sony

PLEASE NOTE: Next week, The Successful Investor, our newsletter that focuses on high-quality Canadian stocks, will reveal its #1 pick for 2012. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to profit. MACY’S INC., $34.56, New York symbol M, rose 7% this week after it reported better-than-expected sales for December 2011. Same-store sales during the month were 6.2% higher than in December 2010. That beat the consensus estimate of a 5% rise. The company now expects same-store sales for its full 2012 fiscal year, which ends January 31, 2012, to be 5.3% higher than fiscal 2011. That’s up from its earlier prediction of a gain of 4.8% to 5.0%....

L. M. Ericsson Telephone Co. (ADR), $9.71, symbol ERIC on Nasdaq (ADRs outstanding: 3.2 billion; Market cap: $31.1 billion; www.ericsson.com), is a leading maker of systems and products for telecommunications networks. The company’s divisions include Networks (55% of revenue); Global Services (40%); and Multimedia (5%). Ericsson recently closed a money-losing joint venture with Sony to design and market mobile phones. Sony paid Ericsson $1.5 billion for its share of the partnership. However, Ericsson recently joined a consortium that included Sony, Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and EMC to buy over 6,000 patents that belonged to bankrupt Nortel Networks for $4.5 billion. These patents cover technology in a number of areas, including Internet, wireless networking, voice applications and computer chips....

Electronic Arts Inc., $23.75, symbol ERTS on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 331.0 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; www.ea.com), makes video games for a wide variety of devices, including computers, video-game consoles (such as the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii) and mobile devices (including Apple’s iPhone and iPad). The company sells a number of sports-based titles that it reissues annually. It has licensing deals with most major professional sports organizations, including the National Football League, FIFA (soccer), Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. Electronic Arts also develops its own game franchises. It constantly releases sequels and new versions that give it ongoing revenue. Top-selling examples include The Sims (a life-simulation game), Need for Speed (a car-racing game) and Battlefield (a war game). As well, the company makes games based on popular movie and literary characters, such as Harry Potter....

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP., $59.47, New York symbol TUP, makes high-quality household products, including plastic food and beverage containers and educational toys. It also makes wide range of cosmetics, bath oils and fragrances. The company continues to see strong demand in fast-growing economies, such as Asia and Latin America. Tupperware now gets 63% of its sales from these markets. That’s helping it offset slower sales in North America and Europe. In the three months ended October 1, 2011, Tupperware earned $50.3 million. That’s up 23.3% from $40.8 million a year earlier. During the quarter, the company spent $195.7 million on share buybacks. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 29.7%, to $0.83 from $0.64....

SONY CORP. ADRs, $26.85, New York symbol SNE, reported higher losses for its latest fiscal year, mainly due to one-time charges related to the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2011, Sony lost $3.1 billion, or $3.12 per ADR (each American Depositary Receipt represents one common share). In fiscal 2010, it lost $439 million, or $0.44 per ADR. Revenue rose 11.5%, to $86.5 billion from $77.6 billion. The earthquake disrupted the operations of some of Sony’s suppliers in Japan. That continues to cause parts shortages at Sony’s Japanese plants. Even so, the company expects to sell 27 million TV sets in the current fiscal year, up 20.5% from 22.4 million in fiscal 2011. However, the TV division will probably keep losing money....

SONY CORP. ADRs $28 (New York symbol SNE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $28.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.sony.com) had to shut down its PlayStation Network for nearly a month because online intruders stole personal data....

PLEASE NOTE: We’ve put six sell recommendations, and our reasons for those recommendations, in the latest issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster. Here are the sells: Harte-Hanks Inc., New York symbol HHS Liz Claiborne Inc., New York symbol LIZ...

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer very low management fees. As well, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. But the quality of ETFs varies widely. All too many exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads. So you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings. Here are six foreign ETFs we like:...

Electronic Arts Inc., $19.71, symbol ERTS on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 330.3 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; www.ea.com), makes video games for a wide variety of devices, including personal computers, video-game consoles (such as the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii) and mobile devices (including Apple’s iPhone and iPad). Electronic Arts sells a number of sports titles that it reissues annually. The company has licensing deals with most major professional sports organizations, including the National Football League, FIFA (soccer), Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. The company also develops its own game franchises. It constantly releases sequels and new versions that give it ongoing revenue. Top-selling examples include The Sims (a life-simulation game) and Need for Speed (a car-racing game). As well, the company makes games based on popular movie and literary characters, such as Harry Potter....

The stock market put on a huge rise from mid-2010 through February this year, and this left it ripe for a setback. Japan’s earthquake/tsunami/nuclear plant breakdown provided the trigger for that setback. Events in Japan have been horrific for the victims, of course. The Japanese situation could still weigh on the market for weeks or months to come. However, the damage to Japan is far too isolated and local to put the worldwide economic recovery at risk. World economic growth could slow temporarily while multi-national companies re-think their hiring and investment plans, and consumers re-think major purchases. After they complete their re-thinking, businesses and consumers may speed up their spending to make up for lost time. The outcome of Japan’s nuclear problems could have a big impact. If radiation leakage is widespread, it could spur much more environmental opposition to the nuclear industry. That could shift demand from nuclear to natural-gas power plants, particularly since shale gas discoveries and technology have vastly expanded natural gas reserves in North America and around the world. (One key beneficiary here would be our long-time favourite, Canadian gas producer Encana Corp.)...