investment

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $37.25 (New York symbol BR; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (201-714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 119.2 million; Market cap: $4.5 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. It processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.

Without one-time items, the company earned $31.2 million in its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended December 31, 2013. That’s up 43.1% from $21.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 47.1%, to $0.25 from $0.17, on fewer shares outstanding.

Overall revenue gained 5.6%, to $520.6 million from $493.2 million. Revenue from contracts that pay recurring fees rose 9% and accounted for two-thirds of the total. The remaining third comes from one-time events, such as special shareholder meetings and distributing information when mutual funds change managers.
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PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Canadian Wealth Advisor will reveal its “#1 Safety-Conscious Stock Pick for 2014.” One week from today, on February 7, 2014, shortly after the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Toronto time, we will reveal our our #1 Safety-Conscious Pick for 2014 to subscribers of Canadian Wealth Advisor. You can be among the first to hear about our #1 pick for 2014. Because you’re a loyal subscriber, we are happy to offer you a bargain-priced, no-risk introduction to Canadian Wealth Advisor. It gives you the first month—and the 2013 U.S. Stock of the Year—FREE. But you must act now. Click here. ALARMFORCE INDUSTRIES, $10.10, symbol AF on Toronto, reports that its sales rose 10.8% in the three months ended October 31, 2013, to $12.6 million from $11.4 million a year earlier. The company earned $2.6 million, or $0.21 a share, up sharply from $708,539, or $0.06. AlarmForce’s revenue rose along with its customer base: it ended the period with 141,200 subscribers, up 5.3% from 134,100 a year earlier....

PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Canadian Wealth Advisor will reveal its “#1 Safety-Conscious Stock Pick for 2014.” One week from today, on February 7, 2014, shortly after the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Toronto time, we will reveal our our #1 Safety-Conscious Pick for 2014 to subscribers of Canadian Wealth Advisor. You can be among the first to hear about our #1 pick for 2014. Because you’re a loyal subscriber, we are happy to offer you a bargain-priced, no-risk introduction to Canadian Wealth Advisor. It gives you the first month—and the 2013 U.S. Stock of the Year—FREE. But you must act now. Click here. BANK OF MONTREAL, $68.06, Toronto symbol BMO, has agreed to buy U.K.-based wealth management firm F&C Asset Management. F&C sells a variety of investment services to individuals and institutional clients, such as pension plans and insurance companies. It has $136 billion U.S. in assets under management, which will increase the assets Bank of Montreal’s Global Asset Management division administers to $269 billion U.S. The purchase will also add many wealth management clients outside North America....

Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific 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 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....

In the February 2013 issue of Canadian Wealth Advisor, we named Bank of Nova Scotia our #1 safety-conscious pick for 2013 at $58.80 a share. The stock hit all-time highs and by the end of the year it had risen by 12.9%, or 16.8% including dividends. We think it has further gains ahead....

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $98 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.2 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www. canadiantire.ca) recently sold 16.9% of CT Real Estate Investment Trust (Toronto symbol CRT.UN) through an initial public offering. CT REIT holds 72% of Canadian Tire’s real estate assets, including 255 stores and one distribution centre. The company received $279.3 million for these shares.

Meanwhile, Canadian Tire earned $145.5 million in the three months ended September 28, 2013, up 10.7% from $131.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 11.2%, to $1.79 from $1.61, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales rose 4.5%, to $3.0 billion from $2.8 billion.

Strong demand for automotive and kitchen products pushed up same-store sales by 2.0% at the company’s 491 Canadian Tire stores. Same-store sales rose 6.3% at its 415 sports outlets, partly due to the Pro Hockey Life chain, acquired in August 2013. Same-store sales at the 386-store Mark’s clothing chain gained 4.3%.
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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 a specific advice on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away....

Clarke Inc., $8.01, symbol CKI on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 16.6 million; Market cap: $141.3 million; www.clarkeinc.com), is a holding company with interests in products and services in the transportation, industrial, energy and consumer areas. It also invests in securities. Clarke continues to evolve from a trucking firm into an investment holding company. It recently purchased 5.2% of Sherritt International (symbol S on Toronto), a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest. However, its strategy mainly involves investing in and turning around small, distressed companies, which adds risk. The stock has moved up from around $5 in August. That’s when Clarke announced strong earnings and increased its dividend by 25%, to $0.10 a quarter from $0.08. The shares now yield 5.0%. However, the improved profits mostly came from investment gains, not operating businesses, and that could change quickly....

SYMANTEC CORP. (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; www.symantec.com) sells computer security technology, including anti-virus and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software....

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. (Toronto symbol TCL.A; www.tctranscontinental.com) is Canada’s leading printer of flyers, magazines, newspapers and books. This business accounts for 67% of its revenue and 85% of its earnings. The remaining 33% of revenue and 15% of earnings comes from publishing 35 magazines and 175 daily and weekly newspapers....