Top Ten Global Personal Care Products Makers

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Personal Care Products include items that we use on a daily basis. Some of the items in this group are hair care products, deodorants, detergents, toothpaste, skin care products, band-aids, baby diapers, tissue, etc. Some of these products are necessities and consumers buy them even when the economy is down. This is one reason why stocks in this sector are good picks to ride out a recession.

In order to identify the Top 10 Companies in the Personal Care Products business I used Computerwire’s DataMonitor list. The following top ranking companies were selected based on their 2007 personal care product revenues:

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Note: Companies whose stocks are not traded in the USA are marked with N/A.

Brief Overview:

1. The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) is a Cincinnati,Ohio USA based Fortune 500 company that manufactures a wide range of consumer products and markets them in over 180 countries. P&G owns many of the world-class brands like Gillette, Olay, Pampers, Bounty, Duracell, Vicks, Folgers Coffee, Crest etc. PG has an yield of 2.6% and a P/E of 16.4. Total Revenue in 2007 was $85.0B. In the last 5 year, annual EPS growth was 14.5%.

2.Unilever PLC (UL) is one of the parent companies of the Unilever Group. Another company is Unilever N.V. (UN) based in Holland. Some of Unilever’s brands include Brooke Bond Tea, Ponds, Ben & Jerry’s, Slim Fast, Bertolli, Ragu, Lipton,Close-up, Dove, Thermasilk, etc. UL pays a dividend of 3.01% and the P/E is 10.98%.

3. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is a great American company with a wide range of products in its portfolio. JNJ is also a Dow Jones Industrial Average component. Some of JNJ’s brands are Acuvue, Band-Aid, Nicorette, Tylenol, Neutrogena, Shower to Shower, etc. S&P has a 5-star rating on JNJ. In the past 52 weeks JNJ is down just 16%. Annual dividend growth rate is 15%. In 2007, total revenues were $64.5 B.

4. Another global health and hygiene products maker is Irving, Texas-based Kimberly Clark Corp (KMB). The company makes many paper-based products including Kleenex, Cottenelle, Huggies, etc.

Total Revenues in 2007 was $19.6B. The P/E is 13.89 and the yield is 4.06%.

5. Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) is a USA-based multi-national company that is famous for the Colgate tooth paste brand worldwide. Colgate owns brands like Ajax, Colgate toothpaste, Fresh Start, Palmolive soap, etc. Similar to JNJ, CL is also a 5-star rated stock by S&P. The current yield is 2.55% and the P/E is 17.93. Annual EPS growth rate in the past 5 years is 8%.

6.New York City, USA-based Estee Lauder (EL) is a manufacturer and marketer of skin care, fragrance and hair care products. Owned brands include Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, American Beauty, Donna Karan,etc. EL has a dividend yield of 2.03%.

7. Incorporated in United Kingdom, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) is the world’s second largest drug company but also manufactures oral hygienic products, nutritional drinks, etc.GSK is a multi-national corporation with its products being sold in over 140 countries. GSK is a component of the FTSE 100 Index. Some GSK’s brands are Tagamet, Flonase, Aquafresh, etc.

The other companies in the above list Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, Kao Corporation and L’Oreal S.A. do not trade in the organized exchanges in the USA.

Five Most Traded Asian ADRs

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The following are the five most traded ADR stocks from Asia based on Daily Trading Volume:

1.Company Name: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Ticker: TSM
Country: Taiwan

2.Company Name: United Microelectronics
Ticker: UMC
Country: Taiwan

3.Company Name: BHP Billiton
Ticker: BHP
Country: Australia

4.Company Name: Focus Media
Ticker: FMCN
Country: China

5.Company Name: Baidu.com
Ticker: BIDU
Country: China

Top Healthcare Stocks for Bear Markets

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The Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index contains 50 of the largest companies by market capitalization and well known blue chip companies in the world. The seven healthcare components in this index are listed below:

Abbott Laboratories (ABT)

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK)

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Merck & Co. In (MRK)

Novartis AG (NVS)

Pfizer Inc. (PFE)

Roche Holding AG  (RHHBY)

An investor interested in gaining exposure to the healthcare sector can research these companies. Since they are some of the largest in this sector they may have lower risk profiles than other healthcare companies.

Foreign Utilities List with Current Yields

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During bear markets utility stocks used to be provide shelter for investors since they were considered to be stable, slow-growth and conservative investments. However that has changed in the past few years. These days they do not seem to offer the much-desired stability and protection that they were once known for. This is evident in the current market as well.

Year-to-date the S&P 500 is down 38.96% and the Utilities sub-sector within the index is down 29.82%. Though this is less than the S&P 500, the sector is still down around 30% for the year – which is very high for this sector. On the other hand, the best performing sector consumer-stables is down only 17.02%. On the global level, the SPDR SP International Utilities Sector ETF (IPU), started in July of this year, has a negative return of 29.09% year-to-date.

Overall though utilities have lost their former glory, they must still be an integral part of a well-diversified portfolio. Usually utilities have high yields and are long-term value plays. Some of the foreign utilities have attractive yields and are worth looking into at current levels. The following table lists all these utility stocks with their current yields:

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Note: All data is as of Nov 28 closing prices.

Half of the listed above are from Latin America. The dividends offered by the Brazilian utilities vary wildly over months. Just three companies from Europe are represented here because some of the European utilities such as E.ON (EONGY) of Germany now trade on the OTC market.

It must be noted however that many of the stocks mentioned above have fallen over 50% so far this year. So some of the current high yields may not offer consolation for investors who bought the stocks earlier at higher prices. However new investors can use the table as a starting point to do further research into the above global utility stocks.

Disclosure: Long VE

Nine Nordic ADR Stocks

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The Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland in Northern Europe. These are called as Nordic countries because they share a common history, cultural and political systems. Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for Nordic countries.

Except Iceland, the other four countries have some of their company stocks listed in the US as ADRs. The following table lists these nine ADRs:

[TABLE=10]

1. Denmark-based shipping company Dampskibsselskabet Torm (TRMD) was a top performing shipping sector stock until recently. Its vessels transport oil, iron ore and other commodities.TORM pays a dividend of 8.02% and the P/E is 1.0. The annual dividend growth over the past 5 years is 58%. After announcing earnings on Nov 21, the company announced that a special shareholder meeting is being called to approve an interim dividend of DKK 4.50 per share. TORM share price fell heavily in recent months as the Baltic Dry Index- which is an index that measures the cost to move goods between places plunged.

2. Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) is a Denmark-based healthcare company specializing in diabetes care and diabetes products. NVO has a yield of 1.84% and a P/E of 22.81. year-to-date the stock is down only about 20% since healthcare related stocks have held up pretty well in this market. The company is expanding in emerging markets like China where it is setting up a plant. Earnings have grown at 17% annually in the last 5 years.

3.The world famous Nokia (NOK) is a finnish telecom equipment maker. The company makes some of the cheapest and most efficient cell phones and markets around the world. They are especially popular in the developing countries. The current yield is 5.89% and the P/E is 6.85. Due to the current credit crisis and tough competition Nokia announced on November 27 that they will stop selling phones in Japan.4. The OTC listed,UPM-Kymmene(UPMKY) is a paper producer in Finland. The stock is down about 27% year-to-date. P/E is 24.22 and the yield is 8.14%.

5.Acergy SA (ACGY) is a seabed-to-surface engineering and construction contractor that mainly manufactures equipments and services needed by the offshore oil and gas industry. It pays a dividend of 3.67% and the P/E is 5.80. As the price of crude oil fell over 50% in the past few months, oil related stocks including Acergy fell hard. Year-to-date ACGY is down 73.96%.

6.StatoilHydro(STO) is a Norway-based integrated oil and gas producer.It used to be called Statoil ASA. After the merger with Norsk Hydro the company changed its name to Statoil Hydro. Total revenues increased annually 16.5% in the last 5 years. STO currently yields 4.80%

7.Telenor(TELNY) is a mobile telecom services provider in Norway.As the stock price fell over 77% so far this year, the dividend yield has increased to 12.47%. Annual earnings growth in the past 5 years is 42%.

8.Sweden-based Ericcson (ERIC) is an telecom equipment maker. ERIC is down 39% year-to-date. The current yield is 5.92%. Ericsson used to be a high-flying stock during the late 90s but has been mostly flat in the last 5 years.

9.Volvo AB(VOLVY) is a world-class auto and truck manufacturer. In October overall sales fell 12% year-over-year. But truck sales fell a whopping 99.7% as the company took order for just 115 trucks compared to 41,970 in the third quarter of 2007. The current yield is 20.81% and the P/E is 4.78%.