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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ALARMFORCE INDUSTRIES $10.54 (Toronto symbol AF; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800- 267-2001; www.alarmforce.com; Shares outstanding: 12.2 million; Market cap: $128.6 million; Dividend yield: 0.9%) sells twoway voice alarm systems and monitoring services in Canada and increasingly in the U.S. It’s also adding to its prospects with its VideoRelay system, which it launched in October 2011.
In the three months ended January 31, 2013, AlarmForce’s sales rose 9.1%, to $11.9 million from $10.9 million a year earlier. Earnings almost doubled, to $1.4 million, or $0.11 a share, from $699,000, or $0.06.
AlarmForce’s revenue rose along with its subscriber base. Earnings were sharply higher because the company spent a lot less on marketing than in the yearearlier quarter, when it increased its advertising spending as it expanded into the U.S.
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In the three months ended January 31, 2013, AlarmForce’s sales rose 9.1%, to $11.9 million from $10.9 million a year earlier. Earnings almost doubled, to $1.4 million, or $0.11 a share, from $699,000, or $0.06.
AlarmForce’s revenue rose along with its subscriber base. Earnings were sharply higher because the company spent a lot less on marketing than in the yearearlier quarter, when it increased its advertising spending as it expanded into the U.S.
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BELLATRIX EXPLORATION $5.93 (Toronto symbol BXE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-266-8670; www.bellatrixexploration- .com; Shares outstanding: 107.9 million; Market cap: $639.8 million; No dividends paid) produces natural gas (70% of output) and oil (30%) in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan.
In the three months ended December 31, 2012, Bellatrix’s production rose 32.1%, to 18,763 barrels of oil equivalent per day (including gas) from 14,209 a year earlier. Cash flow per share increased 7.1%, to $0.30 from $0.28.
Bellatrix continues to have considerable exploration success thanks to its expertise in horizontal drilling (or drilling down and “across” to oil and gas deposits) and fracturing, which involves pumping water, chemicals and other materials into rock to allow oil and gas to flow upward.
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In the three months ended December 31, 2012, Bellatrix’s production rose 32.1%, to 18,763 barrels of oil equivalent per day (including gas) from 14,209 a year earlier. Cash flow per share increased 7.1%, to $0.30 from $0.28.
Bellatrix continues to have considerable exploration success thanks to its expertise in horizontal drilling (or drilling down and “across” to oil and gas deposits) and fracturing, which involves pumping water, chemicals and other materials into rock to allow oil and gas to flow upward.
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Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions about stock market investments and other topics on investment 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, we had a question from an Inner Circle member on one of the world’s best known companies, Johnson & Johnson. The company continues to grow, acquiring a Swiss medical device maker in the past year, and it is working on new treatments to strengthen its drug pipeline. Pat takes a detailed look at the company’s financial strength and assesses its prospects for growth in the coming year. ...
ISHARES CDN REIT SECTOR INDEX FUND $17.10 (Toronto symbol XRE; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds the 15 Canadian real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index. The weight of each REIT is limited to 25% of the ETF’s value.
iShares CDN REIT’s expenses are 0.60% of its assets....
iShares CDN REIT’s expenses are 0.60% of its assets....
Heavy equipment distributor Toromont Industries Ltd. completed the spinoff of its natural gas equipment division, Enerflex Ltd., in July 2011. Shareholders received shares of the new Toromont and shares of Enerflex. Here is our latest report on these two Canadian stocks which we follow in our advisory for more aggressive investing, Stock Pickers Digest....
AGRIUM INC., $95.09, Toronto symbol AGU, continues to resist pressure from activist investment firm Jana Partners to set up its retail business as a separate company. Jana owns 7.5% of Agrium’s shares. Agrium’s management wants to hang on to the retail business, because they believe its steady revenue streams help offset the cyclical nature of the company’s fertilizer operations. At next week’s annual meeting, Jana wants to replace five of Agrium’s 12 directors with its own nominees. In our March 22, 2013 Successful Investor Hotline, we recommended that shareholders vote in favour of Jana. Since then, however, we have re-considered the situation and changed our view....
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 on a wide range of topics. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away....
Successful investors generally understand that you have two basic ways to make investment decisions. They also understand that it pays to know which of the two you are using at any given time. Investment professionals call these two approaches “bottom-up” and “top-down”. Using the bottom-up approach, you focus on understanding what’s going on in the investment world. You might call this descriptive finance. When you think about buying a stock, you delve into its earnings, dividends, sales, balance sheet structure, competitive advantages and so on. Using the top-down approach—you might call it predictive finance—you downplay what’s currently going on. Instead, you focus on trying to figure out what happens next. You may disregard lots of details about stocks you buy. Instead, you’re likely to zero in on external factors such as stock-market trends, the economy, interest rates, gold and so on. Or, you may focus on a single key trend, event or detail....
American Hotel Income Properties REIT, $10.85, symbol HOT.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 10.4 million; Market cap: $112.8 million, www.ahipreit.com), began trading in February 2013, after it sold 10.1 million units to the public at $10.00 each. The offering raised $101.1 million. The real estate investment trust used the proceeds to help pay for its first acquisition: 32 hotels, comprising 2,565 rooms, that mainly house railroad employees in 19 U.S. states. All of these hotels operate under the Oak Tree Inn brand, with the exception of one Best Western. The purchase price was $141 million. American Hotel believes this is a profitable niche market and plans to keep making similar acquisitions. The REIT feels that these hotels’ contracts with large railways will keep occupancy rates high relative to the overall hospitality industry. The hotels are close to large rail switching yards and hubs, and the railways guarantee to keep them about 74% occupied. The buildings are specially designed and feature crew shuttles, 24-hour food service and low noise....