Updating ABB Ltd. and Stanley Black & Decker Inc.

Article Excerpt

ABB LTD. ADRs $23 (www.abb.com) purchased Power-One for $737 million in July 2013. This company makes equipment that connects solar power projects, which produce direct current, to electricity grids, which use alternating current. However, ABB had little interest in Power-One’s U.S.-based Power Solutions division, which makes a range of electrical equipment for industrial clients, so it recently sold this business for $117 million. That’s equal to 22% of the $544 million, or $0.24 per ADR, that ABB earned in the first quarter of 2014 (each American Depositary Receipt represents one ABB common share). Buy. STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC. $88 (www.stanleyblackanddecker.com) earned $1.07 a share in the three months ended March 29, 2014, up 2.9% from $1.04 a year earlier. Sales rose 6.6%, to $2.6 billion from $2.5 billion. About half the sales gain came from last year’s acquisitions of two Asian companies that make power tools and industrial fasteners. Hold. Hold…