INTUITIVE SURGICAL $537.18 (Nasdaq symbol ISRG; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (515-507-5000; www.intuitivesurgical.com; Shares outstanding: 39.7 million; Market cap: $21.3 billion; No dividends paid) earned $143.5 million, or $3.63 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2012. That’s up sharply from $104.2 million, or $2.66 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 27.6%, to $495.2 million from $388.1 million. Revenue from replenishable supplies rose 32.0%. Intuitive gets almost 40% of its revenue from steady sales of replacement parts, training and other services. That cuts its risk. The company is debt-free, and holds cash of $2.4 billion, or $60.61 a share. Intuitive’s long-term outlook is positive. However, the stock has moved up 68% since August 2011. It now trades at 38.4 times the $14 a share that the company will likely earn in 2012....

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $14.04 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chkenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 659.3 million; Market cap: $9.3 billion; Dividend yield: 2.5%) is down 60.7% from its high of $35.75 last August. That’s largely because natural gas prices have fallen to near 10-year lows. However, the drop has accelerated lately, partly on news that the company’s cofounder, CEO and chairman, Aubrey K. McClendon, took out loans that may have put him in a conflict of interest. It has also come to light that he ran a hedge fund between 2004 and 2008 that traded in the same commodities that Chesapeake produces. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating....

ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $34.48 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340- 777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 15.5 million; Market cap: $534.4 million; Dividend yield: 2.7%) sells telecommunications services in rural areas and other underserved areas in the U.S., Bermuda and the Caribbean region. In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Atlantic’s revenue fell 2.8%, to $182.9 million from $194.7 million a year earlier. However, earnings jumped 107.3%, to $9.3 million, or $0.60 a share, from $4.5 million, or $0.29 a share. In April 2010, Atlantic bought over 800,000 wireless accounts from Verizon Wireless for $200 million. These subscribers were mostly in rural parts of Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Idaho and the Carolinas....

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO., $36.96, New York symbol JPM, fell 9% on Friday after it announced an unexpected loss at its trading division. Morgan uses complex derivatives that act like insurance contracts on the corporate bonds it holds. Due to volatile bond prices, Morgan has lost $2 billion on these hedges since the start of April 2012. The bank is now trying to get out of them, but depending on bond prices, Morgan could lose another $1 billion before it is able to do so. To put these figures in context, Morgan earned $5.4 billion, or $1.31 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2012....

STANTEC INC., $31.53, symbol STN on Toronto, sells a range of consulting, project delivery, design and technology services. The company’s clients operate in a variety of industries, including transportation, construction and oil and gas. Stantec has over 11,000 employees in 170 locations throughout North America. It also has four international offices. In the three months ended March 31, 2012, the company’s revenue rose 7.4%, to $439.1 million from $408.7 million a year earlier. Acquisitions were part of the reason for the gains; Stantec is also working on a number of new projects. Earnings rose 4.5%, to $24.9 million, or $0.55 a share, from $23.8 million, or $0.52....

MICROSOFT CORP., $30.98, Nasdaq symbol MSFT, aims to enter the fast-growing e-book field through a new alliance with bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. (New York symbol BKS). This week, Microsoft agreed to buy 17.6% of a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble that will operate Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-book business; Barnes & Noble will own the remaining 82.4%. This new firm will also include Barnes & Noble’s college textbook operations. Microsoft will pay $300 million for this interest. That’s equal to just 5.9% of the $5.1 billion, or $0.60 a share, that the company earned in the three months ended March 31, 2012. Still, this move should help Microsoft develop new software for the Nook e-book reader and other mobile devices. That would help it compete with the Apple iPad tablet computer and Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader....

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP., $17.39, symbol CHK on New York, is down about 50% from its high of $35.75 last August. That’s largely because natural gas prices have fallen to near 10-year lows. However, the drop has accelerated lately, partly on news that the company’s co-founder, CEO and chairman, Aubrey K. McClendon, took out loans that could put him in a conflict of interest. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now investigating....

SYMANTEC CORP., $16.48, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, sells computer security technology, including anti-virus and Internet and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers. The stock fell 9% this week after Symantec cut its earnings and revenue estimates for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter, which ended March 30, 2012. The company believes it earned $0.38 a share in the quarter, down from its previous forecast of $0.41 to $0.42. These figures exclude unusual items, such as a gain on the sale of its 49% stake in a joint venture that sells computer-security and data-storage products to businesses in China....

SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL CORP., $5.70, symbol S on Toronto, reports that its revenue fell 2.6% in the three months ended March 31, 2012, to $462.2 million from $474.5 million a year earlier. Lower nickel prices were the main reason for the decline. Cash flow fell 17.0%, to $117 million, or $0.40 a share, from $141 million, or $0.48 a share. That was due to the lower revenue and higher production costs. The company’s long-term debt of $1.7 billion is equal to its market cap. However, it holds cash of $592.9 million, or $2.00 a share....

Drug makers should see strong gains over the next few years, particularly due to the aging population. However, they still face challenges. For example, they must continually invest large sums to develop new drugs as patents expire on older ones. New drugs can also take years to win regulatory approval. As well, the pharmaceutical business is extremely competitive, and new, more effective products could come along at any time. To cut your risk, we recommend that you focus on leaders like Pfizer. The company recently lost the exclusive rights to its top-selling Lipitor cholesterol drug, but it has plenty of other promising products on the horizon. Its strong balance sheet is also helping it increase its research spending and buy other drug makers. PFIZER INC. $23 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 7.5 billion; Market cap: $172.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) is the world’s largest pharmaceutical drug maker. Its top-selling brands include Lipitor (for high cholesterol), Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis pain), Viagra (erectile dysfunction), Xalatan (glaucoma), Norvasc (hypertension) and Zyvox (bacterial infections). The company is also the world’s fifth-largest maker of over-the-counter drugs. Its major brands include Advil (pain relief), Centrum (vitamins) and Robitussin (cough syrup)....