Topic: How To Invest

What is your opinion about Siemens? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Siemens AG (ADR), $138.23, symbol SI on New York (Shares outstanding: 873.8 million; Market cap: $120.8 billion; www.siemens.com) is a German company that makes a wide variety of products, including power-generation systems and products that help industrial clients automate certain functions. Its health-care division makes products that range from hearing aids to diagnostic lab tests and medical-imaging devices. The company also operates an insurance business. Siemens is one of the biggest suppliers in the alternative energy generation market, with a presence in both wind and nuclear. It has a joint venture with Nokia to supply networking equipment. Siemens trades at just 14 times its latest 12-months earnings, and yields 2.7%. Huge, widely diversified conglomerates like Siemens tend to gain from a sustained economic recovery. However, their complex business structures do sometimes harbour unpleasant surprises for many years before those surprises come out in the open and hurt their profits and stock prices. But not all conglomerates suffer from these hidden risks,…