price to sales ratio

STATE STREET CORP. $45 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 504.0 million; Market cap: $22.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to large institutional investors, such as mutual funds and pension plans. State Street continues to benefit from rising stock markets. Its fee income rises and falls with the value of the mutual funds and other securities it manages, so the company’s revenue and earnings benefit when the value of these assets rises. The company is also cutting its long-term costs with a new restructuring plan, which mainly involves cutting 1,400 jobs (or 5% of its workforce) and selling surplus real estate. The plan will cost State Street $400 million to $450 million over the next four years. However, it should lower its annual expenses by $575 million to $625 million by the end of 2014....

AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $50 (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $60.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.americanexpress.com) gets most of its revenue from the fees it charges merchants when consumers use its credit and charge cards. It also provides travel-agency services. The company’s cardholders have above-average credit scores and income. As a result, most of them pay their bills on time. The improving economy is also pushing up its travel-related fees. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, American Express earned $1.2 billion, or $0.97 a share. That’s up 33.0% from $885 million, or $0.73 a share, a year earlier. The company continues to set aside less money to cover bad loans: its loan-loss provisions fell 89.7%, to $97 million from $943 million....

VISA INC. $78 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 830.1 million; Market cap: $64.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest retail electronic-payments network. The company processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. The stock fell to $67 in December 2010 after the U.S. Federal Reserve proposed new limits on fees banks can charge for debit-card transactions. Visa gets about 20% of its revenue from debit-card transactions in the U.S. Regulators now aim to make a final ruling on these fees by July 21, 2011. However, a new bill in the U.S. Senate would delay any changes to the current system for two years....

CHEVRON CORP. $103 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $206.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S., after ExxonMobil Corp....

In an effort to dampen speculation, the CME Group, which owns the NYMEX futures exchange, recently raised the minimum amount of money traders must invest when buying crude-oil futures contracts. Even so, we feel oil prices will remain volatile in light of ongoing political unrest in the Middle East.

To lower your risk, we continue to advise that you stick with well-established oil producers like Chevron....

Bank stocks tend to account for the bulk of most investors’ Finance-sector holdings. Banks are writing down fewer loans as the economy recovers and borrowers pay back their loans, but demand for new mortgages and other loans remains weak. To diversify your Finance holdings, we recommend investing in non-bank financial-services companies, such as these six. We have a high opinion of all of them, but not all are buys right now. VISA INC. $78 (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 830.1 million; Market cap: $64.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.5; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest retail electronic-payments network. The company processes credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands....

GENERAL MILLS INC. $39 (New York symbol GIS, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 638.4 million; Market cap: $24.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.generalmills.com) is buying 51% of the private company that makes Yoplait yogurt, as well as 50% of the company that holds the licensing rights to the brand....

APACHE CORP. $124 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 383.4 million; Market cap: $47.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apachecorp.com) plans to spend $8.1 billion to develop its oil and natural-gas projects in 2011, up 8.3% from its earlier estimate of $7.5 billion....

NVIDIA CORP. $18 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 595.1 million; Market cap: $10.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nvidia.com) is buying privately held Icera, which designs energy-efficient chips for cellphones....

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami severely disrupted the operations of these two Japanese carmakers. Honda appears to be in a better position to recover from the disaster than Toyota.

TOYOTA MOTOR CO. ADRs $82 (New York symbol TM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $139.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.toyota.com) makes 40% of its vehicles in Japan....