Hot Supermarket Companies To Own In Right Now

LONDON -- I'm looking at some of your favorite FTSE 100 companies and examining how each will deliver its dividend. Today, I'm putting supermarket J Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY  ) (NASDAQOTH: JSAIY  ) under the microscope.

Annus horribilis
A long-term decline in Sainsbury's competitive position came to a head during its financial year ended March 2005. Underlying earnings per share plummeted 62%, and the dividend was slashed in half from 15.6 pence to 7.8 pence.

Despite the cleaving of the dividend, management said, "The dividend cover is still quite low at around 1.2 times and our objective, in the medium term, is to restore it to at least 1.5 times."

"Making Sainsbury's Great Again"
The board implemented a "Making Sainsbury's Great Again" recovery plan, which gained traction. By 2007 the company was reporting a 9.75 pence dividend, covered 1.5 times by EPS, in line with the previously stated objective. Management said, "Going forward we expect dividend cover to range between 1.5 and 1.75 times."

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own In Right Now: Meru Networks Inc.(MERU)

Meru Networks, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless local area network (LAN) solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers a virtualized wireless LAN solution based on its System Director Operating System, which runs on its controllers and access points to enable enterprises to deliver business-critical applications over wireless networks. The company?s System Director Operating System provides centralized coordination and control of various access points on the network; controllers synchronize access points to optimize the user experience and manage traffic on the network; and Wi-Fi certified access points to provide network connectivity for wireless devices. It also offers Meru Networks E(z)RF application suite comprising E(z)RF Network Manager, E(z)RF Service Assurance Manager, E(z)RF Location Manager, E(z)RF OnTheGo, Spectrum Manager, and wired and wireless management solutions, which enable enterprises to configure, monitor, troubleshoot, secure, and operate virtualized wireless LAN solution. In addition, the company provides Identity Manager that simplifies enterprise network access and identity management; Wireless Intrusion Prevention System to recognize and mitigate threats; Compliance Manager to reduce the risk of security breach by protecting customer and employee personal information by extending security to the wireless network; AirFirewall to intercept and block unwanted communications as they transmit over the air, stopping them before they reach the network; and Security Gateway SG1000 to meet the demands of the Federal Information Processing Standard, 140-2 Level 3 security required by federal government agencies and other security-conscious organizations. It serves the education, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, technology, finance, government, telecom, transportation, and utility markets. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own In Right Now: Petrobras Argentina S.A.(PZE)

Petrobras Argentina S.A. operates as an integrated energy company. The company engages in oil and gas exploration and production activities in Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia; and provides technical and operating support services in Mexico. It also operates refineries that produce premium gasoline, ultra high octane gasoline, regular gasoline, diesel oil, fuel oil, solvents, aromatics, asphalts, and liquefied propane and butane gases. In addition, the company sells gas produced by the company, as well as imported; produces petrochemical products, such as styrene, polystyrene, and synthetic rubber; provides oil, gas, and LPG brokerage and trading services; engages in transporting gas in southern Argentina, as well as processing and marketing natural gas liquids; and involves in the gas-fired, thermal, and hydro electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. As of December 31, 2010, it has crude oil and natural gas proved reserves of approximately 248. 4 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company also operated 2 refineries in San Lorenzo and Bah� Blanca, as well as a network of approximately 604 gas stations in Argentina and 27 Spacio 1 convenience stores, including 360 points of sale. It has operations in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela. The company was formerly known as Petrobras Energia S.A. and changed its name to Petrobras Argentina S.A. in July 2010. Petrobras Argentina S.A. was founded in 1946 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Petrobras Argentina S.A. operates as a subsidiary of Petroleo Brasileiro.

Top 10 Railroad Companies To Watch In Right Now: Excela Limited(EXA.AX)

Fox Invest Limited is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm manages equity portfolios for its clients. It invests in public equity and alternative investment markets of Australia. The firm invests in growth oriented value stocks of large-cap and small-cap companies. For alternative instruments, it invests in options and funds. The firm employs fundamental analysis to make its equity investments. It benchmarks its investments in equity and funds against the ASX 300 Index. Fox Invest is based in Brisbane, Queensland.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own In Right Now: ExlService Holdings Inc.(EXLS)

Exlservice Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides outsourcing and transformation services primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. Its outsourcing services include claims processing, premium and benefit administration, agency management, account reconciliation, policy research, underwriting support, new business processing, policy servicing, trades/sub-account transactions, add-on processing, premium audit, billing and collection, and customer services in insurance and healthcare sector; back-office processing for customer operations, metering-related services and billing, debt recovery operations, imbalance management, and account management services in utilities sector; and servicing and processing various banking products, including residential mortgage lending, retail banking, credit cards, consumer finance, commercial lending, and investment management in banking and financial services sector. The company?s outsourcing services also co mprise processing transactions, including supply chain management, warehousing, transloading, transportation management, and international logistics services in transportation and logistics sector; managing and improving operational, financial, and analytical functions for travel management companies; and finance and accounting services, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, inter-company reconciliations, financial and statutory reporting, treasury management, and tax compliance. In addition, it offers transformation services consisting of decision analytics services, including data filtering, organization and synthesis, management information system reporting, trend and variance analysis, statistical and econometric modeling, and economic and financial markets research; finance transformation services; and operations and process excellence services. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Hot Supermarket Companies To Own In Right Now: International Millennium Mining (IMI.V)

International Millennium Mining Corp., an exploration stage company, engages in acquiring, exploring, and evaluating mineral properties in Canada and the Americas. It primarily explores for gold, silver, cobalt, molybdenum, zinc, lead, nickel, copper, and platinum group metals. The company owns interests in various properties located in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada; Nevada, the United States; and Sonora State, Mexico. International Millennium Mining Corp. is headquartered in North Vancouver, Canada.