investment

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $21.70 (New York symbol BR: TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (201-714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 124.9 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; Dividend yield: 3.0%) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications; securities processing; and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S.

Broadridge’s earnings rose 11.0% in the three months ended March 31, 2012, to $36.2 million from $32.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.0%, to $0.28 from $0.25, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales rose 3.8%, to $547.0 million from $527.1 million.

Contributions from recently purchased companies helped push up Broadridge’s latest results. As well, the company continues to do a good job of attracting new clients and holding on to existing ones.

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This is the latest in a series of video interviews in which Pat McKeough will give his advice on a variety of topics. Some will deal with his overall investment philosophy, others on specific investment strategies, and still others will be comments on events that are affecting the markets and the economy. This time, the subject is real estate investing, as Pat replies to questions that followed his earlier video on the home as an investment. (View the post here: Do You Think of Your House as an Investment?) Several readers insisted that they saw their houses as a good source of building net worth, whether through its intrinsic value or as a source of collateral for buying stocks. Pat has a few words of caution on both of those points.
Real Estate Investing: Your House as a Source of Building Wealth ...

ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $29.35 (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Units outstanding: 55.9 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.5%; www.alliedpropertiesreit.com) owns 100 office buildings, mostly in major Canadian cities. These mainly Class I properties contain over 7.8 million square feet of leasable area. Class I refers to 19th- and early-20th-century light industrial buildings that have been converted to office and retail space. They usually feature exposed beams, interior brick and hardwood floors. In 2011, the trust bought 22 properties for $456 million. In the first quarter of 2012, it bought 10 more buildings for $185.2 million....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27.87 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 285.0 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.riocan.com) planned to spend $600 million on acquisitions in 2012. That’s equal to 8% of its $7.9-billion market cap. The trust spent $1 billion on acquisitions in 2011. However, RioCan will likely spend less than it planned this year, due to the rising cost of properties in Canada’s big cities. Instead, the trust plans to upgrade its existing malls. Right now, it is focusing on projects in Toronto and Calgary. The trust continues to pay monthly distributions of $0.115 a unit, for a 5.0% annualized yield. In light of its improving outlook, RioCan aims to raise its payout in 2013....

We think conservative investors could hold up to, say, 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus. The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks. Here are six foreign ETFs we like: ...

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $75.81 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 171.2 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.9%; www.cpr.ca) has appointed Hunter Harrison as a director and its new chief executive officer. Mr. Harrison is the former CEO of Canadian National Railway Co. (Toronto symbol CNR). He’s also the choice of prominent U.S.-based activist investment firm Pershing Square Capital Management, which owns 14.2% of CP. The company believes Mr. Harrison will duplicate his success at CN, which included improving efficiency and speeding up deliveries. New trains and the recent drop in oil prices should also boost CP’s profits....

We’ve always placed a high value on a strong record of paying dividends, mainly because it provides something of a pedigree for stocks we recommend. After all, you can’t fake a record of dividends. It takes a lot of success and high-quality management for a company to have the cash and the determination to declare and pay a dividend every year for five or 10 years or more. It’s not something you can create on the spur of the moment. Now many investors have come to share our high regard for dividends, especially as a source of retirement income. However, some take this reliance on dividend stocks to extremes. They put too much faith in a history of dividend payments. They think of a stock with a good dividend history as the next best thing to a government bond....

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. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Starting out your investing career the wrong way could force you into years of catching up.”...

Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT, $9.70, symbol CSH.UN (Units outstanding: 170.6 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; www.chartwellreit.ca), owns and manages seniors’ housing communities in Canada and the U.S. The company’s housing options range from independent, supported living to assisted living and long-term care. On March 31, 2012, Chartwell had 116 retirement homes and 29 long-term care facilities in Canada, as well as 51 retirement homes in the U.S. In the first quarter of 2012, the real estate investment trust’s revenue rose 9.9%, to $201.6 million from $183.5 million a year earlier. Cash flow rose 9.7%, to $22.2 million from $20.3 million. Cash flow per unit rose just 7.1%, to $0.15 from $0.14, on more units outstanding....

STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC. (New York symbol SWK; www.stanleyblackanddecker.com) is one of the world’s largest makers of hand and power tools for consumers. Its top-selling brands include Stanley, Black & Decker, FatMax and Powerlock. This business supplied 51% of Stanley’s 2011 sales and 46% of its earnings. The company’s building-security division makes locks, automatic doors and gates. It also monitors properties for its clients, typically through closed-circuit audio and TV systems. This division accounts for 25% of Stanley’s sales and 27% of its earnings....