oil prices

PEMBINA PIPELINE CORP. $33 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol PPL; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio; Utilities sector; Shares o/s: 549.8 million; Market cap: $18.1 billion; Divd. yield: 7.6%; Divd. Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.pembina.com) last increased its monthly dividend by 5.0% with the January 2020 payment, to $0.21 a share from $0.20....

The price for Western Canadian crude oil jumped from an average $4.92 a barrel in April to $46.03 in June as Canada and other countries began to ease COVID-19 lockdowns.


Strengthening oil prices, combined with aggressive cost cuts, improve the prospects of these four oil producers....

Value stock investing pointers: look at goodwill and investment quality, and look beyond financial indicators

Before you buy an investment that is not yet making money, it’s best to look at it from a “first principals” or “financial physics” standpoint. You can start by asking yourself some simple questions, such as:

“Where’s my profit coming from?”

“What’s special about this investment that makes it capable of profiting from this opportunity?”

“How long will it take for profits to start flowing?”

When you go back and analyze investments that lost money for you, you’ll often find that you failed to ask these questions....

Penny stock brokers can help with investments if you want, but they can also be harmful to your investing career

Over the past five years, our Wall Street Stock Forecaster recommendation Conagra Brands has provided an example of how hidden assets can create low-risk opportunities for high investor profits. The company has transformed itself from a lethargic conglomerate with high costs and unfocused brands into a market leader with high profit margins and timely products that appeal to consumers.

We suspect the streamlined Conagra has a high likelihood of prospering even more for its shareholders.

I asked our Successful Investor research department to draw up this Inner Circle Spotlight report on the stock....

The upcoming spinoff or sale of Marathon Petroleum’s gas station/convenience store business could give the stock a short-term boost. (COVID-19-related travel restrictions have caused the shares of this oil refinery operator to drop 42% since the start of 2020.) However, following the split, the company’s remaining operations will probably continue to struggle until the economy recovers.


MARATHON PETROLEUM CORP....

The investment business is riddled with conflicts of interest. These conflicts have a way of tainting investment predictions so that they agree with and support sales pitches. Your best defense against this arrangement is to maintain a healthy sense of skepticism.

You should feel free to examine and question the basis for a prediction....

BANK OF MONTREAL $76 is a buy. The bank (Toronto symbol BMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares o/s: 639.6 million; Market cap: $48.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 5.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bmo.com) had about $75.2 billion in loans (about 15% of its total loans) to businesses with significant exposure to COVID-19 risk as of April 30, 2020....

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $21.84, is a buy for safety-conscious investors. The stock (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares o/s: 734.1 million; Market cap: $16.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.imperialoil.ca) lets you tap Canada’s third-largest publicly traded oil producer, after Suncor (No....