown strategies are usually more lucrative for brokers than for investors.”
Investors sometimes ask us what we think of the so-called “RRSP meltdown.” This is a strategy that would let them make withdrawals from their RRSPs without paying income tax.
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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.
Gogo Inc. (symbol GOGO on Nasdaq; www.gogoair.com), offers a service that lets passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices get online on Gogo-equipped aircraft.
The company offers Internet access on more than 10 major airlines and 2,000 individual airliners. Over 6,000 business jets also use its systems. Gogo charges $59.95 a month or $16 for an all-day pass.
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Gogo Inc. (symbol GOGO on Nasdaq; www.gogoair.com), offers a service that lets passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices get online on Gogo-equipped aircraft.
The company offers Internet access on more than 10 major airlines and 2,000 individual airliners. Over 6,000 business jets also use its systems. Gogo charges $59.95 a month or $16 for an all-day pass.
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VISA INC. $246 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 618.3 million; Market cap: $152.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 12.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) gets most of its revenue from fees it charges card issuers and merchants for using its network. It bases its fees on payment volume and transactions processed, among other factors. The banks that issue the cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa. The company continues to profit as more people shop online, and debit cards are quickly replacing cash for smaller transactions. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear an appeal of a class-action lawsuit by retailers seeking to lower the fees credit card companies charge. That cuts Visa’s risk....
Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific stock tips 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 we had a question from an Inner Circle Member about Golar LNG, which ships liquefied natural gas (LNG). The company operates LNG tankers and oversees projects converting gas into liquid. Pat takes a closer look at Golar’s business and the current state of the LNG trade as it flows from the Middle East to the Pacific. He assesses Golar’s prospects of capturing a greater share of the growing export trade to Asia at a time when shipping rates have fallen due to the global expansion of LNG carrier fleets.
Q: Hello: would you be able to give me your opinion on Golar LNG, in which I have a position.
...
This week we had a question from an Inner Circle Member about Golar LNG, which ships liquefied natural gas (LNG). The company operates LNG tankers and oversees projects converting gas into liquid. Pat takes a closer look at Golar’s business and the current state of the LNG trade as it flows from the Middle East to the Pacific. He assesses Golar’s prospects of capturing a greater share of the growing export trade to Asia at a time when shipping rates have fallen due to the global expansion of LNG carrier fleets.
Q: Hello: would you be able to give me your opinion on Golar LNG, in which I have a position.
...
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. This week’s U.S. pick comes from our advisory for more aggressive investors, Stock Pickers Digest.
BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS (New York symbol BR; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.
Broadridge began trading on April 2, 2007, after former parent Automatic Data Processing handed out Broadridge stock to its own investors as a special dividend.
Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $37.0 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 22.9% from $48.0 million, or $0.39 a share, a year earlier.
The company paid employees higher commissions on new sales and performance bonuses. It also expanded its sales and marketing capabilities.
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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS (New York symbol BR; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.
Broadridge began trading on April 2, 2007, after former parent Automatic Data Processing handed out Broadridge stock to its own investors as a special dividend.
Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $37.0 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 22.9% from $48.0 million, or $0.39 a share, a year earlier.
The company paid employees higher commissions on new sales and performance bonuses. It also expanded its sales and marketing capabilities.
...
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: “If you’re going to dip into your RRSP to raise cash, you can make it a positive transaction that actually strengthens the portfolio within your RRSP.”
Two weeks ago, we wrote about how to achieve a double win—and avoid a double loss—in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). View the post here. Last week, we discussed making the right retirement calculations. View the post here.
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Today’s tip: “If you’re going to dip into your RRSP to raise cash, you can make it a positive transaction that actually strengthens the portfolio within your RRSP.”
Two weeks ago, we wrote about how to achieve a double win—and avoid a double loss—in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). View the post here. Last week, we discussed making the right retirement calculations. View the post here.
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