The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 21 points to 12,632.91 (-0.16%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 2 points (0.07%) to 2,813.84, and the S&P 500 fell -0.05% or less than 1 point to 1,312.40.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) raised to ‘buy’ at Argus; Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) started as ‘buy’ at Jefferies; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) reiterated as ‘buy’ and target price raised to $80 at Argus; and Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC) raised to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ with a target price of $59 at Canaccord Genuity.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Anixter Inc. (NYSE: AXE) is down -3.7% at $65.25; ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) is up 1.7% at $28.84; Celanese Corp. (NYSE: CE) is down -0.95% at $48.84; Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) is up 1.35% at $39.78; Exxon Mobil is down -1.98% at $83.80; Helmerich & Payne Inc. (NYSE: HP) is up 2.2% at $61.64; L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) is up 1.3% at $70.49; McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. (NYSE: MHP) is down -0.5% at $46.09; Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) is up 5.1% at $31.04 after posting a new 52-week high today of $31.49; Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is down -0.8% at $21.42; and Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) is down -0.73% at $24.10.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Vringo Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNG) is up nearly 21% at $1.40. The social media software maker is apparently basking in the glow of the coming IPO of Facebook. See our coverage here.

RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is down nearly -30% at $7.19 after setting a new 52-week low of $7.15 earlier today. The social media software maker is apparently basking in the glow of the coming IPO of Facebook. See our coverage here.

Verifone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) is up more than 8% at $42.61. The payment systems maker is getting a boost from a plan by Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) to subsidize the installation of new card readers that use a microchip rather than a magnetic stripe to store customer information.

Rare Element Resources Ltd. (AMEX: REE) is up more than 17% at $7.22. The rare earth minerals miner is likely gaining after a ruling from the WTO that China’s restriction on rare earth minerals’ exports violates global trade rules.

FriendFinder Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFN) is up about 19% at $1.26. The adult social media company is likely also being bought up on the prospective Facebook IPO.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. Automakers will be releasing sales figures for January throughout the day. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
• 7:30 a.m. – Challenger Job-cut data
• 8:15 a.m. – ADP employment report
• 10:00 a.m. – ISM manufacturing index
• 10:00 a.m. – Construction spending
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report

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Paul Ausick

In the age of austerity and military budgets being slashed to deal with deficits, Iran has a chance of turning 2012 accidentally into the year of defense stocks. Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK), General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD), L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL), Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) and Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) could all hang in the balance. With operations all but gone in Iraq and with the trend in Afghanistan being one of leaving, Iran is the obvious wild card.

If anything real ever comes out of Iran’s religious political leadership other than how neat it is to stone people over adultery, how it denies that alternative lifestyles exist in Iran, or about how it wants nuclear power for peace, this may end up making the sell-off seen in defense stocks a bargain of the century. If (or when) Iran ever announces that it has built a nuclear bomb, it likely is going to be difficult for Western nations to slash and burn too far on the defense spending. Before running out and loading up on warfare stocks, please remember … this is all “If, Then.”

Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) trades at $56.15 and the 52-week trading range is $51.26 to $78.17. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $71.70, implying upside of roughly 28%. Alliant Tech currently has a lower dividend yield against peers with only a payout rate of about 1.4% and shares are up about 4% since the Thanksgiving break. Alliant is highly dependent on the business of selling bullets and it no longer has the booster-rocket business from Space Shuttle launches.

General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) trades at $66.15 and the 52-week trading range is $53.95 to $78.27. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $76.16, implying upside of about 15%. General Dynamics currently yields about 2.9%.

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) trades at $66.85 and the 52-week trading range is $58.30 to $88.55. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $71.64, implying upside of only about 7%. L-3 yields about 2.7% in its dividend and shares are up about 5% from the Thanksgiving break.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) trades at $81.25 and the 52-week trading range is $66.36 to $82.43. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $80.12, implying that the stock is above a full-value price. Its dividend yield is quite high at about 5% and shares are up almost 5% since its $1.00 dividend was reflected in the stock in late November.

Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) trades at $48.50 and the 52-week trading range is $38.35 to $53.12. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $49.53, implying upside of only about 2%. Its dividend yield is currently about 3.7% and shares are up about 14% since the Thanksgiving break.

Unless something new comes out of North Korea, or unless there is more unrest in the Middle East, Iran is the big worry for the country today. With such high payouts from some defense contractors, it is worth wondering just how high some of the payouts can rise during the proliferation of austerity.

JON C. OGG

The US House-Senate budget reduction committee, or the ‘super committee’, that is charged with recommending $1.5 trillion in budget cuts over the next 10 years has just another 10 days to deliver its recommendations before automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in. If the committee fails to agree on cuts, the automatic cuts fall equally among defense spending and a variety of programs that are together lumped under the heading discretionary spending.The discretionary spending cuts would likely come from federal programs that aid the poor, education, and the elderly.

No specific cuts have been identified in the legislation that created the super committee, but to achieve $600 billion in cuts over ten years is sure to cause some pain to a variety of constituencies. That amount is increased by the $350 billion in cuts already approved by Congress over the next ten years. Trying to discern where a publicly traded company might get hurt by impending cuts is, at this point, pretty much guesswork.

On the defense end, cuts are far more likely to have an effect on publicly traded companies that have significant federal defense contracts for everything from fighter planes to software. The following chart shows the top ten defense contractors in 2011, together with the total amount of their contracts, as derived from 2010 contract levels:

Privately held DynCorp International Inc. falls just above H-P, at $2.4 billion. Excluding DynCorp, the top ten contractors are slated to post sales of $47.6 billion in federal contracts in 2011. The top ten in 2010 posted sales of $68.2 billion. So far in 2011, a total of more than $196 billion in defense contracts have been awarded. The total in 2010 reached $247 billion, and that number is almost surely out of reach for this year.

Cuts to defense spending have already begun, as the US winds down its presence in Iraq and prepares to do the same in Afghanistan. Not including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon budget for 2011 reached nearly $550 billion.

A 13D filing from this morning shows that RILLC and the Managed Accounts purchased an aggregate of 1,748,974 shares for $141.4 million; Relational LPs purchased an aggregate of 4,598,720 shares for $372.3 million.

The activist investor targeted the defense contractor because its shares “undervalued by the market at the present time,” according to the filing. It pointed out that L–3 has lagged both the S&P 500 Aerospace & Defense Index and the broader S&P 500 Index.

Relational’s filing noted that the underperformance is “at least partially attributable to the Company’s sub-optimal business mix and the Company’s current strategy.”   The investor said it believes “management is aware of the issues.”

Furthermore, Relational believes that the market will reward L-3 with a higher share price-to-earnings multiple “if the company takes strategic and tactical actions to address its business mix” such as selling or spinning off under-performing assets. Some L-3 assets could be purchased by private equity participants where “recent activity has been robust,” according to Relational.

Relational said that its intends to “closely monitor the Company’s performance, business mix and strategic direction and may modify their plans in the future depending on future events and any actions taken or omitted by the Company.”  The investment group also intends to continue discussions with members of the board of directors and management and said it may communicate with other shareholders, industry participants and other interested parties.

Another note lends to more activism here.  “Although the Reporting Persons do not have any current plans other than the monitoring and communication program outlined above, the Reporting Persons reserve the right to, and may in the future exercise any and all of their respective rights as shareholders of the Company in a manner consistent with their equity interests, including seeking representation on the Company’s board of directors at a special or annual meeting of the Company’s shareholders.”

In short, Relational is getting deep into the operations of L-3 and the advisory firm has left the door open to acquiring more shares of L-3.

Ralph Whitworth, the head of Relational, is quoted on Relational’s website saying, “We see ourselves as stewards of our clients’ shareholdings. Proper stewardship requires active engagement of corporate leadership to spur improved performance.”

L-3 Communication shares are up 5.2% at $86.70 on more than 3-times normal volume of over 2.6 million shares and its 52-week trading range is $66.11 to $87.68.  That 52-week high was hit today.  In early 2008 this stock reached a high north of $110.00 per share.

The Relational 13D filing is here.

JON C. OGG

A new look at the problems comes from “Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards―2010 Alliance for Board Diversity Census” which was published today by an alliance of Catalyst, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP), and The Prout Group, Inc. It would be a temptation to call the data self-interested, but since it comes from each company’s own SEC filings, that is hardly the case. The information shows that “Fortune 500 boards were less diverse than Fortune 100 boards. Men held close to 85 percent of all board seats. White men dominated the board room, holding 77.6 percent of board seats. Minority men held 6.8 percent. White women held 12.7 percent. Minority women held 3.0 percent.”

It should be expected that the firms which have no women or minorities on their boards are run by old white men. And, why not? They have their positions to be preserved along with those of their colleagues and lieutenants. If these men can dominate their boards, why not do so? It is a rare group or person who likes real competition.

HCA Holdings (NYSE: HCA), the healthcare services company, is run by Richard M. Bracken. He sits on the Federation of American Hospitals board, which that organization might eventually  find uncomfortable. HCA does not have a single woman or minority on its board, although certainly half of its customers are women. Many of the HCA directors went to Ivy League schools.

L-3 (NYSE: LLL), the defense contractor, is run by Michael T. Strianese. Robert B. Millard is lead director and chairman of the executive committee. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. It’s a wonder that the federal government allows such a large contractor to do business with it given the absence of minorities and women on its board.

Pipeline company Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMP) is run by Richard D. Kinder.  C. Berdon Lawrence, the chairman of Kirby Corp, is Kinder’s lead director.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NYSE: PPC), the poultry firm, is run by Bill Lovette who only joined the firm recently. Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim, 82, has served as a director since 1968. He is also a former chairman of the National Chicken Council.

Sonic Automotive (NYSE: SAH), the car retailer, is run by O. Bruton Smith. He is also a director and the controlling stockholder of Speedway Motorsports. William R. Brooks is another Sonic director. He is also a Vice President of Charlotte Motor Speedway and a Vice President and Director of Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
American Electric Power Co., Inc. (NYSE: AEP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Reiterated Outperform and target raised to $40 at Credit Suisse.
Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Expeditors International of Washington Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPD) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) Raised to Buy and $66 target at Argus.
JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) Cut to Strong Sell at S&P Equity Research (late Tuesday call).
Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: LLL) Raised to Hold at Argus.
Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Underperform at Needham.
Universal Forest Products Inc. (NASDAQ: UFPI) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Women, who  make up about 40% of the students at elite business schools,  have an especially difficult time moving into the ranks of senior management at America’s largest public companies. New data from the research from the nonprofit Catalyst shows that 60 of the Fortune 500 corporations have no female directors. Out of the same group, 136 companies have no women among their top five executives.  Moreover, there are 26 Fortune 500 firms which have neither a female board member nor a woman in executive management. The data came from proxy statements filed as of June 30, 2010.  24/7 Wall St. research found that four companies have added a female director since then: Philip Morris, Blockbuster, Virgin Media, and Synnex.

After we reviewed the Catalyst data, the companies were categorized by industry, and 24/7 Wall St. examined their corporate websites to see whether they had any women in top management at all. When we did find someone, they were usually in human resources, public relations, investor relations, or accounting.

The figures are outrageous and point to lingering misogyny in the board rooms and executive suites of a number of America’s largest companies. It is incomprehensible how public companies in the 21st Century can manage to exclude women from such critical roles.

1) Autoliv (ALV)
Autoliv makes and distributes automotive safety products, such as airbags and seat belts.
-Company lists no women on management team.

2) Cameron International (CAM)
Cameron International is a global provider of flow equipment products, systems, and services to oil, gas, and process industries.
-Rozlin Larkey – Vice President of Human Resources
-Grace B. Holmes – Corporate Secretary

3.) CC Media Holdings (CCMO.PK)
CC Media Holdings, the parent company of Clear Channel Communications, is a media company that works in radio and advertising.
-Company lists no women on management team.

4.) CHS (CHSCP)
CHS, which occupies the 91st position on the Fortune 500, is a diversified energy, grains, and food company.
-Company lists no women on management team.

5.) Emcor Group (EME)
Emcor group designs and constructs electrical and mechanical systems, including transformers, generators, and power cables.
-Mava K. Heffler – Vice President of Marketing and Communications

6.) Energy Transfer Equity (ETE)
Energy Transfer Equity, which owns the general partner of Energy Transfer Partners, transports natural gas throughout the United States.
-Company lists no women on management team.

7.) EOG Resources (EOG)
EOG Resources is one of the largest independent natural gas and oil companies in the United States.  As of the end of 2009, it employed approximately 2,100 people.
-Maire Baldwin – Vice President of Investor Relations
-Patricia Edwards – Vice President of Human Resources
-Ann Janssen – Vice President of Accounting

We screened stocks for low P/E ratios, starting with a P/E of under 11 today and an implied P/E ratio of under 10 for the year ahead.  Each HAD to offer a dividend.  A low P/E ratio without a dividend is often a puzzle and can signal that the net earnings at the bottom line are greatly different than the reported earnings from operations.  We also wanted stocks that had sold off more than the broad market ftom highs, which most of these have.  As far as size and trading volume restrictions, we wanted no small-cap stocks and wanted only liquid stocks.  We also wanted to see what the average price target was on each, and that average price target had to be above the current price for the stocks to make the squad cut.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) is the largest with a $100+ billion market cap and a price close to $33.65 today, making this down about 19% from the 52-week high of $41.56.  The listed P/E ratio is under 10, and the estimates from Thomson Reuters of $3.39 EPS for 2010 and $3.88 EPS for 2011 give it forward P/E ratios of 9.9 for 2010 and 8.7 for 2011.  This DJIA component also sports a dividend yield of about 4.7%.  Analysts also have an average price target above $43.00 for Merck.  As with all Big Pharma stocks, Merck has political risk in the current climate, has a patent expiration issue along with peers, and has a ‘history’…

Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) may not be a favorite of drug investors and may have patent expiration issues to deal with as well, but its valuations reflect that today.  With shares around $32.75, the stock is down 14% from the 52-week high of $38.00.  The 52-week low is only $32.02, and that may caution many investors with it very close to 5-year lows.  Its current P/E ratio is under 10, and the Thomson Reuters estimates of $4.52 EPS for 2010 and $4.43 EPS for 2011 give this one forward P/E ratios of under 7.5.  No growth here, but dirt cheap.  Lilly now sports a dividend yield of above 6.0%.  Lilly’s average analyst price target today is $37.40.

Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) took the award for power transmission and utility shares with its $25 billion market cap.  At $38.90, the stock is down almost 30% from its 52-week highs.  The recent weakness has shares under a 10 trailing P/E.  The Thomson Reuters estimates of $3.80 EPS for 2010 and $4.09 for 2011 give this one forward P/E ratios of 10.2 for 2010 and 9.5 for 2011.  The dividend yield is also now above many peers at 5.5%.  Exelon’s average analyst price target is $46.23.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is one of the defense contractors that made the cut. At $60.90, its shares are down are down 13% from the 52-week high of $69.80.  With Thomson Reuters estimates of $6.00 EPS for 2010 and $6.79 EPS for 2011, the forward P/E ratios are 10.1 for this year and almost 9 for next year.  The dividend is above market at 3.10%, but that may feel small for this screen today.  The average analyst price target is right around $70 per share.

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) really seems to be in the sweet spot of the defense sector with its intelligence, surveillance, communications, and security operations in a broad portfolio.  At $83.50, shares are down almost 15% from the 52-week high of $97.81.  Its $9.66 billion market cap may not be the largest of the lot, but that is still well above any hurdles for our screening.  With Thomson Reuters expecting $8.27 EPS this year and $9.00 EPS next year, the forward P/E ratios here are 10.1 this year and 9.3 for next year.  That 2% dividend yield also leaves much more room for dividend hikes down the road, and L-3 is well know for dividend hikes.  Analysts have an average price target of nearly $99.00.

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE: NLY) is a mortgage REIT and is the big game of shooting craps here in the value arena.  The recent weakness in Europe and the softer economic numbers hitting the U.S. and taking down some heated growth expectations just gave the company (and investors) what feels like a much longer life-line against the risk of any sudden or imminent rate hikes from the Fed, and this gives it lower borrowing costs to keep a high spread on its mortgage (securities) investing activities.  At $17.00, this is down about 14% from the $19.74 high of the last year.  It also has single-digit P/E ratios (or P/FFO) which is why the yield is so high: estimates from Thomson Reuters are $2.64 for 2010 (ratio of 6.4) and $2.76 for 2011 (ratio of 6.15).  As its income varies, the 90% income payout makes the dividend variable.  Depending upon your quarterly calculations, Annally has a double-digit yield.  This one has maybe the lowest upside target from analysts at $18.13, but you have to consider the yield on top of the price.

NewMarket Corp. (NYSE: NEU) is perhaps the biggest unknown in our value screens, and due to its size and volatility we’d throw out that it is not for the faint of heart.  It is the parent of Afton Chemical and of Ethyl Corp. The companies: Afton develops and manufactures petroleum additives that enhance the performance of lubricating oils and fuels; Ethyl provides value-added manufacturing and supply solutions to the chemical industry.  At $104.00, its market cap is almost $1.6 billion and its shares are down 18% from the 52-week high of $126.89.  Its current P/E is under 10, and the Thomson Reuters figures of $11.48 for 2010 and $11.49 give a forward P/E ratio of 9… Its 1.6% dividend yield also leaves great room for future dividend hikes.  The average analyst price target is close to $130 per share, but we would note that the field of analyst covering NewMarket is considerably smaller than the norm.  This is one of those that we would have not ever considered had we not run these valuation screens to see what comes out of the pipe.  Again, this one is the biggest wild card of the lot and does not seem to be for the squeamish.

There were several issues to consider here.  Due to the unknown impact of the coming financial reform, we also took out any bank and insurance company.  Ideally, we might have shied away from defense contractors.  And maybe moved from anything tied to energy.  Those are not the world’s favorite investments in the current political regime.  But after taking a look at the values, these seemed fit for command at the current valuations.  Price snapshots ad valuation calculations were taken during the trading day on Friday.

JON C. OGG

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The companies on the 24/7 Wall St. Worst Places for Women to Work list have no women on their boards and no women in senior management.  Any company on the list would have to: 1) completely lack sensitivity to the issues of women in the work place, or 2) have enough misgivings about women to insure that all the people who have any meaningful place in running their companies have to be men. It is hard to say whether these companies are “female-free” at the top tiers because of misogyny or dull-wittedness.  The practice of equal opportunity is missing at all of these companies.

Our analysis makes an assumption, but we believe it is a fair one. A company with no women on its board or in senior management is extremely unlikely to be concerned about the issue of disparity in pay by gender  and is likely to perform worse than the national census average in terms of what it pays its non-executive female management and its women rank-and-file employees.

24/7 Wall St.’s 1o Worst Places For Women To Work:
1. Phillip Morris (PM) is one of the largest tobacco companies in the world and has nearly 75,000 employees. Women are often assigned to run human resources and corporate communications departments at companies where men dominate the management, and PM is no exception. The highest ranking corporate executive is Daniele Regorda, vice president of human resources. Phillip Morris claims that the company is “always striving to broaden the diversity of our workforce and are continuously working to identify, hire and retain the best qualified individuals, wherever they are located or whatever their background.” No wonder they call him the Marlboro Man. Nine board members, zero women.

2. Icahn Enterprises (IEP) is a diversified holding company with around 47,000 employees. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is the firm’s chairman. Women looking for executive positions at the company can contact Icahn Enterprises, 767 Fifth Avenue, 47th Floor, New York, NY, 10153. Icahn can afford a female board member.

3. Virgin Media (VMED) is in the mobile telephone and broadcast business, and has 13,380 employees. Virgin is based in the UK and is part of the Richard Branson collection of companies. Branson is a media star among global corporate chiefs. The firm has 11 directors, all of which are, you guessed it, men. The senior female member of the Virgin Media management is Elisa Nardi, Chief People Officer, or head of human resources.

4. Liberty Media (LINTA) has a $7.7 billion dollar market value.  This part of cable and content king John Malone’s empire has about 19,000 employees and holds a number of satellite broadcast and content assets including assets in QVC, Starz, and Expedia. The company has nine directors including Malone. No women executives are listed at the corporation’s website.

5. L-3 (LLL) Holdings provides military technology and employs 66,000 people. It is the sixth largest defense company in the United States. L-3 as nine directors. There are no women in executive management but the head of employee benefits and general counsel are both women. It is almost impossible to understand why the federal government would sanction this.

6. EOG Resources (EOG) is an oil and natural gas company with 2,100 employees and a $23 billion market cap, which makes it one of the most valuable firms in its sector. The head of human resources and administration and the head of accounting are women.

7. Cameron International (CAM) provides equipment for the national gas and oil industries. The company has 17,000 employees, eight board members, no women in positions of major responsibility. Seven senior executives are listed in the proxy–all male. Also, all board members but one are over 60–a sort of reverse age discrimination.

8. National Oilwell Varco (NOV) is an oilfield services company which provides mechanical components for oil and gas drilling projects. About 40,000 employees. Eight directors, none of which are women.

9. Emcor (EME) is an electrical and mechanical construction and facilities services company with 28,000 employees. The only female corporate executive is the head of corporate communications, and she is not considered “senior management” as the SEC defines the term.

10. XTO Energy (XTO) has 3,100 employees and a market cap of $27 billion. The firm prides itself on its ability to find and import oil and natural gas.  Apparently, they aren’t quite as concerned about scavenging for corporate gender diversity.

Honorable mention: Shaw Group (SHAW) is a diversified manufacturing company has nearly 28,000 employees. Its market cap at $3 billion is relative small. They have no female officers or directors either.

Douglas A. McIntyre

We have covered these with an outlook for what lies ahead for each these companies in their dividend rates and as a starting point for other big companies we think will hike their dividends.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) continued with its policy of an annual dividend hike.  The new dividend of $0.15 is up from $0.14 per quarter.  We went back to see its policy of dividend hikes, and this has gone on for years.  The yield based on Friday’s price is 1.96%, which some sites are rounding up to 2.00%.  There is more than enough dividend coverage, and as far as whether the dividend hikes will continue… let’s just say that ADM could probably double its dividend in the coming years.  At $30.61, its 52-week trading range is $23.13 to $33.00.

Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP (NYSE: BWP) is another recent distribution increase from late last week.  As a reminder and as with the field of LPs in oil and gas, this is a distribution rather than just an outright dividend.  It may seem odd that a natural gas interstate pipeline sees enough clarity to hike a distribution after the volatility we have seen in the Nat-Gas markets, but this actually just brings the dividend closer to the distribution yields of many oil and gas pipeline LP peers.  This bump from $0.48 to $0.50 per quarter gives an implied yield of 6.9%.  At $28.99, its 52-week range is $19.15 to $31.44.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) is an easy dividend hike because its consumer products make it close to recession-proof.  The surprise wasn’t that a dividend hike came, it was by how much.  The bump was 20% to $0.53 per quarter.  We have over a decade of dividend hikes here and this is actually not the highest payout raise.  Also announced was a 40 million share buyback plan, which comes to about 8% of the outstanding shares.  The new yield is 2.67% and at $79.26 it has a 52-week trading range of $54.51 to $87.39.

Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) has decided that the toy business is likely to hold its own, and that the company can hold its own in a competitive field.  It raised its dividend by a surprising 25% to $0.25 per quarter.  The new effective yield is now 3.25% At $30.80, its 52-week trading range is $21.14 to $32.75.  The company still has more than ample dividend coverage, and this may put pressure on Mattel to bump its annual dividend later this year.

Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) may have been an obvious dividend hike.  After all the noise that was made over whether it would or could participate in a Cadbury-Kraft deal and after being classified as a dead money stock for years this just made sense. This brings up the issue that the company might not be about to pounce on another opportunity despite the company’s intention to look formergers.  Its quarterly dividend will now be $0.32 per quarter for a 3.45% (3.427% actually).  It had paid $0.298 per quarter over the last ten quarters.  At $37.35, its 52-week trading range is $30.27 to $42.25.  Five years ago this was a $60 stock.

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) is not a usual stock to visit for dividend hikes in the minds of most investors, at least not on the surface. The defense sector company is into surveillance and reconnaissance systems.  The amount the dividend was raised also seems high as it was a 14% payout boost to $0.40 per quarter from $0.35.  The company has actually been raising its dividend by a handy amount for what is effectively each of the last six years.  After looking at an $8.15 expected earnings per share figure for 2010, there is no reason to believe that the payout growth is going to slow down.  There is also still much room to catch up to some aerospace/defense sector peers.  The new yield is 1.9% based on an $84.24 share price, and the 52-week trading range is $57.12 to $90.36.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) may be in a nomans land when it comes to analyzing dividends now that it has spun AOL out of its operations.  But the media giant hiked its dividend by about 13% to $0.2125 per quarter for an annual $0.85 payout.  At $27.03, the yield here is now 3.1%.  We also have an adjusted 52-week trading range of $17.81 to $32.85.  We’ll have to double-check this, but that 3.1% looks like a sector high for dividend yields.

The obvious notion here is that many companies are hiking their payoutd.  This might not be a return to the gold boom days, but companies are lifting their payouts now.  Stay tuned Monday for our new list of large companies we expect to making big dividend hikes this year.  You can also join our free email distribution list that goes out each morning with key analyst calls, day trader alerts, dividend changes, IPOs and secondary offering, Buffett and other guru news, and more.

JON C. OGG