Cut your risk with these market leaders

Article Excerpt

In general, stocks in the Resources & Commodities sector—as well as those in Manufacturing & Industry—expose you to above-average volatility. Those in either Finance or Utilities involve below average volatility. Consumer stocks fall in the middle. A good way to cut your risk with Manufacturing stocks is to focus on market leaders, like the three we analyze below. These well-established companies have built their strong reputations over decades. That makes it difficult for new competitors to take away their customers. FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $23 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 168.1 million; Market cap: $3.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.finning.com) sells and services Caterpillar-brand heavy equipment in Canada, South America and the U.K. Its main customers are in the oil, mining, forest-products and construction industries. The company continues to cut costs as low commodity prices hurt equipment demand. It recently announced plans to eliminate about 525 jobs…