oil prices

WESTJET AIRLINES $30.63 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(1- 877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) reports that its earnings per share jumped 34.6% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to $0.70 from $0.52 a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.3%, to $994.4 million from $926.4 million.

Fuel makes up around a third of an airline’s operating expenses, and WestJet continues to benefit as its fuel costs drop along with oil prices.

The company is returning some of its higher profits to shareholders: it has just raised its quarterly dividend by 16.7% with the March 2015 payment, to $0.14 from $0.12. The stock now yields 1.8%.

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CAMECO CORP. $19.80 (Toronto symbol CCO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk)(306-956-6200; www.cameco.com; Shares outstanding: 395.8 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Dividend yield 2.0%) is the world’s largest uranium producer. It supplies 16% of global mine production and has large, high-grade reserves, low-cost operations, significant market share and many mines.

Cameco is also one of the western world’s largest converters of enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors. In addition, it owns NUKEM, a nuclear-fuel trader and broker.

In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Cameco’s revenue fell 9.0%, to $889 million from $977 million a year earlier. It sold more uranium at higher prices in the latest quarter. However, the yearago quarter included revenue from the company’s 31.6% stake in Ontario’s Bruce Power partnership, which it sold in early 2014.

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DEVON ENERGY CORP. $61.60 (New York symbol DVN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (405-235- 3611; www.dvn.com; Shares outstanding: 409.1 million; Market cap: $24.4 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 46% gas and 54% oil.

The company narrowed its focus with its July 2014 sale of some of its properties to Linn Energy for $2.3 billion. The deal included Devon’s holdings in the Rockies, the onshore Gulf Coast and the Mid- Continent region (which includes Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas).

The sale lets Devon focus on what it views as lowrisk/ high-reward properties, especially the oilproducing assets it bought in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formation for $6 billion in 2013.

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CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $83.72, Toronto symbol CNR, reported stronger-than-expected results this week. It also raised its dividend. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, CN’s revenue rose 16.8%, to $3.2 billion from $2.7 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $3.1 billion. The company saw higher revenue in all of its freight categories: metals and minerals (up 34.4%); petroleum and chemicals (up 20.5%); automotive (up 17.8%); grain and fertilizers (up 17.6%); forest products (up 10.6%); consumer and industrial goods (up 9.5%); and coal (up 7.5%)....

VISA INC. $246 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 618.3 million; Market cap: $152.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 12.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) gets most of its revenue from fees it charges card issuers and merchants for using its network. It bases its fees on payment volume and transactions processed, among other factors. The banks that issue the cards are responsible for evaluating customer creditworthiness and collecting payments, not Visa. The company continues to profit as more people shop online, and debit cards are quickly replacing cash for smaller transactions. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear an appeal of a class-action lawsuit by retailers seeking to lower the fees credit card companies charge. That cuts Visa’s risk....

CINTAS CORP. $78 (Nasdaq symbol CTAS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 117.3 million; Market cap: $9.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cintas.com) provides a range of products and services to over one million businesses, mainly in North America. The company gets 71% of its revenue by renting uniforms that it makes and cleans. This business also rents a variety of related products, such as mats, towels, mops and cleaning supplies. Cintas gets a further 10% of its revenue by selling uniforms. In addition, the company sells first aid kits, fire extinguishers, sprinklers and emergency-exit lights (11%). It also shreds corporate documents (8%). In April 2014, it merged its shredding operations with Shred-it International. In exchange, Cintas received 42% of the combined company, which uses the Shred-it brand, plus $180 million in cash....

John Templeton, a 20th century investing master, once said, “The four most dangerous words for an investor are “This time it’s different”. What he meant was that the market goes through recurring cycles of optimism and pessimism, and that prices rise and fall in response. It’s dangerous to let yourself get caught up in a tide of optimism or pessimism and take it to mean the world has changed. One great example is the Internet boom of the 1990s and early 2000s. Many Internet stocks rose to extraordinary heights in those days, based on the number of visits to their websites, rather than dollars in their bank accounts. Back then, lots of analysts and investors believed that “This time it’s different” and that these stocks could go on rising indefinitely. Instead, the Internet stock boom ended suddenly, like most speculative booms. Most of the top Internet stocks collapsed and brought huge losses to investors. That’s the kind of risk Templeton had in mind when he made his famous comment about the four most dangerous words....

Golar LNG, $30.25, symbol GLNG on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 93.3 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; www.golarlng.com), is a Bermuda-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping company. Golar operates and charters LNG tankers. In all, it owns nine carriers and four floating storage and regasification units. It also develops liquefaction projects, which convert gas into a liquid, and holds 41.4% of Golar LNG Partners (symbol GMLP on Nasdaq). LNG, or natural gas that has been cooled into a liquefied form, can be transported by tanker. Up to now, the LNG trade has been concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region with gas sourced from Asia and the Middle East (mainly Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia)....

Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendations on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You’ll read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in one of our three newsletters featuring Canadian stocks—The Successful Investor, Stock Pickers Digest and Canadian Wealth Advisor.

WESTJET AIRLINES (Toronto symbol WJA; www.westjet.com) serves 91 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Its fleet of 109 modern Boeing 737s are 30% more fuel efficient than older jets.

In June 2013, the company launched WestJet Encore, its Canadian regional airline. This business now operates 14 Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop planes, which seat 78 passengers.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, WestJet’s earnings, excluding one-time items, jumped 30.9%, to a third-quarter record of $85.4 million from $65.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 32.0%, to $0.66 from $0.50, on fewer shares outstanding. This was WestJet’s 38th consecutive quarter of profitability. Revenue rose 9.2%, to $1.0 billion from $924.8 million.

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PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster will reveal its #1 pick for 2015. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to profit. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $155.87, New York symbol IBM, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. But that’s mainly due to cost cuts, as demand for the company’s mainframes and computer services has weakened. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, IBM earned $5.8 billion, down 13.0% from $6.65 billion a year earlier. Per-share earnings fell 5.7%, to $5.81 from $6.16, on fewer shares outstanding....