These consumer stocks offer value & growth

Article Excerpt

A key element of our investment advice is to spread your money across most if not all the five economic sectors: Finance; Utilities; Consumer Goods & Services; Resources & Commodities; and Manufacturing & Industry. That way, you avoid overloading yourself with stocks that are about to slump simply because of industry conditions or changes in investor fashion. Generally speaking, stocks in the Resources & Commodities sector and the Manufacturing & Industry sector expose you to above-average volatility. Those in the Finance and Utilities sectors involve below-average volatility, while Consumer stocks are in the middle. To further cut risk, stick with Consumer stocks that have strong brands and sound balance sheets such as the four we analyze below. However, not all four are currently buys. LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $71 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 400.9 million; Market cap: $28.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSI Network Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) operates Canada’s largest supermarket chain. Its 1,098…