Topics Growth Stocks

Updates on your Conservative stocks: CAE, Suncor Energy, Finning International

CAE INC. $37 (www.cae.com) is a buy. The company makes flight simulators and operates pilot-training facilities. Thanks to the post-pandemic rebound in air travel and greater military spending by NATO counties, CAE’s order backlog rose 14.8% to $19.5 billion as of June 30, 2025, from a year earlier. Moreover, the company gets 70% of its revenue from training services, so it has little direct exposure to cross-border tariffs. Its flight simulators also remain exempt from tariffs under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. CAE is a buy.

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $59 (www.suncor.com) is a buy. Thanks to better-than-expected progress with several of its upgrading projects, this leading oil producer has cut its capital spending plan by $400 million. As a result, it now expects to spend between $5.7 billion and $5.9 billion on exploration and upgrades in 2025. Lower capital spending also frees up cash for dividends and share buybacks. The annual dividend rate of $2.28 a share yields 3.9%. Suncor is a buy.

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $58 (www.finning.com) is a buy. This distributor of heavy equipment is now installing robotic equipment in its distribution centres to automate the sorting and selecting of replacement parts. Thanks to that improving efficiency, the company’s earnings will probably rise 7% in 2025 to $4.07 a share. The stock trades at an attractive 14.3 times that estimate. The $1.21 dividend yields a solid 2.1%. Finning is a buy.

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Pat McKeough

A professional investment analyst for more than 30 years, Pat has developed a stock-selection technique that has proven reliable in both bull and bear markets. His proprietary ValuVesting System™ focuses on stocks that provide exceptional quality at relatively low prices. Many savvy investors and industry leaders consider it the most powerful stock-picking method ever created.

More Stories In This Issue

This stock will add to its 30% gain

CIBC has made strong progress in improving the performance of its main operations in Canada. That includes better customer service and expanding the number of products the bank sells per customer. Those improvements have helped to lift the stock more than 30% in the past year.

While CIBC has the highest exposure to the domestic housing market among Canada’s Big Five banks, it cuts this risk by keeping the value of its mortgages and other loans well below the appraised value of those properties.

The bank also continues to cut its operating costs, particularly as more of its customers opt to use the Internet instead of physical branches. Those savings will let CIBC keep rewarding investors with higher dividends and share buybacks.

Teck to merge with Anglo

TECK RESOURCES LTD. $56 remains a buy. The company (Toronto symbol TECK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 488.9 million; Market cap: $27.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.teck.com) has agreed to merge with U.K.-based mining company Anglo American PLC (Over-the-counter symbol AAUKF) in an all-stock deal.

These top banks can handle a downturn

Canada’s big banks continue to report strong earnings growth, even in the face of tariff uncertainty. That’s because their solid balance sheets put them in a strong position to absorb higher loan losses.

We still recommend all investors strive to own two to three of these top banks.

Dividend looks safe despite debt load

SOUTH BOW CORP. $38 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol SOBO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 208.2 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 7.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.southbow.com) operates a 4,900-kilometre pipeline network that pumps crude oil from Alberta to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and the U.S. Gulf Coast. That network includes the Keystone pipeline, which ships about 20% of Western Canadian oil to the U.S.

BCE completes Ziply acquisition

BCE INC. $33 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 932.5 million; Market cap: $30.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) has now completed its purchase of Ziply Fiber, which offers high-speed Internet access and telephone services through a fibre-optic network to 1.3 million residential and business customers in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. BCE paid $3.65 billion U.S. in cash ($5.04 billion Canadian) for this business. It also assumed $2.65 billion (Canadian) of Ziply’s debt.

Cenovus’s latest acquisition looks promising

Cenovus recently announced a deal to buy rival oil sands producer MEG Energy. While big acquisitions add risk, MEG’s properties are adjacent to Cenvous’s. That gives it plenty of opportunities to cut costs. The company’s experience in integrating Husky Energy, purchased in 2021, also cuts risk for investors.

Better efficiency cuts their tariff risk

Tariffs could impact earnings

BOMBARDIER INC. is a hold. The company (Toronto symbols BBD.A $158 and BBD.B $158; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 99.2 million; Market cap: $15.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend suspended in February 2015; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.bombardier.com) delivered 36 business jets in the three months ended June 30, 2025, down from 39 a year earlier.

Use these updates to enhance your portfolio

MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $36 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 123.9 million; Market cap: $4.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mapleleaffoods.com) sells fresh and prepared meats under the Maple Leaf and Schneider labels. It also makes plant-based hamburgers, hot dogs and other protein products under the Lightlife and Field Roast brands.

FirstService reaches a new high

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $284 is your #1 Aggressive Buy for 2025. The company (Toronto symbol FSV; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 45.6 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.firstservice.com) has two main businesses: FirstService Residential provides property management services, such cleaning and maintenance; and FirstService Brands provides property restoration, painting and other services through franchised businesses.

Stock split adds to Loblaw’s appeal

Loblaw recently hit a new all-time high, partly due to a stock split that makes its shares more appealing to investors, including its employees. We feel the company’s plan to open more discount-price stores will also bolster the stock’s appeal as it works to attract increasingly cost-conscious shoppers.

Updates on your Conservative stocks: CAE, Suncor Energy, Finning International

CAE INC. $37 (www.cae.com) is a buy. The company makes flight simulators and operates pilot-training facilities.

Here’s our Conservative Growth Portfolio for October 2025

We designed our Portfolios to help you build the kind of portfolio we advocate. First, you should invest mainly in stocks from our “Average” or higher TSINetwork Ratings, which make up the bulk of the choices in our Portfolios.

These are the stocks that are most likely to survive a period of adversity and go on to thrive all over again when conditions improve.

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Browse Premium Topics

Cannabis

Spinoffs

One of the ways a company can try to unlock its own hidden value is by creating a separate company out of a corporate subsidiary. The parent company can either sell stock in the new company to the public, or spin it off—hand the stock out to its own investors.

Dividend Stocks

Dividend stocks make cash payouts that serve as a way for companies to share the wealth they’ve accumulated. These payouts are drawn from earnings and cash flow and paid to the shareholders of the company. Typically, these dividends are paid quarterly, although they may be paid annually or even monthly as well.

ETFs

What are ETFs?

ETF is an acronym for exchange traded fund. These exchange traded funds are used to track indexes as closely as possible, since investors cannot actually buy an index outright.

Value Stocks

What are value stocks?

One of the sweetest and most profitable pleasures of successful investing is to buy high-quality “value stocks” (or stocks that are reasonably priced, if not cheap, in relation to its sales, earnings or assets), then hold on to them as mainstream investors recognize the value and push up the share price.

Blue Chip Stocks

Blue chip stocks are big, well-established, dividend-paying corporations with strong business prospects. These are companies that also have sound management that should be able to make the right moves to keep competing successfully in a changing marketplace.

Penny Stocks

A penny stock in general trades for under five dollars a share, and as the name implies, sometimes for pennies. Most of the time they’re young companies, or start-ups in speculative markets like mining or technology.

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks are companies that are likely to have sales and earnings growth well above market average. Frequently they pay few, if any, dividends. Instead they typically reinvest any extra cash flow to promote further growth. Chosen wisely—according to Pat McKeough’s advice—high-quality growth-oriented stocks can be worthwhile additions to most well-diversified portfolios.

Wealth Management

Wealth management is the practice of putting your savings to work so that it continues to grow over your lifetime and will also benefit your heirs. Wealth management encompasses many different areas of investing like long term investment planning and retirement planning.

Mining Stocks

Mining stocks are investments in companies that produce or explore for minerals. Some of these minerals include uranium, coal, molybdenum (which is used in steelmaking), copper, silver and gold. They are affected by fluctuating commodity prices in addition to their own business and operating risks.

How To Invest

Pat McKeough has been making investing for beginners simple—and profitable—by helping investors make big gains for more than 25 years. His advice to beginning investors is the same as it is for all investors: buy high-quality, mostly dividend paying stocks (or ETFs that hold these stocks) and evenly spread your investments over the five main economic sectors (Resources, Manufacturing, Finance, Utilities and Consumer). Pat also believes investors should avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight and focus on those with hidden or little-noticed assets.

Energy Stocks

What are energy stocks?

Businesses that work in the extraction, refining and delivery of energy sources such as natural gas, oil, uranium and coal, are considered energy stocks.