Top Stocks For 2012, Best Stocks To Buy, Hot Stocks For 2013

Best Wall St. Stocks Today: TGT

2012-03-10T00:47:00.001-08:00

Tags: Best Stocks 2012 ,Best Stocks To Buy In 2012 ,Best Stocks To Invest In ,Best Stocks To Invest In 2012 ,education ,Top Stocks In 2012

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square’s fund that invests solely in Target (NYSE: TGT) saw its value gain 48% in March. For the month of March, Target saw its shares rise by 21%, but Ackman’s Target focused fund typically moves by twice the move of Target because Ackman employs two-times leverage by using derivative type contracts, such as options. Ackman’s Pershing Square owns 26.8 million shares of Target and more in options, uses two-times leverage in the fund.

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Why the Street Should Love Cliffs Natural Resources' Earnings

2012-03-09T21:03:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Penny Stocks ,BRCD ,CSCO ,CVLT ,DELL ,Growth Stocks For 2014 ,Growth Stocks To Buy 2014 ,HPQ ,IBM ,Penny Stocks ,Top Stocks In 2012

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

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 Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Cliffs Natural Resources generated $1,408.1 million cash while it booked net income of $1,619.1 million. That means it turned 20.7% of its revenue into FCF. That sounds pretty impressive. However, FCF is less than net income. Ideally, we'd like to see the opposite.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at Cliffs Natural Resources look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is curr! ent as o f last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With questionable cash flows amounting to only -3.9% of operating cash flow, Cliffs Natural Resources' cash flows look clean. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, stock-based compensation and related tax benefits provided the biggest boost, at 0.6% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures, which consumed 38.5% of cash from operations.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

Add Cliffs Natural Resources to My Watchlist.

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Kraton Performance Polymers Inc. recently showed an Exceptional Trade - NYSE:KRA

The Most Detailed G Headshot Review And The Best Bonus

2012-03-09T17:20:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Transportation Stocks ,Best Stocks To Invest In 2013 ,Best Stocks To Own In 2013 ,Best Transportation Stocks To Invest In ,Top Stocks In 2012

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Republicans Block Debate on Financial Reform Bill

2012-03-09T13:25:00.001-08:00

Tags: Canadian Stocks ,Top Canadian Stocks 2015 ,Top Stocks 2015 ,Top Stocks To Invest In ,Top Stocks To Invest In 2015 ,Top Stocks In 2012

Senate Republicans on Thursday, April 22, blocked debate on legislation that would bring about sweeping financial reform, so Democrats called for a procedural vote on Monday evening to break the Republican filibuster.

Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader from Kentucky, objected to the Democrats trying to force debate while negotiations on the bill by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) were still continuing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada responded that Democrats had tried for two months to reach a deal with Republican members on the banking committee and that he was ready to test Republicans to see if all 41 would vote against the bill moving to the full Senate.

Read a news item on President Obama's speech on financial reform in New York on InvestmentAdvisor.com.

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Pershing Releases Advisor Business, Succession Planning Guidebook

2012-03-09T09:41:00.001-08:00

Tags: Top Performing Dividend Stocks ,Top Performing Stocks To Invest In 2012 ,Top Performing Stocks To Watch In 2012 ,Top Stocks In 2012

Pershing Advisor Solutions (PAS), the RIA custody division of BNY Mellon, on Thursday released Developing a Sustainable Business and Succession Plan: An Independent Advisor’s Guide, a 30-page practical PDF guidebook that presents detailed steps advisors can take to build a business plan and a succession plan.

The guidebook, developed with Advisor Growth Strategies LLC, the practice management consulting firm led by former Schwab executive John Furey, presents stark figures on the relatively small number of advisors who have developed formal business and succession plans, including research showing that fewer than a third of RIAs have either defined or implemented a succession plan.

“Underneath those advisors are a lot of investors who have gone through a very rocky time” over the past several market cycles, said Kim Dellarocca, who heads practice management for PAS. Advisors, she suggests, “owe it to those investors to deliver not only on their financial plans, but also to be a ongoing partner in their lives.” Dellarocca further suggests that “having a business plan is part of having a fiduciary responsibility; your business better be able to be sustained without you.”

In addition to the advantages that a business and succession plan will provide to clients, there are also wide-ranging benefits for an advisory firm’s employees. “At Pershing,” says Dellarocca, “we believe healthy customers are good for everybody, and running a healthy business starts with determining why you’re in the business, what’s important to you.”

Moreover, Dellarocca (left) says, having a plan that you stick to is “fundamental” to running a good business, to engaging associates and ultimately to defining a succession plan. “The more people in a firm who understand the plan of the business–not kept as a guarded secret–the more they can contribute to the plan, It creates a level of investedness” on the part of everyone in the firm, since “the more transparency you can bring to it, the more you get associates willing to make investments, to roll up their sleeves; they understand the definition of success.”

The ultimate benefit to creating a business and succession plan, she says, is “leadership engagement–you can go through the motions of your life, or you can lead an intentional life.” At PAS, says Dellarocca, “our hope is that by writing down” those plans and those goals, and then having accountability to Pershing relationship managers, it will measure progress toward achieving those goals and increase the advisor’s chances of eventual success.

In an March 2011 Investment Advisor cover story, Dellarocca and Jim Dario said the first thing that Pershing does with a new RIA client is work with them on a business plan and a client development plan, and highlighted the kind of knowledgeable, experience relationship manager to whom advisors would be accountable.

The guide includes several case studies of successful advisory firms that have used the business planning process to grow larger and more successful, though Dellarocca points out that “scale and growth are the outcome of the plan, not the reason to do the plan.”

At Pershing, she concludes, “We’re saying you need all those things–a plan, awareness, time to think about your life, tools for success, and you need a great partner.”

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This stock deserves its lumps of coal

2012-03-09T05:59:00.001-08:00

Tags: ADM ,AIG ,CHK ,CSIQ ,CTXS ,DMND ,GGC ,JDAS ,JPM ,MBLX ,PCX ,SAP ,SCHW ,VMW ,WLK ,Top Stocks In 2012

BOSTON (MarketWatch) � While it may be possible, technically, for coal to become diamonds, it doesn�t work that way. Both diamonds and coal are made from carbon, but diamonds are created at depths far below where coal is found.

Likewise, in investing, a lot of people look at the coal business as a diamond in the rough � a recession-proof industry that offers stability, consistent demand (thanks to laws that encourage the use of �clean coal�), and a history of profits.

Click to Play

Mining for value in gold

WSJ's Liam Denning takes a look at the gold and the gold-mining industry and advises Mean Street viewers where value can be found in the industry. Photo: Reuters.

For average investors who want to diversify their energy and utility holdings with a coal play, Arch Coal Inc. ACI ! �has the attractive earmarks: reasonable stock valuation, a dividend yield above 3%, growing sales and all of the plusses of being an energy supplier.

Mine the data deeper and you�ll see that this stock is no diamond in the rough, but it is the Stupid Investment of the Week.

Stupid Investment of the Week highlights the conditions and characteristics that make a specific security less than ideal for average investors, in the hope that spotlighting danger in one situation will make it easier to root out trouble elsewhere. The column is not intended to be an automatic sell signal, especially in the case of Arch Coal, where an investor with a long lens on the market and a lot of patience could be rewarded.

Into the mines

The problem with Arch Coal � the nation�s second-largest coal producer � is that what looks attractive to the average investor is a bit of a mirage. The valuation and dividend yield look good in part because the stock got hammered last year, losing 57% of its value in 2011. That brings out bargain hunters thinking the company hasn�t got much further to fall, and hoping that a recovery to most fair-value estimates would result in a quick gain of 20% to 33%.

/quotes/zigman/184548/quotes/nls/aci ACI 11.87, +0.02, +0.17%
/quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX 1,365.91, +13.28, +0.98%

Unfortunately, a closer look at the numbers suggests that 2012 will be another rough year for the company, and that 2013 might not be much better. So even if the stock has the long-term potential for growth, the timing is wrong.

St. Louis-based Arch Coal has a volatile performance history � in the last decade, it has had five years with gains north of 38%, and three years with losses south of 22% � that reflects a bit of its own volatile strategy. In 2005, Arch sold most of its Central Appalachian operations � getting rid of costly legacy liabilities in the process � but then turned around and purchased International Coal Group, putting it squarely back into the region, but now with a balance sheet that was heavily leveraged to get the deal done.

The balance sheet is a major concern, because it makes the company a bit more subject to the whims of the economy. That�s particularly true where the strategy of acquiring International Coal Group is involved, since that company was purchased largely because of its resources in the metallurgical coal business; metallurgical coal is a commodity where the price is heavily dependent on economic conditions in China, which could weigh on the company in the near term.

Further, U.S. coal prices currently are weak, and could be dramatically affected by how the government decides to regulate the business � something industry insiders say could change depending on who wins the White House later this year.

Soo! ty prosp ects

Arch Coal has strong sales commitments for 2012 � and its low-cost operations should ensure that it�s at least coming close to guidance levels � but a quick look at the market could make some rethink their idea that coal is recession-proof; at the very least, it will make them recognize that coal is a commodity business, subject to all of the swings inherent to that description.

Metallurgical coal prices are off by more than 30% from peak levels in 2011, and record-low prices for natural gas are hurting a lot of coal producers, but particularly the ones with exposure to Central Appalachia because coal from that region is not price-competitive with gas.

Further, the mild winter is only beginning to have its impact on the coal business; suffice it to say that there�s a lot of spare inventory that might have been used under worse weather conditions. That excess supply will affect prices for at least the rest of this year. (Those low gas prices might get an average investor to look at gas stocks, rather than coal miners.)

Put those things together and it�s clear why analysts seem to hate Arch Coal right now.

David Brown, chief market strategist for Sabrient Systems Inc., noted that in the past month 90% of the analysts following Arch have lowered their estimates for the next quarter and/or next year, with much of the worry being the �aggressive accounting� on that stretched balance sheet. He rated the stock, at best, as a hold, which means he thinks more of it than most.

Roger Conrad, of Roger Conrad�s Utility Forecaster newsletter, noted that an investor looking to the coal industry would be better off trying not to find everything they want in one stock, using Arch both for dividends and potential price apprec! iation. Instead, he suggested industry leader Peabody Energy BTU �for growth and Penn Virginia Resource Partners PVR �for yield.

Ultimately, investors looking toward Arch � and coal in general � may be rewarded, but only if they can stay patient and suffer through 2012-13. In the meantime, they will feel the pressure and heat, and their coal still won�t investment still won�t turn into diamonds.

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Andrew Breitbart Has Died

Best Wall St. Stocks Today: T,CHK,KOF,CMCSA,KEY,LLNW,LUKOY,MTH,PPG,VZ

2012-03-09T02:08:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Internet Stocks ,Best Performing Internet Stocks ,Best Performing Stocks To Buy 2014 ,BWLD ,CVH ,CVS ,DIS ,IR ,MSG ,TWX ,WYN ,Top Stocks In 2012

These are not the only analyst calls today, but these are the top ten calls that 247WallSt.com is looking at this morning:

AT&T (NYSE: T) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) started as Buy at Jefferies.
Coca-Cola FEMSA (NYSE: KOF) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
KeyCorp. (NYSE: KEY) downgraded to Underperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Lukoil (NASDAQ: LUKOY) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Jon C. Ogg
February 20, 2008

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Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013

2012-03-08T22:21:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2012 Best Performing Stocks ,2012 Consumer Stocks ,AEP ,Best Performing Stocks To Buy 2012 ,CEG ,DUK ,NYSE ,SO ,Top Stocks In 2012

Let's start by talking briefly about what penny stocks are and how they work. Penny, or Micro cap stocks as they are sometimes called are stocks that generally trade at $5.00 or under per share and are available outside the major stock exchanges. Usually, penny stocks can be purchased 'over the counter' through quotation services such as the OTC Bulletin Board or the Pink Sheets.

Penny stocks, although cheap in price, carry the same amount of risk that regular stocks do because of their volatile nature. While there is risk involved, the rewards can be great for those who find hot penny stocks. Learning the proper way to capitalize on these trends and learning how to correctly choose penny stock picks is the #1 way to succeed with this type of investment.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:Service Corporation International (SCI)

Service Corporation International provides deathcare products and services in the United States, Canada, and Germany. Its funeral service and cemetery operations consist of funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and related businesses. The company provides various professional services relating to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles, and preparation and embalming services. It also sells funeral related merchandise, including caskets, burial vaults, cremation receptacles, cremation memorial products, flowers, and other ancillary products and services at funeral service locations. The company?s cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, including mausoleum spaces, lots, and lawn crypts; and sell cemetery related merchandise and services comprising stone and bronze memorials, markers, merchandise installations, and burial openings and closings. It also sells preneed funeral and cemetery products and services whereby a customer contractually agrees to the terms of certain products and services to be delivered and performed in the future. As of December 31, 2009, Service Corporation operated 1,254 funeral service locations and 372 cemeteries, including 208 combination locations, covering 43 states in the United States, 8 Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as 12 funeral homes in Germany. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:National American University Holdings Inc. (NAUH)

National American University Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Dlorah, Inc., engages in the ownership and operation of National American University that provides post-secondary education services primarily to working adults and other non-traditional students in the United States. It provides associate?s, bachelor?s, and master?s degrees programs in business-related disciplines, such as accounting, applied management, and business administration, as well as information technology; and healthcare-related disciplines, such as nursing and healthcare management. The company also offers diploma programs consisting of a series of courses focused on a particular area of study, for students who seek to enhance their skills and knowledge in the areas of healthcare coding, practical nursing, therapeutic massage, and veterinary assisting. National American University Holdings offers its courses through educational sites, as well as online. As of May 31, 2010, the company had enrolled approximately 3,565 students in online programs, 3,742 students on-campus, and 1,451 students in hybrid learning centers. In addition, it manages apartment units, as well as develops and sells multi family residential real estate in the Rapid City, South Dakota area. The company was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:Nicholas Financial Inc. (NICK)

Nicholas Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialized consumer finance company. The company engages in acquiring and servicing contracts for purchases of new and used automobiles and light trucks. It also makes direct loans and sells consumer-finance related products. In addition, the company engages in developing, marketing, supporting, and updating industry-specific computer application software for small businesses located primarily in the Southeast United States. As of April 5, 2011, it operated 56 branch locations in 14 Southeastern and Midwestern states. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Clearwater, Florida.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:First Financial Northwest Inc. (FFNW)

First Financial Northwest, Inc. operates as the holding company for First Savings Bank Northwest that provides community-based savings bank services in Washington. Its deposit products include noninterest bearing accounts, NOW accounts, money market deposit accounts, statement savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises one-to-four family residential loans, multifamily loans, commercial real estate loans, construction/land development loans, and business loans, as well as consumer loans, including home equity loans, personal lines of credit, second mortgage loans, and savings account loans. First Financial Northwest, Inc., through another subsidiary, First Financial Diversified, Inc., offers escrow services. The company primarily serves customers in the King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties of Washington through a full-service banking office in Renton, Washington. First Financial Northwest, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is based in Renton, Washington.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:Putnam Master Intermediate Income Trust (PIM)

Putnam Master Intermediate Income Trust is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Putnam Investment Management, LLC. The fund is co-managed by Putnam Investments Limited. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests in bonds of companies operating across diversified sectors. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Barclays Capital Government/Credit Bond Index. Putnam Master Intermediate Income Trust was formed on April 29, 1988 and is domiciled in the United States.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:Frontier Communications Company (FTR)

Frontier Communications Corporation, a communications company, provides regulated and unregulated voice, data, and video services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in the United States. It offers local and long distance voice services, including basic telephone wireline services to residential and business customers; switched access services that allow other carriers to use the facilities to originate and terminate their long distance voice and data traffic; and directory services that provide white and yellow page directories for residential and business listings. The company also provides data and Internet services, which include residential services comprising high-speed Internet, dial up Internet, portal and e-mail products, and hard drive back-up services; and commercial and carriers services, such as metro Ethernet; dedicated Internet; Internet protocol, optical, multiprotocol label switching, and TDM data transport services. In addition, it offers direct broadcast satellite services and fiber optic video services, as well as provides online access to video content, entertainment, and news available on the worldwide Web through its Web site myfitv.com. The company was formerly known as Citizens Communications Company and changed its name to Frontier Communications Corporation in July 2008. Frontier Communications Corporation was founded in 1927 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Vita At 2011-10-6
Frontier Communications Corporation (FTR) a communications company, provides regulated and unregulated voice, data, and video services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in the United States. Between 2004 and 2010 the company paid a quarterly dividend of 25 cents/share. Last year however it cut the distribution rate by 25% to 18.75 cents/share. The company has been unable to cover its dividend out of earnings since 2006. More than two-thirds of its distributions are non-taxable as t! hey are essentially a return of capital. Yield: 9.40%.
By Harding At 2011-9-21
CLO; EVP Reg & Gov't Affairs of Frontier Communications, Kathleen Q Abernathy, bought 40,000 shares on 09/09/2011 at an average price of $7.11. Frontier Communications Corp., formerly Citizens Communications Company, is a full-service communications provider and one of the largest rural local exchange telephone companies in the country. Frontier Communications has a market cap of $7.08 billion; its shares were traded at around $7.11 with a P/E ratio of 28.4 and P/S ratio of 1.8. The dividend yield of Frontier Communications stocks is 10.5%.

On August 3, Frontier Communications Corporation reported second-quarter 2011 revenue of $1,322.3 million, operating income of $238.3 million and net income attributable to common shareholders of Frontier of $32.3 million, or $0.03 per share. After excluding $20.3 million for acquisition and integration costs, $11.0 million for severance and early retirement costs and $10.5 million for a discrete tax item, net income attributable to common shareholders of Frontier for the second quarter of 2011 would have been $62.2 million, or $0.06 per share.

Frontier Communications is in the portfolios of Prem Watsa, Jean-Marie Eveillard, and NWQ Managers.

In September, Director Edward Fraioli and CLO; EVP Reg & Gov't Affairs Kathleen Q Abernathy bought shares of FTR stock. Director Jeri B Finard and Director James S Kahan bought shares in August.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:HealthStream Inc. (HSTM)

HealthStream, Inc. provides Internet-based learning and research solutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, HealthStream Learning and HealthStream Research. The HealthStream Learning segment offers training and education content with administrative and management tools through its Internet-based platforms, the HealthStream Learning Center and HealthStream Express; and various additional courseware subscriptions. Its learning management system supports healthcare administrators in configuring training for various groups of employees, modifying training materials, and documenting completed training. This segment also provides training, implementation, and account management services to facilitate adoption of its platform; HealthStream Competency Center, a software-as-a-service competency management solution for healthcare organizations; and Authoring Center to create online courses. In addition, it develops, manages, and distributes online, print education, and training activities for provider-based healthcare professionals and physicians, as well as offers online education and training services for sales representatives; and other products focused on education and training to serve professionals. The HealthStream Research segment provides research solutions, such as Patient Insights, Employee Insights, Physician Insights, and Community Insights surveys that deliver insight, analysis, and industry benchmarks to healthcare organizations; data analyses of survey results; and other research-based measurement tools. The company markets its products and services through its direct sales teams, consultants, and account relationship managers to healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and other participants in the healthcare industry. HealthStream, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:Pathfinder Bancorp Inc. (PBHC)

Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Pathfinder Bank that offers banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses primarily in Oswego and parts of Onondaga counties of New York. It offers various deposit products, including demand deposits, NOW accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, passbook savings, money management and money market deposit accounts, and interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking accounts. The company also originates commercial and residential real estate loans; commercial loans, including loans to municipalities; and consumer loans, such as second mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, and direct installment and revolving credit loans. It operates through seven full-service offices. The company was founded in 1859 and is headquartered in Oswego, New York. Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. is a subsidiary of Pathfinder Bancorp, M.H.C.

Great Penny Stocks To Own For 2013:Suntech Power Holdings Co. LTD. (STP)

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., a solar energy company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products. The company also provides engineering, procurement, and construction services to building solar power systems for certain related party and third party customers. Its products include monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon PV cells; PV modules; and building-integrated photovoltaics products. In addition, the company provides PV system integration services, including designing, installing, and testing PV systems used in lighting for outdoor urban public facilities, as well as in farms, villages, and commercial buildings; and project development services. Its products are used to provide electric power for residential, commercial, industrial, and public utility applications. The company sells its products through value-added resellers, such as distributors and system integrators; and to end users, such as project developers primarily in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Benelux, Greece, the United States, Canada, China, the Middle East, Australia, and Japan. Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Wuxi, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Curtis At 2012-2-22
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.(NYSE: STP) closing price in the stock market Tuesday, Jan. 3, was $2.35. STP is trading -3.28% below its 50 day moving average and -46.49% below its 200 day moving average. STP is -78.30% below its 52-week high of $10.83 and 38.24% above its 52-week low of $1.70. STP‘s PE ratio is 30.52 and its market cap is $424.30M.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is a solar energy company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products. STP also provides engineering, procurement, and construction services to building solar power systems for certain related party and third party customers.

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Best Wall St. Stocks Today: YHOO,GOOG

Best Wall St. Stocks Today: CCU

2012-03-08T18:46:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Silver Stocks ,Top Performing Stocks 2013 ,Top Performing Stocks To Hold ,Top Performing Stocks To Hold For 2013 ,Top Stocks In 2012

Almost every week now a private equity or hedge fund walks away from a transaction to take a public company private. In most cases the public company boards try to keep deals on track by lowering their asking price or they take a break-up fee and allow the buyer to walk away.

There will be none of the kid gloves stuff at Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU). It has a deal with Providence Equity to buy its TV stations for $1.2 billion. The transaction was announced ten months ago and has not closed, which is hardly a good sign.

According to The Wall Street Journal "Clear Channel is suing Providence for "specific performance," a legal term which typically addresses the ability of the seller to force the buyer to complete a deal agreement."

As far as market observers can tell many banks and buy-out firms are being advised by their attorneys to turn their backs on transactions instead of getting burned by deals which have begun to look to rich between signing a buy-out agreement and actually closing. Clear Channel is making it clear that walking may have a very high price.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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Trying to pick a bottom in UNG is a good way to get burned

2012-03-08T14:44:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Transportation Stocks ,Great Stocks To Buy In 2014 ,Great Transportation Stocks To Buy ,LTD ,Top Stocks In 2012

Before I get to the topic du jour — why traders should not consider a long position in natural gas — I want to take a quick look at the broad market. Stocks have been on a tear during the past two weeks, and bullish sentiment has been growing stronger. Many low-risk swing traders are having a tough time getting in on the market action because there have not been many sizable pullbacks. Instead, thanks to extreme bullishness we are seeing, prices have been inching higher with very minor pullbacks before surging again.

The only way to take advantage of this type of price without taking on a lot of risk is to take small positions when the market drops to the 5-day, 10-day or 14-day moving averages with a mental stop to exit the position if the market closes below the 14-day. Any position you take here should be small because the market is in runaway mode, meaning everyone is buying on the smallest of dips. The largest moves tend to be near the end of a trend, which is why I feel this market could keep running for a few more weeks before taking a sharp plunge.

Natural Gas

If you have been reading my work over the past year, then you should know I don’t like natural gas. More people have lost money trying to play natural gas than any other investment vehicle out there, which ! is why I don’t cover it very often. But since many of you have been asking about it, I’ll share my thoughts.

Natural gas ETF, the United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (NYSE: UNG) has been in a downtrend for several years, and the only trades should be entered at this time are short positions. The argument from some is that it’s undervalued, and with winter just around the corner, prices should go up. It’s a valid argument, but price action is what makes traders money, not fundamentals.

UNG’s daily chart below shows what I feel is about to happen. Remember, UNG is a terrible fund to be buying. Unless natural gas is moving strongly in your favor, this fund continually loses value simply because of the way it was created.

Looking at the actual natural gas commodity chart is a different story. The trend is still down, but it does look as though it’s trying to form a base. That being said, there is still a very good chance we see gas test near the $3 level before starting a new trend, so trying to pick a bottom here is not something I would be doing.

Trading Conclusion

In short, the equities market is still in a strong uptrend. I’m not comfortable taking any large positions at this stage of the game, but if we get a good setup, I will not hesitate to enter with a little money.

As for natural gas, trying to pick a bottom is deadly in a downtrend as bounces tend to be short lived or flat.

You can get my ETF Trade Alerts for Low-Risk Setups here.

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Best Stocks To Watch For May 2012

CLNE, PGNE, DrStockPick Watch List! for Wednesday September 2nd, 2009, Clean Energy Fuels Corp. and PrimeGen Energy Corp, PGNE.PK

2012-03-08T11:03:00.001-08:00

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CLNE, Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

PGNE, PrimeGen Energy Corp, PGNE.PK

DrStockPick Watch List!

DrStockPick Watch List! for Wednesday September 2nd, 2009

My Picks for Wednesday September 2nd, 2009 are:

CLNE, Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

CLNE is the leading provider of natural gas (CNG and LNG) for transportation in North America. It has a broad customer base in the refuse, transit, ports, shuttle, taxi, trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets, fueling more than 17,200 vehicles at 184 strategic locations across the United States and Canada.

CLNE owns and operates two LNG production plants, one in Willis, TX and one in Boron, CA, with combined capacity of 260,000 LNG gallons per day and designed to expand to 340,000 LNG gallons per day as demand increases. It also owns and operates a landfill gas facility ! in Dalla s, TX that produces renewable methane gas or biogas for delivery in the nation�s gas pipeline network.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the award of $34 million (11% of total funding by the DOE) to customers and government agency partners of CLNE to offset the incremental cost of more than 800 new clean-burning natural gas-powered taxis, shuttle buses, refuse trucks and heavy-duty trucks.

More abut CLNE at www.cleanenergyfuels.com

PGNE, PrimeGen Energy Corp, PGNE.PK

PGNE is an oil and gas exploration Company whose primary focus is exploring and developing high potential unconventional resource plays.

PGNE’s strategy and development assets are focused on a prolific and historic oil and natural gas resource play in Krasnoarmeiskome District, Saratovskoi Oblast in Russia. The Company is headquartered in Bridgewater, NJ and has offices in Moscow, Russia.

PGNE plans to use its comparative advantages in certain geographic regions to expand rapidly through strategic acquisitions of small oil and gas producing entities and production assets including wells, properties, operating equipment, and pipelines.

PGNE reports Oil Production Increase, resulting from the recent completion production of three new wells in the Timan-Pechora field. The Company achieved total average daily production of 3,480 bpd during the month. The lowest production was 2,050 bpd on August 2, 2009 and the highest production was 3,660 bpd on August 27, 2009.

Add CLNE and PGNE to your Watch List!, do your homework, and like always BE READY for the ACTION!

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2012-03-08T07:16:00.001-08:00

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February’s Wholesale Inventory data from the U.S. Commerce Department shows a continued trend of wholesale product inventories being pruned yet again.�� The reading came in at -1.5% for February, compared to estimates of� only -0.6%.� Seasonally adjusted, this was $419.3 billion.� This might be the biggest drop yet.� We also saw a revision for January to -0.9%,� rather than the -0.7% originally reported.

The sales portion of domestic wholesalers rose by +0.6% to an adjusted $319.73 billion.� We have not seen a gain in sales on the wholesale inventories in more than six months.

The year-over-year data shows just how dismal things have been.� These inventory numbers are down 1.7% from February 2008, but sales were down by more than 14% from February 2008.

What you are seeing is evidence of wholesale deflation, or at least discounting to clear inventories out.� All of this ties in with lower production, lower demand, lower retail sales, negative GDP, and fewer end-buyers because of more and more getting in the unemployment lines.

There is also a good bit here, but you’ll have to be patient before the good news gets delivered.� The worst sort of recession you can have is where sales are down, production is down, and inventories keep rising.� That would be indicative of ship-backs and zero sell-through.� So, the inventory is being worked off.� This means that when the economy shows any signs of life that there could be a surge through all levels of the wholesale economy from basic materials to pr! oduction to distribution.

Still, we have to be patient.� The recent warnings on the transportation side of the equation are showing that this is not quite happening yet.

Jon C. Ogg

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Best Wall St. Stocks Today: EK,MSFT,GOOG,AAPL,PEP

2012-03-08T03:27:00.001-08:00

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Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK), established nearly 140 years ago, soon may declare Chapter 11. It is burdened�by debt, loses money and has been unable to license most of its 1,100 patents. It hopes a bankruptcy judge will handle an auction of�its intellectual property. The digital assets might have value to other companies in the software�and hardware IP wars. There is a question about why firms like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have not been aggressive buyers already. Perhaps Kodak has overplayed its hand. Its IP may not be worth much at all.

French Bond Auction

France staged a bond auction, and there was an�increase in the yields it had to pay. That indicates that investors are worried�about the nation�s financial future and its AAA bond rating. Ten-year notes were sold�at a yield of 3.29%, up from 3.18% at the last auction on December 1. Thirty-year note yields rose to 4.5% from 3.94% in December. The news is not good for more financially troubled countries like Italy and Spain. France�s rates might have set�a firewall, if they had remained reasonably low. That would have been an indication�th! at inter national capital market investors had a tiny bit�more confidence in sovereign paper issued by nations in the eurozone. That, however, did not happen at the French auction.

Pepsi Layoffs

Pepsico�(NYSE: PEP) may lay off 4,000 people and cut pension contributions, according to rumors published in The New York Post. This would be about 1% of the firm�s employee base. There is a great deal of pressure on CEO Indra K. Nooyi�. She has not been able to improve the growth of Pepsi�s core soda business, and some investors believe her turn at the helm should end. Cost cuts and layoffs usually help boost the fortunes of big company management. It rarely lasts if sales do not increase.

Strait of Hormuz

Oil remains well above $100 a barrel on worries that Iran could try to shut the Strait of Hormuz. Speculators believe that crude could rise to $150 quickly if that happens. If oil stayed at that price for any time, it would derail the weak global economic recovery. Western naval forces may decide that it is worth the risk of armed conflict to keep the waterway open.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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RIMM Co-CEOs Cut Pay To $1 Each A Year; No BB 10 Phones 'Till Late 2012

Dr Pepper Snapple Group's Latest EPS Top Last Year's by 22%

2012-03-07T23:40:00.001-08:00

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Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS ) reported earnings on Feb. 15. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Dr Pepper Snapple Group met expectations on revenue and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue expanded and GAAP earnings per share expanded significantly.

Gross margin dropped, operating margin shrank, and net margin improved.

Revenue details
Dr Pepper Snapple Group reported revenue of $1.46 billion. The 10 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ foresaw revenue of $1.45 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 3.5% higher than the prior-year quarter's $1.41 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.82. The 14 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ anticipated $0.74 per share on the ! same bas is. GAAP EPS of $0.77 for Q4 were 57% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.49 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 58.7%, 210 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 18.5%, 50 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 11.4%, 350 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $1.36 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.49.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $6.06 billion. The average EPS estimate is $2.94.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a three-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 378 members out of 405 rating the stock outperform, and 27 members rating it underperform. Among 149 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 143 give Dr Pepper Snapple Group a green thumbs-up, and six give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Dr Pepper Snapple Group is hold, with an average price target of $40.27.

Can your retirement portfolio provide you with enough income to last? You'll need more than Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Learn about crafting a smarter retirement plan in "The Shocking Can't-Miss Truth About Your Retirement." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add Dr Pepper Snapple Group to My Watchlist.

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Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Earnings Preview

2012-03-07T19:51:00.001-08:00

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Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (Nasdaq: RRGB ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, together with its subsidiaries, is a casual dining restaurant chain focused on serving a wide selection of high-quality burgers in a family-friendly atmosphere.

What analysts say:

Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with six analysts rating it as a buy and only two rating it as a sell. Analysts like Red Robin Gourmet Burgers better than competitor O'Charley's overall. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $205.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.5% from the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.20 per share. Estimates range from $0.16 to $0.25.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 84.7% awarding it an out! perform rating. Most of the community is in line with the All-Stars, with 80.4% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are impressed with Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 212 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers has seen increasing net margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. Here is how Red Robin Gourmet Burgers has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	20.2%	22.1%	21.3%	18.4%
Operating Margin	1.6%	4.2%	3.9%	1.0%
Net Margin	1.0%	3.2%	3.0%	1.2%

For all our Red Robin Gourmet Burgers-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Red Robin Gourmet Burgers to My Watchlist.

The Motley Fool owns shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. ! Motley F ool newsletter services have recommended writing covered calls in Red Robin Gourmet Burgers.. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

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Who is the Next Ron Paul?

2012-03-07T16:04:00.001-08:00

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The countdown begins for one of the most noteworthy GOP candidates we've seen in many years. Dr. Ron Paul's run at President of the United States is not over, but for the man who's served 12 terms as Republican representative from Texas in the House of Representatives, it's all finished.

In less than a year, once all the Gallup polls have passed, the confetti has dropped and the country decides on who will lead them for the next four years, there is one thing we know for sure: Ron Paul will no longer be a member of the House of Representatives. Paul said that he was not standing for re-election in the House.

Paul is a rare breed, a man with convictions and dedication to a cause and value that most haven't seen in Washington for many years. And there is no better place to display his tremendous resume and experience than in the race for the GOP candidacy while the three other Republican presidential candidates – and current President – inspect his politics closely.

As Reason.com points out,

“Paul will leave behind a big pair of shoes to fill when it comes to being an indefatigable champion of reducing the size, scope, and spending of the federal government. No politician over the past several decades has been more outspoken and consistent in his views—and votes—for smaller ! governme nt.”

So who will be replacing the man also known as Dr. No in the House of Representatives? In 2010, the midterm elections brought in 94 new members and many supported the Tea Party policies. The libertarian message and policies that Paul has so firmly instilled into his political career have made an impact in Washington with his opposition to “the government siding with market winners and bailing out market losers; militarization at home and abroad; and economic and social engineering of all stripes.” There are four ideal candidates to take up Paul's message, here is a rundown of Reason's four candidates to replace Ron Paul in the House of Representatives:

4. Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn)

The Tennessee Congressman, John Duncan Jr., was the only other sitting House Republican to vote against the Iraq War (along with Paul), every time the issue was at the forefront. Just like Paul, Duncan voted against the war in 2003, against House declaration in support of the war in 2006, and against further funding for the war in 2007. He also voted in favor of a resolution to withdraw all U.S. troops within 90 days of the resolution's passage. Duncan has been in the House since 1988 and has been a member of Paul's Liberty Caucus the entire time. Duncan's voting record mirrors Paul's throughout he terms. Other significant votes of opposition from Duncan are: The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), making the PATRIOT Act permanent and ObamaCare.

Duncan's outlook on foreign policy is probably the most noteworthy and recognizable in comparison to Paul's stance. Duncan has said back in 2007, “The ! traditio nal conservative position on foreign policy is a noninterventionist foreign policy, and Congressman Paul has been a very forceful advocate of that.”

When referring to the American “attack first, ask questions later” relm of policy following 9/11, Duncan's noninterventionist values shined, “At some point we're going to have to realize that we can't afford to keep getting involved in every religious, ethnic, and political dispute around the world. It's unconstitutional and unaffordable, and it goes against every traditional conservative position I've ever known.”
Why he's not our number 1 choice: Duncan's domestic policy record is not as consistent as Paul's, being quite mixed with support of vouchers and charter schools, gun rights, and free trade. He still has his Tea Party tendencies as he supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman, making death penalty appeals harder, banning various types of political ads.

3. Sen. Rand Paul (R- Kentucky)

Although an obvious pick for many as Rand is the fruit of Ron's loins, Rand Paul actually has an interesting mix of libertarian policies while standing his ground on many other issues. Rand's nonconformity is eerily similar to his father as are his conspiratorial theories. But what many seem to like about Rand more than his policies is simply that he reminds them of his father's way of telling the American people what he truly believes. This style of speech commanded Rand to win in the Kentucky Republican primary just around a year ago. Rand's father has been one of the most successful politicians to lose the presidential candidacy bid (multiple times) and has done it by speaking openly and honestly -- although being considered somewhat crazy. And R! and is f ollowing suit with the honest/outlandish rhetoric. As for Ron's policies though, he has been Anti-Federal Reserve, against a large amount of federal programs and wanting to return to the gold standard but Rand lacks any serious policy changes such as these.

Rand has believed that the Federal government should not ban private businesses from discriminating and should not be too harsh on oil companies that commit ecological disasters but as Politics Daily columnist David Corn says, “By consistently and candidly expressing his ideological quirkiness, Ron Paul has earned a prominent soapbox and a devoted national following. What child wouldn't look at this and say to himself, "That's the way you do it"?” But you can't always win off of daddy's shoestrings, sadly.

Why he does not top our list: Although Rand has preached the libertarian policies of his father, he isn't a Representative for the state of Texas, which is willing to accept such unorthodox politicians. Rather, Rand is fighting within Kentucky, a state which favors Republicans but has a strong Democrat party with reasonable chance of success in statewide elections. Also, Ron Paul started his political career much more even-keeled without the swooping, let-it-all-hang-out libertarianism that Rand is lynchpinning. Rand came out of the gates quickly and early but has been too closely compared to his father and the way he speaks that it is difficult for Rand to step away from the large libertarian shadow his father has cast.

2. Rep. Jared Polis (D- Colorado)

Civil liberties are the name of the game for Jared Polis, who has also appeared on another Wealth Wire list (but for much different reasons)...

The young Representative took office in 2009 and although his list of libertarianism-type polices are not nearly as long as Rep. Duncan and his rhetorical tone is not in line with Rand (or Ron), Polis's ideas are powerful. Aside from calling for an end to federal marijuana prohibition, he also opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Fairness Doctrine, voted against the PATRIOT Act's warrantless wiretaps, the suspension of habeous corpus for terror suspects, and domestic spying. He says the Iraq War was a monumental mistake, he supports tourism and travel in Cuba, and did oppose the Detroit bailouts (was not in office to vote for TARP).

Being known by much of a younger demographic, like Dr. No, Polis has the legalization of marijuana bandwagoners, stating that “Ending the failed policy of prohibition with regard to marijuana will strike a major blow against the criminal cartels that are terrorizing Americans and Mexicans on both sides of the border.”

Why he's not number one on our list: It can be easy to forget that with Polis's grand stance on civil liberties, he is still a big-government Democrat with practically everything. Polis has supported the national service initiative, initial stimulus, $40 million for “green public schools”, pro-union Card Check, and many more. He's got a piece of the Paul Puzzle, but not nearly enough of it.

1. Rep. Justin Amash (R- Michigan)

This might be somewhat of a dark horse for the race to fill Ron Paul's shoes, but with such an unorthodox Representative in Paul comes some irregular choices for all. Hence why Wealth Wire feels that Justin Amash, this young, brash Representative, may have what it takes to don the libertarian title once Paul steps down.

Amash has only been in office for close to two months so his voting record neither helps or hurts him. He has some glaring differences with Paul in that he is a social conservative as he supports the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and believes life begins at conception. But even with those significant oppositions to Paul's policies, Amash has many similarities to the Texas Rep.

Amash has, early on, endorsed Paul's presidential candidacy and has vocally supported Paul's small-government philosophy. According to his website, he supports “lower personal and corporate tax rates” with a simpler tax code and broader tax base. He opposes most energy regulations and every single energy subsidy.

The votes he has cast so far show a profound understanding of the many ways in which the federal government currently infringes on personal liberty. Amash has criticized President Obama's health-care legislation for its deleterious effects on small businesses and defended the right of parents to homeschool their children.

One of the bright signs from Amash is his opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as well as many provisions on the PATRIOT Act. He wrote in a letter that was later signed by six other House Representatives and four House Democrats, “"Our Constitution does not permit the federal government to detain American citizens indefinitely without charge or trial.”

Many are intrigued by his stance on all legislation having to point to language in the Constitution that proves its legitimacy and his support of a balanced-budget amendment. In terms of foreign-policy, he voted to ban armed forces in Libya without congressional approval since he wasn't in Congress for the voting on both Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

He's got the right idea when it comes to ope! n and ho nest politics like Paul has. Amash explains every single vote he casts on his Facebook page which Reason.com's Mike Riggs says “is not simply a pedantic cherry on top: It shows the 31-year-old understands not just 21st-century media but takes seriously the need for a more transparent government.”

...and those youthful libertarians that don't ever want to see Ron Paul go, have something to write home about (or at least on their Facebook status updates) with Justin Amash.

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2012-03-07T12:18:00.001-08:00

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Financial stocks have been showing signs of life after a rather disappointing 2014. Take Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), both up +10% since the first of the year. That’s almost double the broader market. This has caused many investors to view financials as some of the best stocks for 2014.

But the big banks aren’t the only stocks on the rise in 2014. A number of financial penny stocks and cheap banks trading for just a few dollars a share are heating up. These bargain financials have seen some very impressive gains lately. and if this trend continues, these picks could soar in the months ahead as financials hit their stride.

Good Financial Stocks In 2014:Monarch Financial Holdings Inc. (MNRK)

Monarch Financial Holdings, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Monarch Bank that provides various banking products and services for businesses, professionals, corporate executives, and individuals. Its deposit products include checking and savings accounts, as well as daily money market accounts and longer-term certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio comprises consumer loans, including home equity lines of credit; professional lines of credit; and secured and unsecured loans for financing automobiles, home improvements, education, and personal investments, as well as residential and commercial real estate construction, acquisition, and development loans for 1-4 family residential markets. Its loan portfolio also consists of secured and unsecured commercial loans for working capital, including inventory and receivables; business expansion, such as acquisition of real estate and improvements; and the purchase of equipment and machinery, as well as loans secured by commercial real estate. The company also offers investment advisory services, insurance sales, safe deposit boxes, cash management services, check and bankcard services, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, automatic drafts for various accounts, telephone banking services, Internet banking services, Internet cash management services, and automated teller machines (ATMs) services. In addition, it provides commercial mortgage brokerage services in the placement of primarily long-term fixed-rate debt for the commercial, hospitality, and multi-family housing markets. Monarch Financial Holdings operates seven offices in the Great Bridge area in Chesapeake; the Lynnhaven area, the Town Center area, the Oceanfront area, and the Kempsville area in Virginia Beach; and the Ghent area and in downtown Norfolk, as well as operates approximately 50 ATMs in South Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina. The company is headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Good Financial Stocks In 2014:Jacksonville Bancorp Inc. (JXSB)

Jacksonville Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Jacksonville Savings Bank that provides various banking products and services in Illinois. Its deposit products include interest-bearing and non interest-bearing checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, term certificate accounts, individual retirement accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio comprises one-to four-family mortgage loans; commercial and agricultural real estate, and multi-family residential real estate loans; commercial and agricultural business loans; and consumer loans, such as home equity loans and lines of credit, and automobile loans. It operates through its main office, as well as through six branches located in Jacksonville, Virden, Litchfield, Chapin, and Concord, Illinois. The company was founded in 1916 and is based in Jacksonville, Illinois. Jacksonville Bancorp, Inc. is a subsidiary of Jacksonville Bancorp, MHC.

Good Financial Stocks In 2014:RLI Corp. (RLI)

RLI Corp., through its subsidiaries, underwrites property and casualty insurance primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Casualty, Property, and Surety. The Casualty segment provides general liability services consisting of coverage for third party liability of commercial insurers, including manufacturers, contractors, apartments, and mercantile; commercial and personal umbrella coverage; and commercial transportation that include automobile liability and physical damage insurance to local, intermediate, and long haul truckers, public transportation risks, and equipment dealers, as well as incidental and related insurance coverage. It also offers professional liability coverages, such as directors? and officers? liability insurance, employment practices liability, and other miscellaneous professional liability coverage; and specialty program coverages, such as commercial property, general liability, inland marine, and crime, as well as deductible buy-back. The Property segment offers property coverage that consists primarily of excess and surplus lines and specialty insurance, such as fire and earthquake. It also provides insurance for commercial and industrial risks, such as office buildings, apartments, condominiums, and certain industrial and mercantile structures, as well as writes boiler and machinery coverage; marine coverage, including hull, cargo, and protection and indemnity; homeowners and dwelling fire insurance; and property facultative reinsurance for insurance companies. The Surety segment specializes in writing small-to-large commercial and small contract surety coverages, as well as for the energy, petrochemical, and refining industries. It offers miscellaneous bonds, such as license and permit, notary, and court bonds; and fidelity and crime coverage for commercial insured and select financial institutions. RLI Corp. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Peoria, Illinois.

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Best Wall St. Stocks Today - AKAM,ANGI,AAPL,CBE,FIO,GGP,GES,PETD,PMCS,PLD,REG,RS,UA,PANL,VTR,WSM

Trump moves in four blocks from the White House

Market Taking Sideways Stance

2012-03-07T08:40:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2015 Financials Stocks ,Good Stocks To Invest In 2015 ,Good Stocks To Watch ,MHP ,NYSE ,ORCL ,PROJ ,SAP ,Top Stocks In 2012

The S&P 500 (SPX) is heading toward the first quarter ever of negative earnings after undergoing the sixth quarter of negative growth. And last Friday, stocks ended the worst week in almost three months, with 27 of the 30 stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) ending the day with a loss.

All through last week, the market tended to ignore corporate and economic news, focusing instead on the government’s ability to pass legislation that can get the economy out of the mess.

But on Friday, nothing could turn stocks higher — not even the Senate’s passing of the economic stimulus bill nor the White House spokesman’s report that the administration is working on a plan to subsidize mortgages to help homeowners avoid foreclosures. And, again, the financials took a direct hit, down 4.2%, which produced a weekly loss of 10.2%.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was off 82 points at 7,850, the S&P 500 (SPX) fell eight points to 827, and the Nasdaq (NASD) was down seven points to 1,534.

The New York Stock Exchange traded 1.2 billion shares, with decliners ahead of advancers by 8-to-5. On the Nasdaq (NASD ), 778 million shares traded with decliners ahead by 7-to-6.

Crude oil (February contract) rallied $3.53 to $37.51 a barrel. The Amex Energy SPDR (XLE) closed at $46.99, up 11 cents.

The February gold contract fell $7 to $941.50 on profit-taking since the contract had rallied for three successive days, surging above $950 on Friday. The PHLX Gold/Silver Index (XAU) closed at $130.88, off $2.05.

For the week, the Dow Industrials were off 5.2% (negative 10.6% year-to-date), the S&P 500 fell 4.8% (negative 8.5% year-to-date) and the Nasdaq was down 3.6% (negative 8.5% year-to-date).

What the Markets Are Saying

From September to early November, the volatility was staggering and if you were on the side of the major trend (down), you’ve made money. But now traders are grumbling that there just isn’t enough volatility to make trading profitable.

On Friday, Standard & Poor’s reported that in the past 22 days, the S&P 500 (SPX) has remained between 805 and 874, or about an 8% range. But during the past 12 days, the closing price range for the “500″ has been only about 50 points.

On Thursday, it looked like the market was breaking down for a test of the November low, but a late rally turned Thursday into a major reversal day (up). And so on it goes, with the same support zone at S&P (SPX) 800 to 820 holding firm while the Dow (DJI) has fallen slightly below its support. The NYSE Composite (NYA) has held firm, and the Nasdaq (NASD) has formed a small “V” type bottom (which is bullish).

Investment advisors continue to be bearish, the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) members’ survey shows that the public is still bearish (although not at the same level as the past four weeks), and insiders (especially bankers) are buying their own stocks (wh! ich is b ullish).

I hate to say it, but it looks like the future, as far out as I can see (which is only several weeks), is more of the same boring, sideways movement with some whipsaws that could catch traders as they try to adjust to a less volatile environment.

Today’s Trading Landscape

Earnings of note to be reported include: Abraxas Petroleum, Agilent Technologies, Alliance One Int’l, American Medical Systems, Arbitron, Arch Capital Group, Axsys Technologies, BlueLinx Holdings, BluePhoenix Solutions Ltd, Chesapeake Energy Corp, Cognex and Curtiss-Wright Corp.

Daimler AG, Evolution Petroleum Corp, Fossil, FreightCar America, Gen-Probe, Genuine Parts, Georgia Gulf, Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd, GTx, Halifax, Holly, Hospira, Idenix Pharmaceuticals and IPC Holdings.

Jack in the Box, Kaiser Aluminum Corp, La-Z-Boy, MannKind, Meadowbrook Insurance, Medtronic, Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd, MTS Medication Technologies, Natco, Noah Education Holding Ltd, Otelco, Palatin Technologies and Penske Automotive Group.

Republic Airways Holdings, State Auto Financial, StatoilHydro ASA, Stone Energy, Stratasys, Switch and Data, Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo S.A., Telmex Internacional SAB de CV, Teva Pharmaceutical, The Navigators Group and Transocean Ltd.

Ultra Petroleum Corp, United America Indemnity Ltd, United Therapeutics, US Dataworks, Valassis Communications, Valmont, Volcano Corp, Voltaire, Wal-Mart Stores, Watsco, and Zebra Technologies.

The following economic reports are due today: January Empire State Fed Manufacturing Survey (the consensus expects negative 24.0), December Treasury Int’l Capital, Fourth-quarter 2008 E-commerce Sales Report, February NAHB Housing Index, and ABC/Washington Post Consumer Confidence for Feb. 14.

Late news: Donald Trump’s casino units in Atlantic City will declare bankruptcy for the third time, Smithfield Foods (SFD) s aid it plans to close six plants and lay off close to 1,900 workers and Wal-Mart (WMT) reported Q4 results of $1.03 versus an estimate of 99 cents. But the big news this week will be the stimulus plan and an announcement from the Obama administration of the long-awaited housing plan.

Get Sam Collins’ Daily Trader’s Alert e-mailed straight to your inbox each morning before the opening bell absolutely FREE!

In addition to getting instant access to his Daily Market Outlook, you’ll also receive, in the same e-mail, his Trade of the Day so you can start your day off right by positioning yourself for profits!

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Sam Collins is a registered, fee-based portfolio manager who may be contacted at samailc@cox.net. You can also check out an archive of some of his most recent market outlooks by clicking here.

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Best Wall St. Stocks Today: WFC,BAC,BBT,BBY,CME,CSC,GPS,HPQ,MHS,MDT,MWW,RTN

2012-03-07T04:47:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Rising Stocks ,Best Performing Stocks To Invest In ,CAC40 ,COMP ,DAX ,HSI ,INDU ,N225 ,SHCOMP ,SPX ,TUP ,UKX ,Top Stocks In 2012
There is an unbelievable number of critical stocks hitting 52-week lows this afternoon going into the options expiration date and going into the weekend.� The double-dip recession fears have escalated and the risk-trade is being pulled off of the table.� We have major banks, retail, tech, medical, and a defense and an exchange all breaking their 52-week lows going into the weekend.� Believe it or not, short sellers, bargain hunters, and value investors alike often all look at 52-week lows in the screening.
Bankers getting their fair (or unfair) share…. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is actually up a couple pennies at $24.46 today, but an intraday low of $24.27 broke under the prior 52-week trading range of $24.29 to $34.25.� Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) also broke under the prior 52-week range of $13.01 to $19.86 and its new 52-week low is $12.75.� BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) is not a normal name for a bank stock that would be hitting 52-week lows considering that it is into trust services, yet the $22.90 price today definitely pierced the prior 52-week trading range of $23.25 to $35.72.
Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is another 52-week low! club na me today.� If spending is shrinking and tech is getting ready for slower times, Best Buy can’t escape that.� Shares traded as low as $32.05 today and the stock previously had a range of $32.49 to $48.83.
CME Group Inc. (NYSE: CME) is not a huge shock, although it is the only of the major trading exchanges that hit 52-week lows today.� Maybe the insiders in Chicago are selling out before the disappear until after Labor Day. A low of $238.58 definitely took out the prior 52-week trading range of $240.00 to $353.03.
Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) is caught in the IT sandwich.� It had no earnings, but a low print of $41.37 breached the prior 52-week trading range of $41.58 to $58.36.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) failed to make the grade with earnings and failed to hold up despite a new buyback plan and despite that it had already bought so much stock.� Today’s low of $17.03 broke under the prior range of $17.38 to $26.34.
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) is not a real shock here that it is hitting lows after earnings.� While the guidance was the same as two weeks ago, no one is listening and no one believes that a Hurd-less H-P can beat those annual targets.� H-P hit $39.33 today and the prior range had been $39.95 to $54.75.
MedcoHealth Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MHS) was one that was supposed to be at least somewhat less sensitive to healthcare reform.� Apparently not.� The low of $49.90 went under the prior 52-week range of $45.15 to $66.94.
Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT) was a surprise to see on the list.� This traded as low as $34.39 and the prior 52-week range was $35.05 to $46.66.
Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW) is no shock to see on 52-week lows considering that jobs just aren’t coming back and are currently getting worse.� Still, everyone in need of work is probably looking at Monster every night or weekend in hope of something even if it is not technically a “major” company.� With a low of $10.65 today, the 52-week trading ra! nge of $ 10.95 to $19.28 was taken out by almost 3%.
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is not a huge shock to see on the list after all of the budget cuts.� Despite a big contrarian research call recently that things might not be as bad as they seem in large ticket defense spending, shares hitting $43.16 definitely breached that prior 52-week trading range of $43.89.
You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
JON C. OGG
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Best Wall St. Stocks Today: XOM

2012-03-07T00:59:00.001-08:00

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Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) is out with earnings.� Big Oil’s fourth quarter showed net earnings gain of about 2% to $9.4 billion, or $1.97 EPS. Thomson Reuters had estimates for earnings pegged at $1.96 EPS. The revenue figure looks a bit light on the surface as the 16% gain was in part due to an acquisition and due to higher prices.� Revenues were $121.6 billion.
The good news is that higher oil prices can mask many mistakes.� The bad news is that refining margins are just not what they were cut out to be. Downstream earnings were $425 million before items, while upstream earnings were over $8.8 billion before items.� Oil equivalent production was down 9%.� Total cash flow from operations and with asset sales combined was $17.6 billion with the operating cash flow portion at $10.7 billion.
Buybacks have continued at a feverish pace and the oil giant is targeting some $5 billion in buybacks of common stock in the first quarter.
Investors are not snapping up the news as a buy signal this morning.� So far, shares of Exxon Mobil are down almost 1% at $84.70 and the 52-week range is $67.03 to $88.23.
JON C. OGG
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Combating Debt When Ill With A Trust Deed Scotland Could Be Your Smartest Plan

2012-03-06T21:17:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Asia Stocks ,Best Asia Stocks 2013 ,Best Stocks of 2013 ,Best Stocks To Watch 2013 ,NYSE ,Q4 ,SCI ,Top Stocks In 2012
Given today’s economic conditions, it is not difficult to understand why so many Scottish residents are facing financial problems. This kind of thing is compounded if you are suffering with illness, and unable to make ends meet each month. However, you may not have to consider an insolvency or bankruptcy to solve your current financial issues. A trust deed Scotland may be what you need. Combating debt when ill with a Trust Deed in Scotland might solve your problems.
Qualifying – In order to qualify for your TD or trust deed in Scotland, you must meet criteria. Also, your TD will not remove all debts. You can file for a TD if your debts are greater than your total assets. However, you should be considering drastic measures like bankruptcy. There are no financial minimum requirements. People with no income may qualify if someone else pays on their behalf.
Steps to Take – Before making a big financial decision, it is a good idea to obtain financial advice. You may check with local charities or a debt advice company. A professional service assists in all matters and makes the process simple and easy for you. They make sure that you have an insolvency practitioner or IP. The IP is your trustee and deals with creditors and your repayment.
Understanding What Happens – If you qualify and decide it is in your best interest, your trustee files the TD with the proper authorities. Once ! a TD is filed, creditors are prohibited from petitioning for sequestration.. However you must adhere to all of the TD terms. Your creditors have five weeks to object. If the majority agree to terms, your TD is legal. However, if you have creditors holding 1/3 or more of your total debts, they have to agree also.
Repayment – Your finances are turned over to your trustee and this person deals with your creditors. A repayment plan is established based on your income and ability to repay. You will have one affordable monthly payment for a period of three years. After that you are essentially debt free.
Real Estate – Most people that file a TD may keep their homes. However, only debts that are not secured with collateral are covered by your trust deed in Scotland. This means that houses and cars must be paid for or surrendered. This includes equity in your home, but remortgaging can be a solution to home equity.
Alternatives- If you are ill and faced with financial hardship, you may wish to negotiate with your creditors, but this does not always work. A debt management plan is possible, but this can take many years and you will still owe interest and charges. Sequestration is for five years and your home may not be protected in some cases.
Conclusion – Many people find themselves in financial dire straits due to some kind of illness or injury. Instead of insolvency or bankruptcy, a trust deed Scotland may be the answer. It may be easier to take care of your financial obligations by filing a TD, then all of the other alternatives. A debt advice company provides assistance and helps you through some very difficult situations.
When sick, combating debt with a Trust Deed Scotland isn’t hard. Let us tell you some more about trust deeds and illness.
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Here's What This 164% Gainer Is Buying

2012-03-06T17:25:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2012 Best Stocks ,2012 Silver Stocks ,Best Stocks To Watch For 2012 ,ELMG ,EMS Technologies ,NASDAQ:ELMG ,Top Stocks In 2012
Every quarter, fund managers have to disclose what they've bought and sold. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.
Today, let's look at investing giant Chuck Akre, who founded Akre Capital Management in 1989. Akre is a value investor, who licks his lips at times like these, when the market has been down. Here's how he described an ideal kind of investment, in a 2007 letter to shareholders:
"When a high-quality management team is coupled with a high-return business with ample reinvestment opportunities, we have what we have described over the years as a 'compounding machine' -- a business that can compound our capital for long periods of time at an above average rate."
Is Akre really worth paying attention to, though? Well...yeah. According to the folks at GuruFocus.com, Akre gained about 164% in the first decade of this century, compared with just 16% for the S&P 500.
Akre's stock portfolio totaled $643 million in value as of December 31, 2011, with only about 32 holdings. The top three stocks, making up about 35% of the portfolio's total value, were American Tower (NYSE: AMT  ) , MasterCard, and Ross Stores.
Interesting developments
So what does Akre's latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:
While the number of shares held of American Tower didn't ch! ange muc h, the stock itself did, turning into a real estate investment trust (REIT) at the end of the year. That means it will now have to pay out most of its earnings in dividends.
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) appears on the 13F as the only new addition. But the folks at Akre contacted me to say that this reported holding actually isn't part of Akre's main managed funds but rather is held in separate accounts that the money manager also oversees. That's a helpful reminder that while 13Fs are useful guides, they can be misleading.
Akre doubled the number of shares it holds of Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG  ) , a stock my colleague Dan Caplinger says has it all. Hedge fund manager John Paulson has been advocating splitting the company's property-and-casualty insurance business from its life-insurance business, but even undivided, the company is compelling. The stock has been pummeled over the past year or so by natural disasters, asbestos liabilities, and workers' compensation claims. But Hartford also�enjoyed a jump recently, posting expectations-exceeding earnings. Bulls are drawn to its�seemingly low valuation and strong expected growth.�
The only company Akre sold completely out of was Middleburg Financial (Nasdaq: MBRG  ) . Former Buffett lieutenant David Sokol has invested heavily in the company, leading some to wonder whether it will be his Berkshire Hathaway -- an acorn that grows into a huge oak tree. (It's quite a longshot that anyone would be able to match that level of success, and Sokol was always known for his managerial savvy, not his investing chops.)
We should never blindly copy any investor's moves, no matter how talented the investor. But it can be useful to keep an eye on what smart folks are doing, so 13-F forms can be great places to find intriguing candidates for our portfolios.
Looking for prom! ising in vestments? Check out our free special report -- "The Stocks Only the Smartest Investors Are Buying" -- and learn which stocks are appealing to Warren Buffett and other great investors.
Editor's note: This updated version of this article reflects comments from Akre representatives that further clarified Akre's 13F filing. The Fool appreciates the clarification and regrets any misleading conclusions in a previous version of this article.
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Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Non Normal Trade in last session - NYSE:RCL

2012-03-06T13:43:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Japan Stocks ,Best Japan Stocks To Invest In ,Best Japan Stocks To Watch ,Best Stocks To Watch In 2014 ,Japan Stocks ,Top Stocks In 2012
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) witnessed volume of 11.24 million shares during last trade however it holds an average trading capacity of 2.47 million shares. RCL last trade opened at $33.30 reached intraday low of $30.94 and went -12.58% down to close at $31.26.
RCL has a market capitalization $6.78 billion and an enterprise value at $16.23 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.98 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 0.82. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 7.95% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 12.40%.
The company made a return on asset of 2.84% in past twelve months and return on equity of 7.01% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $6.94 billion gaining $32.19 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was12.50% holding 4.70% quarterly earnings growth.
According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $470.26 million cash in hand making cash per share at 2.17. The total of $8.78 billion debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 106.06. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 0.40 and book value per share was 38.15.
Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 18.08! % where the stock current price exhibited down beat from its 50 day moving average price of $35.84 and remained below from its 200 Day Moving Average price of $40.67.
RCL holds 217.01 million outstanding shares with 134.12 million floating shares where insider possessed 37.02% and institutions kept 2.30%.
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Rackspace Hosting Beats on Revenue, Matches Expectations on EPS

2012-03-06T10:02:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Best Stocks ,Best Stocks To Invest In ,Best Stocks To Invest In 2014 ,Best Stocks To Own 2014 ,GTI ,NYSE ,Q4 ,Top Stocks In 2012
Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX  ) reported earnings on Feb. 13. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Rackspace Hosting beat slightly on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.
Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue increased significantly and GAAP earnings per share increased significantly.
Margins expanded across the board.
Revenue details
Rackspace Hosting reported revenue of $264.6 million. The 19 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ foresaw a top line of $261.7 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 32% higher than the prior-year quarter's $214.7 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.
EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.14. The 18 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ anticipated $0.14 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS of $0.18 for Q3 were 80% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.10 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.
Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 70.8%, 190 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 14.0%, 310 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 8.8%, 250 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.
Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $280.9 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.16.
Next year's average estimate for revenue is $1.02 billion. The average EPS estimate is $0.53.
Investor sentiment
The stock has a three-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 778 members out of 835 rating the stock outperform, and 57 members rating it underperform. Among 236 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 221 give Rackspace Hosting a green thumbs-up, and 15 give it a red thumbs-down.
Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Rackspace Hosting is outperform, with an average price target of $47.13.
New technology paradigms and mobile devices are driving the next wave of Internet services. Many older companies won't survive the change, while fortunes will be made by the first movers in the field. Where does Rackspace Hosting fit in? What's the fortune-making change? Check out "The Two Words Bill Gates Doesn't Want You to Hear.." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add Rackspace Hosting to My Watchlist.
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Automated Forex Trading Software to Make Money Fast Online

2012-03-06T02:28:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Best Performing Stocks ,APU ,Best Performing Stocks To Hold ,Best Performing Stocks To Hold For 2013 ,D ,FGP ,Gas Stocks ,NYSE ,UGI ,Top Stocks In 2012
One thing is for sure, there is not a forex trader around who саnnοt get better and one way to increase your trading skill is to use automated forex trading software to add a few new tricks to your bag. Sοmе traders believe that not only can it hеƖр them make money qυісk online, a software forex robot is also very good at selection you to add profitability to your good trades and decreasing your losses on the tеrrіbƖе ones.
Thіѕ software forex robot is not ! 15;o ;mething to exchange the trader, it is really quite the opposite. Yου are still going to have to know the basics of trading and set the software within your limits, but a lot of the manual task work and guess work is taken out of the equation.
Once you get the forex software rolling, it is quite obvious that anyone involved in the forex market should want to use іt. Nο more figuring out facts by hand or even keeping records, the software will handle all of these mundane tasks for уου.

One thing that a lot of people do not consider when they are talking about automated forex trading software is that it can not only handle the basic tasks for уου, but it can еνеr teach ‘аn old dog new tricks.̵! 7; Th 077rе are different simulations or backtesting that you can rυn to hеƖр increase your every day skills as a forex trader. AƖƖ involved in forex trading should always seek to learn as much as they can at all times and this software is a wonderful learning tool.
WhіƖе the automatic forex system is сеrtаіnƖу fаntаѕtіс in most areas, it ԁοеѕ have a few shortcomings. Thе most prominent of these is the software’s inability to compensate for a sudden change in the market that is based off late news. Whether it is the list information or some other reasons, the forex trader themselves will need to keep an eye on the trades when this happens to ensure that their money is protected.
Aѕ we mentioned before, this forex software is not to exchange a trader, it is more of a tool &! #116; 04;an anything еƖѕе. Thе value of it is in іtѕ skill to track and record all information and to keep an eye on your forex investments. In just about all areas it is very successful in responsibility just thаt, but this one small inadequacy will have to be watched. Regardless, this is something that every successful forex trader needs to educate themselves on and use in order to increase their level of success.
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Three Signals for Value Investors in Today's Market

2012-03-05T22:32:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Best Stocks ,Best Gas Stocks ,Best Stocks To Invest In 2013 ,Best Stocks To Own ,Best Stocks To Own 2013 ,RRGB ,Top Stocks In 2012
In a perfectly efficient market, we could never buy a stock at a discount or sell one at a premium. Every security would be perfectly priced, all the time.
It’s only through irrational, emotion-driven selling that value investors will occasionally get the chance to pick up a $50 stock for $25 a share, or maybe even less.
Value investors are the bargain-hunters of the investment world. Our job can be tough when the market is booming and nobody wants to part with their stocks. But when the cries of "sell" reach a crescendo and investors can't exit their positions fast enough, shopping is good. Yet these opportunities come around once or twice a decade.

The last time the market traded at such marked-down prices was in 2002. Stocks went into recovery mode shortly thereafter and rebounded almost +30% during the next 12 months. Few investors would turn their nose up at such a gain today. But that increase in valuation was in the overall market. Plenty of individual stocks netted investors ten times that.
As fear flooded the market and corrupted rational decision making, downtrodden investors were willing to sell outstanding companies for a fraction of their value. Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) went for a split-adjusted $5 a share. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) sold for just $12.
Forward-looking investors who took advantage of the! rampant pessimism have since been rewarded with massive gains of more than +1,370% for RIMM and more than +1210% for AAPL. And those are hardly isolated examples.
That's why long-term investors should cheer the irrational dumping of high-quality securities. If you walked into Best Buy or Target and found row after row of brand-name merchandise marked down -40% or more, you would probably load up the shopping cart. Investors don't shop that way. They tend to fear massive stock declines rather than embrace them as windows of opportunity.
The investors who throw in the towel miss the chance for big gains. Now is the time to buy, not sell.
The First Signal: Low P/E Ratios
Price/earnings ratios can offer clues as to whether a stock is undervalued. Comparisons are best made within industries, evaluating companies against their peers or with their own historical valuation. If a company with an undamaged outlook typically commands 20 times earnings but is suddenly selling at 10, its stock might be a strong value play.
During the past 20 years, the S&P 500 has traded at an average P/E of 20.5. It now trades at 15.5 times earnings. Ninety-nine of the index's 500 holdings have earnings multiples below 10. The last time P/E multiples fell this low was in 1997. Stocks then rocketed to new highs, enjoying a multi-year rally.
The Second Signal: Price-to-Earnings Growth Ratios
PEs aren't perfect: They show the past. What about a company's growth potential? Two stocks trading at identical P/E ratios might seem equally valued. But what if the first company were expected to deliver earnings growth of +10% and the second was projected to grow +20%?
All things being equal, you'd clearly prefer the second company.
Companies that may seem expensive on the surface can turn ! out to b e undervalued once their future growth potential is factored in. Investors who automatically dismiss stocks with seemingly high P/Es could be missing out on some of the market's most extraordinary opportunities.
To determine this, use the price-to-earnings growth or "PEG" ratio. It's calculated by dividing the P/E ratio by a company’s annual earnings-per-share growth. Slow-growth companies have a higher PEG ratio than faster-growing companies. A company with a PEG ratio of one or less is considered to be a good investment.
Legendary money manager Peter Lynch said that when you find a stock with 25% growth trading at just 20 times earnings, it's time to "back up the truck." A modest earnings multiple with a low PEG ratio is a recipe for profits -- one that gets richer as the P/E ratio falls.
The Third Signal: Dividend Payouts
The S&P’s current dividend yield of 2.8% is 100 basis points higher than two years ago. There are scads of double-digit yielders out there whose rich yields will evaporate as the market's valuation returns to historical norm. Investors who buy while yields are high capture these outsize payout rates. They not only collect a rich income stream, they also are in line for robust capital gains when the overall market picks up.
Aberdeen Australia Equity Fund (AMEX: IAF) saw its yield spike up in August 2007. Investors who bought to capture the yield of 11% saw their shares jump from $12.50 to $17.50 in less than two months.
This just goes to show how quickly these high yields can disappear if you don't lock them in.
Now Is the Time to Get In
There are two ways to look at this year long sell-off. It's either a nightmare or a dream come true.
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If You're Going to Buy a House, Do it Now

2012-03-05T18:57:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2015 Healthcare Stocks ,ESI ,NYSE ,Q4 ,Top Healthcare Stocks 2015 ,Top Stocks of 2015 ,Top Stocks To Hold For 2015 ,Top Stocks In 2012

I have many reasons to like Gabelli Multimedia Trust (GGT), which specializes in media and entertainment. For one thing, the fund is still relatively cheap; it currently trades at a 12% discount to its net asset value (NAV).

This means you are getting the equivalent of a dollar's worth of assets for just 88 cents. Better yet, you are getting the assets of one of the better positioned sectors in the economy.

Roughly 57% of GGT's assets are made up of media distribution companies such as� Discovery Communications and CBS Corporation. These companies are seeing very strong advertising growth.

It also owns shares of specialty providers such as The Madison Square Garden Company, a stock that is surging on the popularity of the New York Knickerbockers new star, Jeremy Lin.

Roughly 20% of the portfolio is comprised of cable companies such as Comcast and wireless providers such as Verizon. You'll even find shares of technology powerhouse Google� and Apple.
The fund also has a dividend policy whereby it distributes 10% of the fund's net asset value within each calendar year. That's one reason why GGT bumped its December� dividend to $0.27 per share, up from $0.20 per shar! e.

Investors should note that roughly 60% of the distributions are paid as return of capital. Return of capital distributions are not taxed at the time of distribution. Instead, they offset shareholders' cost basis.

When you sell your shares, any benefit from return of capital is treated as a long-term capital gain. This special tax-friendly feature is the main reason why GGT should be held in a taxable brokerage account, rather than a tax-deferred account.

The one drawback of GGT is its high fees. The expense ratio is 3.19%, far higher than what you will pay for most closed-end funds. But you also get a lot for your fee.

I routinely review numerous fund reports, but few rival GGT's. Its management provides a thorough review of the industries it covers. It also drills down on its winners and losers alike. After reading one of its reports, I have little doubt that management watches over each holding like a hawk.

A risk to consider is that from time to time, GGT participates in secondary share offerings to raise capital. These offerings are generally priced below the prevailing market price and can temporarily depress the GGT's share price.��

Action to Take --> I think GGT is a well-managed fund in a promising sector. Its deep discount and double-digit yield are just more icing on the cake.

It is an equity fund, and therefore is more volatile than many of the debt securities in my portfolio. I continue to recommend it to new buyers who have some risk tolerance.

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5 Calm Stocks for Any Market - SmartMoney.com

2012-03-05T11:11:00.001-08:00

Tags: Bob Blandeburgo ,Deficit ,Fiscal Policy ,Japan ,Recession ,Top Stocks In 2012
Down 90 yesterday. Up 40 today. Welcome to volatility, 2012-style. Indeed, as of Feb. 15 there wasn't a single trading day this year where the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 100 points or more. For many investors, it's a refreshing change from last year, when triple-digit swings were the norm. But many pros say don't get used to it. In a recent survey conducted by Northern Trust, more than 40% of institutional money managers expected volatility to increase over the next six months. After all, the European debt crisis still hasn't been resolved and the U.S. economy isn't exactly robust. "You're going to have periods of fear and volatility," says Gary Flam, portfolio manager at Bel Air Investment Advisors.

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That's why many pros still want to own the stocks of stable businesses, ones that won't buckle when volatility returns. A strategy of finding so-called calm stocks paid off during the market's manic 2011. Investing in the S&P 500 stocks with the lowest volatility relative to the broad market in 2010 returned nearly 10% in 2011, while the most volatile fell, on average, 19%, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The results are even be! tter ove r the long run. From 1968 to 2008, $1 invested in low-volatility large-company stocks grew to $53.81, while $1 invested in the higher-volatility bunch grew to just $7.35, according to a 2011 paper in Financial Analysts Journal cowritten by Harvard finance professor Malcolm Baker.
The strategy is hardly sexy. Companies with less-volatile stocks are typically mature, slow-growing businesses, as opposed to those with dramatic increases in sales or profits each quarter. (In other words, you're not likely to find a Google or Coach among them.) But not all fit the bill. The key, say experts, is to find firms that are generating cash as well. "If you are essentially going to close your ears to the risk on-risk off nature of the market and hold on for the long run, these can work," says Jay Kaplan, comanager of the Royce Total Return fund.
Channing Smith, who comanages the Capitol Advisors Growth fund, says he hunts for low-drama names by looking at measures such as beta, which gauges a stock's sensitivity to the market. A stock with a beta of 1.0, for instance, moves in the same direction as the broad market, and with the same magnitude. The lower the beta, the less likely it is that their moves are tied together. Smith, who says he's "pretty bearish" on equities these days, has been searching for low-beta stocks, such as health-care stalwart Johnson & Johnson, which currently has a beta of 0.6. (The company's stock has traded within a narrow $12 range over the past 24 months.)
Of course, some steady performers are not cheap. Utilities, for example, trade at a 15% premium to the market, a big change from the slight discount they had at the beginning of 2011. But paying a higher price is a trade-off many pros are willing to make. "If we have good news in the economy, or Europe solves its issues, you will still make money," says Kent Croft, comanager of the $312 million Croft Value fund. And if the worst happens? Well, he says, those stocks "will hold up better."
Smart Picks
Ex! perts sa y stocks that don't move as much as the market can pay off for investors over the long run; click below to see five..
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
With a credit rating better than the U.S. government's and a 49-year track record for boosting its dividend, Johnson & Johnson is a perennial favorite among fund managers. The Band-Aid maker's stock has a beta of just 0.6 and should remain steady for some time, says Kent Croft, comanager of the Croft Value fund.

Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stericycle (SRCL)
This medical waste-management firm (with a beta of 0.8) has been largely unaffected by swings in the economy. And since much of Stericycle's business is regulated, says Charles Severson, senior portfolio manager of the Baird Mid-Cap fund, its earnings tend to be relatively predictable. Analysts say the stock might lag if the economy picks up significantly.

Getty Images

Ross Stores (ROST)
With economists forecasting a recession one day and a recovery the next, a retail chain may seem an unlikely place for a low-volatility play. But discounter Ross Stores (beta: 0.8) has consistently beaten analysts' earnings expectations as shoppers continue to bargain hunt, says Don Easley, manager at T. ! Rowe Pri ce Diversified Mid-Cap Growth fund.

Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Procter & Gamble (PG)
Since few people will go without toothpaste or toilet paper even in a recession, investors often flock to the stock of the world's largest consumer-goods maker. The firm's growing business overseas makes it that much more attractive, analysts say. The statistics look good too. P&G has a beta of just 0.6.

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News via Getty Images

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLK)
It might not be surprising that this Indonesian telecom firm, with 120 million subscribers, doesn't move in lockstep with the U.S. market (its beta is 0.6). David Ruff, comanager of the Forward International Dividend fund, also likes that it generates "impressive" free cash flow, has a 4.6 percent dividend yield and is a way to play an emerging-market favorite: Indonesia.

Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Yahoo: Where’s The Growth?

2012-03-05T07:27:00.001-08:00

Tags: barack obama plans for the future ,current account deficit ,debt reduction plans ,Deficit reduction plan ,deficit reduction plans ,defined benefits pension ,federal deficit reduction ,national debt and deficit ,national deficit obama ,obama deficit reduction plan ,obama new tax plan ,obama spending deficit ,republican deficit reduction plan ,schakowsky deficit reduction plan ,simpson bowles deficit reduction plan ,simpson bowles plan ,the national deficit ,Top Stocks In 2012
Yahoo (YHOO) shares are sagging after the company late yesterday reported decidedly mixed Q1 results.
On the one hand, the company posted impressive 20% growth in its display advertising business. But on the other hand, its search ad business disappoin! ted, and revenue ex-TAC was actually down a hair from a year ago. The company saw some early benefits from its search deal with with Microsoft (MSFT) in the quarter, but there remain deep concerns on the Street about whether the turnaround CEO Carol Bartz is trying to engineer is going to play out. Bulls on the stock see signs of progress, and a cheap stock bolstered by significant value on the balance sheet; bears think the company will continue to flounder.
Here’s a look at how the Street is viewing the stock, first the bears, and then the bulls.
The bearish view:
Martin Pykkonen, Janco Partners: Maintains a Market Perform rating and $16 target. “We still need more signs of sustainable total revenue growth in a double-digit year-over-year growth rate range (with stable or increasing operating margins) before we would recommend buying the stock.”
Steve Weinstein, Pacific Crest: Keeps his Sector Perform rating. “YHOO shares appear cheap, but the business needs a growth catalyst.”
Mark May, Needham: Hold rating. “Clear signs of meaningful growth [are] largely still absent…and as a result, we continue to advise caution.”
Tim Boyd, MKM Partners: Neutral rating. “The Q1 search results highlight our primary concern on YHOO shares: Can it stop the bleeding vis-a-vis search market share?”
Jeetil Patel, Deutsche Bank: Hold rating. “Reinvestment in opex plus weakness in high-margin fees and search revs represent the themes for the year, leading to lagging growth and modest EBITDA growth.”
Heath Terry, FBR Capital: Repeats Underperform rating. “While the considerable assets and potential value on Yahoo’s balance sheet will continue to provider valuation support, we believe for the recent outperformance of Yahoo’s shares to continue, the n! egative trends in engagement, segment share and search will have to stabilize,” he writes. “With the stock trading at 24x FY 11 EPS, in line with the group, and even the most recent data suggesting these trends are continuing, we believe YHOO will likely underperform its peers.”
Jordan Rohan, Thomas Weisel Partners: Market Weight rating. The results, he writes “left some questions about the long-term prospects for Yahoo.”
The bullish view:
Douglas Anmuth, Barclays Capital: Overweight rating. “YHOO is beginning to realize early cost benefits from MSFT and our positive thesis on YHOO remains intact based on the ad rebound, margin expansion, Asian assets and valuation.”
Mark Meeker, Morgan Stanley: Overweight rating: “We continue to find Yahoo’s valuation attractive and believe its Asian assets remain under-appreciated.”
Sameet Sinha, JMP Securities: Outperform rating. “Our thesis on Yahoo is that it will be able to maintain share of online advertising over the next two quarters and then start to gain share in Q4 as it is able to stabilize and grow its search platform.”
Scott Kessler, Standard & Poor’s: Strong Buy rating. “We still see YHOO as a compellingly valued turnaround story.”
Justin Post, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Buy rating. “The company has re-established it’s position as the leading display platform and guidance suggests growth acceleration in Q2.”
Youssef Squali, Jefferies: Buy rating. “Management’s bold statement that Yahoo’s share of search has bottomed out and will grow again is a clear indication of greater conviction in an improving environment,” he writes. “We find YHOO attractive given the valuation, resumption of growth and margin upside.”
YHOO is! down 84 cents, or 4.6%, to $17.54.
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Low Risk Investment – Do You Know What Is Available?

2012-03-05T03:43:00.001-08:00

Tags: Best Penny Stocks To Buy ,Best Penny Stocks To Buy For 2012 ,CREG ,GME ,ISSI ,SWHC ,TRIB ,UBOH ,WILC ,Top Stocks In 2012
Investing is one of those things which you can not be thought how to do it but rather feel it. This is the place to show that you are natural born talent in this area. Investing is one of the hardest things to do and that is why it is one of the most dangerous. Dangerous not for your health (it may get eventually after you lose everything) but for your money instead. So because of that reason everybody who deal with business wants to get low risk investment.
There are many areas in the business where you could try investing your money but most of them are not worth. Most of these places are owed by gangsters-this is another way to have problems with your health, and they are dangerous for your money.
The question how to understand which companies, factories, concerns are good to invest in emerges. First of all finding as much information as humanly possible about the firm is good. Try to dig really deep since many firms know that they have to make up some historical background in order to make the clients to go to their place. That is why you have to get most information about anything that is related or correlated with the firm. Check if the firm has been renamed and check if the firm has been persecuted by the law under the old nam! e of the firm. These are good tips not lose in the sea of everlasting misery if you lose your entire savings.
In order to find a low risk investment place you have to check all the financial stability of the place. There are some ways to do that but few of them considered to be legal. When you are in the business of investments you are always on the edge of law and breaking the law. You have to step very carefully in order not to fall on one of the shores and get cut by the blade.
It is important for you to understand that there are not risk-free investments. There are only low risk investments and that is the best it can get. There are no guarantees that your saving will be okay after some time in the bank or in the place where you have invested them. That is why you should not be surprised if one day you get a phone call saying that all entire savings are gone.
It is best to invest small amount of money in many places. This way if something goes wrong you would lose not all your money but rather a small amount. If all places that you have invested turn you down then you are really screwed and unlucky. To perform as best as humanly possible in finding a low risk investment place you have to follow the tips provided. Follow them closely and never trust anyone on the business. Do not trust anyone when it is a matter of money otherwise you may lose it all.
Did you know that there are secure investment alternatives outside of the market?
I put together a free video that reveals a 200 year old financial tool that banks and Wall Street have been trying to keep secret from you. Visit my website here for the details: http://secureinvestmentsecrets.com.
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Vote on Capital One-ING Deal Delayed

2012-03-04T23:59:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Canadian Stocks ,Best Canadian Stocks ,Best Canadian Stocks To Invest In ,Best Stocks To Buy 2014 ,Top Stocks In 2012
The Federal Reserve was scheduled to vote today on whether to approve Capital One’s (COF) $9 billion deal to buy ING Direct. But the Fed said it is postponing the meeting, raising concerns that there may be some dissent about the plan among the Fed governors. Consumer groups have opposed the deal, arguing that it will create another banking behemoth.
The Fed declined to give an explanation, but Capital One told the Times that the switch was caused by a scheduling problem.
Five governors must approve the deal for it to go through.
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Indonesia Catching China's Eye

2012-03-04T20:13:00.001-08:00

Tags: Best Japanese Stocks ,Best Stocks For 2015 ,Best Stocks To Invest In ,DLTR ,FDO ,MCD ,NDN ,NYSE ,WMT ,Top Stocks In 2012
It's an open secret that Indonesia's economy is on the rise. In the spirit of March Madness, it's something of a sleeper. That's why China, which is always looking for promising new investments, is looking to make inroads there.

Indeed, China's appetite for commodities makes Indonesia - with its close proximity and abundance of natural resources - an ideal partner.

PetroChina Co. Ltd. (NYSE ADR: PTR), Sinopec, Sinosteel, Minmetals and China Investment Corp (CIC) - Beijing's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund - are all aggressively scouring South East Asia's largest economy for takeover targets and joint venture partners, the Live Trading News reported.

Targets include liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, oil blocks owned by foreign companies, and coal mines, with some potential deals worth more than $1 billion, according to investment banking sources who know and advise the companies.

"There's enormous interest from China in Indonesia," said an Asia-based investment banker who has advised regional resources companies on deals in Indonesia. "These include financing deals, stakes."

In fact, China Railway Group Ltd. on Thursday won a $4.8 billion contract to build and operate an Indonesian coal r! ailway. The deal lets state-run China Railway design, build, and manage the railway in South Sumatra for Indonesia's Bukit Asam Transpacific Railway Corporation for a period of 20 years.

Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of thermal coal, and last year 15% of those exports went to China.

Natural gas also is high on China's shopping list, Live Trading News' sources said. China's LNG imports increased by two-thirds last year to 5.53 million metric tons.

"Indonesia is a country that is blessed with incredible mineral riches, including some of the largest copper and gold mines in the world - not to mention plenty of rubber plantations and food," says Money Morning Contributing Writer Jon D. Markman. "Literacy rates are high, the middle class is large and growing, and there is a ton of potential in the domestic economy. Think of Indonesia as a South Seas version of Brazil, but without Mardi Gras."

Earlier this month, Indonesia's sovereign-debt rating was lifted to its highest level in 12 years after Bank Indonesia (BI), the country's central bank, raised its growth forecast for 2010 gross domestic product (GDP) to a rate of 5.5%-6.0%. The rating was last raised in 2006, and is now just two levels below investment grade - on par with Turkey. The central bank maintains an economic growth forecast of 6.0%-6.5% for 2011.

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Pier 1 Imports, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Sales

2012-03-04T16:28:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Best Stocks ,2013 Energy Stocks ,AAPL ,Best Energy Stocks To Own ,Best Stocks To Own 2013 ,Energy Stocks ,Top Stocks In 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas–(CRWENEWSWIRE)– Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE:PIR) today reported sales results for the second quarter ended August 27, 2011.
Second Quarter Highlights
Comparable store sales increase of 10.8% versus last year�s increase of 11.2%
Merchandise margins expected to be approximately 59.3% of sales versus 58.3% last year
Earnings per share expected to be $0.14
Share repurchases of approximately $95.7 million to date under the share repurchase program
Comparable store sales for the second quarter ended August 27, 2011 increased 10.8% compared to last year�s comparable store sales increase of 11.2% for the second quarter ended August 28, 2010. Total sales for the quarter improved to $340 million compared to $310 million in the year-ago quarter. Comparable store sales for the first six months increased 10.5% compared to a comparable store sales increase of 12.7% in the year-ago period. Total sales for the first six months increased to $674 million from $616 million for the same period last year. The comparable store sales increase for the second quarter was driven primarily by increases in traffic and average ticket. Merchandise margins for the second quarter were strong and will be approximately 59.3% of sales, up from last year�s second quarter merchandise margins of 58.3% of sales. Second quarter earnings are expected to be $0.! 14 per s hare.
Under the $100 million share repurchase program, the Company has repurchased to date a total of 9,111,173 shares of its common stock at a weighted average cost of $10.50 per share and a total cost of approximately $95.7 million.
Alex W. Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, �We are very pleased with our second quarter sales results, which were consistent throughout every month of the quarter. Merchandise margins remain strong across all merchandise categories. Halloween, fall and harvest merchandise was set in all stores by early August. Customers are reacting favorably to this merchandise, which bodes well for the second half of the year. We look forward to discussing our second quarter results and providing an update to the balance of the year during our upcoming conference call.�
Second Quarter Conference Call Information
The Company will announce fiscal 2012 second quarter financial results prior to market open on September 15, 2011 and will host a conference call later that morning at 10:00 a.m. Central Time to discuss the results. Investors will be able to connect to the call through the Company�s website at www.pier1.com. The conference call can be accessed by linking through to the �Investor Relations� page to the �Events� page, or you can listen to the conference call by calling 1-800-498-7872, or if international, 1-706-643-0435. The conference ID number is 89318021.
Financial Disclosure Advisory
Management�s expectations and assumptions regarding future results are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release. Any forward-looking projections or statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements and risks contained in the Company�s Annual Report on Form 10-K. Refer to the Company�s most recent SEC filings for any updates concer! ning the se and other risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company�s operations and performance. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that any projected results expressed or implied will not be realized.
Pier 1 Imports, Inc. is the original global importer of imported decorative home furnishings and gifts. Information about the Company is available on www.pier1.com.
Source: Pier 1 Imports, Inc.
Contact:
Pier 1 Imports, Inc.
Cary Turner, 817-252-8400

THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY SECURITY!
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Will ePlus Blow It Next Quarter?

2012-03-04T12:39:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 China Stocks ,Best Stocks For 2013 ,Best Stocks To Watch For 2013 ,China Stocks ,NEE ,NextEra ,NYSE:NEE ,Top Stocks In 2012
There's no foolproof way to know the future for ePlus (Nasdaq: PLUS  ) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen -- and before your stock craters as a result.
A cloudy crystal ball
In this series, we use accounts receivable and days sales outstanding to judge a company's current health and future prospects. It's an important step in separating the pretenders from the market's best stocks. Alone, AR -- the amount of money owed the company -- and DSO -- the number of days' worth of sales owed to the company -- don't tell you much. However, by considering the trends in AR and DSO, you can sometimes get a window onto the future.
Sometimes, problems with AR or DSO simply indicate a change in the business (like an acquisition), or lax collections. However, AR that grows more quickly than revenue, or ballooning DSO, can also suggest a desperate company that's trying to boost sales by giving its customers overly generous payment terms. Alternately, it can indicate that the company sprinted to book a load of sales at the end of the quarter, like used-car dealers on the 29th of the month. (Sometimes, companies do both.)
Why might an upstanding firm like ePlus do this? For the same reason any other company might: to make the numbers. Investors don't like revenue sho! rtfalls, and employees don't like reporting them to their superiors.
Is ePlus sending any potential warning signs? Take a look at the chart below, which plots revenue growth against AR growth, and DSO:

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. FQ = fiscal quarter.
The standard way to calculate DSO uses average accounts receivable. I prefer to look at end-of-quarter receivables, but I've plotted both above.
Watching the trends
When that red line (AR growth) crosses above the green line (revenue growth), I know I need to consult the filings. Similarly, a spike in the blue bars indicates a trend worth worrying about. ePlus' latest average DSO stands at 57.0 days, and the end-of-quarter figure is 57.9 days. Differences in business models can generate variations in DSO, and business needs can require occasional fluctuations, but all things being equal, I like to see this figure stay steady. So, let's get back to our original question: Based on DSO and sales, does ePlus look like it might miss its numbers in the next quarter or two?
The numbers don't paint a clear picture. For the last fully reported fiscal quarter, ePlus' year-over-year revenue grew 18.5%, and its AR grew 22.6%. That looks OK. End-of-quarter DSO increased 3.5% over the prior-year quarter. It was up 8.6% versus the prior quarter. Still, I'm no fortuneteller, and these are just numbers. Investors putting their money on the line always need to dig into the filings for the root causes and draw their own conclusions.
What now?
I use this kind of analysis to figure out which investments I need to watch more closely as I hunt the market's best returns. However, some investors actively seek out companies on the wrong side of AR trends in order to sell them short, profiting when they eventually! fall. W hich way would you play this one? Let us know in the comments below, or keep up with the stocks mentioned in this article by tracking them in our free watchlist service, My Watchlist.

Add ePlus to My Watchlist.
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Fool Checkup: Teekay Earnings

2012-03-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Best Stocks ,2013 Energy Stocks ,Best Stocks 2013 ,Best Stocks To Own ,Best Stocks To Own 2013 ,Top Stocks In 2012
Teekay (NYSE: TK  ) reported earnings on Feb. 23. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Teekay beat expectations on revenues and exceeded expectations on earnings per share.
Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue expanded and GAAP earnings per share dropped significantly.
Gross margins improved, operating margins grew, and net margins dropped.
Revenue details
Teekay reported revenue of $468.1 million. The eight analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ hoped for a top line of $431.5 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 3.1% higher than the prior-year quarter's $497.3 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.
EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at -$0.58. The 10 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ forecast -$0.61 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS of $0.69 for Q3 were 40% lower than the prior-year quarter's $1.15 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. No! n-GAAP f igures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.
Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 49.4%, 490 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 17.5%, 530 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 9.4%, 790 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.
Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $477.6 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is -$0.27.
Next year's average estimate for revenue is $1.81 billion. The average EPS estimate is -$1.74.
Investor sentiment
The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 197 members out of 213 rating the stock outperform, and 16 members rating it underperform. Among 66 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 60 give Teekay a green thumbs-up, and six give it a red thumbs-down.
Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Teekay is outperform, with an average price target of $33.
Is Teekay the right energy stock for you? Read about a handful of timely, profit-producing plays on expensive crude in "3 Stocks for $100 Oil." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add Teekay to My Watchlist.
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(BZC, PKT, DGSE, CLNO) Stock under Consideration by DrStockPick.com

2012-03-04T04:59:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Silver Stocks ,NASDAQ:OIIM ,O2Micro International ,OIIM ,Silver Stocks ,Stocks ,Top Performing Silver Stocks ,Top Stocks In 2012
Breeze-Eastern Corporation (AMEX:BZC) confirmed that its annual meeting of stockholders will be held at 10:00 a.m. local time on October 6, 2011 at its principal executive offices located at 35 Melanie Lane, Whippany, New Jersey.
Breeze-Eastern Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services lifting and restraining products for specialty aerospace and defense applications. It offers electric and hydraulic rescue hoists and cargo hook systems.
Procera Networks, Inc. (AMEX:PKT) announced it has received a $6 million second follow-on order from a leading North American Cable MSO. This second follow-on order comes just six months after the MSO awarded an initial $2 million follow-on order in April 2011.
Procera Networks, Inc. provides network traffic awareness, analysis, and control solutions for broadband service providers. It offers intelligent policy enforcement solutions that enable mobile and broadband network operators and entities to manage private networks.
DGSE Companies Inc. (AMEX:DGSE) reported that it has completed its acquisition of 100 percent of Southern Bullion Trading, LLC (”SBT”) in exchange for the issuance of 600,000 restricted shares of the common stock of DGSE.
DSGE Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, buys and sells jewelry, bullion products, and rare coins! to the wholesale and retail customers in the United States.
Cleantech Transit, Inc. (CLNO)
Biomass energy is a renewable source of energy that is produced from things like wood, crop waste, animal matter and living crops. Biomass is used as fuel to produce electricity and other energy forms. These fuels can be in the form of liquid, gas or solid. The use of biomass energy has various benefits and those are mostly environmental and economic. Biomass energy has become a great alternative now days to using fossil fuels for energy production.
Cleantech Transit Inc. was founded to capitalize on technology advances and manufacturing opportunities in the growing clean energy public transportation sector. The Company has expanded its focus to invest directly in specific green projects. Recognizing the many economic and operational advances of converting wood waste into renewable sources of energy, Cleantech has selected to invest in Phoenix Energy (www.phoenixenergy.net). This project could benefit the Company’s manufacturing clients worldwide.
Cleantech Transit, Inc. (CLNO) is pleased to announce it has met its funding requirement to secure the Company’s ability to earn in 25% of the 500KW Merced Project.
The Company is in the final stages of closing its initial interest in the Merced Project and is currently working on completing the necessary documentation and expects closing the transaction soon. As previously announced Cleantech has the option to earn up to 40% of the Merced Project and the Company plans to continue to work towards increasing its interest in the Merced Project as they move ahead.
For more information about Cleantech Transit, Inc. visit its website www.cleantechtransitinc.com
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Netflix: Credit Suisse Sees Sufficient Differentiation From Comcast

2012-03-04T01:12:00.001-08:00

Tags: ACAD ,AVII ,BPOP ,BRCD ,CMCSA ,CSCO ,CTIC ,DELL ,Desktop Stock Alert ,EBAY ,ETFC ,FITB ,Hot Stock Alerts ,Hot Stock Commentary ,Hottest stock alert ,INTC ,Investor's Health ,JAVA ,LVLT ,MSFT ,NVAX ,ORCL ,Penny Stock Picks ,QQQQ ,SIRI ,Stock Alerts ,YHOO ,Top Stocks In 2012
Shares of Netflix (NFLX) have been under pressure all day following Comcast‘s (CMCSA) announcement it will offer its own streaming-video offering over the Web, called “Xfinity Streampi! x,” either as a bundle for some Comcast “triple-play” subscribers, or for $4.99 per month, as related in an article by The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Schechner.
Credit Suisse’s John Blackledge came to the rescue this afternoon, reiterating an Outperform rating on Netflix stock and a $140 price target, writing that the pricing, the availability, and the content of Xfinity will be sufficiently different from what Netflix offers that the latter should be able to remain competitive:
While Xfinity Streampix is another competitor for NFLX within the OTT landscape, it is not competing with NFLX in all U.S. markets because the service is only being offered in-market to existing Comcast video subs. At this point, Comcast passes about 53M (out of 115M) total U.S. housholds. In terms of the content offering, we believe NFLX content is and has been evolving and will be differentiated relative to the Xfinity Streampix service. The evolution of NFLX�s content offering includes recent feature films in and around the premium cable network window, with some of that content being exclusive, as well as exclusive prior seasons of TV shows like Mad Men. Additionally, NFLX is beginning to offer original programming, including recently released Lillyhammer and upcoming House of Cards and the revival of Arrested Development. There has also been recent reports of NFLX seeking further original programming, but nothing has been announced.
Netflix shares are down $4.49, or almost 4%, at $117.36.
Fin.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204909104577237321153043092.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
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How to Minimize Forex Trading Losses

2012-03-03T21:28:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Top Stocks ,Agriculture Stocks ,Agriculture Stocks For 2014 ,Markman ,Top Stocks of 2014 ,Top Stocks To Buy For 2014 ,Top Stocks In 2012
by Forex Trader Gregor Anton – http://www.ForexCurrencyDayTrader.com
Last week I had some very good trades. I wish they all would be , but lets face it, this isn’t a get rich quick scheme. You will have losses. How you manage your money and minimize risk, and minimize losses will play a key role in becoming a successful Forex Trader.
Rather than looking at how to get the most pips and make more good trades, lets focus on minimizing your Trading Losses:
* No Trade is a Good Trade – Patience is key. If the market doesn’t make sense, stay out. Create a demo account and practice first. Only trade when you’re 100% sure all your trading conditions are met.
* Don’t Babysit Your Trade – Follow your trading plan, system, and strategy. Know your entry and exit condition. Don’t stress yourself out and watch your pips fluctuate or worse, go into negative red numbers. Follow your plan, set your stop losses and take profits. Walk away or do something else. Let your trading system and plan take care of the trade.
* Don’t Get Greedy – Fear and Greed will get you every time. Greed is an emotion and you want to keep your cool and stay focused on practical trading. Emotional and impulse Trading is Gambling.
* Save Your Emotions – Relax and you’ll trade better. Even with the best of trading plans, systems, and strategie! s. And in my experience, especially with Forex Robots, Signals, and Alerts. Let your profits run, cut your losses, and be sure to stick to your system and strategy. Save the emotions for when you celebrate a good week!
* Measure Profit in Pips – Focusing on pips rather than profit in dollars is far better. $’s make it emotional, pips keep it strategic. If you’re not comfortable trading bigger lot sizes, don’t.
* The Trend is Your Fairweather Friend – It will change and according to some, the Forex Market is Trending only 20% of the time. Don’t get me wrong, identifying the trend or lack of a trend, is important, you want to do so across multiple time frames. But don’t rely just on the trend, use indicators, trendlines, and pivot points.
* Set Goals – Know exactly how many pips you are targeting. How many good trades you’re going to stop at. How many bad trades you’re going to take before walking away. Everyone has bad days and what I do is go for a walk, eat some Ritter Sport chocolate, grab a Mocha at Waves Coffee, or change my scenery in some way that gets me away from Forex. Bottom line, have a plan, follow it, make sure it’s a Smart Plan. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timelined.
* Set Conditions – When are you going to enter a trade? Exit a Trade? When do you take profit or take a loss? What hours, sessions, and currency pairs are you trading?
* Economic Calendar – The Forex Market tends to become volatile around important economic news. This “noise” can really throw off your trades. Or it can help your trading. Either way, you need to stay on top of Forex News by checking the Economic Calendar at least daily.
* Manage Your Money – Only Risk 5% at most. Combined. If you have multiple trades, the sum should be 5% or less. Some people like 3%. Any more and you will have a tougher time rebuilding your portfolio after a bad trade.
! * Know Y our Risk / Reward – How many pips are you willing to risk to make your pips? You want to risk less than you are bound to make. I like to risk no more than I’m bound to make, better yet, I like to see twice as many pips as I’ve risked.
* Take a Forex Trading Course – Education is key. Education can be expensive, the alternative is far more costly. That one tip or strategy you learn can be the distinction that’ll change everything. There are many great trading courses out there, and there are many scams and hack-job courses too. Visit my site to find out who I swear by.
* Take a Forex Trading Course – Education is key. Education can be expensive, the alternative is far more costly. That one tip or strategy you learn can be the distinction that’ll change everything. There are many great trading courses out there, and there are many scams and hack-job courses too. Visit my site to find out who I swear by.
* Walking Away is the most important part of your day – A great trading day, week, or hour. x amount of successful trades and you decide to stay just a little longer, go for that extra pip and before you know it the market changes and your profits are gone. Be sure to plan your “Walk Away” strategy.
Looking to Minimize your Forex Trading Losses, then visit www.forexcurrencydaytrader.com to find the best advice on Forex Online Trading.
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Is W.R. Grace Slowing Down?

2012-03-03T17:44:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2012 Best Stocks ,AGU ,Best Industrials Stocks To Invest In ,Best Stocks To Buy ,Best Stocks To Buy 2012 ,CF ,TRA ,Top Stocks In 2012
It takes money to make money. Most investors know that, but with business media so focused on the "how much," very few investors bother to ask, "How fast?"
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 W.R. Grace (NYSE: GRA  ) .
Let's break this down
In this series, we measure how swiftly a company turns cash into goods or services and back into cash. We'll use a quick, relatively foolproof tool known as the cash conversion cycle, or CCC for short.
Why does the CCC matter? The less time it takes a firm to convert outgoing cash into incoming cash, the more powerful and flexible its profit engine is. The less money tied up in inventory and accounts receivable, the more available to grow the company, pay investors, or both.
To calculate the cash conversion cycle, add days inventory outstanding to days sales outstanding, then subtract days payable outstanding. Like golf, the lower your score here, the better.
Here's the CCC for W.R. Grace alongside the comparable figures from a few competitors and peers.

Company

TTM Revenue

TTM CCC

W.R. Grace $3,079 �68

PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG  ) $14,747 �26

Albemarle (NYSE: ALB  ) $2,767 �99

DuPont (NYSE: DD  ) $37,587 �109
Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. TTM = trailing 12 months.
For younger, fast-growth companies, the CCC can give you valuable insight into the sustainability of that growth. A company that's taking longer to make cash may need to tap financing to keep its momentum. For older, mature companies, the CCC can tell you how well the company is managed. Firms that begin to lose control of the CCC may be losing their clout with their suppliers (who might be demanding stricter payment terms) and customers (who might be demanding more generous terms). This can sometimes be an important signal of future distress -- one most investors are likely to miss.
While I find peer comparisons useful, I'm most interested in comparing a company's CCC to its prior performance. Here's where I believe all investors need to become trend-watchers. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for an increase in the CCC, but all things being equal, I want to see this number stay steady or move downward over time.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.
Because of the seasonality in some businesses, the CCC for the TTM period may not be strictly comparable to the fiscal-year periods shown in the chart. Even the steadiest-looking businesses on an annual basis will experience some quarterly fluctuations in the CCC. To get an understanding of the usual ebb and flow at W.R. Grace consult the quarterly period chart below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.
On a 12-month basis, the trend at W.R. Grace looks good. At 67.8 days, it is 5.1 days better than the five-year average of 72.9 days. The biggest contributor to that improvement was DPO, which improved 8.8 days compared to the five-year average. That was partially offset by a 3.7-day increase in DIO.
Considering the numbers on a quarterly basis, the CCC trend at W.R. Grace looks OK. At 66.7 days, it is little changed from the average of the past eight quarters. Investors will want to keep an eye on this for the future to make sure it doesn't stray too far in the wrong direction. With quarterly CCC doing worse than average and the latest 12-month CCC coming in better, W.R. Grace gets a mixed review in this cash-conversion checkup.
Though the CCC can take a little work to calculate, it's definitely worth watching every quarter. You'll be better informed about potential problems, and you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home run stocks that provide the market's best returns.
To stay on top of the CCC for your favorite companies, just use the handy links below to add companies to your free watchlist.

Add W.R. Grace to My Watchlist.

Add PPG Industries to My Watchlist.

Add Albemarle to My Watchl! ist.

Add DuPont to My Watchlist.
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European recovery? Wait till 2013 (at least)

Banks and Investors Both Rattled by European Debt Concerns

2012-03-03T13:52:00.001-08:00

Tags: China Stocks ,Great China Stocks ,Great China Stocks For 2014 ,Great Stocks of 2014 ,Great Stocks To Watch For 2014 ,INSP ,Top Stocks In 2012
European debt concerns continued to weigh on investor sentiment today (Thursday) as rumors circulated that the European Central Bank (ECB) was planning an intervention into the continent's banking sector.

The ECB is buying government bonds and increased its lending to banks, but that has done little to alleviate concern that the nearly-$1 trillion (750 billion euros) Eurozone bailout package announced last month won't be enough to prevent a collapse in the banking industry.

The ECB said on Monday that European banks will have to write off more loans this year than they did in 2009. The region's banks are expected to write off some $237 billion (195 billion euros) in bad debt by 2011.

"Although the profile of ECB estimates of the potential write-downs on loans confronting the euro area banking system displays a peak in 2010, it is probable that loan losses will remain considerable in 2011 as well," the central bank said. "This prospect, combined with continued market and supervisory authority pressure on banks to keep leverage under tight control, suggests that banking sector profitability is likely to remain moderate in the medium term."

Borrowing costs could rise as the banks compete with governments in the bond market, "making it challenging to roll over a sizable amount of maturing bonds by the end of 2012," the ECB said in its b! iannual Financial Stability Review.

Borrowing costs have already risen sharply in Europe, as banks have grown increasingly reluctant to lend to their peers.

Data from the British Bankers' Association showed the three-month U.S. dollar London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, rose to 0.53781% today from 0.5375% yesterday (Wednesday). Libor, which is the rate banks pay each other for three-month loans in dollars, is a liquidity indicator.

The rate rose to 0.53844% on May 27 - its highest level since July 6 of last year - on concern that banks owned too many bonds from Europe's most indebted nations.

Meanwhile, overnight deposits at the ECB rose to a record high yesterday. Banks left $394 billion (320.4 billion euros) in the ECB's overnight deposit facility at a rate of interest that's far lower than what they would receive lending to other banks.

'It's all part of concern about the system, about whether the sovereign-debt crisis will morph into a bigger systematic crisis,' Padhraic Garvey, head of investment-grade strategy at ING Groep NV (NYSE ADR: ING) in Amsterdam, told Bloomberg News. 'We're not quite at a point where that's imminent, but that risk is being priced in.'

Analysts continue to speculate on whether or not the ECB will step in to ease tensions among the region's banks.

"There has been speculation in the past day or so that the ECB is going to have to roll out some kind of debt guarantee program," Greg Woodard, portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier in Fairport, New York, told Bloomberg. "That signals to the markets that maybe the ECB knows something that the market doesn't, suggesting that conditions are worse than we know about."

News & Related Story Links:

Money Morning: Is Europe on the Verge of a Liquidity Crisis?

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U.S. Stocks Dro! p as Eur ope, China Overshadow Economic Optimism

ECB: 31 May 2010 - Financial Stability Review June 2010

Money Morning: Does the EU Bailout Signal the Euro's Demise?

Money Morning:
The Eurozone Bailout Plan Puts a $962 Billion Price Tag on Saving the Euro - But Is It Finally Enough?
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Great Stocks In November 2012

2012-03-03T10:18:00.001-08:00

Tags: 1849 ,Best Gold Stocks ,Best Gold Stocks To Own ,Best Stocks To Own ,Best Stocks To Own In 2013 ,NYSE ,PFE ,Top Stocks In 2012
Penny stocks are simply shares of a publicly traded company that each cost less than $1.00. Where as shares of Microsoftor Amazon stock may cost $10′s or $100′s penny stocks are simply company’s whose shares are typically less than $1. Now, it’s true that you could also call these “small” or “microcap” stocks (smallcap stocks or microcap stocks), however typically shares that are less than $1.00 are considered “penny stocks.” However, before jumping into any investing niche it’s important to educate yourself on the Risks of Penny Stock Investing AND the REWARDS.

Why Penny Stocks?

Want to know a secret many investors already have harnessed… read this to learn more about penny stocks.

Now you know what a penny, or microcap, stock is, the question is WHY target this niche at all?! It’s simple – math. I know, I hate math too, but this important.

Here’s a quick example:

If a stock costs $10.00 a movement of $0.10 represents a 1% movement. You invest $10, it moves to $10.10, you have made 1% on your money. Okay… you made money, but definitely not great (this doesn’t keep up with inflation and won’t cover the cost of the trade in the first place!).
Great Stocks In November 2012:Universal Truckload Services Inc. (UACL)
Universal Truckload Services, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an owner-operator and agency based truckload motor carrier in the United States and in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It offers over-the-road trucking services, including flatbed and dry van operations, and rail-truck and steamship-truck intermodal support services, as well as truck brokerage services. The company transports various general commodities comprising machinery, building materials, paper, food, consumer goods, automotive parts, furniture, steel, and other metals. It also involves in the brokerage of freight to third party transportation providers, such as competing truckload carriers, and shipper-owned and operated private motor carrier transport fleets. In addition, the company offers intermodal support services comprising short-to-medium distance delivery of rail and steamship containers between the railhead or port and the customer, as well as drayage services. Universal Truckload primarily operates through a contractor network of agents and owner-operators. It provides its services to various shippers in the automotive and steel industries, and other transportation companies who aggregate loads from various shippers. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Warren, Michigan.
Great Stocks In November 2012:BT Group plc (BT)
BT Group plc provides communications solutions and services worldwide. It engages in the provision of networked IT services; and local, national, and international telecommunications services for use at home, at work, and on the move. The company also offers broadband and Internet products in the United Kingdom (U.K.), as well as TV and converged fixed/mobile services. It operates in four segments: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale, and Openreach. The BT Global Services segment provides managed networked IT services to multinational corporations, domestic businesses, and national and local government organizations. The BT Retail segment offers broadband, telephony, and TV services, as well IT and telephony for small to medium sized businesses in the United Kingdom. It also provides video and telephone conferencing, CCTV, and alarm systems. This segment serves corporate, small and medium enterprises, consumer, and wholesale markets in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. The BT Wholesale segment provides voice, broadband, and data communications services, including managed services for fixed and mobile network operators, Internet service providers, and telecoms resellers in the U.K. The Openreach segment connects communications providers? customers to their local telephone exchange, giving them access to the U.K. network. The company was formerly known as Newgate Telecommunications Limited and changed its name to BT Group plc in September 2001. BT Group plc was founded in 1981 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.
Great Stocks In November 2012:Cintas Corporation (CTAS)
Cintas Corporation provides corporate identity uniforms and related business services in North America and Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The company operates through four segments: Rental Uniforms and Ancillary Products; Uniform Direct Sales; First Aid, Safety, and Fire Protection Services; and Document Management Services. The Rental Uniforms and Ancillary Products segment engages in the rental and servicing of uniforms and other garments, including flame resistant clothing, mats, mops and shop towels, and other related items. It also offers restroom cleaning services and supplies; and tile and carpet cleaning services. The Uniform Direct Sales segment involves in the direct sale of uniforms and related items, and branded promotional products. The First Aid, Safety, and Fire Protection Services segment offers first aid, safety, and fire protection products and services. The Document Management Services segment provides document destruction, document imaging, and document retention services. The company also operates document imaging and storage facility that provides solutions to help customers securely store and maintain sensitive business information and data. Cintas Corporation offers its products and services through its distribution network and local delivery routes, or local representatives to small service and manufacturing companies, as well as corporations. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Great Stocks In November 2012:Rogers Communication Inc. (RCI)
Rogers Communications, Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. The company?s Wireless segment provides wireless voice and data communications services. It operates a global system for mobile communications and general packet radio service network. This segment markets its products and services under Rogers Wireless, Fido, and chatr brands. Its Cable segment offers cable television, high-speed Internet access, and cable telephony services. As of December 31, 2010, this segment provided digital cable services to approximately 1.7 million households; Internet service to approximately 1.7 million residential subscribers; and residential circuit-switched telephony services to approximately a million subscribers. This segment also offers local and long-distance telephone, enhanced voice and data services, and IP access. In addition, this segment operates a retail distribution chain consisting of approximately 400 stores that provide cable services and digital and Internet equipment, as well as offers digital video disc and video game sales and rentals. The company?s Media segment publishes magazines, trade and professional publications, and directories, as well as operates 55 radio stations in Canada; multicultural OMNI broadcast television stations; the 5 station Citytv television network; specialty sports television services, including Rogers Sportsnet, Sportnet ONE, and Setanta Sports Canada; specialty services, which comprise Outdoor Life Network, The Biography Channel Canada, and G4 Canada; and televised shopping service, The Shopping Channel. It also holds an ownership in a mobile sports and events production and distribution joint venture; delivers content and conducts ecommerce through the Internet; and owns Blue Jays, a League Baseball club, as well as Rogers Centre sports and entertainment venue. The company was founded in 1920 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Pat Racaniello At 2011-10-17
Rogers C! ommunica tions (RCI) is a Canadian communications firm with a presence in every major telecom segment, including wireless, wireline, cable television and high speed internet. Wireless communications is the biggest segment of the company’s revenues, with 56% of the most recent quarter contributed by wireless. The company is organized as a holding company, with stakes in major subsidiaries such as Rogers Broadcasting and Rogers Sports Group, which hold further stakes in multiple businesses.

The stock last traded at $37.57, with an overall tight 52 week range of $40.82 - $33.62, representing low volatility. The price earnings ratio is near the industry average and the 5 year low price earnings at 14.4 times, considering the company just announced an 11% increase in the dividend. In addition, with far higher leverage than the industry at 245.39 (long term debt to equity), the company is also far more comfortable in terms of interest coverage at 4.3 versus 0.02.

Great Stocks In November 2012:Primus Guaranty LTD. (PRS)
Primus Guaranty, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, operates as an investment manager and as a credit derivative product company. It manages credit swap and cash investment portfolios of its affiliates; and collateralized loan obligations, collateralized swap obligations, investment fund vehicles, and separately managed accounts on behalf of third parties. The company also provides management, consulting, and information technology services to its affiliates. In addition, it sells credit swaps primarily to global financial institutions and credit swap dealers against investment grade credit obligations of corporate and sovereign issuers. The company offers credit swaps on a single specified reference entity, multiple reference entities, and asset-backed securities. Primus Guaranty, Ltd. was founded in 1998 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Great Stocks In November 2012:Illumina Inc. (ILMN)
Illumina, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Its instrumentation products include HiSeq 2000, an instrument for high-throughput (up to 200 Gb per run and up to 25 GB per day) sequencing using sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) technology; Genome Analyzer IIx, an instrument for medium to high-throughput (up to 95 Gb per run) sequencing using SBS technology; Genome Analyzer IIe, an instrument for low to medium throughput (up to 40 Gb per run) sequencing using SBS technology; iScan System, a high-resolution imaging instrument to scan BeadArray based assays; and BeadXpress Reader, a low- to mid-multiplex, high-throughput instrument for readout of assays. The company?s consumables consist of InfiniumHD Whole-Genome BeadChips comprising HumanOmniExpress, HumanOmni1-Quad, Human1M-Duo, and BovineHD, which are multi-sample DNA analysis microarrays; iSelect Custom Genotyping BeadChips that are customer designable SNP genotyping arrays; GoldenGate Assay Method, a high throughput assay and genotyping system; GoldenGate Universal-32 Sample BeadChip, which are 32 sample GoldenGate genotyping arrays; Paired-End Genomic DNA Sample Prep Kit, a streamlined library preparation kit to generate 200?500 kb insert paired-end reads; VeraCode GoldenGate that are low plex GoldenGate genotyping arrays compatible with the BeadXpress System; Standard Sequencing Kit, reagents used for SBS chemistry on sequencing platforms; and Infinium Assay Kit, reagents used to perform Infinium assays on the iScan platform. It also provides sequencing and genotyping services. The company?s customers include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrichemical, diagnostics, and consumer products companies, as well as research centers. It sells its products through distributors in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and South Africa. Illumina was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
Advisors' Opinion:
! By Za cks At 2011-9-11
Illumina, Inc. (ILMN - Snapshot Report) watched its share price surge 33% in October as the genetic-testing company announced a strong third-quarter performance at mid month. Earnings per share of 32 cents reversed a year-ago loss and doubled the consensus estimate. Meanwhile, total revenues of $53.5 million soared 174% year-over-year from $19.5 million, marking its 21st straight quarter of revenue growth. The Zacks #1 Rank company now expects total revenue of between $178 million and $182 million for fiscal 2006, which is an increase of $8 million to $12 million over its earlier guidance. ILMN expects non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.

Great Stocks In November 2012:ManTech International Corporation (MANT)
ManTech International Corporation provides technologies and solutions for national security programs in the United States and internationally. The company?s mission support solutions include cyber security, secure information sharing and collaboration, mission enabling solutions, enterprise systems engineering, service oriented architectures, intelligence operations and analysis support, and secrecy management and program security architecture. It also offers systems engineering services; modeling and simulation, testing, and evaluation; and independent validation and verification services. In addition, the company provides technical services, such as communication systems and infrastructure support, global and domestic mission-critical logistics support, global property management, and global information technology modernization. ManTech International Corporation offers its products and services to U.S. federal government intelligence, military and civilian agencies, state and local governments, and commercial customers. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.
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Buy, Sell or Hold: Bank on the Broadband Revolution with EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC)

2012-03-03T06:23:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Hot Stocks ,bonds ,Hot Stocks For 2013 ,Hot Stocks To Hold ,Hot Stocks To Hold For 2013 ,inflation ,Investing ,Top Stocks In 2012
Major fund managers on Wall Street continue to be very cautious and underestimate certain key trends - one of which they have yet to even catch on to.

In the last few weeks, I recommended you to invest in a number of companies that are linked to this underestimated trend: The broadband explosion.

In fact, we got into Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) before that company unveiled its new "super-router." I also recommended buying other beneficiaries of the broadband trend, including Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq: JDSU). Today, we continue diversifying into other beneficiaries with a very strong player: EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC).

EMC is the unquestioned leader in data storage. The company leads in data storage volumes, as well as integrated technology solutions. With its bulletproof, highly capitalized balance sheet and annual cashflow of $2 billion, EMC continues to stay ahead of its much smaller competitors.

This technologically driven leadership translates into higher margins and better value and quality for customers. In turn, EMC should continue building market share.

Right now, data storage is 90% of EMC's business. And data storage i! s explod ing: Large and small companies are digitalizing all their records, which means massive scanning. Images and video take huge amounts of memory space. As the data is backed up and circulated within the organization, it contributes to the explosion in broadband data traffic that we are seeing.

More importantly, the company continues to migrate from a proprietary hardware and software company towards providing software and services. The resounding success of its VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) subsidiary - which is 85% owned by EMC - is an example of the path forward for EMC.

VMware, like its parent, has an overwhelming lead in technology and market share. VMware leads the world in virtualization software. Take, for example, its Fusion 3 virtualization software, which allows consumers to run Windows and Linux on their Macs. It is simple and extremely powerful. And the same is true of software utilized for data storage and other virtualization solutions at the enterprise level.

However, aspiring "me too" competitors will find this segment very difficult to penetrate. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), for example, just stumbled recently when it was discovered that a serious vulnerability in its software exposes users of Microsoft's PC virtualization software to malicious hacker attacks.

Virtualization is not the only new game in data storage. Solid state drives, which have access times that are as much as ten times faster than traditional drives, are changing the game. Some well-funded leaders are deploying innovative, flexible solutions that optimize the cost-performance equation for customers. Given EMC's technological leadership of this new trend, it will also boost its market share.

And be mindful that a silent, unstoppable wave is driving across America and the world: cloud computing. This means that data is held off-site "in the cloud" and processed using software that is rented as a service! . EMC is a premier beneficiary of this trend. With the huge budget crunch that many cities and states have, consultants are extremely busy eliminating information technology departments and transferring data management and processing to clouds.

EMC's technological and cost advantages are strongly supported by an unparalleled salesforce and distribution network, as well as a close partnership with systems powerhouse, Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL).

Growth is about to take off.

EMC's business is pro-cyclical to the U.S. economy. So, while revenue was down 8% last year, the economy is rebounding and corporations are cash rich and ready to reaccelerate. Systems and the new trends in digitalization and virtualization greatly improve productivity and will be rebounding much stronger than the rest of the economy. That’s because storage is mission-critical and having data and software on a cloud is very important.

At the same time, the revolution in broadband means that there is a huge increase in the need for data storage, which is expanding exponentially.

This is a great opportunity to get into a stock that will be growing dramatically in the months and years ahead. Technically speaking, EMC stock trading has breached key one and two-year resistances.

The next long-term target is the all-time high of more than $23 a share.

While the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and the price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio appear slightly expensive, the reality is that profit and growth forecasts are underestimating the aforementioned trends.

The company will be reporting earnings on April 21 and I expect it to easily beat analysts’ estimates. That will bring all these valuation metrics down dramatically.

EMC on Friday fell 17 cents, or 0.91%, to close at $18.56 a share.

Recommendation: Buy EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) at market (**).
(**) Horacio Marquez owns no interest in EMC Corp.

[Editor's Note: Horacio Marquez knows how to make a market call. It was Marquez who told investors that lithium was going to be big - a year before other "experts" made the same call. Now Marquez has isolated the major profit opportunities being created by the possible broadband breakdown - a situation that the news media is only just now starting to understand. To find out all about those top profit opportunities, check out this new report.]

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Best Wall St. Stocks Today:

2012-03-03T02:34:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Transportation Stocks ,Hot Stocks of 2014 ,Hot Stocks To Hold For 2014 ,IPO ,Money Morning Staff ,Top Stocks In 2012
From Ticker Sense
This weekend’s Financial Times ran an article highlighting a new line of ETFs recently introduced by Barclays. The eight new ETFs offer investors an easy way to gain exposure to different areas of the fixed income markets, although we would warn that liquidity in most of these issues is lacking. In the table below, we have highlighted the new and existing fixed income ETFs along with their average daily volume.

http://www.tickersense.typepad.com/
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Looming U.S. Government Shutdown Sign of Future Financial Crisis

2012-03-02T22:50:00.001-08:00

Tags: Best Stocks ,Best Stocks 2012 ,CPLP ,CRWS ,EDR ,JCI ,PPL ,PRS ,PRU ,TCAP ,Top Stocks In 2012
Washington for months has been tangled in a messy political debate over the 2011 federal budget. The newest deadline to reach a budget deal - April 8 - is just a couple of days away.

The phrase "government shutdown" is being used with increasing frequency.

Temporary funding measures have kept the government running this year as U.S. lawmakers repeatedly extended the final budget deadline. An end to negotiations is still nowhere in sight - stoking the shutdown discussions.

While the thought of a Capitol Hill ghost town has a certain allure, federal budget expert Stan Collender says most Americans would find little to joke about in the face of a real shutdown.

"Everybody may hate federal spending, but they like federal services," Collender told NPR. "And that's what happened back in '95 and '96 when we had the last two shutdowns. Within minutes...after everyone got over the initial kind of amusement of the situation, they realized suddenly that they couldn't apply for a passport, couldn't apply for a visa, and national parks were closed. Government contractors suddenly found out there was no one there to review their proposals or process their checks - and they were angry as hell about it."

A U.S. government shutd! own mean s running essential operations only. National parks and museums close, cleanup at toxic waste sites stops, passport applications and Social Security claims go unprocessed, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees and government contractors go without pay.

When asked last Tuesday to rank the odds of a U.S. government shutdown on a scale of one (shutdown) to 10 (no shutdown), House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-MD, said, "I would've said 'eight' two weeks ago. At this point in time, I'll tell you five to six."

Republicans and Democrats both have developed budget plans - with a $51 billion difference in the proposed spending cuts. Both parties are hesitant to compromise, but more than willing to point fingers at each other for delaying the process.

"One thing about a government shutdown, the government doesn't stop taking money out of your paycheck every Friday," Rep. Robert Andrews, D-NJ, told NPR. "People still pay taxes, but they get no services. How anybody could put the country at risk of that situation is beyond me."

While some anxiously await the deadline, others think the U.S. government will continue to delay a final decision until it runs into more problems - like next year's budget and the approaching debt limit.

"My guess is we end up with another short-term resolution taking it to, say, 4/29," said Money Morning Contributing Editor Martin Hutchinson. "After that, it's tied up with the 2012 budget and the debt ceiling, in both of which the GOP House has rather more leverage. My guess would be a fair number of threats and mock-crises in May, followed by an overall agreement on a giant package involving only modest cuts in early June, just before the government finally runs out of the ability to borrow."

Readers sent in the following comments on what the possible looming government shutdown means for the country.

"I'm Not a Pessimist - I'm a His! torian"< /h3>It seems likely to me that we are headed for a government shutdown, because there are enough people on opposite sides of the debate who figure that they could spin such a shutdown to their benefit. The effects on the "little people" don't really matter to such, only whether or not such a move will help their re-election efforts.

In a larger sense, though, we are headed for a government crisis, as our financial situation will blow up or collapse at some point. A shutdown on April 8 would be a minor and easily reversed inconvenience for the United States. A sudden rise of several percentage points in interest rates, or an acceleration of real inflation by the same amount, or both, would have a far more catastrophic effect on the nation, and I don't see how we can avoid both of these for much longer. We will get one or the other, and we may get both.

This would not result directly in a U.S. government shutdown, but when it becomes evident to everyone that the government is impotent to deal with the problems that it has created, and everyone is hurting and angry, the situation will be far more serious than a simple shutdown in the near term. My real fear is that by the time the crisis becomes real and evident, it will be too late to make real changes to fix it. But now, when we may still have a small window of opportunity to make a difference, our politicians are threatening to shut down the government over annual cuts that would not cover two weeks of our deficit.

The saddest part about the whole thing is that whatever compromises are made (to either avoid a shutdown or to pass a budget and get the government going again) are likely to make the long-term problems worse. Sorry to sound so negative, but as a co-worker of mine used to say, "I'm not a pessimist - I'm an historian!"

- Gordon F.

Wasted Money on Wages
We have too many politicians lining their personal pockets wit! h our mo ney, politicians who give themselves a raise while we pay for their high wages. Then when the budget can't be balanced, they threaten us with shutting down things that do not need to be shut down.

If only the American people will say enough and demand our fat cats in government to cut their wages instead of criticalservices that the American people want. Wake up America! We have been asleep at the wheel way too long!

Maybe the government should shut down so things can finally change. Has to get bad before it can get better.

I love my country (America) so very much! But I have had it with wasted money on rich politicians and pork barrel spending.

- Kirk M.
Bring It On
I say bring it on. Give the economy a breather without Washington trying to micro-manage every detail of our lives. Other countries have somehow managed to go months without a "government." Italy and Belgium come to mind. Just think of all the money we could save in two weeks if Congress and the White House could not use their debit cards!

- Jay
Keep 'Em Shut
'Hooray! What can we do to make this happen? If non-essential services can be "shut-down" let's keep them "shut-down."

- M.S., Mississippi
I wish it would shut down forever!

- Holly J.
[Editor's Note: Thanks to all who responded to last week's "Question of the Week" about a possible U.S. government shutdown.

Be sure to answer next week's question: What do you think about the GOP's proposed spending cuts? Do you think the budget proposal is good for the country, goes too far, or doesn't do enough? What do you think about the proposed changes for Medicare and Medicaid?

Send your answ! ers to < /strong>mailbag@moneymappress.com.!

Is there a topic you want to see covered as a "Question of the Week" feature? Then let us know by e-mailing Money Morning at mailbag@moneymappress.com. Make sure to reference "question of the week suggestion" in the subject line. We reserve the right to edit responses for length, grammar and clarity.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate - via e-mail or by posting their comments directly on the Money Morning Web site.]
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Good Oil Stocks In 2014

2012-03-02T19:00:00.001-08:00

Tags: 5 Best Energy Stocks ,5 Best Energy Stocks For March 2012 ,BP ,ETE ,HEP ,NG ,Top Stocks In 2012
Since the middle of July, the business headlines have been relentlessly scary as governments, corporations and individuals scramble to stay afloat in a weak global economy. Yet for airline industry executives, each day brings more good news. Oil prices are falling and look set to fall even more in coming weeks.

Crude oil was above $110 per barrel in late April, but has since fallen to about $84. Now that the crisis in Libya appears to be resolved, it should start boosting output back up to prior levels, right at a time when global oil demand may be trimmed a bit in the face of an economic slowdown. At this point, a move toward $70 oil may be in the cards as these factors play out.
Good Oil Stocks In 2014:BP p.l.c. (BP)
BP p.l.c. provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services, and petrochemicals products. Its Exploration and Production segment engages in the oil and natural gas exploration, field development, and production; midstream transportation, and storage and processing; and marketing and trading of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), and power and natural gas liquids (NGL). This segment has exploration and production activities in Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Norway, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as in Asia, Australasia, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East. This segment also owns and manages crude oil and natural gas pipelines; processing facilities and export terminals; and LNG processing and transportation, as well as NGL extraction facilities. BP p.l.c. has interests in the Trans-Alaska pipeline system, the Forties pipeline system, the Central Area transmission system pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline, and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as well as in LNG plants located in Trinidad, Indonesia, and Australia. The company?s Refining and Marketing segment involves in the supply and trading, refining, manufacturing, marketing, and transportation of crude oil, petroleum, and petrochemicals products and related services to wholesale and retail customers primarily under the BP, Castrol, ARCO, and Aral brands. Its Other Businesses and Corporate segment produces and markets rolled aluminum products, as well as generates energy through wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage sources; and engages in shipping activities. The company was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Rahemtulla At 2011-10-25
Among the stocks that Bolton favors are Spain's Telefonica (TEF), which has a 7% 2009 yield and 3.8 times dividend cover, and BP, the British oil producer, which has a 6.9% yield and 2.! 8 times cover. Falling oil prices are an issue for BP, but he thinks it will try to avoid a dividend cut, owing to bad memories of a prior cut in the 1990s.
By Kennedy At 2011-9-28
BP plc (NYSE:BP): Up 0.36% to $35.86. BP plc is an oil and petrochemicals company. The Company explores for and produces oil and natural gas, refines, markets, and supplies petroleum products, generates solar energy, and manufactures and markets chemicals. BP’s chemicals include terephthalic acid, acetic acid, acrylonitrile, ethylene and polyethylene.
By Dave Friedman At 2011-9-23
Institutional investors bought 48,831,370 shares and sold 48,563,350 shares, for a net of 268,020 shares. This net represents 0.00% of common shares outstanding. The number of shares outstanding is 18,785,912,000. The shares recently traded at $38.19 and the company’s market capitalization is $119,161,700,000.00. About the company: BP plc is an oil and petrochemicals company. The Company explores for and produces oil and natural gas, refines, markets, and supplies petroleum products, generates solar energy, and manufactures and markets chemicals. BP’s chemicals include terephthalic acid, acetic acid, acrylonitrile, ethylene and polyethylene.

Good Oil Stocks In 2014:Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)
Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, and manufacture of petroleum products, as well as transportation and sale of crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. The company manufactures and markets commodity petrochemicals, including olefins, aromatics, polyethylene and polypropylene plastics, and other specialty products. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 35,691 gross and 30,494 net operated wells. The company has operations in the United States, Canada/South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. Exxon Mobil Corporation was founded in 1870 and is based in Irving, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Hawkinvest At 2012-2-23
Exxon (XOM) is a must-own stock for many oil investors. This company has a strong balance sheet and a very significant reserve base, which grows in value with the price of oil. Exxon recently reported solid results with earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 coming in at $1.97 per share. The company also reported that it bought back about $5 billion worth of shares. Weaker margins in the refinery business did impact results, but overall, the report shows that the company is poised for a solid year ahead. Exxon has a very strong balance sheet and it can afford to continue buying back shares which will help to boost future earnings. This stock was trading for about $80 per share in December, but has been trending higher. Exxon shares have recently been finding support around $83 per share, so buying on dips at that level are particularly attractive.

Here are some key points for XOM:

Current share price: $86.57

The 52 week range is $67.03 to $88.23

Earnings estimates for 2011: $8.25 per share

Earnings estimates for 2012: $8.99 per share

Annual dividend: about $1.88 per share which yields about 2.2%
By John Reese At 2012-1-11
Again, another company that will win either way. This is the largest company by market cap on the US stock market. That makes them a safe haven asset when the economy is going south. But in addition to their defensive qualities, they also have great long term prospects for growth. They are always finding new reserves of oil. But they are also investing in other energy sources as well like natural gas. I think they will be a huge player in the natural gas power generation business in years to come. I’m bullish here because I think gas will become a major player in the power generation industry in the US. It burns cleaner than coal and safer than nuclear.
By Dave Friedman At 2011-9-23
Institutional investors bought 79,917,190 shares and sold 113,327,900 shares, for a net of -33,410,710 shares. This net represents 0.68% of common shares outstanding. The number of shares outstanding is 4,885,000,000. The shares recently traded at $72.64 and the company’s market capitalization is $353,184,000,000.00. About the company: Exxon Mobil Corporation operates petroleum and petrochemicals businesses on a worldwide basis. The Company’s operations include exploration and production of oil and gas, electric power generation, and coal and minerals operations. Exxon Mobil also manufactures and markets f! uels, lu bricants, and chemicals.
By Jim Cramer At 2011-9-7
Hmm. This is a tough one. Oil up $10 will certainly help, but the overpay of XTO Energy (XTO), a nat gas company bought when prices were so much higher, will continue to bite earnings and the company's conservative nature will make it seem plodding versus the other companies here. I don't share the appreciation many have for this company. I regard it more as a bank than an exploration and production company. That's why I see it only inching up about $5 to $78 and change, a very disappointing member of the Dow considering what is does for a living.

Good Oil Stocks In 2014:Range Resources Corporation (RRC)
Range Resources Corporation, an independent natural gas company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of natural gas properties primarily in the Appalachian and southwestern regions of the United States. The company?s Appalachian region drilling and producing activities include tight-gas, shale, coal bed methane, and conventional natural gas and oil production in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia. It owns 4,969 net producing wells, approximately 2,750 miles of gas gathering lines, and approximately 1.8 million gross acres under lease. The company?s Southwestern drilling and producing activities cover the Barnett Shale of North Texas, the Permian Basin of West Texas and eastern New Mexico, the East Texas Basin, the Texas Panhandle, and the Anadarko Basin of Western Oklahoma. It owns 1,954 net producing wells, as well as approximately 886,000 gross acres under lease. As of December 31, 2010, Range Resources Corporation had had 4.4 Tcfe of proved reserves. It sells gas to utilities, marketing companies, and industrial users. The company was formerly known as Lomak Petroleum, Inc. and changed its name to Range Resources Corporation in 1998. Range Resources Corporation was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Louis Navellier At 2011-11-17
Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) is an independent natural gas and oil company that explores, develops and acquires primarily natural gas and oil properties in the U.S. This is another stock that is up big, gaining 46% year to date.

Good Oil Stocks In 2014:EXCO Resources NL (XCO)
EXCO Resources, Inc., an independent oil and natural gas company, engages in the exploration, exploitation, development, and production of onshore North American oil and natural gas properties with a focus on shale resource plays. The company holds interests in various projects located in East Texas, North Louisiana, Appalachia, and the Permian Basin in west Texas. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved reserves of approximately 1.5 trillion cubic feet equivalent; and operated 7,276 wells. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Dallas, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Quickel At 2011-12-9
Exco Resources, Inc. (XCO) is trading around $10.70. Exco is an onshore North American oil and natural gas company, and is based in New York. These shares have traded in a range between $9.33 to $21.04 in the last 52 weeks. XCO is estimated to earn about 78 cents per share in 2011. XCO pays a dividend of 16 cents per share which is equivalent to a 1.5% yield. The book value is stated at $7.69. In 2011, Barclays Capital set a price target of $23 per share for XCO.

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Best Wall St. Stocks Today: RSH

2012-03-02T15:13:00.001-08:00

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RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) pre-announced results for its fourth quarter and the figures are just awful.� This is where a value stock becomes a value trap.� Sales rose about 6% to $1.39 billion, up from $1.31 billion a year earlier and up from the $1.35 billion projection from Thomson Reuters.� Comparable store sales rose about 2%.
It sounds good on the surface considering how bad things have been.� The problem is that gross profit as a percent of net sales in the quarter is expected to be about 35%.� That margin was about 41% a year earlier and that implies far worse earnings.� The new earnings guidance is $0.11 to $0.13 per share.� A year earlier was $0.51 per share and Thomson Reuters was calling for $0.35 EPS.
The company blamed “a shift in mix within mobility sales towards certain lower margin smartphones and mobile devices; a higher percentage of mobility sales in the overall revenue mix, largely driven by the Company’s expansion of Target mobile centers; and the impact of a more promotional holiday season.”� That is a lot of moving parts and too many for investors.
Another blame was “in large part to the underperformance of the Sprint postpaid wireless business and reflect further unanticipated changes in Sprint’s customer and credit models.� These changes resulted in fewer new and upgrade activations and a decline in Sprint postpaid revenues in the fourth quarter compared to the 2010 fourth quarter and compared to third quarter 2011.� In addi! tion, fo urth-quarter results reflect a highly promotional holiday season and ongoing pressures on consumer spending.”
Sprint Nextel Corporation is down as well on the news by 1.4% in the after-hours.� That is nothing compared to RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) with a drop of over 17% to $8.43.
The prior 52-week low was only $9.15.
JON C. OGG
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Apple files patent suit over Samsung Galaxy Nexus

2012-03-02T11:26:00.001-08:00

Tags: ALLT ,India Stocks ,Q4 ,Top India Stocks 2013 ,Top Stocks 2013 ,Top Stocks To Hold ,Top Stocks To Invest In 2013 ,Top Stocks In 2012
MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE

Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit, charging that Samsung Electronics Co.�s Galaxy Nexus phone violates four of the Cupertino, Calif., tech giant�s patents, weekend media reports say. See full story.

Obama sends $3.8 trillion budget to Congress

President Barack Obama on Monday sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget request for fiscal 2013. The budget blueprint is expected to frame the president�s re-election campaign. See full story.

Retail sales key to U.S. economic recovery

If the U.S. economy is to continue to chug along, consumers will have to take the lead. See full story.

Greek-vote enthusiasm clouded by Athens unrest

Investors cheer the Greek parliament�s approval of tough new austerity measures, but civil unrest and political tensions mean the debt-strapped country is still far from out of the woods. See full story.

Why does Germany feel so good about itself?

Usually dour Germany is feeling optimistic, but let�s see how long tha! t can la st, writes David Marsh. See full story.

MARKETWATCH COMMENTARY

Instead of acknowledging that banks have become a part of government, we keep pretending they are private institutions, writes David Weidner. See full story.

MARKETWATCH PERSONAL FINANCE

What�s the State of Retirement in the U.S.? It�s plagued with problems involving Social Security, contribution rates and more that need fixing now. See full story.
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Future shock: Online app answers big what-if's

2012-03-02T07:57:00.001-08:00

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It can't predict what you'll be when you finally grow up, or whether that tall dark handsome someone is on your horizon, or whether the baby you're expecting will be a boy or a girl, but Voyant claims it can help forecast the financial impact of going back to school, getting married or having a baby.
The new Java application, available for free download and use, is designed to evaluate personal finance in the context of "life stages," like child-rearing, retirement and marriage. Wizards help users set up timelines that can can be revised to reflect the vagaries of fate and desire.
Consider my husband's 40th birthday, when we learned I was unexpectedly pregnant with our third child. Voyant could have quickly run the new scenario against our pre-existing financial data and thrown up a visual snapshot of the feasibility of him retiring before 65. If the application's claim of "game-like usability" extended to animated graphics, it might show snowballs, melting quickly in hell.
Perhaps some knowledge is best left to sink in slowly.
But for those who can handle a glimpse of the future, Voyant promises to make the implications of key life decisions more concrete.
The a! pplicati on also marries social-networking with number crunching, permitting users to engage with others over the platform. Other features include individualized recommendations and referrals to financial planners in specific areas. Voyant supports both Windows and Mac OS.
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HEV, EXAS, LOCM, BCON, AVGO - NASDAQ Stocks Closed in Red

2012-03-02T04:03:00.001-08:00

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Ener1, Inc. NASDAQ:HEV opened at $3.55 and with a fall of 4.57% closed at $3.34. Company’s fifty days average price is $4.11 whereas it has a market capitalization $543.32 million.
The total of 1.18 million shares was transacted over last trading day.
EXACT Sciences Corporation NASDAQ:EXAS opened at $6.70 and with a fall of 4.07% closed at $6.37. Company’s fifty days average price is $6.03 whereas it has a market capitalization $258.01 million.
The total of 1.08 million shares was transacted over last trading day.
Local.com Corp. NASDAQ:LOCM opened at $5.17 and with a fall of 3.89% closed at $4.94. Company’s fifty days average price is $5.13 whereas it has a market capitalization $81.87 million.
The total of 1.01 million shares was transacted over last trading day.
Beacon Power Corp. NASDAQ:BCON opened at $0.28 and with a fall of 3.85% closed at $0.25. Company’s fifty days average price is $0.23 whereas it has a market capitalization $49.97 million.
The total of 17.19 million shares was transacted over last trading day.
Avago Technologies Limited NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $29.28 and with a fall of 3.66% closed at $28.17. Company’s fifty days average price is $26.65 whereas it has a market capitalization $6.81 billion.
The total of 1.56 million shares was transacted over last trading day.
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Noble Energy Goes Red

2012-03-02T00:07:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2014 Hot Stocks ,AAXJ ,AXJL ,AXJS ,EFA ,EPP ,FPA ,Hot Stocks To Hold 2014 ,Hot Stocks To Hold For 2014 ,PAF ,VEU ,VPL ,Top Stocks In 2012
Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL  ) reported earnings on Feb. 9. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Noble Energy beat expectations on revenues and earnings per share.
Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue increased significantly and GAAP earnings per share shrank to a loss.
Gross margins increased, operating margins grew, and net margins shrank.
Revenue details
Noble Energy notched revenue of $985.0 million. The 10 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ wanted to see revenue of $955.2 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 30% higher than the prior-year quarter's $868.0 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.
EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.18. The 18 earnings estimates compiled by S&! amp;P Ca pital IQ anticipated $1.15 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS were -$1.59 for Q4 compared to $0.28 per share for the prior-year quarter.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.
Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 85.1%, 120 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 37.3%, 1,880 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was -3.0%, 4,420 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.
Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $1.06 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $1.48.
Next year's average estimate for revenue is $4.54 billion. The average EPS estimate is $6.53.
Investor sentiment
The stock has a three-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 385 members out of 399 rating the stock outperform, and 14 members rating it underperform. Among 121 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 116 give Noble Energy a green thumbs-up, and five give it a red thumbs-down.
Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Noble Energy is outperform, with an average price target of $115.53.
Is Noble Energy the right energy stock for you? Read about a handful of timely, profit-producing plays on expensive crude in "3 Stocks for $100 Oil." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add Noble Energy to My Watchlist.
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Indexes Fall, but Bond and Commodity Funds Attract Investors: Market Recap for the Week Ending April 30

2012-03-01T20:23:00.001-08:00

Tags: APA ,Best Energy Stocks ,Best Energy Stocks For March 2013 ,ESV ,KED ,MCF ,NGLS ,NKA ,PGH ,XOM ,Top Stocks In 2012

Major U.S. stock markets ended the week of April 26-April 30 down slightly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined about 2% and ended the week just above 11,000 at 11,008.The S&P 500 dropped about 2.5% and ended the week at 1,186.

Stocks were up Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, but they dropped on Tuesday due to lingering concerns over the Greek debt crisis. However, these concerns receded later in the week as European finance ministers agreed to meet soon to cope with the crisis there.

The DJIA began the week up at 11,205 on Monday afternoon then fell to 11,031 on Tuesday. Wednesday, it ticked up 53 to 11,045, and Thursday it rose 122 to close at 11,167.

Friday, though, news about further investigations of Goldman Sachs and the possibility of criminal charges pushed financials down along with the broader markets. Goldman shares fell 7.7% during the week, including a 9% drop on Friday, April 30.

Also on April 29, the FTSE All-World Index dropped 0.3%, though Asia closed higher.

Gold, meanwhile, was hitting a five-month peak, with oil on the rise as well. Gold ended the week at $1,178.50 an ounce. And oil closed Friday at $85.96 a barrel.

Downgrades to the credit ratings of Greece, Portugal and Spain, with Greece's being cut to junk status, roiled equity and bond markets around the world during the final days of April, reports EPFR Global, a research group

As a result, many investors pulled money out of Europe ex-UK regional equity funds and pushed substantial amounts into the bond funds this week.

Overall, investors continued to make net contributions to most equity and bond fund groups through Thursday, April 29, however. Emerging-markets bond funds received more than $5 billion from investors in April. Global and U.S. bond funds both took in over $2 billion, and high yield bond funds saw year-to-date inflows push over the $8 billion mark.

Flows into equity fund groups were mixed, EPFR reports. Global equity funds absorbed over $1.7 billion and EMEA equity funds had their best week since late October.

But six of the nine mutual fund sectors with mandates posted outflows, although commodity sector funds took in nearly $1 billion with funds investing in gold and precious metals accounting for 50% of that total, and Latin America equity funds recorded a third straight week of outflows.

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(CLNO, EXTR, VSCI, COWN) Featured Stock by DrStockPick.com

2012-03-01T16:31:00.001-08:00

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Cleantech Transit, Inc (CLNO)
Cleantech Transit Inc. was founded to capitalize on technology advances and manufacturing opportunities in the growing clean energy public transportation sector. Cleantech Transit Inc has expanded its focus to invest directly in specific green projects that could maximize shareholder value. Recognizing the many economic and operational advances of converting wood waste into renewable sources of energy, Cleantech Transit Inc. has selected to invest in Phoenix Energy (www.phoenixenergy.net).
Biomass energy comes from organic waste materials such as yard clippings, wood chips, sawdust, branches, manure and miscellaneous paper materials as well. There are quite a few more types of organic material that could be used as a potential biomass fuel source. The advantage of biomass fuel is that it is a renewable source of energy and greatly reduces the level of pollution output as well as landfills.
Cleantech Transit, Inc. (CLNO) is pleased to announce it has met its funding requirement to secure the Company’s ability to earn in 25% of the 500KW Merced Project.
The Company is in the final stages of closing its initial interest in the Merced Project and is currently working on completing the necessary documentation and expects closing the transaction soon. As previously announced Cleantech has the option to earn up to 40% of the Merced Project and the Company plans to continue to work towards increasing its interest in the Merced Project as they move ahead.
Fo! r more i nformation about CLNO, visit www.cleantechtransitinc.com
Extreme Networks Inc. (Nasdaq:EXTR) announced that Tennessee Wesleyan College has implemented its high-performance converged mobile network, allowing it to exceed students’ expectations for learning by supporting advanced education and computing services securely and reliably, over wired and wireless. Tennessee Wesleyan joins more than 700 education institutions that run their campus networks on Extreme Networks. They include the University of California at Berkeley, Cambridge, Georgia State, Imperial College of London, University of Massachusetts, University of Miami, Michigan State, Surrey University, Tennessee Tech, Texas A&M, Villanova and the University of Washington.
Extreme Networks delivers networks for the mobile world. The company’s open network solutions enable a seamless user experience providing a platform for improved business agility.
Vision-Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq:VSCI) announced that its unique, advanced Transnasal EndoSheath(R) Esophagoscopy system will be featured on the September 20th episode of “The Doctor Oz Show” during a segment addressing esophageal cancer, the fastest growing cancer in America and Europe. As part of a health initiative to bring awareness of the risk of esophageal cancer, and ways to prevent esophageal cancer, Dr. Jonathan Aviv, of ENT and Allergy Associates, LLP (R) will perform a Transnasal Esophagoscopy on a patient to demonstrate the simplicity and efficacy of the emerging medical procedure.
Vision-Sciences, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and markets unique flexible endoscopic products utilizing sterile disposable sheaths, the Slide-On(R) EndoSheath(R) Technology, which provide the users quick, efficient product turnover while ensuring the patient a contaminant-free product.
Cowen Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:COWN) announced the formation of the Ramius Trading Strategies Managed Futures Fund (”! The Fund ”) (Ticker: RTSIX, RTSRX). The Fund provides investors access to a portfolio of institutional-caliber managed futures managers in a daily liquidity format utilizing Ramius’ proprietary managed account infrastructure, which allows for position level transparency and enhanced risk analytics. The Fund is managed by William Marr, President and CEO of Ramius Trading Strategies LLC (”RTS”), and Alexander Rudin, Ph. D., Director of Investment Research of RTS.
Cowen Group, Inc. is a leading diversified financial services firm providing alternative investment management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services through its business units, Ramius and Cowen and Company.
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Duke Energy Corporations Positive Change at NYSE - DUK

2012-03-01T12:45:00.001-08:00

Tags: ALOG ,BCR ,Best Stocks ,Best Stocks For July 2013 ,DE ,NTAP ,TJX ,VNO ,Top Stocks In 2012
Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Duke Energy) is an energy company primarily located in the Americas. Duke Energy Corporation achieved its new price of $22.07 where it was opened at $21.90 up 0.15 points or +0.68% by closing at $22.06. DUK transacted shares during the day were over 6.71million shares however it has an average volume of 11.37 million shares.
DUK has intra-day market capitalization $29.40 billion and an enterprise value at $47.33 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 2.05 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 1.29. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 12.89% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 20.61%.
The company made a return on asset of 3.11% in past twelve months and return on equity of 8.21% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $14.31 billion gaining $10.76 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 0.50% holding -29.60% quarterly earnings growth.
According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $2.18 billion cash in hand making cash per share at 1.64. The total of $20.11 billion debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 87.83. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 1.23 and book value per sh! are was 17.11.
Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 0.43% where the stock current price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average price $20.79 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average price $19.57.
DUK holds 1.33 billion outstanding shares with 1.33 billion floating shares where insider possessed 0.25% and institutions kept 47.70%.
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Forex Made Easy Tips For All Traders

2012-03-01T08:59:00.001-08:00

Tags: MRX ,NYSE ,Penny Stocks For 2013 ,Top Penny Stocks ,Top Penny Stocks To Buy ,Top Stocks To Buy In 2013 ,Top Stocks In 2012
by Bart Icles
If you want to become a successful and profitable Forex trader, you should in one way or another have access to some form of Forex Made Easy tips to help you navigate the world?s most profitable yet very risky investment market. By simply empowering yourself with all there is to know about Foreign currency trading, you may be able to make your investments grow larger and keep it that way indefinitely and for a long time, and more often rather than the opposite.
* It?s only a practical move for anybody to make, especially for those who infuse their money in the business of Forex currency trading, to have all the vital information on it such its basic set up, how the market works and behaves in general, what strategies and methods to employ for all the involved transactions and many other more. This can be achieved through online Forex trading courses offered by many Forex experts and the like, and from schools or universities around the country. By being in the know makes a trader react accordingly to all probable and improbable scenarios, and thus make profits and not losses.
* One way of getting experience without losing real money is to regularly practice paper trading whenever possible. The Internet is not in short supply of many good software programs that offer invaluable services with this purpose in mind, so feel free to mix and match what! ever For ex strategies and methods works and suits your kind of trading to help you become adept with the trading process. Forex currency trading is open to everyone, regardless of personal qualifications, so traders who have done their homework and other preparations like getting the proper education, training and practice, will able to make more money compared to those who are not.
It’s important beforehand to always have a disciplined mind with all your trading activities no matter how positive or negative the results are. Undoubtedly, you will find yourself making profits at some time or another but shouldn’t become too overconfident when this happens. Sad as it may be, you will also incur losses – but the point is to keep these at a minimum at all times by staying disciplined and focused and by sticking to your mapped out plan of action at all times.
By simply reading this Forex Made Easy guide, you will view Forex trading in a new light which will surely enable you to be more successful in your trading. If you remember at all times to follow the above guidelines and also to be in control at all times and not the other way around, you’ll surely be making more and more profitable deals in the near future.
About the Author:
Automated forex trading systems sound good but never rely totally on software. Follow good money management principles when forex trading.
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SunOpta, Inc. (USA) Non Normal Trade in last session - NASDAQ:STKL

2012-03-01T05:23:00.001-08:00

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SunOpta, Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:STKL) witnessed volume of 3.29 million shares during last trade however it holds an average trading capacity of 46,308.00 shares. STKL last trade opened at $8.50 reached intraday low of $7.51 and went +2.03% up to close at $7.55.
STKL has a market capitalization $494.82 million and an enterprise value at $665.63 million. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.52 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 1.66. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 6.53% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 4.45%.
The company made a return on asset of 4.27% in past twelve months and return on equity of 5.30% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $943.10 million gaining $14.44 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 20.40% holding 10.10% quarterly earnings growth.
According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $5.72 million cash in hand making cash per share at 0.09. The total of $186.36 million debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 59.40. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 1.39 and book value per share was 4.56.
Loo king at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 22.44% where the stock price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average with $7.34 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average with $7.35.
STKL holds 65.54 million outstanding shares with 54.30 million floating shares where insider possessed 2.42% and institutions kept 47.60%.
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Non Profit Types

2012-03-01T01:25:00.001-08:00

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There are typically two sorts of companies in the United States. One that everyone seems to be familiar with is the for profit company. A for profit company is one that exists for one reason, to make a profit. The second, and equally known organization is an IRS Non Profit. A non profit company also exists for one reason, to do charitable work. Both are significant and each are unique in the way they operate and the jobs they do. You’ve come to this article because you wish to know more about a charitable organization. Read on and we shall explore the arena of the nonprofit 501c3 organization.
The non profit entity has been around for over 700 years and the oldest nonprofit in the world still operating is National Confederation of the Italian Misericordie (Mercies), the oldest voluntary service group which still exists. It is located in Florence, Italy and dates back to 1244 and its influence is from Christianity.
At the beginning, non-profit groups were called and know as a Confraternity. Confraternities can be traced to the first Christian communities. Christianity grew and flourished thru community and series of associations. This was contrary to the social disintegration which was occuring all around it. This community is explained in the book of Acts of the Apostles in the Holy Bible. Each of these communities (associations) were molded by its meeting, its regulations, its members and its funding; with its part of the non secular and professional Confraternities federation. At the start, the current establishments didn’t like or acce! pt the C onfraternities and placed stumbling blocks in their way hoping to disband them. Eventually they became accepted and took on the composition of the Roman “colegi”, keeping them linked with the evangelic society. Non-profit service organizations literally came from social and spiritual practices by the collaboration of the Christian citizens living life together. They learned how to put others ‘ needs before their own and that contagious action birthed what we all know today as Non-profit work. (“Jubilaum Internationale Confraternitatum – Acta”, Don Vincenzo Paglia, Roma 1984.)
A modern nonprofit starts by incorporating in the state in which it means to do business. Optionally, it can file for tax exemption with the IRS which give its donors the option to deduct contributions given to it from their yearly tax requirements to the IRS. A nonprofit is allowed to earn a good profit, called a surplus, however the profit must be used by the non profit on itself and its programs, unlike a for profit company which issues stock and pays dividends.
A nonprofit is owned and controlled by a board. A lot of the nonproft’s board cannot be related and controls all sides of the not for profit organization. While there can be a director and other staff, unlike a for profit business, the board members are its governance. In addition, the nonprofit’s board can not gain personally in any fashion that’s taxable from the charity.
Most individuals are most familiar with charitable nonprofit organisations whose activities stay centered around charitable, religious and instructional goals. These nonprofit organisations selflessly serve others in numerous capacities where they cannot help themselves. Many that serve in these charities are the unsung heroes of present day.
From humble beginnings inspired by a group of Christians caring for one another, to present day where hundreds of uncountable billions of funding dollars are given and controlled by non! profits, charitable nonprofits are literally on the front lines of society very like they were in religious history. In a present time where the rich are showered with praise for their personal accomplishments, the nonprofit continues resolutely changing the world in formidable and shocking deeds.
Learn more about the IRS Non Profit and how you can start one. Click Here —->> http://www.SimpleNonprofit.com
Scott Michael Ringo, an entrepreneur, is known worldwide as the nonprofit Guru and expert fundraiser because he helps others easily start and fund non profit charities all around the world. Through his work with nonprofits across the world he helps people start and run successful non-profit organizations. He’s a legacy builder and will help you build your nonprofit organization heritage.
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Review Of CKfx Internet Forex Broker

2012-02-29T21:38:00.001-08:00

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Upon reaching the homepage of CKfx, the viewer is struck by how simple it is. And that is how they approach the business, by keeping things as simple as possible for the client.
Ckfx is in actuality an introducing broker for Forexyard. Clients can deposit their funds using their credit cards ot through a bank wire. They accept all major brands that include Visa, American Express and Mastercard.
Withdrawal of funds are reasonably quick, taking only 5 days. They offer two types of forex trading platform available, a web based platform or one that requires downloading. It is a simple platform with all the major indicators made ready at your fingertips. Commodities are available for trade as well. Clients can trade the gold and silver commodities.
This broker supports nine major languages worldwide. They are English, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Arabic, Finnish, Swedish and German. The spreads offered are reasonable for all their currency pairs. Customers can trade up to 30 different variety of pairs with them.
Their mini account requires a minimum of a $100 deposit. Leverage offered is reasonable with a maximum leverage of 200:1 offered. Unfortunately, they charge a fee for deposits and withdrawals on the super mini account. Clients can contact support through their chat feature or by calling them. However, they are not forthcoming in admitting that they are an introducing broker for Forexyard. This is understandable as they would rather be known as a stand alone forex broker. But the truth is, they are! not.
They are so far regulated only in Europe. They have outstanding promotions for new clients. Upon approval, clients can actually transfer their profits from their demo accounts to their real accounts.
A thorough evaluation on CKfx and a wide selection of popular Forex Brokers can be located on the writers forex trading website. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
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Property Group Bucks Commercial Real Estate Trend with $2.23 Billion Acquisition

2012-02-29T17:51:00.001-08:00

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Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE: SPG) defied prevailing commercial real estate trends yesterday (Tuesday) by agreeing to acquirePrime Outlets Acquisition LLC, an operator of 22 outlet centers around the nation, for $2.33 billion including debt.

Prime Outlets operates factory outlet centers in major U.S. metropolitan markets including Washington D.C., Baltimore, San Antonio and Orlando. The centers were 92% occupied as of June 30 and generated sales of about $370 a square foot, Simon Property said.

Simon will pay Prime Outlets' owners $700 million, 80% in cash and 20% in common operating partnership units, plus $1.63 billion in debt, Indianapolis-based Simon Property said.

The acquisition marks another expansion of Simon Property's interests in the retail outlet business.� The real estate giant acquired Chelsea Property Group Inc. in 2004 for $3.5 billion in cash and stock.� As of Sept. 30, Simon Property owned 325 properties in the U.S., including 41 outlet centers.

"It's a good deal," Alexander Goldfarb, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP, who has a "buy" rating on Simon Property shares told Bloomberg News. "Simon's done a good job with Chelsea, and this makes sense. It just fits well within the outlet portfolio."

Outlet centers sell! designe r merchandise from such retail giants as The GAP Inc. (NYSE: GPS) and Tommy Hilfinger Corp., at discount prices.� Most of Prime Outlets is owned by The Lightstone Group LLC, a closely held real estate investor founded by David Lichtenstein, and Lightstone Value Plus Real Estate Investment Trust, Bloomberg reported.

"Prime Outlets is an excellent opportunity for Simon as it represents a strong strategic fit for our existing premium outlet portfolio and enhances our leadership position in the outlet business," Simon Property Chief Executive Officer David Simon said. "Following the completion of this transaction our outlet portfolio will have 63 centers comprising approximately 25 million square feet."

The deal comes as other shopping mall and commercial real estate operators are suffering through a spate of pricing pressures and bankruptcies.

In April, General Growth Properties Inc. (OTC: GGWPQ), an operator of 92 U.S. shopping malls, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and recently petitioned the court to restructure $9.7 billion in debt.�

But Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE: BAM), a global property investor, revealed Monday it is a "meaningful creditor" in GGP and has held talks to assist it in its reorganization, Reuters reported.� The announcement came after reports surfaced it had purchased close to $1 billion of General Growth's unsecured debt in recent months.�

Newspaper reports last week said Simon had quietly acquired General Growth bank debt and bonds to position itself to take a run at the company.
The recent merger activity in the retail sector stands in contrast to the freefall in the overall commercial real estate market.

Regional and community banks are reeling from an aggressive push into commercial real-estate lending during the bubble. About $770 billion of the $1.4 trillion commercial mortgages that will mature in the next five years! are cur rently underwater, according to a report by Foresight Analytics LLC, obtained by The Wall Street Journal.� As of Dec. 7, 129 banks have failed this year, the most since 1992-the peak of the savings-and-loan crisis.

News & Related Story Links:

Bloomberg News:
Simon Property to Buy Prime Outlets for $2.33 Billion

Reuters: Brookfield says meaningful creditor in GGP

The Wall Street Journal: Banks Get New Rules on Property
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Dispute stemmed from difference of opinion on governor's book

2012-02-29T14:08:00.001-08:00

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What started out as a friendly meeting between President Barack Obama and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on an airport tarmac quickly became heated Tuesday. What was the brouhaha over? A book.
More specifically, Brewer’s recently published memoir, Scorpions for Breakfast, drew the president’s ire. Obama disputed the details of a meeting between the Arizona governor and himself in 2010 at the White House to talk about immigration. Brewer said that she felt like Obama was lecturing her on the issue, a charge that Obama denied, apparently in vehement fashion.
Brewer, a Republican, was a staunch supporter of legislation passed in Arizona that was among the broadest anti-illegal-immigration measures every enacted. Obama was among many critics who said the law, which made it a misdemeanor for immigrants to not have registration papers on them and required police officers who pulled over someone they suspected of being an illegal immigrant to check that person’s immigration status, went too far and violated civil liberties.
Ironically enough, although it appears that Obama started the spat, the most memorable picture from the incident is one of Brewer pointing her finger at the president. Obama eventually left the conversation mid-sentence, though Gov. Brewer said to reporters at the time that they would re-group later.
Was Obama right or wrong to bring up this issue during what should have been! a cordi al meeting between politicians? Let us know what you think by e-mailing us at letters@investorplace.com.
– Benjamin Nanamaker, InvestorPlace Money & Politics Editor
The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.
�Want to share your own views on money, politics and the 2012 elections? Drop us a line at letters@investorplace.com and we might reprint your views in our InvestorPolitics blog! Please include your name, city and state of residence. All letters submitted to this address will be considered for publication.
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President Obama's 2013 Budget: 5 Things You Should Know

2012-02-29T10:23:00.001-08:00

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President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled his $3.73 trillion budget for FY 2012, which includes significant cuts to federal spending and investments but provides substantial budget boosts to U.S. markets regulators—namely the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Under Obama’s FY 2012 budget, the SEC would get a 28% funding increase to $1.427 billion--a 27% boost over the current continuing resolution (CR) that the agency is operating under--while the CFTC would see an 82% boost to $308 million. The budget boost is designed to help the SEC and CFTC deal with the added duties they were given under the Dodd-Frank Act.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro (left) said in a statement after the budget was released that “these funds will provide the SEC with the resources needed to carry out both our longstanding core mission as well as our new responsibilities for derivatives, hedge fund advisers and credit rating agencies” under Dodd-Frank. By law, she continued, “the 2012 funding is entirely offset by transaction fees such that the SEC budget will not add to the deficit.”

Obama’s budget boost for both agencies is not likely to receive a warm welcome from Republicans who’ve vowed to defund the Dodd-Frank Act during the 112th Congress and to freeze non-military discretionary spending at Fiscal Year 2008 levels. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wasted little time in remarking that the President’s FY 2012 budget “spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. …”

David Kotz, the SEC’s Inspector General (IG) told members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at a Feb. 10 hearing that if the SEC’s budget is cut back to 2008 funding levels, the securities regulator would have to cut nearly 600 employees. The House is set to begin debate this week on legislation put forth by House Republicans on the FY 2011 budget; under that bill, the SEC would see a budget cut of $41 million below the current continuing resolution (CR) that the regulator is operating under.

While the hike under the President's FY 2012 budget is $93 million short of what was requested under Dodd-Frank ($1.5 billion), the boost would allow the SEC to add an additional 780 new staff, 468 of which would be hired to deal with implementing Dodd-Frank. In the SEC's enforcement division, 156 new employees could be added, 195 new staff members could be added in the regulator's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), 80 new employees could be added to the trading & markets division, and 31 staff members could join the Division of Investment Management. No doubt the SEC’s budget will also be addressed during the Senate Banking Committee’s Feb. 17 hearing on regulators’ implementation of Dodd-Frank, in which Schapiro is slated to testify.

Kotz went on to tell lawmakers that additional funding would also be needed if the SEC is to carry out the recommendations by his office to thwart another Bernie Madoff fiasco. After the SEC’s IG office found that the agency failed to respond appropriately to credible tips and complaints about Madoff, the SEC has now reformed its system for handling tips and complaints and instituted a new Tip, Compliant and Referral system, he said. “Additional funding will be required to ensure that the SEC has sufficient resources to implement many of the recommendations that have arisen, and will arise, out of our audits, reviews and investigations,” Kotz told lawmakers.

Obama’s budget also proposes to implement user fees on entities regulated by the CFTC to generate funds for the agency. But Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, said in a Feb. 14 statement that “The so-called user fees would be one more tax to drive up the cost of main street businesses who are trying to responsibly hedge their risk.” The user fees, “represent one more end-around to attempt to grow government even more, and done in this way, it would be outside the traditional congressional appropriations process--an off-budget accounting gimmick that will hide the true cost and scope of the federal government.”

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Do 'Best' and 'Famous' Make Us More Likely to Buy?

2012-02-29T02:48:00.001-08:00

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In or near Manhattan's 10003 zip code, Whitepages.com lists 431 establishments with the word "famous" in their names. That includes the Famous Shower Curtain Manufacturing Company. Chicago is home to 256 businesses with "best" in their titles, one being Best Massage. Or maybe you're in the market for the finest. In San Diego, you can find 34 "finest" something-or-other businesses, including America's Finest Pet Sitting. (Perhaps it surveyed the cats and dogs.)

It's fair to say companies exaggerate, but do consumers buy the hype? Do we actually eat at restaurants because they say they're famous or the best on the sign? When we see "finest" in a service listing, do we expect unsurpassed performance?

Donald Lichtenstein, marketing professor at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, told DailyFinance that names trafficking in puffery are! effecti ve to a certain degree. "They work more to the extent that they insinuate to consumers that there's some type of rationale to what they're saying," he said. A name, however, is no match for a claim that can be verified by a study or by word of mouth, he added.

Mark Ingber munched on a slice at Famous Ray's Original Pizza in Greenwich Village, unmoved by the "famous" on the awning. "Maybe tourists will care," said Ingber, a New York City native now living in Coral Springs, Fla.

In the annals of puffery, the many Ray's could take up an entire chapter. New York has dozens of unrelated Ray's -- most "Famous" or "Famous Original." A Seinfeld episode once chronicled the confusion. But this particular Ray's at least had a few faded newspaper clips on the wall to prove some level of celebrity, Ingber pointed out.

Famous Ray's co-manager Raj Singh said the impact of extravagant adjectives disappeared when the Internet showed up. "You can know everything about a place before you go," he said.

What's in a Name?

The Country's Best Yogurt (TCBY) began with one store in Little Rock, Ark., in 1981 and now has more than 450 nationwide, according to its website. Its original name was This Can't Be Yogurt before it made a change for the Best in 1984.

"I believe a company name is more than a name," TCBY CEO Tim Casey said. "It's a brand and all consumer brands create perceptions and a set of beliefs in the mind of the consumer. These perceptions and beliefs conjure up memories, feelings, emotions and confidence that inspire and compel a consumer to reward you with their business."

It has worked for others. A William Morris talent agent named Wally Amos started Famous Amos(K) chocolate chip cookies in 1975, and the company grew into its fame. Gus Bonner renamed his parents' Memphis restaurant Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken in 1984. After a few rave reviews in national publications such as GQ, it indeed became r! enowned.

But the overstated can sometimes repel customers. "Sometimes when you see 'famous,' it's more expensive," Adriana Ingber said at Ray's.

Nothing Illegal About Exaggeration

Colorado's Lichtenstein believes a 1983 Federal Trade Commission ruling on deception set a precedent for companies over-hyping their goods or adopting names that try to reduce their competition in stature. The FTC declared that a company which called its antenna an "Electronic Miracle" advertised fraudulently because buyers truly expected the antenna to be superior to others. Otherwise, the FTC added, it had no problem with exaggerated names and claims that don't mislead "consumers acting reasonably."

In a world where one person's "famous" can be someone else's "never heard of it," few companies encounter legal or competitor resistance for over-the-top names.

"When it comes to things that are subjective like 'world's best,' we don't consider that false advertising," a rep for the Better Business Bureau said.

But some companies really push it. Near the AOL/Huffington Post office is the Best of Best Deli.

What's next? The World Famous Best of Best Miracle Deli?
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Best Wall St. Stocks Today:

2012-02-28T22:58:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Agriculture Stocks ,2013 Top Stocks ,Top Stocks 2013 ,Top Stocks To Invest In ,Top Stocks To Watch In 2013 ,Top Stocks In 2012
On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer compared a great Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to a horrible Motorola (NYSE: MOT). Last week Motorola said mobile handset sales were down 38% last week and lowered guidance ahead. Cramer thinks that any ties to the company are wrong and that Motorola’s pain is Nokia’s gain. Cramer doesn’t think Mr. Brown is doing any better since Zander left, and he thinks that Carl Icahn might be its only real help. If you look at Nokia’s numbers, you’ll decide they are taking it all from Motorola. To him it’s a broken company.
Our old $26.70 break-up value on Motorola is completely history compared to what this situation looked like back when it had value. We have run some break-up values now that the company has allowed its state to go this way. We aren’t even convinced that you could milk $20.00 from this cow on most days in the current conservative and "show-me" environment.
This sounds a lot like what our own Douglas McIntyre noted just last week. He even stated, "It is all over now for Motorola (MOT) and Palm (PALM). They might have had a chance to pick up enough market shares to dig themselves out of the holes of late products, crummy products, and weak financial performance. RIM (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), Samsung, and Nokia (NOK) have flanked them then overrun them. A bad economy makes their positions untenable."
!
We 217;ve also noted that Motorola is just a turnaround that looks like it can’t turnaround.
Jon C. Ogg
January 28, 2008
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Best Wall St. Stocks Today:

2012-02-28T19:12:00.001-08:00

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On Monday afternoon, we�ll get to see earnings out of NEWS CORP (NYSE:NWS). The estimates from First Call for Rupert Murdoch’s now even larger media empire appear to be $0.27 EPS on $8.24 Billion in revenues. But we would urge caution in really using any numbers for this quarter and perhaps the next two quarters. This is the first report to have the amalgamated News & Dow Jones Empire and that deal only closed in the final days of the fourth quarter.
We don’t even have any hopes of any formal guidance and we’d only expect a partial report on all the properties that Murdoch & Co. want to keep or get rid of. How would you like the job of calculating all those numbers from all the units?
As this will be very difficult to interpret, we’d look at Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) and Thomson (NYSE: TOC) if there is a big price change in News Corp.’s stock as those companies are also in a game changing merger that will make each one hard to evaluate.
NEWS CORP�s 52-week trading range is $17.84 to $25.78, so Friday’s near-3% gain to $19.41 leaves plenty of room for this stock to trade in either direction.
Jon C. Ogg
February 2, 2008
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Christian Funeral Rituals And Their Significance

2012-02-28T11:38:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2011 gdp forecast ,2011 global economic forecast ,economic forecast 2009 ,economic growth forecast ,economic growth forecasts ,gdp forecast 2011 ,gdp forecasts by country ,gdp growth forecast ,gdp growth forecast 2011 ,gdp growth forecasts ,global economic growth forecast ,global gdp 2010 ,global gdp forecast ,global gdp forecast 2011 ,global gdp growth 2011 ,imf economic forecast ,imf economic growth ,imf economic growth forecast ,imf forecast ,imf forecasts ,imf gdp forecast ,imf gdp growth ,imf gdp growth forecast ,imf global growth forecast 2011 ,IMF growth forecast ,imf growth forecast 2010 ,imf growth forecast 2011 ,imf growth forecasts ,imf growth forecasts 2009 ,imf inflation forecast ,the world economy ,world economic growth ,world economies ,world economy ,Top Stocks In 2012
Christian funeral service for any god-fearing Christian implies a celebration of the soul’s eternal journey to the life after death. It is for this precise reason that funeral services are so uplifting, as they are an assertion of the belief that the deceased has found a permanent abode in the House of the Lord.
Christians view death as a happy exit from the world of grief and a passage into the world of permanent bliss. The intensity of pain caused by the death of a near and dear one is lessened by the comforting thought that the deceased is enjoying a blissful afterlife in the Lord’s home with the Lord Himself. The Christian funeral rituals are organized with these beliefs and feelings.
Christian funeral ceremony is generally conducted by the pastor. They are generally conducted at the church which the dead person used to visit when he or she was alive. Though a casket is not used in th! e servic e generally, but when it is being conducted in a funeral home, casket is generally present. Viewing of the deceased’s body is not something that you will find in a typical Christian funeral ceremony.
The funeral service is almost like a memorial, in which the programmes begin with singing of hymns, a soloist, and readings from the Bible. After this comes a short message from the pastor and then a mass prayer by all those who have gathered there.
Next comes the time of reflection and sharing grief by family and friends, when the people assembled express their feelings about the deceased and speak of how the deceased has influenced them and has left a deep impression. Some people also opt for doing a slide show of pictures of the deceased or play a video recording from the life of the departed.
The last leg of the service is the serving of food at a fellowship reception conducted mostly at the church itself. People do not choose a graveside service normally, but some families that make an exception to this.
Leave the delicate matter of funeral needs in the hands of caring professional undertakers. Also published at Christian Funeral Rituals And Their Significance.
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10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013

2012-02-28T07:52:00.001-08:00

Tags: Best Cheap Stocks To Hold ,Best Stocks For 2015 ,Best Stocks To Hold ,Best Stocks To Invest In 2015 ,Cheap Stocks ,Oil ,Top Stocks In 2012
The market has been on fire since the dark days of the financial crisis. The S&P 500 has soared an astounding 85% since the lows of March 2009. Market returns have been propelled by more cyclical sectors like technology and consumer products, while the more defensive sectors have badly lagged the market. In short, it's the go-go stocks that have been the first to benefit in the post crisis market, but things might be changing...

The bull market has gotten long in the tooth while at the same time uncertainty is growing as the Middle East erupts in turmoil. Oil prices are soaring near $100 a barrel from just $85 a month ago and may climb still higher, threatening economic recovery.

It may be time for investors to look at defensive stocks that can perform in any economy. Health care, more specifically major drug manufacturers, earn consistent income in any economy and, best of all, pay fat dividends.

Health care stocks have their critics, however. Most large drug companies are facing steep patent cliffs and an accompanying fall in revenue in the years ahead. In addition, uncertainty regarding health care legislation and possible higher costs going forward are weighing on prospects.

However, these problems are largely factored into share prices already.

Three stocks in particular stand out as having strong business prospects, cheap valuations and high dividends.
10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:CE Franklin Ltd. (CFK)
CE Franklin Ltd. distributes oilfield equipment products and services principally to the oil and gas industry in western Canada. The company supplies pipes, valves, flanges, fittings, production and process control equipment, tubular products, and other general oilfield supplies. It also provides pump repair, customized pump designs, and testing services, as well as optimization analysis, onsite project management, and oilfield engine maintenance and crane equipment services. CE Franklin also serves oil sands, midstream, refining, petrochemical industries, and non-oilfield related industries, such as forestry and mining. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. CE Franklin Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Schlumberger Limited.
10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Statoil ASA (STO)
Statoil ASA engages in the exploration, production, transportation, refining, and marketing of petroleum and petroleum-derived products. The company involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas in Norway and internationally, as well as extraction of natural gas liquids. It also transports and markets natural gas and natural gas products; and engages in petroleum refining operations, as well as marketing crude oil and refined petroleum products. In addition, the company involves in the retail sale of stationary energy primarily heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, and heavy fuel for industrial purposes; marine fuel comprising marine gasoil and heavy fuel; and aviation fuel, lubricants, and chemicals. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved reserves of 2,124 million barrels of oil, as well as 509 billion cubic meters of natural gas, corresponding to aggregate proved reserves of 5,325 million barrels-of-oil equivalent; and operated a network of 2,283 fuel stations, including a combination of full-service stations, which has integrated convenience stores, and automated fuel stations and truck stops located in Scandinavia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Russia. The company was formerly known as StatoilHydro ASA and changed its name to Statoil ASA in November 2009. Statoil ASA was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Stavanger, Norway.
10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:ConocoPhillips (COP)
ConocoPhillips operates as an integrated energy company worldwide. The company?s Exploration and Production (E&P) segment explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and natural gas liquids. Its Midstream segment gathers, processes, and markets natural gas; and fractionates and markets natural gas liquids in the United States and Trinidad. The company?s Refining and Marketing (R&M) segment purchases, refines, markets, and transports crude oil and petroleum products, such as gasolines, distillates, and aviation fuels. Its Chemicals segment manufactures and markets petrochemicals and plastics. This segment offers olefins and polyolefins, including ethylene, propylene, and other olefin products; aromatics products, such as benzene, styrene, paraxylene, and cyclohexane, as well as polystyrene and styrene-butadiene copolymers; and various specialty chemical products comprising organosulfur chemicals, solvents, catalysts, drilling chemicals, mining chemicals, and engineering plastics and compounds. The company?s Emerging Businesses segment develops new technologies and businesses. It focuses on power generation; and technologies related to conventional and nonconventional hydrocarbon recovery, refining, alternative energy, biofuels, and the environment. This segment also offers E-Gas, a gasification technology producing high-value synthetic gas. ConocoPhillips was founded in 1917 and is based in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Hawkinvest At 2012-2-23
ConocoPhillips (COP) is a leading oil and gas company involved in exploration, production, refining, and transportation of petroleum products. ConocoPhillips appears undervalued, as it offers a solid dividend yield and a price to earnings ratio of just about 9 times earnings. This stock could have an upside catalyst in the coming months, as the comp! any plan s to spin-off the refining division, which will become a separate, publicly traded company called Phillips 66. This company has extensive oil reserves which can grow as the company makes new finds, and these reserves also grow more valuable as the price of oil trends higher. This stock has been rising, so waiting for pullbacks makes sense. Recently, it's been possible to buy Conoco shares at below $70 per share, and that would be a very attractive entry point.

Here are some key points for COP:

Current share price: $73.83

The 52 week range is $58.65 to $81.80

Earnings estimates for 2011: $8.27 per share

Earnings estimates for 2012: $8.75 per share

Annual dividend: $2.64 per share which yields 3.6%
By Fabian At 2012-2-21
ConocoPhilips(COP) is a close second. This is a Warren Buffett darling that will benefit from its spinoff of refining assets some time in 2012.

Conoco also continues to pay a consistent and reliable 3.75%. Note that COP has underperformed the rest of the sector recently. Correlations are normally so close that such an underperformance by one stock can point the way to value.
By Dave Friedman At 2011-9-23
Institutional investors bought 49,282,090 shares and sold 75,744,640 shares, for a net of -26,462,550 shares. This net represents 1.79% of common shares outstanding. The number of shares outstanding is 1,479,330,000. The shares recently traded at $65.51 and the company’s market capitalization is $89,946,840,000.00. About the company: ConocoPhillips is an international, integrated energy company which operates in several business segments. The Company explores for and produces petroleum, and refines, markets, supplies, and transports petroleum. ConocoPhillips also gathers and processes natural gas, and produces and distributes chemicals and plastics.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Bill Barrett Corporation (BBG)
Bill Barrett Corporation, an independent oil and gas company, engages in the exploration, development, and production of natural gas and crude oil principally in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Bill Barrett Corporation was founded in 2002 and is based in Denver, Colorado.
10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Energy Transfer Equity L.P. (ETE)
Energy Transfer Equity, L.P., through its direct and indirect investments in the limited partner and general partner interests in Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., engages in midstream, intrastate, and interstate transportation of natural gas, as well as in storage of natural gas in the United States. The company?s Intrastate Transportation and Storage segment engages in the ownership and operation of natural gas transportation pipelines and natural gas storage facilities. As of December 31, 2009, it owned and operated approximately 7,800 miles of natural gas transportation pipelines and 3 natural gas storage facilities. This segment sells natural gas to electric utilities, independent power plants, local distribution companies, industrial end-users, and other marketing companies on the Houston pipeline system. Its Interstate Transportation segment involves owns and operates interstate natural gas pipeline. It owned and operates approximately 2,700 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline with an additional 180 miles under construction. The company?s Midstream segment engages in the ownership and operation of in service natural gas gathering pipelines, natural gas processing plants, natural gas treating facilities, and natural gas conditioning facilities. This segment owned and operated approximately 7,000 miles of in service natural gas gathering pipelines, 3 natural gas processing plants, 11 natural gas treating facilities, and 11 natural gas conditioning facilities. Its Retail Propane segment operates a retail distribution network consisting of approximately 440 customer service locations in approximately 40 states. The company was formerly known as La Grange Energy, L.P. Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. was founded in 2002 and is based in Dallas, Texas.
10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Permian Basin Royalty Trust (PBT)
Permian Basin Royalty Trust owns overriding royalty rights in mineral properties in the United States. It holds a 75% net overriding royalty interest in the Waddell Ranch Properties located in Crane County, Texas; and a 95% net overriding royalty interest in the Texas Royalty Properties in Texas. As of December 31, 2009, the Waddell Ranch properties contained 372 net productive oil wells, 87 net productive gas wells, and 131 net injection wells; and the Texas Royalty properties consisted of approximately 125 separate royalty interests containing approximately 51,000 net producing acres. The company was founded in 1980 and is based in Dallas, Texas.
10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY)
Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and gas exploration and production company primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Oil and Gas; Chemical; and Midstream, Marketing, and Other. The Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and condensate and natural gas. Its domestic oil and gas operations are located in Texas, New Mexico, California, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, and West Virginia; and international oil and gas operations are located in Bahrain, Bolivia, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As of December 31, 2010, this segment had proved reserves of approximately 3,363 million barrels of oil equivalent. The Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, and ethylene dichloride products; vinyls, such as vinyl chloride monomer and polyvinyl chloride; and other chemicals comprising chlorinated isocyanurates, resorcinol, sodium silicates, and calcium chloride products. The Midstream, Marketing, and Other segment gathers, treats, processes, transports, stores, purchases, and markets crude oil that includes natural gas liquids and condensate, as well as natural gas and carbon dioxide. This segment also involves in the power generation; and trades around its assets comprising pipelines and storage capacity, as well as oil and gas, other commodities, and commodity-related securities. Occidental Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1920 and is based in Los Angeles, California.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Paul At 2011-10-6
Occidental Petroleum (OXY-N75.722.463.36%) is an integrated oil-and-gas company, with operations in the U.S.

The Los Angeles-based company has strong operating momentum, having grown 12-month sales 27 per cent and net income 76 per cent. Its stock has been a top performer over a three-year span, having gained 12 per cent a year, on average. Occidental has a market capitalization of $78-billion. It receives positive rankings from 84 per cent of researchers. It is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Jan. 26. Analysts forecast a 17 per cent year-over-year rise in adjusted earnings and a 7.6 per cent gain in sales. Occidental has an average earnings surprise rate of 6.6 per cent. It beat the consensus expectation by 8.2 per cent last quarter.

Like Chevron and El Paso, what is most attractive about Occidental is its relative value amid strong secular growth. Its stock sells for a forward earnings multiple of 13 and a book value multiple of 2.5, 28 per cent and 43 per cent peer discounts. Its PEG ratio, the stock's P/E divided by researcher's long-term growth forecast, of 0.3 represents a 70 per cent discount to estimated fair value, a compelling bargain. Occidental pays a quarterly dividend of 38 cents, converting to an annual yield of 1.6 per cent. It has grown the payout 16 per cent and 18 per cent annually, on average, respectively, over three- and five-year spans. JPMorgan, optimistic about Occidental's long-term trajectory, is skeptical of the recent rally.

Bullish Scenario: Goldman Sachs has a target of $111, suggesting a 13 per cent advance.

Bearish Scenario: JPMorgan has a target of $90, implying that the stock will drop 8 per cent.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Neoprobe Corporation (NEOP)
Neoprobe Corporation, a biomedical company, engages in the development and commercialization of precision diagnostics that enhance patient care and improve patient benefit. The company is developing and commercializing targeted agents aimed at the identification of occult (undetected) disease. Neoprobe?s two lead radiopharmaceutical agent platforms, Lymphoseek and RIGScan are intended to help surgeons better identify and treat certain types of cancer. Lymphoseek is a diagnostic imaging agent intended for radiolabeling and administration in radiodetection and visualization of the lymphatic system draining the region of injection for delineation of the lymphatic tissue; and RIGScan is an intraoperative biologic targeting agent consisting of a radiolabeled murine monoclonal antibody. The company has a biopharmaceutical development and supply agreement with Laureate Biopharmaceutical Services, Inc. to support the initial evaluation of the viability of the CC49 master working cell bank, as well as the initial steps in re-validating the commercial production process for the biologic agent used in RIGScan CR. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Dublin, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Putnam At 2011-10-20
Neoprobe Corporation Common St (AMEX:NEOP): This equity had 12,374,458 shares sold short as of Aug 31st, as compared to 11,847,479 on Aug 15th, which represents a change of 526,979 shares, or 4.4%. Days to cover for this company is 17 and average daily trading volume is 745,501.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Suncor Energy Inc. (SU)
Suncor Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated energy company. The company involves in the development of petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; acquisition, exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas in Canada and internationally; transportation and refining of crude oil; and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products primarily in Canada. Its Oil Sands segment produces bitumen recovered from oil sands through mining and in-situ technology, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock, diesel fuel, and by-products. This segment?s products include gasoline and distillates. The company?s Natural Gas segment acquires, explores, develops, and produces natural gas, natural gas liquids, oil, and by-products from reserves located primarily in western Canada, the Northwest Territories, Alaska, and the Arctic Islands. Its International and Offshore segment engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas in offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, in the North Sea, and in Libya and Syria. The company?s Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil at Suncor's refineries in Edmonton, Alberta; Montreal, Quebec; and Sarnia, Ontario in Canada, as well as in Commerce City, Colorado into a range of petroleum and petrochemical products for sale to retail, commercial, and industrial customers. It also transports crude oil through pipelines in eastern and western Canada, as well as through wholly-owned pipelines in Wyoming and Colorado; and produces specialty lubricants and waxes. In addition, this segment operates retail sites in Canada under the Petro-Canada brand; and in Colorado under Phillips 66 and Shell brands. Suncor Energy Inc. also engages in third-party energy trading activities. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:
By St! ephen At 2012-1-11
Suncor Energy (SU, $26.61). Largest energy producer in Canada's oil sands has very good cost structure, production upside and is cheap vs. earnings.
By Lowell At 2011-10-6
Suncor produces conventional and unconventional oil and owns the PetroCanada and Sunoco brands in Canada. It recently successfully completed the acquisition and integration of the old Petro Canada – and now manages all of Petro Canada’s assets. It took some time for the markets to react favorably to the integration, but Suncor is finally back in the game. The shares have already run up a good 20% over the past six months. Expect them to continue to do so if oil prices climb into the high nineties. Trust me, you don’t want to be caught in the cold when this train takes off again.
By Sam Collins At 2011-9-11
The recent merger with Petro-Canada made Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU) one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers. It is focused on Alberta’s vast Athabasca oil ! sands, m aking it independent of operations outside of North America.

Compared with other international oil companies, SU is not only safe from problems in the Middle East, but its profit margins increase greatly when oil rises above $80 per barrel, making it a hedge against rising prices due to Middle East tensions.?

Technically, SU broke from a saucer formation on Friday, with a long-term target of $50 and a trading target of $45.?

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Hold For 2013:Ecopetrol S.A. (EC)
Ecopetrol S.A. operates as an integrated oil company in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company engages in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas. As of December 31, 2010, its proved reserves of crude oil and natural gas consisted of 1,714.0 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company also transports crude oil, motor fuels, fuel oil, and other refined products, as well as mixture of diesel and palm oil. It owns transportation network consisting of 3,003 kilometers of crude oil pipeline directly, as well as an additional 2,178 kilometers of crude oil pipeline with its business partners; and 3,017 kilometers of multi-purpose pipelines for transportation of refined products from refinery to wholesale distribution points. As of the above date, Ecopetrol S.A. owned 58 stations with a nominal storage capacity of 19 million barrels of crude oil and 6 million barrels of refined products. In addition, the company owns and operates refineries that produce a range of refined products, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, aviation fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, sulfur, heavy fuel oils, motor fuels, and petrochemicals, including paraffin waxes, lube base oils, low-density polyethylene, aromatics, asphalts, alkylates, cyclohexane and aliphatic solvents, and refinery grade propylene, as well as provides industrial services to third parties. Further, it markets various refined and feed stock products, including regular and high octane gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, natural gas, and petrochemical products. The company was formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos and changed its name to Ecopetrol S.A. in June 2003. Ecopetrol S.A. was founded in 1948 and is based in Bogota, Colombia.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Dave Friedman At 2011-9-23
Institutional investors bought 8,091,790 shares and sold 1,263,000 shares, for a net of 6,828,790 shares. This net represents 0.02% of common shares outstanding. T! he numbe r of shares outstanding is 40,472,512,590. The shares recently traded at $40.59 and the company’s market capitalization is $82,710,853,874.47. About the company: Ecopetrol SA is an integrated oil company. The Company owns interests in oil producing fields in the central area, south, west and north of Colombia as well as refineries, ports for fuel exports and imports on both coasts and the transportation network of pipelines and polyducts throughout the Colombian territory.

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Hot Stocks In August 2015

2012-02-28T04:08:00.001-08:00

Tags: ABX ,AIG ,American International ,Barrick Gold ,GDX ,Market Vectors ,NYSE:ABX ,NYSE:AIG ,NYSE:GDX. ,NYSE:SLW. ,NYSE:VALE. ,Silver Wheaton ,SLW ,VALE ,Volume Spikes ,Top Stocks In 2012
In California, visionary industry leader Alan Shaw resigned as CEO of Codexis (CDXS) and the Ceres IPO, scheduled for last Thursday, did not occur and has yet to be rescheduled as of press time. The Ceres IPO remains on the NASDAQ calendar.

At the same time, Ceres said that current shareholders had indicated that they would purchase up to 1 million shares in the company’s upcoming IPO, and the company warned that severe drought conditions in south-central Brazil will adversely affect sweet sorghum crop yields.

The changes at Codexis and delayed IPO at Ceres are indications that life in the public markets remains a rough one for early-stage industrial biotech companies. The changes at Codexis come after the company’s shares fell 65% off their initial IPO price of $13.00 in 2015, despite the company’s relatively steady performance in its fuels business and a fork into the renewable chemicals business, including a landmark deal with Chemtex.
Hot Stocks In August 2015:Access National Corporation (ANCX)
Access National Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Access National Bank that provides commercial credit, deposit, and mortgage services to middle market businesses and associated professionals primarily in the greater Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. Its deposit products include time deposits, savings accounts, money market deposits, and certificates of deposit. The company?s lending activities comprise commercial loans, commercial real estate loans, commercial and residential real estate construction loans, residential mortgage loans, home equity loans, and consumer loans. It also offers Internet banking, automated clearinghouse transactions, remote deposit capture, and courier services for commercial clients. In addition, the company, through its subsidiary, Access National Capital Trust II, issues redeemable capital securities. It operates from five banking centers in Chantilly, Tysons Corner, Reston, Leesburg, and Manassas, Virginia. Access National Corporation was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
Hot Stocks In August 2015:Credit Suisse Asset Management Income Fund Inc. (CIK)
Credit Suisse Asset Management Income Fund Inc. is a closed-ended fund launched by Credit Suisse Asset Management, LLC. It is managed by Credit Suisse Asset Management, LLC and Credit Suisse Asset Management Limited. The fund invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. It invests in companies operating across diversified industries. The fund primarily invests in United States high-yield corporate debt. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Merrill Lynch US High Yield Master II Constrained Index and Citigroup High-Yield Market Index. Credit Suisse Asset Management Income Fund Inc was formed on February 11, 1987 and is domiciled in the United States.
Hot Stocks In August 2015:Internationa Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF)
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., together with its subsidiaries, creates, manufactures, and sells flavor and fragrance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Flavors and Fragrances. The Flavors segment offers flavor compounds principally to the food and beverage industries for use in consumer products, such as soft drinks, non-carbonated drinks, candies, baked goods, desserts, prepared foods, dietary foods, dairy products, drink powders, pharmaceuticals, snack foods, and alcoholic beverages. The Fragrances segment provides functional fragrances, including fragrance compounds for personal care and household products; fine fragrance and beauty care, including perfumes, colognes, and toiletries; and ingredients consisting of synthetic and natural ingredients that could be combined with other materials to create functional and fine fragrance compounds. This segment?s customers primarily comprise the cosmetics industry, including perfume and toiletries manufacturers, as well as the household products industry, including manufacturers of soaps, detergents, fabric care, household cleaners, and air fresheners. The company sells its products through sales agents and distributors. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. was founded in 1909 and is based in New York, New York.
Hot Stocks In August 2015:CA Inc. (CA)
CA Technologies, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, delivers, licenses, and supports information technology (IT) management software products that operate on a range of hardware platforms and operating systems. It offers enterprise IT management software for organizations that addresses components of the computing environment, including people, information, processes, systems, networks, applications, and databases. The company provides a portfolio of mainframe and distributed software products with a focus on mainframe, service assurance, security (identity and access management), project and portfolio management, service management, virtualization and service automation, and cloud computing. It serves banks, insurance companies, other financial services providers, government agencies, manufacturers, technology companies, retailers, educational organizations, and health care institutions worldwide. CA Technologies offers its solutions through its direct sales force and indirectly through global systems integrators, technology partners, managed service providers, solution providers, distributors and volume partners, and exclusive representatives. The company was formerly known as CA, Inc. and changed its name to CA Technologies in May 2010. CA Technologies was founded in 1974 and is based in Islandia, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Conrad At 2012-1-11
CA Inc. is our top rated Application Software company in EquityAnalytics. We have a PT of $31 on the company right now and believe that it has a big 2012 ahead of it with cloud networking. The company is second in market share in cloud storage, and we believe that it has the ability to really improve valuation with more growth and better margins. We are a fan of the 1% yield as well.

Allocation: $2000

Entry: $20.30

Target: $22.50, $24.50, and $31

Hot Stocks In August 2015:Federated Investors Inc. (FII)
Federated Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, including high net worth individuals, banking or thrift institutions, investment companies, pension and profit sharing plans, pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations, state or municipal government entities, and registered investment advisors. Through its subsidiaries, it manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and money market mutual funds and separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies. The firm makes its fixed income investments in ultra-short, short-term, and intermediate-term mortgage-backed, U.S. Government, U.S. Corporate, high yield, and municipal securities. It employs a fundamental and a quantitative analysis to make its equity investments. The firm also makes sector-focused equity investments. Federated Investors was founded in 1955 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with an additional office in New York, New York.
Hot Stocks In August 2015:Calix Inc (CALX)
Calix, Inc. provides broadband communications access systems and software for fiber and copper-based network architectures that enable communications service providers (CSPs) to connect to their residential and business subscribers. The company?s Unified Access portfolio comprises hardware and software products, which include C-Series platform, and E-Series platforms and nodes. The C-Series platform is a C7 multiservice and multiprotocol access platform that supports various basic voice and data services, as well as advanced, high-speed, and packet-based services, including gigabit Ethernet, GPON and DSL, and advanced applications, such as IPTV offered by CSPs. The E-Series platforms and nodes consist of chassis-based platforms, and fixed form factor nodes that support various advanced IP-based services, and enable CSPs to implement advanced Ethernet transport and aggregation; and voice, data, and video services over fiber and copper-based network architectures. The company?s Unified Access portfolio also includes P-Series Optical Network Terminals, which auto-detect the bandwidth of the network and enable CSPs to change line rates and features without truck rolls or hardware replacements; and Calix Management System, a server-based network management software, which enables CSPs to remotely manage their access networks and scale bandwidth capacity to support advanced broadband services and video. Calix, Inc. markets its access systems and software to CSPs in North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America directly. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Petaluma, California.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Karim At 2011-9-11
Calix, Inc.(Calix) is a provider of communications access systems and software that enable communications service providers (CSPs) to connect to their residential and business subscribers. The company enables CSPs to provide a range of revenue-generating services, from basic voice and data to broadband services, over l! egacy an d access networks. Its EPS forecast for the current year is 0.83 and next year is 1.26. According to consensus estimates, its topline is expected to grow 41.99% current year and 21.84% next year. It is trading at a forward P/E of 16. Out of six analysts covering the company, three are positive and have buy recommendations and three have hold ratings.

Hot Stocks In August 2015:Advance Auto Parts Inc (AAP)
Advance Auto Parts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a retailer of automotive aftermarket parts, accessories, batteries, and maintenance items. It operates in two segments, Advance Auto Parts (AAP) and Autopart International (AI). The AAP segment operates stores, which primarily offer auto parts, including alternators, batteries, chassis parts, clutches, engines and engine parts, radiators, starters, transmissions, and water pumps; accessories comprising floor mats, mirrors, vent shades, MP3 and cell phone accessories, and seat and steering wheel covers; chemicals consisting of antifreeze, freon, fuel additives, and car washes and waxes; and oil and other automotive petroleum products. This segment also provides battery and wiper installation, battery charging, check engine light reading, electrical system testing, video clinics and project brochures, loaner tool programs, and oil and battery recycling services; and sells its products through online. The AI segment operates stores that offer replacement parts for domestic and imported cars, and light trucks to customers in northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, as well as to warehouse distributors and jobbers in North America. As of January 1, 2011, the company operated 3,369 AAP stores, including 3,343 stores located in the northeastern, southeastern, and Midwestern regions of the United States under the Advance Auto Parts and Advance Discount Auto Parts trade names; 26 stores situated in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands under the Advance Auto Parts and Western Auto trade names; and 194 stores under the Autopart International trade name in the United States. It serves do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, or commercial customers. The company was founded in 1929 and is based in Roanoke, Virginia.
Advisors' Opinion:
By Vatalyst At 2011-10-28
Advance Auto Parts (AAP) is the second largest parts retailer in the U.S. The common stock currently trades at a! price t o earnings ratio sits at 12.5, below its historical average of 16 and industry average of 15.7.

Typical of Wall Street short term thinking, the madding crowd fled this stock in May, due to weak first quarter 2011 comparable store sales gain of 1.4% versus an 8.9% gain during December 2010. Price to book ratio is 4.57 whilst price to cash flow sits at 7.70, well below the industry average of 11.2.

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Warrior Girl Launches Social Live (WRGL)

2012-02-28T00:18:00.001-08:00

Tags: 2013 Insurance Stocks ,Top Insurance Stocks To Invest In ,Top Stocks For 2013 ,Top Stocks To Hold 2013 ,Top Stocks In 2012
Warrior Girl Corp. (PINK: WRGL), a holding company for a series of diversified online projects that span B2C operations, financial services, online hosting, web services and social media, on Thursday, announced the launch of �Social Live�.

WRGL�s Social Live is a new social media web portal. According to WRGL, its new web portal ventures where social media giant Facebook left off.�

Julian Sula, Warrior Girl Corp. CEO said that after establishing itself as the pre-eminent social networking site, many users now they are unhappy with Facebook and abandoning the site due to issues ranging from privacy, bad to nonexistent customer support, and complaints over new Timeline format which people cannot opt out of.�

WRGL�s Social Live includes features such as User Theme Management, enabling users to customize their profile pages with their unique custom design to let them stand out, advanced privacy settings and notifications, blogs, pages and groups, ability to share files and attachments, private messaging, events, instant messenger, forums, activity feed, and photos among others.�

Sula said that the site is in beta testing currently and WRGL would love to get people�s feedback and input on what they think of the site and help the company to improve and ultimately build a network that puts people as a priority first.�

Social media is the not the only area that Warrior Girl is currently focusing on. Earlier this! week, W arrior Girl announced that it acquired ChooseCreditCard.com in an all stock transaction. The website helps users compare credit cards and provides credit card offers and reviews, with easy and secure online applications and online approvals.�

Sula said earlier this week that ChoosCreditCards.com is one of the smaller ideas that came WRGL�s way and is based on affiliate marketing and yet a website like this could potentially generate $20,000 to $30,000 a month.�

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Company	TTM Revenue	TTM CCC
W.R. Grace	$3,079	�68
PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG )	$14,747	�26
Albemarle (NYSE: ALB )	$2,767	�99
DuPont (NYSE: DD )	$37,587	�109