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It is important to note that some types of investments provide more security than others. Investors seeking safe investment options should look for well-established companies with hidden assets among other key characteristics.
Sun Life Financial Inc. and Manulife Financial Corp. each offers a combination of solid earnings growth, ongoing share repurchases, and impressive dividend yields.
Top pick Yum Brands Inc. gives you sales growth, steady EPS growth, and a solid dividend
Nutrien Ltd. offers exposure to potash and nitrogen prices, a stable retail base and strong profitability.
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Investing in agriculture ETFs could be a smart move if you choose the right investments for the right reasons
When investing in rare earth metals, you need to look at the unique geographical and political environment the mining company produces in.
SYMANTEC CORP. $19 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 680.0 million; Market cap: $12.9 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) said in 2014 that it would split into two publicly traded firms. One would keep the Symantec name and focus on antivirus and security software. The other, called Veritas Technologies, would focus on Symantec’s information-management business, which makes products for data backup and recovery. However, the company instead decided to sell Veritas to the Carlyle Group (Nasdaq symbol CG) for $8.0 billion. Now Carlyle seems to be having trouble raising the funds to buy Veritas. As a result, Symantec and Carlyle have altered the deal’s terms. Symantec will now receive $7.0 billion, including $6.6 billion in cash and $400 million in Veritas stock. It plans to complete the sale by the end of January 2016....
ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $85 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 498.3 million; Market cap: $42.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 9.0; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) makes software for publishing companies and website developers. Its main products include Adobe Acrobat, which lets users create and edit electronic documents in the widely used PDF format, and its Creative Suite package of photo editing and desktop publishing programs. In 2012, Adobe started selling its Creative Suite software as a cloud-based service called Creative Cloud. The company now gets 74% of its revenue from recurring sources....
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. $51 (Nasdaq symbol TXN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $51.0 billion; Price- to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ti.com) specializes in analog chips, which convert inputs like touch, sound and pressure into electronic signals that computers can understand. Manufacturers use these chips in a variety of products, including cars, cameras, medical devices and appliances. In 2015, Texas Instruments’ earnings rose 5.8%, to $3.0 billion from $2.8 billion in 2014. It spent $2.7 billion on share buybacks during the year, so earnings per share gained 9.7%, to $2.82 from $2.57. Overall revenue fell 0.3%, to $13.00 billion from $13.05 billion. Sales of analog chips (64% of the total) rose 2.9%. Revenue from embedded processor chips (21%), which perform mathematical calculations, gained 1.7%. However, revenue from other chips and calculators (15%) fell 14.9%....
APPLE INC. $93 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.5 billion; Market cap: $511.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apple.com) gets about two-thirds of its revenue from its iPhone smartphone. The remaining third comes from its Mac computers, iPad tablets, iPod music players and sales of software, movies and music through its iTunes online store. In its fiscal 2016 first quarter, which ended December 26, 2015, Apple sold 74.8 million iPhones, up just 0.4% from 74.5 million a year earlier. That’s mainly due to slowing demand in China. Users are also waiting for the company to launch a new model later this year....