Cut your tech risk with market leaders

Article Excerpt

Computer technology continues to change— and spread— rapidly. We feel the best way to profit from this growth is by investing in well-established companies that lead their markets, like the four we analyze below. All of them have strong earnings and balance sheets. That lets them spend heavily on product development and buy smaller firms with attractive technologies. We have a high opinion of all four, but we see only two as buys right now. INTEL CORP. $30 (Nasdaq symbol INTC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.7 billion; Market cap: $141.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.intel.com) is the world’s leading computer chip maker. Its products power 80% of all personal computers. In 2015, Intel’s earnings fell 2.4%, to $11.4 billion from $11.7 billion in 2014. It spent $3.0 billion on share buybacks, so per-share profits gained 0.9%, to $2.33 from $2.31, on fewer shares outstanding. Overall revenue slipped 0.9%,…