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 for advice on specific 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 a report on one of the stocks profiled in these Q&A sessions. Beginning this week, we give you Pat’s buy-hold-sell recommendation as well as his analysis of the stock. This is part of our new approach offering you regular and specific buy, hold and sell advice in our daily posts. Every week you’ll get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, and “Our Top U.S. Stocks” on Thursday. This week an Inner Circle member asked us about one of the Canadian stocks that serves the U.S. housing market. Hardwoods Distribution purchases high-grade lumber and sheet goods from hardwood mills and sells them, largely for home construction. The company has added several U.S. acquisitions in the past two years. Pat looks at Hardwoods business and its balance sheet and assesses its prospects in light of the U.S. housing recovery. Q: Pat: What are your thoughts on Hardwoods Distribution?...
We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus. The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks. Here’s a look at six global ETFs:...
ISHARES CDN REIT SECTOR INDEX FUND $16.64 (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 5.0%. The ETF’s largest holding is RioCan REIT at 19.3%, followed by H&R REIT (14.7%), Canadian REIT (7.8%), Dream Office REIT (7.0%), Calloway REIT (6.4%), Boardwalk REIT (6.3%), Canadian Apartment REIT (6.2%), Allied Properties REIT (5.8%), Cominar REIT (5.4%), Artis REIT (5.0%), Chartwell REIT (4.6%), Granite REIT (4.5%), Crombie REIT (2.4%), Northern Property REIT (2.2%) and Dream Global REIT (2.1%)....
Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” 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, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. We feel the best way to invest in the cyclical oil and gas industry is through well-established producers whose high-quality operations give them plenty of cash flow to replenish their reserves and pay for share buybacks and dividends. CHEVRON CORP. (New York symbol CVX; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. by revenue, after ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM)....
Switching to a discount broker makes sense for many investors. It’s sure to cut your per-trade commission costs. But high per-trade brokerage commissions are rarely if ever the sole reason for poor investment results. If you are unhappy with your results, you should check to see if you are making one or more of these four main investing mistakes:
- Buying and selling too often
- Buying too many low-quality investments
- Failing to diversify, or
- Buying too many stocks in the broker/media limelight.
Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor. We continue to advise against investing in bonds, because low interest rates hurt their appeal, while rising rates would push down their future value. For stable income and growth, we prefer high-yielding utilities. Their dividends also qualify for the dividend tax credit. ATCO LTD. (Toronto symbols ACO.X [class I non-voting] and ACO.Y [class II voting; www.atco.com) holds 53.2% of Canadian Utilities. It also owns 75.5% of ATCO Structures & Logistics, which builds temporary buildings for construction and energy exploration firms; Canadian Utilities owns the remaining 24.5%....
TIM HORTONS INC., $80.44, New York symbol THI, jumped 27% this week after agreeing to a friendly takeover offer from Miami-based Burger King Worldwide (New York symbol BKW). The combined firm would be the world’s third-largest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with annual sales of $23 billion U.S. and 18,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. Canada will supply 67% of the merged company’s revenue, followed by the U.S. (20%) and other countries (13%). The Tim Hortons and Burger King chains will operate independently but will probably share some back office and distribution networks. Tim Hortons can also use Burger King’s expertise to expand in the U.S. and other countries....
TIM HORTONS INC., $87.40, Toronto symbol THI, jumped 27% this week after agreeing to a friendly takeover offer from Miami-based Burger King Worldwide (New York symbol BKW). The combined firm would be the world’s third-largest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with annual sales of $23 billion U.S. and 18,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. Canada will supply 67% of the merged company’s revenue, followed by the U.S. (20%) and other countries (13%). The Tim Hortons and Burger King chains will operate independently but will probably share some back office and distribution networks. Tim Hortons can also use Burger King’s expertise to expand in the U.S. and other countries....
Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for advice on investing in 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 a report on one of the stocks profiled in these Q&A sessions. Beginning this week, we give you Pat’s buy-hold-sell recommendation as well as his analysis of the stock. This is part of our new approach offering you regular and specific buy, hold and sell advice in our daily posts. Every week you’ll get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, and “Our Top U.S. Stocks” on Thursday. This week we got a question from an Inner Circle member who is interested in a stock but concerned that it doesn’t pay a dividend. Gilead Sciences is a drug company that specializes in combatting viruses. Hepatitis C is the primary target of treatments developed by Gilead Sciences, but it also plays an important role in treatments for HIV/AIDS. Pat assesses the status of the company’s leading drugs and examines the challenges the company faces maintaining a position of leadership in a highly competitive field. Q: Please give your opinion on Gilead Sciences. It sounds very good to me as a physician, but it pays no dividend and I’ve bought into dividend investing. Thanks....
Oil prices have held steady at around $100 a barrel, even as the U.S. shale boom has increased that country’s production by 70% in the past five years. That’s mainly due to fears that unrest in the Middle East and Ukraine could threaten world oil supplies. We feel the best way to invest in the cyclical oil and gas industry is through well-established producers like these four. Their high-quality operations give them plenty of cash flow to replenish their reserves and pay for share buybacks and dividends. However, not all are buys right now. CHEVRON CORP. $129 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $245.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. by revenue, after ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM)....