wall street
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 advice, in this case showing you how we judge winning stock picks. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Use our TSI Network ratings system to pick the right stocks: Part 2”...
PLEASE NOTE: In next week’s Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline, we’ll reveal our #1 U.S. pick for 2012. GOOGLE INC., $586.00, Nasdaq symbol GOOG, fell 8% on Friday after the Internet-search specialist reported lower-than-expected quarterly earnings. In the three months ended December 31, 2011, Google’s revenue rose 25.4%, to $10.6 billion from $8.4 billion. If you exclude commissions that Google pays to its marketing partners, revenue would have increased by 28% to $8.1 billion. That fell short of the consensus revenue estimate of $8.4 billion....
PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on the U.S. stock markets, will reveal its #1 pick for 2012. TRANSCANADA CORP., $41.81, Toronto symbol TRP, fell 2% this week after the U.S. State Department rejected the company’s plan to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would pump oil from the Alberta oil sands through Oklahoma to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. However, TransCanada is working to reroute the pipeline around environmentally sensitive areas in Nebraska. Once it finalizes the new route, the company can reapply for a permit. If approved, the pipeline could begin operating in 2014....
ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $29.85, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, is our “Stock of the Year” for 2012. Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on high-quality U.S. stocks, will reveal its #1 pick for 2012. We’ve had great success with Alimentation Couche-Tard since we recommended it in our December 2008 issue at $15.50. That’s a gain of 92.6% in just over three years. We said then that the company’s growth-by-acquisition strategy was risky, but Couche-Tard lowered its risk by aiming to acquire profitable, well-managed chains with room for expansion and profit improvement....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investing 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 every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week an Inner Circle, one question on stock market investments concerned a company that executed a major spinoff this past autumn, changing its name and turning its focus toward premium spirits. Q: Hi Pat: Can you give your opinion on Beam Inc.? It has a lot of good brands. Looking forward to your comments....
Beam Inc., $51.50, symbol BEAM on New York (Shares outstanding: 154.8 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; www.beamglobal.com), is the successor to consumer conglomerate Fortune Brands, Inc. following the spinoff of that company’s home and security business in October 2011. Fortune Brands shareholders received one share of Fortune Brands Home & Security (New York symbol FBHS) for each Fortune Brands share they held. In addition, Fortune Brands sold its Acushnet golf business (maker of the Titleist and Footjoy brands) to a group led by Fila Korea, Ltd. and Mirae Private Equity. Fortune Brands then changed its name to Beam Inc. The company now mainly produces and distributes spirits. It is the world’s fourth-largest premium spirits company and the biggest in the U.S. Its brands include Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark (bourbon), Courvoisier cognac, Canadian Club whisky, Teacher’s Scotch Whisky, DeKuyper Cordials, Sauza tequila and Skinnygirl cocktails....
PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investors, will reveal its #1 pick for 2012. ALCOA INC., $9.80, New York symbol AA, plans to cut its aluminum production by 12% in 2012. The move is in response to falling aluminum prices, which are down 27% from their 2011 peak. As part of this plan, the company will permanently close its smelter in Tennessee and shut down part of a smelter in Texas. It will also cut production at high-cost smelters in Italy and Spain....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investing 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 every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. One question this week concerned energy stocks, specifically one stock that expects to benefit as the search for new oil production increasingly leads to the deposits found deep in the world’s oceans....
PLEASE NOTE: Next week, The Successful Investor, our newsletter that focuses on high-quality Canadian stocks, will reveal its #1 pick for 2012. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to profit. MACY’S INC., $34.56, New York symbol M, rose 7% this week after it reported better-than-expected sales for December 2011. Same-store sales during the month were 6.2% higher than in December 2010. That beat the consensus estimate of a 5% rise. The company now expects same-store sales for its full 2012 fiscal year, which ends January 31, 2012, to be 5.3% higher than fiscal 2011. That’s up from its earlier prediction of a gain of 4.8% to 5.0%....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investing 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 every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week, one Inner Circle member asked for an assessment of a company that at times has been one of Canada’s most impressive growth stocks, but has also seen some sharp declines in its shares, as it did in December. Q: Pat: I currently hold a significant portfolio position of Gildan Activewear. At current levels, does Gildan look attractive? Any views? Thanks in advance....