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
AASTRA TECHNOLOGIES $19.95 (Toronto symbol AAH; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (905-760-4200; www.aastra.com; Shares outstanding: 14.1 million; Market cap: $280.8 million; Dividend yield: 4.0%) reports that its sales fell 4.9%, in the three months ended March 31, 2011, to $162.7 million from $171.1 million a year earlier. Earnings fell sharply, to $0.01 a share from $0.29 a share a year earlier. The earnings decline resulted from foreign exchange losses of $1.9 million in the latest quarter. In addition, the company recorded a one-time gain of $2.7 million a year earlier. Aastra gets three quarters of its sales from Europe. It needs a sustained recovery there to show significantly higher sales and earnings....
TRILOGY ENERGY CORP. $22.12 (Toronto symbol TET; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-290-2900; www.trilogy.com; Shares outstanding: 84.4 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%) owns oil and gas properties in the Kaybob and Grande Prairie areas of central Alberta. About 78% of Trilogy’s production is natural gas. The remaining 22% is oil. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Trilogy produced 21,544 barrels of oil equivalent per day (including natural gas). That was down 4.1% from 22,462 barrels a year earlier....
CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $29.95 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chkenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 657.7 million; Market cap: $19.7 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) has agreed to buy Bronco Drilling, an oil-drilling services company, for $316.8 million in cash. Chesapeake is Bronco’s second-biggest customer. Adding Bronco moves Chesapeake closer to its goal of owning about two-thirds of the rigs it operates. Bronco owns 22 onshore rigs, three of which are currently under contract to Chesapeake. After the purchase, Bronco’s rigs will be operated by Chesapeake’s Nomac Drilling subsidiary. Right now, Chesapeake is operating a total of 160 drilling rigs. It plans to have about 200 rigs in operation by the end of 2012....
YAMANA GOLD $11.68 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www.yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 741.9 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) has raised its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.045 a share from $0.03 a share. This is the second time this year that the company has raised its payout: it increased its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.03 from $0.02, with the January 2011 payment. The new rate gives the shares a 1.5% yield. That’s a high dividend rate for a gold stock. By contrast, Barrick Gold yields 1.1%, Newmont Mining yields 1.5% and Goldcorp yields 0.9%. Yamana is also increasing its exploration budget. It will spend $105 million on exploration in 2011, up 23.5% from $85 million in 2010. Yamana expects to keep raising this spending in the following years. It could spend as much as $125 million on exploration in 2012....
FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $35.15 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 29.1 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; No dividends paid) reported that its revenue rose 18.9% in the three months ended March 31, 2011, to $478.4 million from $402.4 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). The company saw higher revenue across all of its divisions: the commercial real-estate division’s revenue jumped 26.9%; residential-property-management revenue rose 14.6%; and property-services revenue rose 12.9%. Despite the higher revenue, earnings per share fell 6.7%, to $0.14 from $0.15, because of costs to integrate acquisitions. As well, the company’s commercial real-estate division will need to keep hiring more workers to prepare for future growth....
ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK $38.99 (Nasdaq symbol ATNI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (340-777-8000; www.atni.com; Shares outstanding: 15.4 million; Market cap: $600.2 million; Dividend yield: 2.3%) provides telecommunications services to rural and other underserved markets in the U.S., Bermuda and Caribbean. In April 2010, Atlantic bought over 800,000 wireless accounts from Verizon Wireless for $200 million. The subscribers were mostly in rural areas of Georgia, Illinois, Ohio Idaho, and North and South Carolina....
MICROSOFT CORP., $25.03, Nasdaq symbol MSFT, is buying privately held Skype Global. Luxembourg-based Skype makes software that lets computer users make free phone calls over the Internet. Skype users can also make calls to regular or mobile phones for a fee. As well, Skype offers other services, including video conferencing and instant messaging. Skype has 663 million registered users worldwide. Microsoft is paying $8.5 billion for Skype. That’s the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s 36-year history. Still, it holds cash and investments of $50.2 billion, or $5.95 a share, so it can easily afford this purchase. The company aims to close the deal by the end of 2011....
YAMANA GOLD, $11.46, symbol YRI on Toronto, has raised its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.045 a share, from $0.03 a share. This is the second time this year that the company has raised its payout: it increased its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.03 from $0.02, with the January 2011 payment. The new rate gives the shares a 1.6% yield. That’s a high dividend rate for a gold stock. By contrast, Barrick Gold yields 1.1%, Newmont Mining yields 1.5% and Goldcorp yields 0.9%. Yamana is also increasing its exploration budget. It will spend $105 million on exploration in 2011, up 23.5% from $85 million in 2010. Yamana expects to keep raising this spending in the following years. It could spend as much as $125 million on exploration in 2012....
CONAGRA FOODS INC., $25.17, New York symbol CAG, has offered to buy Ralcorp Holdings Inc. (New York symbol RAH), which makes a variety of private-label packaged foods, such as crackers, cookies, jams, peanut butter and frozen waffles. Ralcorp also makes cereals under the well-known Post brand. Buying Ralcorp would make ConAgra the third-largest packaged food maker in the U.S. It would also help ConAgra profit from rising demand for private-label products, which now account for 18.9% of U.S. food sales, up from 16.4% five years ago. Following the purchase, ConAgra would get 50% of its sales from branded foods, 25% from private-label products, and 25% from selling food to restaurants. The company feels its can save $250 million a year by combining plants and other overlapping operations....
FIRSTSERVICE CORP., $35.77, symbol FSV on Toronto, serves the following areas of the real-estate market: commercial real estate; residential property management; and property improvement. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, revenue jumped 18.9%, to $478.4 million from $402.4 million a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). The company saw higher revenue across all of its divisions: the commercial real-estate division’s revenue jumped 26.9%; residential-property-management revenue rose 14.6%; and property-services revenue rose 12.9%....