Growth Stocks
Although growth stock picks can be highly volatile, they can make good long-term investments. They may be well-known stars or quiet gems, but they do share one common attribute—they are growing at a higher-than-average rate within their industry, or within the market as a whole, and could keep growing for years or decades.
And keep in mind that we focus on growth stocks, which have a good long-term history and favourable prospects. We downplay momentum stocks that tend to attract many investors simply because they are moving faster than the market averages, but are liable to fall sharply when their momentum fades.
There’s room for growth stock investing in your portfolio, but make sure you follow our TSI Network three-part Successful Investor strategy for your overall portfolio:
- Invest mainly in well-established companies;
- Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);
- Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.
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DUN & BRADSTREET CORP. $81 (New York symbol DNB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 49.8 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dnb.com) is the world’s largest provider of credit reports on individual companies. Businesses use these reports to make buying decisions and protect themselves from credit losses. Dun & Bradstreet has built up its international operations over the past few years. For example, in August 2010 it bought full control of its Australian credit-rating business for $207.9 million. The purchase is helping Dun & Bradstreet profit from rising demand for reliable credit ratings in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region. The company’s growing overseas operations are also helping it offset slower growth in North America, which still supplies 75% of its revenue. In 2010, Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue rose 3.1%, to $1.64 billion from $1.59 billion. International revenue rose 17%. That more than offset a 1% decline in North American revenue....
MOODY’S CORP. $30 (New York symbol MCO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 234.2 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.moodys.com) provides independent credit ratings and other information on bonds and other securities. Credit ratings account for 70% of Moody’s revenue. It gets the remaining 30% from selling credit-assessment software to banks and other lenders. As the economy improves, more businesses are issuing new bonds to fund expansion projects. That’s pushing up demand for Moody’s credit ratings. As a result, Moody’s revenue rose 13.1% in 2010, to $2.0 billion from $1.8 billion in 2009. Revenue from the U.S. (54% of overall revenue), rose 18.3%. Revenue at the company’s international operations (46% of revenue) rose 7.5%....
MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES INC. $38 (New York symbol MHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 307.0 million; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mcgraw-hill.com) gets 70% of its earnings and 45% of its revenue from its Standard & Poor’s division, which provides financial information, including credit ratings on bonds. The company also publishes textbooks and magazines, and owns nine television stations. In 2010, McGraw-Hill’s revenue rose 3.6%, to $6.2 billion from $6.0 billion. Revenue from Standard & Poor’s rose 8.3%, as businesses took advantage of low interest rates to issue more bonds. The textbook division’s revenue rose 1.9%, thanks to higher college enrolment and rising demand for electronic versions of its books. That offset slower demand for new elementary and high-school textbooks. Revenue at McGraw-Hill’s media operations fell 4.9%, mainly because the company sold BusinessWeek magazine in 2009. Without this sale, this division’s revenue would have risen 6.2%....
Yum! Brands Inc., New York symbol YUM, operates over 37,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food) and Long John Silver’s (seafood). The company continues to grow strongly in China. That offsets slower growth in the U.S. and other parts of the world. In 2010, Yum’s sales rose 4.7%, to $11.3 billion from $10.8 billion in fiscal 2019. Overall sales rose 17% in China, while same-store sales in China grew 6%. Yum opened 507 new restaurants in China in 2010, along with another 884 international outlets outside China....
Teradata Corp., symbol TDC on New York, makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data. Teradata then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and trends. Teradata is taking advantage of the weak economy to hire new salespeople. That’s helping it enter new markets and offer more technology and services to its existing clients. In the year ended December 31, 2010, the tech stock’s sales climbed 13.5%, to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion. Sales rose 19% in the Americas, 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, and 3% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The tech stock’s earnings rose 18.5% in 2010, to $301 million from $254 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose to $1.77 from $1.46, on fewer shares outstanding. The company bought back 3 million of its own shares for $88 million in 2010....
Calian Technologies, symbol CTY on Toronto, operates in two areas: the business and technology services division, which accounts for 71% of the growth stock’s revenue, provides engineers, health-care workers and other skilled professional to clients on a contract basis. The systems-engineering division contributes the remaining 29% of revenue, and sells hardware and software that is used for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communications systems. In its first fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, 2010, the growth stock’s earnings fell 8.8%, to $3.1 million from $3.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share dropped 6.8%, to $0.41 from $0.44, on fewer shares outstanding. Calian saw slightly lower demand for its higher-profit-margin contract workers....
Sysco Corp., symbol SYY on New York, supplies food and kitchen supplies to over 400,000 restaurants, hotels and schools in North America and Ireland. In its fiscal 2011 second quarter, which ended January 1, 2011, the U.S. stock’s earnings fell 3.8%, to $258.2 million, or $0.44 a share. That fell short of the consensus earnings estimate of $0.47 a share. A year earlier, it earned $268.3 million, or $0.45 a share. The company’s labour, pension and fuel costs all rose during the quarter. Revenue rose 5.8%, to $9.4 billion from $8.9 billion. However, most of the gain came from a 4.5% rise in food prices (meat, dairy and seafood jumped more than 10%), which Sysco passed along to its customers. A year earlier, food prices had dropped 3.5%....
Toyota Motor Co. (symbol TM on New York) has been the world’s largest carmaker since GM lost that position in 2008. The company is one of the world stock market investments we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In its third fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, 2010, Toyota’s earnings fell 33.7%, to $1.1 billion from $1.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings per ADR dropped 33.9%, to $0.72 from $1.09, on more ADRs outstanding. Toyota’s sales declined 4.3%, to $56.3 billion from $58.3 billion a year earlier. The strength of the yen against the U.S. dollar was the main reason for the decline (a strong yen lowers the value of Toyota’s exported vehicles.) As well, the Japanese government ended incentives for lower-emission cars....
Western Union Co. (New York symbol WU) provides money-transfer and foreign-exchange services in over 200 countries. In 2010, Western Union reported revenue of $5.2 billion. That’s up 2.1% from $5.1 billion in 2009. If you exclude the negative impact of exchange rates, revenue would have risen 3%. The company earned $909.9 million in 2010, up 7.2% from $848.8 million in 2009. During the year, Western Union spent $584 million on share buybacks. Due to fewer shares outstanding, the growth stock pick’s earnings per share rose 12.4% to $1.36 from $1.21 the year before. If you exclude one-time items, including restructuring expenses, earnings per share would have risen 10.1%, to $1.42 from $1.29....
Stanley Black & Decker Inc., New York symbol SWK, makes power and hand tools and security devices. It took its current form on March 12, 2010. That’s when Stanley Works bought the Black & Decker Corp. for about $4.5 billion in stock. Stanley shareholders own 50.5% of the combined company, and Black & Decker investors own the remaining 49.5%. In 2010, the U.S. stock’s earnings per share rose 35.5%, to $4.12 from $3.04. This excludes one-time merger costs. Sales improved in both the U.S. and internationally, especially in Latin America. Sales in Canada and Australia declined slightly. Adding Black & Decker’s pre-merger sales in early 2010 to sales of the merged company in 2010 results in $9.3 billion total sales for 2010. Stanley Black & Decker expects that figure to rise by 5% to 6% in 2011....