TOP PICK

Senior housing operator. Likes the industry and the demographics. Penetration in senior housing is very low and hopefully it will increase over time. Have been deleveraging its balance sheet and hasn’t increased the distribution over the last few years. Balance sheet is now strong and the payout ratio is below the target she has. Very good chance they will be increasing distributions over the next 6-12 months. Yield of 5.70%.

TOP PICK

Media conglomerate. Their crown jewel is ESPN, the cable network and earns the highest affiliate fees of all networks. Have been renegotiating fees this past year at higher rates. Have been reinvesting in their parks and resorts and are starting to see the effects. Yield of 1.2%. In 2016 they will be opening up a resort in Shanghai in a joint venture with the Chinese government.

TOP PICK

55% of revenues come from developing and emerging markets. Have been restructuring their portfolio on personal care acquisitions, which give higher margins. Sold off some non-core food brands in the last month. Yield of 3.53% and consistently increases their dividend. Attractive entry point.

N/A

Markets. For the last 2 months, she has thought the markets were somewhat overbought so she has some cash on the sidelines to take advantage of any weakness. Finding a large majority of the stocks she is interested in buying, particularly in the US, are too expensive for her right now.

N/A

Income investments. Has been negative on bonds for the last few years and doesn’t hold very much in the way of actual bonds. What she does hold are very short term bonds that she ladders so that they mature every 6 months and she doesn’t go out beyond 2 years. For clients that need fixed income, she has gone to the preferred shares market and they have been hurt somewhat by the rising interest rates and have corrected by about 5%. For those clients that need cash flow, she has gone to the REITs and high-yielding products such as pipelines, etc.

N/A

Economics. Data is actually improving. US recovery is happening although it is slow. Apparently now the Euro zone is actually out of the recession, which means that on the margin it is not going to detract from earnings, maybe stabilize and add to earnings. This gives the Fed some leeway to perhaps pull back a bit.

BUY

Very leveraged to crude oil. Has been increasing its production and has very high net backs. Very large inventory of land that they can drill from. Likes it below $40. Good dividend and feels it is safe.

N/A

Energy stocks. Are improvement in prices a seasonal move or are we seeing something bigger than that? It is encouraging that we have seen WTI prices move up to about $107. Part of that has been political unrest and potential turmoil in the East. Also, there were infrastructure issues in the beginning of the year and they are still there but there are plans to increase world capacity by 700,000 barrels per day by 2015. Still thinks the pipelines will be needed. Crude could pull back by maybe $10 but it is encouraging that it has moved up.

COMMENT

Has been fairly hard-hit, along with the rest of the sector, by increased interest rates. On average, REITs are down 10%-12% for the year. This being the largest and most liquid, mutual funds were taking profits. Thinks this was an overreaction. Has a high portfolio of assets and is primarily in retail. Probably quite an attractive yield right now. Finding this sector particularly attractive for income investors right now.

HOLD

Doesn’t see a lot of growth outlook or dividend increases for this stock. When looking at income paying stocks, she wants to see improving cash flow potential for increasing dividends or distribution over the next 3-5 years.

PARTIAL SELL

If you own, you might want to take some profits. The smart phone market is getting pretty fully penetrated, especially the high-end where this company participates. Smart phones is a product cycle driven market.

HOLD

There should be catalysts over the next 6 months so we will be able to ascertain what is going to happen to this company. Likely there will be some sort of corporate activity where they go private or another tech company takes them over. Thinks there is value in the company at the $10 range. Still have a subscriber base of 72 million that are paying the service fees so that is a cash flow stream although it may be declining over time. Too speculative to buy.

WATCH

Under pressure because of declining potash prices due to the collapse of the Russian cartel. The short-term Outlook will be lower potash prices so this will be good for this company. At these levels, it is probably somewhat washed out. They have very good assets.

BUY

Likes this long-term. Very well-positioned for the expanding middle class in emerging markets. Their primary products are gum, candy, sweet biscuits. As GDP grows, she expects that consumers will want to consume more of those goods.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick August 1/12. Down 8.22%.) Amongst the senior producers, it produces about 2.4 million ounces. There is very good visibility to get to 4 million ounces by 2017, based on the projects they have in place. In political low risk areas. Unhedged.