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:

  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.

Make better stock picks when you read this FREE Special Report, Canadian Growth Stocks: WestJet Stock, RioCan Stock and More.

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Growth Stocks Library Archives
YUM! BRANDS INC. $58 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 460.5 million; Market cap: $26.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) continues to expand in China, which now accounts for half of the company’s sales and earnings. Yum now plans to double its fast-food outlets in China to 9,000 by 2020. The company will focus its expansion on smaller cities, which usually have lower labour and rental costs than larger centres. That should make these new outlets more profitable. Yum Brands is a buy.
EBAY INC. $30 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $39.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) operates the world’s largest online auction website, with over 99 million users in 39 countries. The company charges users fees to list and sell their goods through its websites. The company also operates several other websites, including StubHub (live event ticket sales), Shopping.com (comparison shopping) and Rent.com (apartment and house rentals). In all, these websites account for 55% of eBay’s overall revenue. The company gets a further 35% of its revenue by processing online financial transactions, mostly through its PayPal subsidiary....
VISA INC. $99 (www.visa.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 46.7%, to $0.22 a share from $0.15. The new annual rate of $0.88 yields just 0.9%. However, Visa should continue to profit as more consumers pay for their purchases with credit cards instead of cash and cheques. Best Buy. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $17 (www.ge.com) continues to report lower loan losses at its lending division. As a result, GE has raised its quarterly dividend by 13.3%, to $0.17 a share from $0.15. The new annual rate of $0.68 yields 4.0%. Buy. BOEING CO. $70 (www.boeing.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 4.8%, to $0.44 a share from $0.42. The new annual rate of $1.76 yields 2.5%. The company also received an order from Southwest Airlines for 150 of its new 737 MAX passenger jets and 58 other planes. The deal is worth $19 billion, or 29% of Boeing annual revenue of $66 billion. Buy.
BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC., $48.08, New York symbol BAX, is buying Synovis Life Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq symbol SYNO), which makes surgical tools and medical patches for wounds and burns. The deal will close in the first quarter of 2012. This purchase looks like a nice fit with Baxter’s existing medical products. As well, Baxter can use its distribution networks to make Synovis’s products available to more consumers, particularly in fast-growing overseas markets. The purchase price is $325 million. However, Synovis holds cash of $65 million, so Baxter is really only paying $260 million. That’s easily affordable for Baxter, which earned $624 million, or $1.09 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2011....
GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER., $13.58, symbol GT on New York, expects to restart its flood-damaged plant in Pathum Thani, Thailand, between March and May of 2012. Goodyear closed this facility, which makes a large portion of its consumer and airplane tires, in October 2011. As a result of the flooding, the airline industry could experience a shortage of certain tires in early 2012. To try to prevent this, Goodyear is increasing production at its other aircraft-tire plants, including its facilities in Danville, Virginia; Stockbridge, Georgia; Kingman, Arizona; and Tilburg, in the Netherlands. Even so, the shutdown at the plant in Thailand will weigh on Goodyear’s production, and will hurt the company’s sales and profits in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. But even with this setback, the company’s long-term outlook remains sound....
ENERFLEX LTD., $12.12 (Toronto symbol EFX; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (403-387-6377; www.enerflex.com; Shares outstanding: 77.2 million; Market cap: 935.7 million; Dividend yield: 2.0%) rents and sells equipment and services for natural gas production, including compression and processing plants, refrigeration equipment and power generators. In July 2011, Toromont completed its spinoff of Enerflex. Shareholders received shares of Enerflex and the new Toromont. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Enerflex’s revenue rose 4.2%, to $282.3 million from $270.9 million a year earlier. The company gets about 28% of its revenue from stable, recurring sales of parts and services. Without one-time items, earnings per share jumped to $0.22 from $0.06, thanks to the higher revenue and improved profit margins. Enerflex’s long-term debt of $132.9 million is a low 14.2% of its market cap Enerflex’s order backlog continues to grow. It added $314.6 million of orders in the latest quarter, to bring its total backlog to $833.2 million on September 30, 2011, up 62.9% from $511.4 million a year earlier. Enerflex benefited from rising shale gas production in the southern U.S., including the Eagle Ford and Marcellus shale areas....
MART RESOURCES $0.76 (Toronto symbol MMT; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-270-1841; www.martresources.com; Shares outstanding: 340.3 million; Market cap: $258.6 million; No dividends paid) trades at a low multiple to cash flow. That reflects investor concern about unstable Nigeria. Right now, Mart is producing oil from its 50%-held Umusadege field in southern Nigeria. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Mart’s revenue jumped 237.2%, to $46.8 million from $13.9 million a year earlier. Cash flow per share rose sharply, to $0.125 from $0.028. Mart’s production rose 126.5%, to 446,981 barrels, and oil prices rose....
YAMANA GOLD $14.52 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www.yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 746.2 million; Market cap: $10.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) owns seven operating gold mines in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. It also holds a 12.5% stake in the Alumbrera copper/gold mine in Argentina, and has three other properties in advanced stages of development. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Yamana’s revenue rose 22.3%, to $555.2 million from $454.0 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Cash flow per share rose 57.1%, to $0.44 from $0.28. The company raised its production by 4.4% during the quarter, to 279,274 ounces of gold from 267,409 a year earlier. As well, record-high gold prices pushed up Yamana’s selling price for gold by 37.4%....
AMERIGO RESOURCES $0.50 (Toronto symbol ARG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.amerigoresources.com; Shares outstanding: 172.3 million; Market cap: $86.2 million; No divd.) processes copper and molybdenum from the waste rock from Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest copper mine. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Amerigo’s cash flow was $0.03 a share, down from $0.06 a year earlier. However, that was the result of a strike that is now over. Amerigo has just declared its semi-annual dividend of $0.02 a share. That gives the stock a high 8.0% yield. The dividend appears safe, but a prolonged period of low copper prices could lower the cash the company has available for dividend payments....
PASON SYSTEMS $11.74 (Toronto symbol PSI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-301-3400; www.pason.com; Shares outstanding: 82.3 million; Market cap: $966.2 million; Dividend yield: 3.4%) rents equipment for monitoring and managing oil and gas rigs. It also sells communication systems, such as its satellite system, which companies use to remotely collect data from their drilling operations. Pason serves oil and gas producers and drilling contractors throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Argentina. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Pason’s revenue rose 29.2%, to $88.7 million from $68.7 million a year earlier. Many of the company’s clients increased their drilling, especially for shale gas and oil. Earnings jumped 140.0%, to $28.5 million, or $0.35 a share, from $11.9 million, or $0.15 a share. The increased drilling pushed up Pason’s earnings. Strong demand also let the company raise its prices....