intel

INTEL CORP., $33.70, Nasdaq symbol INTC, rose 8% this week after announcing better than expected first quarter earnings and a new share buyback plan. In the three months ended June 28, 2014, Intel’s earnings jumped 39.8%, to $2.8 billion from $2.0 billion a year earlier. The company spent $2.1 billion on share buybacks during the quarter. As a result, earnings per share rose at a faster pace of 41.0%, to $0.55 from $0.39. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.52. Overall revenue rose 8.0%, to $13.8 billion from $12.8 billion, beating the consensus forecast of $13.7 billion. Revenue from making chips for personal computers (63% of the total) rose 6.2%, mainly because businesses are buying new machines after Microsoft stopped supporting its older Windows XP operating system....

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INTEL CORP. $31 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.0 billion; Market cap: $155.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) now expects $13.7 billion of revenue in the second quarter of 2014, up from its earlier forecast of $13.0 billion. That’s because businesses are replacing their older computers at a faster-than-expected pace. The stock has gained 19% since the start of the year and trades at 15.2 times the $2.04 a share that Intel will probably earn in 2014. That’s a particularly attractive p/e ratio for a tech leader that spends a high 22% of its revenue on research. Intel is a buy.

INTEL CORP. $31 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.0 billion; Market cap: $155.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) now expects $13.7 billion of revenue in the second quarter of 2014, up from its earlier forecast of $13.0 billion. That’s because businesses are replacing their older computers at a faster-than-expected pace.

The stock has gained 19% since the start of the year and trades at 15.2 times the $2.04 a share that Intel will probably earn in 2014. That’s a particularly attractive p/e ratio for a tech leader that spends a high 22% of its revenue on research.

Intel is a buy.

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We still think investors will profit most—and with the least risk—by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying stocks with strong business prospects. These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace. Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of safety in today’s volatile markets. And the best ones offer an attractive combination of moderate p/e’s (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings), steady or rising dividend yields (annual dividend divided by the share price) and promising growth prospects....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, April 25, 2014. GOOGLE INC. $543.34, Nasdaq symbol GOOGL, has paid an undisclosed sum for Titan Aerospace. Titan is a privately held company that’s developing unmanned aircraft, or drones, that run on solar power. That means they don’t need to refuel, so they can fly non-stop for up to five years....

Vanguard Information Technology ETF, $92.36, symbol VGT on New York (Shares outstanding: 54.8 million; Market cap: $5.1 billion; personal.vanguard.com), aims to track the MSCI U.S. Investable Market Information Technology Index, which mainly consists of large U.S. companies in the IT area. The fund’s MER is just 0.14%. The $5.3-billion fund’s top 10 holdings are Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco Systems, Intel, Facebook, Oracle, Qualcomm and Visa. The ETF is broken down by segment as follows: Internet software and services (18.2%), hardware (14.4%), systems software (13.7%), chips (10.4%), data processing and outsourced services (10.2%), communications equipment (8.8%), consulting and other services (8.1%), applications (6.3%), storage and peripherals (3.3%), computer chip equipment (1.8%), components (1.7%), manufacturing services (1.4%), equipment and instruments (1.1%), distributors (0.7%) and home entertainment software (0.6%)....

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $91.06 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares- .com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index, which consists of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap.

The Nasdaq 100 Index contains shares of companies in a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The fund’s expenses are about 0.20% of its assets.

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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....

INTEL CORP. $25 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.0 billion; Market cap: $125.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) is selling its Intel Media business, which is developing a service called OnCue that lets users watch TV shows over the Internet.

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC....