DOLLAR TREE INC. $174 is a buy for aggressive investors. The company (Nasdaq symbol DLTR; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 225.1 million; Market cap: $39.2 billion; No dividends paid; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.dollartree.com) is North America’s largest operator of dollar stores, with 16,077 locations in 48 U.S....

Shares of retail chains suffered in 2020 and 2021 as COVID-19 shutdowns hurt customer traffic and sales. Those lower share prices have attracted activist investors who are demanding retailers add value by finding new buyers or spinning off their smaller assets ....

Medical device maker Becton Dickinson has now completed the spinoff of its diabetes products business (embecta). The move lets Becton focus on a plan to increase its revenue by 5.5% a year. That new strategy should also lift earnings per share by 10% annually....

HP INC. $39 is a hold. The company (New York symbol HPQ; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 1.05 billion; Market cap: $41.0 billion; Dividend yield: 2.6%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.hp.com) took its current form on November 1, 2015, when the old Hewlett-Packard Co....

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spur consumer online shopping. That, in turn, is forcing businesses to find new ways to efficiently deliver their products to customers, including the use of last-mile services that drop off goods to shoppers’ homes.


To better take advantage of this trend, XPO Logistics is using spinoffs and asset sales to focus solely on its North American trucking business....

This is the time in each calendar quarter when we usually devote this spot in our Inner Circle to our latest letter to Portfolio-Management clients. However, recent events call for a change in our routine. In particular, before we get into the client letter, I want to address an issue that is showing up a lot in the media, in questions from our clients and readers, and in my own mind:

• What should investors do about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
• Do we need to worry that the conflict can explode into World War III?
• How should investors react—if at all—to Vladimir Putin’s veiled threats to bring nuclear weapons into the battlefield?

To get started, I’m going to ask readers a question: Do these lyrics sound familiar?

“In 1814, we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip’
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans

We fired our guns and the British kep’ a-comin’
There wasn’ nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
way down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

We looked down the river
And we see’d the British come
And there must have been a hundred of ‘em
Beatin’ on the drums
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We hid behind our cotton bales and didn’t say a thing

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’ nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Old Hickory said we could take ‘em by surprise
If we didn’t fire our muskets
‘Til we looked ‘em in the eye

We held our fire
‘Til we see’d their faces well
Then we opened up our squirrel guns
And really gave ‘em, well….we…

… fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’ nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began a’runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Yeah, they ran through the briars
And they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes
Where a rabbit couldn’t go
They ran so fast
That the hounds couldn’t catch ‘em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

—from “The Battle of New Orleans,” by Johnny Horton, 1958

I don’t offer the following as an exhaustive or scholarly analysis by any means....

TWITTER INC., $45.08, symbol TWTR on New York, offers users a global platform to express themselves on the Internet in real time. Its website lets people create, distribute, and discover content. Platform partners include publishers, media outlets, and developers.

Advertisers use Twitter’s Promoted Products, the majority of which are pay-for-performance, to promote their brands, products, and services....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC., $42.57, Toronto symbol SU, is a buy.

The company is Canada’s largest integrated oil firm, with major projects in the Alberta oil sands. Suncor also operates four refineries (three in Canada and one in Colorado), along with 1,875 Petro-Canada gas stations.

With the December 2021 payment, Suncor doubled your quarterly dividend to $0.42 a share from $0.21....

AT&T INC., $19.54, New York symbol T, is still a buy for long-term gains.

The company is the biggest wireless carrier in the U.S. It also offers traditional phone services.

AT&T has now completed its plan to merge its Warner Bros....

SHOPIFY INC., $731.93, is a buy. The company (symbol SHOP on Toronto) offers merchants of all sizes Internet-based software to design, set up and manage e-commerce stores across multiple sales channels. The company also handles digital payments and shipping.

This week, Shopify announced it will split its class A and class B shares on a 10-for-1 basis....