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PFIZER INC. $31 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.2 billion; Market cap: $192.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) is one of the world’s leading prescription drug makers. Top-selling brands include Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis pain), Prevnar (pneumonia) and Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis). Many of Pfizer’s drugs will lose their patent protection in the next few years. To fuel its future growth, the company paid $17 billion for Hospira in 2015. Hospira makes biosimilars, which are close copies of biologic drugs (or those made from living organisms, like bacteria and yeast). Biologics differ from regular drugs, which are typically made from chemical compounds....

WAL-MART STORES INC. $64 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.2 billion; Market cap: $204.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) is the world’s largest retailer, with 11,600 stores in 27 countries....

The lower Canadian dollar has made it more expensive to buy U.S. stocks. However, the American market gives you access to the world’s leading companies. What’s more, U.S. dollar investments give you foreign currency diversification. We feel it’s more important than ever to build a varied portfolio of high-quality stocks. For 2016, we’ve chosen one from each of our portfolios (Aggressive, Conservative and Income). We think all three could post strong gains in the next two to five years. ALPHABET INC. (Nasdaq symbols GOOG $700 [class C: nonvoting] and GOOGL $718 [class A: one vote per share]; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 687.7 million; Market cap: $493.5 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 7.0; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.abc.xyz) is the new parent company of Google’s Internet search business (still called Google) and other operations. Each of these subsidiaries functions independently....

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....

Computer technology continues to change— and spread— rapidly. We feel the best way to profit from this growth is by investing in well-established companies that lead their markets, like the four we analyze below. All of them have strong earnings and balance sheets. That lets them spend heavily on product development and buy smaller firms with attractive technologies. We have a high opinion of all four, but we see only two as buys right now....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $121 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 970.1 million; Market cap: $117.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) recently paid $130 million for Ustream, a private firm specializing in cloud-based videostreaming services. Its clients include NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and the Discovery Channel. The purchase will help IBM with its plan to bring its analyticssoftware expertise to online video content. This will help its clients make better use of their video libraries and protect their copyrighted material. The company expects the market for cloud-based video services and software to total $105 billion by 2019. IBM is a buy....

BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $21 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $33.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 11.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) will write down its U.S. onshore oil holdings by $4.9 billion (after taxes) in response to the decline in oil prices. In 2011, it spent $20.6 billion on acquisitions of U.S. shale oil and gas properties. The company is also seeing sharply lower prices for its other commodities, including iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper. The resulting decline in BHP’s cash flow will probably prompt it to cut its $2.48 dividend, which yields a high 11.8%. BHP Billiton is still a hold.

AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $55 (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 969.0 million; Market cap: $53.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.americanexpress.com) is one of the world’s largest issuers of payment cards, with 117.8 million cards outstanding in over 130 countries. Amex issues two types of cards: charge cards, which have no preset spending limit and must be paid in full each month; and traditional credit cards, which let users carry a balance. The company is also a bank that accepts deposits and makes loans. It cuts its credit risk by mainly catering to clients with above-average incomes and good credit histories. Amex wrote off just 1.9% of its U.S. loans in 2015, up slightly from 1.8% in 2014. Its international write-off rate crept up to 2.2% from 2.1%....

On June 29, 2015, the old Gannet spun off its newspaper operation as a separate company that would keep the Gannett name (see box). Gannett’s broadcasting and Internet unit was then renamed Tegna. Under the deal, for every two shares investors held, they received one share of the spinoff company and two shares in Tegna. Both firms are now improving their prospects through acquisitions and new alliances. These deals will also help them maintain their current dividends....

GANNETT CO., INC. $14 (New York symbol GCI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector: Shares outstanding: 115.4 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.gannett.com) publishes daily newspapers in 92 U.S. markets, including its flagship paper, USAToday, and 19 dailies in the U.K. The company recently agreed to buy Journal Media Group (New York symbol JMG), which publishes 15 dailies and 18 weeklies in nine states. The purchase price is $280 million, which includes Journal’s cash holdings. Gannett expects to close the deal in the first quarter of 2016. The purchase will add $0.10 to $0.15 a share to Gannett’s earnings in the first year; the company will likely earn $1.66 a share in 2016, and the stock trades at 8.4 times that estimate. Savings from combining printing plants and other operations should increase Gannett’s earnings by $0.20 to $0.25 a share in the second year. The $0.64 dividend seems secure and yields 4.6%....

CHEVRON CORP. $83 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $157.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 5.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) recently signed deals to sell 1.5 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to clients in China. These deals will add to the prospects of its Gorgon LNG project off northwestern Australia, which will start up in the next few months. Chevron owns 47.3% of Gorgon and operates the project. It cost $54 billion to build; Chevron’s share of the costs is $25.5 billion. The recent drop in gas prices will hurt Gorgon’s initial profitability. However, it should become a major supplier of gas to Japan, South Korea, India and China. Moreover, its reserves should last at least 40 years....

FEDEX CORP. $128 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 275.6 million; Market cap: $35.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) has received approval from U.S. and European regulators for its $4.6-billion purchase of TNT Express NV, a Netherlands-based courier that operates throughout Europe. The deal makes FedEx the second-largest courier in Europe, with 22% of the market. That’s just behind leader United Parcel Services, which has 25%. Regulators in other countries, including China and Brazil, must approve the deal. However, FedEx expects to complete it by June 30, 2016....

WELLS FARGO & CO. $49 (New York symbol WFC; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 5.1 billion; Market cap: $249.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wellsfargo .com) earned $21.6 billion in 2015, down 1.0% from $21.8 billion in 2014. However, earnings per share rose 1.2%, to $4.15 from $4.10, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue gained 2.0%, to $86.1 billion from $84.3 billion. Low interest rates continue to spur demand for residential mortgages, business and car loans while encouraging consumers to make more credit card purchases. The bank also recently bought the commercial lending and leasing operations of General Electric (see page 18). Those businesses offer loans to help manufacturers boost their inventory, as well as other forms of financing. However, Wells Fargo is earning less interest income on its loans, which hurts its earnings. Higher salaries and federal deposit insurance premiums also slowed its profit growth....

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $62 (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 113.4 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alliantenergy.com) sells power and natural gas to 1.4 million clients in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The company has raised its quarterly dividend by 6.8% with the February 2016 payment, to $0.5875 from $0.55. The new annual rate of $2.35 yields 3.8%. Alliant has paid quarterly dividends since 1946 and has raised the annual rate each year since 2004. Alliant Energy is a buy.

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $28 (New York symbol GE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 10.1 billion; Market cap: $282.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ge.com) has agreed to sell $157 billion in assets of its GE Capital financing division. So far, it has completed transactions equalling $104 billion. These sales are part of GE’s plan to focus on its industrial businesses, including jet engines, power plant equipment, medical gear and locomotives.

Shrinking GE Capital cuts risk

...

TENNANT CO. $52 (www.tennantco.com) continues to see strong demand for its floor-cleaning machines featuring its ec-H20 technology; that uses electricity to make tap water act like a detergent. Earnings per share in the third quarter of 2015 rose 7.9%, to $0.68 from $0.63 a year earlier....

DIEBOLD INC. $27 (www.diebold.com) has formed a new joint venture with Inspur Group, a Chinese cloud computing and data centre company. Diebold will own 49% of this business, which will develop automated teller machines (ATMs) and self-serve kiosks for Chinese banks....

FORD MOTOR CO. $12 (www.ford.com) will pay a special dividend of $0.25 a share in March 2016. That’s in addition to its regular quarterly dividend of $0.15; the annual rate of $0.60 yields 5.0%. Buy.

Selling your oil company stocks at the bottom is a bad idea.

Penny stock SQI Diagnostics has developed equipment to speed up disease detection but has no sales

Broadridge Financial Solutions boosts earnings through acquisition and niche investment services.

IPO investing issues typically come to market when it’s a good time for the company or its insiders to sell. That’s often a bad time for you to buy