price to sales ratio

STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC. $107 (New York symbol SWK; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 153.2 million; Market cap: $16.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.stanleyblackanddecker.com) earned $234.1 million in the three months ended October 3, 2015, down 5.0% from $246.4 million a year earlier. The company spent $192.1 million on share buybacks in the quarter, so per-share earnings gained 1.3%, to $1.55 from $1.53. Sales fell 1.7%, to $2.8 billion from $2.9 billion. Stanley gets about half of its sales from outside the U.S., so if you exclude the negative impact of currency rates, sales rose 6%. Stronger demand for its hand tools offset lower sales of its building-security products and tools for industrial users. The company continues to benefit from a recent restructuring, while lower prices for steel and other raw materials are expanding its profit margins. As a result, Stanley now expects to earn $5.80 to $5.95 a share for all of 2015, up from its earlier forecast of $5.70 to $5.90. The stock trades at an attractive 18.2 times the midpoint of the new range....

ALCOA INC. $8.99 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $11.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) plans to split itself into two separate firms. One will focus on Alcoa’s upstream operations, which include mining bauxite ore and refining it into bulk aluminum products. This business will be the world’s fourth-largest aluminum producer, with $13.2 billion of annual revenue and $2.8 billion of gross earnings. The other company will focus on engineered aluminum products, such as components for cars and jet engines. This firm has $14.5 billion of annual revenue and $2.2 billion of gross earnings....

Symantec and Fair Isaac (see next article) continue to spend heavily on research, which is helping them profit as businesses spend more on cybersecurity and fraud prevention. We like the long-term outlook for both, but Symantec is the better choice right now. SYMANTEC CORP. $21 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 679.2 million; Market cap: $14.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. In 2014, the company said it would split into two publicly traded firms. One would keep the Symantec name and focus on antivirus and security software and services. The other, called Veritas Technologies, makes products for data backup and recovery....

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $93 (New York symbol FICO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 31.1 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 0.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fico.com) makes FICO Scores, a computer program that helps businesses make better decisions about customer creditworthiness. FICO Scores dominates this niche market. Fair Isaac also sells software that helps credit card issuers control fraud and analyze cardholders’ spending patterns. The company spends 12% of its revenue on research, which helps it stay ahead of the competition. It’s now working to incorporate new data into its software. Right now, for example, FICO Scores doesn’t distinguish between people who carry balances on their credit cards (higher credit risk) and those who’ve never had a credit card but pay their utility and other bills off every month (lower risk). In addition, Fair Isaac plans to add data people publicly share on social media like Facebook. Both moves should make FICO Scores more accurate....

NORDSTROM INC. $65 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 188.2 million; Market cap: $12.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nordstrom.com) owns and operates 304 stores in the U.S. and Canada that mainly sell upscale clothing and footwear. The company recently sold its credit card loans to Toronto-Dominion Bank (Toronto symbol TD) for $2.2 billion. It used the cash to cut $325 million from its $2.8-billion debt and pay a special dividend of $4.85 a share, worth a total of $900 million. Nordstrom will use the remaining funds to buy back $1 billion worth of its stock by March 1, 2017. That’s in addition to the $591 million remaining on its existing repurchase authorization, which expires on March 1, 2016....

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. $59 (Nasdaq symbol TXN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $59.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ti.comtarget="_blank”) earned $798 million in the three months ended September 30, 2015, down 3.4% from $826 million a year earlier. The company spent $790 million on share buybacks during the quarter. As a result, earnings per share were unchanged at $0.76. Revenue declined 2.1%, to $3.4 billion from $3.5 billion. Sales of analog chips (64% of the total) rose 1.5%. (Analog chips convert inputs like touch and sound into electronic signals computers can understand.) Revenue from embedded processor chips (21%), which perform mathematical calculations, gained 2.0%. But revenue from other chips and calculators (15%) declined by 18.6%. However, free cash flow (cash flow less capital expenditures) rose 4.2% in the past 12 months, to $3.6 billion. That gives the company plenty of flexibility to keep buying back shares and raising its dividend....

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $77 (New York symbol PG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.7 billion; Market cap: $207.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pg.com) makes products in five main categories: fabric and home care items, such as Tide laundry detergent (29% of sales, 24% of earnings); baby goods, including Pampers diapers (27%, 26%); beauty products, like Olay cosmetics (24%, 23%); grooming items, including Gillette razors (10%, 16%); and health care products, such as Crest toothpaste (10%, 11%). Wal-Mart supplies 14% of the company’s sales. Latest sale set to deliver big gains In the past few years, Procter has sold many of its less profitable brands, including its recent deal to transfer 43 beauty product lines, including Wella, Clairol, Max Factor and CoverGirl, to Coty Inc. (New York symbol COTY)....

SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $37 (Torontosymbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio,Resources sector; Shares outstanding:1.5 billion; Market cap: $55.5billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividendyield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating:Average; www.suncor.com) is takingadvantage of low oil prices with its allstocktakeover offer for Canadian OilSands (Toronto symbol COS). Canadian Oil Sands’ main asset isits 36.74% stake in the massiveSyncrude oil sands development nearFort McMurray, Alberta. It alsooperates the project. Suncor alreadyowns 12.0% of Syncrude, so thispurchase would give it effectivecontrol, with a 48.74% stake. Equipment failures and other problemshave hurt Syncrude’s productionin the past few years, and Suncorfeels its expertise running similarprojects will make Syncrude moreefficient and profitable. In the secondquarter of 2015, Suncor’s cash costsin the oil sands were $28.15 a barrel,compared to $54.45 at Syncrude....

These two utilities are using different strategies to boost their earnings: Enbridge is investing heavily in new pipelines, while Manitoba Telecom is cutting costs at its struggling Allstream unit. We feel both firms will ultimately succeed, and their future growth will give them more cash for dividends. Right now, however, we think their high multiples to earnings make them vulnerable to a setback if their profit growth stalls. ENBRIDGE INC. $56 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 860.1 million; Market cap: $48.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) gets 85% of its revenue from pipelines that pump oil and natural gas from Western Canada to Eastern Canada and the U.S. The remaining 15% mainly comes from distributing gas to 2.1 million consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State....

TRANSCANADA CORP. $45 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 709.0 million; Market cap: $31.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) is buying the Ironwood gas-fired power plant in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The facility is close to the Marcellus shale region, which gives it access to large supplies of cheap natural gas. The company will pay $654 million U.S. when it completes the purchase in early 2016. The plant will add $90 million U.S. to $110 million U.S. to TransCanada’s annual gross profits; in 2014, its gross profits totalled $5.5 billion (Canadian). TransCanada is a buy.