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
BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO PLC, $35.39, symbol BTI on New York, is a U.K.-based manufacturer of cigarettes and other nicotine products. Its cigarette brands include Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Camel, and Newport. Other brands include Grizzly (chewing tobacco), Velo (nicotine pouches), Vuse (vaping), and Glo (heated tobacco).

The company was formed in 1902 when Imperial Tobacco merged with the American Tobacco Company....
WELL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES CORP., $5.34, is a buy. The company (symbol WELL on Toronto) owns and operates Canada’s largest network of clinics supporting primary care, specialized care and diagnostics services. As of September 30, 2024, the company had a total of 110 physical facilities across Canada.

In the U.S., WELL Health provides healthcare services and solutions targeting specialized markets such as the gastrointestinal market, women’s health, primary care, and mental disorders.

WELL Health USA Patient Services consists of three assets: CRH Medical, Provider Staffing, Circle Medical and Wisp.

CRH delivers specialized care services focused on providing gastroenterologists throughout the U.S....
ABBVIE INC., $199.50, New York symbol ABBV, is a buy.

The company makes biopharmaceuticals, with leading positions in immunology, oncology, aesthetics, neuroscience and eye care.

AbbVie took its current form on January 3, 2013, when Abbott Laboratories (New York symbol ABT) split into two publicly traded firms.

The company will raise your quarterly dividend with the February 2025 payment by 5.8%, to $1.64 a share from $1.55....
YUM! BRANDS INC., $137.21, New York symbol YUM, is still a buy for aggressive investors.

The company operates over 60,000 restaurants in more than 155 countries. Its main banners are KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food)....
BCE INC., $39.49 Toronto symbol BCE, remains your #1 Income Buy for 2024, as well as long-term gains.

The company is Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider. It has 1.88 million residential customers in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces....
Demand for travel continues its post-pandemic rebound, and both Wyndham Hotels and Travel + Leisure are big beneficiaries.

Indeed, the outlook for both stocks remains positive for investors, as pent-up demand for travel stays strong, presenting each company with significant opportunities to expand.

I asked our Successful Investor research department to draw up this Inner Circle Spotlight report on both Wyndham, and Travel + Leisure to explain why we think each has bright prospects ahead....
ELI LILLY AND COMPANY, $818.93, is a buy. The drugmaker (symbol LLY on New York) discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets human pharmaceutical products.

This week, Lilly’s shares fell to as low as $770 or so this week—before rebounding....
FASTENAL COMPANY, $78.23, symbol FAST on Nasdaq, is a leading wholesale distributor of industrial and construction supplies. It draws almost all its clients from the construction and manufacturing industries.

Those construction customers include general, electrical, plumbing, sheet-metal, and road contractors....
CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $150.98, Toronto symbol CNR, remains a buy for long-term gains.

CN operates Canada’s largest railway. Its 30,250-kilometre network stretches across the country. It also travels down through the U.S. Midwest, connecting Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

The company last raised your quarterly dividend with the March 2024 payment....
MCDONALD’S CORP., $295.21, New York symbol MCD, is still your #1 Conservative Buy for 2024.

The company is the world’s largest fast-food chain with over 42,000 restaurants in 119 countries. It serves a wide variety of food but is best known for its hamburgers and french fries.

The company reported higher-than-expected results for its latest quarter, despite lower sales at its international locations, particularly in China and the Middle East....