merger

These two firms have struggled since being spun off by larger medical firms. While both are taking steps to improve their product lineups, we feel embecta is in a better position to rebound from its recent drop.


VIATRIS INC. $12 is a hold. The company (New York symbol VTRS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $14.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.viatris.com) makes a variety of branded and generic drugs, include Celebrex (pain relief), Viagra (erectile dysfunction) and Lipitor (cholesterol)....

The outlook for a wide range of commodities continues to improve as the world’s economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The ongoing shift to electric-powered vehicles continues to spur demand for key metals such as copper and nickel.


These three leading commodity producers are preparing for the expected increase in demand with acquisitions and big new projects....

A: Allied Gold Corp., $3.79, symbol AAUC on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 250.7 million; Market cap: $985.4 million; www.alliedgold.com), is a Canadian-based gold producer with three operating mines, a significant gold development project and exploration properties throughout Africa.

The company’s principal properties are the Sadiola gold mine in the Kayes region of West Mali (80% ownership), the Bonikro (90% ownership) and Agbaou (85% ownership) gold mines in Cote d’Ivoire, and the Kurmuk gold development project in Ethiopia (100% ownership).

Allied Gold was founded in 2011 as a private company....

A: Hudbay Minerals Inc., $9.63, symbol HBM on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 497.8 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; www.hudbayminerals.com), is a Canadian mining company with properties in the U.S....

Newmont has boosted its production after the Newcrest Mining acquisition while buying back shares and cutting costs to improve its long-term prospects.

CHEVRON CORP. $155 is a buy. The integrated oil producer (New York symbol CVX; Cyclical-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $294.5 billion; Dividend yield: 4.2%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) raised your quarterly dividend by 7.9% with the March 2024 payment....

RTX (formerly Raytheon) has rebounded since a jet engine recall -- rising demand and cost savings are returning more cash to shareholders.

TC ENERGY INC., $54.49, Toronto symbol TRP, remains a buy.

TC generates steady cash flow for investors mainly through a 93,700-kilometre pipeline network that pumps natural gas from Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. Its other operations include 4,900 kilometres of crude oil pipelines and nine power plants.

With the April 2024 payment, TC will raise your quarterly dividend by 3.2%....

In April 2022, AT&T merged its WarnerMedia entertainment business with Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq symbol WBD). AT&T investors received 0.241917 shares of WBD as a tax-free distribution for each share they owned. At that time, AT&T shareholders owned 71% of the new firm....

A: The Cooper Companies Inc., $101.41, symbol COO on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 198.8 million; Market cap: $20.1 billion; www.coopercos.com), is a California-based healthcare business with two operating segments.

The first segment is Cooper Vision (75% of revenues); it manufactures and markets soft contact lenses for the vision-correction market worldwide....