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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TIM HORTONS (Toronto symbol THI; www.timhortons.com) operates 3,365 coffee-and-donut shops in Canada, 755 in the U.S. and 18 in the Middle East. The company’s new menu items, such as lattes and panini sandwiches, continue to sell well. In addition, Tim Hortons now offers free Wi-Fi Internet access at its Canadian outlets. That’s helping it compete with bigger fast-food chains like McDonald’s, which is aggressively promoting its coffee in Canada....
Investors who are looking for a stock market trading strategy are certain to come across the basic ways to make investment decisions: bottom-up and top-down. With the bottom-up approach, you focus on understanding what’s going on, rather than trying to predict what happens next. You could call this descriptive finance. You delve into earnings, dividends, sales, balance sheet structure, competitive advantages and so on....
WESTJET AIRLINES $22.29 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 132.3 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Divd. yield: 1.8%) serves 81 destinations in North America, Central America and the Caribbean....
BIRCHCLIFF ENERGY $7.52 (Toronto symbol BIR; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-261-6401; www.birchcliffenergy.com; Units outstanding: 141.6 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; No dividends paid) develops, produces and explores for oil and natural gas, mainly in the Peace River Arch area near the Alberta/B.C....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions about specific stock market advice and other investment topics 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, one Inner Circle member asked us about one of the best known of the big-box warehouse stores. Low prices and an annual membership fee have helped Costco remain profitable. Pat sums up the company’s financial picture and assesses its ability to continue to compete against intense and increasing competition....
ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO. (New York symbol ADM; www.adm.com) processes corn, wheat, soybeans, canola, flax seed, peanuts, cocoa and other crops into a variety of food ingredients, such as flour, oils and sweeteners. It is also the largest maker of ethanol from corn in the U.S. In its fiscal 2013 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2012, the company earned $182 million, or $0.28 a share. That’s down 60.4% from $460 million, or $0.68 a share, a year earlier. Lower profits from its ethanol business offset higher earnings from its oilseeds operations. Revenue fell 0.4%, to $21.8 billion from $21.9 billion....
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 advice on successful investing, and on successful retirement planning. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “When you’re planning your retirement, make sure that you haven’t based your future income on over-optimistic calculations that will leave you short.”...
Canadian Western Bank, $31.46, symbol CWB on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 78.8 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; www.cwbank.com), offers business and personal banking services across the four western provinces. It’s the biggest Canadian bank headquartered in western Canada and the country’s eighth-largest. The bank’s wholly owned subsidiaries include National Leasing Group Inc., Canadian Western Trust Company, Valiant Trust Company, Canadian Direct Insurance Inc., Adroit Investment Management Ltd. and Canadian Western Financial Ltd. In the three months ended October 31, 2012, Canadian Western Bank’s earnings rose 19.8%, to $43.0 million from $35.9 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 14.6%, to $0.55 from $0.48, on more shares outstanding. Net interest income rose 8.0%, to $111.3 million from $103.1 million. Other income rose 47.8%, to $19.9 million from $13.5 million....
Hidden value is a key factor we look for in our stock recommendations. A good example of an underappreciated asset is a company’s brand name. Balance sheets often fail to assign any value to brands, even household names that have built up multitudes of loyal customers over the years. The strength of the brands of certain companies can help them expand beyond Canada. That’s where one of Canada’s best-known tech stocks, now under a new name, aims to grow.
BLACKBERRY (Toronto symbol BB; www.blackberry.com) is the new name of Research in Motion Ltd. (old symbol RIM). (Note: The company’s legal name will remain Research in Motion until shareholders approve the name change at the next annual meeting.)...
BLACKBERRY (Toronto symbol BB; www.blackberry.com) is the new name of Research in Motion Ltd. (old symbol RIM). (Note: The company’s legal name will remain Research in Motion until shareholders approve the name change at the next annual meeting.)...
