Jeffrey Immelt wants General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) (32, GE ) to be the prime choice for greenie investors. This has been his ambition for a while; FORBES described it in a cover story three years ago. He is way too late to this party, and in any event most of his company's revenue sources have nothing to do with saving the planet. But ge is still a great firm, and it's soon to be a great stock. Dominant in pretty much everything it does, GE has nonetheless lagged the global stock market since 2004 and is down 23% since last fall. That's because Immelt missed earnings expectations in what the media described as GE's worst blowup since 1987. That year, by the way, was a great time to buy GE.
The unpleasant earnings surprise is a small blip in GE's century-long growth story, and this is a good stock for the megacap era I expect over the next few years. It costs 13 times 2008 earnings and yields 3.7%.
The Finnish handset maker Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) (28, nok ) is a megacap, with a $112 billion market valuation. It has pretty well wiped out its competitive threats, one after another. Years ago those threats included Qualcomm (nasdaq: QCOM - news - people ), with its cdma channel-access technology, Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ), Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people ) and more. Since 1999 they have all shrunk in importance, while Nokia has tripled in size. There is more ahead, but in the correction Nokia's stock melted. It's down 25% this year.
The world's cell phone explosion is far from over. Nokia will be the prime beneficiary. Now, at 1.4 times annual revenue, at ten times 2008 earnings and with a 2.7% dividend yield, it's a buy.
Last on this month's list of premier megacaps is Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) (23, INTC ). This $137 billion (market value) firm is far and away the world's largest and leading chipmaker. You can get it for only 16 times 2008 earnings. It yields 2.3%--better than the S&P 500 index. How many premier-quality technology companies can you find that yield more than the market average?
The unpleasant earnings surprise is a small blip in GE's century-long growth story, and this is a good stock for the megacap era I expect over the next few years. It costs 13 times 2008 earnings and yields 3.7%.
The Finnish handset maker Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) (28, nok ) is a megacap, with a $112 billion market valuation. It has pretty well wiped out its competitive threats, one after another. Years ago those threats included Qualcomm (nasdaq: QCOM - news - people ), with its cdma channel-access technology, Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ), Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people ) and more. Since 1999 they have all shrunk in importance, while Nokia has tripled in size. There is more ahead, but in the correction Nokia's stock melted. It's down 25% this year.
The world's cell phone explosion is far from over. Nokia will be the prime beneficiary. Now, at 1.4 times annual revenue, at ten times 2008 earnings and with a 2.7% dividend yield, it's a buy.
Last on this month's list of premier megacaps is Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) (23, INTC ). This $137 billion (market value) firm is far and away the world's largest and leading chipmaker. You can get it for only 16 times 2008 earnings. It yields 2.3%--better than the S&P 500 index. How many premier-quality technology companies can you find that yield more than the market average?
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