investment

PFIZER INC. (New York symbol PFE; www.pfizer.com) is the world’s largest maker of prescription drugs. Its main brands include Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis), Viagra (erectile dysfunction) and Prevnar (a pneumonia vaccine). Pfizer also makes popular over the-counter drugs, including Advil (pain relief), Centrum (vitamins) and Robitussin (cough syrup)....

CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL (New York symbol CMG; www.chipotle.com) is a Denver-based Mexican restaurant chain. It charges slightly higher prices than fast food companies, but it offers better quality food, including naturally raised meat, and superior decor and service. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Chipotle’s sales rose 24.4%, to $904.2 million from $726.8 million a year earlier. The company’s restaurants attracted more customers during the quarter, which pushed up same-restaurant sales by 13.4%. Chipotle also opened 44 new outlets and now has a total of more than 1,600. In all of 2014, it aims to open 180 to 195 locations....

ALARMFORCE INDUSTRIES $11.23 (Toronto symbol AF; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800- 267-2001; www.alarmforce.com; Shares outstanding: 11.9 million; Market cap: $134.1 million; Dividend yield: 1.1%) sells twoway voice-alarm systems and monitoring services in Canada and increasingly in the U.S.

In the quarter ended April 30, 2014, the company’s sales rose 8.7%, to $13.2 million from $12.1 million a year earlier. It earned $1.8 million, or $0.15 a share, up 34.3% from $1.3 million, or $0.11.

AlarmForce’s revenue rose along with its subscriber base. Earnings jumped because it spent a lot less on marketing after launching its VideoRelay system. This service lets subscribers watch their homes through computers and smartphones. AlarmForce now has 7,500 VideoRelay subscribers, with 4,400 in Canada and 3,100 in the U.S.

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IAMGOLD $4.39 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 376.7 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; No dividends paid) has signed an agreement with Calibre Mining (symbol CXB on Toronto) that gives it the option to invest in a proposed gold-silver mine in Nicaragua.

Under the deal, IAMGold can earn a 51% stake in Calibre’s Easter Borosi project over the next three years if it pays $450,000 and spends $5.0 million to develop the property (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars).

After that, IAMGold can earn an additional 19% interest if pays Calibre another $450,000 and contributes $5.0 million more to development costs.

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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $40.95 (New York symbol BR; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (201-714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 120.7 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Dividend yield: 2.1%) 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.

Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $55.1 million in its fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended March 31, 2014. That’s up 11.3% from $49.5 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.8%, to $0.44 from $0.39, on fewer shares outstanding.

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GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER, $26.37, symbol GT on New York, is the world’s largest tire maker, with 51 plants in 22 countries. This week, the company announced that it will build a new tire plant in either North or South America. The facility will produce six million tires a year and help Goodyear meet rising demand for high-performance tires in both regions. Goodyear expects to spend $500 million on this facility, which could start up in 2017. To put that in context, Goodyear’s 2013 cash flow was $407.0 million....

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $69.63, Toronto symbol BNS, reported better-than-expected earnings this week, as gains at its Canadian banking, wealth management and securities-trading operations offset weaker earnings growth overseas. In the quarter ended April 30, 2014, the bank’s earnings rose 13.9%, to $1.8 billion, or $1.39 a share, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32. A year earlier, Bank of Nova Scotia earned $1.6 billion, or $1.22 a share. Revenue rose 9.8%, to $5.7 billion from $5.2 billion. Earnings at the Canadian banking division (which supplies 32% of the bank’s total) rose 11.4%. The gain is partly due ING Direct (now called Tangerine), which Bank of Nova Scotia bought for $3.1 billion in November 2012. Higher credit card balances and steady mortgage and car loan demand also contributed....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice about 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 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 two stocks that carry the name of one of the world’s most prestigious universities. Harvard Bioscience, founded in 1901 in the basement of Harvard Medical School, makes products for research laboratories. Less than a year ago, it spun off Harvard Apparatus, which is involved in the development of regenerated organs for transplant. Pat examines the two businesses and the prospects these two speculative stocks present to investors. ...

Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan passed the Federal Reserve’s latest “stress test,” which measures how well financial firms would cope with a sharp jump in unemployment, falling stock prices and other unfavourable conditions. Here is our analysis of the two banks, both of which we cover regularly in our advisory on U.S. stocks, Wall Street Stock Forecaster....

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 stock investing 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: “There are too many occasions when an investment that is in a broker’s best financial interest will actually bring the investor higher costs and greater risk.”...