stock pickers

Investors generally look to aggressive stocks for capital gains and to more conservative stocks, like utilities, for income. However, there are some aggressive Canadian dividend paying stocks whose payouts are as high — or even higher — than more established companies. (We updated our buy/sell/hold advice on a high-dividend aggressive stock in the February 25, 2011, Stock Pickers Digest hotline. See below for further details.)

Dividends are a plus in aggressive investing — but focus on quality

...

Cameco Corp., symbol CCO on Toronto, is the world’s largest uranium producer. The company supplies over 18% of global production, and has large, high-grade reserves, low-cost operations, significant market share and a number of uranium mines. The company also holds a 31.6% interest in Ontario’s Bruce Power partnership, which operates four of the eight reactors at the Bruce plant, North America’s largest nuclear-power complex. Uranium traded as low as $40 U.S. a pound in March 2010. Recently, it rose as high as $61, largely on news that China plans to raise its nuclear-power generation targets by 60%. Cameco recently signed two contracts with Chinese nuclear authorities: it will deliver 23 million pounds of uranium to China National Nuclear Corp., China’s largest nuclear-power producer, by 2020. It will also deliver 29 million pounds of uranium oxide to fast-growing nuclear producer China Guangdong Nuclear Power through 2025....

Some investors rely on technical analysis (or chart reading) when they’re looking to add high return investments to their portfolios. That’s because relying on charts seems much simpler than delving into and weighing a company’s fundamentals. We always do some technical analysis when we look for high return investments to recommend in our newsletters, including Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing. And some successful investors find it helps to know a little about charts. But if you rely on charts at all, you should view them as just one of many things to consider when you make investment decisions.

Technical analysis: Focusing exclusively on share prices will eventually cost you money

...

Calian Technologies, symbol CTY on Toronto, operates in two areas: the business and technology services division, which accounts for 71% of the growth stock’s revenue, provides engineers, health-care workers and other skilled professional to clients on a contract basis. The systems-engineering division contributes the remaining 29% of revenue, and sells hardware and software that is used for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communications systems. In its first fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, 2010, the growth stock’s earnings fell 8.8%, to $3.1 million from $3.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share dropped 6.8%, to $0.41 from $0.44, on fewer shares outstanding. Calian saw slightly lower demand for its higher-profit-margin contract workers....

WESTJET AIRLINES $15.45 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 139.8 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) has just signed an “interline” agreement with Delta Air Lines. Under these agreements, two airlines cooperate on flights and baggage handling. WestJet has similar arrangements with Air France-KLM, China Airways of Taiwan, Hong Kong-based Dragonair and American Airlines. Interline deals can evolve into “code sharing” agreements. These are similar to interline pacts, but also let airlines sell seats and move luggage under their own names onto another carrier’s flights. Last year, WestJet entered into its first code-sharing deal with Cathay Pacific. WestJet, our Stock Pickers Digest “Stock of the Year for 2011,” is still a buy....

BAFFINLAND IRON MINES, $1.50, symbol BIM on Toronto, is now over 90% held by joint takeover bidders Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, and Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition. The final offer was for $1.50 a share for all of Baffinland’s shares. When the bid is completed, Arcelor will own 70% of Baffinland, and Nunavut will own 30%. If you have not already done so, you should tender your Baffinland shares to the offer before the February 17, 2011 deadline. Even if you don’t tender, you’ll still receive the full $1.50 a share without paying brokerage commissions. It will just take longer for the money to appear in your brokerage account....

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP., $30.06, symbol CHK on New York, has agreed to sell a third of its Denver-Julesburg and Powder River Basin shale-gas leases in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming to Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. (symbol CEO on New York). Shale gas is natural gas that is trapped in rock formations. To extract it, companies must pump water and chemicals into the rock. This fractures the rock and releases the natural gas. CNOOC will pay Chesapeake $670 million for the stake, as well as up to 66.7% of Chesapeake’s share of the development costs, up to an additional $697 million. To put these figures in context, Chesapeake earned $515 million, or $0.81 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2010....

Symantec Corp., Nasdaq symbol SYMC, sells Internet security technology, including anti-virus and Internet content and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers. In the three months ended December 31, 2011, Symantec’s revenue rose 3.6%, to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion a year earlier. The stock market investment gets 52% of its revenue from overseas sales. If you disregard the negative impact of exchange rates, international sales rose 5% during the quarter. The company earned $272 million, down 16.3% from $325 million a year earlier. Symantec spent $265 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 12.5%, to $0.35 from $0.40 a year earlier. These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs to absorb recent acquisitions. On this basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.33....

Intuitive Surgical (symbol ISRG on Nasdaq) makes the “da Vinci,” a computerized surgical system. Intuitive’s shares trade at a high price, but you can buy as few as you wish through any broker. Intuitive is one of the aggressive stock investing picks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. Guided by a miniature camera connected to a 3-D monitor, surgeons use the da Vinci to operate by remotely manipulating tiny robotic arms. This is safer and far less invasive than regular surgery. It reduces the patient’s recovery time, post-operative discomfort, scarring and infection risk....

On January 28, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks, will unveil a company with the right mix of strong fundamentals and emerging-market exposure to earn big profits in 2011 and beyond. In fact, we think this U.S. stock’s prospects are so bright we’ve named it Wall Street Stock Forecaster’s #1 stock pick for the coming year. This company is solidly focused on fuelling its growth, mainly by focusing on fast-growing markets like Brazil, China and India, where rising prosperity is making its products more affordable to more consumers....