LONDON --�Remember the good old days when investors held banking shares for their safe dividend income? The financial crash shattered that. More recently, banking stocks have been a recovery play for those investors brave enough to bet that the eurozone crisis wouldn't blow up in their faces. It's been a remarkably successful bet.
But if you're hankering for a safer play on the banking sector and yearn for those reliable dividends, it's worth having a look at�HSBC� (LSE: HSBA ) (NYSE: HBC ) . After recent broker upgrades, its shares are on a prospective yield of 5%, with a 4.2% historic yield in the bag. That's well ahead of�Standard Chartered�and�Barclays,�the other two dividend-paying banks. And HSBC surely has the safest dividend in the sector.
Safety in numbers
It's not just that HSBC is the second largest company on the FTSE 100, with a market cap roughly equal to the other four banks put together. HSBC's global footprint underpins its safety. With over 6,000 offices in 80 countries, its worldwide reach provides a strong competitive advantage to capture international trade flows and service multinational corporations.
5 Best Services Stocks For 2015: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH)
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., incorporated on February 21, 2011, is a global cruise line operator, offering cruise experiences for travelers with a variety of itineraries in North America (including Alaska and Hawaii), the Mediterranean, the Baltic, Central America, Bermuda and the Caribbean. The Company offers a variety of cruises ranging from one day to three weeks. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company docked at over 125 ports worldwide, with itineraries originating from 17 ports of which ten were in North America. In June 2010, the Company took delivery of its largest cruise ship, Norwegian Epic (4,100 Berths), which offers 21 dining options.
The Company�� ships have passenger amenities, including up to 21 dining options together with hundreds of private balcony cabins on each ship. As of March 31, 2011, 48% of its cabins have private balconies. Five of its ships offer a complex of private courtyard villas, each with up to approximately 570 square feet, which provide personal butler service and access to a private courtyard area with private pools, sundeck, hot tubs, and fitness center. In addition, six of its ships have garden villas with up to 6,694 square feet. These garden villas offer three separate bedroom areas, spacious living and dining room areas, as well as around-the-clock, on-call butler and concierge service.
Norwegian Epic offers its passengers itineraries to the western and eastern Caribbean, as well as Europe. The ship offers its customers an aqua park, sports complex, two three-lane bowling alleys and its two-story Wii Wall. In addition, the ship features a spa facility and fitness center with more than 31,000 square feet. Entertainment is offered aboard Norwegian Epic with the addition of entertainment choices, including Blue Man Group, Cirque Dreams & Dinner, Legends in Concert and Nickelodeon at Sea. It offers entertainment in its jazz and blues club and its comedy club features the comedy troupe, The Second City.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Christopher Palmeri]
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH)�� three largest investors filed to sell about $600 million of their stakes after a run-up in the share price since January�� initial public offering.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
Ever since Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL ) introduced outdoor rock walls for daring climbers, cruise lines have tried to raise the stakes in attracting young passengers who can't be wooed by mere spa treatments or midnight buffets. Carnival (NYSE: CCL ) , Royal Caribbean, and the recently public Norwegian Cruise Lines (NASDAQ: NCLH ) have added zip lines, indoor bowling alleys, and even bumper cars to make sea life more appealing to young families with toddlers and young adults.
- [By Traders Reserve]
Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH) might be the ultimate toy for these managers and the timing looks perfect. The travel space is red hot. Consumer and business travelers are filling up capacity in a big way. Profits are growing and at a fast pace and yet shares of Norwegian trade for a low multiple of earnings. Analysts expect the company to grow profits by 63% in 2014.
- [By Peter Graham]
The Q3 2014 earnings report for cruise ship stock Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL), which also has a listing as Carnival plc (NYSE: CUK) and is a peer of�Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE: RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: NCLH), is scheduled to report earnings before the market opens on Tuesday (September 23rd). Aside from the Carnival Corporation earnings report, it should be said that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd reported Q2 2014 earnings on July 24th (profit rose fivefold on higher European demand) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd reported Q2 2014 earnings on July 29th (investments in new ships and fleet modernization helped earnings that beat expectations). However and the last time around when Carnival Corporation reported earnings, year over year comparisons may have been misleading because�of an embarrassing February 2013 incident when a�fire on the Carnival Triumph left the ship without power in the Gulf of Mexico and�passengers stranded aboard the stalled ship for four days until it was pulled into port by several tugboats.
Top Safest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Syntel Inc.(SYNT)
Syntel, Inc. provides information technology (IT) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services worldwide. It operates in four segments: Applications Outsourcing, KPO, e-Business, and TeamSourcing. The Applications Outsourcing segment provides software applications development, maintenance, testing, migration, and infrastructure services. The KPO segment offers a host of outsourced solutions for knowledge and business processes. It focuses on middle and back-office business processes of the transaction cycle in the capital markets, banking, healthcare, and insurance industries. The e-Business segment provides technology services in the areas of architecting, implementing, and maintaining Web solutions, data warehousing/business intelligence, enterprise application integration, business process management, and enterprise resource planning solutions. The TeamSourcing segment offers professional IT consulting services directly to customers on a staff augmentation basis. It s services include systems specification, design, development, implementation, and maintenance of complex IT applications involving computer hardware, software, data, and networking technologies and practices. Syntel, Inc. provides services to a range of companies primarily in the financial services, healthcare and life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, automotive, retail, logistics, and telecom industries. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian Pacampara]
Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, IT services specialist Syntel (NASDAQ: SYNT ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.
Top Safest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Enersys (ENS)
EnerSys manufactures, markets, and distributes industrial batteries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It offers reserve power products that are used for backup power for the continuous operation of critical applications in telecommunications systems, uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, and in other specialty power applications, including security systems; starting, lighting, and ignition applications; switchgear and electrical control systems used in electric utilities and energy pipelines; and commercial aircraft, satellites, military aircraft, submarines, ships, and tactical vehicles. The company also offers motive power products that are used to provide power for manufacturing, warehousing, and other material handling equipment, including electric industrial forklift trucks, mining equipment, and diesel locomotive starting and other rail equipment. In addition, it offers industrial battery re lated products, such as chargers, power equipment, and battery accessories, as well as provides related after-market and customer-support services. EnerSys markets and sells its reserve power batteries principally under the ABSL, ABSL Power, ABSL Space, ArmaSafePlus, Cyclon, DataSafe, Genesis, Hawker, Huada, Odyssey, Oerlikon Battery, PowerSafe, and SuperSafe brand names; and motive power batteries primarily under the Douglas Battery, Express, Fiamm Motive Power, General Battery, Hawker, Huada, and Ironclad brand names through a network of distributors, independent representatives, and its internal sales force. The company was formerly known as Yuasa, Inc. and changed its name to EnerSys in January 2001 to reflect its focus on the energy systems business. EnerSys was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
There's no foolproof way to know the future for EnerSys (NYSE: ENS ) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen -- and before your stock craters as a result.
- [By Rich Smith]
This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines feature a pair of downgrades, for toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK ) and electrical equipment maker EnerSys (NYSE: ENS ) alike. But the news isn't all bad, so before we address those two, let's take a look at why one analyst thinks that...
Top Safest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Bombardier Inc (BDRAF)
Bombardier, Inc. is a Canada-based aerospace and transportation company. The Company operates in two segments: aerospace and rail transportation. The aerospace segment is structured by market segment (business aircraft, commercial aircraft and services), which is reflective of its organizational structure. The transportation segment is structured by market segment (rolling stock, services, system and signalling), which is reflective of its organizational structure, and by geographic region (Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and Rest of world). As of December 31, 2012, the Company had 80 production and engineering sites in 26 countries, and a worldwide network of service centre. In May 2012, it launched the Learjet 70 and Learjet 75 aircraft programs. In October 2013, the Company announced that it has opened Bombardier's new wing manufacturing and assembly facility in Belfast. In December 2013, the Company sold Flexjet's activities to Flexjet, LLC. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]
Yet there is a fourth major competitor in the commercial aircraft market -- Bombardier (NASDAQOTH: BDRAF ) -- and it has its own advanced-technology airplane. The company's CSeries plane is expected to make its first flight as early as this week. Yet the CSeries put up a goose egg at the Paris Air Show, failing to notch a single order. While Bombardier has nearly 200 firm orders for the CSeries, the company will rapidly burn through that backlog once it starts CSeries mass production.
Top Safest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Teradyne Inc.(TER)
Teradyne, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides automatic test equipment products and services worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Semiconductor Test, Systems Test Group, and Wireless Test. The Semiconductor Test segment designs, manufactures, and sells semiconductor test products and services. Its test systems are used for wafer level and device package testing. These chips are used in automotive, communications, consumer, computer, and electronic game applications. This segment provides its products to integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) that integrate the fabrication of silicon wafers into their business; fabless companies, which outsource the manufacturing of silicon wafers; foundries that cater to the processing and manufacturing of silicon wafers; and outsourced sub-assembly and test providers, which offer test and assembly services for the final packaged devices to fabless companies and IDMs. It also provides Magnum test platform that test s memory devices, such as flash memory and dynamic random access memory, as well as offers ETS platform for use by semiconductor manufacturers, and assembly and test subcontractors in the low pin count analog/mixed signal discrete markets. The Systems Test Group segment offers military/aerospace test instrumentation and systems; storage test systems for HDD manufacturers; and circuit-board test and inspection systems for electronics manufacturers of cell phones, servers, computers, Internet switches, automobiles, and military avionics systems. The Wireless Test segment designs, develops, and supports wireless test solutions for developing and manufacturing wireless devices, such as smart phones, tablets, notebooks/laptops, and personal computer peripherals. This segment offers cellular communication solution for verification and calibration of mobile devices; and products for connectivity testing. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in North Reading, Massach usetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Patricio Kehoe]
The concept of diversity, when talking about a company�� activities, is a sword with two edges. When performance hits the fan, diversity can turn into an advantage as only one segment can be affected. However, diversification can curtail winnings during a moment of bonanza. In other words, a company with five segments will see a relative smaller impact in overall performance than a company with activities in a single segment, when that segment experiences an abnormal growth. Hence, with a recovering construction market in the US and declining prices for mined commodities, a comparison between Caterpillar (CAT) and Terex (TER) is all the more relevant.
- [By Sean Williams]
Teradyne (NYSE: TER ) was the third S&P 500 component turning in impressive gains, up 5% after announcing that China's Acetec Semiconductor had placed an order for 20 J750EX-HD systems capable of digital wafer sorting and final testing of mobile connectivity devices. Deals are always a good thing for Teradyne, but the unfortunate aspect of building more efficient control equipment is that it's driving down the cost of all manufacturing processes over time, which means innovate constantly or earn less money for Teradyne. However, with Teradyne's $2.80 in net cash per share and as it sits at just 10 times forward earnings, I'd be intrigued enough to suggest adding Teradyne to your Watchlist.
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is getting the wish that many index investors have been hoping would happen. In fact, many index traders were expecting that Facebook would be added to the S&P 500 index a year ago. The S&P Indices group announced late on Wednesday that Facebook will replace the Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) in the S&P 500. It was also announced that Facebook shares will replace The Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) in the S&P 100. The Williams Company will remain in the S&P 500.
- [By Steven Russolillo and Chris Dieterich Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Facebook]
The Menlo Park, Calif. company will join the broad stock index after the close of trading on Dec. 20, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced late Wednesday. Facebook will replace chip-testing equipment maker Teradyne Inc.(TER)
Top Safest Companies To Watch In Right Now: Sector Spdr Trust Sbi (XLI)
Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Industrial Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index (the Index). The Index includes companies from industries, such as aerospace and defense, building products, construction and engineering, electrical equipment, conglomerates, machinery, commercial services and supplies.
The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing investment approach to invest in a portfolio of stocks that seek to replicate the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is SSgA Funds Management, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
The�Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR�(XLY) has dropped 1.1% to $60.39, while the�Financial Select Sector SPDR(XLF) is off 0.9% at $20.23.� Hardest hit is the�Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU), which has dropped 1.6% to $37.32, while the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI) has fallen 1% to $46.49. The�Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) is the top performer: It�� down 0.5% at $32.39.
- [By Selena Maranjian]
Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you'd like to add some industrial stocks to your portfolio, the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLI ) could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously.
The basics
ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The SPDR ETF's expense ratio -- its annual fee -- is a very low 0.18%, and it recently yielded about 2%.
This ETF has performed well, outstripping the world market over the past three, five, and 10 years. As with most investments, of course, we can't expect outstanding performances in every quarter or year. Investors with conviction need to wait for their holdings to deliver. - [By Ben Levisohn]
The selling today has being driven by the industrial sector–the Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI) has dropped 1.5% to $45.79–and defense stocks are getting hammered. Textron (TXT) has fallen 3% to $26.82, while Northrop Grumman (NOC) has declined 2.5% to $92.82. Not a surprise as reports of government contracts being held up and orders delayed make the rounds.
- [By L.A. Little]
That leaves just the S&P 500 as the lone survivor of the slow meltdown, yet if one looks to the sectors that comprise the S&P 500, you would be hard pressed to find anything that looks able to push it higher. Of the three major sectors, the Industrial sector (XLI) �has come off the highs with volume expansion; has failed to regenerate higher; and has its own set of twin swing-point lows clustered just below current price.
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