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Sterlite combines dividends with Buffett-style value

By Emerging Money July 25, 2012, 12:00:08 PM EDT

Legendary investor Warren Buffett made his first trip to India this year , looking for companies to add to the portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK-A , quote ). Sterlite Industries ( SLT , quote ) is the sort of dividend paying stock he was looking for.

Image courtesy xandert: Marcin Wichary: http://www.everystockphoto.com/photographer.php?photographer_id=25105 Sterlite would fit in well with other Berkshire Hathaway holdings that profit from growth in emerging market countries such as Kraft ( KFT , quote ) and Coca-Cola ( KO , quote ).

Buffett favors companies in basic, solid industries. Sterlite operates as a non-ferrous metals and mining company in India and internationally.

The company's primary products consist of copper cathode and continuous cast rods, phosphoric acid, anode slimes and gypsum.

It also produces and sells zinc ingots for steel producers, as well as alloy, dry cell battery, die casting and chemical manufacturers; lead ingots for battery and chemical manufacturers; and by-products including sulphuric acid and silver ingots primarily for industrial users and silver traders.

Sterlite is primarily known for its copper operations though  and the red metal ( JJC , quote ) is down due to slumping economic growth in China, India and elsewhere.

This is what makes Sterlite so attractive for value investing, in addition to its healthy profit margin of 14.18%. The current price to book-ratio is 0.76, so Sterlite is trading for less than the book value of its assets.

The price-to-sales ratio is 0.82, meaning that the value of sales is being discounted by nearly 25% in the stock price.

As a dividend paying stock, Sterlite has a yield of 2.1%. That's about the average yield for a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, but at just 19.64%, Sterlite has a dividend payout ratio much lower than the historic average for an S&P 500 company. This means there is ample cash flow for dividend growth.

Now trading around $7.30 a share, the mean analyst target price for Sterlite over the next year is $11.41.  The mean analyst rating is a 1, the highest possible: a unanimous "strong buy."

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.


This article appears in: Investing, International, Stocks

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