stock pickers

AIMIA INC, $14.19, symbol AIM on Toronto, owns and operates Aeroplan, Canada’s largest loyalty program, with over 4.8 million members who collect Aeroplan miles from participating companies. Members can exchange miles for flights, car rentals, hotel rooms and merchandise. The company also owns Nectar, the U.K.’s biggest loyalty program. In addition, it has interests in Air Miles Middle East and Nectar Italia, as well as Club Premier, Mexico’s leading loyalty program. On January 1, 2014, TD Bank replaced CIBC as Aeroplan’s main credit card issuer. Under a 10-year deal, TD is now launching new cards under the Aeroplan banner, including cards for frequent flyers and small businesses. The agreement also let CIBC hang on to Aeroplan accounts held by customers who also bank at CIBC, which was about half of the Aeroplan portfolio....

Focusing on one region can be risky for bank stocks and falling oil prices have compounded that risk for Canadian Western Bank.

AGT FOOD & INGREDIENTS INC., $28.51, symbol AGT on Toronto, buys and processes a range of pulses—which include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas—as well as other specialty crops. The Saskatchewan-based company owns 13 processing plants in Canada, nine in Turkey, four in Australia, two in the U.S., one in China and one in South Africa. Before one-time items, AGT earned $0.42 a share in the quarter ended March 31, 2015, up 162.5% from $0.16 a year earlier. Revenue gained 23.7%, to $385.2 million from $311.3 million. The increases came from recent acquisitions and higher processing activity....

Canadian Western Bank, $29.23, symbol CWB on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 80.4 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; www.cwbank.com), offers business and personal banking services across the four western provinces. It’s the biggest Canadian bank headquartered in Western Canada and the country’s eighth-largest. The bank’s wholly owned subsidiaries include National Leasing Group, Canadian Western Trust Company, Valiant Trust Company, Canadian Direct Insurance and Canadian Western Financial. In the three months ended January 31, 2015, Canadian Western Bank’s earnings rose 6.8%, to $52.4 million, or $0.65 a share. A year earlier, it earned $49.1 million, or $0.61. Revenue improved 6.1%, to $150.9 million from $142.2 million....

DOREL INDUSTRIES INC., $34.25, symbol DII.B on Toronto, makes a range of items, including ready-to-assemble home and office furniture; juvenile products, such as car seats, strollers, high chairs, toddler beds and cribs; and sporting goods, mainly bicycles. In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Dorel’s sales rose 2.7%, to $665.5 million from $647.7 million a year earlier (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Sales rose 17.2% at the home furnishing division and 2.0% at the juvenile-products business. These gains offset a 4.8% decline at the sports segment. Earnings fell 53.2%, to $0.36 a share from $0.77, falling well short of the consensus forecast of $0.60. However, Dorel gets half of its sales from outside of the U.S., and the high U.S. dollar cut its earnings by $0.30 a share in the latest quarter. Costs related to its plan to shift manufacturing of juvenile products to Asia from North America and Europe also weighed on its earnings....

Whenever IBM seems to lose momentum, it has the flexibility to adapt to fast-growing businesses, fortify its dividend and reward investors.

TEMPUR SEALY INTERNATIONAL INC., $61.35, symbol TPX on New York, makes and distributes mattresses and neck pillows made of its Tempur material, which conforms to the body to provide support and alleviate pressure points. The company is benefiting from its $1.3-billion purchase of rival Sealy in March 2013. The move let it diversify into traditional spring-coil beds. Excluding integration costs, Tempur Sealy’s earnings rose 4.6% in the three months ended March 31, 2015, to $34.1 million from $32.6 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 3.8%, to $0.55 from $0.53, on more shares outstanding. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.48. On a constant-currency basis, earnings per share jumped 20%....

Our U.S. Stock of the Year for 2014, Newell Rubbermaid is up 30% and continues to grow on smart restructuring and key acquisitions.

TOROMONT INDUSTRIES LTD., $32.47, symbol TIH on Toronto, distributes a wide range of industrial equipment, including machinery made by Caterpillar Inc. It also makes refrigeration systems through its CIMCO division. In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Toromont’s revenue rose 9.1%, to $340.2 million from $311.7 million a year earlier. Earnings gained 8.1%, to $20.1 million, or $0.26 a share, from $18.6 million or $0.24. The first quarter is typically the company’s slowest because of winter shutdowns in the construction industry. Toromont saw stronger demand from customers in construction and agriculture, which offset continued weak mining sales. It also cut costs....

SYMANTEC CORP. (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; www.symantec.com) sells computer security technology, including antivirus and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers.

In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended January 2, 2015, Symantec earned $367 million, unchanged from a year earlier. However, per-share earnings rose 1.9%, to $0.53 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue slipped 3.9%, to $1.64 billion from $1.71 billion. But if you disregard the negative impact of the high U.S. dollar on the company’s overseas sales, revenue was flat.

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