Blue Chip Stocks

The root of the term “blue chip” stems from the game of poker, as the blue chips represent the highest value. Investing in blue chip stocks can give you an additional measure of safety in today’s turbulent markets.

Pat McKeough believes investors will profit most, and with the least amount of risk, by putting the bulk of your stock portfolio in shares of blue chip companies—those that are well-established, with strong balance sheets and steady earnings and cash flow. These are companies that have bright prospects in healthy and growing industries.

The best blue chips offer both capital gains growth potential and regular dividend income. The dividend yield is certainly one of the most concrete indicators of a sound investment. It is the percentage you get when you divide the current yearly dividend payment by the share or unit price of the investment. It’s an indicator we pay especially close attention to when we select stocks to recommend in our investment newsletters.

We feel most investors should hold the largest part of their investment portfolios in securities from blue chip companies. All these stocks should offer good “value”—that is, they should trade at reasonable multiples of earnings, cash flow, book value and so on. Ideally, they should also have above average-growth prospects in expanding markets.

Meanwhile, when investing in any type of stock, at TSI Network we recommend using our three-part Successful Investor strategy:

1-Invest mainly in well-established companies;

2-Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);

3-Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

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Blue Chip Stocks
BCE INC. $53.59 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 898.0 million; Market cap: $48.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider: it has 3.2 residential million customers in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces....
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $74.36 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares o/s: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $89.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.4%) is the third largest bank in Canada.


It will now buy MD Financial Management, which sells wealth management services to Canadian medical doctors, their families and employees....
UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. $125 (New York symbol UTX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares o/s: 800.1 million; Market cap: $100.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Divd. yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.utc.com) aims to complete its $30 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins (New York symbol COL) by the end of 2018....

In response to rising consumer demand for more healthful foods, these four industry leaders continue to make acquisitions to lift their sales.


It’s unclear how long it will take for their new operations to pay off. That’s why we see three of these four food stocks as holds....
BANK OF MONTREAL $101 (www.bmo.com) will raise its quarterly dividend by 3.2%, starting with the August 2018 payment. Investors will receive $0.96 a share, instead of $0.93, for a new annual rate of $3.84....
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. $250 (Toronto symbol CP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 143.1 million; Market cap: $35.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.5; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cpr.ca) should benefit from new federal regulations meant to encourage rail operators to refurbish Canada’s fleet of grain railcars (called “hoppers”)....
Dear Client:


Telus—unlike its main competitors, BCE and Rogers—prefers to concentrate on its core telecom businesses instead of diversifying into other areas such as TV broadcasting and sports teams. That strategy has let it focus on improving customer service and getting subscribers to buy more services....
GEORGE WESTON LTD. $104.69 (Toronto symbol WN; Shares outstanding: 128.0 million; Market cap: $13.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.9%) makes a number of products through Weston Foods. They include fresh and frozen bakery goods in Canada and biscuits, cookies, cones and wafers in the U.S.


Weston also owns 48.5% of Loblaw (Toronto symbol L) and 5.6% of Choice Properties REIT (Toronto symbol CHP.UN).


In the three months ended March 24, 2018, the company’s overall revenue slipped, to $10.74 billion from $10.80 billion a year earlier....
MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $24.36 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares o/s: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $49.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%; www.manulife.ca) is Canada’s largest life insurer.


The company also sells other forms of insurance, including health, dental and travel plans; in addition, it offers mutual funds and investment management services....

POWER CORP. $30.07 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares o/s: 414.4 million; Market cap: $14.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.1%; www.powercorporation.com) is a holding company with a diversified list of businesses. It holds its financial assets through its 65.6%-owned Power Financial.


In the quarter ended March 31, 2018, earnings per share rose 17.1%, to $0.82 from $0.70 a year earlier....