Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In 2014

If you’re a regular Investing Daily reader, you likely know that we’ve long been bullish on investing in north of the border. Here are a few reasons why:

Many Canadian firms boast high—and rising—dividends: The best Canadian dividend stocks tend to have long records of making outsized payouts. Right now, for example, our Canadian Edge advisory’s portfolios include stocks with yields up to 10.3%.

Growing resource wealth: Canada’s oil reserves are the world’s third-largest, with production from the Alberta oil sands forecast to double, to 6.7 million barrels a day, by 2030, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

The sector got a shot in the arm after Warren Buffett took out a big stake in Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU), the largest oil sands producer, in the second quarter of 2013 and added to his stake in Q3.

“We think it is a positive for the sector,” Robert Bedin of ITG Investment Research recently told the Financial Post. “Suncor is probably a pretty good proxy for the Canadian oil price, and if Mr. Buffett is bullish on the oil price, it’s good across the board for Canadian names.”

Economic stability: The World Economic Forum has ranked Canada’s banking system No. 1 for six years in a row. The country didn’t experience any bank failures during the 2008/2009 crisis.

In addition, Canada’s federal government is on track to balance its books by April 2015. The country’s finance minister, Jim Flaherty, recently said the government plans to post a surplus of C$3.7 billion in the year starting April 2015, up from his earlier projection of C$800 million.

Low corporate taxes: In a recent PwC study, Canada ranked eighth in a global comparison of the most advantageous places to pay corporate taxes, far ahead of the U.S., in 69th spot. The country’s low tax rate—almost half that of the U.S.—is one reason why the best Canadian dividend stocks can offer such high yields.

Sunny Outlook for the Best Canadian Dividend Stocks

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In 2014: Abbott Laboratories(ABT)

Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of health care products worldwide. The company offers adult and pediatric pharmaceuticals for rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease; dyslipidemia; HIV infection; prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and anemia caused by uterine fibroids; respiratory syncytial virus; adult males who have low or no testosterone; secondary hyperparathyroidism; hypothyroidism; and pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, as well as anesthesia products. It also provides diagnostic products, such as immunoassay systems; chemistry systems; assays used for screening and/or diagnosis for drugs of abuse, cancer, therapeutic drug monitoring, fertility, physiological, and infectious diseases; instruments that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infections agents; genomic-b ased tests; hematology systems and reagents; and point-of-care diagnostic systems and tests for blood analysis. In addition, the company offers a line of pediatric and adult nutritional products. Further, it provides coronary, endovascular, vessel closure, and structural heart devices, such as drug-eluting stent systems, coronary metallic stents, balloon dilatation products, coronary guidewires, vessel closure devices, carotid stent systems, percutaneous valve repair systems, and drug eluting bioresorbable vascular products. Additionally, the company provides blood glucose monitoring meters, test strips, data management software, and accessories for people with diabetes; and medical devices for the eye, including cataract surgery, lasik surgery, contact lens, and dry eye products, as well as branded generic pharmaceutical products. Abbott primarily serves retailers, wholesalers, hospitals, and health care facilities. Abbott was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon]

  I was looking at the fundamental of 18 stocks; I own 5 of them: Apple (AAPL), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Autodesk (ADSK), Cisco (CSCO) and Exelon (EXC). Others were ideas collected from places like news, etc.

• [By The Part-time Investor]

  The following stocks met the criteria in January of 2008 and were put into the initial portfolio:

  Abbot Labs (ABT)Advanced data processing (ADP)Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC)Bank of America (BAC)BB&T Corp. (BBT)Bemis Company (BMS)Anheuser Busch (BUD)The Chubb Corporation (CB)Clorox (CLX)Comerica Inc. (CMA)Diebold Inc. (DBD)Emerson Electronics (EMR)First Dollar Corp. (FDO)First Third BanCorp. (FITB)Gannett Co, Inc. (GCI)General Electric (GE)Hershey (HSY)Illinois Tools Works (ITW)Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)Leggett and Platt (LEG)Eli Lilly (LLY)La-Z-Boy (LZB)McDonald's (MCD)Marsh and Ilsley (MI)M&T Bancorp (MTB)PepsiCo (PEP)Pfizer (PFE)Procter & Gamble (PG)Pentair Ltd. (PNR)Regions Financial Corp. (RF)Rohm and Haas (ROH)RPM International (RPM)Sherwin Williams (SHW)Sysco Corp. (SYY)UDR Inc. (UDR)

  Historical quotes were taken from Yahoo Finance. $10,000 was put into each position, to the nearest whole share, so a total of $349,262.89 was invested. From 1/15/08 through 5/16/13 all dividends were reinvested back into the stock that paid them. If a dividend cut was announced, that stock was sold on the ex-div date of the new, lower dividend.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In 2014: KBR Inc. (KBR)

KBR, Inc. operates as an engineering, construction, and services company supporting the energy, hydrocarbon, government services, minerals, civil infrastructure, power, and industrial sectors worldwide. Its Downstream business unit provides front end engineering design; detailed engineering; engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); EPC management; and program management services to petrochemical, refining, coal gasification, and syngas markets. The company?s Government and Infrastructure business unit provides program and project management, contingency logistics, operations and maintenance, construction management, engineering, and other services to military and civilian branches of governments and private clients. Its Services business unit delivers engineering, construction, construction management, fabrication, maintenance, and turnaround services. It also offers maintenance, construction, and drilling support services for offshore oil and gas producing facili ties using semisubmersible vessels. This segment serves oil, gas, petrochemicals, and hydrocarbon processing industries, as well as power, alternate energy, pulp and paper, industrial and manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries. The company?s Technology business unit offers various process technologies, including value-added technologies in the coal monetization, petrochemical, refining, and syngas markets. Its Upstream business unit constructs liquefied natural gas, gas-to-liquids, onshore oil and gas production facilities, offshore oil and gas production facilities, and onshore and offshore pipelines. The company?s Ventures business unit invests in and manages projects, where the company provides engineering, construction, construction management or operations, and maintenance services. KBR, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Louis Navellier]

  If we look at the sector using Portfolio Grader, we see that many of the big names in the group like Flour (FLR), Granite Construction (GVA) and KBR incorporated (KBR) are rated ��ell.��The anticipated spending for both government and private industry simply hasn�� materialized, and the companies are not seeing revenue or profit growth.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  KBR (NYSE: KBR) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.70 per share on revenue of $1.99 billion.

  Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is estimated to post a Q3 loss at $0.04 per share on revenue of $142.67 million.

Top Gold Stocks To Watch Right Now: S&P 500/Barra Value(SU)

Suncor Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated energy company. The company involves in the development of petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; acquisition, exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas in Canada and internationally; transportation and refining of crude oil; and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products primarily in Canada. Its Oil Sands segment produces bitumen recovered from oil sands through mining and in-situ technology, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock, diesel fuel, and by-products. This segment?s products include gasoline and distillates. The company?s Natural Gas segment acquires, explores, develops, and produces natural gas, natural gas liquids, oil, and by-products from reserves located primarily in western Canada, the Northwest Territories, Alaska, and the Arctic Islands. Its International and Offshore segment engages in the exploration and pro duction of oil and gas in offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, in the North Sea, and in Libya and Syria. The company?s Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil at Suncor's refineries in Edmonton, Alberta; Montreal, Quebec; and Sarnia, Ontario in Canada, as well as in Commerce City, Colorado into a range of petroleum and petrochemical products for sale to retail, commercial, and industrial customers. It also transports crude oil through pipelines in eastern and western Canada, as well as through wholly-owned pipelines in Wyoming and Colorado; and produces specialty lubricants and waxes. In addition, this segment operates retail sites in Canada under the Petro-Canada brand; and in Colorado under Phillips 66 and Shell brands. Suncor Energy Inc. also engages in third-party energy trading activities. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Calgary , Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sara Murphy]

  A recent report from sustainable business advocate Ceres found wide discrepancies in disclosure quality among oil and gas majors. Ceres found that BP (NYSE: BP  ) , Suncor (NYSE: SU  ) , and Eni (NYSE: E  ) provided the best disclosure overall, while ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) and Apache (NYSE: APA  ) did the worst.

• [By Eric Lam]

  Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) added 1.9 percent to C$36.06 as crude erased earlier losses to advance 1.3 percent in New York on signs of accelerating economic growth in Europe and unrest in the Middle East.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU  ) shed 4%, and yields 1.8%. It's Canada's largest energy company, with expertise in deep oil sands. The company recently canceled its plans to upgrade its Voyageur plant in northern Alberta, due in part to competitive pressures. Thus, it will likely just ship more oil to refiners to do much of the processing work. The company is vulnerable to possible tightened regulations due to the recent pipeline oil spill in Arkansas. Some like its diversification beyond North America.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In 2014: Imperial Oil Limited(IMO)

Imperial Oil Limited engages in the exploration, production, and sale of crude oil and natural gas in Canada. The company operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical. The Upstream segment engages in the exploration and production of conventional crude oil, natural gas, synthetic oil, and bitumen primarily in the Western Provinces, the Canada Lands, and the Atlantic Offshore. Its primary conventional oil producing asset includes the Norman Wells oil field in the Northwest Territories. The Downstream segment engages in the transportation and refining of crude oil, as well as blending, distribution, and marketing of refined products. It owns and operates crude oil, and natural gas liquids and products pipelines in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. The Chemical segment engages in the manufacture and marketing of various petrochemicals, including ethylene, benzene, aromatic and aliphatic solvents, plasticizer intermediates, and polyethylene resin. As of De cember 31, 2010, Imperial Oil Limited had 1,204 million oil-equivalent barrels of proved undeveloped reserves; maintained a nation-wide distribution system, including 24 primary terminals, to handle bulk and packaged petroleum products moving from refineries to market by pipeline, tanker, rail, and road transport; and sold petroleum products through 1,850 Esso retail service stations, of which approximately 510 were company owned or leased. The company was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Imperial Oil Limited operates as a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Cost overruns and abandoned projects
  As a result of these factors, cost overruns have become quite common in Alberta. For instance, Imperial Oil (NYSEMKT: IMO  ) said it exceeded its cost estimates for the first phase of its Kearl bitumen mining facility by about C$2 billion.�And some companies have even decided to abandon expensive projects altogether.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In 2014: Great Basin Gold Ltd.(GBG)

Great Basin Gold Ltd. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of precious metal deposits. It explores for gold, silver, and aggregate. The company has two material projects, including the Hollister gold project consisting of a total of 950 unpatented, federal mining claims, covering approximately 69 square kilometers located in Ivanhoe Mining District, Elko County, Nevada; and the Burnstone gold mine comprising mineral rights covering approximately 35,000 hectares located in the Witwatersrand Basin goldfields in South Africa. It also holds interests in early stage mineral prospects, such as the Tsetsera Property in Mozambique; and properties in Tanzania and the island of Kurils in eastern Russia. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Sandton, South Africa.