dividends paid

Online shopping continues to grow quickly, mainly because the Internet makes it easier for consumers to find the merchandise they’re looking for and compare prices. Online shopping is also becoming more popular in developing countries, where there are few shopping malls and stores.

The best way to profit from this trend is through companies that process online payments....

GOOGLE INC. $742 (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 328.6 million; Market cap: $243.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) is the world’s top Internet search engine, with about two-thirds of this market....

ACI WORLDWIDE $44.87 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-334-5101; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 39.4 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; No dividends paid) makes software for processing transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments....

ADOBE SYSTEMS $37.88 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536- 6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 495.1 million; Market cap: $18.8 billion; No dividends paid) reports that in the fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year, which ended November 30, 2012, its earnings fell 7.4%, to $307.9 million from $332.6 million a year earlier.

Before one-time items, earnings per share declined 9.0%, to $0.61 from $0.67, on more shares outstanding....

RUSSEL METALS $29.20 (Toronto symbol RUS; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (905-819-7777; www.russelmetals.com; Shares outstanding: 60.2 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Dividend yield: 4.8%) is one of North America’s largest metal distributors. The company serves its roughly 33,000 customers through 51 locations in Canada and 12 in the U.S.

In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Russel’s revenue rose 1.0%, to $712.6 million from $705.4 million a year earlier....

ENDEAVOUR SILVER $7.86 (Toronto symbol EDR: TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-877-685-9775; www.edrsilver.com; Shares outstanding: 99.5 million; Market cap: $782.1 million; No dividends paid) operates the Guanacevi and Bolanitos silver/gold mines in Mexico, as well as the recently acquired El Cubo project.

In the three months ended December 31, 2012, Endeavour’s revenue jumped 281% from a year earlier, to $66.7 million (all amounts except share prices in U.S....

AMAZON.COM $268.93 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 453.0 million; Market cap: $121.8 billion; No dividends paid) and ADOBE SYSTEMS $37.88 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 495.1 million; Market cap: $18.8 billion; No dividends paid) are part of a 12-company consortium that is buying bankrupt Eastman Kodak’s 1,100 digital-imaging patents for $525 million U.S.

Other members of the consortium include Apple, Google, Samsung, Research in Motion, Microsoft, China’s Huawei, Facebook and Fujifilm.

Under the deal, each of the 12 companies in the consortium will pay a portion of the total cost and then have access to all the patents.

Patents are increasingly important to technology firms like Amazon.com and Adobe because they let them protect their market shares from rivals....

RUBY TUESDAY, INC. $7.99 (New York symbol RT; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (865-379-5700; www.rubytuesday.com; Shares outstanding: 63.7 million; Market cap: $509.0 million; No dividends paid) has just announced a new plan to refocus its operations.

Under this initiative, the company will discontinue three of the new restaurant concepts it was developing: it’s closing its 13 Marlin & Ray’s restaurants and its single Wok Hay location....

p>GOOGLE INC. $742 (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 328.6 million; Market cap: $243.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) is the world’s top Internet search engine, with about two-thirds of this market. The company makes money by selling advertising on its websites. Google gets 96% of its revenue from advertising.

The company also offers a variety of free services such as Gmail (email), YouTube (videos) and Google+ (social networking). These services help draw more users to Google’s websites, which lets the company sell more ads and charge higher ad rates.
...

EBAY INC. $53 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $68.9 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 4.9; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) gets 53% of its revenue by charging users fees to sell goods on its shopping websites, including its main auction site, which it launched in September 1995. This site now has 112.3 million users.

eBay gets a further 40% of its revenue from processing online transactions, mostly through its wholly owned PayPal subsidiary. This business now has 122.7 million users and connects to over 15,000 financial institutions.

...