Defense sector can add some stability and provide diversification to a portfolio.Usually defense stocks tend to provide safety when markets are volatile.
The following are two defense sector plays from UK:
1.Company: BAE SYSTEMS
Ticker: BAESY
Dividend Yield: 3.4 %
YTD Change: -5.27%
2.Company: Rolls Royce
Ticker: RYCEY
Dividend Yield: 4.3 %
YTD Change: -25.23%
Cheers !!!
E.ON held its AGM in Essen on April 20,2008. In this meeting the board proposed to:
1.Increase dividend by 22%
2.Split EON stock at the ratio of 3:1
The record date for the stock split has NOT been announced yet.
EON shares performed very well last year beating the DAX and the European Utilities Index.EON stock grew by 42% in 2007.
From Reuters:
“Shares in German utility E.ON are up 2.3 percent, outperforming Frankfurt’s top-30 DAX index after the group’s 2007 results beat expectations.
Investors also cheer E.ON’s higher than expected dividend — 4.10 euros per share — and a share split, traders say. “Key figures for 2007 were above our estimates and above consensus estimates,” DZ Bank analyst Mario Kristl says in a note.
“We see E.ON still on track. Due to the high power prices throughout Europe the company should continue to reach significant operating increase rates,” says Kristl, who rates the stock “buy” with a fair value of 155 euros.”
For more details goto:
1. EON IR site
2. Eurex EON AG stock split circular: eon-ag-stock-split.pdf
The latest issue of BusinessWeek has the Euro 50 list for this year. This list represents the top 50 European companies based on many factors such as profitability, sales growth,innovation, etc. These were picked from the S&P Europe 350 constituents which represent 350 of the big firms in Europe.
Out of this top 50 list, only 19 of them are available in the US as depository receipts for US investors. The table below lists those stocks:
[TABLE=53]
More info can be found here
Veolia Environnement (VE) is a French Utility company with over 300K employees.It operates in water,environmental,transportation and energy segments.Public transportation is heavily encouraged and utilised in France. VE operates in this profitable business such as the railway, airport facilities maintenance and services.
The stock has performed very well over the past 5 years as shown in the chart below. Recently it has fallen from nearly $100 to $72 due to the overall market conditions.Over the past 1 year the stock has been flat to down.
5 Year Chart:
Details:
Company: Veolia Environnement
Country: France
Ticker: VE
Dividend Yield: 4.5%
– Part of S&P; ADR Index.
The following table lists the upcoming dividends in the month of June for a select few ADR stocks including the ones that are traded in the OTC exchange:
[TABLE=52]
