stock pickers

Reitmans (Canada) Ltd., symbol RET.A on Toronto, owns 968 women’s clothing stores across Canada. We analyze Reitmans in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing in today’s stock market. These include 364 Reitmans, 161 Penningtons, 158 Smart Set, 121 Addition Elle, 75 Thyme Maternity, 67 RW & Co. and 22 Cassis stores. Reitmans continues to actively monitor its regional markets, and open and close stores as necessary....

FirstService Corp., symbol FSV on Toronto, serves the following areas of the real-estate market: commercial real estate; residential property management; and property improvement. FirstService is one of the stocks we cover in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, the real estate investment’s revenue jumped 18.5%, to $552.1 million from $465.8 million a year earlier. (All figures except share prices in U.S. dollars.) Earnings per share rose 37.0%, to $0.37 from $0.27....

HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $58 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 34.6 million; Market cap; $2.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.8; Dividend yield: 1.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.homecapital.com) offers mortgages to borrowers who don’t meet the stricter criteria of larger, traditional lenders. Home Capital continues to do a good job of identifying problem loans early, which makes it easier to adjust repayment terms. That’s why bad loans fell to 0.58% of its total loans in 2010 from 0.85% in 2009. The stock has gained 2,800.0% since we first recommended it in the July 1998 issue of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that focuses on aggressive investments (we moved Home Capital to The Successful Investor in December 2007). Even so, we feel it still has lots of growth ahead. Home Capital Group is a buy.

There’s no limit to the types of investment questions Inner Circle members can ask me and my team of investment experts. Members often ask us about the best ways to profit from specific trends in society. For example, we’ve gotten more questions from members about green energy stocks as concern for the environment has risen. An Inner Circle member recently asked for our recommendation on Electrovaya Inc. This green energy stock’s lightweight batteries can be used in renewable-energy projects and hybrid cars. To give you a sense of how the Inner Circle works, I’d like to share this question, and our answer, with you. I hope you enjoy and profit from it. Q: Hello Mr. McKeough: Recently there has been interest in Electrovaya Inc., which has signed an agreement to provide batteries to Chrysler. What is your opinion on this stock? Regards....

Delphi Energy, symbol DEE on Toronto, explores for oil and gas in Alberta and B.C. Natural gas makes up 76% of its daily output; the remaining 24% is oil. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, the commodity investment reported combined daily output of natural gas, liquid natural gas and crude oil rose 24.0%, to 8,539 barrels of oil equivalent from 6,888 barrels a year earlier. Delphi’s cash flow rose 26.5%, to $18.0 million from $14.2 million. Its cash flow per share rose 14.3%, to $0.16 a share from $0.14 a share....

PRT Forest Regeneration Income Fund, Toronto symbol PRT.UN, is the largest producer of container-grown forest seedlings in North America. It grows its seedlings in 13 greenhouses and open outdoor compounds. PRT expects to produce about 170 million seedlings in 2011. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, PRT reported cash flow of $0.07 per unit, compared to $0.12 per unit a year earlier. The fund received payment for an insurance claim in early 2010, and used a portion of the funds to pay off its $3.7-million bank debt. That significantly lowered its interest costs. However, that was not enough to offset a 9.4% drop in revenue, to $6.8 million from $7.5 million....

Alimentation Couche-Tard, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, is the largest convenience store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. It also has over 3,500 U.S. stores. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. The fuel pumps at most of the Canadian stock’s stores provide 68.0% of the company’s sales. In the three months ended January 30, 2011, Couche-Tard’s earnings rose 29.6%, to $71.0 million, or $0.38 a share, from $54.8 million, or $0.29 a share, a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). The latest earnings beat the consensus earnings forecast of $0.37 a share. The Canadian stock’s revenue rose 13.7%, to $5.6 billion from $4.9 billion. Same-store merchandise sales climbed 3.9% in the U.S., and 0.4% in Canada. U.S. sales make up 77.9% of total sales. Revenue from gasoline and diesel fuel rose 18.5%, mainly due to rising prices. The company also installed fuel pumps at more of its outlets....

Gold closed at an all-time high of $1,475.00 U.S. in Friday’s trading. It now trades at around $1,468, up 27.4% from a year ago. Gold’s recent gains have partly resulted from investor fears about the sovereign debt of European countries after Portugal requested a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Investors are also worried about political turmoil in Libya and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as the possibility that today’s artificially low interest rates and governments injecting money into their economies will spur a huge rise in inflation. These fears are prompting more investors to buy gold and gold investments, because they believe investing in gold will provide them with additional security....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, April 15, 2011. NEW GOLD INC., $10.81, symbol NGD on Toronto, has agreed to buy Richfield Ventures (symbol RVC on Toronto) for $550 million in New Gold shares. New Gold holds cash of $491 million, or $1.25 a share, so it could use some of those funds for the purchase. However, its shares are trading near their all-time highs, so the company decided to use its stock instead....

International Road Dynamics, symbol IRD on Toronto, makes products and systems that manage highway traffic, including automated toll-road and weigh-station systems for trucks. The aggressive investing stock’s weigh-in-motion system weighs trucks while they’re moving, rather than at less-efficient roadside weigh stations. International Road also makes advanced traffic-control, driver-management and data-collection systems. In the three months ended November 30, 2010, International Road’s sales fell 16.4%, to $10.7 million from $12.8 million a year earlier. The drop was due mainly a stronger Canadian dollar, which pushed down the company’s U.S. sales by 36.8%, to $4.8 million from $7.6 million. As the U.S. economy improves and government spending on roadways increases, the company’s U.S. sales should pick up. In Canada, sales rose 58.3% in the latest quarter, to $1.9 million from $1.2 million a year earlier. Offshore sales were unchanged at $4.0 million. In the quarter, the company lost $335,000, or $0.03 per share, compared to earnings of $337,000, or $0.03 per share a year earlier. The lower sales were the main reason for the earnings decline....