" Sometimes you just need to put a muscular and unbreakable stock on your team, so that you can sleep easier at night"

Dow Jones Industrial Average 12,231 (UP) Week ending 10/28/2011

I don't know if it is because it has been raining ice and snow all day and it has taken down some of my trees or if watching a rerun of "GI Jane" and watching the grueling training that the US Navy Seals go through, but it just put me in the mood to write about a stock that is "tough as nails", with numbers that just never quit. The nails analogy is good here, because this stock has just the tools to hammer in those nails. I am talking about the stock of  Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (Symbol SWK, $66.69).  

     The marriage of Stanley Tool Works and Black and Decker took a little while to get back in operational line, but they are in lock and load mode right now, unbreakable.  Last quarter proforma earnings were up 38% to start with. 2011 earnings ending in December is projected at $5.11 per share. Moving to 2012 , $5.91 per share. 5 year sales growth at this company is 17.55% with the 3 year total return of 116.5%. The stock had a dip down in 2008-2009 when the rest of the market took a tank and bottomed on March 5th, 2009, but from then on things have looked pretty good.


Demi Moore in GI Jane


P.S. after watching Demi Moore do push ups in the movie, I wouldn't go messin with her if you know what's good for you. SWK is up 9.56% year to date. The real tell on this stock is the 2.46% dividend of $1.64 a share. Stanley Black and Decker have raised the dividend in every year for the last 5 years. This is always a very good sign for any stock that you are investing in.

Something else you should know about this company is that they are benevolent. This press release just came out. JOPLIN, Mo., Oct 20, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) a Fortune 500 provider of hand tools, power tools and security solutions, today announced a $350,000 tool donation to the Joplin, Missouri, rebuilding efforts. Our friend and builder of our kitchen, Andy Doyle, just donated his time and went to Joplin and built a new wooden children's playground out there in Joplin. So good things can happen when corporations and individuals work together for a cause.

I must be old, because I remember Demi Moore as the girl with the raspy voice on the TV show "General Hospital"  that was on  in the afternoons. She does a good job in the movie GI Jane, if you get a chance to see it.

Have a good snowy end of October. November should be fun with the market moving up. I like some of the commodity stocks going forward with a hint of inflation showing up in interest rates.

Jacko-Lantern in snow - Deb Wilson


All the best ,    Freewilly