Updating HEWLETT-PACKARD CO., NORDSTROM INC. and AUTODESK INC.

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HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. $42 (New York symbol HPQ; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 2.2 billion; Market cap: $92.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.hp.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 50.0%, to $0.12 a share from $0.08. The new annual rate of $0.48 yields 1.1%. Like Verizon (later in this issue), Hewlett plans to grow by aggressively expanding into cloud computing. Hewlett will aim its cloud-computing products at smaller businesses, instead of big corporate and government clients. That way, it will avoid directly competing with larger companies like IBM (also in this issue). Hewlett will also let software developers use its new cloud-computing platform to test and secure their programs, and sell them to businesses and consumers. This new platform will also help Hewlett sell more of its own software. Hewlett-Packard is a buy. NORDSTROM INC. $42 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 218.0 million; Market cap: $9.2 billion;…