stanley

Stanley Black & Decker Inc., New York symbol SWK, makes power and hand tools and security devices. It took its current form on March 12, 2010. That’s when Stanley Works bought the Black & Decker Corp. for $3.5 billion in stock. Stanley shareholders own 50.5% of the combined company, and Black & Decker investors own the remaining 49.5%. We analyze Stanley in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our investing newsletter that recommends stocks in the U.S. markets. The company now expects efficiencies achieved by merging plants, distribution networks and purchasing systems will save it $450 million by the end of 2012....

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 ETFs 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:...

CGI GROUP INC., $20.54, Toronto symbol GIB.A, is Canada’s largest provider of computer-outsourcing services. The company’s services can automate certain routine functions, such as accounting and buying supplies. That makes its clients more efficient, and lets them focus on their main businesses. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, CGI earned $118.4 million. That’s up 37.9% from $85.9 million a year earlier. The company spent $56.9 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 43.3%, to $0.43 from $0.30. If you exclude a tax gain and other unusual items, CGI would have earned $0.38 a share in the latest quarter. That matched the consensus earnings estimate. Revenue rose 15.1%, to $1.04 billion from $901.6 million a year earlier. If you exclude the negative impact of exchange rates, revenue would have risen 18.0%. Canadian revenue fell 6.5%, due to delays in starting up new projects. However, U.S. revenue jumped 54.1%, mainly due to last year’s acquisition of Stanley Inc., which sells computer-outsourcing services to U.S. government agencies. Revenue at CGI’s European operations rose 27.4%....

ISHARES MSCI CANADA INDEX FUND $31.84 (New York symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is like a market-cap-based index fund, but its managers try to improve performance by tinkering with the index-fund formula. They do this through their Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The fund has an MER of 0.50%. The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 6.0%; TD Bank, 5.4%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.8%; Suncor Energy, 4.7%; Potash Corp., 3.6%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.4%; Barrick Gold, 3.4%; Goldcorp, 2.9%; Bank of Montreal, 2.6%; CN Railway, 2.6%; CIBC, 2.4%; Manulife Financial, 2.3%; TransCanada Corp., 2.3%; and Teck Resources, 2.2%. If you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund. You’ll pay about a third of the management fees....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have a place in your portfolio. That’s because, unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees, or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to get out of them. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You’ll have to pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs. However, ETFs’ low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most conventional mutual funds. As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital-gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, July 8, 2011. STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC., $72.05, New York symbol SWK, has agreed to buy Sweden’s Niscayah Group AB. Niscayah designs and installs security systems, including surveillance cameras and fire alarms, for a wide variety of businesses. This is a big purchase for Stanley, which will pay $1.2 billion for Niscayah, including assumed debt. That’s 94% more than the $619.3 million, or $4.12 a share, that Stanley earned in 2010. The company holds cash of $1.9 billion, so it can easily pay for this purchase without having to sell shares, which would dilute the ownership of existing shareholders....

Stanley Black & Decker Inc., New York symbol SWK, makes power and hand tools and security devices. It took its current form on March 12, 2010. That’s when Stanley Works bought the Black & Decker Corp. for $3.5 billion in stock. At the time of the merger, Stanley shareholders owned 50.5% of the combined company, and Black & Decker investors owned the remaining 49.5%. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, the company earned $157.8 million, or $0.92 a share, compared to a loss of $108.6 million, or $1.11 a share, a year earlier. Excluding charges relating to the merger, the growth stock’s earnings per share would have risen 54.3%, to $1.08 from $0.70. The growth stock’s sales rose 89.0% in the quarter, to $2.4 billion from $1.3 billion. If you assume the purchase occurred at the start of 2010, sales would have risen 4%....

CGI GROUP INC., $20.70, Toronto symbol GIB.A, is Canada’s largest provider of computer-outsourcing services. The company’s services can automate certain routine functions, such as accounting and buying supplies. That makes its clients more efficient, and lets them focus on their main businesses. In its fiscal 2011 second quarter, which ended March 31, 2011, CGI earned $117.0 million. That’s up 43.4% from $81.6 million a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 50.0%, to $0.42 from $0.28. If you exclude a tax gain, the company would have earned $0.40 a share in the latest quarter. That beat the consensus earnings estimate of $0.38 a share. Revenue rose 24.5%, to $1.1 billion from $910.4 million a year earlier. If you exclude the negative impact of exchange rates, revenue would have risen 27.9%. Canadian revenue rose 4.3%, and U.S. revenue jumped 67.3%, mainly because the company won a number of new contracts from the U.S. federal government....

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:...

ISHARES MSCI CANADA INDEX FUND $33.63 (New York symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is like a market-cap-based index fund, but its managers try to improve performance by tinkering with the index-fund formula. They do this through their Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The fund has an MER of 0.50%. The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 5.8%; TD Bank, 5.0%; Suncor Energy, 5.0%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.4%; Potash Corp., 4.0%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.7%; Barrick Gold, 3.6%; Teck Resources, 2.7%; Bank of Montreal, 2.5%; Goldcorp, 2.4%; CN Railway, 2.4%; Manulife Financial, 2.4%; CIBC, 2.3% and Research in Motion, 2.2%. If you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund. You’ll pay about a third of the management fees....