Cut your Finance sector risk with these three

Article Excerpt

We continue to recommend investors diversify their Finance sector holdings beyond the big banks by holding high-quality non-bank firms such as the three below. Each is a a leader in its niche industry, which cuts your risk. As well, despite recent share price gains, all three still trade at attractive multiples to their earnings. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $305 is a buy. The company (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 704.4 million; Market cap: $214.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.americanexpress.com) is one of the world’s largest issuers of payment cards. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, through his Berkshire Hathaway holding company, owns about 21% of the company. Amex issues two types of cards: traditional credit cards, which let users carry a balance; and charge cards, which have no pre-set spending limit although cardholders must pay off their balances each month. The company ended the latest quarter with 145.5 million cards in use, up 5.3% from 138.2 million…