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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Fission Uranium, $0.66, symbol FCU on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 483.9 million; Market cap: $338.8 million; www.fissionuranium.net), is focused on its Patterson Lake South uranium discovery just south of Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin.
Fission aims to build a profitable mine on the property, which it believes holds one of the world’s largest uranium deposits. It is now investing $7 million in a winter drilling program at Patterson to prepare a prefeasibility study on the economics of building the mine.
Last year, Fission rejected a $483-million merger with Denison Mines, symbol DML on Toronto. However, in December 2015, China’s state-owned CGN Mining bought 97 million Fission shares at $0.85 per share, giving it a 19.99% stake. CGN and Fission also plan to finalize an agreement for CGN Mining to buy all uranium production from Patterson if a mine is built.
The arrangement stays within Canadian foreign investment restrictions on strategic resources; Foreign companies are only barred from owning more than a 49% share in any producing uranium mine.
Anti-nuclear sentiment remains high following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that released radiation at the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. This sentiment has curtailed plans for some new nuclear plants, especially in the U.S. However, regulators in that country are moving toward loosening regulations on nuclear plants. That could eventually revive nuclear plant construction in the U.S.—and uranium demand. But this nuclear revival, if it comes at all, will be a slow process.
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Fission aims to build a profitable mine on the property, which it believes holds one of the world’s largest uranium deposits. It is now investing $7 million in a winter drilling program at Patterson to prepare a prefeasibility study on the economics of building the mine.
Last year, Fission rejected a $483-million merger with Denison Mines, symbol DML on Toronto. However, in December 2015, China’s state-owned CGN Mining bought 97 million Fission shares at $0.85 per share, giving it a 19.99% stake. CGN and Fission also plan to finalize an agreement for CGN Mining to buy all uranium production from Patterson if a mine is built.
The arrangement stays within Canadian foreign investment restrictions on strategic resources; Foreign companies are only barred from owning more than a 49% share in any producing uranium mine.
Anti-nuclear sentiment remains high following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that released radiation at the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. This sentiment has curtailed plans for some new nuclear plants, especially in the U.S. However, regulators in that country are moving toward loosening regulations on nuclear plants. That could eventually revive nuclear plant construction in the U.S.—and uranium demand. But this nuclear revival, if it comes at all, will be a slow process.
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KP Tissue Inc., $10.90, symbol KPT on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 9.0 million; Market cap: $98.2 million; www.kptissueinc.com), owns 16.3% of Kruger Products L.P., Canada’s leading maker of tissue products for home and business use.
Kruger is a leader in the Canadian consumer market, with well-known brands like Scotties, Cashmere, Purex, SpongeTowels and White Swan. In the U.S., Kruger owns the White Cloud brand and makes many private label products. The company’s Away-From-Home division produces and distributes products for restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
In the three months ended September 30, 2015, KP Tissue lost $0.22 a share, compared to an $0.08-a-share profit a year earlier. That’s mainly because Kruger took a charge on early debt repayment. KP Tissue has no revenue, as its minority stake in Kruger is its sole asset.
The company pays quarterly dividends of $0.18 a share, for a high 7.4% annualized yield.
KP Tissue hasn’t released year-end financials yet, but it likely earned $0.37 a share for 2015. Profits could rise to $0.97 a share in 2016, and the stock trades at just 11.2 times that estimate. However, the company must deal with rising pulp prices, plus increasing competition from rivals in Canada and the U.S., many of which are expanding. That means it will likely have to spend more on marketing to compete.
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Kruger is a leader in the Canadian consumer market, with well-known brands like Scotties, Cashmere, Purex, SpongeTowels and White Swan. In the U.S., Kruger owns the White Cloud brand and makes many private label products. The company’s Away-From-Home division produces and distributes products for restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
In the three months ended September 30, 2015, KP Tissue lost $0.22 a share, compared to an $0.08-a-share profit a year earlier. That’s mainly because Kruger took a charge on early debt repayment. KP Tissue has no revenue, as its minority stake in Kruger is its sole asset.
The company pays quarterly dividends of $0.18 a share, for a high 7.4% annualized yield.
KP Tissue hasn’t released year-end financials yet, but it likely earned $0.37 a share for 2015. Profits could rise to $0.97 a share in 2016, and the stock trades at just 11.2 times that estimate. However, the company must deal with rising pulp prices, plus increasing competition from rivals in Canada and the U.S., many of which are expanding. That means it will likely have to spend more on marketing to compete.
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We feel that investors will profit the most by holding a well-balanced portfolio of high-quality stocks. However, if you don’t want to build a portfolio, or you want to supplement your individual stock holdings, then ETFs can provide a great alternative. The main factors we use to evaluate ETFs are the stocks they hold, the diversification of their holdings across the five economic sectors and the fees (MERs) they charge. In general, investors holding mainly ETFs would want, say, 60% in Canadian ETFs and 20% to 30% in U.S. ETFs....
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $159.03 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 153.8 million; Market cap: $25.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 0.9%; www.cpr.ca) reported 5.9% lower freight volumes in the latest quarter, mainly because of falling prices for oil, minerals and other commodities. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, CP earned $419 million, down 8.9% from $460 million a year earlier. However, per-share earnings gained 1.5%, to $2.72 from $2.68, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue fell 4.1%, to $1.69 billion from $1.76 billion. Still, revenue from forest products jumped 20.4%, and fertilizer shipments rose 18.0%....
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $25.02 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 320.4 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, RioCan’s cash flow rose 5.0%, to $140.2 million from $133.6 million a year earlier. Per-unit cash flow gained 2.3%, to $0.44 from $0.43, on more units outstanding. The trust has now agreed to sell its 49 U.S. malls for $1.2 billion (Canadian). It expects to complete the sale in April 2016....
TORSTAR $2.21 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $182.1 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 11.8%; www.torstar.com) will close its money-losing printing plant in Vaughan, Ontario, just north of Toronto, in July 2016. It will then transfer printing of The Toronto Star newspaper to Transcontinental Inc. Torstar will also sell the Vaughan plant and land. This will help offset its closing costs. It will also give it more cash for Star Touch, the tablet-newspaper app it launched in October. So far, more than 200,000 users have downloaded Star Touch, which uses technology licensed from Montreal’s La Presse newspaper. The app should help Torstar attract younger readers and sell more online ads....
GREAT-WEST LIFECO $34.22 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 993.4 million; Market cap: $34.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 3.8%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is one of Canada’s largest insurance firms. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management. Power Financial owns 67.2% of Great-West. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Great-West’s earnings rose 4.3%, to $0.72 a share from $0.69 a year earlier. The company continues to benefit from two recent acquisitions. In 2013, it paid $1.75 billion for Irish Life, Ireland’s largest pension manager and life insurance provider. In 2015, it paid an undisclosed sum for the Irish operations of Legal & General Group plc, which provides investment and taxplanning services to wealthy individuals....
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $55.78 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $67.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%, www.scotiabank.com) is considering selling all or part of its 49% stake in Thailand’s Thanachart Bank, which has a book value of $2.4 billion. Like many Asian nations, Thailand prohibits foreign firms from controlling domestic banks. Economic weakness and political uncertainty have also hurt loan demand in the country. Bank of Nova Scotia would probably use the proceeds from any sale to expand in Latin America. The bank gets around 30% of its earnings from its international operations....
BONAVISTA ENERGY $1.83 (Toronto symbol BNP; Shares outstanding: 211.7 million; Market cap: $367.5 million; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.6%; www.bonavistaenergy.com) explores for oil and gas in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. Its output is 75% gas and 25% oil. In the quarter ended September 30, 2015, Bonavista’s cash flow per share fell 26.7%, to $0.44 from $0.60 a year earlier. Most of that drop came from lower oil and gas prices; output rose 5.2%, to 78,599 barrels of oil equivalent a day from 74,720 barrels. Like many producers, the company is cutting back on exploration and development spending. In 2016, it will devote $210 million to this purpose. That’s down from the $283.4 million it spent in 2015, and down sharply from its $639.6 million in 2014....
ENBRIDGE INC. $47.87 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 856.7 million; Market cap: $40.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above A v e r a g e ; D i v i d e n d y i e l d : 4 . 4 % ; www.enbridge.com) has agreed to buy two natural gas processing plants and related pipelines in northeastern B.C. from Murphy Oil (New York symbol MUR). These facilities purify raw gas from producers in B.C.'s Montney region. They also have long-term contracts with these clients, which helps cut risk. Enbridge will pay $538 million when it closes the deal by March 31, 2016. To put that in context, it earned $399 million, or $0.47 a share, in its latest quarter....