option
An option offers its holder the right to buy or sell a particular security at a specific price within a specific time frame. Two kind of options are put options and call options.
Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment tips and stock market advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “While stock options frequently make a lot of money for brokers, but most investors are more likely to lose with options. Here are seven ways they can cost you money.”...
We still think investors will profit most—and with the least risk—by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying stocks with strong business prospects.
These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace.
Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of safety in today’s volatile markets. And the best ones offer an attractive combination of moderate p/e’s (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings), steady or rising dividend yields (annual dividend divided by the share price) and promising growth prospects.
Here are 20 stocks we think meet those criteria:
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These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace.
Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of safety in today’s volatile markets. And the best ones offer an attractive combination of moderate p/e’s (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings), steady or rising dividend yields (annual dividend divided by the share price) and promising growth prospects.
Here are 20 stocks we think meet those criteria:
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Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation 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.
Torstar has struggled in the past few years as more people get their news from the Internet, rather than newspapers. But the company is doing a good job of responding to its challenges, which should let it improve its earnings and maintain its current payouts.
TORSTAR CORP. (Toronto symbol TS.B; www.torstar.com) publishes the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper by circulation. It also publishes three other daily papers and over 100 weeklies.
The slow economy continues to hurt advertising sales at Torstar’s newspapers. In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, the company’s revenue fell 7.4%, to $225.6 million from $243.6 million a year earlier.
Earnings jumped 44.2%, to $18.1 million, or $0.23 a share, from $12.6 million, or $0.16 a share. However, if you disregard restructuring costs and other unusual items, earnings per share fell 4.8%, to $0.20 from $0.21.
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Torstar has struggled in the past few years as more people get their news from the Internet, rather than newspapers. But the company is doing a good job of responding to its challenges, which should let it improve its earnings and maintain its current payouts.
TORSTAR CORP. (Toronto symbol TS.B; www.torstar.com) publishes the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper by circulation. It also publishes three other daily papers and over 100 weeklies.
The slow economy continues to hurt advertising sales at Torstar’s newspapers. In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, the company’s revenue fell 7.4%, to $225.6 million from $243.6 million a year earlier.
Earnings jumped 44.2%, to $18.1 million, or $0.23 a share, from $12.6 million, or $0.16 a share. However, if you disregard restructuring costs and other unusual items, earnings per share fell 4.8%, to $0.20 from $0.21.
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TIM HORTONS INC. $88 (Toronto symbol THI; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 132.8 million; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.timhortons.com) has accepted a friendly takeover offer from Miami-based Burger King Worldwide (New York symbol BKW).
Under the deal, Tim Hortons shareholders can opt to receive $88.50 a share in cash or 3.0879 Burger King shares (currently worth $106.05). Burger King will limit the overall cash payout, so most investors will likely receive $65.50 in cash plus 0.8025 of a share, for a total value of $93.06.
Investors who hold shares outside RRSPs and other registered accounts will be liable for capital gains taxes.
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Under the deal, Tim Hortons shareholders can opt to receive $88.50 a share in cash or 3.0879 Burger King shares (currently worth $106.05). Burger King will limit the overall cash payout, so most investors will likely receive $65.50 in cash plus 0.8025 of a share, for a total value of $93.06.
Investors who hold shares outside RRSPs and other registered accounts will be liable for capital gains taxes.
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BCE INC. $48 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 827.7 million; Market cap: $39.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone services, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.3 million TV subscribers.
BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.
The company recently offered to buy the 56% of Bell Aliant (Toronto symbol BA) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant sells phone and Internet services to 2.3 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.
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BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.
The company recently offered to buy the 56% of Bell Aliant (Toronto symbol BA) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant sells phone and Internet services to 2.3 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.
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Every Tuesday we bring you “Best Canadian Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation 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.
BCE is facing regulatory hurdles, but the company is improving its services while keeping its operating costs down. That should let it maintain its high dividend yield.
BCE INC. (Toronto symbol BCE; www.bce.ca ) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone services, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.3 million TV subscribers.
BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.
The company recently offered to buy the 56% of Bell Aliant (Toronto symbol BA) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant sells phone and Internet services to 2.3 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.
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BCE is facing regulatory hurdles, but the company is improving its services while keeping its operating costs down. That should let it maintain its high dividend yield.
BCE INC. (Toronto symbol BCE; www.bce.ca ) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone services, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.3 million TV subscribers.
BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.
The company recently offered to buy the 56% of Bell Aliant (Toronto symbol BA) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant sells phone and Internet services to 2.3 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.
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These two telecom firms face the same regulatory hurdles as Telus (see page 101). But like Telus, they’re improving their services while keeping their operating costs down. That will let them both maintain their high dividend yields, but we prefer BCE for its greater geographic reach. BCE INC. $48 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 827.7 million; Market cap: $39.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone services, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.3 million TV subscribers. BCE also sells wireless services to 7.8 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations....
Pacific Tycoon (www.pacifictycoon.com) is a Hong Kong-based firm that promises to buy shipping containers on your behalf—with a minimum initial investment of $4,100 U.S.—and then lease them out for you. It offers two options:
- Under option one, Pacific Tycoon guarantees you a minimum return of 12% a year, payable monthly, on a long-term lease for your container. The company will also buy your container back from you at the price you paid if you let them lease it for you for three years.
- Option two is a “maximized rental agreement,” where Pacific Tycoon rents your container to shippers with “urgent demands due to lack of container availability.” This aims for returns of 30% a year.
TIM HORTONS INC., $88.38, Toronto symbol THI, still plans to merge with Miami-based Burger King Worldwide (New York symbol BKW), even though the U.S. government is now clamping down on “tax inversion” deals like this one. The combined firm will be based in Oakville, Ontario, which will let it take advantage of Canada’s 15% corporate tax rate, compared to 35% in the U.S. Under the new rules, it’s now more difficult for the foreign parent firm to shift funds between subsidiaries....
ENBRIDGE INC., $56.48, Toronto symbol ENB, plans to transfer its 66.7% stake in the U.S. portion of its Alberta Clipper pipeline to its American affiliate, Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. (New York symbol EEP). Alberta Clipper pumps crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge will receive $300 million U.S. in cash and $600 million U.S. worth of Enbridge Energy Partners units. The $900-million U.S. total is equal to 2% of Enbridge’s $47.8-billion (Canadian) market cap....