stock exchange
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer very low management fees. As well, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. We think conservative investors could hold up to, say, 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. You need to be highly selective with your ETF selections, but they’re a great way to hold those stocks. Here are six foreign ETFs we like:...
GENNUM CORP., $13.48, Toronto symbol GND, jumped 119.2% this week after it accepted a $13.55-a-share takeover offer from U.S.-based Semtech Corp. (Nasdaq symbol SMTC). Gennum designs electronic equipment and computer chips that let television broadcasters store, edit and transfer video signals without losing picture quality. It also designs chips that make computer networks faster. The company’s shares are now trading just below Semtech’s offer. This indicates that investors do not expect a higher price. Regulators and Gennum shareholders must still approve the deal, but it should close in April 2012....
HRT Participacoes em Petroleo S.A., $2.84, symbol HRP on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 4.6 million; Market cap: $13.1 million; www.hrt.com.br), is a Brazilian oil and gas exploration holding company that owns properties in Brazil’s Amazon region and off the coast of the southern African country of Namibia. HRT Participacoes was formed by a group of senior geoscientists and engineers who previously held positions at Petroleo Brasileiro SA. Its main listing is on the Brazilian stock exchange. The company chose its drilling targets offshore Namibia with a geological theory in mind. This is the theory that present-day continents once formed a single land mass or super-continent known as Pangea. This super-continent is thought to have broken up into pieces that became today’s existing continents. After the breakup, the pieces moved to their present locations, in a gradual process known as continental drift that began about 250 million years ago....
Carnival Corp. operate as a single business but have separate exchange listings. Stock market investments: Carnival increases earnings despite jump in fuel costs.
Here’s the text of the quarterly letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in mid-November: “Our investment approach relies on three key rules: 1. Invest mainly in well-established companies. These companies have an above-average chance of surviving an economic or market downturn, and thriving again when conditions improve....
Carnival Corp., $34.16, symbol CCL on New York, and its affiliate, Carnival plc, symbol CCL on the London Stock Exchange (Total shares outstanding: 792.0 million; Market cap: $27.1 billion; www.carnivalcorp.com), operate as single business but have separate exchange listings. The combined company is the world’s largest cruise ship operator, with over 100 ships. It took its current form in 2003 through the merger of Carnival and rival P&O Princess. Major brands include Carnival Cruise Lines, Princes Cruises, Holland America Line, Costa Cruises and Cunard Line. The company also operates ports and hotels....
RESEARCH IN MOTION LTD., $17.08, Toronto symbol RIM, fell 9% on Friday after it said it would write down its inventory of unsold BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computers. RIM recently cut the price of the PlayBook by 60% to spur sales. The writedown will cut RIM’s after-tax earnings in its 2012 third quarter, which ended November 26, 2011, by $360 million (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). RIM earned $329 million, or $0.63 a share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2012. The company shipped 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones in the third quarter, which was in line with its forecast of 13.5 to 14.5 million. It also shipped 150,000 PlayBooks....
Leading U.S. makers of food processing machinery and control systems include FMC FoodTech, SPX Process Equipment and Rockwell Automation. As well, some major foreign manufacturers operate in the U.S., including the Tetra Laval Group (Switzerland) and Odenburg Engineering (Netherlands). Of these, only Rockwell Automation, $71.04, symbol ROK on New York (Shares outstanding: 145.2 million; Market cap: $10.3 billion; www.rockwellautomation.com), trades on a U.S. stock exchange. However, food and beverage companies are a small market for Rockwell. We don’t recommend any food processing equipment makers as buys. To profit from food manufacturing, we think you are better off buying food making stocks we recommend as buys, such as General Mills, $38.50, symbol GIS on New York (Shares outstanding: 667.0 million; Market cap: $25.7 billion; www.generalmills.com), Campbell Soup, $31.70, symbol CPB on New York (Shares outstanding: 322.0 million; Market cap: $10.2 billion; www.campbellsoup.com); H.J. Heinz, $50.81, symbol HNZ on New York (Shares outstanding: 323.6 million; Market cap: $16.4 billion; www.heinz.com), and Kraft Foods, $34.89, symbol KFT on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $62.8 billion; www.kraftfoodscompany.com)....
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer very low management fees. As well, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. However, 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:...
The backlog means that General Electric has customer orders or contracts outstanding worth a record $189 billion. This figure is relevant because these orders will be taken into revenue as they are completed. This indicates that GE’s revenue will likely continue to grow over the next few years....