Pfizer Inc.

Please note: The next Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter issue will be sent out on Friday, May 31, 2013. HEWLETT-PACKARD CO., $24.21, New York symbol HPQ, reported lower earnings this week. Even so, they still beat the consensus forecast. That’s why the stock rose 14%. Hewlett earned $1.7 billion in its fiscal 2013 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2013. That’s down 12.9% from $1.9 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 11.2%, to $0.87 from $0.98, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, mainly costs related to a restructuring plan that includes merging Hewlett’s personal computer and printer divisions, simplifying its product lines and cutting 8% of its workforce. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.81 a share....

Most U.S. markets have risen lately, while Canada’s resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange has lagged. But as always, both remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices.

One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

APPLE INC., $417.20, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, earned $9.5 billion, or $10.09 a share, in three months ended March 30, 2013. That’s down 17.9% from $11.6 billion, or $12.30 a share, a year earlier. Even so, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $9.98 a share. Sales rose 11.3%, to $43.6 billion from $39.2 billion. That also beat the consensus estimate of $42.3 billion. The company sold 37.4 million iPhones, up 6.7% from a year earlier, and 19.5 million iPads, up 65.1%. It also sold 4.0 million Mac computers (down 1.6%) and 5.6 million iPods (down 26.6%). Apple recently launched a smaller, cheaper version of the iPad, called the iPad mini. It has also cut the selling price of older iPhones to help boost sales in developing markets. As a result, gross margin (gross profits as a percentage of sales) fell to 37.5% from 47.4%....

CONAGRA FOODS INC., $34.77, New York symbol CAG, has agreed to merge its flour-milling operations into a new joint venture. Under the terms of the deal, ConAgra, privately held Cargill Inc. and CHS Inc. (Nasdaq symbol CHSCP) will combine their North American mills into a new business called Ardent Mills. ConAgra and Cargill will each own 44% of Ardent Mills. CHS will own the remaining 12%. In total, Ardent Mills will own 44 flour mills and four bakeries. It will sell its products to various food makers....

BMO Equal Weight U.S. Health Care Hedged to CAD Index ETF, $22.62, symbol ZUH on Toronto (Units outstanding: 615,000; Market cap: $13.9 million; www.etfs.bmo.com), holds 48 U.S. health care stocks. Its top holdings are Boston Scientific at 2.7%; Life Technologies, 2.6%; Calgene Corp., 2.5%; Cigna, 2.5%; Aetna, 2.5%; Thermo Fisher Scientific, 2.5%; Allergan, 2.4%; Gilead Sciences, 2.4%; DaVita HealthCare, 2.4%; and Mylan Inc., 2.4%. BMO Equal Weight U.S. Health Care Hedged to CAD Index ETF is hedged against movements of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar. Its value rises and falls solely with the stocks in its portfolio. So it would not give you U.S. dollar exposure....

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP., $76.77, New York symbol TUP, rose 10% this week after it reported better-than-expected earnings. It also raised its dividend and announced that it would buy back more of its shares. The company makes household products, including educational toys and plastic food and beverage containers. It also manufactures a wide range of cosmetics, bath oils and fragrances. In 2012, Tupperware’s earnings rose 3.0%, to $281.4 million from $273.3 million in 2011. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose at a much faster pace of 12.1%, to $4.99 from $4.45. That beat the consensus estimate of $4.96....

Most stock markets have risen lately. But as always, they remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices.

One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

PLEASE NOTE: This is our last Hotline for 2012. Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, January 4, 2013. GOOGLE INC., $715.63, Nasdaq symbol GOOG, is selling its Motorola Home division, which makes TV set-top boxes and modems for cable companies. The company acquired this business as part of its $12.5-billion purchase of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings in May 2012. The buyer is Georgia-based Arris Group Ltd. (Nasdaq symbol ARRS). When the deal closes in the first half of 2013, Google will receive $2.05 billion in cash plus $300 million of Arris’s common shares. That will give it a 15.7% stake in Arris....

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $145.09 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. stocks that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple Inc., ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Wells Fargo & Co., Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Chevron, General Electric, Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Google and AT&T.

The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets.

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PFIZER INC. $25 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 7.5 billion; Market cap: $187.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) has agreed to buy NextWave Pharmaceuticals Inc. This private company has developed Quillivant XR, a liquid drug that treats attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Pfizer’s extensive marketing and distribution operations should help expand sales of Quillivant XR. Based on future sales of this drug, this purchase could cost Pfizer a total of $700 million. That’s equal to 15% of the $4.7billion, or $0.62 a share, that it earned in the second quarter of 2012. The deal should close by the end of 2012....