Use these ADRs to tap foreign growth

Article Excerpt

American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) are certificates held by a designated U.S. bank and representing a stock that trades on a foreign exchange. ADRs make its easier for investors to hold some of the world’s biggest companies such as Japan’s Toyota, Honda and Canon (see box). We see two of those three ADRs as buys for you right now. TOYOTA MOTOR CO. ADRs $135 is a buy. The stock (New York symbol TM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs o/s: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $189.0 billion; P.S. ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.toyota.com) gives you exposure to the world’s largest automaker. In its fiscal 2020 third quarter, ended December 31, 2019, Toyota sold 2.20 million vehicles. That’s down 3.8% from a year earlier. Lower sales in the company’s biggest markets drove the decline: Japan sales were down 8.7% on higher sales tax; North American sales slipped 1.8%; and Asia (excepting Japan) was down 12.5%. However, sales improved 6.0% in Europe…