stock split

NVIDIA CORP. $57 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; WSSF Rating: Average) has about 80% of the market for high-end graphic chips that make games and video signals appear more life-like and run smoother on computers and home video game consoles. This business supplies 70% of its revenue. But the company faces strong competition from chief rival ATI Technologies, as well as Intel, which makes less expensive graphics chips. Nvidia now aims to cut its reliance on this niche market by developing chips for other devices, such as cellphones and digital TV sets. However, the cellphone chip market is crowded and prices are falling. In fact, Nvidia’s cellphone chip business lost $34.9 million in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2006, on $58.7 million in sales. To put that in context, Nvidia earned $1.65 a share (total $302.6 million) in fiscal 2006, up sharply from $0.57 a share ($100.4 million) in 2005 (we have not adjusted these per-share figures for a 2-for-1 stock split planned for April 2006). Sales rose 20.0%, to $2.4 billion from $2.0 billion....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $31 (Toronto symbol SNC; SI Rating: Average) earned $0.29 a share in the fourth quarter of 2005, up 45.0% from $0.20 a year earlier (all per-share amounts adjusted for a recent 3-for-1 stock split). If you exclude losses from its 16.77% stake Highway 407, a toll highway north of Toronto, per share earnings grew 20.8%. Revenue rose 9.1%, to $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion. SNC’s order backlog at the end of 2005 grew to $8.1 billion from $6.3 billion at the end of 2004. The strong results let SNC raise its quarterly dividend 31.3%, from $0.533 a share to $0.07. The new annual rate of $0.28 yields 0.9%. The stock has jumped five-fold in the last five years. But its high p/e of 33 exposes it to a sudden drop if the company reports a quarter of weak earnings. SNC-Lavalin is a hold.