BRIGGS & STRATTON CORP. $19 (New York symbol BGG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 50.0 million; Market cap: $950.0 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.3%; WSSF Rating: Above Average) gets 60% of its revenue from making lawn-mower engines. (The company is the world’s largest lawn-mower engine maker.) The remaining 40% comes from other home and garden equipment, such as pressure washers and snow blowers. Because of the weak economy and high unemployment, consumers are spending less on discretionary items, including lawn equipment. As well, major home-improvement retailers are ordering fewer of Briggs’s products. Moreover, 2009 saw fewer hurricanes than previous years. That lowered demand for portable generators. In its first quarter, which ended September 27, 2009, Briggs’s revenue fell 29.2%, to $324.6 million from $458.2 million a year earlier. Losses ballooned to $8.7 million, or $0.18 a share, from $2 million, or $0.04 a share. The lower sales and a higher income-tax rate were the main reasons behind the higher losses. Briggs typically loses money during its first quarter. That’s because demand for lawn mowers is weak during the fall....

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $31 (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 110.6 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 4.8%; WSSF Rating: Average) sells electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million customers in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. In the three months ended September 30, 2009, Alliant lost $43.3 million, or $0.39 a share. However, if you exclude a one-time charge related to the early repayment of debt, it would have earned $0.77 a share. In the year-earlier quarter, Alliant earned $109.1 million, or $0.99 a share. Revenue fell 9.7%, to $885.7 million from $980.3 million. The lower earnings and revenue were mainly caused by cooler-than-usual summer weather, which prompted consumers to use less power for air conditioning. Alliant wants to raise its rates by 17%. That would add $171 million to its annual revenue. Regulators recently let it increase rates by 8%. They will decide on the remainder in early 2010....

AMEREN CORP. $28 (New York symbol AEE; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 236.9 million; Market cap: $6.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 5.5%; WSSF Rating: Average) sells electricity and natural gas to 3.4 million customers in Illinois and Missouri. In the third quarter of 2009, Ameren’s earnings rose 3.7%, to $255 million from $246 million a year earlier. However, earnings per share fell 0.9%, to $1.16 from $1.17, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude several non-recurring charges, including the costs to close two generating units at one of its power plants. Revenue fell 11.9%, to $1.8 billion from $2.0 billion. Electricity sales to consumers fell 10%, as cool summer weather cut air-conditioner use. Sales to industrial customers fell 3%. Ameren is seeking approval to raise its power and gas rates. This would add $621 million to its annual revenue. Regulators will likely grant Ameren’s requests, because it needs the funds to cover higher operating and interest costs....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer investors more benefits than ever before, mainly because of increased competition. That can make them good choices for certain parts of your portfolio — such as the portion you devote to global stock market investing. That’s because directly investing in foreign markets can be complicated and risky, and high-quality ETFs let you make global stock market investments with greater safety. (Below, we examine an ETF that may be appropriate for investors looking for exposure to emerging markets, such as Brazil and South Korea. Read on for further details.)...

Some investors rely on chart reading (or technical analysis), when they’re aiming to add hot stock picks to their portfolios. That’s because relying on charts seems much simpler than delving into and weighing a company’s fundamentals. We always look at charts when we select stocks to recommend in our newsletters, including Stock Pickers Digest, which focuses on more aggressive investments. And some successful investors find it helps to know a little about charts. But if you rely on charts at all, you should view them as just one of many things to consider when you make investment decisions.

Chart reading can steer you wrong at the worst possible moment

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AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $30 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 346.0 million; Market cap: $10.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; WSSF Rating: Average) makes testing systems that help improve the quality of electronic products, such as cellphones, set-top boxes and high-speed Internet equipment. The company gets 50% of its revenue from these systems, which it sells to over 30,000 contract manufacturers, as well as research and development labs. It also provides associated services. Agilent recently separated its circuit-board testing operations into a stand-alone division. This business, which accounts for about 5% of Agilent’s revenue, makes equipment that helps its customers find and repair defects in circuit boards....

WEYERHAEUSER CO. $39 (New York symbol WY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 211.4 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; WSSF Rating: Extra Risk) is a major North American lumber and paper producer. It owns or leases over 37 million acres of timberland in the U.S. and Canada. Slow housing markets continue to weigh on lumber demand. In the three months ended September 30, 2009, Weyerhaeuser’s revenue fell 33.2%, to $1.4 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier. Its losses ballooned to $56 million, or $0.26 a share, from $3 million, or $0.01 a share. These figures exclude several non-recurring items, including gains on sales of excess land and operations, writedowns and costs to close sawmills and other facilities. So far, these moves have helped cut the company’s annual expenses by $450 million. Weyerhaeuser is still looking at converting to a real estate investment trust (REIT), which would lower its income taxes. Many of its rivals operate as REITs, and enjoy a tax advantage over the company....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $55 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 490.2 million; Market cap: $27.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. Newmont has major mines in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Ghana. It gets about 80% of its revenue from gold. The remaining 20% comes from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from the large Batu Hijau gold/copper mining complex in Indonesia. As part of its original 1986 deal to develop Batu Hijau, Newmont and its partners agreed to lower their stakes in the mine, in stages, by selling them to the Indonesian government. As a result, the company recently reduced its stake in Batu Hijau to 31.5% from 45%. In exchange, Newmont received roughly $669 million. The company expects to sell more of its stake in Batu Hijau over the next few months. Meanwhile, Newmont earned $388 million in the three months ended September 30, 2009. That’s 113.2% higher than the $182 million it earned a year earlier. Per-share earnings jumped 97.5%, to $0.79 from $0.40, on more shares outstanding. Cash flow per share gained 94.8%, to $1.85 from $0.95. Revenue climbed 49.5%, to $2.05 billion from $1.4 billion. The gains were mainly caused by higher average gold prices (up 11%), and higher gold sales (up 16%). Newmont also cut its operating costs and benefited from higher copper prices and production....

APACHE CORP. $98 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 336.2 million; Market cap: $32.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1: WSSF Rating: Average) produces oil and natural gas from properties in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Egypt and Argentina. The company gets roughly 50% of its production from oil, and 50% from natural gas. This balance has helped shield the company from falling gas prices, which are down over 50% from a year ago. Oil prices, by comparison, are down roughly 35%. Despite the lower prices, Apache increased its daily production to a record 607,118 barrels (including oil and natural gas) in the third quarter of 2009. That’s up 3.4% from the previous quarter, and 19% from a year earlier....

ENCANA CORP. $55 (New York symbol ECA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 751.2 million; Market cap: $41.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1: WSSF Rating: Average) will split itself into two separate companies in December, now that shareholders have approved the plan. Break-ups like this help unlock hidden value, and generally lead to above-average results for a period of years. One company will keep the EnCana name, and will focus on unconventional natural gas. The other will operate as Cenovus Energy Inc. (New York symbol CVE), and will specialize in oil-sands projects, oil refineries and conventional natural gas. The new EnCana will account for about two-thirds of the company’s current production and reserves. Cenovus will account for the remaining third. EnCana will give its shareholders one new common share in each of the two new companies for every EnCana share they own. As well, investors will not have to pay capital-gains taxes until they sell their new shares....