Five Foreign Stocks Yielding More than 6%

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Foreign stocks usually pay higher dividends. Five of the foreign ADRs that pay more than 6% dividends as of market close on November 20th are listed below:

1. Company: Torm A/S (TRMD)
Sector: Shipping
Country: Denmark
Current Dividend Yield: 13.38%

Please Note: I made a typo on the ticker for Torm A/S. The correct ticker is TRMD and not TORM as stated earlier.

2. Company: Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Provida SA (PVD)
Sector: Investment Services
Country: Chile
Current Dividend Yield: 8.31%

3. Company: Magyar Telekom Nyrt (MTA)
Sector: Telecom
Country: Hungary
Current Dividend Yield: 8.89%

4. Company: Hellenic Telecommunication Organisation SA (OTE)
Sector: Telecom
Country: Greece
Current Dividend Yield: 6.38%

5. Company: Telecom New Zealand (NZTCY)
Sector: Telecom
Country: New Zealand
Current Dividend Yield: 9.90%

It must be noted however that tax treatments of foreign company dividends may vary depending on the reciprocal tax treaties with the U.S.

Denmark-based TORM was hit pretty hard during the credit crunch last year when global trade collapsed.However in the long-term value and pays consistently high dividends.The traditional telecom companies listed above also have high yields with Telecom New Zealand offering nearly 10%.

14 Non-U.S Companies from the NASDAQ 100 Index

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Many foreign companies are listed in the NASDAQ market. A few of them are part of the NASDAQ 100 Index which is the main index of this market.

Definition of NASDAQ-100 Index from Wikipedia:

“The NASDAQ-100 is a stock market index of 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ. It is a modified market value-weighted index. The companies’ weights in the index are based on their market capitalizations, with certain rules capping the influence of the largest components. It does not contain financial companies, and includes companies incorporated outside the United States. Both of those factors differentiate it from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the exclusion of financial companies distinguishes it from the S&P; 500 Index.”

The 14 foreign incorporated companies included in the NASDAQ 100 are:

  • Bermuda – Marvell Technology Group (MRVL)
  • Canada – Research In Motion (RIMM)
  • Cayman Islands – Garmin Ltd.(GRMN) and Seagate Technology (STX)
  • China – Baidu (BIDU)
  • India – Infosys (INFY)
  • Ireland – Ryanair (RYAAY) and Warner Chilcott (WCRX)
  • Israel – Check Point (CHKP) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (TEVA)
  • Luxembourg – Millicom International Cellular (MICC)
  • Singapore – Flextronics (FLEX)
  • Switzerland – Foster Wheeler (FWLT) and Logitech (LOGI)

A brief intro on some of the companies:

RIMM is the Canadian company that makes the famous Blackberry wireless handheld devices. Baidu is a search engine company and is called the “Google of China”. Infosys is one of the top IT outsourcers in India. Ireland-based Ryan Air operates cheap discount flights in Europe competing against other discount carries such as EasyJet. Teva is a generic drugs maker based in Israel. Security software maker Checkpoint used to be a hi-flier during the dot com era.

The 10 Most Valuable U.S. Retail Brands

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The list of 50 Most Valuable U.S. Retail Brands was published by Interbrand earlier this year. The Top 10 of these brands are listed below:

[TABLE=249]

Brand valuation methodology:

“All contenders for the list must qualify as follows: the brand must be a market-facing
brand, with publicly available financial data, and positive Economic Value Added
(EVA). Interbrand determines brand value the same way analysts value other assets:
on the basis of how much they’re likely to earn in the future.”

The Top 3 brands are Wal-Mart (WMT),  Best Buy (BBY) and Home Depot (HD).  WalMart’s Sam’s Club unit is the 10th most valuable brand in the country.

Invest in Europe’s Largest Companies via ETFs

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The SPDR DJ Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (FEZ) and SPDR DJ Stoxx 50 ETF (FEU) offer exposure to some of the largest companies in Europe. FEZ is the largest of the two funds with an asset base of $166M.

1.The SPDR DJ Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (FEZ)
FEZ tracks the performance of the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 index. This index represents 50 blue-chip companies in the Eurozone which excludes the UK. As of October close, the fund is up 19.10%. Financials comprise about 31% of the portfolio. Some of the top 10 holdings include Eni (E), BNP Paribas (OTC: BNPQY), Total(TOT) and BBVA (BBV).

2. The SPDR DJ Stoxx 50 ETF (FEU)
This ETF tries to replicate the performance of the Dow Jones Stoxx 50 index index. The UK is included in this index. The total assets in this ETF is $56M which is much lower than that of the Euro Stoxx 50 ETF – FEZ. The expense ratio is 0.29% and the dividend yield is 5.05% . The financial sector accounts for 28% of the fund. In addition to the Euro Zone companies, FEZ includes top British companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Vodafone (VOD), BP (BP) and HSBC Holdings (HBC).

As investors have correctly identified with pouring more assets into FEZ, the Euro Stoxx ETF is a better option than Stoxx ETF since FEZ excludes the UK. As the British economy is suffering much more than than the countries of Continental Europe, it is likely that UK will lag in economic recovery. Already the export-oriented German economy is picking up and the unemployment level has been decreasing for the past four months. Italy, Spain and France have also held up strong during the recent global financial crisis.