How To Invest

In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.

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Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.

If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)

If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.

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How To Invest Library Archives
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $105.96, Toronto symbol CP, is your #1 Conservative Buy for 2023.

CP ships freight over a 23,700-kilometre rail network, mainly between Montreal and Vancouver. It also links to hubs in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.

This is the fifth year in a row we’ve picked CP as our #1 Conservative stock....
DROPBOX INC., $23.07, symbol DBX on Nasdaq, is a U.S. company that provides cloud storage and related services for both individuals and firms.

Beginning in 2007, the company has focused on providing a way to synchronize computer files between registered users....
BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC., $44.84, New York symbol BAX, is a buy.

The company makes a wide range of medical devices, including intravenous pumps and kidney-dialysis equipment.

Baxter now plans to spin off its Renal Care and Acute Therapies businesses as a separate, publicly traded company.

In 2021, this new kidney care company had revenue of $4.86 billion, or 38% of Baxter’s total revenue of $12.78 billion.

The company has not yet announced the details of the transaction....
A: Freshpet Inc., $52.63, symbol FRPT on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 48.0 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; www.freshpet.com), makes fresh, natural food for dogs and cats. The company’s foods are blends of fresh meats, vegetables and fruits farmed locally and made at its Freshpet Kitchens....
Howard Schultz recently returned as interim chief executive officer at Starbucks Corp., following the retirement of Kevin Johnson. Mr. Schultz goes back a long way with the company. It was founded in 1971 by three individuals—English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl and writer Gordon Bowker....
DRAFTKINGS INC., $11.63, is still a buy. The digital sports entertainment and gaming company (symbol DKNG on Nasdaq) currently provides sports betting in several U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming and Ohio....
SIX FLAGS ENTERTAINMENT CORP., $25.79, symbol SIX on New York, is the world’s largest operator of regional theme and water parks. It currently operates 25 in the U.S., two in Mexico, and one in Canada.

On December 21, 2022, Connecticut-based Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC released a presentation highlighting why it thinks Six Flags is undervalued....
HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC., $42.48, Toronto symbol HCG, is still a hold.

The company is a mortgage lender serving borrowers who fail to meet the stricter standards of Canada’s big banks and other larger, traditional lenders.

Home Capital recently accepted a friendly takeover offer of $44.00 a share from Smith Financial Corp....
IMPERIAL OIL LTD., $64.90, Toronto symbol IMO, is a buy.

This company gets about 90% of its production from oil sands operations in Alberta. Imperial also has conventional oil and natural gas operations in the West and holds stakes in offshore projects in Atlantic Canada.

Its other operations include three refineries (one in Alberta, two in Ontario) and a petrochemical plant in Sarnia, Ontario.

With the January 1, 2023 payment, Imperial raised your quarterly dividend by 29.4%, to $0.44 a share from $0.34....
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., $71.96, New York symbol GE, remains a hold.

The industrial conglomerate has completed the first step in its plan to break itself up into three separate companies.

This week, GE spun off its healthcare business as a new firm called GE HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGIES INC., $58.95, Nasdaq symbol GEHC....