Sunday, September 30, 2012

JOBS GIVE STOCKS A BOOST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stock futures moved higher Thursday morning, bolstered by a better-than-expected jobless claims report, ahead of Friday's monthly jobs report.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were slightly higher. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET.

An hour before the opening bell, futures got a lift from the latest weekly initial jobless claims report, the last report on the labor market before Friday's crucial monthly jobs data.

Stocks have also received some support from better-than-expected first-quarter corporate results. Sixty-eight percent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have beat analysts' expectations, according to Capital IQ.

The corporate earnings deluge continued Thursday. General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) reported lower-than-expected earnings before the bell, with results still due from Dow component Kraft (KFT, Fortune 500).

U.S. stocks ended mixed Wednesday as investors digested the weak ADP report and mostly upbeat corporate results.

Overall, it's been an anemic past few weeks for markets. Fears about a so-called hard landing in China, a stalled U.S. recovery and a flare-up in Europe's debt crisis have been weighing on investors in recent weeks, leading to the worst monthly returns of the year in April.

The European Central Bank announced on Thursday that it left interest rates unchanged, a move widely expected by investors. The ECB's main overnight lending rate remains at 1%.

World markets: European stocks rose in morning trading ahead of a scheduled speech from ECB president Mario Draghi. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) ticked up 0.6%, the DAX (DAX) in Germany added 0.8% and France's CAC 40 (CAC40) rose 1.1%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) edged up just less than 0.1%, while the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong slid 0.3%. Tokyo was closed for a holiday.

Economy: Initial jobless claims for the week ended April 28 totaled 365,000, according to the Labor Department, which was less than expected.

Jobless claims were forecast to total 375,000, according to a survey of economists by Briefing.com -- an improvement from the revised figure of 392,000 in the week prior.

Futures got a mild lift from the report, though Sageworks analyst Sam Zippin said the decline is not statistically significant. "While the drop is positive, it still isn't a huge change," she said.

Economists surveyed by CNNMoney are forecasting that Friday's report will show employers added 160,000 jobs to payrolls in April, but that the unemployment rate will remain unchanged at 8.2%.

A report on private-sector hiring from payroll processor ADP came in weaker than expected on Wednesday. And Thursday morning, the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cuts rose to 40,559 in April -- an increase of 7% from March and of 11% from a year ago.

Also on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET the ISM Services index for April is expected to come in at 55.5, down from 56.0 in March.

Facebook readies for mid-May IPO

Companies: GM reported lower earnings of $1.3 billion, due to charges related to European restructuring. Losses in Europe were expected to weigh on results, despite improved U.S. sales.

Foodmaker Kraft is forecast to report earnings of 56 cents a share, up from 52 cents a year earlier.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) shares plummeted more than 40% in late trading Wednesday, after the company reported quarterly revenue that missed estimates and lowered its guidance for 2012.

Shares of online reviews site Yelp (YELP) slipped after the company reported a net loss of $9.8 million, or 31 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2012 -- its first as a publicly traded company. Yelp is in the process of investing in international expansion.

Private equity firm The Carlyle Group priced its IPO Wednesday evening at $22 per unit, which was lower than its proposed $23 to $25 per unit range. That means the firm raised around $671 million, and has an initial market capitalization of nearly $6.7 billion. Carlyle will begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol CG.

Coming after the bell on Thursday, insurer AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) and social media company LinkedIn (LNKD) are due to report results. AIG is forecast to report a drop in earnings to $1.12 a share, while LinkedIn is expected to earn 9 cents a share.

Bond yields are going to surge! Eventually?

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

Oil for June delivery lost 19 cents to $105.03 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery tumbled $10.10 to $1,643.90 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury edged marginally higher, but yields remained at the 1.92% they hit late Wednesday.

Are you worried about how the 2012 presidential election will impact your investment portfolio? Which candidate do you think will be better for the stock market? E-mail Hibah.Yousuf@turner.com for the chance to be included in an upcoming story.  

Bank of England adds another dose of QE

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) � The Bank of England boosted the size of its asset-purchase program Thursday, prescribing a bigger dose of quantitative easing amid fears the British economy could stall out in the face of tighter credit conditions and the ongoing euro-zone debt crisis.

As expected, the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee said the bank would buy an additional 50 billion pounds ($79.2 billion) of assets, mostly British government bonds, bringing the total stock of purchases by the bank to �325 billion, or more than 20% of Britain�s annual gross domestic product.

/quotes/zigman/4867886/sampled GBPUSD 1.5618, +0.0005, +0.0299%

Although recent business surveys pointed a more positive picture for the British economy, �the pace of expansion in the United Kingdom�s main export markets has also slowed and concerns remain about the indebtedness and competitiveness of some euro-area countries,� the bank said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

Falling inflation should help ease a squeeze on household real incomes, �but the drag from tight credit conditions� and ongoing austerity measures present a �headwind�, the bank said, warning that a weak outlook for near-term growth �means that a significant margin of economic slack is likely to persist.�

The MPC, as expected, left its key lending rate at a record low 0.5%, where it has stood since March 2009, when the bank first introduced its quantitative easing strategy.

The British pound GBPUSD �traded at $1.5864 versus the dollar, up 0.4% from Wednesday.

The move comes as a pickup in some economic data has eased worries of an imminent recession, although growth is expected to remain weak at best, economists said. January purchasing managers indexes for both the manufacturing and services sectors showed unexpected improvement.

But overall economic fundamentals remain �on the whole fairly sour,� wrote economists at Rabobank International, while consumer price inflation has trended lower to a 4.2% annual rate. Although still well above the central bank�s 2% target, the rate is expected to continue falling sharply as comparisons with last year�s hike in the value-added tax drop out of the year-on-year calculations.

�With inflation plunging due to weak corporate pricing power, falling commodity prices and last year�s VAT hike dropping out of the annual comparison, the Bank of England has considerable room to step up its quantitative easing efforts even further,� said James Knightley, economist at ING Bank.

Click to Play Is the ECB softening its position?

There is talk that the European Central Bank is caving in and will take a Greek haircut.

A 5% appreciation by the pound on a trade-weighted basis since July provides further rationale for more easing as the stronger currency will intensify trends of weak activity, rising unemployment and falling inflation, he said. ING expects the central bank to deliver a further �50 billion of quantitative easing in May, with the final size of the program likely to eventually swell to nearly �500 billion.

MPC members had access to the Bank of England�s quarterly inflation report, which will be released next week. It�s unlikely the report, which lays out the MPC�s economic projections, painted �a particularly optimistic picture of the near-term economic outlook� and likely projected inflation to fall below the 2% target over the bank�s two-year policy horizon, said Emily Nicol, an economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.

Under quantitative easing, the central bank electronically creates new money that is used to buy British government bonds, or gilts, from private investors such as banks, pension funds and insurers, with the hope the investors in turn will use the money to buy other assets, including corporate bonds and equities.

The aim, the bank says, is to lower longer-term borrowing costs and encourage the issuance of new equities and bonds.

RBS near selling some Asia units to CIMB: WSJ

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) � Royal Bank of Scotland Group, taking a major step in its restructuring since the U.K. government took it over after the 2008 financial crisis, is close to selling its Asia-equities arm to CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. of Malaysia, a media report says.

Click to Play Violence brings Karachi to standstill

Shops are shuttered and most businesses and education institutions closed to mark a day of mourning as a series of shooting incidents in Karachi continues unabated. (Video: Reuters)

People close to the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the deal could be signed early this week.

The units involved include RBS�s�Asian cash-equities, equity-capital-Markets and corporate-finance businesses, the Journal reported.

CIMB, MY:CIMB �the Kuala Lumpur, banking and financial-services group, wants the businesses to help establish a regional presence, the Journal reported.

In addition, the deal reflects a push by Asia-Pacific banks to expand geographically by acquiring businesses and staff from their troubled western peers, the paper reported. About 400 RBS staffers will join CIMB as part of the deal, the Journal reported.

RBS RBS �UK:RBS �is owned 83% by the U.K. government. The deal would be subject to regulatory clearances.

5 High-Yield Stocks You May Be Ignoring

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

Warren Buffett's rule epitomizes how to take advantage of money-making opportunities in the stock market. And he's seeing serious opportunities right now -- in the past quarter alone, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B  ) has invested $24 billion in stocks, the most in 15 years!

What's creating all these opportunities? Fear. Greece is teetering on the brink, Portugal, Italy, and Spain are in serious trouble, and the global financial system -- once again -- is sitting downhill of a slow-moving train wreck.

Blood in the streets
It probably goes without saying that Wall Street is especially reluctant to own European companies these days. Over the past six months, the Dow (INDEX: ^DJI  ) has fallen 4%, while European stocks have plunged 17%. The euro itself has dropped some 7% -- remarkable for a currency over such a short period of time.

All this should suit savvy Fools just fine. The more-or-less indiscriminate selling has pushed valuations down and dividend yields up. That means opportunities for us.

About those opportunities...
According to S&P Capital IQ, a full 20 well-established eurozone companies trading on major U.S. exchanges are now yielding over 5%. Now, I'm not suggesting that you just go out and buy every European stock willy-nilly (that would be foolish, with a small "f"). Europe faces some very real risks, ranging from the possibility of a deeper economic downturn to the outright default of sovereign countries and panic in credit markets.

What we're looking for are companies with reasonably stable businesses, that can afford to meet their short-term interest obligations (in case credit gets more expensive), and that earn their revenue from a diversified geographic base.

In fact, companies with significant exports from the euro area could actually benefit a bit from the carnage, as a weaker euro currency actually helps to boost their revenue.

Company

Country

Euro Exports as % of Revenue*

Interest Coverage

Dividend Yield

Telefonica (NYSE: TEF  ) Spain 43%����������������������������� 4.8 10.9%
France Telecom (NYSE: FTE  ) France 30%** 3.7 11%
Nokia (NYSE: NOK  ) Finland 66% 9.0 8.1%
Total (NYSE: TOT  ) France 31% 35.1 6.1%
Veolia (NYSE: VE  ) France 27% 2.0 12.9%

Source: S&P Capital IQ. *As of fiscal 2010. **Approximation.

Telefonica provides fixed telecommunications, mobile, and Internet services to Spain, Europe, and Latin America. It's similar to AT&T in the U.S., except that while U.S. fixed telecoms operate in a difficult, mature industry, Telefonica has access to the fast-growing countries. Over the past five years, revenues at its Latin American division have nearly doubled while operating profits soared more than fivefold to surpass its other regions in profits.

While France Telecom is more tied to euro countries than Telefonica is, the vast majority of its European exposure is to -- you guessed it -- France, which is among the strongest economies. While its European divisions could stay under some pressure, the telecom has had a great deal of success in growing its customer base, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, where it added 23% more mobile customers in the first half of the year.

OK, you probably have heard of Nokia, the Finnish mobile giant. It's struggled to maintain market share lately in the face of the iPhone-Android onslaught and is betting on its new Lumia line helping sales to bounce back. It's always a bit risky betting on slipping tech companies, but if Nokia manages to turn things around -- or even hang on to its current position -- it looks pretty cheap.

Total is a massive integrated oil and gas company -- about the size, actually, of ConocoPhillips. With 10 major drill targets this year, Total recently revised its five-year hydrocarbon production forecasts upward and has been proactively moving its money around to reduce exposure to European banks.

Veolia provides water, environmental, and energy-grid services around the world. While only a quarter or so of its revenue comes from outside of Europe, about two-thirds of its euro revenue comes from the strongest countries, France and Germany. The company has a fair bit of debt and may be forced to reduce its dividend somewhat from its lofty 12.9% yield, but it still looks pretty cheap given the relative stability of its business.

I've given you five intriguing names that are worth considering right now. However, you probably already know that while Europe may be a big reason for many of today's bargains, it's hardly the only place you can find them.

If, like Buffett, you're looking to take advantage of other opportunities in the market right now, I invite you to check out The Motley Fool's "Secure Your Future With 11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks." You can download this special report for free by clicking here today.

Portrait of a Branch Manager; Ins and Outs of Annuity Suitability: July Research—Slideshow

In this month’s cover story (“Portrait of a Branch Manager”) we profile Gregory Laetsch, the manager of Morgan Stanley’s Los Angeles complex. Jane Wollman Rusoff’s article brings out the genuine qualities of leadership that undoubtedly account for the success of his branches. An effefctive leader like Laetsch understands that the entire staff is the foundation of the advisor’s success. We look at the professional development of staff in a feature article by Ellen Uzelac. Columnist Raphael Lapin adds insight from the world of flight training, where the pilot’s very life depends on error-free instruction. He offers suggestions on how to apply this knowledge to educating clients.

Also in this issue, Moshe Milevsky has a seminal piece on the suitability issue you never hear about: why leaving the old annuity may be far more problematic than buying a new one.

Click through the following slides to preview other content in the July issue of Research.

Portrait of a Branch Manager

Meeting Gregory F. Laetsch, 6 feet 4 inches tall, 215 pounds and buff, you immediately think: football player.

And you wouldn’t be wrong. Fresh out of college, Laetsch was a receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. But a foot injury put the kibosh on his budding pro sports career the first season.

Bummer — except that the gridiron’s loss was Wall Street’s gain. For the past 31 years, Laetsch, 53, has chalked up victories as an outstanding player in the financial services arena, all three decades-plus at Smith Barney and its successor firms.

Appointed managing director and complex manager of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s seven-branch Los Angeles complex in 2009, following the two firms’ merger, Laetsch is something of a legend within the company, famed for his impeccable ethics and credibility, and reputation as a rare straight-shooter.

The Ins and Outs of Annuity Suitability

The word “suitability” evokes a unique reaction within the financial services industry. It carries legal as well as emotional baggage that goes well beyond the synonyms of appropriateness or correctness. And, for anyone active in the annuity business, being accused of enabling or advocating an unsuitable transaction can have far reaching (and career-harming) implications.

Most practitioners know this already, but it is still worth repeating. The recommendation to purchase any annuity — whether it is variable, fixed, immediate or deferred — must satisfy an extra layer of scrutiny, taking into account a myriad of personal and economic circumstances. Thanks to the shenanigans involving 95-year-old widows and 25-year surrender charges (or is it the other way around?), the suitability benchmark is higher and the paperwork more onerous, compared to non-annuity products. Whether this extra cost is commensurate with the benefits is debatable. Moshe Milevsky has more on the suitability issue you never hear about.

Fiduciary Matters

The prospect of a uniform fiduciary standard that would apply to all advice givers in the financial field is the subject of much current debate among industry participants and overseers. It will become even more of a hot topic in the coming months as the Securities and Exchange Commission decides whether and how to impose new fiduciary rules.

Fiduciary responsibility involves having a particularly high standard of care and loyalty. In the financial advisory field, it is typically understood to boil down to a strict requirement to put a client’s interests ahead of one’s own. Thus, a fiduciary standard differs from a suitability standard, which obligates the advisor to recommend products suitable for a client but not necessarily the best products regardless of the advisor’s fees. Kenneth Silber looks at the historical antecedents and contemporary applications of this headline-grabbing and contentious issue.

The Indispensable Staffer

Late last year, in a study group discussion among LPL Financial advisors in Southern California, brokerage executives asked the advisors to identify what they most needed help with to build their business.

Tops on their wish list: the professional development of staff.

“One of the clear messages was: ‘I need help with my staff. What can I do to help them grow?’ They want to offload, delegate, encourage staff to take on more responsibility,” observes Andy Kalbaugh, the firm’s executive vice president of business consulting. “The more productive and efficient the staff, the more productive and efficient the advisor will be.”

In response, LPL created AdminU, an educational curriculum to help support staff up their game when it comes to client service, office management, technology, and sales and marketing.  Ellen Uzelac reports that advisors with staff in enrolled in AdminU are already reporting rapid improvements in performance and productivity.

The Financial Advisor as Flight Trainer

A certified flight instructor is the quintessential teacher and one whose very life depends on his teaching acumen. Flying together with pilots-in-training requires nerves of steel because of the very great potential for danger. A novice pilot can put the aircraft into a dangerous altitude quite rapidly, and put his own life and that of his instructor in peril. The instructor needs to make sure that his instruction leaves no margin for that kind of error whatsoever — not the standard that most teachers need to meet. It should therefore be no surprise that I look towards these magnificent men in their flying machines for best practices in teaching and instruction.

Raphael Lapin explains that for financial advisors, as with flight instructors, the key to educating clients is to provide information, concepts and principles in such a way as to enable clients to integrate them, master them and develop confidence in applying them.

Inflated Science

In 1968, the Swedish central bank donated money to the Nobel Foundation to establish a Nobel Prize in economics. It became the sixth category in which the world’s most prestigious accolade was awarded, joining physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. Economics, which when the other five prizes were created in the late 19th century had been in its infancy, now was legitimized. Indeed, a solid conceptual framework seemed to have been developed to analyze relationships between economic players and, equally important, to use the laws of economics to forecast the future, formulate policy and create stable and prosperous societies.

All that is now out the window. Recent economic history shows that both academic economists and economic and monetary policymakers do not know the first thing about inflation, which has far-reaching implications for economic science in general.

Alexei Bayer argues that existing economic models do not provide a useful framework for analyzing economic processes and relationships.

Monday’s Apple Rumors — Mac Attack

Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Monday:

Mac Continues to Grow: While Gartner found that the PC market shrunk 1.1% in the first quarter, that decline hasn’t hurt Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL)�Mac business. According to an IDC report detailed at All Things Digital, Mac shipments grew for the 20th consecutive quarter, with 27.7% more Macs shipped in the first three months of 2011 than a year ago. Consumer sales grew 21.6% in the period, keeping pace with previous quarters, but Mac sales to businesses saw a massive spike, up 66%. With major U.S. PC manufacturers Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) increasingly relying on business customers for their own PC sales, Apple’s growing influence in the sector should be every bit as concerning as the iPad and its PC-sales-cannibalizing popularity. Of course, analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham says that it�s the popularity of portable Apple devices like the iPad that is fueling the jump in both consumer and business Mac sales.

Screen Time: A Monday report from DigiTimes (via Engadget) provides some more details on the next iPhone from Apple. Word is that the next version of the smartphone will feature a curved glass display not unlike the kind seen on Apple’s ultra-small iPod Nano media players. The curved, smaller displays will also reportedly speed up production of the new iPhone, helping to ease some of the supply problems that have plagued past iPhone updates.

Privacy Please: A Friday report at Electronista detailed a recent Apple patent for new screen technology that would make iPad and iPhone viewing more private for users. The new screen would use a “scattering module” fitted behind the display so that the illuminated screen would only be visible to the user. The patent also descirbes the technology’s application for driver-only screens in new cars. Private screen technology is a popular feature in notebook PCs marketed toward businesses. Given Apple’s increasing popularity among small and large businesses alike, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this technology pop up in the next generation of iPads and iPhones.

As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at�@ajohnagnello�and�become a fan of�InvestorPlace on Facebook.

The Best Dividend Stock No One Is Talking About

In this video segment, Motley Fool advisor James Early shares the dividend stock most investors are missing out on.

Please enable Javascript to view this video.

PepsiCo and Greenhill are two of the companies in The Motley Fool's new report that features some of the biggest and best-known brand names in global business. It's called "Secure Your Future With 11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks," and you can get access it to it right now at no cost. Simply click here -- it's free.

Unprecedented U.S. Consumer Credit Contraction and What the Eurozone Needs

Europe

First, a point on Tuesday's Thaler's Corner (Europe Is 'Almost' Saved), which sparked a number of highly instructive responses about the state of mind of the financial community on this topic.

I included the word 'almost' in the headline because, aside from the euro's positive impact and the ECB's bond purchase programme, the eurozone's survival will come from elsewhere.

The zone needs:

  • A budget control and statistics mechanism acceptable to everyone and disposing of real investigative powers.

  • Know-how, which is in the process of development, with the new powers granted to Eurostat.

  • A eurozone bond purchase programme, allowing governments to obtain financing at the best price, given the liquidity premium.

  • Progress, with the European Stability Fund, which will borrow €440bn on markets.

  • A more extensive economic governance, leaving state sovereignty to more regal tasks.

  • Nothing will be accomplished, unless the Franco-German couple can agree to a common view of Europe's futures.

We see progress, but there is still much to be done.

The United States

The graph below is obviously a measure of credit. Although I know many could care less about it these days as they remain focused sovereign debt spreads, stock indices and Forex markets. And yet, the credit statistics released Tuesday evening in the United States merit a look. They grew $1bn in April, which is better than expected, but remember that the March figure was revised downward from +$2bn to -$5.4bn!

I present below the percentage contractions of outstanding consumer credit during earlier recessions:

-1.1% in 1974, -1.5% in 1980 and -1.6% in 1991. But the -5.4% since 2008 is unprecedented!

It is more than likely that this contraction will continue, given an unemployment rate that is not going to decline anytime soon, continuing bank deleveraging and international pressure on the United States to correct its imbalances (less consumption, more savings and, thus, more investment and exports).

Consumer credit in the U.S.

Contraction unprecedented in scale...

Click to enlarge:

Asset allocation biases and advised option strategies

The long-term macro biases remain downward on eurozone government yields and negative on risky assets (equities, European real estate, commodities) and a deflation/depression scenario, which will require much more effort by the ECB than a shame-faced QE.

Our short-term biases remain neutral. Sorry.

We continue to flirt with the idea of betting on a tactical rebound of about ten Eurostoxx indices, accompanied by a narrowing of sovereign debt spreads, which would lead to a 2-point decline on the Bund. But for that, the ECB will have to really take charge. Its €5.5bn in bond purchases last week are really pitiful.

Disclosure: Long 20 years OAT and 30 years BTP Zero Coupons, EDF Corp 5 Years 4.5%, Greece 2 Y and 10 Y bonds

Alternative Energy: Ride the Green Wave!

No, I’m not talking about Tulane University. Nope, this green wave is all about alternative energy conservation and the companies that help our society move away from the choking effects of carbon burning.

The green wave steamroller is just getting started, and an economic slowdown will not get in its way. Case in point: World economic growth has pushed oil above $100 per barrel, and it appears prices will go even higher.

More importantly, serious well-respected scientists are now predicting a climactic catastrophe by the end of this century if carbon use is not stopped completely and soon.

This is no mere reduction in emissions, mind you. Instead, we are now hearing talk of a need for complete elimination of oil usage. If we don’t act soon, we are all in deep trouble.

Is your portfolio prepared for the avalanche? If not, it should be!

Michael Murphy’s New World Investor can help. Murphy understands these issues, and in his newsletter, he frequently mentions alternative energy stocks that are perfectly positioned to take advantage of a world that someday will be carbon-free.

Growing Green Energy Profits

One of my favorites on his buy list is a company called Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER). This company is a leader in batteries for hybrid cars, solar panels, and a new memory technology licensed by Intel and other semiconductor companies.

Initially recommended when shares were trading in the single digits, ENER reached a peak in excess of $40 per share in the spring of 2007. Missing earnings estimates in the latter part of the year caused a sell-off that now has shares trading below $30 per share.

I can appreciate the market being upset by a quarterly earnings miss, but let’s get real here. ENER is a growth story, and growth stories always have a high degree of variability in financial performance on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

What is important here is to keep your eye on the prize in the long term. Change does not occur overnight, and nor will it here with energy conservation. The reality is that over time, the opportunity is quite large.

If you are willing to have the patience to endure short-term losses in hopes of building a business that can take advantage of alternative energy stocks in the green wave, ownership of ENER makes rational sense.

One really good reason to own the solar stock in the near term is the forthcoming presidential election in November. By all accounts, the current oil-based administration will be replaced by someone who is more amenable to a new energy policy.


Green Is Good

It really does not matter if the next president is a Republican or Democrat. The facts are the facts. Oil usage must change if we are to avoid catastrophe down the road, and companies that are on the cutting edge of that change will prosper.

Murphy has a $55 target on ENER and for good reason. Analysts expect the company to double its revenue growth for the year ending June 2009 with earnings nearing $1.00 per share.

In a more stable economic environment, this stock would receive a fairly high valuation. At the moment, shares trade for a modest 6 times sales and 2 times book value. There is minimal debt on the balance sheet and $3.70 of cash.

Honestly, if you are looking for easy money, buying the green wave must be part of your plan. That may be overly simplistic, and of course everything includes risk, but these are exactly the types of stocks you need to buy if your goal is to beat the market.

As it stands, Michael Murphy sees this stock doubling in value. If the green wave takes hold, he may be underestimating the potential here. The world is truly changing and as a New World Investor, adding a little green wave to your portfolio may have you seeing green.

Michael Murphy has spent the last three decades helping individual investors like you get rich by identifying the ideas and trends that are destined to change our world in ways that no one ever imagined. His secret to making big profits in a volatile market is surprisingly simple: Identify which market forces are going to be unstoppable no matter which way the economy moves. Some of these companies are setting new standards in alternative energy. Others are driving new consumer lifestyles. Still more are transforming the way business and our economy work. Sign up for your RISK-FREEsubscription to New World Investor and get complete access to his Buy List today!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Activision Blizzard

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, video game giant Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI  ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Activision's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Activision facts

Headquarters (Founded) Santa Monica, Calif.
Market Cap $13.6 billion
Industry Home entertainment software
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $4.77 billion
Management President/CEO Robert Kotick
COO/CFO Thomas Tippl
Trailing-12-Month Return on Equity 6.2%
Cash/Debt $2.94 billion / $0
Dividend Yield 1.4%
Competitors Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS  )
Sony (NYSE: SNE  )
Take-Two Interactive (Nasdaq: TTWO  )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 97% of the 7,006 members who have rated Activision believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Star Dukenewkirk, who is ranked in the top 10% of our community, and Raylanw.

Just last month, Dukenewkirk tapped Activision as a clear bargain opportunity:

Absolutely, undeniably and several more powerful adjectives apply here when I make the bold assertion that this company is best in breed. ... It is absolutely beyond me the stock still languishes between $11 and $12. Silly, just silly. The cash flow is phenomenal right now.

In fact, Activision boasts a whopping trailing-12-month free cash flow margin of 24%. That's much higher than that of rivals Electronics Arts (7.3%), Sony (4.7%), and Take-Two (5.4%).

CAPS member Raylanw elaborates on the Activision bull case:

With growing revenue, apparent stock buyback and cash stocked up ... this company looks like a great value buy. As a consumer of this company, their upcoming releases and current franchises will keep their position at the top of the gaming industry for at least two years if not more. With Diablo 3 coming up with an auction system, they may be moving toward a groundbreaking concept which may catapult them past ERTS recent social gaming plays. Lastly, their revenue and earnings have been impressive whereas their stock has more or less stayed flat which further leads me to believe this is a great value pick.

What do you think about Activision Blizzard, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!

Top Stocks For 4/5/2012-13

National Health Partners, Inc. (NHPR)

America is without a question the leading country of medical and scientific advances. There always seem to be a new medical breakthrough every time you watch the news or read the paper, especially in the cure of certain diseases. However, medical research requires an enormous amount of money. The U.S. spends the most money on health care yet many people, mainly the working class Americans are still without any type of health insurance and thus are more susceptible to health risks and problems.

National Health Partners, Inc. is a national healthcare savings organization that provides discount healthcare membership programs to uninsured and underinsured people through a national healthcare savings network called “CARExpress.” CARExpress is one of the largest networks of hospitals, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other healthcare providers in the country and is comprised of over 1,000,000 medical professionals that belong to such PPOs as CareMark and Aetna. The company’s primary target customer group is the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance of any kind. The company’s secondary target customer group includes the millions of Americans who lack complete health insurance coverage. The company is headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

National Health Partners Inc recently announced the launch of a new network marketing program by one of its strategic partners, Xpress Healthcare, LLC. Xpress Healthcare has teamed up with CARExpress in an effort to revolutionize the discount healthcare industry while at the same time bringing financial freedom to families across the nation.

By the end of the second quarter of 2011, Xpress Healthcare anticipates adding over 100 new brokers both participating in and promoting National Health Partners’ CARExpress program and should enroll over 2,500 new members.

Xpress also expects its growth to accelerate in the 3rd quarter as it anticipates recruiting an additional 200 new brokers which should generate over 10,000 new CARExpress sales. According to National Health Partners, Offering tremendous growth potential, Xpress Healthcare is well positioned to become the leading marketing arm for its CARExpress and now Strong Sales are projected for 2nd Quarter from this new strategic partnership.

For more information on the company, please visit its website at

www.nationalhealthpartners.com.

Cleantech Transit Inc. (CLNO)

Alternative Energy is a term which is used to describe any source of usable energy intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels. Alternative energy can help us improve the quality of environment we breathe in. Also as our country has tremendous industrial growth it is very important for us to use renewable energy and help make environment better.

Alternative energy is also known by various other names such as clean energy, green energy and renewable energy. Renewable fuel source includes wind, solar and geothermal.

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. recently announced that the commencement of the final permitting prior to going online at Merced. The Merced project is a 500 Kilowatt biomass-generated power plant that is fully constructed, owned and operated by Phoenix Energy (www.phoenixenergy.net). The Merced project received permission for parallel testing to the grid. This testing process would allow Merced to connect to the grid on its own.

For more information about Cleantech Transit, Inc. visit its website
www.cleantechtransitinc.com.

Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE:ETE) announced the availability of its 2010 annual report. The annual report can be accessed at www.regencyenergy.com within the “Investor Relations” section. Printed copies of the 2010 annual report may also be ordered free of charge by contacting Regency Investor Relations at (214) 840-5477 or ir@regencygas.com. Regency will also accept written requests mailed to Regency Energy Partners, Attention: Investor Relations, 2001 Bryan Street, Suite 3700, Dallas, Texas, 75201.

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.

Telecom Argentina S A (NYSE:TEO) announced that the Annual General Ordinary Shareholder’s Meeting held approved a cash dividend distribution in the amount of P$ 915,474,310. The payment of the dividend will be made starting on April 19, 2011. The amount to be distributed is in the equivalent to P$0.93 per share or P$4.65 per ADR, prior to deductions for Personal Asset Tax obligations, as described. For ADR holders, the Record Date is April 18, 2011 and the Payment Date is April 27, 2011. Payment will be made through the Depositary Bank, JP Morgan Chase & Co. For non-ADR holders, the Record Date is also April 18, 2011 and the payment will be available as from April 19, 2011. For these shareholders, the payment will be made through Caja de Valores S.A. in Argentina.

Telecom Argentina S.A., through its subsidiaries, provides fixed-line telecommunication services and other telephone-related services in Argentina. It operates in two segments, Voice, Data, and Internet; and Wireless.

Ameron International Corporation (NYSE:AMN) declared a quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share of common stock, payable May 17, 2011 to stockholders of record on April 28, 2011. Ameron International Corporation is a multinational manufacturer of highly-engineered products and materials for the chemical, industrial, energy, transportation and infrastructure markets. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange (AMN), Ameron is a leading producer of water transmission lines and fabricated steel products, such as wind towers; fiberglass-composite pipe for transporting oil, chemicals and corrosive fluids and specialized materials; and products used in infrastructure projects.

Ameron International Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells engineered products and materials for the chemical, industrial, energy, transportation, and infrastructure industries from its plants in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

__

Netflix is Shooting Starz

Last week was rough for Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX  ) . This week may not get any better.

The video service's streaming contract with Liberty Media's (Nasdaq: LMCA  ) Starz ends on Wednesday.

It's unfortunate timing for Netflix. The dot-com enigma is coming off its largest weekly drop since mid-November, when investors were fuming over a shockingly bad third quarter and a dilutive round of financing.

Last week's 8% drop puts an end -- at least temporarily -- to an impressive turnaround in Wall Street sentiment. As bad as last year's summertime collapse was for Netflix, there was a point earlier this month when Netflix had more than doubled off of its late-November lows.

You won't find too many stocks that double in three months, especially given the baggage that Netflix is carrying.

Let me in
There are plenty of moving parts in the streaming space these days, but the biggest news last week was Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA  ) introducing a new service. Streampix will offer select TV shows and movies to Comcast customers as streams for a mere $4.99 a month. The rub is that the new service will only be made available to Comcast's cable television customers. If they happen to have a "triple play" plan that bundles Comcast's cable, telephone, and Internet services, Streampix will actually be thrown in at no additional cost.

Netflix has gone from being the lone digital smorgasbord operator to the market leader in a quickly crowding niche in a little more than a year.

Investors are nervous, and rightfully so. Netflix is shedding lucrative DVD-based subscribers, and its streaming business is in the red as the company banks on aggressive international expansion.

Things probably aren't as bad for Netflix as the worrywarts may believe.

Netflix has market penetration that no one else can match. Armed with 23.5 million streaming subscribers, no one else can afford to build a digital catalog as deep as Netflix. Losing Starz this week will hurt, but it's not as if there's any platform out there that is somehow better than what Netflix is offering for a reasonable $7.99 a month.

You again
Starz will leave a void.

Eyeing my own virtual queue, nine of the 76 titles in my streaming queue will be gone after Wednesday.

Couch potatoes may not view Starz as more than a second-tier premium movie channel, but Starz Play covers new releases by a few of the top studios.

If your kid, grandchild, or nephew just happens to be a Disney (NYSE: DIS  ) buff, they're going to miss the ability to stream Toy Story 3, A Christmas Carol, and Tangled. Disney live-action releases including Secretariat and the recent Tron reboot will also be on the way out.

Sony (NYSE: SNE  ) was also part of the Starz catalog streaming through Netflix until bandwidth caps were triggered this summer. Sony was able to pull Grown Ups, The Social Network, and the rest of its recent retail releases.

Netflix has been inking deals for new content, but the real test will be on Thursday when couch potato subscribers wake up to see a chunk of their streaming queues no longer available.

Breaking away
Even after peaking earlier this month, Netflix shares were still fetching less than half of its summertime highs. In other words, it's not as if the bulls can say "I told you so" at this point.

Netflix will be challenged. After years of profitable growth, the company is expected to post a loss this year. The competition will be real. No one may match Netflix's offering, but they all have unique ways to compete on either price or platform.

Starz will be gone this week, but the show must go on at Netflix.

Stream on
Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner has been a fan of Netflix as a disruptor for nearly a decade, but there's a new Rule-Breaking mutlibagger that's getting him excited these days. Learn more in a free report that you can check out right now.

FOREX-Euro gains vs US dollar as Fed decision awaited – Reuters

Telegraph.co.ukFOREX-Euro gains vs US dollar as Fed decision awaited
Reuters
Growing optimism that Greece can renegotiate bailout terms * Fed expected to opt for more stimulus * Australian dollar rises to 6-week high vs dollar By …
WORLD FOREX: Euro's Rally Eases As Renewed Caution Weighs InWall Street Journal
Forex Flash: Why 100 bln euros Won't be Enough for Spain – BBHNASDAQ
FX Fundamental AnalysisAction Forex
4-traders
all 12,318 news articles »

{forex} – Forex News

LPL Grabs Pennsylvania Group With 24 FAs, $500M

Delaware Valley Financial Group, based in King of Prussia, Pa., which includes 24 independent advisors with about $500 million in assets, became affiliated with LPL Financial (LPLA) on Wednesday.

“We are happy to welcome Delaware Valley Financial Group and its independent advisors to the LPL Financial broker-dealer and corporate RIA platform,” said Bill Morrissey (left), executive vice president of Business Development at LPL Financial, in a press release.

“DVFG is a distinguished, sophisticated organization with a robust set of businesses,” explained Morrissey. “We look forward to providing them with extensive operational support, not only through our broker-dealer relationship but through a multi-faceted partnership that can assist them in all aspects of practice management support and counsel.”

LPL currently provides technology, clearing, compliance, practice-management and other services to 13,100-plus financial advisors and about 685 financial institutions. It also supports over 4,500 advisors licensed with insurance companies.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with LPL Financial,” said Thomas A. Schirmer, chairman of DVFG, in a statement. “This new partnership provides DVFG Advisors with an unprecedented assortment of practice management and development tools, designed and supported by one of the industry’s finest broker-dealer.”

Over the past week, an LPL team jumped to FSC Securities with about $250 million in assets and to Raymond James (RJF) with about $40 million.

However, in late August, Independent Financial Partners of Tampa, Fla., an independent RIA that uses LPL Financial as its broker-dealer, said it brought on 45 financial advisors in the second quarter. And in mid-August, Bridgeworth Financial of Birmingham, Ala., formed its own RIA and affiliated with LPL's hybrid-RIA platform; the group includes 16 financial advisors and manages about $1 billion in client assets.

“We believe our association with LPL Financial marks the next step in DVFG’s evolution as a leading financial services company,” added Schirmer, “and we look forward to a long and mutually successful affiliation with LPL Financial.”

Canada stocks end lower on global economic concern

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Canadian stocks closed lower Monday, led by losses in the metals and mining sector, after China reduced its economic growth outlook and as data showed that euro-zone business activity fell back into contraction in February.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index CA:GSPTSE �fell 119.87 points, or 1%, to close at 12,523.95, as Wall Street also started the week off on a lower note. Toronto�s benchmark index lost 0.6% last week.

Click to Play China lowers growth target to 7.5%

Leaders have announced the lowering of the 2012 target growth forecast for the Chinese economy to 7.5% from 8%, a move enough to send a few tremors through the world's financial markets. (Photo: AP.)

�Commodities and resource currencies have started out the week trading lower after China cut its GDP growth forecast for this year,� said Colin Cieszynski, market analyst at CMC Markets Canada, in a note. �This initially weighed on stocks as well, along with generally soft service PMI numbers out of Europe.�

China�s government on Monday lowered its economic-growth target to 7.5% from the 8% rate it has kept for the past eight years. Read more on China.

Traders also weighed the latest economic data from Europe and the U.S.

In Europe, the Markit euro-zone composite purchasing managers index fell to 49.3 in February from 50.4 in January. A reading less than 50 indicates contraction in private-sector business activity.

In the U.S., the Institute for Supply Management on Monday said its service index rose to 57.3% last month, from 56.8% in January. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a fall to 55.5%. Read more on ISM service index.

Separately, the Commerce Department reported that factory orders in January fell by 1% to $462.6 billion, but it also upwardly revised December�s gain to 1.4% growth. Economists expected a 1.5% drop for February.

/quotes/zigman/20942 GSPTSE 11,662.59, +156.09, +1.36%

Against that backdrop, Canadian equities followed global stock markets lower, as China�s Shanghai Composite CN:000001 �and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index XX:SXXP �each closed 0.6% lower, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA �fell 0.1%. Read more on U.S. markets.

In Toronto trading, the S&P/TSX Capped Diversifed Metals & Mining Index XX:TTMN �led the losses among the S&P/TSX Composite�s subsectors, losing 4.4% as traders fretted about the potential for a decline in China�s demand for resources.

Shares of Teck Resources Ltd. CA:TCK.B �fell 6%, Inmet Mining Corp. CA:IMN �lost 8.1% and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. CA:FM �ended 5.4% lower.

The S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index XX:TTEN �also declined by 1.8%, with shares of Talisman Energy Inc. CA:TLM �and Suncor Energy Inc. CA:SU �each ending 1.1% lower.

On Friday, Statistics Canada reported that inflation-adjusted gross domestic product expanded by an annualized 1.8% in the fourth quarter following an upwardly revised 4.2% increase in the previous quarter. The growth met economists expectations but was lower than the 2% predicted by the Bank of Canada. Read about Friday�s trading in Canada.

In currencies action Monday, the Canadian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart, with the greenback USDCAD �buying 99.41 Canadian cents, up 0.5% from late Friday.

Aussie a Better Commodity Dollar Than the Loonie

The Australian Dollar (Aussie) and the Canadian Dollar (Loonie) are often referred to as the "commodity dollars," and are seen in this period of commodity strength as favorable to own.

The Aussie has been a superior choice in the past 12 months. It has a greater senstivity to China's economy than the Loonie, which is more geared to the U.S. economy.

As of late, the Aussie has outperformed the S&P 500 (SPY) as well as the BarCap U.S. Aggregate Bond index (BND).

Click to enlarge

Disclosure: We hold SPY and FXA in some but not all managed accounts as of the publication date of this article.

Disclaimer: This article provides opinions and information, but does not contain recommendations or personal investment advise to any specific person for any particular purpose. Do your own research or obtain suitable personal advice. You are responsible for your own investment decisions. This article is presented subject to our full disclaimer found on our site available here.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Top Stocks For 2012-1-13-2

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Thursday August 20, 2009


Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation announces that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Textron, Inc.� (NYSE: TXT) during the period between July 17, 2007 and January 29, 2009, inclusive (the “Class Period”).

Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), a leading provider of online business optimization software, today announced the delivery of CMO Dashboards in collaboration with its extensive agency and technology partner ecosystem. Today, Omniture already delivers millions of dashboards and alerts to more than 5,000 customers every month. With CMO Dashboards, Omniture will extend its reach to senior level marketing executives through new plug-and-play integration and visualization technologies.

Drinks Americas Holdings, Ltd. (OTCBB: DKAM) (the “Company”), a leading owner, developer and marketer of premium beverages associated with renowned icons, including Kid Rock, Donald Trump, Dr. Dre, & Willie Nelson, today announced that it has partnered with newly formed Golden State Beverage, a wine and spirits distribution and marketing company. Golden State Beverage has formalized a deal with Drinks Americas Holdings to take on the distribution of such high profile brands as award winning Trump(R) Super Premium Vodka, Trump(R) Premium Flavored Vodkas, Willie Nelson’s Old Whiskey River Bourbon, Olifant Premium Vodka from Holland and Damiana Liqueur from Mexico.

PureSpectrum, Inc. (Pink Sheets: PSPM) has begun conducting training sessions and attending sales calls with manufacturers’ representatives throughout the country at the same time members of the company’s engineering team are in China to finalize development of additional dimmable lighting products using PureSpectrum’s proprietary dimmable ballast technology.

Nutraceutical International Corporation (Nasdaq: NUTR) acknowledges receipt from Mr. Ryan Drexler of an unsolicited letter dated August 18, 2009, outlining a proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Nutraceutical’s common stock. This proposal was identical in all material respects to a July 15 proposal made by Mr. Drexler that was carefully considered by Nutraceutical’s Board of Directors in consultation with its financial and legal advisors and determined to be not in the best interests of Nutraceutical’s stockholders. Nutraceutical’s Board of Directors has confirmed its view that Mr. Drexler’s proposal to acquire the Company is not in the best interests of Nutraceutical’s stockholders.

MutualFirst Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq: MFSF), the holding company of MutualBank, has announced the Company will pay a cash dividend of $ .12 per share for the third quarter of 2009. The dividend will be payable on September 25, 2009 to shareholders of record on September 11, 2009.

14 Financially Stable Yet Heavily Shorted Stocks

The following is a list of heavily shorted stocks that are financially more stable than their competitors, when comparing the quick ratio and interest coverage ratios.

To create the list, we started with a universe of stocks with short float in excess of 20%. We then narrowed down the universe by only focusing on stocks that have higher quick ratios and interest coverage ratios when compared to their industries.

We're not going to go into detailed analysis for each company. The goal here is to give you a starting point for your own analysis.

Short float data sourced from Finviz, financial stability data and industry comps sourced from Reuters.

click for expanded image

1. Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT): Regional Airlines Industry. Market cap of $837.22M. Short float at 27.4%, which implies a short ratio of 16.94 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 1.36 vs. industry average at 0.72. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 95.33 vs. industry average at 0.04.

2. Volcom Inc. (VLCM): Apparel Footwear & Accessories Industry. Market cap of $516.76M. Short float at 18.11%, which implies a short ratio of 21.88 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 5.75 vs. industry average at 1.25. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 25.57 vs. industry average at 0.8.

3. Bio-Reference Laboratories Inc. (BRLI): Medical Laboratories & Research Industry. Market cap of $627.84M. Short float at 15.54%, which implies a short ratio of 21.56 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 1.94 vs. industry average at 0.87. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 24.45 vs. industry average at 1.21.

4. Synaptics Inc. (SYNA): Computer Peripherals Industry. Market cap of $923.6M. Short float at 33.49%, which implies a short ratio of 16.04 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 3.26 vs. industry average at 1.07. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 15.69 vs. industry average at 0.85.

5. Core Laboratories NV (CLB): Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Industry. Market cap of $3.54B. Short float at 20.47%, which implies a short ratio of 23.71 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 1.03 vs. industry average at 0.96. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 10.95 vs. industry average at 4.66.

6. Cash America International, Inc. (CSH): Credit Services Industry. Market cap of $1.02B. Short float at 16.36%, which implies a short ratio of 18.39 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 3.56 vs. industry average at 1.56. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 7.24 vs. industry average at 0.16.

7. Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO): Business Services Industry. Market cap of $1.02B. Short float at 15.64%, which implies a short ratio of 17.62 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 2.89 vs. industry average at 2.71. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 5.68 vs. industry average at 0.53.

8. NutriSystem Inc. (NTRI): Consumer Services Industry. Market cap of $517.63M. Short float at 31.83%, which implies a short ratio of 18.25 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 2.12 vs. industry average at 0.88. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 5.17 vs. industry average at 0.18.

9. Cabela's Inc. (CAB): Sporting Goods Stores Industry. Market cap of $1.3B. Short float at 24.00%, which implies a short ratio of 26.6 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 2.23 vs. industry average at 1.12. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 5.12 vs. industry average at 0.72.

10. Greatbatch, Inc. (GB): Medical Appliances & Equipment Industry. Market cap of $546.84M. Short float at 11.07%, which implies a short ratio of 19.93 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 1.61 vs. industry average at 1.33. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 2.97 vs. industry average at 1.73.

11. Delek US Holdings Inc. (DK): Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing Industry. Market cap of $399.69M. Short float at 11.93%, which implies a short ratio of 23.71 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 0.39 vs. industry average at 0.08. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 2.88 vs. industry average at 0.16.

12. HEALTHSOUTH Corp. (HLS): Specialized Health Services Industry. Market cap of $1.7B. Short float at 13.61%, which implies a short ratio of 19.21 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 1.29 vs. industry average at 0.87. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 2.01 vs. industry average at 1.21.

13. American Commercial Lines Inc. (ACLI): Shipping Industry. Market cap of $443.92M. Short float at 14.8%, which implies a short ratio of 16.56 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 1 vs. industry average at 0.98. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 1.84 vs. industry average at 0.03.

14. Zoltek Companies Inc. (ZOLT): Industrial Electrical Equipment Industry. Market cap of $344.0M. Short float at 17.2%, which implies a short ratio of 24.78 days. MRQ Quick Ratio at 2.43 vs. industry average at 1.08. TTM Interest Coverage Ratio at 1.32 vs. industry average at 0.04.

Disclosure: No positions

American Tower: This Is How a Trade Should Work

American Tower Corp (AMT) Long Strangle Option

Looking back at the historical options activity on American Tower at the end of May when its shares were publicly trading at $40.99 one investor appears to have sold puts in exchange for calls.

Today's sell-off in stocks highlights the pullback from a recent gain to $47.50 for this stock, for which a bullish strategy seems to have paid off well.

  • Ahead of the two-month rally in its stock, an investor sold 10,000 put options at the $35 strike expiring in January 2011
  • bought the same number of $45 strike calls with the same expiry.
  • Each contract was worth $2.00 at the time. (Click chart to enlarge)

Today the short put position appears to have been covered at 70 cents while the calls traded at $4.00 each. The position was effectively cost nothing to implement was today sold for a gross $3.30 gain.

This is what we want to see! This is nice. A long term strangle play that moves like we want it to. It is a perfect example of how the stock moves one way and the value of one option increases to the point that it is worth taking profits and buying out our positions. We all should take note of this type of trade.

Disclosure: No position

Usiminas reshuffling staff: union

RIO DE JANEIRO (MarketWatch) -- Brazilian steelmaker Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais (USIM5.BR, USZNY), or Usiminas, is reshuffling employees in the interests of efficiency but isn't firing en masse, a union leader representing workers at the company's Ipatinga works said Wednesday.

Usiminas's new management has decided to move about 1,400 maintenance workers from its capital-goods subsidiary Usiminas Mecanica, or Usimec, at Ipatinga in Minas Gerais state to the Ipatinga steelworks, Luiz Carlos Miranda, president of the Ipatinga Metalworkers' Union Sindipa, said in an interview.

Around 800 of the total have already been transferred and around 200 jobs will be lost as a result of the move, mainly by natural wastage including employees entering retirement, Miranda said.

Brasil Economico newspaper reported Tuesday that Usiminas was preparing to fire 1,300 people, of which 300 had already left the company with the remaining 1,000 to leave the steelmaker in coming months. Usiminas said it had no comment on the report and Sindipa said the report was untrue.

In 2009, when Brazilian steelmakers Usiminas, Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA (CSNA3.BR, SID) and mining company Vale SA (VALE, VALE5.BR) all laid off workers as steel markets slumped amid the global economic crisis, Usiminas decided to shift 1,300 maintenance workers from Usiminas to Usimec, Miranda said.

Because this move wasn't entirely successful, according to the unionist, Usiminas's new management has decided to move the maintenance workers back to Usiminas's Ipatinga steelworks, where they will basically be doing the same jobs as before. Usiminas currently has 7,200 employees at Ipatinga and 6,500 at Usiminas Mecanica, Miranda said.

The workforce is protected from layoffs by a accord between the union and the company, Miranda said.

A Usiminas spokesman said he was unable to speak on labor questions at the steel company.

Sindipa's Miranda said Usiminas's employees are reasonably satisfied with the new management at the steelmaker, following Latin American steelmaker Ternium SA's TX entry into Usiminas in January as a controlling shareholder.

"The last four months have been better than the last four years," he remarked.

Miranda said he understood plans may be proceeding to open Usimec's capital so that it may be traded on the Bovespa stock exchange as a separate company. Usimec is "doing well" because of new orders for capital goods and equipment needed for infrastructure work in the run up to Brazil's hosting of events including the World Cup in 2014, the union leader said.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

This Is the Worst IPO of 2011

This hasn't been a particularly good year for IPOs. The first half of the year started off well with LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD  ) and Youku.com (NYSE: YOKU  ) popping dramatically above their IPO prices, but nearly everything since, including the two aforementioned companies, has subsequently fallen off the wagon.

Internet service companies and social media sites have lined up in droves to capitalize on precious capital that could be used to expand their businesses even faster. The only problem with this is these companies are choosing to bring only a parcel of their projected outstanding shares to offering which only confuses short-term traders and artificially pumps up the price of the stock. While it may create a "euphoric" one-day effect, it does little to create long-term value for shareholders.

But, every once in a while an IPO comes around that's literally so bad that no amount of makeup can hide its flaws. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Angie's List (Nasdaq: ANGI  ) , easily the worst IPO of 2011.

Angie's List is a direct competitor to Yelp in that it gathers customer reviews of professionals. The idea here is that consumers will use Angie's List as a one-stop shop for choosing their next handyman and in turn pay a membership fee to get honest advice from fellow members. It's a nice little pipedream. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked for 16 years and counting.

Angie's List not only has been losing money since its inception, but it has been diluting shareholder equity by issuing shares in order to pay for its day-to-day operations. Add the new costs associated with being a publicly listed company and the more stringent audit requirements that go with being on a national exchange and you have a recipe for even larger losses than before. In fact, we're already seeing those losses increase from $19 million year-to-date last year to more than $43 million this year.

The primary problem with Angie's List -- other than the key factor that it can't and will never turn a profit -- is its inability to stand out from its competition. I could just as easily see Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) or Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO  ) stepping in and literally whipping up a competing service overnight. The barrier to entry is also very minimal, leaving little security that Angie's List has any long-term potential.

I give Angie's List three to four years before it caves in to its unfavorable customer capture costs and goes the way of the dodo. I'm so confident that Angie's List will not succeed that I'm willing to bet my CAPS points on it. Here's to what I hope will be my second bankruptcy charm.

Does Angie's List have any chance of turning things around, or is this stock going to wind up in the graveyard next to pets.com? Share your thoughts in the comments section below and consider backing it up with a CAPS call of your own!

Apple: Sprint Paid $20 Billion To Get iPhone? Is It Exclusive?

The Wall Street Journal’s Joann Lublin and Spencer Ante this afternoon report that Sprint-Nextel (S) agreed in advance to purchase 30.5 million units of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone in order to win the right to carry the device, citing multiple anonymous sources.

The authors say that amounts to a commitment on Sprint’s part of $20 billion over the course of four years.

Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone at an event at its headquarters tomorrow morning, and Sprint is widely expected to start carrying the device for the first time.

Update: BoyGeniusReport’s Jonathan Geller this afternoon writes in response to the WSJ story that he had already been told, over the course of several weeks, by an “industry contact” who is “incredibly solid” that Sprint will be granted the next iPhone — dubbed the “iPhone 5,” as an “exclusive.” The deal would have Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T) making due with a lesser model, an “iPhone 4S,” as Geller calls it, for another quarter or so until they are allowed to carry the iPhone 5.

Remarks Geller, “I told my source that even if Sprint paid Apple hundreds of millions, a Sprint iPhone 5 exclusive still would never happen. $20 billion in guaranteed iPhone sales, though? We�ll see tomorrow.

Geller offers a breakdown of what the two devices’ features might include.

Sprint shares closed the day down 31 cents, or 10%, at $2.73 and were unchanged in late trading.

The Fastest-Growing Precious Metals Stocks

Why are investors willing to pay only 10 times earnings for some stocks, but 20, 50, even 100 times earnings for others?

The short answer: growth. Companies that can grow their earnings meaningfully could make lofty current P/E ratios look cheap in hindsight.

Of course, any company can promise a rosy, growth-rich future. Figuring out which companies can actually deliver is far trickier. In this series, I take the first step by identifying companies that have put up the best growth track records in their respective sectors.

Below, I've listed the top sales growers in Precious Metals and Minerals over the last five years. Here's how to interpret each data column.

  • Five-year sales growth: I rank each company's sales growth, to capture its pure trailing expansion without regard to the vagaries of earnings.
  • Five-year EPS growth: Since sales growth means nothing if it doesn't ultimately fall to the bottom line, I've also included each company's five-year trailing EPS growth rate.
  • Five-year analyst estimates: This column shows us how much EPS growth analysts expect over the next five years. Just keep in mind that analysts tend to grossly overestimate a company's prospects.
  • Five-year ROIC range: Return on invested capital basically shows you how efficiently a company is converting its debt and equity into profits. We want companies that can do a lot with a little. By looking at the five-year range, we can start to gauge both the power and the consistency of a company's profit engine.

Company

5-Year Sales Growth

5-Year EPS Growth

5-Year Analyst Estimates

5-Year ROIC Range

Silvercorp Metals (NYSE: SVM  ) 113.7% NM N/A (7.7%) / 32.7%
Great Panther Silver Ltd (AMEX: GPL  ) 104.7% NM N/A (41.4%) / 13.7%
Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW  ) 40.5% 38.6% N/A 2.8% / 12%
Pan American Silver (Nasdaq: PAAS  ) 34.2% NM N/A 0.1% / 13.1%
Coeur d'Alene Mines (NYSE: CDE  ) 31.9% (33%) 25% (4.1%) / 5.2%
Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL  ) 26.3% 1.2% 12.2% (0.3%) / 12.8%

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. NM = not meaningful; EPS growth that is NM results from losses during the period. N/A = not applicable; analyst estimates that are N/A result from lack of analyst coverage.

Use the table above as a first step to help you generate ideas for your own further research. Once you identify stocks worth a closer look, the following three steps will help you further assess their growth prospects:

  • Carefully study the table for possible danger signs, such as high sales growth but low EPS growth, analyst growth expectations significantly trailing past growth, and low ROIC figures. Then follow the trail.
  • Find out how the company achieved its prior growth: organically, or via acquisition? Can it sustain that previous growth?
  • Pay attention to how management plans to implement its growth plans. Does its strategy seem prudent and plausible to you?

Remember: The more profitable, efficient, and predictable growth a company can achieve, the more we investors should be willing to pay.

Learn more about any of the stocks that interest you by adding them to our My Watchlist tool. You'll get access to all the latest Motley Fool analysis, organized by company.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Why The Market Is Still Wrong About RIM

Looking at the chart below, you could probably conclude at least one of two things: either Research in Motion (RIMM) is in complete disarray, or the market’s irrational exuberance of late 2008 is currently being complemented by a period of investor apathy.

Click to enlarge images


Source: Bloomberg

I would argue that there is truth to both theories, but in the end, RIM is a solid buy at current market prices because of the usually cited and sometimes ignored reasons, mainly:

  • Solid earnings
  • New QNX software coming to market
  • Smartphone of choice for the business professional
  • Smartphone market is growing
  • Potential takeover target

But that is not enough for most investors. For several years now, there has existed an inverse relationship between the street’s valuation of RIM and reality. Since August 2008, RIM’s stock price has crashed, recovered somewhat, traded sideways, and crashed again – with seemingly no end in sight. The reality has been an altogether different matter, however, as RIM’s earnings have grown every year for the past 10 years. On a cash basis, the story is similar as there has been steady growth in the firm’s annual cash flow over that same period. RIM’s financial statements are so clean and easy to understand that it does not require a sophisticated investor to read them. Every dollar of revenue follows straight through to the bottom line. In the fiscal year 2011, RIM posted its biggest year to date with earnings of $3.4 billion, or $6.36 per share. Yet even as the company continued to perform and grow, there appeared to be a disconnect between those results and the stock price.


Source: Research in Motion

So what’s the problem? The Smartphone market has exploded, which in turn has attracted new entrants to the industry. Apple’s (AAPL) iphone has proven to be an exceptional product and has turned that company into the world’s largest. New Android devices are also becoming extremely popular and RIM is being squeezed. Revenue from last quarter (second quarter of fiscal 2012) [see transcript] was $4.2 billion, down 17% from the quarter previous and 9% from the same quarter in 2010. The reason for this decrease is twofold. First, sales for RIM’s hardware devices significantly fell off pace; and second, the hardware devices that were sold tended to be lower end models.

There is a saying in sports that you’re only as good as your last game. For RIM, it would appear you’re only as good as your last fiscal quarter. The company has not been able to match the growth it enjoyed during the mid 2000s, which has resulted in missed targets. The demise of RIM, however, started well before RIM’s recent faltering when the company was performing admirably. No investor wants to own the next Nokia (NOK), and many are quick to draw comparisons between the two companies. But RIM is not Nokia, and it is not the growth stock it once was. But that does not mean it’s not worth owning at current market prices.

RIM will continue to generate large amounts of cash into the foreseeable future. Even if the company continues to lose market share to the iPhone and other Android devices, the size of the market is growing. RIM is currently trading at about 4 times earnings which is unprecedented in the company's history. There is value in this company, and the reasons noted above for owning RIM are all true. The market was wrong when it valued RIM at $150 per share in June of 2008, and it is wrong now valuing it at $22 per share.

Disclosure: I am long RIMM.

Best Stocks To Invest In 2012-1-5-1

Southern Union Company (NYSE:SUG) announced that its shareholders overwhelmingly approved, at a special meeting held this morning, the proposed merger with Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. Approval of the merger proposal required the affirmative vote of the majority of the shareholders entitled to vote. Approximately 80 percent of the outstanding shares of Southern Union common stock as of the record date were voted at the special meeting. Of the shares that were voted, approximately 98 percent voted in favor of the merger.

Southern Union Company, headquartered in Houston, is one of the nation’s leading diversified natural gas companies, engaged primarily in the transportation, storage, gathering, processing and distribution of natural gas.

Majestic Gold Corp. (MJGCF.PK)

Majestic Gold Corp. engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in China. The company focuses on its gold project located in the prolific gold region of Song Jiagou in eastern Shandong Province. Majestic Gold Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Gold was first discovered as shining, yellow nuggets. “Gold is where you find it,” so the saying goes, and gold was first discovered in its natural state, in streams all over the world. No doubt it was the first metal known to early hominids.
Gold became a part of every human culture. Its brilliance, natural beauty, and luster, and its great malleability and resistance to tarnish made it enjoyable to work and play with.
Because gold is dispersed widely throughout the geologic world, its discovery occurred to many different groups in many different locales. And nearly everyone who found it was impressed with it, and so was the developing culture in which they lived.

Majestic Gold Corp. (MJGCF) has arranged a $10,000,000 loan to advance its Song Jiagou project in China. Nine million dollars ($9,000,000) from the proceeds from the loan will be used by the Company to in connection with its Song Jiagou project and the balance of one million dollars ($1,000,000) for general working capital purposes.

The loan will have a one year term and loan principal will be convertible at the option of the lender in whole or in part into common shares (”Shares”) of the Company until twelve months from the date of the loan advance at the price of $0.205 per Share. The loan will bear interest at the rate of 7.5% per annum, payable on maturity, and accrued and unpaid interest will be convertible at the option of the lender in whole or in part into shares of the Company until twelve months from the date of the loan advance at Market Price at the time of conversion.

The lender is at arm’s length from the Company and will not become an insider as a result of any conversion of principal and interest. All shares issued on any conversion of loan principal or interest will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of advance of loan proceeds. The loan is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.

As additional consideration for the loan, the Company has agreed to forward at least $9 million to Majestic Yantai Gold Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company owned 94% by the Company to be used to further advance its Song Jiagou project. The Borrower has also agreed to a 90 day period for reciprocal due diligence reviews and discussions for the possible further involvement of the Lender in the Song Jiagou project.

In the event that no further agreement is reached between the Lender and the Company during the 90 day period, then the loan and a minimum of seven (7) months interest will automatically convert to shares in the Company at a price of $0.205 per share and the interest at Market Price respectively. In addition the Company is pleased to announce that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of up to 15,000,000 shares to be issued at the price of $0.20 per share for gross proceeds of $3,000,000.

For more information please visit official website of MJGCF.PK: http://www.majesticgold.net

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE:PEG) announced the closing of the sale of the 1801 California Street building, Denver, Colorado , to a consortium of investors led by Brookfield Office Properties Inc. The property was sold “as-is” for $215 million. The building, constructed in 1983, is a 54-story, 1.37 million square foot office building that was previously commonly referred to as the “Qwest Building.” PSEG has owned the building since 1991. The sale of the Qwest Building is part of PSEG’s ongoing efforts to focus on energy investments in the United States. The building was owned by PSEG Energy Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of PSEG. The financial impact of this transaction will be reflected in income from continuing operations and not in operating earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Public Service Enterprise Group is a publicly traded diversified energy company with annual revenues of more than $12 billion , and three principal subsidiaries: PSEG Power, Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) and PSEG Energy Holdings.

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend payment of $0.23 per share. The regular quarterly cash dividend is payable on March 1, 2012 to all shareholders of record as of February 3, 2012.

Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. With headquarters in Voorhees, N.J., the company employs more than 7,000 dedicated professionals who provide drinking water, wastewater and other related services to approximately 15 million people in more than 30 states as well as parts of Canada.

Why Apple Has Reached A Crossroad And Needs iTV

In my last article I wrote that:

The key attribute companies that grow for decades possess is not only the growth potential of its current key products, but also the ability of its management and employees to continually create new products that grow into key ones.

The company that has most obviously fulfilled these criteria over the last decade is Apple (AAPL). The iPod, iPhone and iPad were all products that created new markets, and in doing so generated enormous value for Apple.

In this article, I will argue that Apple's success at creating whole new markets may not continue and attempt to bring some balance to the debate over Apple's future. For a more detailed analysis of the roots of long term growth, please visit my last article entitled, "Why Google beats Facebook as a Phil Fischer Stock".

Apple's Competitive Advantage

Unlike Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook (FB), Apple's key competitive advantage lies in the physical attraction of its products. With the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple was able to package good software into products that were not only innovatively sized, but also physically attractive. This physique is a major reason why Apple's products have been tremendously successful. In other words, one of Apple's most important competitive advantage lies with the physics of its hardware.

The God of Gaps

Figure - Can you spot a gap?

But even Apple cannot overcome the laws of physics, and the physical gaps which existed several years ago have now been filled. Below is a comparison of the screen sizes of several revolutionary products:

Screen Size (Measured Diagonally in Inches)

Phone - Nokia 3210

1.5

Smartphone - iPhone 4s

3.5

Samsung Galaxy Tab

7.7

Tablet - IPad2

9.7

Netbook - MacBook Air

11, 13

Laptop -MacBook Pro

13, 15, 17

Desktop -iMac

21.5, 27

The Nokia 3210 was one of the most successful phones of the early Noughties. At this stage people typically had three types of technological devices available -a desktop computer with a large screen at one end, a smaller laptop which acted as a portable desktop, and a phone with a tiny 1.5 inch screen for communicating. A massive gap existed between devices with 1.5 and 13 inch screens.

The release of the iPhone in 2007 gave people a device that still fit in their pocket, but had a screen at 3.5 inches that was over double the size of their current phones. The genius of the iPhone was that the larger screen enabled it to carry out many of the functions that a computer could. The gap had thus narrowed to still sizable 3.5 and 13 inches.

Apple, and Steve Jobs in particular, saw this gap and made a conscious effort to fill it. Indeed, at the launch of the iPad in 2010, Steve Jobs said that:

The question has arisen lately - is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that's between a laptop and a smartphone...[iPad] is remarkable. It's so much more intimate than a laptop, and it's so much more capable than a smartphone with this gorgeous large display.

Steve Job's genius was thus to have the vision to repackage software that was already available into a physical size that wasn't available. With a screen size of 9.7 inches, the iPad has successful bridged the gap between the smartphone and laptop. The consumer could now choose from the full range of screen sizes - all major gaps had been filled.

The Irony of Success

Yet the irony of success is that there are no major gaps left for Apple to fill. Looking back at the table above, there were only two gaps that leave the technology industry and Apple with any room for innovation:

  • The first of these is between the iPad's 9.7 inches and the MacBook Pro's 13 inches. This gap explains the recent growth in Netbooks/Ultrabooks running Microsoft's Windows. The release of an 11inch MacBook Air in late 2010 was Apple's response. As a slightly smaller and lighter version of a laptop, netbooks like the MacBook Air are clearly not revolutionary products. Indeed, Steve Jobs said at the launch of the iPad that "netbooks aren't better at anything". The problem for Apple is that products like the MacBook Air, that are moderately successful but not revolutionary like the iPhone or iPad, could represent the future.
  • The only other gap that still exists lies between the iPhones's 3.5 inches and the iPad 9.7 inches. Can Apple create a revolutionary product in this gap? The only guide we have at the moment is the Samsung Galxy Tab, which at 7.7 inches has made an attempt. Yet Steve Jobs also blasted it, saying in October 2010 that a 7 inch iPad mini would be "useless" and dead on arrival . Whilst it has achieved some sales, the results point to a product that, like the netbook, could have moderate success at best. A product in this size wouldn't fit in your pocket, yet wouldn't offer the capabilities of a tablet either. Intuitively, it doesn't seem to have much future.
  • Why iTV Could be the Way Out of the Crossroad

    With the space between the iPod Nano and iMac becoming increasingly saturated, Apple has reached a crossroad which points in three directions:

    1. Create a product smaller than the Nano

    This doesn't seem feasible as a product with an even smaller screen would be impractical to use.

    2. Invent a product so special that it thrives in a saturated market

    While Apple's history of successful innovation means that this is certainly possible, this article has shown that many of its products have in fact been part of a systematic process to provide a range of sizes for consumers that is now reaching its conclusion. While one wouldn't bet against Apple, a revolutionary invention isn't something that any prudent investor should count on.

    3. Create a product larger than the iMac

    The development of an iTV offers Apple's most logical way out of this problem. By offering products with screen sizes of 30, 40 inches and above, Apple would finally offer a complete range of products. Apple could then work on connecting its 'ecosystem' of products through services such as iCloud. Indeed, an interconnected 'ecosystem' seems to be the direction the technology industry is heading in. Microsoft's next operating system Windows 8, for instance, will run on phones, tablets, Xbox and traditional computers.

    Conclusion

    The genius of Apple and Steve Jobs was to have the vision to see a future where currently available software could be repackaged into hardware sizes that would enable consumers to do different things. But the gaps have now been filled, and it will be increasingly difficult for Apple to leverage the physical beauty of its products with new and revolutionary hardware.

    Yet with so much success over the last decade, this is exactly what many investors are expecting. Even if Apple continues to grow its current products rapidly and introduces a number of moderately successful products like the MacBook Air investors won't be satisfied - they expect more revolutionary products.

    Apple is thus at a crossroad - without any significant gaps left to fill it must either create a revolutionary product outside the current range of sizes, or face a future that leaves investors disappointed. Moving into the television market with iTV offers a way out. Will it succeed? We will have a better idea after the AGM on the 23rd.

    Disclosure: I am long GOOG, MSFT.

    Buffalo Wild Wings Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

    Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

    What: Shares of wing slinger Buffalo Wild Wings (Nasdaq: BWLD  ) were smoking hot today, gaining 17% after announcing some tasty fourth-quarter earnings.

    So what: As the big spike in B-Wild's stock suggests, the numbers for the final quarter of the year looked great. Total revenue was up 35% from the prior year, while earnings per share jumped 33% to $0.73. The strong top-line growth was driven in large part by outstanding performance at company-owned restaurants. Revenue at those locations climbed 36% on an 8.9% increase in comparable-store sales.

    Of course, no company gets this kind of love from Mr. Market if it doesn't perform well in the quarterly Wall Street beauty contest -- that is, the comparison of the company's actual results to Wall Street's average estimates. In this case, Buffalo Wild Wings beat on both the top and bottom line. Analysts were expecting earnings per share of just $0.67 on revenue of $211 million.

    Now what: A longtime Fool favorite and a current recommendation of multiple Motley Fool newsletter services, there's a lot to like about Buffalo Wild Wings. With searing growth as in the 2011 fourth quarter, investors couldn't be blamed for paying a pretty penny for B-Wild shares, but for a value-focused investor like me, the current valuation -- which puts shares at 30 times 2011 earnings -- is more likely to give me indigestion than anything else.

    That's a risk-averse view that's kept me away from some poor picks, but it's also left me merely enjoying the wings while B-Wild's stock has absolutely crushed the rest of the market over the past few years. Management noted that 2012 has started off on a great note, and it's looking for 20% earnings growth in 2012. This is a sharp management team that has consistently delivered in the past, so even if I'm not actively betting on the stock, you won't catch me betting against it.

    Want to keep up to date on Buffalo Wild Wings? Add it to your watchlist.