investment

ENBRIDGE INC. (Toronto symbol ENB; www.enbridge.com) operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. It also distributes natural gas to consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. As well, Enbridge has interests in 1,800 megawatts of renewable and alternative energy....

GENERAL MILLS INC. (New York symbol GIS; www.generalmills.com) is one of the world’s largest food makers. Its top brands include Big G (cereal), Green Giant (canned and frozen vegetables), Pillsbury (baking dough), Old El Paso (tacos), Progresso (soups and salads) and Yoplait (yogurt)....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on 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 a junior mining stock operating in Africa. Nevsun is one of those mining stocks that bears a good deal of political risk, with its main property located in Eritrea, in the often-troubled Horn of Africa. However, the company has a productive mine and pays a high-yielding dividend. Pat examines the chain of events that have left Eritrea one of the poorest nations on earth and looks at Nevsun’s prospects of success in this environment. ...

ENBRIDGE INC. $51.24 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 831.5 million; Market cap: $42.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.enbridge.com) operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. It also distributes natural gas to consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State....

ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $34.29 (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Units outstanding: 68.7 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.alliedpropertiesreit.com) owns 133 office buildings, mostly in major Canadian cities....

Tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) let you earn investment income—including interest, dividends and capital gains—tax-free.

But they are also an ideal way to cut taxes through income-splitting with a spouse. Income splitting lets you shift income from one spouse in a high tax bracket to another in a lower bracket.

If you have already maximized your TFSA (up to a $31,000 limit this year), you can give your spouse money that they can then contribute to their TFSA.

This way, any income earned in their TFSA is not attributed back to you....

RUSSEL METALS (Toronto symbol RUS; www.russelmetals.com) is one of North America’s largest metal distributors. It serves 39,000 clients at 53 locations in Canada and 12 in the U.S....

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 investment advice that will help you develop a successful approach to investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Instead of getting trapped in the narrow focus of most investment ‘plans’ and ‘systems’, you’re better off with a balanced approach that helps you make effective decisions instead of automatic ones.”...

HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. (Toronto symbol HCG; www.homecapital.com) gets around 90% of its revenue by making residential mortgage loans to borrowers who don’t meet the stricter standards of larger, traditional lenders, like banks. Its clients include recent immigrants with limited credit histories, and self-employed people....

SYMANTEC CORP. $20.76 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 691.6 million; Market cap: $14.3 billion; Dividend yield: 2.9%) sells computer-security technology, including anti-virus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software.

In Symantec’s fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended December 27, 2013, its earnings per share rose 13.3%, to $0.51 from $0.45 a year earlier. The gains were mainly due to savings from a new restructuring plan that includes laying off 30% to 40% of its managers and simplifying its product lines.

Revenue fell 4.8%, to $1.7 billion from $1.8 billion. That’s mainly because the company is retraining its sales staff as part of its restructuring, and that disrupted their closing of new deals. Slow computer sales have also hurt demand for anti-virus software.

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