The Latest on the Gisele Bündchen Stock Index

Gisele Bunchen is a Brazilian supermodel, celebrity endorser and spokesperson for numerous products of many publicly traded companies. She also happens to be the wife of American football star Tom Brady. Gisele is the top earning model according to Forbes Magazine. I have tracked the companies that Gisele has connections with and built those stocks into the form of a stock index, in order to compare Gisele's stocks with the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The following graph shows the return for both since 2007:

The Gisele Index is still outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average by a wide margin. The Gisele Index is up an outstanding 79% since January 2007, whereas the Dow was up only 22%. over the same period of time. I have been maintaining the same stocks in the portfolio to keep it consistent over time.

Since 2007, her index was up 79%, since 2008 up 77%, and since 2009, up 111%. Even in the last year and a half, since January 2011, the Gisele Index was up 44.6%.

The stocks in her index include:

Volkswagon (VLKAY) TV commercial spokesperson

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (RL) Advertising campaign face for Ralph Lauren, owned by Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

Telefonica Brasil [Vivo Participacoes] (VIV) Celebrity endorsement - largest mobile phone service provider in Brazil and in South America

News Corp. (NWSA) Starred in the comedy, Taxi, in her movie debut, and The Devil Wears Prada, both produced by 20th Century Fox, a division of News Corp.

Procter & Gamble (PG) Celebrity endorsement, increased Pantene's sale in Brazil by 40%.

Disney (DIS) Celebrity endorsement - appeared in the 'Year of a Million Dreams' celebration photoshoot

For a free list of stocks in the Gisele Stock Index, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Other celebrity stock indexes you may be interested in include the Heidi Klum Stock Index, the Eva Longoria Stock Index, the Angelina Jolie Stock Index, the Jessica Alba Stock Index, the Nicole Kidman Stock Index, and the Supermodels Stock Indices.

Assumptions:
The Gisele Index is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It includes reinvested dividends.

Disclosure: Author owned DIS and NWSA at the time the article was written. No celebrity endorsement expressed or implied.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Is Brazil Ripe for a Rebound? Top Brazilian Income Stocks

Holders of Brazil stocks have been suffering. During the last couple years, even though the S&P 500 was up almost 20%, the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) dropped by over 31%. Maybe a recovery is in the works. After all, Brazil is still the fifth largest country in the world by population and area, and the sixth highest nominal gross domestic product in the world. The country has huge oil reserves and is a world leader in alternative energy, primarily ethanol generated from sugarcane.

If you think it's time for a rebound, there are 25 Brazil stocks to choose from that trade in the US, according to the free list of Brazil stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. More than a dozen of the companies pay dividends with yields ranging from 0.5% to 7.8%.

Of course, if you don't want to pick and choose, you can stick with the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF, which owns a very diversified portfolio of Brazilian stocks. The average price to earnings ratio is 14 and the ETF even pays a yield of 2.8%.

If you like to make your own decisions on stock choices, you may want to take a look at Telefonica Brasil, S.A. (VIV), the large Brazilian telecom company, which pays a nice yield of 4.4%, and dividends have generally been paid semi-annually for over a dozen years. The stock trades at 11.4 times forward earnings.

Cia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CIG) is another example. It is an electric utility that provides electricity primarily in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The stock trades at 6.4 times forward earnings, and pays a very high yield of 5.4%.

Other dividend paying Brazil stocks include Ultrapar (UGP) yielding 2.4% and Gerdau (GGB) paying a yield of 2.0%.

To see other Brazil stocks, many of which pay dividends, go the WallStreetNewsNetwork.com to access the list of Brazil stocks that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated. You can also find more Brazil stock information in the book Investing in Brazil Stocks: Get Rich from the South American Giant.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Brazil's Parsimony Economy

Brazil's policy makers recently said 'additional monetary flexibility should be conducted with parsimony.' In case you aren't sure what parsimony means, according to some online dictionaries, parsimony is thrift, unusual or excessive frugality, and the quality of being careful with money. The Brazil economy has been slow in terms of recovery, so the country's central bank has decided to drop its benchmark interest rate in July. For the first quarter of this year, Brazil's economy grew by only 0.2%, significantly lower than what analysts predicted. The government's state development bank BNDES is increasing low interest rate loans and, even better news, taxes on consumer and industrial goods have been reduced, in order to help spur on the economy.

So how have Brazil stocks been performing? Terrible! During the last year, even though the S&P 500 was up a couple percent, the iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ) took a dive, tanking about 28%. If you think it's time for a rebound, there are about 25 Brazil companies that trade in the United States, according to the free Brazil stocks list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. More than half of the companies have yields in excess of 3%.

Cia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CIG) is one example. It serves electric energy primarily in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The stock trades at 12 times forward earnings, and pays a decent yield of 3.6%. Earnings the latest quarter ending March 31 were up 20% on a 15.1% rise in revenues.

Here's a contrarian stock for you: Gafisa S.A. (GFA), a developer of residential buildings including luxury residences. The company trades at 15 times forward earnings. Earnings for the latest quarter were down slightly, however, revenues were up 27%. Sporadic annual dividends have been paid during the last few years.

Telefonica Brasil, S.A. (VIV), the large Brazilian telecom company, pays a substantial yield of 4.4%, and dividends have usually been paid semi-annually for over 12 years. The stock trades at nine times forward earnings. Quarterly earnings were up an incredible 128.9% on an amazing 109.2% boost in revenues.

To see other Brazil stocks, almost all of which pay dividends, go the WallStreetNewsNetwork.com to access the list of Brazil stocks that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Supermodel Gisele Stock Index Still Outperforms

Gisele Bunchen, the wife of football star Tom Brady, is the world's top earning supermodel, according to Forbes.

Gisele, who receives most of her income in euros and Brazilian reals, is a celebrity endorser and spokesperson for numerous products of many publicly traded companies. Back in 2007, I examined these companies and built them into the form of a stock index, in order to compare Gisele's stocks with the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The following graph shows the return for both from last year.



If you look at the returns from January 2011 to today, the Dow is up 11.2%, yet the Gisele Stock Index is up an incredible 25.7%. This return excludes Apple (AAPL), which used to be part of the index because Gisele Bundchen appeared on the 'Get a Mac' advertisements to promote the new line of Macintosh's a few years ago. If Apple was still in the index, her return would be even higher.

A selection of the stocks in her index include:

Volkswagon (VLKAY.PK) TV commercial spokesperson

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (RL) Advertising campaign face for Ralph Lauren, owned by Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

Vivo Participacoes (VIV) Celebrity endorsement - largest mobile phone service provider in Brazil and in South America

News Corp. (NWSA) Starred in the comedy, Taxi, in her movie debut, and The Devil Wears Prada, both produced by 20th Century Fox, a division of News Corp.

Procter & Gamble (PG) Celebrity endorsement, increased Pantene's sale in Brazil by 40%.

Disney (DIS) Celebrity endorsement - appeared in the 'Year of a Million Dreams' celebration photoshoot

For a free list of stocks in the Gisele Stock Index, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Other celebrity stock indexes you may be interested in include the Heidi Klum Stock Index, the Eva Longoria Stock Index, the Angelina Jolie Stock Index, the Jessica Alba Stock Index, the Nicole Kidman Stock Index, the Freida Pinto Stock Index, and the Supermodels Stock Indices.

Assumptions:
The Gisele Index is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It includes reinvested dividends.

Disclosure: Author owned DIS, NWSA, and AAPL at the time the article was written. No celebrity endorsement expressed or implied.

By Stockerblog.com