These Wide-Moat Stocks Offer More Security: Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) and More

National Oilwell Varco is the biggest U.S. maker of oil-field equipment and a “quiet moneymaker,” with operating margins and debt levels comparing favorably with peers and a record capital equipment backlog of nearly $12 billion. It’s also involved in the profitable offshore drilling arena (which the company sees growing in 2013), and has been growing in part via acquisitions, as well.

Western Union, meanwhile, has long looked like a bargain, with a dividend yield around 3.4% and a single-digit P/E ratio. Some worry about its future, though, as new money-transfer systems proliferate — think of eBay’s PayPal, for example. It’s still a huge cash generator and able to buy back many shares to drive value. Western Union has lowered its prices, raising the specter of profit-margin compression. It just reported fourth-quarter results, with 2012 revenue growing 3% over 2011 and net income down 12%.

The big picture
A well-chosen ETF can grant you instant diversification across any industry or group of companies — and make investing in and profiting from it that much easier.

The article These Wide-Moat Stocks Offer More Security originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Selena Maranjian.

Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian, whom you can follow on Twitter, owns shares of eBay. The Motley Fool recommends eBay, Exelon, National Oilwell Varco, and Western Union. It owns shares of eBay.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.