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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BCE now trades close to its all-time highs. That’s mainly because its wireless revenue continues to grow steadily, rising 26.5% from $4.9 billion in 2010 to $6.2 billion in 2014. At the same time, wireline revenue fell from $10.7 billion to $10.0 billion as land-line phone users continue to switch to wireless. However, BCE’s Fibe Internet and TV services are spurring new demand for its fibre optic land lines. This is a big growth market for the company. BCE INC. $57.50 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 848.1 million; Market cap: $48.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.5%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone, Internet and wireless services. It also offers satellite and Internet TV across the country. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, BCE’s earnings per share rose 12.0%, to $0.93 from $0.83 a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.9%, to $5.3 billion from $5.2 billion....
MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $29.57 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 79.3 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.4%; www.mts.ca) has agreed to sell its Allstream division, which offers telephone, Internet and other communication services to businesses across Canada. Allstream supplies 40% of Manitoba Telecom’s revenue. The remaining 60% comes from its MTS division, which has 1.3 million telephone and wireless customers in Manitoba. The buyer is U.S.-based Zayo Group (New York symbol ZAYO), which will pay $465.0 million. Manitoba Telecom will probably use some of the proceeds to pay down its long-term debt of $677.1 million, which is equal to 29% of its $2.3-billion market cap (or the value of all outstanding shares)....
CANADIAN REIT $41.74 (Toronto symbol REF.UN; Units outstanding: 72.9 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.creit.ca) owns 198 properties, including retail, industrial and office buildings, across Canada and in Chicago. These holdings contain 24.9 million square feet of leasable area. The trust’s occupancy rate is 94.7%. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Canadian REIT’s revenue rose 4.5%, to $109.5 million from $104.8 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit gained 2.7%, to $0.76 from $0.74. The trust aims to grow mostly by developing its own properties rather than through large acquisitions. Over the next few years, it’s spending $660 million to add 3.1 million square feet of space. To cut its risk, Canadian REIT takes on partners to help carry out big projects....
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $24.99 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 319.9 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.5%; www.riocan.com) has settled its dispute with U.S.-based department store chain Target (New York symbol TGT). In April 2015, Target closed all 133 of its Canadian stores, including 26 in RioCan’s malls. So far, the trust has found new tenants for seven of these stores. It will have to remodel the other 19, but it expects to have them rented by the end of 2017. Target has now paid $132 million in compensation. Of that total, $92 million went to RioCan and $40 million went to its partners in some of these malls....
We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus. The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks....
TELUS $42.20 (Toronto symbol T; Shares outstanding: 605.0 million; Market cap: $25.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.telus.com) earned $398 million in the three months ended September 30, 2015, up 2.8% from $387 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 3.1%, to $0.66 from $0.64, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue gained 4.2%, to $3.2 billion from $3.0 billion. Telus continues to sign up high-speed Internet and TV customers, which is helping offset lower demand for traditional phone services. The company now aims to improve its earnings by cutting 3% of its workforce. That should lower its annual costs by $100 million to $125 million....
TRANSCANADA CORP. $42.69 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 708.9 million; Market cap: $30.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.9%; www.transcanada.com) recently had its proposed Keystone XL pipeline rejected by the U.S. The line would have pumped oil sands crude to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. So far, TransCanada has spent $2.4 billion U.S. on this $8.0-billion U.S. project. However, it can use some of the line’s equipment on other projects, which would minimize a writedown. Meanwhile, TransCanada has $35 billion of large-scale projects underway, as well as $13 billion in small- to medium sized developments set to come into service in the next three years....
TORSTAR $3.13 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $254.3 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 8.2%; www.torstar.com) lost $164.8 million, or $2.04 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2015. A year earlier, it lost $87.0 million, or $1.08 a share. Excluding costs related to job cuts and other measures in response to falling ad revenue at Torstar’s newspapers, the company lost $10.4 million, or $0.13 a share, in the latest quarter. Torstar expects its restructuring to cut $9.3 million from its annual costs in 2015 and a further $14.3 million in 2016. Overall revenue declined 7.3%, to $185.4 million from $199.9 million. Lower ad sales cut revenue at both the free weekly newspapers and flyer-distribution operations, as well as at the Toronto Star and other daily papers....
LOBLAW COMPANIES $66.80 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 412.4 million; Market cap: $27.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.5%; www.loblaw.ca) is Canada’s largest food retailer, with about 1,200 supermarkets. Its banners include Loblaws, Provigo, Fortinos, Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills. George Weston Ltd. (see below) owns 46% of the company. In the three months ended October 10, 2015, Loblaw earned $408 million, or $0.99 a share, up 10.0% from $371 million, or $0.90, a year earlier. Sales rose 2.5%, to $13.9 billion from $13.6 billion. Excluding gasoline, same-store sales rose 3.1% at Loblaw and 4.9% at the 1,300-store Shoppers Drug Mart chain, which the company bought for $12.3 billion in March 2014. Loblaw continues to integrate its operations with Shoppers Drug. It expects these moves to save it at least $222 million in 2016....
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $59.87 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $72.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.7%, www.scotiabank.com) has extended its Scene loyalty card program with Cineplex Inc. for an additional 10 years, to October 31, 2025. Scene lets cardholders earn points they can redeem for free movies at Cineplex’s theatres. It’s one of Canada’s most popular loyalty plans, with over seven million members. The deal gives the bank lots of opportunities to cross-sell other services to Scene members. In particular, Scene is very popular with young moviegoers. So it’s a great way to begin a relationship with them when they’re just starting to bank and use credit and debit cards....