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).
Read More
Close
A year ago, Pat McKeough was asked to contribute his “best financial tip” to the Blog for Financial Literacy. It proved to be one of our most popular daily posts of 2012. Thanksgiving Monday seems like a good time to re-visit this essential piece of investment advice from Pat. “My Best Financial Tip” is to take a sound fundamental approach to investing in stocks. That’s especially true at a time like today when interest rates are near historic lows and bonds and other fixed income investments offer sparse returns....
ALCOA INC., $8.32, New York symbol AA, continues to do a good job of cutting its costs in the face of weak aluminum demand and prices, mainly by closing smelters. At the same time, the company continues to expand its more profitable engineered-products business, which makes wings, fasteners and other components for the aerospace and automotive industries. Products like these now account for over half of Alcoa’s revenue and nearly 80% of its earnings. In the three months ended September 30, 2013, Alcoa earned $24 million, or $0.02 a share. That’s a big improvement over the $143 million, or $0.13 a share, it lost a year earlier....
AMAZON.COM INC., $310.89, symbol AMZN on Nasdaq, won a $600-million deal to build a cloud computing service for the U.S Central Intelligence Agency early this year. This system would let the CIA more effectively connect with the broader intelligence community. The project will run over four years. However, the CIA has traditionally awarded many of its big computing contracts to IBM (New York symbol IBM), a recommendation of our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. IBM protested the awarding of this deal to Amazon, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the CIA reopen negotiations. Immediately afterward, Amazon filed a complaint, which then led to a hearing on Monday of this week....
The recent breakup of a marketing alliance between potash producers in Russia and Belarus could cut the commodity’s price by 20%. The move has already hurt the prices of fertilizer stocks.
Unlike its fertilizer-making competitors, Agrium derived just 4% of its revenue and 8% of its earnings from potash in 2012....
Unlike its fertilizer-making competitors, Agrium derived just 4% of its revenue and 8% of its earnings from potash in 2012....
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....
TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $91 (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 917.6 million; Market cap: $83.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) has agreed to pay $52.5 million U.S....
PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $10 (Toronto symbol PD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resource sector; Shares outstanding: 276.9 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.precisiondrilling.com) provides contract-drilling services to land-based oil and gas producers, mainly in North America....
ADOBE SYSTEMS (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; www.adobe.com) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. As well, graphic designers use its software to create print publications and web pages....
