Topic: Growth Stocks

The Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, April 11, 2008

Article Excerpt

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS, $16.76, symbol BR on New York, fell more than 7% this week after Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating on certain of the company’s obligations. S&P is concerned that Broadridge is taking on too much risk, especially at its Ridge Clearing subsidiary, given today’s difficult financial environment in the U.S. Broadridge offers services to the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications; securities processing; and transaction clearing. Broadridge mails and processes 70% of all proxy votes. The company stands to gain from the increasing complexity of securities regulations and increasing levels of share ownership. Despite volatile investment industry conditions, Broadridge continues to win new clients. For example, RBC Wealth Management has just adopted Broadridge’s Brokerage Processing Services platform. LBBW Securities, a broker-dealer servicing German institutional clients investing in the U.S., is outsourcing its trade processing to Broadridge. Broadridge is still a buy. SYMANTEC, $16.87, symbol SYMC on Nasdaq, has acquired privately held AppStream for an undisclosed sum. The two…