Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2023


One day many years ago, I found myself stuck in traffic and noticed a peculiar sign. It said something about the construction that was going on — the very thing that was hampering my commute.

It said all this construction was being funded by a bond. This was before I had ever started my career in finance, so bonds were an unfamiliar thing. But when I began my investment career, I soon realized that I could actually invest in these things. And the more I learned, the more I was ecstatic.

After all, If you can’t beat ’em, might as well make money off them…

You see, these types of bonds have a name — general obligation bonds — a type of municipal, or “muni” bond for short. These bonds are used for everything from helping fund road construction to building schools, bridges, water infrastructure and other public buildings. As I became more familiar with municipal bonds, I quickly became a fan. In fact, in my experience, muni-bonds are one of the safest ways for investors to earn income in today’s market — while also beating the tax man. (More on that in a moment.)

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2023: CHS Inc(CHSCL)


CHS Inc. (CHS) is an integrated agricultural company. As a cooperative, the Company is owned by farmers and ranchers and their member cooperatives (members) across the United States. The Company buys commodities from and provide products and services to patrons (including its members and other non-member customers), both domestic and international. It provides a variety of products and services, from initial agricultural inputs, such as fuels, farm supplies, crop nutrients and crop protection products, to agricultural outputs, which include grains and oilseeds, grain and oilseed processing and food products. A portion of its operations are conducted through equity investments and joint ventures. The Company has three segments: Energy, Ag Business, and Corporate and Other. In February 2012, the Company acquired Solbar. In May 2012, the Company acquired a 51% interest in CZL Ltd. In August 2012, it acquired Atman. Effective July 28, 2013, CHS Inc, a unit of Hamilton Farm Bureau Co-Operative Inc, acquired a 50% interest in AgFarm Pty Ltd, from Ruralco Holdings Ltd.


During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2011 (fiscal 2011), the Company dissolved its United Harvest joint venture, which operated two grain export facilities in Washington that were leased from the joint venture participants. During fiscal 2011, the Company sold its 45% ownership interest in Multigrain to one of its joint venture partners, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. During fiscal 2011, the Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, CHS Europe, S.A. acquired Agri Point Ltd.

The Company’s Energy segment derives its revenues through refining, wholesaling and retailing of petroleum products. Its Ag Business segment derives its revenues through the origination and marketing of grain, including service activities conducted at export terminals, through the wholesale sales of crop nutrients, from the sales of soybean meal and soybean refined oil and through the retail sales of petroleum and agronomy products, processed sunflowers, feed and farm supplies, and records equity income from investments in its grain export joint ventures and other investments. It includes other business operations in Corporate and Other. These businesses primarily include its financing, insurance, hedging and other service activities related to crop production. In addition, the Company’s wheat milling and packaged food operations are included in Corporate and Other.


Energy

The Company is the nation’s cooperative energy company based on revenues and identifiable assets. The Company’s operations include petroleum refining and pipelines; the supply, marketing (including ethanol and biodiesel) and distribution of refined fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel and other energy products); the blending, sale and distribution of lubricants; and the wholesale supply of propane. The Energy segment processes crude oil into refined petroleum products at refineries in Laurel, Montana (wholly owned) and McPherson, Kansas (an entity in which the Company has an approximate 74.5% ownership interest) and sells those products under the Cenex brand to member cooperatives and others through a network of approximately 1,400 independent retail sites, of which 57% are convenience stores marketing Cenex branded fuels.


The Company’s Laurel, Montana refinery processes medium and high sulfur crude oil into refined petroleum products that primarily include gasoline, diesel fuel, petroleum coke and asphalt. Its Laurel refinery sources approximately 85% of its crude oil supply from Canada, with the balance obtained from domestic sources, and the Company has access to Canadian and northwest Montana crude through its wholly owned Front Range Pipeline, LLC and other common carrier pipelines. Its Laurel refinery also has access to Wyoming crude via common carrier pipelines from the south. The Laurel facility processes approximately 55,000 barrels of crude oil per day to produce refined products that consist of approximately 43% gasoline, 37% diesel fuel and other distillates, 5% petroleum coke, and 15% asphalt and other products. Refined fuels produced at Laurel are available via the Yellowstone Pipeline to western Montana terminals and to Spokane and Moses Lake, Washington, south via common carrier pipelines to Wyoming terminals and Denver, Colorado, and east via its wholly owned Cenex Pipeline, LLC to Glendive, Montana, and Minot and Fargo, North Dakota.


The McPherson, Kansas refinery is owned and operated by National Cooperative Refinery Association (NCRA), of which the Company owns approximately 74.5%. The McPherson refinery processes approximately 85% low and medium sulfur crude oil and 15% heavy sulfur crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and other distillates, propane and other products. NCRA sources its crude oil through its own pipelines as well as common carrier pipelines. The low and medium sulfur crude oil is sourced from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and the heavy sulfur crude oil is sourced from Canada. The McPherson refinery processes approximately 85,000 barrels of crude oil per day to produce refined products that consist of approximately 49% gasoline, 45% diesel fuel and other distillates, and 6% propane and other products. Approximately 32% of the refined fuels are loaded into trucks at the McPherson refinery or shipped via NCRA’s products pipeline to its terminal in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The remaining refined fuel products are shipped to other markets via common carrier pipelines.


The Company’s renewable fuels marketing business markets and distributes ethanol and biodiesel products throughout the United States and overseas by contracting with ethanol and biodiesel production plants to market and distribute their finished products. It owns and operates a propane terminal, four asphalt terminals, seven refined product terminals and three lubricants blending and packaging facilities. The Company also owns and leases a fleet of liquid and pressure trailers and tractors, which are used to transport refined fuels, propane, anhydrous ammonia and other products.


The Company’s Energy segment produces and sells (primarily wholesale) gasoline, diesel fuel, propane, asphalt, lubricants and other related products and provides transportation services. It obtains the petroleum products that it sells from its Laurel and McPherson refineries, and from third parties. In fiscal 2011, the Company obtained approximately 55% of the refined products it sold from its Laurel and McPherson refineries, and approximately 45% from third parties.

Ag Business

The Company’s Ag Business segment includes crop nutrients, country operations, grain marketing and oilseed processing. The revenues in its Ag Business segment primarily include grain sales. Its wholesale crop nutrients business sells approximately 5.6 million tons of fertilizer annually. Primary suppliers for the Company’s wholesale crop nutrients business include CF Industries, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Mosaic Company, Koch Industries, Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) in Kuwait and Belrusian Potash Company. The Company’s wholesale crop nutrients business sells nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfate based products. During fiscal 2011, the primary crop nutrients products the Company purchased were urea, potash, UAN, phosphates and ammonia. The wholesale crop nutrients business sells product to approximately 2,000 local retailers from New York to the west coast and from the Canadian border to Texas. Its largest customer is its own country operations business, which is also included in its Ag Business segment.


The Company’s country operations business purchases a variety of grains from its producer members and other third parties, and provides cooperative members and customers with access to a range of products, programs and services for production agriculture. Country operations operates 401 locations through 67 business units, the majority of which have local producer boards dispersed throughout Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas and Washington. Most of these locations purchase grain from farmers and sell agronomy, energy, feed and seed products to those same producers and others, although not all locations provide every product and service.


The Company is one of the country elevator operators in North America based on revenues. Through a majority of the Company’s locations, its country operations business units purchase grain from member and non-member producers and other elevators and grain dealers. Most of the grain purchased is sold through its grain marketing operations, used for livestock feed production or sold to other processing companies. For the year ended August 31, 2011, country operations purchased approximately 582 million bushels of grain, primarily wheat, corn and soybeans. Of these bushels, 558 million were purchased from members and 417 million were sold through its grain marketing operations. Its country operations business units manufacture and sell other products, both directly and through ownership interests in other entities. These include seed, crop nutrients, crop protection products, energy products, animal feed, animal health products and processed sunflower products.


The Company is the cooperative marketer of grain and oilseed based on grain storage capacity and grain sales, handling over 2.1 billion bushels annually. During fiscal 2011, it purchased approximately 60% of its total grain volumes from individual and cooperative association members and its country operations business, with the balance purchased from third parties. The Company arranges for the transportation of the grains either directly to customers or to its owned or leased grain terminals and elevators awaiting delivery to domestic and foreign purchasers. It primarily conducts its grain marketing operations directly, but do conduct some of its business through joint ventures.


The Company’s grain marketing operations purchases grain directly and indirectly from agricultural producers primarily in the midwestern and western United States. The purchased grain is contracted for sale for future delivery at a specified location, and it is responsible for handling the grain and arranging for its transportation to that location. The Company owns and operates export terminals, river terminals and elevators involved in the handling and transport of grain. Its river terminals are used to load grain onto barges for shipment to both domestic and export customers via the Mississippi River system. These river terminals are located at Savage and Winona, Minnesota and Davenport, Iowa, as well as terminals in which it has put-through agreements located at St. Louis, Missouri and Beardstown and Havana, Illinois.


The Company’s export terminal at Superior, Wisconsin provides access to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, and its export terminal at Myrtle Grove, Louisiana serves the Gulf of Mexico market. In the Pacific Northwest, it conducts its grain marketing operations through TEMCO, LLC (a 50% joint venture with Cargill) which operates an export terminal in Tacoma, Washington, and primarily exports corn and soybeans. The Company owns two 110-car shuttle-receiving elevator facilities in Friona, Texas and Collins, Mississippi that serve large-scale feeder cattle, dairy and poultry producers in those regions.


For sourcing and marketing grains and oilseeds through the Black Sea and Mediterranean Basin regions to customers worldwide it has offices in Geneva, Switzerland; Barcelona, Spain; Kiev, Ukraine; and Vostok, Russia. In addition, it opened grain merchandising offices in fiscal 2011 in Budapest, Hungary; Novi Sad, Serbia; Bucharest, Romania; Sofia, Bulgaria; and a marketing office in Amman, Jordan. The Company has a deep water port in Constanta, Romania, a barge loading facility on the Danube River in Giurgiu, Romania, and an inland grain terminal at Oroshaza, Hungary. In addition, it has an investment in a port facility in Odessa, Ukraine. In the Pacific Rim area, it has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China that serve customers receiving grains and oilseeds from its origination points in North and South America. In South America, the Company has a grain merchandising offices to source grains in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina. It sells and markets crop nutrients from its Geneva, Switzerland; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Buenos Aires, Argentina offices.


The Company’s grain marketing operations purchased approximately 2.1 billion bushels of grain during fiscal 2011, which primarily included corn, soybeans, wheat and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Of the total grains purchased by its grain marketing operations, 866 million bushels were from its individual and cooperative association members, 417 million bushels were from its country operations business and the remainder was from third parties. The Company’s oilseed processing operations convert soybeans into soybean meal, soyflour, crude soybean oil, refined soybean oil and associated by-products. These operations are conducted at a facility in Mankato, Minnesota that can crush approximately 40 million bushels of soybeans on an annual basis, producing approximately 960 thousand short tons of soybean meal and 460 million pounds of crude soybean oil. The same facility is able to process approximately 1.1 billion pounds of refined soybean oil annually. Another crushing facility in Fairmont, Minnesota has a crushing capacity of over 50 million bushels of soybeans on an annual basis, producing approximately 1.2 million short tons of soybean meal and 575 million pounds of crude soybean oil.


The Company’s oilseed processing operations produce three primary products: refined oils, soybean meal and soyflour. Refined oils are used in processed foods, such as margarine, shortening, salad dressings and baked goods, as well as methyl ester/biodiesel production, and for certain industrial uses, such as plastics, inks and paints. Soybean meal has high protein content and is used for feeding livestock. Soyflour is used in the baking industry, as a milk replacement in animal feed and in industrial applications. It produces approximately 60 thousand tons of soyflour annually, and approximately 20% is further processed at its manufacturing facility in Hutchinson, Kansas. This facility manufactures unflavored and flavored textured soy proteins used in human and pet food products, and accounted for approximately 2% of its oilseed processing annual sales in fiscal 2011.


The Company’s soy processing facilities are located in areas with a strong production base of soybeans and end-user market for the meal and soyflour. It purchases virtually all of its soybeans from members. The Company’s oilseed crushing operations produce approximately 95% of the crude soybean oil that it refines, and purchases the balance from outside suppliers. Its customers for refined oil are principally large food product companies located throughout the United States. However, over 50% of its customers are located in the midwest. Its largest customer for refined oil products is Ventura Foods, LLC (Ventura Foods), in which it holds a 50% ownership interest. The Company’s sales to Ventura Foods accounted for 27% of its soybean oil sold during fiscal 2011. The Company also sells soymeal to approximately 325 customers, primarily feed lots and feed mills in southern Minnesota. In fiscal 2011, Interstate Commodities accounted for 12% of its soymeal sold. It sells soyflour to customers in the baking industry both domestically and for export.


Corporate and Other

The Company has provided open account financing to approximately 100 of its members that are cooperatives (cooperative association members). These arrangements involve the discretionary extension of credit in the form of a clearing account for settlement of grain purchases and as a cash management tool. CHS Capital, LLC makes seasonal and term loans to member cooperatives and individual producers. The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Country Hedging, Inc., is a registered Futures Commission Merchant and a clearing member of both the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and the Kansas City Board of Trade. Country Hedging provides full-service commodity risk management brokerage and consulting services to its customers, primarily in the areas of agriculture and energy.


The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Ag States Agency, LLC, is a full-service independent insurance agency. It sells insurance, including all lines of insurance including property and casualty, group benefits and surety bonds. Its approximately 2,000 customers are primarily agribusinesses, including cooperatives and independent elevators, energy, agronomy, feed and seed plants, implement dealers and food processors. Impact Risk Solutions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ag States Agency, LLC, conducts the insurance brokerage business of Ag States Group.


The Company’s primary focus in the foods area is Ventura Foods, LLC (Ventura Foods) which produces and distributes vegetable oil-based products, such as margarine, salad dressing and other food products. Ventura Foods is 50% owned by the Company. Ventura Foods manufactures, packages, distributes and markets bulk margarine, salad dressings, mayonnaise, salad oils, syrups, soup bases and sauces, many of which utilize soybean oil as a primary ingredient. Ventura Foods has 11 manufacturing and distribution locations across the United States. Ventura Foods sources its raw materials, which consist primarily of soybean oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil and other ingredients and supplies, from various national suppliers, including its oilseed processing operations. Agriliance LLC (Agriliance) is owned and governed by CHS (50%) and Land O’Lakes, Inc. (50%).


The Company competes with ConocoPhillips, Valero, BP Amoco, Flint Hills Resources, CVR Energy, Western Petroleum Company, Marathon, ExxonMobil, Citgo, Flint Hills Resources, U.S. Oil, Delek US Holdings, HollyFrontier Corporation, Sinclair Oil Corporation, Tesoro, Chevron, Koch Industries, Agrium, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill, Incorporated (Cargill), Simplot, Helena, Wilbur Ellis, Land O’Lakes Purina Feed, Hubbard Milling, Columbia Grain, Gavilon, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Ag Processing Inc., Unilever, ConAgra, ACH Food Companies, Smuckers, Kraft and CF Sauer, Ken’s, Marzetti and Nestle.


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    CHS (NASDAQ:CHSCL) was upgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2023: Franklin Resources, Inc.(BEN)

Franklin Resources, Inc. (“Franklin”) is a holding company that, together with its various subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”), is referred to as Franklin Templeton Investments ®, a global investment management organization offering investment choices under the Franklin ®, Templeton®, Mutual Series®, Bissett ®, Fiduciary(TM) and Darby® brand names. Franklin is regulated as a bank holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the “BHC Act”), and has elected to be a financial holding company under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (the “GLB Act”). The common stock of Franklin is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the ticker symbol “BEN”, and is included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. In this report, words such as “we”, “us”, “our” and similar terms refer to the Company. When used in this report, unless the context otherwise makes clear, our “funds” means all of the Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series and Bissett mutual funds.   Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By ]

    Perella Weinberg Partners (NASDAQ:PWP) and Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and risk.

  • [By ]

    Perella Weinberg Partners (NASDAQ:PWP) and Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and risk.

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Franklin Resources (BEN)

    For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2023: Triple-S Management Corporation(GTS)

Triple-S Management Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various managed care and related products in the commercial and Medicare markets in Puerto Rico, the United States. The company operates through three segments: Managed Care, Life Insurance, and Property and Casualty Insurance. It offers various managed care products, including health maintenance organization plans; preferred provider organization plans; BlueCard program; Medicare Supplement products; Medicare Part D, a prescription drug plan; Medicare Advantage products; Medicaid plans; and claims processing and other administrative services. The company provides its managed care products to employers, professional and trade associations, individuals, and government entities. It also offers various life, accident, disability, and health and annuity insurance products to individuals; and property and casualty insurance products, which include commercial multiple peril, auto physical damage, auto liability, dwelling, personal package, hospital malpractice, commercial liability, and commercial property insurance products to small to medium size accounts. The company markets and distributes its products through a network of internal sales force, direct mail, independent brokers and agents, telemarketing staff, advertising, and the Internet. Triple-S Management Corporation was founded in 1959 and is based in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Press coverage about Tandy Leather Factory (NASDAQ:TLF) has trended somewhat positive on Sunday, according to Accern Sentiment. The research group rates the sentiment of news coverage by monitoring more than 20 million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Tandy Leather Factory earned a news sentiment score of 0.07 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave press coverage about the textile maker an impact score of 48.0642054684382 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the near term.

  • [By Shane Hupp]

    Tandy Leather Factory (NASDAQ: TLF) and Vera Bradley (NASDAQ:VRA) are both small-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

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