It’s now the eighth-largest publicly traded company Down Under, its AUD39.03 billion market capitalization as of Nov. 15, 2012, trailing only mining giants BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX: BHP, NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO, NYSE: RIO), Australia’s “Four Pillar” banks, including Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ, OTC: ANEWF, ADR: ANZBY) and dominant telecom Telstra Corp Ltd (ASX: TLS, OTC: TTRAF, ADR: TLSYY).

The largest private-sector employer in Australia with almost 200,000 employees across the country, Wesfarmers is a broadly diversified conglomerate with numerous and varied assets and interests, including food, liquor, office supplies, discount department stores, home improvement and hardware, hotels and leisure, natural resources, industrial products and insurance.

Its solid cash flow, strong balance sheet and record of dividend growth recommending it, Wesfarmers is a new member of the AE Portfolio Conservative Holdings. Read more about it in one of this month’s Sector Spotlights.

Wesfarmers, which currently yields 4.9 percent, is a buy for long-term growth and stable income up to USD36 using the symbol WES on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) or the symbol WFAFF on the US over-the-counter (OTC) market.

Wesfarmers also trades as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) on the US OTC market under the symbol WFAFY. The ADR represents 0.5 shares of the ASX-listed stock. Owning the ADR conveys all the same benefits as owning the ASX- listed WES share or the US OTC-listed WFAFF share, including the effects of a rising Australian dollar. Wesfarmers’ US OTC-listed ADR is a buy under USD18.

We first recommended Amalgamated Holdings Ltd (ASX: AHD) in a December 2011 In Focus on Australia-based consumer-focused stocks. Since that article, “The Australian Consumer and Picking Apart a Shopworn Sector,” was published on Dec. 16, 2011, Amalgamated has generated a total return in US dollar terms of 31.08 percent.

We boosted our buy-under target on the stock to USD6.50 in the July In Focus feature and then raised it to USD7 in August.

The stock hit a closing high of AUD7.10 on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Oct. 19, 2012, but has since backed off to AUD6.67, which puts it back below our recommended buy-under target of USD7. At these levels the stock is yielding 5.9 percent.

We’re taking advantage of the recent selloff to add Amalgamated Holdings to the AE Portfolio Aggressive Holdings as a buy under USD7.

The primary reason we’re adding Amalgamated to the Aggressive Holding and not the Conservative Holdings is that it doesn’t trade on a US exchange. Its ordinary share is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the symbol AHD, while it’s also listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol AQH. There’s more on Amalgamated Holdings in the second of this month’s Sector Spotlights.

Amalgamated Holdings is a buy under USD7 on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) using the symbol AHD.