wall street
Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. This week’s U.S. pick comes from our advisory for more aggressive investors, Stock Pickers Digest.
Over 30 billion devices—including things like home thermostats and appliances—will be connected to the Internet by 2020.
That means you’ll be able to control them with a smartphone, set them up to adapt to factors like outside temperatures and have them notify you if, for example, there is smoke or carbon monoxide in your home.
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Over 30 billion devices—including things like home thermostats and appliances—will be connected to the Internet by 2020.
That means you’ll be able to control them with a smartphone, set them up to adapt to factors like outside temperatures and have them notify you if, for example, there is smoke or carbon monoxide in your home.
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CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $29.43, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, jumped 8% this week after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and raising its dividend. The company is a leading maker of hardware and software that links and manages computer networks. In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended January 24, 2015, Cisco’s revenue rose 7.0%, to $11.9 billion from $11.1 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus estimate of $11.8 billion....
BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $2.69 and BBD.B $2.58, fell 12% this week after announcing several moves to improve its struggling aerospace division. It will also suspend its dividend and issue new shares and debt to shore up its balance sheet. As part of the plan, Bombardier’s chief executive officer, Pierre Beaudoin, will step down and become executive chairman. Alain Bellemare, the former CEO of United Technologies, will take over as CEO. (United Technologies is a recommendation of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks.) Bombardier now says its new CSeries passenger jet will cost $5.4 billion to develop, up from its earlier forecast of $4.4 billion (all amounts except share prices in U.S. dollars). After several setbacks, it expects to begin deliveries by the end of 2015....
Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.
CINTAS CORP. (Nasdaq symbol CTAS; www.cintas.com) provides a range of products and services to over one million businesses, mainly in North America.
The company gets 71% of its revenue by renting uniforms that it makes and cleans. This business also rents a variety of related products, such as mats, towels, mops and cleaning supplies. Cintas gets a further 10% of its revenue by selling uniforms.
In addition, the company sells first aid kits, fire extinguishers, sprinklers and emergency-exit lights (11%). It also shreds corporate documents (8%). In April 2014, it merged its shredding operations with Shred-it International. In exchange, Cintas received 42% of the combined company, which uses the Shred-it brand, plus $180 million in cash.
Cintas used the proceeds from the deal to pay a special dividend of $0.85 a share. It also increased its regular annual dividend by 10.4%, to $0.85 a share from $0.77. The new rate yields 1.1%. The company has now raised the payout annually for the past 31 years.
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CINTAS CORP. (Nasdaq symbol CTAS; www.cintas.com) provides a range of products and services to over one million businesses, mainly in North America.
The company gets 71% of its revenue by renting uniforms that it makes and cleans. This business also rents a variety of related products, such as mats, towels, mops and cleaning supplies. Cintas gets a further 10% of its revenue by selling uniforms.
In addition, the company sells first aid kits, fire extinguishers, sprinklers and emergency-exit lights (11%). It also shreds corporate documents (8%). In April 2014, it merged its shredding operations with Shred-it International. In exchange, Cintas received 42% of the combined company, which uses the Shred-it brand, plus $180 million in cash.
Cintas used the proceeds from the deal to pay a special dividend of $0.85 a share. It also increased its regular annual dividend by 10.4%, to $0.85 a share from $0.77. The new rate yields 1.1%. The company has now raised the payout annually for the past 31 years.
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SYMANTEC CORP., $24.77, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. The company sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended January 2, 2015, Symantec earned $367 million, unchanged from a year earlier. However, per-share earnings rose 1.9%, to $0.53 from $0.52, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus forecast of $0.48....
Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. Over 30 billion devices—including things like home thermostats and appliances—will be connected to the Internet by 2020....
SYMANTEC CORP., $24.77, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, is our Stock of the Year for 2015. In 2000, we picked Symantec as our very first Stock of the Year. It was well established as the leader in antivirus software. We felt Internet banking and shopping were sure to fuel its growth. Symantec was slow to get going due to the end of Internet mania, the 2001 recession and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It fell from our initial buy price of $6.63 to as low as $4.00 in 2001....
CARFINCO FINANCIAL GROUP INC., $10.53, symbol CFN on Toronto, rebounded closer to its takeover price of $11.25 a share this week, after falling as low as $8.30 last week. In November 2014, Carfinco’s shareholders voted to accept a friendly $11.25-a-share takeover bid from Spain’s Banco Santander SA (ADR symbol SAN on New York). Carfinco is confident the deal will go through, and this week the last two conditions were met: Spanish regulators granted their approval and Carfinco entered into an agreement to sell Persian Acceptance Corp., its U.S. subsidiary....
Every Thursday we bring you one of our best U.S. stock picks. You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, most often from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. This week’s U.S. pick comes from our advisory for more aggressive investors, Stock Pickers Digest.
BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS (New York symbol BR; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.
Broadridge began trading on April 2, 2007, after former parent Automatic Data Processing handed out Broadridge stock to its own investors as a special dividend.
Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $37.0 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 22.9% from $48.0 million, or $0.39 a share, a year earlier.
The company paid employees higher commissions on new sales and performance bonuses. It also expanded its sales and marketing capabilities.
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BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS (New York symbol BR; www.broadridge.com) serves the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications, securities processing and transaction clearing. The company processes 90% of all proxy votes in the U.S. and Canada.
Broadridge began trading on April 2, 2007, after former parent Automatic Data Processing handed out Broadridge stock to its own investors as a special dividend.
Without one-time items, Broadridge earned $37.0 million, or $0.30 a share, in its fiscal 2015 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2014. That’s down 22.9% from $48.0 million, or $0.39 a share, a year earlier.
The company paid employees higher commissions on new sales and performance bonuses. It also expanded its sales and marketing capabilities.
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The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund, $70.81, symbol XLY on New York (Units outstanding: 131.9 million; Market cap: $9.3 billion; www.spdrs.com), aims to track the S&P Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. The ETF’s top holdings are Walt Disney Co., Comcast, Home Depot, Amazon.com, McDonald’s, Time Warner, Twenty-First Century Fox, Nike, Lowes Companies and Starbucks. Many consumer stocks have risen in the last year, as an improving U.S. economy and employment numbers benefit firms that rely on purchases of non-essential goods. Consumer spending accounts for almost 70% of the U.S. economy....