blue chip
CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. (Toronto symbol CNR; www.cn.ca) operates the largest freight rail network in Canada. It also serves 16 U.S. states. Ottawa nationalized CNR in 1918 because of the vital role the company played in Canada’s early growth. CNR became a publicly traded company in 1995. The company is upgrading its Alberta rail networks to take advantage of expanding oil sands development. These investments are helping drillers in remote areas without pipelines ship their heavy oil to refineries and other destinations....
General Mills, New York symbol GIS, is one of the world’s largest food makers. Its top brands include Big G (cereal), Green Giant (canned and frozen vegetables), Pillsbury (baking dough), Old El Paso (tacos) and Progresso (soups and salads). In its fiscal 2012 first quarter, which ended August 28, 2011, General Mills’ sales rose 8.9%, to $3.8 billion from $3.5 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly because the company raised its prices to offset rising fuel and ingredient costs. As well, General Mills recently bought 51% of the company that makes Yoplait yogurt. This purchase accounted for a third of General Mills’ sales growth in the latest quarter. However, earnings fell 14.1%, to $405.6 million, or $0.61 a share, from $472.1 million, or $0.70 a share, a year earlier. Besides higher ingredient costs, earnings were also held back by the cost of the Yoplait purchase and a 7% rise in advertising spending....
General Electric Co., New York symbol GE, plans to buy back all of the preferred shares it sold to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (New York symbol BRK.B), the holding company controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. GE sold these shares to Berkshire during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The cash from the sale helped stabilize GE’s finance division. The company will pay $3.3 billion to buy back these shares. That’s nearly equal to the $3.5 billion, or $0.33 a share, that GE earned in the three months ended June 30, 2011. However, this purchase will save the company $300 million a year in dividend payments....
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....
BHP Billiton Ltd. ADRs, New York symbol BHP, is the world’s largest mining company, with major operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the U.K. It produces iron ore, coal, oil, aluminum, manganese, diamonds and titanium. BHP is one of the blue chip mining stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, BHP earned $21.7 billion, or $7.87 per ADR (each American Depositary Receipt represents two BHP common shares). That’s up 73.9% from $12.5 billion, or $4.48 per ADR, in fiscal 2010. Even so, the latest earnings missed the consensus forecast of $7.16 per ADR. Revenue rose 35.9%, to $71.7 billion from $52.8 billion....
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....
High-quality foreign stocks are a great way to diversify your portfolio. Moreover, many fast-growing markets, like China and India, have positive outlooks. That’s because their people are generally younger than North Americans, and rising incomes are helping more of them advance into the middle class. Even so, investing in India and other overseas markets remains riskier than investing in North America. That’s because many emerging countries have language barriers, weak investor-protection laws, less commitment to openness, fairness and so on.
U.S. stocks can provide a lower risk way of investing in India and other fast-growing markets
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AT&T, symbol T on New York, was the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Apple iPhone, until Verizon started selling it in February. However, AT&T is rapidly upgrading its wireless networks, which should help it hang on to its current iPhone customers. Despite iPhone competition from Verizon, AT&T still activated nearly 3.6 million iPhones in the first quarter, with 23% of those being new customers for AT&T. In all, it sold 5.5 million smartphones in the quarter. Besides the iPhone, AT&T is benefiting from rising use of other wireless devices, such as the iPad and electronic-book readers. The company added 2 million wireless customers in the quarter, and now has 97.5 million....
Apple Inc., symbol AAPL on Nasdaq, makes computers and a variety of other electronic devices. Portable devices, such as the iPod music player, the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet computer, dominate Apple’s overall sales. Users of these products also buy music, movie and video-game downloads at the tech stock’s iTunes online store. In its second quarter, which ended March 26, 2011, Apple’s earnings rose 94.8%, to $6.0 billion, or $6.40 a share. That easily beat the consensus estimate of $5.38 a share. The company earned $3.1 billion, or $3.33 a share, a year earlier. The tech stock’s sales jumped 82.7%, to $24.7 billion from $13.5 billion. Sales outside the U.S. accounted for 59% of the total. During the quarter, the company sold 18.6 million iPhone smartphones (up 113.1%) and 3.8 million Mac computers (up 27.8%). Sales of the tech stocks iPod music players fell 17.2%, to 9.0 million units. However, that’s because many iPod users are upgrading to the iPhone, which also plays music and videos....
Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “The top 3 ways to earn higher profits in world stock market investing” High-quality foreign stocks are a great way to diversify your portfolio. Moreover, many fast-growing markets, like China and India, have positive outlooks. That’s because their people are generally younger than North Americans, and rising incomes are helping more of them advance into the middle class....