Monday, August 18, 2014

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014

General Motors announced today that it will invest nearly $1.3 billion in five plants for upgrades to produce components including new-generation V-6 engine and a 10-speed transmission.

GM said in announcing the spending that more details on the new engine and automatic transmission would be coming later. It likely would be the first 10-speed transmission.

While 6, 7 and 8 speeds increasingly in common use to improve fuel mileage, Jeep and Land Rover just rolled out the first production 9-speed automatics. GM will see that and raise it one with its new gearbox.

The plants getting the upgrades are located in Detroit, Flint and Romulus, Mich.; Toledo, Ohio and Bedford, Ind. and GM says the spending also will create or retain about 1,000 jobs.

While the headline items are the new, more fuel-efficient V-6 and 10-speed transmission, the updates also will support production of an existing 6-speed transmission and pay for plant improvements, including a new paint shop and logistics center, GM says.

Hot Regional Bank Stocks To Buy Right Now: Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (KMP)

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. operates as a pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. Its Products Pipelines segment delivers gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and natural gas liquids to various markets through approximately 8,600 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines; and operates 62 associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix processing facilities. The company�s Natural Gas Pipelines segment gathers, transports, stores, treats, processes, and sells natural gas through approximately 33,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and gathering lines, as well as natural gas storage, treating, and processing facilities. Its CO2 segment produces, markets, and transports carbon dioxide through approximately 1,500 miles of pipelines to oil fields. This segment also owns and operates 7 oil fields, and a 450 mile crude oil pipeline system in west Texas. The company�s Terminals segment transloads, stores, and delivers bulk, petroleum, petrochemical, and other liquids products through approximately 113 liquids and bulk terminal facilities; and approximately 35 rail transloading and materials handling facilities. Its Kinder Morgan Canada segment transports crude oil and refined petroleum products through approximately 2,500 miles of pipelines from Alberta, Canada to marketing terminals and refineries in British Columbia, the state of Washington, and the Rocky Mountains, as well as in the central regions of the United States. This segment also operates the Jet Fuel aviation turbine fuel pipeline that serves the Vancouver (Canada) International Airport. Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc. serves as the general partner of the company. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Callum Turcan]

    To keep servicing America's growing NGL output, Targa Resources formed a joint venture with Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  ) to construct a new fractionation facility at Mont Belvieu, Texas. The purpose of the new facility will be to service the additional NGL coming down from the Utica and Marcellus�shale via the Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline.

  • [By Robert Rapier]

    The index includes everything from behemoths like Enterprise Product Partners (NYSE: EPD) and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) down to a pair with market capitalizations under $1 billion in Martin Midstream Partners (NASDAQ: MMLP) and Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE: NMM). The total market cap of the index is $328 billion, and its one-, three- and five-year total returns are 20 percent, 48 percent and 194 percent. The index yield is 6 percent.

  • [By Aimee Duffy]

    Foolish takeaway
    It was no doubt an exceptional quarter for Plains All American. The company joins American midstream peers Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  ) and Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD  ) with investor-friendly first-quarter results. KMP increased distributable cash flow by $88 million, while EPD provided a coverage ratio of 1.5 times distributions. Yield hungry investors will want to take a closer look at these three opportunities, as all are sporting yields above 4%. Year-to-date unit price growth for the group stands at or above 9%, with Plains leading the way with just shy of a 30% return.

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Synopsys Inc (SNPS)

Synopsys, Inc., incorporated in 1986, is engaged in providing technology solutions used to develop electronics and electronic systems. It supplies the electronic design automation (EDA) software that engineers use to design, create prototypes for and test integrated circuits, also known as chips. It also supplies software and hardware used to develop the systems that incorporate integrated circuits and the software that runs on those integrated circuits. Its intellectual property (IP) products are pre-designed circuits that engineers use as components of larger chip designs rather than redesigning those circuits themselves. It also provides technical services to support its solutions and it help its customers develop chips and electronic systems. Its products and services are organized into four groups: Core EDA (which includes the Galaxy Design Platform, the Discovery Verification Platform and its Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) design products); IP and System-Level Solutions; Manufacturing Solutions and Professional Services. In July 2012, it acquired Ciranova. In October 2012, it acquired EVE. On November 30, 2012, the Company acquired SpringSoft. In February 2014, Synopsys Inc completed the acquisition of Target Compiler Technologies.

On September 2, 2010, the Company acquired Virage Logic Corporation. In October 2010, the Company acquired Optical Research Associates. In September 2011, the Company acquired nSys Design Systems Private Limited (nSys). In October 2011, the Company acquired Extreme DA. In January 2012, the Company acquired ExpertIO, Inc. In February 2012, the Company acquired Magma Design Automation Inc.

Core EDA products

The Company offers a number of Core EDA products to address the process. Its Core EDA products fall into the suites, which included the Galaxy Design Platform, which includes tools to design an integrated circuit; the Discovery Verification Platform, which includes tools to verify that an integrated circuit behaves! as intended, and the FPGA design products. Its Galaxy Design Platform provides its customers with a single, integrated chip design solution, which includes individual products and incorporates common libraries and consistent timing, delay calculation and constraints throughout the design process. The platform allows designers the flexibility to integrate internally-developed and third-party tools. With this advanced functionality, common foundation and flexibility, its Galaxy Design Platform reduces design times; decrease integration costs and minimize the risks inherent in advanced, integrated circuit designs. Its products span both digital and analog/mixed-signal designs.

The products included in the Galaxy Design Platform are the IC Compiler physical design solution, Design Compiler logic synthesis product, Galaxy Custom Designer physical design solution for analog/mixed-signal designs, PrimeTime/PrimeTime SI timing analysis products, StarRC product for extraction, and the Hercules and IC Validator physical verification product family. The Lynx Design System is a production-ready chip implementation environment that combines a Galaxy-based design flow, graphical user interface (GUI)-based runtime automation, design metrics capture and reporting, and utilities that automate the configuration of pre-validated foundry data. The Lynx Design System helps customers improve their productivity and optimally deploy Synopsys tools and methodologies.

The Company�� Discovery Verification Platform is an integrated portfolio of functional, analog/mixed-signal, formal and low-power verification products. The platform includes its simulation and verification products and design-for-verification methodologies, and provides a consistent control environment to help improve the speed, breadth and accuracy of its customers��verification efforts. The Discovery Verification Platform�� components support industry standards and span both digital and analog/mixed-signal designs. The principa! l product! s included in the Discovery Verification Platform are the VCS comprehensive RTL verification solution, Formality formal verification sign-off solution, NanoSim FastSPICE circuit simulation and analysis product, high-speed interface module (HSIM) hierarchical FastSPICE circuit simulation and analysis product, HSPICE circuit simulator, and CustomSim circuit simulation solution. FPGAs are chips that can be customized or programmed to perform a specific function after they are manufactured.

Intellectual Property (IP) and System-Level Solutions

Synopsys is a provider of high-quality, silicon-proven IP solutions for system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The broad DesignWare IP portfolio includes high quality solutions for widely used interfaces such as universal serial bus (USB), PCI Express, double data rate (DDR), Ethernet, serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI). In addition, Synopsys offers analog IP for high-definition video, analog-to-digital data conversion and audio. With its recent acquisition of Virage Logic Corporation, we added embedded memories, including static random access memory (SRAMs) and non-volatile memory, logic libraries, embedded test and repair IP and configurable processor cores, to its IP portfolio.

Synopsys has a portfolio of tools, models and services for the system-level design of SoCs. Primary system-level products include Platform Architect for architectural optimization, SPW and System Studio for algorithm design, Processor Designer for custom processor design, and Synphony Model and C Compiler for High Level Synthesis. In addition to these tools for the system-level design of SoCs, its portfolio includes prototyping tools for hardware verification, software development and hardware-software integration. With FPGA-based prototyping systems (HAPS), designers can speed embedded software development by three to six months with near real runtime speeds and real world interfaces, such as its pre-t! ested Des! ignWare IP components. The HAPS hardware systems are a modular, scalable and accurate way to model a chip. Its virtual prototyping solutions enable software engineers to start SoC and application software up to twelve months before traditional methods.

Manufacturing Solutions

The Company�� Manufacturing Solutions products and technologies address this problem by introducing manufacturability and yield considerations early in the design process, thereby improving yields. Some of its Manufacturing Solutions address mask-making and yield enhancement of very small-geometry integrated circuits, as well as high-level modeling of physical effects within the integrated circuit. Its Manufacturing Solutions include the Technology-CAD (TCAD) device modeling products, Proteus OPC optical proximity correction (OPC) products, CATS mask data preparation product and yield management solutions, including odyssey and recipe manager and editor (RME), and yield explorer.

Professional Services and Training

Synopsys provides consulting and design services that address all phases of the SoC development process. These services assist Synopsys customers with new tool and methodology adoption, chip architecture and specification development, functional and low power design and verification, and physical implementation and signoff. It also provides a range of expert training and workshops on its latest tools and methodologies.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Anna Prior]

    Synopsys Inc.'s(SNPS) fiscal fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled on a top-line increase driven by growth in the company’s time-based license revenue. However, the company’s guidance for the current quarter came in below Wall Street expectations.

  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Calling all cash flows
    When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: MEDIFAST INC(MED)

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, and sale of weight management and disease management products, and other consumable health and diet products in the United States. The company?s product lines include weight and disease management, meal replacement, and vitamins. It also operates weight control centers that offer Medifast programs for weight loss and maintenance, customized patient counseling, and inbody composition analysis. The company markets its products under the Medifast and Essential brand names, including shakes, appetite suppression shakes, women?s health shakes, diabetics shakes, joint health shakes, coronary health shakes, calorie burn drinks, calorie burn flavor infusers, antioxidant shakes, antioxidant flavor infusers, bars, crunch bars, soups, chili, oatmeal, pudding, scrambled eggs, hot cocoa, cappuccino, chai latte, iced teas, fruit drinks, pretzels, puffs, brownie, pancakes, soy crisps, crackers, and omega 3 and digestive health products. Medifast Inc. sells its products through various channels of distribution comprising Web, call center, independent health advisors, medical professionals, weight loss clinics, and direct consumer marketing supported via the phone and the Web; Take Shape for Life, a physician led network of independent health coaches; and weight control centers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Shares of Weight Watchers have gained 23% to $24.36 at 11:27 a.m., while NutriSystem (NTRI) has gained 2.4% to $15.36 and Medifast (MED) has dropped 1.6% to $31.15.

  • [By Robert Hanley]

    Consumer-goods marketer Blyth (NYSE: BTH  ) , owner of weight-loss upstart ViSalus, has been in the doghouse lately, sitting near a 52-week low due to poor results in its weight-loss unit.� Despite a large potential customer base of overweight people worldwide, the industry has had difficulty generating growth lately, with data provider Marketdata Enterprises estimating that industry sales rose only 1.7% in 2012.� However, Blyth caught a bid in late October from a proposed combination with marketing-services provider CVSL, indicating that some people see incremental value in Blyth's businesses.�So, should small investors bet on this small cap or should they focus their attention on Weight watchers International (NYSE: WTW  ) and Medifast (NYSE: MED  ) instead?

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Medifast (NYSE: MED) is expected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.36 per share on revenue of $80.83 million.

    Full House Resorts (NASDAQ: FLL) is estimated to post a Q4 loss at $0.06 per share on revenue of $33.24 million.

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Ingles Markets Incorporated(IMKTA)

Ingles Markets, Incorporated operates a supermarket chain in the southeast United States. Its supermarkets offer food products, including grocery, meat and dairy products, produce, frozen foods, and other perishables; and non-food products, such as fuel, pharmacy products, health and beauty care products, and general merchandise, as well as provides private label items. The company?s stores also offer products and services, such as home meal replacement items, delicatessens, bakeries, floral departments, video rental departments, and greeting cards, as well as a selection of organic, beverage, and health-related items. In addition, it engages in the fluid dairy processing and shopping center rental businesses. The company operates 203 supermarkets, including 74 in Georgia, 69 in North Carolina, 36 in South Carolina, 21 in Tennessee, 2 in Virginia, and 1 in Alabama. As of September 24, 2011, it operated 74 in-store pharmacies and 70 fuel centers; owned and operated 70 shop ping centers of which 58 contain an Ingles supermarket; and owned 94 additional properties that contain a free-standing Ingles store; and owned 13 undeveloped sites. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Ingles Markets (NASDAQ: IMKTA  ) will release its quarterly report on Monday, and investors have been pleased to see shares of the regional grocery-store chain rise to levels not seen since before the financial crisis. Yet from its vantage in the Southeastern U.S., Ingles Markets has to be concerned about the impact that Kroger's (NYSE: KR  ) proposed buyout of Harris Teeter (NYSE: HTSI  ) might have on the competitive landscape in the region, with a potential threat to Ingles' future prospects looming over the company's stock.

  • [By Geoff Gannon]

    To understand a grocer ��any grocer ��it helps to have an understanding of the industry. Of all the real life ways different species of grocers differ. It helps to be able to look at Arden and Village and Ingles (IMKTA). It helps to see three different approaches. And see which elements of each work and which don��.

  • [By Russ Krull]

    Ingles Markets (NASDAQ: IMKTA  ) rang up $700 million from 10-year, 5.75% high-yield notes. The money will fund a tender offer for all $575 million of its 2017 8.75% notes. At the tender offer price, retiring all the existing debt will cost about $600 million, and the deal will save Ingles about $10 million per year in debt service. Any money left after paying for the tender offer goes "to repay certain other debt, to fund capital expenditures and for general corporate purposes."

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: The Travelers Companies Inc.(TRV)

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Business Insurance; Financial, Professional, and International Insurance; and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers property and casualty products and services, such as commercial multi-peril, property, general liability, commercial auto, and workers? compensation insurance. It operates in six groups: Select Accounts, which serves small businesses; Commercial Accounts that serves mid-sized businesses; National Accounts, which serves large companies; Industry-Focused Underwriting that serves targeted industries; Target Risk Underwriting, which serves commercial businesses requiring specialized product underwriting, claims handling, and risk management services; and Special ized Distribution that offers products to customers through licensed wholesale, general, and program agents. The Financial, Professional, and International Insurance segment provides surety and financial liability coverage, which uses a credit-based underwriting process; and property and casualty products primarily in the United States., the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals. It distributes its products through independent agents, sponsoring organizations, joint marketing arrangements with other insurers, and direct marketing. The company was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Dan Caplinger]

    Despite the Dow's overall losses, though, a few Dow stocks have posted gains. Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) is rising after a report from Fitch Ratings noted favorable trends in earnings throughout the property and casualty insurance sector. With past-year catastrophic events having helped companies boost premiums while loss experiences more recently have become favorable, Travelers and its industry peers have seen loss ratios plunge, boosting profits. The insurance industry tends to run in cycles like this, so investors shouldn't expect Travelers to stay this profitable forever. But after a tough couple of years for the industry, it's good for insurance company investors to see conditions finally improving.

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc (LECO)

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc., incorporated in 1906, is a manufacturer of welding, cutting and brazing products. Welding products include arc welding power sources, wire feeding systems, robotic welding packages, fume extraction equipment, consumable electrodes and fluxes. The Company's product offering also includes computer numeric controlled (CNC) plasma and oxy-fuel cutting systems and regulators and torches used in oxy-fuel welding, cutting and brazing. The Company operates in five segments: North America Welding, Europe Welding, Asia Pacific Welding, South America Welding and The Harris Products Group. On July 29, 2011, the Company acquired Techalloy Company, Inc. and certain assets of its parent company, Central Wire Industries Ltd. On July 29, 2011, the Company acquired Applied Robotics, Inc. (doing business as Torchmate) (Torchmate). On January 31, 2011, the Company acquired SSCO Manufacturing, Inc. (doing business as Arc Products) (Arc Products). On March 11, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of OOO Severstal-metiz: welding consumables (Severstal). In March 2012, the Company acquired Weartech International, Inc. In May 2012, the Company acquired Wayne Trail Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of automated systems and tooling, serving a range of applications in the metal processing market. In November 2012, ITT Corp sold its shape cutting product lines, including the Burny and Kaliburn brands to the Company. In January 2013, the Company acquired Tennessee Rand, Inc.

The North America Welding segment includes welding operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The Europe Welding segment includes welding operations in Europe, Russia and Africa. The other two welding segments include welding operations in Asia Pacific and South America, respectively. The Harris Products Group includes the Company's global cutting, soldering and brazing businesses as well as the retail business in the United States. The arc welding power sources and wire feeding systems man! ufactured by the Company range in technology from basic units used for light manufacturing and maintenance to robotic applications for high volume production welding and fabrication. Three primary types of arc welding electrodes are produced: coated manual or stick electrodes; solid electrodes produced in coil, reel or drum forms for continuous feeding in mechanized welding, and cored electrodes produced in coil form for continuous feeding in mechanized welding.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Lincoln Electric Holdings (Nasdaq: LECO  ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on April 23. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

    The 10-second takeaway
    Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Lincoln Electric Holdings's revenues will grow 1.1% and EPS will grow 2.6%.

  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Lincoln Electric Holdings (Nasdaq: LECO  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 29. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

    The 10-second takeaway
    Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Lincoln Electric Holdings's revenues will expand 1.8% and EPS will expand 9.9%.

Top 10 Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Westpac Banking Corp (WBK)

Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac), incorporated on August 23, 2002, is a banking organization. Westpac provides a range of banking and financial services, including retail, business and institutional banking, and wealth management services. It operates through three divisions: Australian Financial Services (AFS), Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB) and Westpac New Zealand. AFS encompasses Westpac�� retail and business banking operations in Australia, and includes the businesses of Westpac Retail & Business Banking, St.George Banking Group and BT Financial Group Australia (BFTG). Westpac RBB is responsible for sales and service for Westpac�� consumer, small-to-medium enterprise customers and commercial customers in Australia under the Westpac brands. St.George is responsible for sales, and service for its consumer, business and corporate customers in Australia under the St.George, BankSA, Bank of Melbourne and RAMS brands. BTFG is Westpac�� Australian wealth management division. WIB delivers a range of financial services to commercial, corporate, institutional and government customers with connections to Australia and New Zealand. Westpac New Zealand is responsible for the sales and service of banking, wealth and insurance products for consumers, business and institutional customers in New Zealand. In January 2014, the Company completed the acquisition of Lloyds Banking Group Plc�� Australian asset finance business, Capital Finance Australia Limited, and its Australian corporate loan portfolio, BOS International (Australia) Ltd.

Westpac RBB

Westpac RBB�� activities are conducted through its network of branches and business banking centers, home finance managers (HFMs) and specialized consumer and business relationship managers, with the support of cash flow, financial markets and wealth specialists, customer service centers, automated teller machines (ATMs) and Internet channels.

St.George

Consumer activities are conducted through a networ! k of branches, third party distributors, call centers, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic funds transfer point-of-sale (EFTPOS) terminals and Internet banking services. Business and corporate customers are provided with a range of banking and financial products and services, including specialist advice for cash flow finance, trade finance, automotive and equipment finance, property finance, transaction banking and treasury services. Sales and service activities for business and corporate customers are conducted by relationship managers through business banking centers, Internet and customer service centre channels.

BTFG

BTFG�� funds management operations include the manufacturing and distribution of investment, superannuation and retirement products; investment platforms, such as Wrap and Master Trusts, and private banking and financial planning. Its Insurance solutions cover the manufacturing and distribution of life, general and lenders mortgage insurance. BTFG�� brands include Advance Asset Management, Ascalon, Asgard, BT, BT Investment Management (64.5% owned by Westpac), BT Select, Licensee Select, Magnitude, Securitor and the advice, private banking and insurance operations of Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, St.George and Westpac.

Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB)

WIB operates through industry relationship and specialist product teams, with knowledge in transactional banking, financial and debt capital markets, specialised capital, margin lending, broking and alternative investment solutions. Customers are supported through branches and subsidiaries located in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, United Kingdom and Asia.

Westpac New Zealand

Westpac conducts its New Zealand banking business through two banks in New Zealand; Westpac New Zealand

Limited, and Westpac Banking Corporation. Westpac New Zealand operates through network of branches and ATMs across both the North and South Islands. Business an! d institu! tional customers are served through relationship and specialist products teams. Banking products are provided under the Westpac and WIB brands, while insurance and wealth products are provided under Westpac Life and BT brands.

Westpac�� other business divisions includes Pacific Banking, which provides banking services for retail and business customers in seven Pacific countries. Branches, ATMs, telephone banking and Internet banking channels are used to deliver its business activities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Samoa. Pacific Banking�� financial products include personal savings accounts, business transactional accounts, personal and business lending products, business services and a range of international products; Group Services which include technology, banking operations, legal and property services; Treasury which focuses on management of the Group�� interest rate risk and funding requirements, and Core Support which include functions performed centrally including finance, risk and human resources.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Fede Zaldua]

    Most Australian banks seem to comply with (1) and (2). On the other hand, Australian banks have a loan to deposit ratio of 120% and around 9% of their funding is short term foreign funding. This means that their results shall be severely damaged by a steep depreciation of the local currency. A good example of a bank that is easy to short from the US (since it trades in the New York Stock Exchange) is the Westpac Banking Corporation (WBK). Westpac generates 90% of its revenues domestically and sells for 2014 13.1 times earnings and 2.1 times its 2014 expected book value. That said, there is one problem that you will find when you short Westpac's shares: The bank pays a +5% cash dividend yield.

  • [By Selena Maranjian]

    More than a handful of international companies had strong performances over the past year. Australia-based Westpac Banking (NYSE: WBK  ) , for example, soared 54% -- and still yields a fat 5.4%. It's been hampered, though, by the slowdown in China, as China uses many commodities produced by Australia. Some worry about a housing slowdown hurting the company, too.

  • [By Bryan Perry]

    Lloyds has several catalysts working in its favor. The bank has been busily disposing of assets that it views as non-core — the latest being a $1.45 billion ($1.37 billion U.S.) disposition of Australian operations to Aussie banking giant Westpac (WBK). In addition, Lloyds said it hopes to pay out as much as 70% of earnings as a dividend by 2016, which as a high-yield editor, has my full attention. This puts shares on a prospective yield for 2016 of more than 7% if earnings come in as projected.

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