Here’s hoping you had a great time over the holidays! This year, we’re starting our first Inner Circle of 2024 with something a little out of the ordinary.

As you know, our Inner Circle Q&A is all about answering readers’ questions. For this opening spot, we often choose a unique question, or one with wide appeal—about a stock, an investment practice, or anything investment-related.

This year we devote the opening spot to what some readers may see as an unusual question: “Pat, what happened to The Investment Reporter? Why did it suddenly quit publishing, without giving notice or refunding subscription fees to its subscribers?”

As some of you know, I got my first serious newsletter job in the 1970s, as editor of The Investment Reporter....

MINISO GROUP HOLDING (ADR), $19.64, symbol MNSO on New York, is a fast-growing retailer that opened its first store in China in 2013. It had 6,115 stores in its global network on September 30, 2023, including more than 3,802 in China. The company itself operates just 231 of the stores, with the rest managed by franchisees.

Miniso aims to attract shoppers with a variety of design-led lifestyle products....

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $63.32, Toronto symbol BNS, remains a buy.

Bank of Nova Scotia last raised your quarterly dividend with the July 2023 payment. Investors now receive $1.06 a share, up 2.9% from $1.03. The new annual rate of $4.24 yields a high 6.7%.

In the past few years, Bank of Nova Scotia has narrowed its international focus to four countries in Latin America—Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile....

ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG $142.80 [class C: non-voting] and GOOGL $141.51 [class A: one vote per share], is your #1 Aggressive buy for 2023.

The company is the parent of Google, the world’s leading Internet search engine—it handles over 80% of global search requests....

ACI WORLDWIDE INC., $30.31, is a buy. Through the stock (symbol ACIW on Nasdaq), investors tap this leading provider of software for processing transactions. That includes credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank systems....

IMPERIAL OIL LTD., $75.06, Toronto symbol IMO, is a buy.

This company gets over 90% of its production from oil sands operations in Alberta. Imperial also has conventional oil and natural gas operations in the West and holds stakes in offshore projects in Atlantic Canada.

Its other operations include three refineries (one in Alberta, two in Ontario) and a petrochemical plant in Sarnia, Ontario.

Imperial now plans to spend $1.7 billion on capital upgrades and exploration in 2024, roughly equal to what it likely spent in 2023.

Part of that spending will go to a “renewable” diesel fuel complex at Imperial’s Strathcona refinery near Edmonton....

You can’t fake a record of dividends....

CALIAN GROUP LTD. $57 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CGY; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 11.7 million; Market cap: $666.9 million; Dividend yield: 2.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.calian.com) provides business services to the healthcare, defence, security, aerospace, engineering, agriculture and technology industries.


Calian pays a quarterly dividend of $0.28 a share; the annual rate of $1.12 yields 2.0%....

Pfizer’s shares are down 45% in the past year due to lower demand for its COVID-19 treatments as the pandemic eases. However, new products from its acquisition of Seagen and its high research spending, generally, should spur long-term growth and your dividends.


PFIZER INC....

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $38 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol FTT; Cyclical-Growth Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 145.2 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; Dividend yield: 2.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) sells and services Caterpillar-brand heavy equipment in Western Canada, South America, the U.K....