Alcoa

We still think investors will profit most — and with the least risk — by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying stocks with strong business prospects.

These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace.

Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of …read more »

Prices of many commodities have moved down from their recent peaks on concerns about the global economic recovery. Rather than selling, the best way to cut your risk in the volatile resource sector is to stick with well-established mining companies with high-quality reserves like Newmont, Alcoa and BHP. As well, these firms mainly operate in politically stable areas, like North …read more »

Alcoa Inc., symbol AA on New York, is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The U.S. stock’s customers are mainly in the aerospace, automotive, construction and beverage industries. Alcoa operates in 31 countries.

In the three months ended March 31, 2011, the U.S. stock’s sales rose 21.9 %, to $6.0 billion from $4.9 billion a year earlier. Even so, the …read more »

Alcoa Inc. (New York symbol AA) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The company is one of the blue chip stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter.

In 2010, Alcoa’s sales rose 14.0%, $21.0 billion from $18.4 billion in 2009. The company saw higher demand in most of its markets. In 2010, overall aluminum demand rebounded …read more »

ALCOA INC. $14 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $14.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. Its customers are mainly in the aerospace, automotive and construction industries.

The company produced 12.0% more raw alumina ore in its latest quarter …read more »

Commodities like gold and copper provide a hedge against inflation. But even if inflation stays low, commodity prices are likely to keep rising as rapid economic growth in Asia and South America spurs new construction and car sales. That will help BHP, Newmont and Alcoa. All three are high-quality, well-established resource stocks that have jumped lately. Still, we see only …read more »

C.R. BARD INC. $80 has raised its quarterly dividend by 5.9%, to $0.18 a share from $0.17. The new annual rate of $0.72 yields 0.9%. The medical-device maker also plans to buy back up to $500 million of its shares. There is no time limit to this plan. The company still has $107 million remaining under a $500-million buyback authorization …read more »

ALCOA INC. $13 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 974.4 million; Market cap: $12.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.9%; WSSF Rating: Average) will invest $900 million in a joint venture it has formed with Saudi mining firm Ma’aden to build an aluminum plant in Saudi Arabia. To put this figure in context, Alcoa …read more »

APPLE INC. $204 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 900.7 million; Market cap: $183.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; WSSF Rating: Average) has won its court case against Psystar Corp., a Miami-based company that sells computers that run on Apple’s Mac operating system. Apple refuses to let other computer makers use its software, and the …read more »

ALCOA INC. $12 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 974.4 million; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. Its customers are mainly in the aerospace, automotive and construction industries, all of which have struggled lately. Aluminum prices fell 49% in the second quarter of …read more »