LONDON -- I'm looking at some of your favorite FTSE 100 companies and examining how each will deliver their dividends.
Today, I'm putting Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant�Unilever� (LSE: ULVR ) (NYSE: UL ) under the microscope.
Dividend policy
Soon after Paul Polman took over as chief executive in January 2009, Unilever announced a new dividend policy to run from 2010 onward:�"Unilever's policy is to seek to pay an attractive, sustainable and growing dividend to shareholders."
The company said it would move from paying an interim and final dividend each year to paying four quarterly dividends, announced with the quarterly results. It added that the change would�"better align the payments with the cash flow generation of the business."
Dividend delivery
The table below shows the extent to which Unilever has grown its dividend since the move to quarterly payouts. It should be noted that the company's reporting currency is the euro. Thus, the euro dividend is the gauge for measuring performance against policy, while the sterling dividend is at the mercy -- for better or worse -- of prevailing exchange rates.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Tetra Technologies Inc.(TTI)
TETRA Technologies, Inc. operates as a diversified oil and gas services company. The company operates in three divisions: Fluids, Production Enhancement, and Offshore. The Fluids Division manufactures and markets clear brine fluids, additives, and other associated products and services to the oil and gas industry for use in well drilling, completion, and workover operations in the United States, as well as in various countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa; and markets liquid and dry calcium chloride products to non-energy markets. The Production Enhancement division offers production testing services in various oil and gas basins in the United States, as well as in Mexico, Brazil, northern Africa, and the Middle East; and wellhead compression-based production enhancement services in the onshore producing regions of the United States, as well as various onshore basins in Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Offshore division pr ovides offshore services, including downhole and subsea oil and gas services, such as well plugging and abandonment, and wireline services; decommissioning and construction services utilizing heavy lift barges and various technologies for offshore oil and gas production platforms and pipelines; and conventional and saturated air diving services. It also engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas properties in the offshore and onshore U.S. Gulf Coast region. This division provides its services to oil and gas companies and independent operators. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in the Woodlands, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Monica Wolfe]
Tetra Technologies (TTI)
During the second quarter Ashton upped his stake in Tetra Technologies by 91.82%. The guru purchased 71,800 shares in the second quarter price range of $8.29 to $11.21, with an estimated average price of $9.74. Since his buy the price per share has increased approximately 20.1%.
- [By Seth Jayson]
When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to TETRA Technologies (NYSE: TTI ) .
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB.N)
Itau Unibanco Holding S.A., incorporated on September 9, 1943, is a bank in Brazil. The Company has four operational segments: Commercial Banking, Itau BBA, Consumer Credit and Corporate and Treasury. Commercial banking, including insurance, pension plan and capitalization products, credit cards, asset management and a variety of credit products and services for individuals, small and middle-market companies). Itau BBA includes corporate and investment banking. Consumer credit includes financial products and services to its non-accountholders. Corporate and treasury includes the results related to the trading activities in its portfolio, trading related to managing currency, interest rate and other market risk factors, gap management and arbitrage opportunities in domestic and foreign markets. It also includes the results associated with financial income from the investment of its excess capital.
On October 24, 2010, Itau Unibanco completed the integration of customer service locations throughout Brazil. In total, 998 branches and 245 customer site branches (CSB) of Unibanco were redesigned and integrated as Itau Unibanco customer service locations, thus creating a network of approximately 4,700 units in the country under the Itau brand. The Company is a financial holding company controlled by Itau Unibanco Participacoes S.A. (IUPAR). As of December 31, 2010, it had a network of 3,747 service branches throughout Brazil. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 913 CSBs throughout Brazil. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 28,844 automated teller machines (ATMs) throughout Brazil.
Commercial banking
The commercial banking segment offers a range of banking services to a diversified base of individuals and companies. Services offered by the commercial banking segment include insurance, pension plan and capitalization products, credit cards, asset management, credit products and customized products and solu tions. The commercial banking segment comprises the special! i! zed areas and products, such as retail banking (individuals); public sector banking; personnalite (banking for high-income individuals); private banking (banking and financial consulting for wealthy individuals); very small business banking; small business banking; middle-market banking; credit cards; real estate financing; asset management; corporate social responsibility fund; securities services for third parties; brokerage, and insurance, private retirement and capitalization products.
The Company�� credit products include personal loans, overdraft protection, payroll loans, vehicles, credit cards, mortgage and agricultural loans, working capital, trade note discount and export. Its investments products include pension plans, mutual funds, time deposits, demand deposit accounts, savings accounts and capitalization plans. Its services include insurance (life, home, credit/cash cards, vehicles, loan protection, among others), exchange, brokerage and others. Its core business is retail banking, which serves individuals with a monthly income below R$7,000. In October 2010, it completed the conversion of branches under the Unibanco brand to the Itau brand and as of December 31, 2010, it had over 15.2 million customers and 4,660 branches and CSBs. Its public sector business operates in all areas of the public sector, including the federal, state and municipal governments (in the executive, legislative and judicial branches). As of December 31, 2010, it had approximately 2,300 public sector customers. Itau Personnalite�� focus is delivering financial advisory services by its managers, who understand the specific needs of its higher-income customers; a portfolio of exclusive products and services; special benefits based on the type and length of relationship with the customer, including discounts on various products and services. Itau Personnalite�� customer base reached more than 600,000 individuals as of December 31, 2010. Itau Personnalite customers also have access to Itau Unibanco! ne! twor! k of ! branches and ATMs throughout the country, as well as Internet banking and phone.
Itau Private Bank is a Brazilian bank in the global private banking industry, providing wealth management services to approximately 17,951 Latin American clients as of December 31, 2010. The Company serves its customers��needs for offshore wealth management solutions in major jurisdictions through independent institutions in the United States through Banco Itau Europa International and Itau Europa Securities , in Luxembourg through Banco Itau Europa Luxembourg S.A. , in Switzerland through Banco Itau Suisse , in the Bahamas through BIE Bank & Trust Bahamas and in Cayman through Unicorp Bank & Trust Cayman. As of December 31, 2010, it had over 565 very small business banking offices located throughout Brazil and approximately 2,500 managers working for over 1,235,000 small business customers. Loans to very small businesses totaled R$5,981 million as of December 31, 2010. As of Dece mber 31, 2010, it had 374 small business banking offices located nationwide in Brazil and nearly 2,500 managers who worked for over 525,000 companies. Loans to small businesses totaled R$28,744 million as of December 31, 2010.
As of December 31, 2010, it had approximately 115,000 middle-market corporate customers that represented a range of Brazilian companies located in over 83 cities in Brazil. The Company offers a range of financial products and services to middle-market customers, including deposit accounts, investment options, insurance, private retirement plans and credit products. Credit products include investment capital loans, working capital loans, inventory financing, trade financing, foreign currency services, equipment leasing services, letters of credit and guarantees. The Company also carries out financial transactions on behalf of middle-market customers, including interbank transactions, open market transactions and futures, swaps, hedging and arbitrage transactions. It also offers its middle-ma! rket cus!! tomers co! llection services and electronic payment services. The Company is able to provide these services for virtually any kind of payment, including Internet office banking. It charges collection fees and fees for making payments, such as payroll, on behalf of its customers.
The Company is engaged in the Brazilian credit card market. Its subsidiaries, Banco Itaucard S.A. (Banco Itaucard) and Hipercard Banco Multiplo S.A. (Hipercard), offers a range of products to 26 million customers as of December 31, 2010, including both accountholders and non-accountholders. As of December 31, 2010, it had approximately R$16,271 million in outstanding real estate loans. As of December 31, 2010, it had total net assets under management of R$291,748 million on behalf of approximately 2.1 million customers. The Company also provides portfolio management services for pension funds, corporations, private bank customers and foreign investors. As of December 31, 2010, it had R$184,496 mill ion of assets under management for pension funds, corporations and private bank customers. As of December 31, 2010, the Company offered and managed about 1,791 mutual funds, which are mostly fixed-income and money market funds. For individual customers, it offered 154 funds to its retail customers and approximately 287 funds to its Itau Personnalite customers. Private banking customers may invest in over 600 funds, including those offered by other institutions. Itau BBA�� capital markets group also provides tailor-made mutual funds to institutional, corporate and private banking customers.
The Company provides securities services in the Brazilian capital markets. Its services also include acting as transfer agent, providing services relating to debentures and promissory notes, custody and control services for mutual funds, pension funds and portfolios, providing trustee services and non-resident investor services, and acting as custodian for depositary receipt programs. The Company also provides brokerage ! services ! to i! nternatio! nal customers through its broker-dealer operations in New York, through its London branch, and through its broker-dealers in Hong Kong and Dubai. Its main lines of insurance are life and casualty (excluding Vida Gerador de Benefucio Livre), extended warranties and property. Its policies are sold through its banking operations, independent local brokers, multinational brokers and other channels. As of December 31, 2010, it had 9.9 million in capitalization products outstanding, representing R$2,620 million in liabilities with assets that function as guarantees of R$2,646 million. The Company distributes these products through its retail network, Itau Personnalite and Itau Uniclass branches, electronic channels and ATMs. These products are sold by its subsidiary, Cia. Itau de Capitalizacao S.A.
Itau BBA
Itau BBA is responsible for its corporate and investment banking activities. As of December 31, 2010, Itau BBA offered a portfolio of products and ser vices to approximately 2,400 companies and conglomerates in Brazil. Itau BBA�� activities range from typical operations of a commercial bank to capital markets operations and advisory services for mergers and acquisitions. As of December 31, 2010, its corporate loan portfolio was R$ 76,584 million. In investment banking, the fixed income department was responsible for the issuance of debentures and promissory notes that totaled R$18,888 million and securitization transactions that amounted to R$4,677 million in Brazil in 2010. In addition, Itau BBA advised 35 merger and acquisition transactions with an aggregate deal volume of R$16,973 million in 2010.
Itau BBA is also active in Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social (BNDES) on-lending to finance large-scale projects, aiming at strengthening domestic infrastructure. In consolidated terms, total loans granted by Itau BBA under BNDES on-lending represented more than R$9,010 million in 2010. Itau BB A focuses on the products and initiatives! in the i! nternation! al busine! ss unit, such as structuring long-term, bilateral and syndicated financing, and spot foreign exchange. In addition, in 2010 Itau BBA continued to offer a large number of lines of credit for foreign trade.
Consumer Credit
As of December 31, 2010, its portfolio of vehicle financing, leasing and consortium lending consisted of approximately 3.8 million contracts, of which approximately 71.1% were non-accountholder customers. The personal loan portfolio relating to vehicle financing and leasing reached R$60,254 million in 2010. The Company leased and financed vehicles through 13,706 dealers as of December 31, 2010. Sales are made through computer terminals installed in the dealerships that are connected to its computer network. Redecard S.A. (Redecard) is a multibrand credit card provider in Brazil, also responsible for the capturing, transmission, processing and settlement of credit, debit and benefit card transactions. As of December 31, 2010, the Com pany held approximately 50% interest in Redecard�� capital stock.
The Company competes with Bradesco, Banco do Brasil S.A. (Banco do Brasil), Banco Santander, Caixa Economica Federal (CEF), BNDES, HSBC, Banco Citibank S.A, Banco de Investimentos Credit Suisse (Brasil) S.A., Banco JP Morgan S.A., Banco Morgan Stanley S.A., Banco Merrill Lynch de Investimentos S.A., Banco BTG Pactual S.A., Banco Panamericano S.A, Citibank S.A., Banco GE Capital S.A. and Banco Ibi S.A.
Grupo TMM, S.A.B., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated logistics and transportation company in Mexico. The company offers maritime transportation services, including offshore vessels, which offer transportation and other services to the Mexican offshore oil industry; tankers that transport petroleum products in Mexican waters; parcel tankers, which transport liquid chemical and vegetable oil cargos from and to the United States and Mexico; and tugboats that provide towing services at the port of Manzanillo, Mexico. It operates a fleet of 46 vessels, which comprise product and chemical tankers, harbor tugs, and various offshore supply vessels. The company also operates two Mexican port facilities, Tuxpan and Acapulco, as well as provides port agent services to vessel owners and operators in the Mexican ports. Its logistics business provides trucking services to manufacturers consisting of automobile plants, and retailers, as well as offers logistical f acilities in industrial cities and railroad hubs in Aguascalientes, Toluca, Puebla, Veracruz, Nuevo Laredo, Cuernavaca, Mexico City, Monterrey, Manzanillo, Ensenada, and Altamira. The company's logistics services include consulting, analytical, and logistics outsourcing; logistics network analysis; logistics information process design; trucking, intermodal transport, and auto haulage services; warehousing and bonded warehousing facility management; supply chain and logistics management; product handling and repackaging; local pre-assembly; maintaining and repairing containers; and inbound and outbound distribution using truck transport. Grupo TMM was founded in 1955 and in headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Ion Geophysical Corporation (IO)
ION Geophysical Corporation provides planning and seismic processing services, software, and acquisition equipment to the energy industry worldwide. Its Solutions segment provides seismic data processing services for marine and land environments, reservoir solutions, onboard processing and quality control, and seismic data libraries, as well as services to manage the seismic process that comprise survey planning and design, data acquisition and management, pre-processing, and final subsurface imaging. The company�s Systems segment offers DigiSTREAMER system, a towed streamer; redeployable ocean bottom cable seismic data acquisition systems; shipboard recorders; DigiCOURSE, a marine streamer positioning system; DigiFIN streamer control systems; source and source control systems, such as air guns; and analog geophone sensors. Its Software segment provides software systems and services comprising Orca, a command and control software for towed streamer acquisition; Gator, an integrated navigation and data management software system for multi-vessel ocean bottom cable and transition zone operations; and post-survey tools, including Reflex software for seismic coverage and attribute analysis, as well as Optimiser, a technology planning tool. This segment also offers consulting services for planning, designing, and supervising surveys, including 4D and WATS survey operations. ION Geophysical Corporation also offers cable-based, cable less, and radio-controlled seismic data acquisition systems; digital sensors; vibroseis vehicles, such as vibrator trucks; and source controllers for detonator and energy sources. The company was formerly known as Input/Output, Inc. ION Geophysical Corporation was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Roberto Pedone]
ION Geophysical (IO) is a technology-focused seismic solutions company that provides advanced seismic data acquisition equipment, seismic software and seismic planning, processing and interpretation services to the global energy industry. This stock closed up 1.7% to $5.35 in Tuesday's trading session.
Tuesday's Range: $5.22-$5.38
52-Week Range: $4.59-$7.70
Thursday's Volume: 1.14 million
Three-Month Average Volume: 1.12 million
From a technical perspective, IO rose modestly higher here right of some near-term support at $5.20 with above-average volume. This stock recently gapped up sharply from around $4.80 to $5.52 with strong upside volume. Following that move, shares of IO pulled back to $5.20 and the stock has now started to trend into its 50-day moving average of $5.36. That move is quickly pushing shares of IO within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if IO manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance levels at Tuesday's high of $5.38 to more resistance at $5.52 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in IO as long as it's trending above $5.20 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 1.12 million shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then IO will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $6 to its 200-day moving average at $6.20. Any high-volume move above $6.20 will then put $6.50 to $6.70 into range for shares of IO.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Sun Life Financial Inc.(SLF)
Sun Life Financial Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various life and health insurance, savings, investment management, retirement, and pension products and services to individuals and corporate customers. It offers individual life insurance policies, including individual term life, universal life, critical illness, disability, accident, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance policies; and group life insurance policies. The company also provides individual health insurance, long-term care insurance, group health benefits, dental benefits, and group insurance; and various individual and group annuity, retirement, and investment income products and services, such as mutual and pooled funds, variable and fixed annuities, savings, retirement and pension plans, and education savings. In addition, it offers asset management services for corporate retirement plans, separate accounts, public or government funds, and insurance company assets to institutional clients; and advisory services to individual investors. Further, the company provides run-off reinsurance services. Sun Life Financial Inc. distributes its products through direct sales agents, independent and managing general agents, financial intermediaries, broker-dealers, banks, pension and benefit consultants, and other third-party marketing organizations. The company operates primarily in Bermuda, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Sun Life Financial Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion: Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Jack In The Box Inc.(JACK)
Jack in the Box Inc. operates and franchises Jack in the Box quick-service restaurants and Qdoba Mexican Grill fast-casual restaurants. As of February 22, 2012, it operated and franchised 2,200 Jack in the Box restaurants in 20 states in the United States; and 600 Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurants in 42 states and the District of Columbia. The company was founded in 1951 and is based in San Diego, California.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Levisohn]
Chipotle has gained 2.1% to $427.90, the second best performer in the S&P 500, while Panera has dropped 2.8% to $159.47, and underperforming�Jack in the Box (JACK), which has dipped 0.3% to $39.98, Krispy Kreme (KKD), which has fallen 2% to $19.43, and Starbucks (SBUX), which is off 0.5% at $76.98.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Jack in the Box (Nasdaq: JACK ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Argent Mining Corp (AMG.V)
AM Gold Inc., an exploration stage company, engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties. It explores primarily for gold and copper ores. The company holds a 100% interest in the Pinaya gold-copper project comprising 35 mineral concessions covering approximately 19,200 hectares located in the southeast of the city of Lima, Peru; and an 80% interest in the Red Mountain gold project consisting of 52 mineral property claims covering approximately 3,600 hectares located in the central Yukon Territory, Canada. It also holds a 100% interest in 2 grassroots gold projects, the La Mamita property, which consists of a single concession and covering an area of approximately 1,000 hectares; and Minas Lucho property that comprises 4 mineral concessions covering an area of approximately 2,400 hectares, both located in Peru. The company was formerly known as Acero-Martin Exploration Inc. and changed its name to AM Gold Inc. in June 2010. AM Gold Inc. is based in Vanco uver, Canada.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Messina Minerals Inc. (MMI.V)
Messina Minerals Inc. engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties primarily in Canada. The company explores primarily for zinc, lead, copper, silver, and gold deposits. It principally holds 100% interests in the Tulks South property consisting of 713 mineral claims covering 17,835 hectares located in central Newfoundland; and the Long Lake property comprising 351 mineral claims covering 8,784 hectares located in Newfoundland. The company was formerly known as Mishibishu Gold Corporation and changed its name to Messina Minerals Inc. in January 2003. Messina Minerals Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Cranswick(CWK.L)
Cranswick plc engages in the manufacture and supply of food products to grocery retailers, food producers, and food service sector in the United Kingdom and internationally. It offers fresh products, including fresh pork, gourmet sausages, charcuterie, cooked meats, sandwiches, traditional dry cured bacon, and continental fine foods under the Jamie Oliver, Weight Watchers, Richard Woodall, Simply Sausages, Red Lion Foods, The Black Farmer, and Reggae Reggae. The company is based in Hull, the United Kingdom.
Top 10 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: (XTRN)
Las Vegas Railway Express Inc. focuses to re-establish a conventional passenger train service between the Las Vegas and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. It plans to establish a ?Vegas-style? passenger train service. The company is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Shutterstock A. You will automatically keep your Part D coverage if you don't make any changes to it during open enrollment, which runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 for 2014 plans. But it's a good idea to shop around again for Medicare Part D prescription-drug plans and all-in-one Medicare Advantage plans, especially if your health or medications have changed. Even if your premiums haven't risen much, your out-of-pocket costs could change significantly. Many Part D plans have increased premiums, boosted copayments and changed the pricing tiers for prescription drugs. A number of plans have four or five tiers of drug pricing, and your out-of-pocket costs could go up if the insurer moves your drugs from one pricing tier to another. If a medication moves from a preferred to a non-preferred brand-name drug or specialty drug, for example, you may have to pay as much as 25 percent of the cost yourself. Some plans even have two pricing tiers for generic drugs, charging a higher copayment for non-preferred generics.
Alamy The afternoon exodus of turnstiles clicking the wrong way may soon be coming to an end at Disney's (DIS) Animal Kingdom. Disney announced over the weekend that an entire land themed to James Cameron's "Avatar" -- complete with at least two E-ticket attractions -- should open at the animal-themed park by early 2017. The addition of the fictional Na'vi tribe's lush Pandora moon landscape should help shake the park's negative tag of being a half-day park. It's been more than two years since Disney and Cameron announced that "Avatar" -- a 21st Century Fox (FOXA) property -- would be coming to Florida. At the time, the parties earmarked a $400 million investment and squared away several acres at Animal Kingdom for the project. However, things had been relatively quiet since then. After spending billions to acquire Marvel and Lucasfilm, it was only natural to wonder if Disney was having second thoughts about its blue-hued plan to use the section of the park that had originally been slated for the mythical Beastly Kingdom, before Disney settled for installing the far more modest Camp Minnie-Mickey. We're Back on Pandora Marvel and Lucasfilm properties would've been an odd fit, even for a park that stretches the scope of being an animal park to include talking bugs in a 3-D show, a track-wrecking yeti, and a time-traveling dinosaur-hunting thrill ride. Marvel itself comes with unique challenges. Marvel's most prolific characters are tied to a licensing deal with Comcast's (CMCSA) Islands of Adventure in the Universal Orlando Resort that prohibits their appearance at any of Disney's Florida parks. Since things had become so quiet on the "Avatar" front lately, it was easy to speculate that Disney was working on a deal to buy those rights from Comcast. That never happened. However, now that Disney has come clean with some more details and offered up impressive concept art, it seems as if the family entertainment giant has made the right call by dreaming up an experience where park guests will be able to take a leisurely boat ride through the bioluminescent forests of Pandora, or take the thrills up a notch by flying alongside the movie's mountain banshees. Scaling Everest A bit of back story: Animal Kingdom had a rocky reception after it opened in 1998. Outside of the magnetic Kilimanjaro Safari motorized trek through real animal habitats, many visitors were left heading for the exits after a few hours at the park. (I didn't win too many fans with a scathing rebuke at the time, but the park was a disappointment in its first few years.) The park went on to close as early as 5 p.m. some days, and attendance fell in each of its first four years. That turned around when Disney expanded the park to include popular stage shows and the Expedition Everest roller coaster. The park that had attracted 8.6 million guests in its first full year -- falling to 7.3 million by 2003 -- drew nearly 10 million guests last year, according to Themed Entertainment Association. Naturally Animal Kingdom can do even better, and the Avatar expansion will also include the introduction of a new nighttime show -- away from the live animal staging areas -- that will help keep guests at the park longer. It's going to be a long wait until early 2017 -- or the more likely late 2016 soft opening -- but at least Animal Kingdom can capitalize on the favorable momentum that's been building over the years before it shakes the distinction of being a park that can be knocked off in a few hours. Despite the uptick in attendance, the park is still closing at just 6 p.m. this week (7 p.m. on Saturdays). There's a lot of dinner business that the park is missing out by being so incomplete. That will change. It's better to be Na'vi than naive. Disney knows it needs "Avatar" at this point, and by the looks of things, when it arrives, it's going to be spectacular. 
Reuters 
Alamy According to the National Retail Federation, the average American will spend nearly $740 on gifts, decorations and greeting cards this holiday season. But S.S. Gee Burro, a Pennsylvania-based author, is not an average American -- at least, not when it comes to his family's gifting practices. "Each member in my family has a stocking, and each family member puts in a gift that costs no more than $2," he says, noting that the threshold had been raised from $1 due to inflation. "We all know who left buying until the last minute -- they are the ones who bring lottery tickets." With 20 family members present for Christmas, that keeps per-person Christmas spending below $40, and he says the only gifts given beyond the stockings tend to be of the hand-made variety. That concept will feel alien to most Americans, who follow a fairly predictable holiday gifting pattern: You make a list of what to get for friends and family, you start your serious shopping shortly after you're done with Thanksgiving dinner, and then you spend hundreds of dollars on gifts over the course of the month-long shopping season. But for many families, the gifting regimen isn't quite so simple. Due in part to lingering economic uncertainties, some are pulling back from their usual spending habits -- and a fraction are skipping holiday commercialism altogether. More for Me, Less for Thee One trend that's grown in the last few years is so-called self-gifting, which is exactly what it sounds like: Treating yourself to some 'gifts' around the holidays. Pam Goodfellow, consumer insights director for Prosper Insights and Analytics, says that self-gifters will spend about $130 on themselves this year, and observes that the trend really stepped up in the wake of the recession. "We've become smarter shoppers overall, and shoppers are delaying purchases they would have made earlier in the year," she says. In other words, these aren't exactly "self-gifts" -- they're just things that consumers were already planning on buying, but put off buying until they could get a great deal during the holiday sales. Retailers clearly recognize this trend, packing their Black Friday sales with appliances and electronics that people are likely to buy for themselves. With that in mind, it might seem that self-gifting is merely taking the place of year-round discretionary spending, rather than replacing a gift you might have otherwise bought for a friend or family-member. But NPD analyst Marshal Cohen says that if you're buying a TV for yourself on Black Friday, it's inevitable that you're going to scale down your gifting a bit. "It does take the place of some of the gifting that would normally be done," says Cohen. "But it's the second level of relatives that get hurt -- if you're an uncle, you're not necessarily getting a gift from your niece or nephew." And even if your uncle still gets a gift, he might not get what he wants. Cohen says that consumers these days are more likely to let sales and coupons dictate what gifts they buy for others. "I have a finite amount of funds, and now I have to make the rest of my list go just as far but on less money," says Cohen. "If I find a cashmere sweater for $69, then that's what you're getting this year." Getting Creative Such strategies represent a frugal-minded adjustment of typical gifting practices. But a minority of Americans are going a step further by skipping the biggest excesses of the holiday shopping season altogether. Burro's $2 gift exchange is an extreme example. But others take a similarly measured approach to gifting that keeps the total expenditure down. Carly Fauth of Money Crashers says that while the kids in her family still get gifts, the adults skip the iPads and cashmere sweaters in favor of a white elephant exchange with a $20 cap. "We decide the theme at Thanksgiving (this year it's 'star') and then everyone has to buy one $20 gift that fits the theme and bring it to Christmas Eve," she says. "This actually cuts down on a lot of the stress of shopping for the holidays." Another creative approach is to more or less skip physical gifts altogether. "Instead of giving each other gifts, my husband and I surprise the family with trips," says Michelle Gannon, who runs a language-learning company. "[They're] just quick weekend adventures, but we put a little 'brochure' in each other's stockings." With more than half of all Americans expected to hit the malls on Black Friday alone, it's clear that these creative non-gifters are very much in the minority. But economic uncertainties and a renewed interested in do-it-yourself projects could conspire to make more people reconsider the traditional gifting spree. "I think everybody is still second-guessing what they're spending and who they're buying for, and even what they could possibly make instead of go out to the store and buy," says Goodfellow. "Pinterest has really driven this DIY trend, and making something more personal is more accepted than it was before."