general electric

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....

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

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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

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Silver Spring Networks Inc., $11.94, symbol SSNI on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 50.3 million; Market cap: $625.8 million; www.silverspringnet.com), helps power companies make their transmission grids more efficient. Its main products include meters and related software that can automatically adjust home thermostats and streetlights. The company is bringing this expertise to technology for monitoring and analyzing data from a wider variety of Internet-connected devices, including smartphones, tablets, vehicles and appliances. This “Internet of Things” could total over 30 billion devices by 2020, and tapping into the information they generate should help Silver Spring’s clients improve their products and make better decisions. Since it started up in 2002, the company has shipped more than 22.3 million network-connected devices. It first sold shares to the public on March 13, 2013, at $17.00 each....

MONSANTO CO., $92.79, New York symbol MON, develops and sells technology-based agricultural products, such as genetically modified seeds, to farmers, grain processors and food companies. It also sells weed- and pest-control products. In the first quarter of its 2016 fiscal year, which ended November 30, 2015, Monsanto lost $52 million, or $0.11 a share. However, that was much better than the consensus estimate of a $0.22-a-share loss. A year earlier, the company earned $227 million, or $0.47 a share. Sales declined 22.7%, to $2.2 billion from $2.9 billion, missing the consensus forecast of $2.4 billion....

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock market index or sub-index. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC., $45.28, New York symbol NWL, is reportedly negotiating a merger with Jarden Corp. (New York symbol JAH). Jarden makes consumer products, including Sunbeam kitchen appliances, Mr. Coffee coffee makers, Ball jars, Crock-Pot cookers and Rawlings baseball mitts. It would cost around $11.8 billion to buy Jarden, which is almost equal to Newell’s $12.7-billion market cap (the value of all outstanding shares). The combined firm would have $14 billion of annual sales....

iShares Core S&P 500 Hedged ETF aims to cut currency risk by hedging against movements of the U.S. dollar vs. the Canadian dollar. Our view.

Today, we look at a Canadian bank stock that has consistently paid dividends for 186 years. Bank of Montreal has benefited both from expansion outside of Canada and low interest rates in recent years. The bank continues to make acquisitions in the U.S. and the U.K. Recently it agreed to buy General Electric’s transportation-financing business, adding $11.5 billion in assets. Low interest rates have also helped the bank by increasing demand for loans. Between 2010 and 2014, the bank’s earnings rose by more than 50% and over the past three years, BMO has raised its dividend six times. We recommend BMO as a blue chip stock to buy for conservative investors.

BANK OF MONTREAL (Toronto symbol BMO; www.bmo.com) is Canada’s fourth-largestbank, with $672.4 billion of assets.

The bank has steadily expanded beyond Canadain recent years. For example, in 2011, it acquiredWisconsin-based banking firm Marshall & Ilsley for$4.0 billion in stock. That more than doubled thenumber of branches Bank of Montreal operates inthe U.S. and added two million customers.

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BANK OF MONTREAL $77 (Toronto symbol BMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 642.5 million; Market cap: $49.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bmo.com) is Canada’s fourth-largest bank, with $672.4 billion of assets. The bank has steadily expanded beyond Canada in recent years. For example, in 2011, it acquired Wisconsin-based banking firm Marshall & Ilsley for $4.0 billion in stock. That more than doubled the number of branches Bank of Montreal operates in the U.S. and added two million customers. In 2014, it paid $1.3 billion for U.K.-based wealth management firm F&C Asset Management, which sells investment services to individuals and institutional clients, such as pension plans and insurance companies....