Growth Stocks
Although growth stock picks can be highly volatile, they can make good long-term investments. They may be well-known stars or quiet gems, but they do share one common attribute—they are growing at a higher-than-average rate within their industry, or within the market as a whole, and could keep growing for years or decades.
And keep in mind that we focus on growth stocks, which have a good long-term history and favourable prospects. We downplay momentum stocks that tend to attract many investors simply because they are moving faster than the market averages, but are liable to fall sharply when their momentum fades.
There’s room for growth stock investing in your portfolio, but make sure you follow our TSI Network three-part Successful Investor strategy for your overall portfolio:
- Invest mainly in well-established companies;
- Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);
- Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.
Make better stock picks when you read this FREE Special Report, Canadian Growth Stocks: WestJet Stock, RioCan Stock and More.
Read More
Close
Growth Stocks Library Archives
RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $40.97 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (212-333-3810; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.1 million; Market cap: $19.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.9%) took its current form on December 12, 2014, as a result of Burger King Worldwide’s (old symbol BKW) acquisition of Tim Hortons Inc. (old symbol THI). Restaurant Brands is the world’s third-largest fastfood operator, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with 14,372 Burger King restaurants and 4,671 Tim Hortons outlets in 100 countries. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, the company lost $514.2 million, or $2.52 a share, compared to a profit of $66.8 million, or $0.19 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Excluding merger-related costs and other unusual items, operating earnings rose 23.1%....
IAMGOLD $2.90 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 376.9 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; No dividends paid) now holds over $800 million U.S. of cash and gold bullion after the sale of its Niobec niobium mine in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region. IAMGold received $500 million U.S. for the sale of Niobec. It will get another $30 million U.S. when an adjacent deposit of rare earth elements goes into production. The company’s big cash and gold holding puts it in a strong position to pay down its long-term debt of $641 million U.S. It could also expand its existing gold projects, pay dividends, buy back shares or make timely acquisitions from distressed sellers at low prices....
AMAZON.COM $373.37 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 464.4 million; Market cap: $174.3 billion; No dividends paid) is a major online retailer. The company gets about 25% of its sales from books, music and videos. Other products, including electronics, computer games and toys, make up the other 75%. Amazon Marketplace lets other companies sell their products through Amazon’s websites. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Amazon earned $0.45 a share. That was down 11.8% from $0.51 a share a year earlier, but it was much better than the consensus estimate of $0.24. Sales rose 14.6%, to $29.3 billion from $25.6 billion. In early 2014, the company raised the price of its Amazon Prime free-shipping service to $99 a year from $79. This was the first increase since Amazon launched Prime in 2005....
WESTJET AIRLINES $30.63 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1- 877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) reports that its earnings per share jumped 34.6% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to $0.70 from $0.52 a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.3%, to $994.4 million from $926.4 million. Fuel makes up around a third of an airline’s operating expenses, and WestJet continues to benefit as its fuel costs drop along with oil prices. The company is returning some of its higher profits to shareholders: it has just raised its quarterly dividend by 16.7% with the March 2015 payment, to $0.14 from $0.12. The stock now yields 1.8%....
INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $90.64 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341- 1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 131.5 million; Market cap: $11.9 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) is expanding in Western Canada by purchasing Canadian Direct Insurance from Canadian Western Bank (symbol CWB on Toronto) for $197 million. Canadian Direct offers home, auto and travel insurance, mainly in Alberta and B.C. The acquisition also lets Intact expand its higherprofit- margin direct-to-consumer distribution channel. Direct distribution lets consumers get initial online quotes at any time and then use extended call centre hours to speak with—and purchase policies from— licensed insurance representatives. In conjunction with this purchase, Intact plans to merge its Grey Power brand into its belairdirect brand to reduce the number of banners it offers. However, it will continue to offer Grey Power’s discount rates to drivers over the age of 50....
BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS $52.97 (New York symbol BR; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (201-714-3000; www.broadridge.com; Shares outstanding: 120.0 million; Market cap: $6.4 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%) continues to hit new all-time highs after reporting strong quarterly results. Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $39.9 million, or $0.32 a share, in its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended December 31, 2014. That’s up 27.9% from $31.2 million, or $0.25 a share, a year earlier. The company continues to add new clients and is doing a good job of holding on to existing ones. Revenue gained 10.4%, to $574.6 million from $520.6 million....
WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $91.39 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 123.3 million; Market cap: $10.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,650 franchised hotels and over 661,000 rooms worldwide. Wyndham also manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. The company now has 107,000 vacation-rental properties in 100 countries. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Wyndham’s revenue rose 3.0%, to $1.23 billion from $1.20 billion a year earlier. The company gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That helped push up its occupancy rate by 3.1%....
CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $29.43, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, jumped 8% this week after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and raising its dividend. The company is a leading maker of hardware and software that links and manages computer networks. In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended January 24, 2015, Cisco’s revenue rose 7.0%, to $11.9 billion from $11.1 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus estimate of $11.8 billion....
FIRSTSERVICE CORP., $71.99, symbol FSV on Toronto, announced this week that it plans to spin off its Colliers International commercial real estate business. It will form a new company, called Colliers International Group Inc., and hand out shares to FirstService shareholders. Colliers is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Latin America. In 2014, this subsidiary had revenue of $1.7 billion U.S. After the spinoff, FirstService will carry on with its residential property management and property improvement operations, which reported $1.1 billion U.S. of revenue in 2014. FirstService shareholders won’t pay income taxes on the transaction until they sell shares of the new FirstService or Colliers International....
SYMANTEC CORP., $24.77, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. The company sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended January 2, 2015, Symantec earned $367 million, unchanged from a year earlier. However, per-share earnings rose 1.9%, to $0.53 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus forecast of $0.48....