price to sales ratio

BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. $72 (New York symbol BAX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 540.9 million; Market cap: $38.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.baxter.com) is the latest of our recommendations to announce a spinoff....

We’ve had great success with companies spun off from larger parent firms in the past few years. That’s mainly because spinoffs let both companies focus on their already well-established businesses. As well, a parent will only hand out a subsidiary’s shares to its own investors if it’s confident the spinoff will benefit both companies.

Shares of these three food producers have jumped since they became separate firms....

WAL-MART STORES INC. $78 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio: Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.2 billion; Market cap: $249.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) continues to expand into financial services....

ALLIANT ENERGY CORP. $58 (New York symbol LNT; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 110.9 million; Market cap: $6.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alliantenergy.com) sells electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million residential and business customers in Wisconsin, Iowa and southern Minnesota.

In September 2013, the company agreed to sell its Minnesota electric and natural gas distribution businesses in two separate deals....

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO. $202 (New York symbol SHW; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 100.3 million; Market cap: $20.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.sherwin-williams.com) has dropped its $2.3-billion offer to buy Mexican paint maker Comex, as regulators seemed unlikely to approve the deal....

Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan passed the Federal
Reserve’s latest “stress test,”which measures how well
financial firms would cope with a sharp jump in unemployment,
falling stock prices and other unfavourable
conditions. That gives both banks more room to raise
their dividends and buy back shares....

DUN & BRADSTREET CORP. $107 (New York symbol DNB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 37.6 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dnb.com) has paid an undisclosed sum for the social media operations of Fliptop, whose software helps businesses analyze customer data.

This technology tracks mentions of businesses by users of social media websites like Facebook....

SNAP-ON INC. $117 (New York symbol SNA; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 58.2 million; Market cap: $6.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.snapon.com) earned $95.9 million, or $1.62 a share, in the quarter ended March 29, 2014....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $192 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $192.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) continues to benefit from rising demand for cloud-computing services and analytics software, which helps businesses analyze large amounts of data....

MONSANTO CO. $112 (New York symbol MON, Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 524.2 million; Market cap: $58.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.monsanto.com) sells technology-based agricultural products, such as genetically modified seeds, to farmers, grain processors and food producers....