investment

Symantec rises with successful restructuring plan

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on a wide range of investing topics, including trading stocks online. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Online trading seems like an easy and convenient way to invest, but that can also make it an easy way to lose money.” Some investors may look on online trading as a fairly quick and convenient way to build wealth, but there are many hidden dangers that may not be easy to spot at first....

From time to time a novel investment idea comes along. It may or may not have any lasting value. But it may still attract a following and gradually rise to its height of popularity. Often, it seems to hit that popularity peak just when it can do the most harm to its believers. One recent example: peak oil theory. This theory, which got its start in the 1950s, is based on observations of the cycle of production and depletion of existing oilfields. It says that global oil production will inevitably hit a peak (if it hasn’t already), then head relentlessly downward. Peak oil theory became widely known and commonplace in the first decade of this millennium, along with rising acceptance of predictions that the world was running out of oil. Best-selling authors trumpeted the idea that we were headed for oil prices of $250 a barrel or higher. This was supposed to have all sorts of terrible repercussions, from the collapse of the intercontinental air travel industry, to the end of New Zealand’s exports of frozen lamb....

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. IGM Financial is in a strong position to profit as baby boomers sign up for retirement planning services. The company also trades at a low multiple to its earnings and will probably raise its dividend in 2015. IGM FINANCIAL INC. (Toronto symbol IGM; www.igmfinancial.com) is Canada’s largest independent mutual fund firm. Power Financial owns 58.7% of IGM, along with 67.0% of Great-West....

Every Monday we now feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With every stock we recommend as a sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in the stock at this time. EL POLLO LOCO (symbol LOCO on Nasdaq; www.elpolloloco.com), specializes in Mexican-style grilled chicken. El Pollo Loco means “the crazy chicken” in Spanish. The company fire-grills citrus-marinated chicken in front of its customers. El Pollo Loco first sold shares to the public and began trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Friday, July 25, 2014. The quick-serve restaurant chain raised $100 million in an initial public offering (IPO) of 7.1 million shares priced at $15 each....

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $32 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 998.9 million; Market cap: $32.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend Yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s secondlargest insurance company after Manulife Financial (Toronto symbol MFC). It also offers mutual funds, retirement planning and wealth management. Power Financial (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.0% of Great-West.

As of June 30, 2014, the company had $804.6 billion of assets under administration, up 6.1% from the start of the year.

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ISHARES FTSE/XINHUA CHINA 25 INDEX FUND $40.21 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index, which is made up of the 25 largest, most liquid Chinese stocks. All of the stocks in the index trade on the Hong Kong exchange. Some also trade as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on New York.

The fund’s top holdings are Tencent Holdings, 10.2%; China Construction Bank, 8.4%; China Mobile, 8.3%; Industrial & Commercial Bank, 6.9%; Bank of China, 5.4%; China Overseas Land & Investment, 4.3%; China Life, 4.0%; Ping An Insurance, 4.0%; China Shenhua Energy, 3.9%; PetroChina, 4.2%; China Merchants Bank, 3.7%; and CNOOC Ltd., 3.7%.

The fund’s holdings give it the following industry breakdown: Financials, 54.1%; Telecommunications, 14.4%; Oil and Gas, 12.1%; Technology, 10.1%; Basic Materials, 4.0%; Industrials, 1.8%; and Consumer Goods, 1.7%. Its expense ratio is 0.73%.

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BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs, $69.71, New York symbol BHP, is the world’s largest mining company, with major operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile, the U.K. and North America. This week, BHP announced that it will spin off some of its operations as a separate Australia-based firm. This unnamed company will hold BHP’s aluminum, manganese, nickel and silver operations, as well as some of its coal mines. BHP did not reveal the details of the spinoff. However, the new company’s shares will mainly trade on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) will trade on the over-the-counter market in the U.S....

BELLATRIX EXPLORATION LTD., $8.53, symbol BXE on Toronto, produces natural gas (65% of output) and oil (35%) in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. Bellatrix jumped 14% this week after U.S. activist investor Orange Capital LLC revealed that it has been investing in the company since July 2. It now holds about 10.2 million shares Bellatrix shares, or a 5.3% interest. Orange Capital wants the company to discuss changing the size and composition of its 10-person board of directors. It also wants Bellatrix to hire a financial advisor to explore strategic alternatives, including selling its midstream assets (natural gas processing plants and pipeline gathering systems) or an outright sale of the entire company....

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 we had a question from an Inner Circle member about one of the lesser-known tech stocks that makes it money by supplying an essential component to the giants of the industry. InvenSense makes chips that track motion, and its clients include such well-known names as Amazon. Samsung and Google. Now it appears that Apple will become a key customer. Pat examines the details of the projected deal with Apple and its impact on the company’s prospects. Q: Hi Pat: I was wondering, what are your thoughts on InvenSense? Thanks....