stock pickers

ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $39.52, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, has jumped almost 16% since it announced on Wednesday that it is buying Norway’s Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA for $2.8 billion U.S. Couche-Tard is now up over 29% since we made it our #1 stock pick for 2012 in our February issue at $30.55. Statoil Fuel currently has over 1,700 stations in Scandinavia and over 550 in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia. The company accounts for over 30% of convenience store sales in each of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Estonia, and is in the top five in both Lithuania and Poland....

VITERRA $15.95 (Toronto symbol VT; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-866-569-4411; www.viterra.ca; Shares outstanding: 371.7 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) has agreed to a friendly takeover offer from Glencore International plc, a Switzerland-based commodity trader. The purchase price is $6.1 billion, or $16.25 per Viterra share. Viterra was our Pick of the Month in the March 2012 issue of Stock Pickers Digest. At the time, it was trading at $10.09. That’s a 58.1% gain since that recommendation. Our view was that the company is well positioned to benefit from an expected rise in Canadian and Australian crop yields in 2012, as well as the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on western Canadian wheat and barley sales. In addition, its Australian operations’ sales to Asia continue to rise. We also said that Viterra might be an attractive takeover target....

This week, an Inner Circle member wanted Pat’s opinion on the one of the world’s largest drug stocks. The leading maker of generic drugs,

SASOL LTD. (ADR), $45.65, symbol SSL on New York, has developed a technology to convert coal and natural gas into motor fuels. The company is now the world’s largest producer of fuel from coal at its facility in Secunda, South Africa. Sasol also produces synthetic fuels from natural gas at plants in Qatar and Nigeria. In addition, the company has substantial chemical production interests, and produces oil and gas in Africa. Sasol is also South Africa’s third-largest coal producer. In the six months ended December 31, 2011, Sasol’s revenue rose 23.9%, to $11.0 billion from $8.9 billion a year earlier (all figures in U.S. dollars). Earnings per ADR rose 81.8%, to $3.04 from $1.67. Higher oil prices were the main reason for the gains. A stronger U.S. dollar against the South African rand also pushed up the value of sales outside South Africa....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. Last week, an Inner Circle member had a particularly intriguing question about commodity stocks. Specifically, he wanted Pat’s opinion on a company that is using a revolutionary technology in an area in which traditional methods don’t work....

VITERRA $15.95 (Toronto symbol VT; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-866-569-4411; www.viterra.ca; Shares outstanding: 371.7 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) has agreed to a friendly takeover offer from Glencore International plc, a Switzerland-based commodity trader. The purchase price is $6.1 billion, or $16.25 per Viterra share.

Viterra was our Pick of the Month in the March 2012 issue of Stock Pickers Digest. At the time, it was trading at $10.09. That’s a 58.1% gain since that recommendation. Our view was that the company is well positioned to benefit from an expected rise in Canadian and Australian crop yields in 2012, as well as the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on western Canadian wheat and barley sales. In addition, its Australian operations’ sales to Asia continue to rise.

We also said that Viterra might be an attractive takeover target.

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PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, April 13, 2012. NISSAN MOTOR CO., $20.95, symbol NSANY on Nasdaq, reported record U.S. sales in March. Overall, the company sold 136,317 cars and trucks in the U.S. during the month. That’s up 12.5% from 121,141 vehicles in March 2011. The Nissan division’s sales jumped 14.8%, to a record 126,132 vehicles. Infiniti sales rose 9.8%, to 10,185 vehicles....

Eldorado Gold, $12.91, symbol ELD on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 709.6 million; Market cap: $9.2 billion; www.eldoradogold.com), has four producing gold mines: Kisladag, in Turkey, and Tanjianshan, Jinfeng and White Mountain, in China. The company is also developing additional properties in Turkey and China, as well as Greece. In the three months ended December 31, 2011, Eldorado’s revenue rose 42.4%, to $303.3 million from $213.0 million a year earlier. (All figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Earnings per share doubled, to $0.16 from $0.08. Cash flow per share rose 50%, to $0.24 from $0.16. Higher production and rising gold prices were the main reasons for the gains. Eldorado holds cash of $396.4 million, or $0.72 a share, and has almost no debt. The shares yield 1.4%....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. Last week, one Inner Circle member asked for stock investing advice on one of the world’s largest chemical manufacturers. Pat notes that the company has made headway with new specialty chemicals, but that its future is closely tied to the economic recovery. ...

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 5, 2012. AASTRA TECHNOLOGIES, $21.50, symbol AAH on Toronto, is buying back up to $50 million worth of its 14.0 million outstanding common shares through a Dutch auction process. Aastra develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its technology is centred around business telephone systems, and includes products that integrate land lines and mobile phones....