Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average (
^DJI) is trading up 49 points (+0.3%) at 16,492 as of Thursday, Aug 7, 2014, 9:36 a.m. ET. During this time, 11.6 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 305.8 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,865 issues advancing vs. 831 declining with 247 unchanged.
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The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be
Caterpillar (NYSE:
CAT), which is sporting a $1.88 gain (+1.9%) bringing the stock to $103.37. This single gain is lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 14.23 points or roughly accounting for 29% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Caterpillar currently sits at 210,527 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 3.8 million shares.
Caterpillar has a market cap of $63.73 billion and is part of the industrial goods sector and industrial industry. Shares are up 11.8% year-to-date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.8%.
Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives worldwide.
TheStreet Ratings rates Caterpillar as a
buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, reasonable valuation levels, growth in earnings per share and increase in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.
Holding back the Dow today is
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:
UNH), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 62-cent decline (-0.8%) bringing the stock to $80.88. Volume for UnitedHealth Group currently sits at 173,459 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 3.6 million shares.
UnitedHealth Group has a market cap of $78.69 billion and is part of the health care sector and health services industry. Shares are up 8.2% year-to-date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 1.9%.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health and well-being company in the United States.
TheStreet Ratings rates UnitedHealth Group as a
buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its increase in stock price during the past year, revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels, growth in earnings per share and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.
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