Top pick Barrick Mining just raised its dividend a whopping 140% as it generates record earnings and continues its strategic asset reorganization.
Warner Music Group Corp. is well-positioned for higher-margin catalog revenues, added streaming adoption, and new AI monetization opportunities.
ARC Resources keeps returning its cash flow to shareholders through a growing dividend and substantial share buybacks.
Become a Successful Investor
Investing in high-risk investment opportunities may look like a quick way to supercharge your portfolio gains—but it’s more likely to kill those gains
Understanding the difference between aggressive and conservative stocks will help you invest more safely with a well-diversified portfolio
It pays to be wary of companies that use acquisitions to expand instead of internal growth. This strategy can work well at times, but one bad takeover can wipe out gains from a dozen good ones. Stanley Black & Decker is a good example of a company that grows by acquisition without taking on excessive risk. That’s because it has a long history of successfully merging new businesses and boosting their profits. That cuts the risk of a large writedown. Even though the stock has doubled since Stanley bought Black & Decker in 2010, we feel it still has plenty of gains ahead....
NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC. $45 (New York symbol NWL; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 267.1 million; Market cap: $12.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newellrubbermaid.com) is buying Jarden Corp. (New York symbol JAH), which makes a wide variety of consumer products, including Sunbeam kitchen appliances, Mr. Coffee coffee makers, Ball jars, Crock-Pot cookers and Rawlings baseball mitts. Jarden shareholders will receive $21.00 a share in cash plus 0.862 of a Newell common share. The offer is worth a total of $13.2 billion. Shares of Jarden are trading at 3.7% below the offer’s value, which indicates investors do not expect a higher bid. Newell expects to complete the deal in the second quarter of 2016....
The outlook for oil and other commodities remains weak, but we still feel that most investors should devote 10% to 15% of their portfolios to resource stocks. But only buy these or any stocks if you are prepared to hold them for at least the next several years. To further cut your risk, you should focus on companies with high-quality reserves, like the three we analyze below. All three are also reducing their costs, which puts them in a better position to profit when prices recover. However, not all of them are buys right now. CHEVRON CORP. $93 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $176.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.chevron.com) produced an average of 2.54 million barrels of oil a day (including natural gas) in the three months ended September 30, 2015. That’s down 1.1% from 2.57 million barrels a day a year earlier....
NCR CORP. $27 (New York symbol NCR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 169.9 million; Market cap: $4.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ncr.com) makes automated teller machines, cash registers, self-serve checkouts and kiosks for theatres and arenas. Private equity firm Blackstone Group (New York symbol BX) recently purchased $820 million worth of preferred shares that can be converted to common shares at $30.00 each. If Blackstone converted all of these holdings, it would own 17% of NCR. Blackstone’s expertise should help NCR expand its software and services businesses, which are more profitable than making ATMs and other equipment. Meanwhile, the company will use the cash to buy back $1.0 billion worth of its common shares through a Dutch auction process. Based on the initial response to the offer, NCR will repurchase 37.4 million shares at $26.75 each. That will cut the number of shares outstanding by 22%....