intel

INTEL CORP. $23 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.3 billion; Market cap: $121.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 15.9%, to $0.21 a share from $0.18125. The new annual rate of $0.84 yields 3.7%. This is the second time Intel has raised its payout in the last six months. Meanwhile, Intel is focusing on developing new chips for mobile devices, like tablet computers. That will help it offset slowing personal computer sales. As well, demand for its chips for server computers is rising as more people use mobile devices to access the Internet. Intel expects revenue from chips for servers and storage devices to more than double in the next five years, to $20 billion from $8.7 billion in 2010. It reported overall revenue of $43.6 billion in 2010....

Intel Corp., symbol INTC on Nasdaq, is the world’s leading computer-chip maker. For the first quarter of 2011, the company reported record revenue of $12.9 billion. That’s up 25.0% from $10.3 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Two acquisitions in the 2011 quarter contributed $496 million to revenue. The tech stock’s earnings jumped 33.8%, to $3.3 billion, or $0.59 per share, from $2.5 billion, or $0.43 a share. Intel saw strong demand in all product lines and all markets around the world. Revenue for the tech stock’s PC Client Group (microprocessors and motherboards for notebooks, desktop computers, and wireless connectivity products) rose 17%. The Data Center Group (microprocessors and motherboards for servers, workstations, storage and wired network connectivity products) gained 32%. The Other Intel Architecture Group (components for phones, embedded applications, netbooks and tablets, consumer electronics and handhelds) jumped by 70%....

CONAGRA FOODS INC., $25.17, New York symbol CAG, has offered to buy Ralcorp Holdings Inc. (New York symbol RAH), which makes a variety of private-label packaged foods, such as crackers, cookies, jams, peanut butter and frozen waffles. Ralcorp also makes cereals under the well-known Post brand. Buying Ralcorp would make ConAgra the third-largest packaged food maker in the U.S. It would also help ConAgra profit from rising demand for private-label products, which now account for 18.9% of U.S. food sales, up from 16.4% five years ago. Following the purchase, ConAgra would get 50% of its sales from branded foods, 25% from private-label products, and 25% from selling food to restaurants. The company feels its can save $250 million a year by combining plants and other overlapping operations....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 21, 2011. ALCOA INC., $16.52, New York symbol AA, fell 8% this week after the aluminum maker reported lower-than-expected sales in the first quarter of 2011. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Alcoa’s sales rose 21.9 %, to $6.0 billion from $4.9 billion a year earlier. Even so, the latest sales fell short of the consensus estimate of $6.1 billion....

We’ve often pointed out that spinoffs like Agilent tend to perform better than comparable stocks in the first few years. Agilent shot up to $162 after it became an independent company in 1999. However, it dropped below $11 when the tech-stock boom ended in 2002. It rose to $40 in 2007, but fell back to $12 in 2009. Even with its erratic history, Agilent still outperformed larger tech stocks, such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems and its former parent, Hewlett-Packard. Agilent’s recent shift into medical-testing products should give it more predictable earnings, and make the stock less volatile. As well, demand for its electronic-testing products is rising with the economy. AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $44 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 345.1 million; Market cap: $15.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agilent.com) makes testing systems that help improve electronic products, such as cellphones and computer-networking equipment....

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $57.14 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares.com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds the stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index. That index is made up of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap. The Nasdaq 100 Index contains firms from 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. The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel, Amazon.com, Oracle Corp., Comcast Corp. and Teva Pharmaceuticals....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have a place in your portfolio. That’s because, unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees, or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to get out of them. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You’ll have to pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs. However, ETFs’ low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most conventional mutual funds. As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital-gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders....

Nvidia Corp., Nasdaq symbol NVDA, designs graphic chips that make computer games run more smoothly and appear more lifelike. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended January 30, 2011, Nvidia earned $253.1 million. It lost $68.0 million in 2010. Earnings per share jumped to $0.43 from a loss of $0.12. Excluding one-time items, the technology stock’s earnings per share rose 160.0%, to $0.65 from $0.45. Nvidia spent 24.0% of its sales on research in fiscal 2011, so it’s more profitable than it seems. Sales rose 6.5%, to $3.5 billion from $3.3 billion. That’s largely due to strong demand for the technology stock’s new Tegra chips, which greatly enhance displays on cellphones and other mobile devices. The company is also seeing strong interest from computer makers for its chips that can process data as well as display graphics....

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP., $53.77, New York symbol TUP, rose 17% this week after it reported better-than-expected earnings. The company makes high-quality products for the home, including plastic food and beverage containers and children’s educational toys. It also makes wide range of cosmetics, bath oils and fragrances. In 2010, Tupperware earned $225.6 million, or $3.53 a share. That’s up 28.8% from $175.1 million, or $2.75 a share, in 2009. If you exclude unusual items, such as a writedown of goodwill, earnings per share would have risen 20.8%, to $3.72 from $3.08. On this basis, the 2010 earnings beat the consensus estimate of $3.60 a share by 3.3%. Revenue rose 8.1% in 2010, to $2.3 billion from $2.1 billion. The company gets over 85% of its revenue from outside the U.S. If you exclude the impact of foreign-exchange rates, revenue would have risen 6.0% in 2010....

It has been one year since Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) unveiled its iPad tablet computer. This device is a complete personal computer that uses a touch screen instead of a traditional keyboard. That makes it more portable and easier to use than a traditional laptop. Apple sold roughly 300,000 iPads on the first day the device was sold in U.S. stores. The iPad continues to be a very strong seller for Apple: In its latest quarter, the company sold 7.3 million iPads. In response to the ongoing popularity of the iPad, other technology stocks, such as Research in Motion and Samsung, are preparing to launch new tablet computers of their own in the coming months....