A: TransAlta Corp., $18.29, symbol TA on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 298.4 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; www.transalta.com), is one of Canada’s largest publicly traded power generators.

Established in 1911, the company develops and operates electricity generation facilities....

A: Integer Holdings Corp., $140.00, symbol ITGR on New York (Shares outstanding: 33.5 million; Market cap: $4.6 billion; www.integer.net), is among the world’s largest medical device outsource (MDO) manufacturing companies....

A: Brown-Forman Corp., $44.97, symbol BF.B on New York (Shares outstanding: 472.7 million; Market cap: $21.3 billion; www.brown-forman.com), makes and sells alcoholic beverages.

Based in Louisville Kentucky, the company was founded in 1870 with its first brand, Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky....

I’ve been advising Canadian investors to include U.S. stocks in their portfolios for more than 30 years. I continue to recommend them today. The U.S. stock market offers the widest variety and highest investment grade of companies to invest in of any country in the world....

SCHNEIDER NATIONAL INC., $31.47, symbol SNDR on New York, is a Green Bay, Wisconsin-based transportation and logistics company. In business for 89 years, Schneider has three operating segments: Truckload (48% of revenue), Intermodal (24%), and Logistics (28%).

On November 24, 2024, the company announced its acquisition of Cowan Systems LLC for $390 million cash....

WAJAX CORP., $23.78, is a buy. Through their shares, investors benefit from the company’s (symbol WJX on Toronto) sales and servicing of cranes, forklifts and other heavy equipment. Wajax also provides related parts and systems such as ball bearings, hoses, diesel engines and transmissions.

The company’s customers are spread across the resources, construction, manufacturing and transportation industries.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2024, Wajax’s overall revenue fell 5.6%, to $481.0 million from $509.7 million a year earlier....

BANK OF MONTREAL, $146.32, Toronto symbol BMO, is still a buy.

With the February 2025 payment, the bank will raise your quarterly dividend by 2.6%, to $1.59 a share from $1.55. The new annual rate of $6.36 yields a high 4.3%. Bank of Montreal also announced a new plan to buy back up to 20 million of its common shares (2.7% of the total outstanding).

On February 1, 2023, the bank completed its acquisition of Bank of the West from France’s BNP Paribas for $13.8 billion U.S

Bank of the West provides a variety of retail and commercial banking services to over 1.8 million customers in 24 U.S....

INTEL CORP., $20.92, Nasdaq symbol INTC, is now a hold.

The stock fell 15% this week after the computer chip maker announced that Pat Gelsinger has retired as its chief executive officer and as a director.

Chief financial officer David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, general manager of Intel’s client computing group, will serve as interim co-CEOs.

Under Gelsinger, Intel began a multi-year plan in 2021 to improve its technical expertise and expand its ability to make chips for other companies....

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK, $73.51, Toronto symbol TD, remains a buy for patient, income-seeking investors.

The bank recently settled charges over lapses in the anti-money laundering processes at its U.S. retail banking operations. As a result, it paid a fine of $3.09 billion U.S.

The settlement also imposed an asset cap on TD’s U.S....

ETFs in brief


Exchange-traded funds are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or sub-index....