At The Successful Investor, we’ve spent the last 30 years encouraging Canadians to adopt a conservative approach to building wealth through the stock market. Indeed, our longtime Inner Circle members have generally taken our advice—with a great deal of success.


Still, in a bull market like today’s—the S&P/TSX Composite is up 20.4% so far this year—conservative investors often wind up selling some of their best stocks way too early.



In short, they’re afraid that even high-quality stocks have gone up “too far, too fast.” For the same reason, many other investors will hesitate to buy these highfliers, regardless of their attractive growth prospects. (See below for one IC member’s question on 3M.)



Before taking either approach, think twice.

Long-time readers know that we aim to keep you informed of important news about the stocks we cover. That means highlighting developments and plans that promise to bolster investor gains. Here are two buys that stand out this month:


THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC., $573.79, is a buy. The company (New York symbol TMO; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (www.thermofisher.com; Shares outstanding: 375.7 million; Market cap: $215.6 billion; Dividend yield: 0.3%) has agreed to acquire Clario Holdings, a leading provider of endpoint data solutions for clinical trials. The purchase price is $8.875 billion in cash at closing plus potential additional earnout and other payments in the future. Those are tied to performance.

You should remain wary of stocks that attract broker/media attention because of high-profile products or services, and their business models. Here’s a closer look at one stock with risks that prospective investors should take into consideration:


WAYFAIR INC., $97.94, (New York symbol W; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (www.wayfair.com; Shares outstanding: 130.3 million; Market cap: $12.8 billion; No dividends paid) is one of the world’s largest online destinations for home furnishings. Through its e-commerce platform, the company offers furniture, décor, housewares and home improvement products.

Understanding our recommendations: Power Buy—These stocks are our top choices for new buying now. We feel each currently offers the best combination of fundamentals (earnings, sales, cash flow and so on) plus external factors (industry trends and the current share price) to give it a chance of above-average gains. Buy—high-quality stocks with strong growth prospects. However, they are likely to grow at a slower rate than our Power Buys. Sell—these are stocks that no longer inspire our confidence. As Power Growth Investor focuses on maximizing profits for aggressive investors, we prefer to sell poorly performing stocks instead of holding them and waiting for a rebound.

The pandemic presented both of these firms with unique challenges. However, each remained profitable and is well positioned to keep prospering as the economy continues to rebound. Trends now underway—as well as the strong position of these firms in key markets—will power their gains. Both are buys.


RESMED INC., $244.99, is a buy. The company (New York symbol RMD; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (www.resmed.com; Shares outstanding: 146.0 million; Market cap: $35.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) helps investors tap the growing market for medical devices used to treat sleep apnea. ResMed’s CPAP (nasal continuous positive airway pressure) devices are also used to treat patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as other respiratory conditions.