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Coupang Inc. operates in a competitive market, but its growth prospects are positive, especially with its expansion into Taiwan.
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Recent earthquakes in southern Japan have forced Toyota and Honda to suspend production at their auto assembly plants in the region. The shutdown will have a greater impact on Toyota, which builds nearly half of its cars in Japan compared to just 17% for Honda. It will take several weeks to resume normal operations, but the closures should have less of an impact on their long-term prospects. TOYOTA MOTOR CO. ADRs $106 (New York symbol TM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $159.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.toyota.com) is the world’s largest carmaker....
NORDSTROM INC. $53 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 172.9 million; Market cap: $9.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nordstrom.com) mainly sells upscale clothing, accessories and footwear. It owns and operates 326 stores in the U.S. and Canada. The company is facing stronger competition from online retailers. In response, it plans to cut jobs at its corporate and regional support centres. In all, these layoffs represent 1% of its workforce. The cuts should save Nordstrom $60 million a year; it earned $600 million, or $3.15 a share, in the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016. The company will invest the savings in its own e-commerce operations....
SONY CORP. ADRs $26 (New York symbol SNE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $33.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield 0.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.sony.com) has also had to shut down two plants in Japan due to earthquake damage. These facilities make image sensors for smartphones. The company has also warned that slowing demand for high-end smartphones has hurt sales of these sensors. In addition, negative interest rates in Japan are hurting earnings at Sony’s banking and insurance operations. The company has now cut its operating profit forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, by about 9% to $2.6 billion. Sony is a hold.
NVIDIA CORP. $37 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 544.6 million; Market cap: $20.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 1.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nvidia .com) is a leading designer of 3D-capable video chips, which help video games run more smoothly and appear more lifelike. In the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016, Nvidia’s revenue rose 7.0%, to a record $5.0 billion from $4.7 billion a year earlier. Sales of its graphic video chips (84% of the total revenue) gained 9.1%. That’s because Nvidia is doing a good job developing chips for virtual reality devices, self-driving cars and data centres. However, sales of its Tegra chips for mobile devices (11%) fell 3.5%. Licensing revenues (5%) were flat. Nvidia earned $929 million in fiscal 2016. That’s up 16.0% from $801 million a year earlier. Per-share profits rose 17.6%, to $1.67 from $1.42, on fewer shares outstanding....