The following three foreign stocks look very cheap now:
1.Company: Westpac Banking Corp.
Ticker: WBK
Country: Australia
Sector: Banking
Yield: 6.39%
2.Company: Veolia Environnement SA.
Ticker: VE
Country: France
Sector: Multi-Utility
Yield: 2.83%
3.Company: ERSTE BANK DER OEST SP
Ticker: EBKDY
Country: Austria
Sector: Banking
Yield: 1.72%
In this post, lets review the Argentina ADR stocks listed in the US.
Argentina survived a severe economic crisis in 2001-02.After 2002, the country started to recover slowly.The country is blessed with abundant natural resources and has an export-oriented economy. Most of the people are literate and Argentina has the largest European population in South America.
The following table lists the ADRs of Argentina. Important details such as the current yield are provided as well.
[TABLE=56]
Note: All data is as of June 10,2008
Argentina is a beautiful country and is popular among seasoned travelers.More information on tourism can be found here.
Photo: World’s Widest Street, Buenos Aires
Credit: www.art.com
There are only four Belgium stocks listed in the US.Out of these, two stocks that are worth looking into are listed below:
1.Company: Delhaize Group
Ticker: DEG
Price per share: $77.92
Dividend Yield: 2.86%
Delhaize is a food retailer which usually has very low margin. The stock performance over the past 5 years has been average and the chart looks ok.There are other better opportunities in the food sector.
2.Company: Solvay SA
Ticker: SVYSY
Price per share: $154.50
Dividend Yield: 3.66%
Note: All stock data is as of June 6, 2008
Solvay operates in the Chemicals,Plastics and Pharmaceutical sector.1st quarter 2008 results announced last month showed pretty much flat numbers when compared with 1Q2007.For 26 years Solvay has increased dividend payments when possible and has never reduced it.The current yield is very good for a chemical company.
Both Delhaize and Solvay are part of the Belgium ETF discussed below.
One can also invest in Belgium by the ETF route. ishares Belgium ETF (EWK) has about $253+ Mil.assets and an expense ratio 0.51%.
EWK is HEAVILY concentrated with financial stocks making up over 60% of portfolio.So caution is warranted before investing in this ETF.Over 5 years the ETF has an annualized return of about 27.5%.
Gerdau S.A. (GGB), the Brazilian steel maker, has announced a stock split on May 30th,2008.
Split Details
Company: Gerdau S.A.
Ticker: GGB
Country: Brazil
Current Price/Shr:$50.42 (As of June 7,2008)
Split Ratio: 1:2
Record Date: June 17,2008
Ex-Date:June 20,2008
GGU has a yield of 0.68% and has grown over 125% over the past 52 weeks. A $10,000 invested 5 years ago in GGB would be worth $280,690 on June 5,2008. (Source: S&P Quantitative Stock Report)
Infrastructure related stocks are attractive these days due to the huge infrastructure build up that is happening in emerging market economies like India, China, Brazil,Eastern Europe etc. China and India are building roads, railroads,bridges,tunnels,etc. at an incredible pace.In addition there is also huge construction boom in the residential and commercial real estate sector.All this constructions require one important ingredient: Cement.Cement is in high demand world-wide and companies producing them are raising prices in some countries and making cement as much as they can. So in this post, we profile three cement ADR stocks.
1.Company: Cemex SAB de C.V.
Country: Mexico
Ticker: CX
Price per share: $ 28.02
Cemex is the 3rd largest cement manufacturing company in the world with factories in 50 countries.It was selected as one of the top global investment ideas for 2008 by BusinessWeek back in January.
The company will pay a stock dividend soon to shareholders as per the news released on June 4th.Details can he found here.
Recently Cemex acquired the Rinker group of Australia.
2.Company: LaFarge
Country: France
Ticker: LFRGY
Price per share: $ 42.90
Dividend Yield: 3.58%
LaFarge is cement and related construction products maker.Recently it acquired the concrete division from L&T; in India to gain a strong foothold in the growing cement industry there.LaFarge was founded in 1833 and has over 90K employees today.
The stock has been flat for the past 52 weeks.LaFarge increased the annual dividend by 33% over last year’s back in May.Cement accounts for 54% of sales.net Income for 2007 increased by 41% over 2006.
From corporate site:” Expansion of emerging markets Emerging markets drive global growth in the sector. Around the world, cement production is increasing by 5% per year. This means 100 million additional tons of cement is being consumed every year.
This growth is predominantly driven by urban and demographic development in emerging markets. 80% of the global demand for cement comes from these markets! In these countries, the cement market is growing at a significantly faster rate than the general economy.
Lafarge is positioning itself as a leading player in this context.”
Note: All data as of June 6th, 2008
