blue chip stocks
Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto symbol BNS, continues to benefit from its growing banking operations in the Caribbean, Latin America, South America and Asia. Last week, Bank of Nova Scotia agreed to buy 19.99% of the Bank of Guangzhou; the Chinese government owns the remaining 80.01%. This bank is the 29th largest in China, with 84 branches. Bank of Nova Scotia will pay $719 million when the deal closes in December 2011. To put that in context, it earned $1.2 billion, or $1.11 a share, in the three months ended July 31, 2011....
American Express Co., New York symbol AXP, gets most of its revenue from the fees it charges merchants when consumers use its credit and charge cards. It also provides travel-agency services. American Express is one of the blue chip stocks we analyze in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for investing in the U.S. stock markets. The company continues to set aside less money to cover bad loans as more of its cardholders pay their bills on time....
Campbell Soup Co., symbol CBB on New York, is the world’s largest maker of canned soups. It also makes Prego canned pasta and sauces, Pepperidge Farm cookies and V8 vegetable juices. The company gets 19.8% of its sales from international markets. Its biggest foreign markets are Australia and Europe. In the three months ended January 30, 2011, company’s sales fell 1.2%, to $2.13 billion from $2.15 billion. Soup sales fell 4.0% in the U.S. The company continues to face strong competition from generic brands. In response, it ran promotions that discounted the prices of some of its brands, particularly ready-to-serve soups. Earnings fell 7.7%, to $239.0 million from $259.0 million a year earlier. The company spent $417 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 4.1% to $0.71 from $0.74. The lower sales and higher advertising spending were the main reasons for the decline....
Blue chip stocks in Canada’s telephone industry continue to face rising competition. Along with wireless and cable companies, Internet-based phone services, such as Skype, continue to gain popularity. As well, three new wireless providers (Globalive’s WIND Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile) entered the Canadian market in 2010. More new wireless firms are likely to follow. This rising competition will continue to put pressure on BCE Inc. (symbol BCE on Toronto), Canada’s largest telephone-service provider. In light of this and other developments surrounding the stock, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on BCE in the latest Canadian Wealth Advisor, our newsletter for safety-conscious conservative investing....
Alcoa Inc. (New York symbol AA) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The company is one of the blue chip stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In 2010, Alcoa’s sales rose 14.0%, $21.0 billion from $18.4 billion in 2009. The company saw higher demand in most of its markets. In 2010, overall aluminum demand rebounded 13%, the biggest increase in 14 years. The company earned $262 million, or $0.25 a share, compared to a net loss of $985 million, or $1.06 a share, in 2009. The higher sales and higher aluminum prices were the main reasons for the improved earnings. The company also improved its productivity during the year....
Some investors have told us that they are pessimistic about the stock market because of lots of insider selling in the U.S. blue chip stocks they hold. The value of insider buying and selling as a market indicator seems self-evident. After all, company insiders — officers, directors, or owners of 10% or more of a company’s stock — are apt to know more than outsiders do about what’s going on in their businesses.
Insider trading: Not the conclusive indicator that many investors think it is
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In response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, regulators will probably require offshore drillers to install more equipment aimed at preventing future spills. These extra costs would hurt the profits of companies that are active in the Gulf. That should spur more development of less-risky onshore oil and natural-gas deposits, particularly Canada’s oil sands.
Safety, falling costs could drive producers back to the land
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Demand for wireless services is rising sharply in North America. That’s partly because device makers continue to release new cellphones and wireless devices, such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. As well, more customers are switching from traditional phones (or land lines) to wireless services.
Tap into wireless growth with blue chip stocks that operate networks
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On January 8 The Successful Investor will unveil a stock that’s primed for explosive growth in 2010. In fact, we think this blue chip stock’s prospects are so bright we’ve named it The Successful Investor’s #1 stock pick for the coming year. More on how you can get all the details on this exciting #1 pick in a moment, but first we’d like to share with you...
How we picked our #1 stock for 2010
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Blue chip stocks are well-established companies that have demonstrated their financial strength through good times and bad. They typically pay dividends, and are considered to be less risky, based on their historical patterns. There are many blue chip stocks in the consumer sector. Typically, the strongest of these companies sell staples, like soap, beverages and soup, that consumers must buy no matter what the economy is doing. Strong consumer blue chip stocks share a number of characteristics. These include geographic diversity (which helps protect them from regional economic problems), a record of rising cash flow and a strong balance sheet....