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Symantec rises with successful restructuring plan
BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs, $69.71, New York symbol BHP, is the world’s largest mining company, with major operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile, the U.K. and North America. This week, BHP announced that it will spin off some of its operations as a separate Australia-based firm. This unnamed company will hold BHP’s aluminum, manganese, nickel and silver operations, as well as some of its coal mines. BHP did not reveal the details of the spinoff. However, the new company’s shares will mainly trade on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) will trade on the over-the-counter market in the U.S....
Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” 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, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS INC. (New York symbol MSI; www.motorolasolutions.com) took its current form on January 4, 2011, when the old Motorola Inc. spun off its struggling cellphone business, Motorola Mobility, as a separate firm. The remaining operations became Motorola Solutions after the breakup. The company makes specialized communications equipment, such as radios for police and fire vehicles. Government clients account for about 70% of its revenue....
Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice on a wide range of topics, including strategies for international stock markets. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Foreign investments can give your portfolio greater strength and diversity and we recommend three ways you can do this with less risk.” We believe most investors could benefit from holding some foreign investments in their portfolios for added diversification. And growing markets like China and India have positive long-term outlooks. Their populations are generally younger than those in North America, and rising incomes are helping more of them advance into the middle class....
WAL-MART STORES INC., $73.90, New York symbol WMT, continues to face strong competition in the U.S. from other discount retailers, particularly dollar stores. However, sales and earnings continue to rise at its overseas outlets. In the second quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended July 31, 2014, Wal-Mart’s earnings fell 3.4%, to $3.9 billion from $4.1 billion a year earlier. Per-share earnings declined 1.6%, to $1.21 from $1.23, on fewer shares outstanding. That matched the consensus estimate. Revenue rose 2.8%, to $120.1 billion from $116.8 billion, beating the consensus forecast of $119.0 billion. If you disregard unfavourable currency rates, Wal-Mart’s sales would have risen 3.4%....
Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.”. 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, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. IBM has a long history of drifting in and out of investor favour, mainly due to fear that new technologies will put it out of business. However, IBM also has long history of successfully shifting out of slowing businesses into faster-growing fields. For example, as computer prices fell in the 1990s, IBM expanded its more-profitable software and consulting operations. Later it unloaded its struggling personal computer operations, and now it’s selling its low-end server business. It will invest the proceeds in areas such as cloud computing and analytics software....
We’ve just updated and re-released one of our most popular free reports: Dividend Paying Stocks: How High Dividend Stocks Can Supercharge Your Income Investing. It’s ready for you to download now. With today’s low interest rates, investors are paying more attention to dividend yields. Dividend paying stocks are responding by doing their best to maintain, or even increase, their payouts. In fact, dividends can now contribute up to a third of your long-term investment returns, without even considering the tax-cutting effects of the dividend tax credit....
Every Monday we now feature “A Stock to Sell” as our daily post. With each sell, we give you a full explanation of why we advise against investing in these stocks. This is part of our new approach offering you buy, hold and sell advice in our daily posts. You also get “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday, “Our Top U.S. Stocks” on Thursday, and every Friday, our advice on one of the stocks that members of Pat’s Inner Circle have asked about in their weekly Question & Answer sessions. Eguana Technologies (symbol EGT on Toronto; www.eguanatech.com), formerly called Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd., makes products that convert the high-current/low-voltage (DC) electricity from solar cells into high-voltage alternating current (AC) power, which is used by power grids and most industrial and consumer electronics....
GANNETT CO., INC., $33.61, New York symbol GCI, rose 2% this week after announcing that it would spin off its publishing operations as a separate firm. The new company will keep the Gannett name and publish its flagship newspaper, USAToday, as well as 81 U.S. daily newspapers and 17 papers in the U.K. It also has over 200 magazines and other publications. In the latest quarter, these operations supplied 59% of Gannett’s revenue and 20% of its earnings. The still-unnamed remaining company (41% of revenue and 80% of earnings) will focus on Gannett’s 46 TV stations as well as its numerous Internet sites....
Every Thursday we bring you “Our Top U.S. Stocks” as our daily post. In these posts, you’ll 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 covered in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. “Our Top U.S. Stocks” is part of our new approach offering you regular buy, hold and sell advice in our daily posts. Every week you get “A Stock to Sell” on Monday, “Best Canadian Stocks” on Tuesday and on Friday, our advice on one of the stocks our Inner Circle members have asked about in their weekly Question & Answer sessions. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. (New York symbol GE; www.ge.com) saw its shares drop from $42 in 2007 to under $6 in 2009, as the financial crisis caused big losses at its banking division. In response, the company decided to shrink this business’s assets to half of what they were before the recession. It expects to complete these cuts by the end of 2014....
