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
AURICO GOLD $4.64 (Toronto symbol AUQ; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.auricogold.com; Shares outstanding: 248.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 3.5%) operates the El Chanate gold mine in Mexico, which produced 71,864 ounces in 2013. The company’s Young-Davidson gold mine in Northern Ontario reached full production in 2013, with total output of 120,738 ounces. The project’s output should rise to over 152,000 ounces this year. In the three months ended December 31, 2013, the company’s revenue fell 19.5%, to $50.8 million from $63.1 million a year earlier. Cash flow declined to $0.07 from $0.11. Higher gold production was more than offset by lower prices....
ADOBE SYSTEMS $62.11 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 497.7 million; Market cap: $30.6 billion; No dividends paid) earned $0.30 a share in the three months ended February 28, 2014. That’s down 14.3% from $0.35 a year earlier. Revenue fell 0.8%, to $1.00 billion from $1.01 billion. Results fell mainly because Adobe is now selling its Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs as a subscription, instead of a one-time purchase. That hurts its short-term growth, but the switch should provide more predictable revenue streams. Subscriptions now supply over half of Adobe’s revenue. The stock now trades at 56.5 times the $1.10 a share that Adobe will likely earn in 2014. That’s a high p/e ratio for any company, but especially one that mainly serves customers in cyclical businesses like publishing....
SYMANTEC CORP. $20.76 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 691.6 million; Market cap: $14.3 billion; Dividend yield: 2.9%) sells computer-security technology, including anti-virus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software. In Symantec’s fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended December 27, 2013, its earnings per share rose 13.3%, to $0.51 from $0.45 a year earlier. The gains were mainly due to savings from a new restructuring plan that includes laying off 30% to 40% of its managers and simplifying its product lines. Revenue fell 4.8%, to $1.7 billion from $1.8 billion. That’s mainly because the company is retraining its sales staff as part of its restructuring, and that disrupted their closing of new deals. Slow computer sales have also hurt demand for anti-virus software....
WESTJET $25.59 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 129.4 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%) carried 4.8 million passengers in March 2014, up 7.0% from 4.5 million a year earlier. The company’s load factor fell to 84.0% from 86.1% in March 2013. (Load factor is the percentage of available seats that are occupied by paying passengers.) However, the decline was low considering that WestJet increased its capacity by 6.6% to meet higher demand. Demand for its flights remains high, and the launch of its new Canadian regional airline, WestJet Encore, has gone well....
AMAZON.COM $316.08 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 459.3 million; Market cap: $145.4 billion; No dividends paid) has just unveiled Fire TV, a $99 Internet video-streaming box that plugs into a high-definition TV set. It will compete against similar devices, like Apple TV, Roku and Google Chromecast. The device, which is about the size of a CD case, runs Google’s Android operating system and offers Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crackle, Pandora, ESPN and other streaming channels. Fire TV can also be used for gaming. Customers can play popular games, such as Minecraft, as well as thousands more titles to be released soon. Many games will be free, while paid games from Amazon will cost an average of $1.85. Amazon will offer a compatible game controller for $39.99....
ALARMFORCE INDUSTRIES $11.38 (Toronto symbol AF; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800-267-2001; www.alarmforce.com; Shares outstanding: 12.0 million; Market cap: $134.2 million; Dividend yield: 1.1%) reported stronger results in the latest quarter. It has also announced that it is paying a special dividend. In the three months ended January 31, 2014, the company’s sales rose 8.9%, to $13.0 million from $11.9 million a year earlier. It earned $2.4 million, or $0.20 a share, up sharply from $1.4 million, or $0.11. The company holds cash of $14.3 million, or $1.20 a share. It will now pay out some of that cash to its investors through a $0.60-ashare special dividend, payable on May 20, 2014, to shareholders of record on April 30....
WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $70.50 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973-753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 128.1 million; Market cap: $8.9 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,440 franchised hotels worldwide. Wyndham also manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. The company now has over 106,000 vacation-rental properties in 100 countries. In the three months ended December 31, 2013, the hotel and resort operator’s revenue rose 9.2%, to $1.20 billion from $1.09 billion a year earlier. Wyndham gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That helped push up the company’s occupancy rate by 1.9%....
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the Good Friday holiday, our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 17, 2014. PROCTER & GAMBLE CO., $80.76, New York symbol PG, is selling most of its pet food business to privately held Mars Inc. Under the deal, Mars will get the right to make Iams, Eukanuba and Natura pet foods in North America and Latin America, which supply 80% of these brands’ sales. Procter aims to sell its remaining pet food operations in Europe and elsewhere, probably in the next few months. That will let it focus on its more-profitable household and personal care products....
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the Good Friday holiday, our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 17, 2014. YAMANA GOLD INC., $9.37, symbol YRI on Toronto, teamed up with Osisko Mining (symbol OSK on Toronto) last week to thwart a hostile takeover bid by Goldcorp (symbol G) for Osisko. Yamana bid $1.4 billion in cash and shares for 50% of Osisko, which owns the Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec. Canadian Malartic produced 475,277 ounces of gold in 2013. However, Goldcorp has now raised its bid to $3.6 billion in cash and shares for all of Osisko. The Yamana offer, combined with contributions from two of Canada’s largest pension funds in the form of a loan and the purchase of a 37,500-ounce-per-year gold stream, valued Osisko at $3.4 billion....
MONSANTO CO., $114.28, New York symbol MON, sells technology-based agricultural products, such as genetically modified seeds, to farmers, grain processors and food companies. It also sells weed- and pest-control products. In the second quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, which ended February 28, 2014, Monsanto earned $1.7 billion, up 12.6% from $1.5 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 15.0%, to $3.15 from $2.74, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus forecast of $3.07. Sales gained 6.6%, to $5.83 billion from $5.47 billion. That also beat the consensus sales forecast of $5.8 billion....