sony

SONY CORP. ADRs $36 (New York symbol SNE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $36.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.sony.net) aims to profit from rising smartphone demand with the Xperia Play, a new phone that lets users download and play video games from Sony’s PlayStation Network. Users will be able to access over 200,000 programs through the Xperia Play, which uses the popular Google Android operating system. Sony’s strong reputation in video games should help this new device compete with Apple’s iPhone. Sony is a buy.

It has been one year since Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) unveiled its iPad tablet computer. This device is a complete personal computer that uses a touch screen instead of a traditional keyboard. That makes it more portable and easier to use than a traditional laptop. Apple sold roughly 300,000 iPads on the first day the device was sold in U.S. stores. The iPad continues to be a very strong seller for Apple: In its latest quarter, the company sold 7.3 million iPads. In response to the ongoing popularity of the iPad, other technology stocks, such as Research in Motion and Samsung, are preparing to launch new tablet computers of their own in the coming months....

ISHARES MSCI JAPAN INDEX FUND $10.48 (American Exchange symbol EWJ; buy or sell through a broker; us.ishares.com) is an exchange-traded fund that tries to match the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index. The fund’s top holdings include: Toyota Motor, 4.4%; Honda Motor Co., 2.7%; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, 2.7%; Canon, 2.4%; Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, 1.8%; Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., 1.6%; Tokyo Electric Power Co., 1.5%; Sony Corporation, 1.5%; Mitsubishi Corporation, 1.4%; and Mizuho Financial Group, 1.4%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Industrials, 20.0%; Consumer Discretionary, 19.1%; Financials, 16.7%; Information Technology, 13.3%; Materials, 7.6%; Utilities, 5.9%; Health Care, 5.6%. Consumer Staples, 5.3%; Telecommunication Services, 4.1%; and Energy, 1.5%....

The quality of exchange-traded funds (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. ETFs offer very low management fees. In addition, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. Here are five foreign ETFs we like:...

ARM Holdings plc (ADRs), $18.16, symbol ARMH on Nasdaq (ADRs outstanding: 440.4 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; www.arm.com) designs chips and software for a wide variety of electronic devices, including cellphones, network routers, digital cameras and automobile-control systems. ARM’s chips consume less electricity than competing chips. That helps extend the battery life of mobile devices. That’s why its chips now power roughly 95% of the world’s mobile handsets, and over 25% of all electronic devices. The Cambridge, U.K.-based company does not make its chips. Instead, it earns royalties by licensing its technology to makers of electronic products. Its major customers include Nokia, Sony, Samsung and Nintendo. Apple is also using ARM’s technology in its A4 processors, which power its new iPad tablet computer....

Cisco Systems Inc., $24.56, symbol CSCO on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 5.6 billion; Market cap: $137.1 billion; www.cisco.com) is a leading maker of hardware and software that links and manages computer networks. The company’s hardware includes routers, local-area network (LAN) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, and dial-up access servers. (Servers are computers that manage shared files or programs on a network.) Cisco’s Internet Operating System (IOS) software ties these products together, delivers network services (which interconnect and move information between networks) and lets programs run on networks. Cisco gets about 45% of its revenue from overseas customers. In its 2010 fiscal year, which ended July 31, 2010, Cisco’s revenue rose 10.9%, to $40.0 billion from $36.1 billion in fiscal 2009. The improving economy has prompted many businesses to update their networking equipment. Excluding one-time items, earnings rose 18.6%, to $9.4 billion from $8.0 billion. The company bought back 325 million shares during fiscal 2010, at a cost of $7.8 billion. Because of fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 19.3%, to $1.61 from $1.35....

High-quality foreign stocks are a great way to diversify your portfolio. Moreover, many fast-growing markets, like China and India, have positive outlooks. That’s because their people are generally younger than North Americans, and rising incomes are helping more of them advance into the middle class. Even so, world stock market investing remains riskier than investing in North America. That’s because many emerging countries have language barriers, weak investor-protection laws, less commitment to openness, fairness and so on. Here are 3 simple ways to tap into world stock market profits at lower risk:...

High unemployment continues to hold back consumer spending in the U.S. As well, many households are using their extra cash to pay down debt. Even so, demand for electronic devices, particularly smartphones and video-game players, continues to rise. That’s good news for these four leading makers of consumer-electronic products. All four have launched new devices in time for Christmas. Their new products are also helping them increase sales in emerging markets. Still, we see only three as buys right now. APPLE INC. $288 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 913.6 million; Market cap: $263.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; No dividend paid; WSSF Rating: Average) makes computers and a variety of other electronic devices....

The investment industry has created all sorts of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in recent years. However, quality varies. All too many exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads, so you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings. ETFs offer very low management fees. In addition to low fees, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. Here are five foreign ETFs we like:...

SYMANTEC CORP., $12.97, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, reported earnings that matched the consensus estimate this week. However, weaker-than-expected revenue caused the stock to fall 14%. In its first quarter, which ended July 2, 2010, the software firm earned $284 million. That’s up 2.5% from $277 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 6.1%, to $0.35 from $0.33, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude non-recurring items, such as costs to integrate acquisitions and writedowns of buildings Symantec plans to sell. Revenue was flat, at $1.43 billion. The company gets half of its revenue from international customers, so the higher U.S. dollar hurt the contribution of its overseas businesses. Without the negative impact of foreign-exchange rates, revenue would have risen 2%....