Pfizer Inc.

PFIZER INC., $37, is a buy. The company (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.9 billion; Market cap: $218.3 billion; Dividend yield: 3.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.pfizer.com) is one of the world’s largest makers of prescription drugs....

PFIZER INC. $43 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.9 billion; Market cap: $253.7 billion; Dividend yield: 3.3%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.pfizer.com) is one of the world’s leading prescription drugmakers....

PFIZER INC. $39 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.6 billion; Market cap: $218.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) has acquired 15% of Vivet Therapeutics for $51 million.


Based in France, privately held Vivet is developing a treatment for Wilson disease, a liver disorder that causes copper to build up in the body....

The best ETFs generally provide cheap, well-diversified investment vehicles for long-term investors. However, to capitalize on short-term investor fads or perceptions, many ETF providers continue to launch “innovative” new funds.


DIREXION MSCI EMERGING OVER DEVELOPED MARKET ETF $52.30 (New York symbol RWED) lets investors bet on the outperformance of emerging markets compared to developed markets.


The ETF replicates the long positions (stocks that will go up) of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and short postions (stocks that will go down) of the MSCI EAFE IMI Index....

Animal health, a long-time essential service to the economy, has become a growth industry in the past decade or two. Pets (now often referred to as “companion animals”) have turned into family members in many households, especially those with just one or two members....

The health-care industry continues to benefit from the aging populations of most developed markets. While the growing number of elderly continues to spur demand for health-care products and technology, the expanding middle class of developing nations also contributes....

PFIZER INC. $42 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.8 billion; Market cap: $243.6 billion; Dividend yield: 3.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.pfizer.com) is one of the world’s leading prescription drugmakers....

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $8.98 (New York symbol GE, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 8.7 billion; Market cap: $78.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.5%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.ge.com) recently announced a major restructuring that will narrow its focus to three main businesses: aviation operations (jet engines and aircraft electronics); electrical power equipment (such as turbines and related equipment for gas-fired and nuclear power plants); and renewable power equipment (wind farms and hydroelectric plants).


As a result, GE will spin off its healthcare operations as a separate firm....

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $258 (New York symbol SPY) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index; they are 500 major U.S. companies chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.


The highest-weighted stocks for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF are Microsoft, 3.8%; Apple, 3.4%; Amazon.com, 2.9%; Alphabet, 2.9%; Berkshire Hathaway, 1.9%; Johnson & Johnson, 1.6%; Facebook, 1.6%; JPMorgan Chase, 1.5%; ExxonMobil, 1.4%; Pfizer, 1.2%; and UnitedHealth, 1.3%....

The six ETFs we update below mainly hold high-quality stocks that are widely traded on Canadian and U.S. exchanges. Each fund tracks the performance of a major stock market index. That’s different from ETFs focused on narrower indexes or themes such as cryptocurrencies or biotechnology.


Of course, you pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell these investments....