High speed rail networks continue to grow in countries around the world. Technological advancements have also led to pushing the speed higher and higher. As of 2021, the top speed in high-speed rail is in China with a maximum speed of 350 km/hr according to the Atlas High-Speed Rail 2022 report published by the International Union of Railways (UIC). Japan, the original high-speed champion, France and Morocco are second with a max speed of 320 km/hr. Many other countries including Spain, Italy, etc. have speeds of 300 km/hr or more.
Maximum Speed of High-Speed Rail Network by Country 2021:
The simple and easy way to invest in Eurozone blue chips is with an ETF that tracks the The EURO STOXX 50® Index. This index represents the 50 largest companies in the Eurozone countries based on free-float market cap. The companies include the major sectors such as technology, banks, industrial goods, consumer good, chemicals, etc. The following chart shows the sectors and the country weighting:
The SPDR® EURO STOXX 50® ETF (FEZ) tracks the Euro Stoxx 50 index. Currently the fund has an asset of $1.90 Billion and a gross expense ratio of 0.29%. In line with the overall market, the fund is down 17% YTD. Over the past 5 years it has been a poor performer with a loss of 2%.
For investors interested in individual stocks, the tickers of the top 10 in the ETF are listed below:
The tech industry is not known for many stocks paying a dividend. Accordingly, most investors would not consider the industry when hunting for dividend growth stocks. However there are exceptions. According to an article by Algy Hall at CityWire, semiconductor maker Texas Instruments(TXN) is a winner. The stock has grown its dividend by an astonishing 4,900% in the past two decades thru October 5th of this year. Below is a brief excerpt from the piece:
For semiconductor maker Texas Instruments (US:TXN), returning cash to shareholders has become a source of immense pride. It’s easy to understand why.
Over the past two decades, the company has grown its dividend by an incredible 4,853%, from 8.5 cents a share in 2002 to $4.21 last year. The payout has risen in each of the last 18 years, helped by plentiful buybacks which have nearly halved the share count over the same period.
One of the products that helps the company rack in millions of dollars each year is the good old analog calculator specifically the TI-84 graphing calculator that is used by high school students. Despite hardly any changes in its features in the past 10 years, the TI-84 was the top selling calculator according to an article at The Washington Post back in 2014. Currently the calculator sells for over $100 a pop.
Texas Instruments currently has a marker cap of $154 billion. The stock closed at $169.55 on Friday and has an annual dividend yield of 2.93%. Though the company has reduced the number of outstanding shares, its still has 907 million of shares outstanding. A $10K investment would have grown to $20,315 by Dec 10th, 2022 according to S&P.
The stock price has declined by 11% year-to-date. In the last 5 years it has increased by 63% as shown in the chart below:
We are not out of the current bear market yet. So investors looking to enter the semiconductor industry may want to keep an eye out for Texan Instruments.
