Updating ALCOA INC., PETSMART INC., TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC.

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ALCOA INC. $8.27 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $9.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) has completed the sale of its Tapoco hydroelectric dams in Tennessee and North Carolina. These facilities supply power to Alcoa’s nearby aluminum smelter. The company recently shut down parts of the smelter, so it no longer needs this power. Alcoa received $600 million, or 7% of its market cap, for the Tapoco assets. The company did not say what it would do with the cash, but it could use it to pay down its long-term debt of $8.4 billion. Alcoa is a buy. PETSMART INC. $69 (Nasdaq symbol PETM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 108.2 million; Market cap: $7.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.petm.com) operates 1,269 pet stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also has 195 in-store PetsHotels, which look after pets while…