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).
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LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD., $48.39, Toronto symbol L, is buying Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. (Toronto symbol SC), which operates over 1,240 drugstores across Canada. Under the deal, Shoppers investors can choose to receive $61.54 in cash or 1.29417 Loblaw common shares and $0.01 cash for each Shoppers share they hold. Loblaw will cap the cash portion, so Shoppers investors will probably wind up with $33.18 in cash plus 0.5965 of a Loblaw common share. Based on today’s share price, the deal is worth $12.5 billion. This is a big purchase for Loblaw, which has a market cap (or the value of all its outstanding shares) of $13.6 billion....
Pat McKeough responds to many requests for specific advice on buying stocks and other questions on investment strategy and the economy from the members of his Inner Circle. 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, an Inner Circle member asked about the world’s biggest heavy equipment maker, Caterpillar. With slower economic growth in its main markets, especially China, the company has seen its revenues slip. Pat examines Caterpillar’s ambitious acquisition policy and looks at the company’s financial outlook in the face of slowing demand in a still-sluggish global economy. ...
BELLATRIX EXPLORATION $6.74 (Toronto symbol BXE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-266-8670; www.bellatrixexploration.com; Shares outstanding: 107.9 million; Market cap: $715.5 million; No dividends paid) has entered into a joint venture agreement with Grafton Energy that should speed up the development of its Cardium shale oil deposits in Alberta.
Under the agreement, Grafton will pay Bellatrix $100 million....
Under the agreement, Grafton will pay Bellatrix $100 million....
COMPUTER MODELLING GROUP (Toronto symbol CMG; www.cmgroup.com) sells consulting services and software that help oil and gas producers use advanced recovery techniques to get more out of their existing wells. The company has customers in over 50 countries and offices in Calgary, Houston, London, Caracas and Dubai. In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Computer Modelling reported revenue of $19.3 million. That’s up 12.0% from $17.2 million a year earlier....
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 investment advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Here are 3 warning signs that tell you when stocks brokers are clearly putting their own interests above those of their clients.”...
Dundee International REIT, $9.91, symbol DI.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 108.8 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; www.dundeeinternational.com), is the only Canadian real estate investment trust that focuses on investing outside the country. Dundee International aims to grow by acquiring different types of properties in certain European countries, starting with Germany. The trust first sold units to the public in August 2011. Initially, it sold 27 million units for $10 each to raise $270 million. It raised a further $140 million in an issue of debentures....
LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $46 (Toronto symbol L; www.loblaw.ca) announced yesterday that it has a friendly deal to purchase Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. (Toronto symbol SC) for $12.4 billion in cash and stock. The transaction, which combines Canada’s largest grocery and pharmacy chains, will be the biggest takeover in Canadian retail history. Shares of Loblaw rose 5% yesterday on the news. Loblaw had already risen 42% for us since its announcement in December 2012 that it would set up 75% of its real estate holdings as a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) under the name Choice Properties REIT (Toronto symbol CHP.UN)....
FEDEX CORP. $106 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 316.6 million; Market cap: $33.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) delivers packages and documents in the U.S. and over 220 other countries and territories.
The stock has moved up in the past few weeks, partly due to speculation that activist investment firm Pershing Square Capital Management (see page 71) will soon make a significant investment in FedEx.
However, it seems unlikely that Pershing would be interested in FedEx, because it prefers underperforming firms that could spur their earnings by cutting costs. FedEx is already restructuring as more companies choose slower but cheaper delivery methods, like trucks and ships, over its more expensive overnight international air service.
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The stock has moved up in the past few weeks, partly due to speculation that activist investment firm Pershing Square Capital Management (see page 71) will soon make a significant investment in FedEx.
However, it seems unlikely that Pershing would be interested in FedEx, because it prefers underperforming firms that could spur their earnings by cutting costs. FedEx is already restructuring as more companies choose slower but cheaper delivery methods, like trucks and ships, over its more expensive overnight international air service.
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ALCOA INC., $8.10, New York symbol AA, is closing smelters and cutting costs in response to declining aluminum prices. It also continues to expand its more profitable engineered-products business, which makes wings, fasteners and other components for the aerospace and automotive industries. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Alcoa lost $119 million, or $0.11 a share. That’s much worse than the $2 million, or nil per share, it lost a year earlier. If you exclude plant-closure costs and other unusual items, Alcoa’s earnings per share would have risen 16.7%, to $0.07 from $0.06. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.06 a share....