ADRs make it easy to buy global giants

Article Excerpt

American Depositary Receipts make foreign investing easier and safer for individual investors. The foreign company must provide detailed financial information to U.S. regulators and to the sponsor, or depositary, bank or broker. As well, since ADRs trade on U.S. stock exchanges in U.S. dollars, you don’t have to worry about currency exchange rates, foreign stock exchange rules, or language barriers. We have a high opinion of these four global leaders, but not all are buys right now. BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $63 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.7 billion; Market cap: $170.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) is the world’s largest mining company, with operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the U.K. It produces iron ore, coal, oil, natural gas, aluminum, manganese, diamonds and titanium. In 2011, BHP expanded its oil and gas business with two major purchases: it paid $12.0 billion for Petrohawk Energy Corp., which produces oil and…