The Andersons, Inc. (ANDE) is a diversified company operating in five different business segments ranging from buying, selling and storing grain to leasing railcars and running retail stores offering the latest home hardware needs. The company has operations in 12 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, plus rail equipment leasing interests in Canada and Mexico.The company said certain fertilizer inventory values began to decline late in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter. What's more, ANDE expects some continued price decreases in the world fertilizer markets will lead to margin decreases and additional inventory adjustments in Q4.Given the unpredictability in plant nutrient product valuation, the company lowered its FY08 EPS guidance to a range of $2.00 to $2.80 per diluted share, down from the previous estimate of $3.50 to $4.00 per diluted share. We rate shares of ANDE a Hold.Read the ...

Last month, I spent some time in San Juan, Puerto Rico. One day, we visited Old San Juan, the oldest settlement within the territory of the United States, with a history that begins in 1508. We also visited the old fort known officially as El Castillo San Felipe del Morro, or simply El Morro.

The fort must have sent shivers up the spines of all those who hoped to take it. The walls of El Morro are 18 feet thick and 145 feet high. Built on a headland, the Spanish Empire controlled the flow of goods in and out of the New World from here. El Morro has been tested many times. Even today, you can walk in the oldest tower in the fort, built in 1539, and see shell fragments in the ceiling that date to the 1898 bombardment of San Juan by the U.S. Navy during the Spanish-American War.

El

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Are you concerned about the possibility of higher taxes on dividends? You might want to take a look at tax free income stocks. There are a group of stocks out there, technically closed end funds, which pay dividends that are tax free. This tax free income comes from municipal bonds in the portfolio. Muni bonds are issued by states, counties, cities, and other governmental agencies. Income from those bonds is exempt from Federal income taxes, and if the bonds are issued in your state of residence, the income is exempt from state income taxes also. Municipal bonds issued by Puerto Rico and other U. S. dependencies are exempt from state income taxes also for residents of most states. There are over 200 different tax free income stocks according to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, with over 30 of which yield over 8%. One of the highest yielding tax free ...

Goldman Sachs made the following changes to its conviction buy list, which can be tracked at:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/930

Goldman Sachs removed Allied Waste Industries Inc. (NYSE: AW) from its Conviction Buy List. The firm is maintaining a Buy rating.

Allied Waste Industries, Inc. operates as a nonhazardous solid waste management company in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Goldman Sachs added Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MMC) to its Conviction Buy List.

Shares of Marsh & McLennan are up 7.7% this AM to $27.61. The 52-week range is $23.12-$36.82.

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., a professional services company, provides advice and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy, and human capital.

Goldman Sachs upgrades Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT) from Sell to Buy and added the stock to their Conviction Buy List.

Applied Materials, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells semiconductor fabrication equipment worldwide.

Goldman Sachs added Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:

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Kaman (KAMN) is a maker of industrial components such as bearings, mechanical and electrical power transmissions, fluid power, motion control, and materials handling components. Among the company’s biggest customers are airlines, to whom Kaman supplies metallic and composite detail parts, minor and major subassemblies, flight control surfaces, composite interiors and fuselage, and wing structures. The company also supplies parts to military customers. In addition, Kaman offers helicopter engineering subcontract programs for other manufacturers and self-lubricating bearings used in aircraft flight controls, turbine engines, and landing gear, as well as power transmission couplings for helicopters

Despite the slowdown in the US economy, Kaman appears to flying high. Earlier this month, the company set a 14-cent per share quarterly dividend. A promising move considering many companies have recently slashed or altogether eliminated their dividends. Kaman also recently made an acquisition, purchasing Puerto Rico’s Industrial Rubber and Mechanics Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

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by Manuel Alvarez-Rivera, Puerto RicoVoters in Lithuania, the largest and southernmost of the three Baltic republics, go to the polls on Sunday, October 12, 2008 to choose members of the country's 141-seat unicameral legislature, the Seimas. The election will be Lithuania's fifth parliamentary vote since 1991, when the country - which unilaterally declared itself independent in 1990, after five decades of annexation by the Soviet Union - was internationally recognized as a sovereign nation, along with neighboring Latvia and Estonia, which also regained their independence from the U.S.S.R.Members of the Seimas are elected every four years under a mixed electoral system, in which 70 parliamentary mandates are distributed on a nationwide basis by the largest remainder method of proportional representation (PR), among party lists polling at least five percent of the vote and coalitions that secure at least seven percent; voters may indicate a preference for ...

by Manuel Alvarez-Rivera, Puerto RicoFor many countries in Latin America, the wave of democratization that swept the region during the 1980s offered yet another opportunity to establish constitutional arrangements that had proved to be short-lived on many previous occasions. However, for Chile the restoration of democracy in 1990 was the continuation - after an authoritarian parenthesis of seventeen years - of a long and proud tradition of constitutional rule that had been the norm throughout most of the 140 years prior to 1973, when a right-wing military coup overthrew the democratically elected but militantly Marxist government of President Salvador Allende Gossens.Nonetheless, Chile's transition to democracy was an obstacle race of sorts. Following a less-than-transparent 1980 referendum, the armed forces were able to impose not only a restrictive constitution that would remain in force after they left power, but also a timetable for the transition to civilian ...

Collective Brands keeps selling shoes despite the economic downturn as it focuses on designer brands. The company has surprised 3 out of 4 quarters by an average of 28.14%. Collective Brands has a forward P/E of 12.87.

Company Description

Collective Brands Inc. (PSS) is a national shoe retailer that is the largest non-athletic footwear company in the Western Hemisphere. The company has three divisions: Payless Shoesource, Stride Rite and Collective Licensing International.

Payless ShoeSource was founded in 1956 and has 4,600 retail stores in all 50 U.S. states, as well as in Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Payless' brands include Dexter, Disney, Champion and designer collections: Abaeté for Payless, Lela Rose for Payless and alice + olivia for Payless. The company now has a footwear and accessory design team in New York City. The

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Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NYSE: PPC), the largest chicken company in the United States and Puerto Rico and the producer of poultry products in North America sold under the Pilgrim’s Pride and Wampler Foods labels, recently announced that the company has notified its lenders regarding the expectation of a significant loss in the fiscal fourth quarter ending September 27, 2008, based on preliminary results.

The anticipated loss is due to high feed ingredient costs, continued weak pricing and demand for breast meat, and the significant negative impact of hedged grain positions during the quarter. As a result, Pilgrim’s Pride does not expect to be in compliance with its fixed-charge coverage ratio covenant under its principal credit facilities as of the fiscal year ending September 27, 2008, but expects to be in compliance with all other covenants as of the end of the 2008 fiscal year.

The company’s management team has reached an

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Oriental Financial Group (OFG) is a bank holding company that offers banking services, such as commercial and consumer lending, saving and time deposit products, financial planning, and corporate and individual trust and retirement services, and mortgage lending services to customers in Puerto Rico and Florida. The company also operates an international banking entity, Oriental International Bank, Inc., that engages in similar lines of business. As of the end of 2007, Oriental Financial had 24 retail branches on the island of Puerto Rico.

Oriental Financial also provides financial services, including fiduciary, insurance, and pension administration services; investment banking services; and securities brokerage services covering various investment alternatives, such as tax-advantaged fixed income securities, mutual funds, stocks, and bonds to retail and institutional clients. The Puerto Rico-based company offers mutual fund and asset allocation services, as well as debt and equity offerings. It also has a brokerage business that serves mid- to

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