Street Justice: Are we there yet?

Happy Monday! At least I hope it is for you. I always like Mondays(cause the market reopens). I also like seeing the market hold it's ground like it is. We could very well be at the beginning of a long bottom. Keeping that thought in mind, I've got 4 companies that oughta help keep the bottom from falling out of your portfolio.
Each of these stocks has maintained steady growth in price, earnings and sales(and they're not in the oil business). First up is NDSN/Nordson Corp. They manufacture equipment used in precision dispensing, testing and inspecting, surface preparation and curing. Their product line ranges from manual units for low volume operations to microprocessor based automated systems for high-speed high-production lines. NDSN supplies equipment to the appliance, automotive, book binding, container, converting, electronics, food and beverage, furniture, life sciences, medical, metal finishing and semi-conductor industries in the US and 50 other countries worldwide. Nordson has pretty good relative timing, safety and value. They are up(price) 50% over the past 52 weeks and 8% last week. Sales for NDSN were up 20% for the quarter and net income was up 55% for the quarter. NDSN pays a dividend of $.73 per share and has an 8% dividend growth. STJ/St. Jude Medical is up next. They develop, manufacture, and distribute medical devices for the cardiovascular field. STJ's products are used in all phases of cardiac surgery including implants. STJ has customers in the US, Europe, Japan and the Asia Pacific. STJ has some pretty attractive numbers also. Relative value, timing and safety are all high(above 1.20 of 2.00). STJ has seen a sales increase of 12% for the quarter. Their net income for the quarter was up 55%. St. Jude is up(price) 4.5% over the past 52 weeks, 16% for the month and 12% last week. They also have a forecasted earnings growth rate of 18%. Up 3rd is HRB/H+R Block. They are a financial services company with subsidiaries providing tax, investment, mortgage, accounting and business consulting services. Their main customer base is in the US, Canada and Australia. I'm sure most of you have heard of them, so I don't need to give anymore of a company description. Here are the numbers though. The relative value and safety are fair, but the relative timing is excellent(1.54 of 2.00). H+R Block's sales were up 169% for the quarter and their net income was up 1,247% for the quarter(29% for the year). They are up(price) 10% over the past 52 weeks and 7% over the past 7 days. HRB pays a $.57 per share dividend with a 0% growth rate. Last up I have APH/Amphenol Corp. They design, manufacture and market electrical, electronic and fiber optic connectors, inter-connector systems and coaxial flat ribbon cables. They supply the information technology and communication industries worldwide. APH has excellent relative value, timing and safety. Sales are up 10% for APH over the quarter and 16% for the year. APH was up(price) 37% for 52 weeks and 13% over the past 7 days. They pay a dividend of $.06 per share with a dividend growth of 0%.
I'm feeling pretty good about today. We didn't see extreme action in either direction. A couple of bumps up or down here and there, but nothing major. It looks like we may be holing on and maybe the bears are looking for a bottom.
I've been looking for companies that continue to grow a profit in slower growth times. I like to share whats working for me. Whats working for you? What investments have paid off for you lately? Which ones do you regret? Let me know.
So far I haven't seen the dollar take off like I wanted. We haven't fallen off a cliff either though. The EUR/USD has been in a 150 pip channel since last night. Other than the AUD/USD moving up, we haven't seen much action. I'll be happy with a slow and steady dollar rally.
I'll be keeping a very close eye on the markets over the next several days. Any happenings, good or bad could start a chain reaction. I'll be back tomorrow with some more companies to contemplate, cause we're all in this together. Thanks for reading.