ways to make money online 2012

Hydrokinetic Power is the Next Wave in Cheap Energy

2012-02-29T14:03:00.001-08:00

In an era of cheap capital, emerging technology companies could provide investors the biggest bang for the buck we've seen in years.

The key is finding a market that already has billions of dollars in pent up demand - like cheap energy.

Of all the cheap alternatives available to us today, I'm most excited by hydrokinetic power systems for the simple reason that the oceans contain enough energy to potentially support more than 50% of US demand alone, according to the US Department of Energy.

In case you are not familiar with the term, hydrokinetic systems produce power from the water's kinetic energy. It's quite literally power from the motion in the ocean.

Critics charge there are limits involved because the technology we need to make, transmit and store wave-based energy is primitive and prohibitively expensive.

And they're right... it is, or at least has been to date.

That's why despite years of effort and billions of dollars in government-sponsored financing, there are a mere 5 megawatts of wave-generated energy being created worldwide.

According to Forbes Magazine, that's only enough to light 4,000 U.S. homes.

Yet studies estimate that two-thirds of the world's economically feasible hydropower has yet to be exploited. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of this untapped energy is concentrated in South America, Asia and Africa.

That's my kind of opportunity - but it will require a sea change in our thinking (pun absolutely intended).

The Rising Tide in Hydrokinetic Power

That's because traditional "alternative" power choices tend to evolve in terms of how applications like solar, hydro, thermal and gas production ties into the grid. As such, they're dependent on environmental variables that come and go.

On the other hand, hydrokinetic systems really are the grid. By! placing turbines, bobbers and impellers into large bodies of water, they become part of the very system they're tapping into.

And it's a whopper of a system.

The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that the total energy potential for hydrokinetic power may be 100 Gigawatts by 2050 or enough to power 67 million homes while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 80 million metric tons. That's, incidentally, the amount of power produced by 20-30 coal fired power plants. So we're not talking chump change here.

There are many benefits, not the least of which is continuity.

For example, despite the fact that Katrina wiped out an area the size of Great Britain and devastated many of the power plants in the area, the area's rivers kept flowing and the ocean kept producing waves.

In Japan, the situation is much the same. As recently as December 2011 only six of the nation's 54 reactors remained in operation, according to Marketwatch.

This is making fuel costs skyrocket and negatively impacting Japanese profit margins despite all the cash and effort being poured into that nation's recovery.

As an island nation that's heavily dependent on nuclear power with now extremely apparent risks, the potential for harvesting water is significant, considering that the entire nation is a series of islands quite literally surrounded by boundless energy.

Closer to home, we've got the Hudson, the Missouri and the Colorado Rivers to contend with in addition to strong tidal currents and waves along both coasts - all of which could be exploited for power production.

Environmentalists charge that the systems will disrupt natural habitats effectively creating gigantic blenders or cuisinarts that aren't fish friendly, create underwater acoustic pollution or otherwise disrupt maritime habitats.

Not to dismiss any of! these concerns, but I think the demands outweigh the bureaucratic red tape in an age where energy demand is rising and rapidly becoming an issue of national security rather than luxury.

Two Hydrokinetic Power Companies to Keep an Eye On

Here are two companies worth watching. One is public and "investable" today. The other is still private but getting ready to commercialize a full-scale version of its core product.

Ocean Power Technologies (Nasdaq: OPTT) - Based in New Jersey, the company is tiny with a market cap of a mere $36.39 million and change. It's running at a loss and according to Yahoofinance.com sports negative earnings of $1.71 per share. That is entirely understandable when you recognize $120 million they've spent developing their proprietary PowerBuoy wave generators.

PowerBuoys look like gigantic thumbtacks comprised of a movable float, a base plate and a long spar that holds everything together. Each one is capable of producing 150 kilowatts using nothing more than the piston like action of waves.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) recently partnered with the company to help with development and logistics. Presumably Lockheed Martin will help with costs as well.

Earnings are scheduled for March 9 and I can hardly wait.

Columbia Power Technologies (still private) - Columbia is based in my backyard in nearby Corvallis, Oregon. Although it's still private, the Company is worth watching because it has already deployed a version of its SeaRay generator in Puget Sound and is set to commercialize its technology within the next two years.

Unlike the PowerBuoys, SeaRay generators look like a big oil barrel with floating wings. Essentially the core barrel, for lack of a better term, is a magnetic coil that produces energy when the wings move up and down on the waves. The intent is to use as few moving parts as possible - in t! his case two.

The company has partnered with angel investors and received some $8.5 million in grants from both the Department of Energy and U.S. Navy.

This month, they'll be retrieving the SeaRay from the water and beginning work on the full-scale version called a "Manta" with the intent to deploy it in 2013.

There is no word on commercialization yet but with more than 63% of anticipated wave-based energy capacity yet to be developed, there is undoubtedly time.

Not to mention "alternative" alternatives we haven't yet begun to envision but which are undoubtedly being developed in a garage somewhere.

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International Investing: Why U.S. Investors are "Boxed Out" of Big Global Profits

2012-02-29T10:11:00.001-08:00

Caesars Entertainment (CZR) went public in an unusual stock offering today, and shares are already way above the offering price. In fact, in midday trading they were trading hands at $13.91 per share, 57% above the $9 offering price.

But the dynamics of this odd IPO make it difficult to determine just how successful it has been.

Private equity firms Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital took the company private in 2008. In the IPO today, Caesars sold 1.8 million shares, or about 1.4% of the company, on the public market. Those shares were basically granted to the company by private investors who wanted to gain some liquidity for the shares they got at the time of the leveraged buyout.

At the current share price, the company’s equity value is below $2 billion, versus about $5.4 billion when the company first tried and failed to go public in 2010.

For more on this unique IPO, read Andrew Bary’s article from yesterday on Barrons.com.

Coinstar Shares Soared: What You Need to Know

2012-02-28T19:04:00.001-08:00

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 Coinstar (Nasdaq: CSTR ) surged 19% today after the Redbox parent posted market-topping quarterly results and announced plans to acquire NCR's (NYSE: NCR ) DVD-kiosk business.

So what: Coinstar's big fourth-quarter beat -- EPS of $1.00 versus the consensus of just $0.65 -- suggests that Redbox is gaining customers from rival Netflix, which lost 2.8 million DVD subscribers last quarter. When you couple that momentum with the decision to pick up another 10,000 kiosks from NCR -- also up big today on the asset sale and a blowout quarter -- it's clear that Coinstar is gaining a strong foothold in the space.

Now what: For full-year 2012, management now sees core EPS of $3.80-$4.30 on revenue of $2.08 billion-$2.25 billion. "Moving forward we are confident in our ability to execute enabling us to generate positive cash flows even as we fund our organic growth and strategic initiatives," CFO J. Scott Di Valerio said. However, with the stock now up about 45% over the past month, I'd wait for some kind of a pullback before buying into that optimism.�

Zynga: BTIG Lauds Founder Pincus’s “Seminar” from 2009

2012-02-28T15:17:00.001-08:00

BTIG Research’s Rich Greenfield today reiterates a positive view on Internet gaming operation Zynga (ZNGA), and advises investors take a look at a video from way back in October of 2009 in which founder and CEO Mark Pincus explains what sets the company apart.

Greenfield made an appearance on CNBC to discuss his positive outlook on the stock.

Among the things that Greenfield picks out are Pincus’s comments in the video are the principle of something called� “ghetto testing,” a kind of skunkworks for game development. Greenfield summarizes ghetto testing as� “essentially empowering employees, especially game designers to build the games of their dreams. �How would you market your idea in five words, then put a link up for five�minutes�online to do a survey. �You instantly get a sense of the �heat� around the idea.”

Shares of Zynga are up 41 cents, or 4%, at $10.46.

essentially empowering employees, especially game designers to build the games of their dreams. �How would you market your idea in five words, then put a link up for five�minutes�online to do a survey. �You instantly get a sense of the �heat� around the idea.

Read more: http://www.btigresearch.com/2012/01/30/zynga-means-play-but-its-founder-mark-pincus-plays-to-win/#more-14006#ixzz1kyNBiIaR

Auto Commission Bot Review And Official Website

2012-02-28T11:34:00.001-08:00

In network advertising many of us have struggles with fear. We’re afraid to fail, and occasionally were even afraid to succeed. Our fear shows up in the form of procrastination, excuses, and sometimes even by doing endless amounts of personal development.

three Ways to Help Your Network Advertising Mindset when you Struggle with Fear

1) Understand It’s Ok-It’s ok to have concern. In fact, most network marketers deal with concern. If you are stretching yourself to reach new levels of success, it’s going to consider you out of one’s comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong with you for feeling that way. If you’ve by no means jumped out of an airplane, you would most likely be afraid.

I would personally consider that a normal reaction. If you’ve never built a global company, you’re going to require to discover some things that you have never had to learn before. Let it be Ok that it is not always comfortable.

2) Consider Motion – When you get focused on your fears there’s a part of one’s brain that starts to over analyze every thing, but whenever you take motion you’ll actually believe differently about what’s happening. Motion can literally dispel concern. A lot of times when I’m personally afraid, it is simply because I’m overloaded by every thing that needs to be accomplished.

When this happens forget attempting to complete every thing all at once. Just ask yourself, “What’s 1 little step I can consider correct now”? Frequently, doing just that one little thing is all you need to break past the paralysis.

3) Use a System -One of the reasons you’re fearful is that you do not know what to complete. In that case your fear is truly a valid one.

You need system that helps you discover new interested people to talk to, and helps you get new people started successfully. When you have a program that you simply know and can teach, then you’ll have le! ss fear about moving forward.

I strongly recommend to get the Auto Commission Bot. However you have to read the whole Auto Commission Bot Review here.

Evaluating Commercial Leasing Options For Your Businesses

2012-02-28T07:44:00.001-08:00

Business success is based on many factors, one of which is negotiating the proper type of commercial lease. Both short-term and long-term leases have benefits and drawbacks depending on the needs of the business owner. Short-term leases offer flexibility, while long-term leases offer predictability and typically a better price. If neither option is suitable, business owners may also want to consider negotiating certain clauses in the lease terms, like rights to early termination or the ability to renew without renegotiating terms. For more on this continue reading the following article from JDSupra.

When negotiating a commercial lease for your business, the length (or “term”) of the lease is a key issue to consider. Both short-term and long-terms leases can have benefits, so its important to determine which option is best suited for your business.

Short-Term Leases

One of the greatest benefits of a short-term lease is flexibility. Because you are not tied down for an extended number of years, short-term leases give you the freedom to address changes in your business. Therefore, if you expect your business to grow or your location needs to change in the foreseeable future, a short-term lease may be a better option.

For start-ups, short-term leases are also less risky should the business fail to take off. However, if the business is successful, the landlord may demand higher rent should you seek to renew the lease.

Long-Term Leases

Long-term leases are often a good fit for an established business that is not afraid to commit to a particular location. While short-term leases offer flexibility, long-term leases offer stability by locking in a predictable monthly payment. In addition, many landlords will offer concessions in exchange for committing to a long-term lease.

Finally, long-term leases are also better suited for businesses that require a highly customized space, se! ek to ma ke improvements, or cannot be burdened by moving equipment and supplies every three to five years.

Other Options

Sometimes, neither lease is a perfect fit. In these cases, it is possible to negotiate with the landlord to come up with a deal that works. For instance, if you are seeking predictability but are afraid your business might outgrow the space, you may want to consider a long-term lease that contains an early termination clause. This provision in the lease allows the tenant to terminate the lease prior to the end of the lease term in exchange for a fee.

Alternatively, businesses may also want to pursue a short-term lease that contains an option to renew. Essentially, an option to renew gives the tenant the right to exercise an option to stay by notifying the landlord in writing before the initial lease period expires. Since the landlord may charge higher rent for the renewal period, you should always negotiate the terms of the renewal in advance.

Clinton Visit To Myanmar Stokes Interest In Asia's Last Frontier

2012-02-28T03:57:00.001-08:00

Hillary Clinton is treading new ground this week in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Her three-day visit that starts Wednesday signals a thaw with Myanmar’s semi-civilian government, which is playing host to a U.S. secretary of state for the first time in decades. A military coup in 1962 pulled down the curtains on Myanmar, a once-prosperous British colony that slid into penury while the rest of Asia joined capitalist hands with the West. Now the smart money reckons that Myanmar has turned a corner and is opening up at last. As a result, it could be the last frontier in Southeast Asia for foreign investors, though this is far from a done deal. Western sanctions still stand in the way of increased trade and investment, as do the threat of consumer boycotts on multinationals. Clinton isn’t in a position to immediately lift U.S. sanctions, while Congress may not be minded to break bread in an election year, so the administration’s diplomacy can only go so far. Myanmar’s reforms are still half-baked. Ongoing fighting between government troops and ethnic minorities cloud the outlook for a lasting peace. Hundreds of political prisoners are still in jail, though Clinton is due to meet the most famous ex-prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Just over a year ago, Ms. Suu Kyi was under house arrest. Now she’s preparing a run for parliament. Advocates of greater engagement with Myanmar point to this breakthrough as a sign of political change. For the U.S., there’s also a whiff of realpolitik. Myanmar is a�strategic country that has been pushed into China’s arms by Western isolation. Its military chiefs forged ties with North Korea that set off alarms in Washington. But to call it a rogue state is probably a stretch. Clinton will definitely raise these security issues and press Myanmar’s rulers on their human rights record. U.S. and European companies are hoping that the detente continues and paves the way for economic liberalisation, even if s! anctions linger. Myanmar’s government can help itself by fixing its wonky currency regime and amending its investment laws.

How about getting a jump start on Myanmar’s investment opportunities? The Wall Street Journal has a crack at what’s on offer for the small investor who wants to bet on a Burmese renaissance. Slim pickings, it seems, but keep an eye on what comes next.

For Westerners, investment choices remain limited. Individual investors can, however, get some exposure to the country through publicly traded stocks outside of Myanmar.
One choice is Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic Holdings, which has property development and biofuel plantations in Myanmar. Though its market capitalization is just around $50 million, it is thinly traded and also has exposure to China�s property market. Italian-Thai Development PLC, listed in Bangkok, is the lead contractor on a multi-billion-dollar ports and infrastructure project that would make Myanmar an entry point for goods to the region, though progress on the project remains uncertain.
Large multinationals have Myanmar angles but their investments tend to be only a small part of their global operations. These include France�s Total, China oil giant CNOOC, listed in Hong Kong, and South Korea�s Posco, whose Daewoo International unit has operated garment factories there for nearly two decades and has gas exploration interests. Thailand�s oil giant PTT is another name.
There are other caveats. Many inside the country fear a backlash from military hardliners that could snuff out the latest reforms. And some exile groups say the latest changes are a ruse to get sanctions lifted to further enrich the country�s military. Activists say the government continues to keep hundreds or more dissidents behind bars, while many fear cronyism will keep reserving the best bits of the economy for selected businessmen.
And investors from countries that have sanctions should consult a lawyer before investing. The rules are tr! icky. Fo r instance, the U.S. forbids investments in companies outside Myanmar whose profits are �predominantly derived� from Myanmar business.

via Investing in Myanmar as Reforms Spread – Southeast Asia Real Time – WSJ.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013

2012-02-27T20:23:00.001-08:00

Penny stocks are an extremely attractive investment option for most people due to the fact that they allow investors to purchase a HUGE number of shares at a very low price – often lower than $2 to $5 per share. As you can imagine, the low price and high number of shares means the potential for amazing gains if the stock performs well. However, you should also keep in mind the risks if you are going to buy penny stocks.

What are the risks involved?

Admittedly, the risks involved with cheap penny stocks is somewhat low – namely because the stock is cheap. However, problems can arise when untrained investors become carried away with the hype and invest hundreds of dollars per day with the expectation that they will all generate a hefty return.

You see, the appeal of penny stocks is that you can purchase a large number of stocks for, on average, less than a few hundred dollars. So, in reality, there is really not much of a risk because we aren’t talking about a multi-thousand dollar investment that you might make on the open stock market. If your penny stock picks soar, you will likely double your initial investment and come away with a few hundred dollars in profit for the day; if your penny stock analysis flounders and your picks drop fifty-percent, you still have only lost around $100 or so.

While the profits or losses depend on the individual and his adeptness at choosing the truly hot penny stocks, beginners who invest moderately and due their due diligence should do fine financially.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. (ODFL)

Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. operates as a less-than-truckload (LTL) motor carrier primarily in the United States. The company provides regional, inter-regional, and national LTL services. It also offers a range of logistics services, including ground and air expedited transportation, supply chain consulting, transportation management, truckload brokerage, container delivery, and warehousing services. In addition, the company provides door-to-door international freight services to and from North America, Central America, South America, and the Far East. As of December 31, 2010, it owned a fleet of 5,718 tractors and 20,986 trailers, as well as operated 213 service centers. The company was founded in 1934 and is based in Thomasville, North Carolina.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:Capital Product Partners L.P. (CPLP)

Capital Product Partners L.P., a shipping company, provides seaborne transportation of refined oil products and chemicals. It provides marine transportation services under medium- to long-term time charters or bareboat charters. As of July 13, 2011, the company?s fleet consisted of 22 double-hull tankers, including 18 medium range (MR) tankers, 2 small product tankers, 1 Suezmax crude oil tanker, and 1 Capesize bulk carrier. Its tankers are capable of carrying crude and refined oil products, such as gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and jet fuel, as well as edible oils and chemicals, including ethanol. Capital GP L.L.C. operates as a general partner of the company. Capital Product Partners L.P. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Piraeus, Greece.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:General Mills Inc. (GIS)

General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. The company offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, ready-to-serve soup, dry dinners, shelf stable and frozen vegetables, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, grain, fruit and savory snacks; and a range of organic products, including soup, granola bars, and cereals; and ice cream and frozen desserts, and grain snacks. It sells its products through its direct sales personnel, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, and convenience stores. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:Gencor Industries Inc. (GENC)

Gencor Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures heavy machinery used in the production of highway construction materials, synthetic fuels, and environmental control equipment. The company manufactures and produces hot-mix asphalt plants used in the production of asphalt paving materials; asphalt plant equipment, which include hot mix storage silos, fabric filtration systems, cold feed bins, and other plant components; and a range of mobile batch plants, as well as trommel screens. It also offers combustion systems; and soil remediation machinery, as well as combustion systems for rotary dryers, kilns, fume and liquid incinerators, and fuel heaters. In addition, the company manufactures thermal fluid heat transfer systems and specialty storage tanks for industrial uses. Its thermal fluid heat transfer systems transfer heat for storage, heating, and pumping viscous materials, such as asphalt, chemicals, and heavy oils. The company markets its products through sales representatives, independent dealers, and agents in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was formerly known as Mechtron International Corporation and changed its name to Gencor Industries, Inc in 1987. The company was founded in 1968 and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO)

Novo Nordisk A/S, a healthcare company, engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products in Denmark and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Diabetes Care and Biopharmaceuticals. The Diabetes care segment covers insulins, oral antidiabetic drugs, and other protein-related products and projects comprising glucagon and protein-related delivery systems, as well as GLP-1 analogue. The Biopharmaceuticals segment provides products in the areas of haemophilia, growth hormone therapy, hormone replacement therapy, and inflammation therapy. Its products are marketed and distributed through subsidiaries, distributors, and independent agents in 180 countries. Novo Nordisk A/S has a collaboration agreement with Archimedes, Inc. The company was founded in 1925 and is headquartered in Bagsvaerd, Denmark.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:Servotronics Inc. (SVT)

Servotronics, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of technology and consumer products primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Advanced Technology Group (ATG) and Consumer Products Group (CPG). The ATG segment designs, manufactures, and markets various servo-control components that convert an electrical current into a mechanical force or movement, and other related products. Its servo-control components include torque motors, electromagnetic actuators, hydraulic valves, pneumatic valves, and similar devices that are principally sold to commercial aerospace, missile, aircraft, government related, medical, and industrial markets. This segment also produces metallic seals in various cross-sectional configurations that are used to fit between two metal surfaces to produce a secure and leak-proof joint. The ATG segment markets its products primarily through its professional staff to the United States Government, government prime contractors, government subcontractors, commercial manufacturers, and end users. The CPG segment designs, manufactures, and sells various cutlery products, including steak, carving, bread, butcher, and paring knives for household use and for use in restaurants, institutions, and private industry; pocket and other types of knives for use in hunting, fishing, and camping; and machetes, bayonets, and other types of knives for military use. This segment also produces and markets other cutlery items, such as specialty tools, putty knives, linoleum sheet cutters, field knives, and other edged products. The CPG segment markets its products through sales personnel and independent manufacturers? representatives to hardware, supermarket, variety, department, discount, gift, and drug stores, as well as to various branches of the United States Government primarily under the ?Old Hickory? and ?Queen? brand names. Servotronics, Inc. was founded in 1959 and is based in Elma, New York.

Best Stocks To Buy For 2013:Seadrill Limited (SDRL)

Seadrill Limited, an offshore drilling contractor, provides offshore drilling services to the oil and gas industries worldwide. It also offers platform drilling, well intervention, and engineering services. As of March 31, 2011 the company owned and operated 54 offshore drilling units, which consist of drillships, jack-up rigs, semisubmersible rigs, and tender rigs for operations in shallow and deepwater areas, as well as in benign and harsh environments. Seadrill Limited was founded in 1972 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Bryan Perry At 2011-9-22
SeaDrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL) is a unique opportunity for income investors seeking a pure play on deep-water drilling outside the post-BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company was formed in 2005, and owns the most state-of-the-art drilling equipment in the entire industry that commands premium day rates. It is in big demand with utilization rates running near100% as big oil deposits become harder to find without going deep.

These guys operate all over the world in 15 countries on four continents, owning 54 rigs with exposure to only one rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of their drilling activity is off the coast of Norway and South Asia, so it has no exposure to the now unstable Middle East. However, news of ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia upping drilling production is hugely positive news for the oil and gas drilling sector. It confirms the belief that the worldwide drilling rig count will rise as well as day rates for the balance of 2011.

Shares of SeaDrill stand to trade significantly higher than its current price of $36.50, while paying a dividend yield of 7.5%. Buy SDRL under $40.
By Chuck At 2011-8-26

SeaDrill is a company that is mostly involved in offshore drilling. The company provides mobile units, tender rigs and well services across the world. There is a direct connection between oil prices and the profitability of SeaDrill. Last year’s dividend yield was 7.6%. Current P/E ratio of 11.9 is lower than similar sized competitors such as Noble Corporation (NE) and Pride International (PDE). Jonathan Auerbach's Hound Partners and Craig Effron's Scoggin have large investments in another offshore driller, Ensco Plc (ESV).

KB Home. Irregular Trade during last session - NYSE:KBH

2012-02-27T12:50:00.001-08:00

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) witnessed volume of 16.45 million shares during last trade however it holds an average trading capacity of 4.83 million shares. KBH last trade opened at $6.70 reached intraday low of $6.40 and went -0.61% down to close at $6.52.

KBH has a market capitalization $502.90 million and an enterprise value at $1.61 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.39 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 1.16. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at -13.62% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at -0.30%.

The company made a return on asset of -0.08% in past twelve months and return on equity of -33.53% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $1.29 billion gaining $16.72 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was -26.70%.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $477.41 million cash in hand making cash per share at 6.19. The total of $1.59 billion debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 367.32. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 6.61 and book value per share was 5.60.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 3.33% where the stock current price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average price of $6.47 and remained below from its 200 Day Moving Average price of $8.73.

KBH holds 77.13 million outstanding shares with 65.45 million floating shares where insider possessed 13.22% and institutions kept 87.60%.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013

2012-02-27T05:17:00.001-08:00

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 Own 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 Own 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 Own For 2013:Bristow Group Inc (BRS)

Bristow Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides helicopter services to the offshore energy industry primarily in Europe, West Africa, North America, Australia, and internationally. Its helicopters are used principally to transport personnel between onshore bases and offshore platforms, drilling rigs, and installations, as well as to transport time-sensitive equipment to offshore locations. The company also offers helicopter flight training services to commercial pilots and flight instructors through its Bristow Academy with facilities in Titusville, Florida; Concord, California; New Iberia, Louisiana and Gloucestershire, England. In addition, it provides military training; and helicopter repair, engineering support, aircraft leasing, airport management, and search and rescue services. Bristow Group provides its helicopter services to integrated, national, and independent oil and gas companies. As of March 31, 2011, it operated a fleet of 569 aircraft. The company was founded in 1969 and is based in Houston, Texas.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013:Apache Corporation (APA)

Apache Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, development, and production of natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. The company has exploration and production interests in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Coast, east Texas, the Permian basin, the Anadarko basin, and the Western Sedimentary basin of Canada; and onshore Egypt, offshore Western Australia, offshore the United Kingdom in the North Sea, and onshore Argentina, as well as on the Chilean side of the island of Tierra del Fuego. Apache Corporation sells its natural gas to local distribution companies, utilities, end-users, integrated oil and gas companies, and marketers; and crude oil to integrated oil companies, marketing and transportation companies, and refiners. As of December 31, 2009, it had total estimated proved reserves of 1,067 million barrels of crude oil, condensate, and natural gas liquids, as well as 7.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The company was founded in 1954 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Sherry Jim At 2012-2-23
Apache Corp (NYSE: APA): APA is the largest US energy stock in Cramer’s trust. As of Feb. 15, the fund owns 1050 shares of APA, which is worth about $113,000. APA is also quite popular among hedge funds. At the end of the third quarter, there were 30 hedge funds with APA positions. Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management had $147 million invested, and Ric Dillon and Boykin Curry were also bullish about the stock, each with more than $100 million invested in APA at the end of September.

We agree with these hedge fund managers. In late January, APA announced that it agreed to acquire Cordillera Energy Partners III LLC for $2.85 billion. Cordillera has nearly 254,000 net acres in the Anadarko Basin of Texas. It also has reserves of 71.5 million barrels of oil equivalent and its current net production is about 18,000 barrels per day. The acquisition will also provide APA with about 14,000 potential drilling locations. APA is already trading at attractive multiples. Its forward P/E ratio is 8.78 and its EPS is expected to grow at 11.22% on the average per year over the next five years. So its P/E ratio for 2014 is only 7.02.
By Dennis Slothower At 2011-9-28
Apache Corp. (NYSE:APA): Down 1.15% to $82.73. Apache Corporation is an independent energy company. The Company explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. The Company has operations in North America, onshore Egypt, offshore Western Australia, offshore the United Kingdom in the North Sea (North Sea), and onshore Argentina, as well as on the Chilean side of the island of Tierra del Fuego.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013:El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (EPB)

El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. engages in the ownership and operation of natural gas transportation pipelines and storage assets in the United States. The company holds a 100% interest in Wyoming Interstate Company, Ltd. (WIC), an interstate pipeline transportation company located in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. It operates approximately 800-mile WIC interstate natural gas pipeline system with a design capacity of approximately 3.5 billion cubic feet per day. The company also owns a 58% general partner interest in Colorado Interstate Gas Company, which operates an interstate natural gas pipeline system with approximately 4,300 miles of pipeline with a design capacity of approximately 4.6 billion cubic feet per day; and associated storage facilities with 37 billion cubic feet of underground working natural gas storage capacity. In addition, it owns a 60% general partner interest in Southern Natural Gas Company that operates an interstate natural gas pipeline system with approximately 7,600 miles of pipeline with a design capacity of approximately 3.7 billion cubic feet per day; and associated storage facilities with a total of approximately 60 billion cubic feet of underground working natural gas storage capacity. Further, the company owns interests in Elba Express Company, L.L.C., which operates an approximately 200-mile pipeline with a design capacity of 945 million cubic feet per day; and Southern LNG Company, L.L.C. that owns a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal with a storage capacity of 11.5 equivalent billion cubic feet. It serves natural gas distribution and industrial companies, electric generation companies, natural gas producers, other natural gas pipeline companies, and natural gas marketing and trading companies. El Paso Pipeline GP Company, L.L.C. serves as the general partner of the company. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Houston, Texas. El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. is a subsidiary of El Paso Pipeline LP Holdings, L.L.C.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013:ONEOK Partners L.P. (OKS)

ONEOK Partners, L.P. engages in the gathering, processing, storage, and transportation of natural gas in the United States. The company?s Natural Gas Gathering and Processing segment gathers and processes natural gas produced from crude oil and natural gas wells located in the Mid-Continent region; and gathers natural gas in the Williston Basin, which spans portions of Montana and North Dakota, and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Its Natural Gas Pipelines segment primarily owns and operates regulated natural gas transmission pipelines, natural gas storage facilities, and natural gas gathering systems for non-processed gas. It also provides interstate natural gas transportation and storage services. This segment?s interstate natural gas pipeline assets transport natural gas through FERC-regulated interstate natural gas pipelines in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. In addition, it transports intrastate natural gas through its assets in Oklahoma; and owns underground natural gas storage facilities in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Its Natural Gas Liquids segment gathers, fractionates, and treats natural gas liquids (NGLs), as well as stores NGL products primarily in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. This segment owns FERC-regulated natural gas liquids gathering and distribution pipelines in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, and Colorado; terminal and storage facilities in Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois; and FERC-regulated natural gas liquids distribution and refined petroleum products pipelines in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana that connect its Mid-Continent assets with Midwest markets, including Chicago, Illinois. ONEOK Partners GP serves as the general partner of the company. The company was formerly known as Northern Border Partners, L.P. and changed its name to ONEOK Partners, L.P. in May 2006. The company was founded in 1993 and is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Louis Navellier At 2011-11-17

Oneok Partners (NYSE:OKS) is known for gathering, processing, storage and transportation of natural gas in the U.S. OKS has posted more modest gains than others on this list but still is up 10% year to date.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013:Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (PBR)

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. primarily engages in oil and natural gas exploration and production, refining, trade, and transportation businesses. The company?s Exploration and Production segment involves in the exploration, production, development, and production of oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas in Brazil. This segment supplies its products to the refineries in Brazil, as well as sells surplus petroleum and byproducts in domestic and foreign markets. Its Supply segment engages in the refining, logistics, transportation, and trade of oil and oil products; export of ethanol; and extraction and processing of schist, as well as holds interests in companies of the petrochemical sector in Brazil. The Gas and Energy segment involves in the transportation and trade of natural gas produced in or imported into Brazil; transportation and trade of LNG; and generation and trade of electric power. In addition, the segment has interests in natural gas transportation and distribution companies; and thermoelectric power stations in Brazil, as well engages in fertilizer business. The Distribution segment distributes oil products, ethanol, and compressed natural gas in Brazil. The International segment involves in the exploration and production of oil and gas, as well as in supplying, gas and energy, and distribution operations in the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Further, the company involves in biofuel production business. Petroleo Brasileiro was founded in 1953 and is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Advisors' Opinion:

By David Sterman At 2011-9-25
Market Value: $173 billion
Fall from 52-week high: 38%

This Brazilian oil giant has lost $100 billion in market value since March 2011. That's a lot of dough. The sell-off is the result of a drop in oil prices, slightly stricter government policies regarding oil and gas royalties, and recent moves to issue more stock and debt to help fund business development. (Though the company now vows to stop issuing any more equity.)

Indeed, this company has been sucking in cash for quite some time, generating a cumulative $40 billion in free cash flow loss in just the past two years. Pretty soon, though, losses will morph into outsized profits when the company's heavy investments to tap massive offshore oil fields finally bear fruit. In 2007, 2008 and again in 2009, Petrobras discovered three new offshore oil fields, known as Tupi, Jupiter, and yet-to-be-named site off of the state of Sao Paolo.

It's the Tupi energy play that should pique your interest. It's the largest new find of oil since the Kashagan oil field was discovered in Kazakhstan in 2000 and instantly put Brazil's oil reserve base on par with industry giant Norway. Tally up all of its fields, and Petrobas' engineers estimate the country is sitting on more than 12 billion barrels of oil.

The recent sell-off has put shares of Petrobras deep into bargain territory, trading at just 7.3 times projected 2011 profits and 1.2 times tangible book value.
By Dave Friedman At 2011-9-23
Institutional investors bought 78,663,680 shares and sold 101,125,380 shares, for a net of -22,461,700 shares. This net represents 0.23% of common shares outstanding. The number of shares outstanding is 9,872,826,100. The shares recently traded at $27.61 and the company’s market capitalization is $170,178,700,000.00. About the company: Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras explores for and produces oil and natural gas. The Company refines, markets, and supplies oil products. Petrobras operates oil tankers, distribution pipelines, marine, river and lake terminals, thermal power plants, fertilizer plants, and petrochemical units. The Company operates in South America and elsewhere around the world.
By ETF Authority At 2011-8-26
Current Price: $47.68 12-month target: $80
1. PBR plans to invest $174 billion by 2013 to support the largest oil discovery in 30 years.
2. PetroBras has both the backing of the Brazilian government who invested over $30 billion and the Chinese private investors who have pledged over $20 billion to PBR’s discovery.
3. Brazils government proposed to make PBR the only operator of all new offshore pre-salt oil fields yet to be exploited.
4. PetroBras expects oil production to increased from 2.4 million barrels a day to around 5.7 million barrels a day by 2020.
5. PBR has long-term views and have been expanding renewable energy programs such as solar, biofuel, and energy. Biofuel production is expected to increase 18% by 2013.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013:GMX Resources Inc. (GMXR)

GMX Resources Inc. operates as an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in the United States. It has interests in two oil shale resources, including the Williston Basin that targets the Bakken/Sanish-Three Forks in North Dakota/Montana; and the DJ Basin, which targets the Niobrara Formation in Wyoming. The company also holds interests in natural gas resources comprising the Haynesville/Bossier Formation and the Cotton Valley Sand Formation in the East Texas Basin. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved reserves of 319.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent; and 264 net producing wells in east Texas. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Putnam At 2011-9-11
GMX Resources Inc. is a pure play independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. The Company is focused on the development of Haynesville/Bossier Shale and Cotton Valley Sands in the Sabine Uplift of the Carthage, North Field of Harrison and Panola counties of East Texas. Its EPS forecast for the current year is 0.19 and next year is 0.55. According to consensus estimates, its topline is expected to grow 43.52% current year and 41.52% next year. It is trading at a forward P/E of 11.04. Out of 15 analysts covering the company, six are positive and have buy recommendations, two have sell ratings and seven have hold ratings.

10 Hot Energy Stocks To Own For 2013:Halliburton Company (HAL)

Halliburton Company provides various products and services to the energy industry for the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas worldwide. It operates in two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services, completion tools and services, cementing services, and Boots & Coots. Its production enhancement services include stimulation and sand control services; completion tools and services comprise subsurface safety valves and flow control equipment, surface safety systems, packers and specialty completion equipment, intelligent completion systems, expandable liner hanger systems, sand control systems, well servicing tools, and reservoir performance services; cementing services consist of bonding the well and well casing, while isolating fluid zones and maximizing wellbore stability, and casing equipment; and Boots & Coots include well intervention services, pressure control, equipment rental tools and services, and pipeline and process services. The Drilling and Evaluation segment provides field and reservoir modeling, drilling, evaluation, and wellbore placement solutions that enable customers to model, measure, and optimize their well construction activities. Its services comprise fluid services, drilling services, drill bits, wireline and perforating services, testing and subsea services, software and asset solutions, and integrated project management and consulting services. The company serves independent, integrated, and national oil companies. Halliburton Company was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

By ETF Authority At 2011-12-9
Halliburton (HAL) is trading at $36.26. HAL is one of the leading oil equipment and service companies. The shares have traded in a range between $27.21 to $57.77 in the past 52 weeks. The 50-day moving average is $39.37 and the 200-day moving average is $45.12. Earnings estimates for HAL are at $3.37 per share in 2011, and $4.49 for 2012. The book value is about $12.68. HAL pays a dividend of 36 cents per share which gives a yield of 1%. In July, 2011, UBS set a price target of $68 per share for HAL.
By Conrad At 2011-10-6
Halliburton (HAL-N32.381.876.13%), like Schlumberger, is an oilfield-services company, with completion and production as well as drilling and evaluation segments. Halliburton is scheduled to release fourth-quarter results this morning. Analysts forecast an adjusted profit of 63 cents, equivalent to 126 per cent year-over-year growth, and $4.9-billion of sales, equivalent to 32 per cent year-over-year growth. In the third quarter, Halliburton posted 87 per cent profit growth, beating the consensus expectation by 3.4 per cent, but its stock still fell 4.8 per cent on the announcement. Analysts are bullish on Halliburton, with 89 per cent advising ! clients to purchase shares. A $53.21 median target implies 37 per cent upside.

Bullish Scenario: Deutsche Bank predicts that the stock will soar 61 per cent to $63 in 2011.

Bearish Scenario: Sanford Bernstein rates the stock “market perform” with a $46 target.

Dollar falls vs. euro on fresh hope for Greek deal

2012-02-26T21:43:00.001-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � The U.S. dollar fell against the euro Friday on renewed hopes Greece�s European partners will agree to a deal on a second bailout by early next week, but the greenback strengthened versus the Japanese yen after dovish comments from Japan�s central bank.

Click to Play

Euro-Zone crisis leaders need to slow down

Euro-zone finance minister are expected to sign off on a �130 billion bailout for Greece on Monday. But is this really a good idea? There are lots of reasons why it might be best to just slow things down. Dow Jones's Martin Essex explains why. Photo: Getty

The euro EURUSD �changed hands at $1.3156, up from $1.3141 late Thursday in North American trading. For the week, however, it was 0.3% lower.

The ICE dollar index DXY , which tracks the U.S. unit against six other currencies, was little changed at 79.334, from 79.333 in North American trade late Thursday. It was up 0.3% from a week ago.

�In the euro-dollar pair, the dollar is weakening on better economic fundamentals in the U.S. and also on the interest rate differential against the euro,� said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities. �So the combination of interest rate differentials today are helping to support the euro.�

�There is, otherwise, nothing truly fundamentally strong new from Europe today to support the euro,� he said, noting that the Greece situation is �fully unresolved.�

! /quotes/zigman/4868099/sampled USDJPY 81.1700, -0.0850, -0.1046%

The euro had also climbed in Thursday trading following reports that the region�s leaders were on track to approve money aid to Greece next week. See report on Thursday currency trading.

A Greek bond swap reportedly being conducted by the European Central Bank has boosted prospects for a deal early next week to approve a second bailout for the debt-strapped country, economists said Friday. Read more about Greece developments.

The British pound GBPUSD �also rose to $1.5833, up from late Thursday�s $1.5804. Sterling was lifted after Britain�s Office for National Statistics reported an unexpected 0.9% jump in January retail sales volumes. Read about retail sales.

The pound was up 0.5% from a week ago..

Yen weakness

The Japanese yen lost further ground Friday on the back of dovish comments from the central bank government, as the dollar edged higher and the euro slipped.

The U.S. dollar extended its move higher against the yen USDJPY ! , passing the �79 level to buy �79.47, up from �78.85 in late North American trading on Thursday. The greenback was up 2.5% against the yen for the week.

The euro EURJPY �bought �104.55, a gain of 1% for the day, up 2.1% for the week, according to FactSet data.

The yen is �continuing its weaker trend against the U.S. dollar primarily due to rumblings about long-term debt fundamentals in Japan, and due to the (Bank of Japan) monetary policy action, which was an alternative means to weakening the yen,� said Hastings, though some direct interventions failed at that goal.

Weakness in the yen on Friday came after Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said Friday that the central bank would keep monetary policy loose, according to reports.

Shirakawa said the bank�s consumer inflation target of 1% � which could prompt it to tighten policy � is a long way off, adding that �the BOJ will continue with powerful monetary easing,� according to Reuters.

Global Investing Roundups

2012-02-26T06:38:00.001-08:00

Vocus (VOCS), a provider of PR management software, this afternoon posted Q1 revenue of $22.3 million, with non-GAAP profits of 15 cents a share; the Street had been expecting $22 million and 15 cents.

For Q2, the company sees revenue of $23.5 million to $23.7 million and non-GAAP profits of 13-14 cents; the Street has been forecasting $22.6 million and 15 cents. For the full year, Vocus sees revenue of $94.5 million to $96 million, and profits of 60-62 cents, ahead of the Street at $91.2 million and 59 cents.

The company also announced a pair of acquisitions.

Vocus is acquiring Datapresse, “a leading provider of media content and on-demand PR software” based in France, for $10.8 million, including $9.8 million in cash to be paid at closing and up to another $1 million based on performance.

And the company is acquiring BDL Media, “a provider of on-demand public relations software and services in China.” Terms of that deal were not disclosed.

Speaking of disclosure, seems kind of weird that none of these announcements are showing up on Yahoo Finance, dontcha think?

VOCS in late trading is unchanged at $18.36.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014

2012-02-24T13:10:00.001-08:00

As we get into the end of the year, more and more analysts and money managers announce their market predictions for the next year. Every year there are a wide range of views that range from the S&P rising to 1,500, to the S&P crashing and burning. The point is, you must take these predictions with a grain of salt. Analysts said that 2014 was going to be a great year with nice gains closing out the year. What they did not foresee was the European debt crisis and the US debt gridlock. That is why you have to be cautious when analysts are touting bountiful returns every year. However, lets get a consensus on where analysts and managers are seeing the market go in 2014.

The good news is that the gurus do not see another US recession in the cards anymore. They believe that the US economy has shown much improvement since summer. Continuing with that idea, they expect job growth to continue and end 2014 under 8% as far as unemployment goes. However, the main concerns that I read from forecasters is the instability in Europe and China’s slowdown. Michael Hartnett, chief global equity strategist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, expects the S&P to close at 1,350 or up 6.7% on the year. However, if Europe takes a turn for the worst, Harnett believes we could be looking at a 1,000 S&P, that is a 21% drop from current levels.

On the other side of the pond, where the grass is always greener, we have Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor's, who predicts that the S&P will close at 1,400, up 10% from current levels. Silverblatt cites that record corporate profits, stronger job growth, the awakening consumer and factories producing more as the main sources for the increase. Binky Chadha, chief strategist at Deutsche Bank, says the S&P will climb to 1,500 on similar grounds.

Not everyone believes 2014 is going to be rosy for the market. Take Adam Parker, strategist from Morgan Stanley. Parker believes we are looking at a down year for the S&P, coming in around 1,238. Then you have Goldman Sachs strategist, David Kostin who believes we are heading to 1,250 if Europe can keep its act together. However, if Europe continues on its path, "… the sovereign debt crisis worsens almost daily. S&P 500 could drop 25% to 900 in a Euro collapse”. That is a pretty bearish view on Europe’s demise that could prove to be a reality if serious steps are not taken to solve the crisis.

Sixteen Wall Street analysts were polled on their predictions for the S&P 500 close in 2014 by Business Insider and they found that the average view is that the S&P will close at 1,367 with the range of 1,238 to 1,500. Overall, analysts are predicting an increase for 2014. However, as stated above, many believe that the key to 2014 profits is Europe fixing its crisis. If they fail to do so, we are looking at a very dark year ahead of us. Remember, these are predictions and no one really knows what exactly will happen in 2014. The most important thing to take away from this is recognizing that Europe could cause some issues for investors next year and that we need a game plan if Europe does indeed go south.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:Chevron Corporation (CVX)

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as holds interest in a gas-to-liquids project. The Downstream segment engages in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products; marketing of crude oil and refined products primarily under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brand names; transportation of crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car; and manufacture and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives. It also produces and markets coal and molybdenum; and holds interests in 13 power assets with a total operating capacity of approximately 3,100 megawatts, as well as involves in cash management and debt financing activities, insurance operations, real estate activities, energy services, and alternative fuels and technology business. Chevron Corporation has a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The company was formerly known as ChevronTexaco Corp. and changed its name to Chevron Corporation in May 2005. Chevron Corporation was founded in 1879 and is based in San Ramon, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Hawkinvest At 2012-2-23
Chevron Corporation (CVX) is a leading integrated energy company with exposure to oil, natural gas, refining, etc. This could be one of the most undervalued stocks in the market. Chevron pays a dividend that beats many other stock and bond! yields, plus it has a below market price to earnings ratio of about 8 times earnings. The average stock in the S&P 500 Index currently trades for over 12 times earnings. If oil prices continue to rise, the already healthy profit estimates for Chevron might be too low. With oil prices showing strength this early in the season, Chevron could be poised to beat earnings in the coming months. However, the stock is trading at the upper end of the recent trading range. Recently, it has been possible to buy this stock at about $102 per share, so waiting for dips could pay off.

Here are some key points for CVX:

Current share price: $104.25

The 52 week range is $85.63 to $110.01

Earnings estimates for 2012: $12.66 per share

Earnings estimates for 2013: $13.20 per share

Annual dividend: $3.42 per share which yields 3.1%
By Louis Navellier At 2011-11-17
Chevron (NYSE:CVX) provides support to its subsidiaries in the following fields: petroleum operations, chemicals operations, mining operations, power generation and energy services. While many stocks on the NYSE have underperformed in 2011, Chevron stock is up 8% year to date.
By Goodwin At 2011-10-6
Chevron (CVX-N94.663.183.48%) is the world's second-largest energy company, after fellow Dow component Exxon Mobil (XOM-N73.951.121.54%).

But, analysts favour Chevron's stock, which receives positive reviews from 76 per cent of researchers in coverage. In contrast, Exxon receives positive reviews from 42 per cent of analysts, ranking third-worst in the Dow. Chevron is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Jan. 28. Its third-quarter adjusted earnings tally of $1.87 (reflecting 8.7 per cent year-over-year growth) missed the consensus forecast of $2.15 by 13 per cent, sending shares down modestly. The sales figure, at $49-billion, missed by 1.9 per cent. Chevron has integrated global operations and sells at a peer discount.

Its stock trades at a trailing earnings multiple of 11, a forward earnings multiple of 8.9, a book value multiple of 1.8, a sales multiple of 1 and a cash flow multiple of 6.2, 43 per cent, 52 per cent, 58 per cent, 67 per cent and 32 per cent discounts to oil-and-gas industry averages. Based on forward earnings, Chevron is the fourth cheapest Dow stock. It also pays a 72-cent quarterly dividend, translating to a 3.1 per cent dividend yield, seventh highest in the Dow. It has boosted the payout 7.9 per cent a year, on average, over a three-year span and 10 per cent a year, on average, over a five-year span. Chevron has $15-billion of cash, compared to $11-billion of debt.

Bullish Scenario: Macquarie expects Chevron's stock to rise 21 per cent to $114 in 12 months.

Bearish Scenario: JPMorgan, despite rating Chevron “overweight”, has a $90 target.
By Chuck Carlson At 2011-10-6
Chevron provides administrative, financial, management and technology support to the United States and international subsidiaries that engage in petroleum operations, chemicals operations, mining operations, power generation and energy services. Cramer holds 500 shares of CVX stocks. CVX has a dividend yield of 3.21% and returned 10.91% since the beginning of this year. It has a market cap of $195.53B and a P/E ratio of 8.52. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson invested over $300 million in CVX.
By Nelson At 2011-9-10
This major international energy company primarily engages in exploration, refining, transportation and storage of crude oil and natural gas.?Chevron (NYSE:CVX) ran to a high at over $110 before double topping and falling to its major support zone at $95 to $97. That zone is also supported by the 200-day moving average, which adds strength to the zone.?Note that despite heavy selling due to a decline in the price of crude, the stock has not broken down, and the stochastic appears to be beginning to arch up — a preliminary positive. Some energy analysts say that the U.S. government’s recent decision to release reserves from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) will have the opposite impact than desired, creating a shortage of crude in the reserve that must be replaced at ultimately higher prices. Insiders have been strong buyers of the stock in the last 3 months.

Buy CVX stock through $95 with a six-month target of $110 and a 12-month target of $125.?S&P has the stock rated as a “Strong Buy 5-Stars.”?The annual dividend is $3.12 providing a yield of 3.15%.
By Jim Cramer,TheStreet At 2011-9-7
I see oil going to $100 a barrel in 2011, given the expansion of the world's economy. Chevron (CVX) is very levered to the price of crude -- much more so than Exxon Mobil (XOM) -- and I see it outperforming its peers.

Nevertheless, those who bought Chevron because of its yield will, of course, be left high and dry, as I think it can go to $110 on the strength of the oil price and a very aggressive plan to produce more oil. Just a great solid stock to own in 2011. Maybe the best management in the industry, too.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:Provident Energy Ltd. (PVX)

Provident Energy Ltd. engages in the natural gas liquids (NGLs) infrastructure and marketing business in Canada and the United States. The company involves in the extraction, processing, storage, transportation, and marketing of NGLs, as well as offers these services to third party customers. It also provides fractionation, storage, NGL terminalling, loading, and offloading services. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:Telefonica SA (TEF)

Telefonica, S.A. provides fixed and mobile telephony services primarily in Spain, rest of Europe, and Latin America. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone; local, domestic, and international long distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; video telephony; supplementary and business-oriented value-added services; network services; leasing and sale of handset equipment; and telephony information services. The company?s Internet and broadband multimedia services comprise Internet service provider service; portal and network services; retail and wholesale broadband access; narrowband switched access to Internet; naked ADSL, a broadband connection; residential-oriented value-added services; companies-oriented value-added services; television services, such as IPTV, cable television, and satellite television; and Fiber to the Home, a service for high speed Internet access and digital video recording. Its data and business-solutions services principally include leased lines; virtual private network services; fiber optics services; the provision of hosting and application; outsourcing and consultancy services; desktop services; and system integration and professional services. The company?s wholesale services for telecommunication operators primarily comprise domestic interconnection services; international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators? network deployment; local loop leasing under the unbundled local loop regulation framework; and bit stream services. It also offers various mobile and related services and products that include mobile voice services, value added services, mobile data and Internet services, wholesale services, corporate services, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. The company has a strategic alliance with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited. Telefonica, S.A. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Conrad! At 201 1-10-25
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 Conrad At 2011-9-22
Telefonica (TEF) is acting within the foreign telecom services industry. The company has a market capitalization of $89.2 billion, generates revenues in an amount of $85.4 billion and a net income of $13.0 billion. It follows P/E ratio is 6.8 and forward price to earnings ratio 8.1, Price/Sales 1.0 and Price/Book ratio 3.1. Dividend Yield: 10.1 percent. The return on equity amounts to 48.1 percent.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:John Bean Technologies Corporation (JBT)

John Bean Technologies Corporation provides technology solutions for the food processing and air transportation industries in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, JBT FoodTech and JBT AeroTech. The JBT FoodTech segment offers industrial food processing solutions and services used in the food processing industry. Its product offerings include freezer solutions for the freezing and chilling of meat, seafood, poultry, ready-to-eat meals, fruits, vegetables, and bakery products; protein processing solutions that portion, coat, and cook poultry, meat, seafood, vegetable, and bakery products; in-container processing solutions for fruits, vegetables, soups, sauces, dairy, and pet food products, as well as ready-to-eat meals in various packages; and fruit processing solutions that extract, concentrate, and aseptically process citrus, tomato, and other fruits. This segment markets its solutions and services to multi-national and regional industrial food processing companies. The JBT AeroTech segment provides ground support equipment for cargo loading, aircraft deicing, and aircraft towing; gate equipment for passenger boarding, and on the ground aircraft power and cooling; airport services for the maintenance of airport equipment, systems, and facilities; military equipment for cargo loading, aircraft towing, and on the ground aircraft cooling; and automatic guided vehicles for material handling in the automotive, printing, warehouse, and hospital industries. This segment markets its solutions and services to airport authorities, passenger airlines, airfreight and ground handling companies, and military forces. John Bean Technologies Corporation sells and markets its products and services through direct sales force, independent distributors, and sales representatives. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois. John Bean Technologies Corporation operates independently of FMC Technologies, Inc. as of July 31, 2008.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:Crane Company (CR)

Crane Co. manufactures and sells engineered industrial products in the United States and internationally. Its Aerospace and Electronics segment offers pressure, fuel flow, and position sensors and subsystems; brake control systems; coolant, lube, and fuel pumps; and seat actuation products. This segment also provides power supplies and custom microelectronics for aerospace, defense, medical, and other applications; and electrical power components, power management products, electronic radio frequency, and microwave frequency components and subsystems for the defense, space, and military communications markets. The company?s Engineered Materials segment manufactures fiberglass reinforced plastic panels for the truck trailer and recreational vehicle markets, industrial markets, and the commercial construction industry. Its Merchandising Systems segment offers food, snack, and beverage vending machines and vending machine software; and coin accepters and dispensers, coin hoppers, bill validators, and bill recyclers. The company?s Fluid Handling segment manufactures and sells various industrial and commercial valves and actuators; pumps and water purification solutions; and corrosion-resistant plastic-lined pipes and fittings. This segment also distributes pipe, pipe fittings, couplings, and connectors; and provides valve testing, parts, and services. Its Controls segment produces ride-leveling, air-suspension control valves for heavy trucks and trailers; pressure, temperature, and level sensors; ultra-rugged computers, measurement and control systems; and intelligent data acquisition products. This segment also offers engine compressor monitoring and diagnostic systems, water treatment equipment, wireless sensor networks, and covert radio products primarily for the military and intelligence markets. Crane Co. was founded in 1855 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:FirstEnergy Corporation (FE)

Firstenergy Corp. operates as a diversified energy company. The company, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, involves in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. It serves approximately 6 million customers within 67,000 square miles through 10 utility operating companies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Michael At 2011-10-6
FirstEnergy Corp (FE) is involved in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. The company has maintained its dividend payment since 2008. It's dividend payout ratio however is at 69.40%, which is sustainable for a utility company. Yield: 5.90%.

Top Dividend Stocks To Buy For 2014:American Electric Power Company Inc. (AEP)

American Electric Power Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power to retail customers. The company generates electricity using coal and lignite, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric energy. It also supplies and markets electric power at wholesale to other electric utility companies, municipalities, and other market participants. In addition, the company operates barging operations that transport coal and dry bulk commodities primarily on the Ohio, Illinois, and lower Mississippi Rivers, as well as operates nonregulated wind farms. It owns and leases approximately 37,000 megawatts of generation capacity. The company operates primarily in the states of Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. American Electric Power Company, Inc. was founded in 1906 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.

10 Great Stocks 2013

2012-02-24T09:17:00.001-08:00

As we get closer to the health care reform legislation becoming effective, many people are looking for prospective healthcare plays. Many health care companies have seen a pretty marked increase in volume and volatility as of late as news sheds light as to how particular provisions of the new law will affect various healthcare subsectors. In this article, I analyze key companies that a may see an outsized impact due to the law and determine whether, on a relative value and growth basis, could be worth a closer look. Please use this analysis as a starting point for your own due diligence.

10 Great Stocks 2013:Chemed Corp. (CHE)

Chemed Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides hospice care, and repair and cleaning services in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Vitas and Roto-Rooter. The Vitas segment offers hospice services to terminally ill patients. This segment provides hospice services in the areas of routine home care, general inpatient care, continuous care, and Medicare cap. It also offers spiritual and emotional counseling to patients and their families through its team of doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, clergy, and volunteers. The Roto-Rooter segment provides repair and cleaning services, including sewer, drain, and pipe cleaning, as well as plumbing repair to residential and commercial customers through its network of company-owned branches, independent contractors, and franchisees. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

10 Great Stocks 2013:MCG Capital Corporation (MCGC)

MCG Capital Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in investments in middle market companies. The firm does not prefer investments in highly cyclical and volatile industry sectors and businesses with significant volatility exposure. It seeks to invest in small to mid sized companies. The firm prefers to invest in acquisitions, growth financings, organic growth, recapitalization, and leveraged buyouts. It invests in companies based in the United States. The firm seeks to invest upto $75 million in debt and equity in companies having revenues between $20 million and $200 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $25 million. It seeks to invest in the form of senior debt, including amortizing, bullet maturity, term loans, and revolving credit facilities; institutional sub debt, including junior capital; second lien debt, that includes term loans on sole source and participant basis; secured and unsecured subordinate loans structured as current interest, deferred interest, and equity linked components; mezzanine debt and equity that includes minority equity investments. The firm may invest in minority or control equity positions. It was formerly known as MCG Credit Corporation. MCG Capital Corporation was founded in 1990 and is based in Arlington, Virginia.

10 Great Stocks 2013:Streamline Health Solutions Inc. (STRM)

Streamline Health Solutions, Inc. operates as a healthcare information technology company in the United States. It focuses on developing and licensing software solutions that enhance document-centric information flows and transaction-centric hospital information systems. The companya??s systems enable medical and administrative personnel to capture, store, manage, route, retrieve, and process clinical, financial, and patient information. Its solutions include accessANYware, a patient-centric document management-based repository solution, which allows authorized users to perform document searching, retrieval, viewing, processing, printing, and faxing, as well as report generation; and access to images, such as digitized slides, videos, and photographs, as well as provides the ability to store and retrieve document images. The company also offers FolderView that provides capture/indexing of non-patient centric documents, storage in a historical repository, document search/viewing, reporting, auditing, and optional modules for patient financial services or administrative services applications; and Workflow Solutions that provides solutions in the health information management and revenue cycle, which enables users to access and utilize workflow applications to process information. Its Workflow Solutions comprise cash management, referral order, chart completion, coding, release of information, chart tracking, financial screening, pre-operative, family medical leave and leave of absence, and contract and contractor management workflows. The company also provides health information management suites, and professional services and business process management consulting services. It sells its products through its direct sales force and reseller partnerships, as well as to direct remarketers, hospitals, clinical, and ambulatory services. The company was formerly known as LanVision Systems, Inc. Streamline Health Solutions was founded in 1989 and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

10 Great Stocks 2013:Domtar Corporation (UFS)

Domtar Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of uncoated freesheet paper, papergrade, fluff, and specialty pulp products in North America. The company operates in two segments, Papers and Paper Merchants. The Papers segment offers business papers, including copy and electronic imaging papers, which are used with ink jet and laser printers, photocopiers, and plain-paper fax machines, as well as computer papers, preprinted forms, and digital papers. It also provides commercial printing and publishing papers consisting uncoated freesheet papers, such as offset papers and opaques used in sheet and roll fed offset presses and digital printing; and publishing papers comprising tradebook and lightweight uncoated papers used primarily in book publishing applications, such as textbooks, dictionaries, catalogs, magazines, hard cover novels, and financial documents. In addition, this segment offers converting and specialty papers, which consist of base papers that are converted into finished products, such as envelopes, tablets, business forms, and data processing/computer forms. It sells papers to paper merchants, office equipment manufacturers, stationers, retail outlets, commercial printers, converters, and end users. The Paper Merchants segment involves in purchasing, warehousing, selling, and distributing business papers, printing and publishing papers, and industrial products to commercial printers, publishers, quick copy firms, catalog and retail companies, and institutional entities. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

10 Great Stocks 2013:Servotronics Inc. (SVT)

10 Great Stocks 2013:Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports a range of software products and services for various computing devices worldwide. The company?s Windows & Windows Live Division segment offers PC operating system that primarily includes Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems; Windows live suite of applications and Web services; and Microsoft PC hardware products. Its Microsoft?s Server and Tools segment provides Windows Server operating systems, Windows Azure, Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Azure, Windows Intune, Windows Embedded, Visual Studio, Silverlight, system center products, Microsoft consulting services, and product support services. This segment also offers enterprise consulting services; and training and certification to developers and information technology professionals, as well as builds standalone and software development lifecycle tools for software architects, developers, testers, and project managers. The company?s Online Services Division segment provides online information and content through Bing, MSN portals, and adCenter, as well as Atlas online tools for advertisers. Its Microsoft Business Division segment offers Microsoft office; Microsoft Exchange; Microsoft SharePoint; Microsoft Lync; Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM; and Microsoft Office Web Apps, as well as office 365, an online service, offering Microsoft Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync. The company?s Entertainment and Devices Division segment provides Xbox 360 entertainment platform, which includes the Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment console, Kinect for Xbox 360, Xbox 360 video games, Xbox LIVE, and Xbox 360 accessories; Mediaroom, an Internet protocol television software; and Windows Phone that provide Microsoft Office and Xbox LIVE functionality. It markets and distributes its products and services through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as through online. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

By James Rogers At 2012-2-21

Software giant Microsoft, which hit a new 52-week high last week, looks set to be another of 2012's turnaround stocks.

Microsoft shares did nothing last year as investors cast doubts on the company's growth prospects, but have surged in 2012.

The tech bellwether, along with IBM and Intel(INTC), was one of the leaders of the recent tech rally after the companies all released good quarterly results. Shrugging off concerns about the weakening PC market, Microsoft noted that its overall business environment remains strong.

As well as citing strong enterprise spending, Microsoft CFO Peter Klein highlighted PC demand in emerging markets during a conference call to discuss the company's results last month.

Since then, Microsoft has added flesh to the bones of its plan to run Windows on ARM(ARMH)-based processors, and is also gearing up to launch the eagerly anticipated Windows 8 operating system later this year. Windows 8 is expected to be a big growth catalyst for Microsoft, particularly in the mobile space.

The Redmond, Wash.-based firm will offer a consumer preview of Windows 8 at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next week.

"We think that the Consumer Preview release is a step beyond beta code," explained Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura Equity Research, in a note released last week. "Our checks indicate that the code is in good shape and we expect Windows 8 to be released to general availability in the September or October timeframe."

Sherlund reiterated his Microsoft buy rating, citing the shares' favorable valuation. Microsoft shares have climbed more than 20% this year, closing at $31.25 on Friday.

TheStreet ratings gives Microsoft an A grade with a price target of $35.54.

Microsoft's dividend strategy should also resonate with investors in 2012. The software giant raised its payment last year and now pays a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share for a yield of 2.56.

By Harding At 2012-1-11

Microsoft. Can 2012 be a year for Microsoft to finally do something with its stock? We believe it could be. The company has made a lot of great moves in the past couple months that have been positive for the outlook of the company, and we are a big fan of the nearly 3% yield. MSFT is undervalued and represents a typical value play as it is not far off the margins of many competitors with higher PE ratios. Yet, MSFT continues to dog the competition. We believe that MSFT will turn things around with a continued focus on entertainment and cloud computing that are going to offer some definite new revenue streams.

Allocation: $2000

Entry: $27.43

Target: $30, $32.50, and $40

By McWillams At 2011-10-30

Miller had $332 Million in MSFT shares at the end of December. These shares lost 4.2% since February 2010. Miller kept his MSFT holdings same in the fourth quarter of 2010. Stock lost 2.8% since then. Microsoft is a hugely popular stock among the top hedge funds. Thomas Steyer’s Farallon Capital, Richard Perry’s Perry Capital, Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners, Curtis Schenker’s Scoggin Capital, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, Brevan Howard, and Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners are among the hedge funds that are extremely bullish about Microsoft. We are a Microsoft investor too.

By Chuck At 2011-10-26

Shares are trading at around $27 at the time of writing, as against their 52-week trading range of $23.65 to $29.46. The company is capitalized at $228.4! 3 billio n. Earnings per share for the last year were $2.69, placing the shares on a price to earnings ratio of 10.14. It paid a dividend last year of $0.80, a yield of 3.00%.

Microsoft has been the powerhouse behind the pc since its foundation by Bill Gates nearly 40 years ago. Its battles with Apple (AAPL) are well known and well documented. In recent years, Apple seems to have taken a lead in innovation against its rival, with its tablet based products bestsellers worldwide. But Microsoft may be hitting back. Last year it bought game company Twisted Pixel, and is likely to use its innovative workforce to capture a larger share of the on demand gaming market as it progresses. Gross margins at Microsoft beat Apple’s into a cocked hat (78% versus 40%). The dividend yield of 3% is attractive also (Apple pays none), as is the less demanding price to earnings ratio (10.14 versus 15.94). At this moment in time, I more bullish of Microsoft than Apple.

By Paul At 2011-10-6

Microsoft is one of the cheapest technology growth stocks out there in the market trading at only 11 times earnings (P/E ratio). The company has a market capitalization of almost $218 billion and sports a dividend yield of 2.5%. Microsoft has $4 billion in Cash and $37.3 billion in short term investments making the dividend a very safe option. The company also increased its dividend by 23% in November 2010 when it declared a 16 cents per share dividend versus 13 cents a share in August 2010. So Microsoft's dividend is spectacular. However, how will the company drive its growth in revenues? One important product that will drive growth is the Kinect for XBox.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced at CES on Jan. 5, 2011 that the company had sold 8 million Kinects in the first 60 days after the Nov. 4, 2010 release. That figure earned Microsoft a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the fastest-selling consumer electronics device.

By Guru Focus At 2011-9-24

Last week I came across an article from Joshua Brown bashing value investors who feel Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) are currently attractive purchases. Mr. Brown thinks the PC business may be in terminal decline and made several statements, which I feel are factually inaccurate. Below I will rebut those statements and discuss why Microsoft offers an attractive long-term buying opportunity.

Mr. Brown's blog is here. Below is some of Mr. Brown’s commentary:

Microsoft's "cheapness" is the White Whale that compels all value investors to follow it out to sea, like crazed Captain Ahab wielding DCF calculations. And they are always wrong.

The trouble with these arguments is that you could have made them in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and you can probably just recycle that article and run it again in 2014, 2017, etc.

By Conrad de Aenlle At 2011-9-23

The stock has fallen out of favor as the company has matured, but Microsoft still dominates the market in personal computer operating systems, and it has regained a bit of its old reputation as an innovator with its Kinect gaming system. Morningstar expects the stock to return 15 percent a year.

By James Altucher At 2011-9-13

Admittedly, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) didn’t give investors a lot to be happy about in 2010. The stock was kicked to the curb, down 8.4% last year while the broader market gained almost 13%.

If you’re a momentum investor, this pick may turn you off, but I believe that the time is right for the rotation of capital back into this old standard.

By Jim Cramer At 2011-9-7

The stock's finishing down for the year and I think that's a precursor to next year's numbers. Microsoft is old tech. It is not a power in the internet tsunami and it is in the crosshairs of both Salesforce.com (CRM) and, more importantly, Apple (AAPL). I don't think it can go up much with that enemy's list. In fact, it will most likely stagnate despite its double-digit growth. I know people expect so much of this $225 billion market cap stock and that, too, will work against it. I see $26 at yearend 2011 and it will be the tech stock to avoid other than Cisco. Too bad the Dow doesn't have Apple in it. These Dow tech stocks are giving tech a bad name!

By Vita At 2011-8-26

Yes they were passed by Apple but that’s no reason to ditch MSFT. Supported by a nice dividend Microsoft will hit $35 in a year supported by strong sector performance.

10 Great Stocks 2013:Reynolds American Inc (RAI)

Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarette and other tobacco products in the United States. It offers cigarettes under the brand names of CAMEL, PALL MALL, WINSTON, KOOL, DORAL, SALEM, MISTY, and CAPRI; and cigarettes and other tobacco products under the NATURAL AMERICAN SPIRIT brand name, as well as manages various licensed brands, including DUNHILL and STATE EXPRESS 555. The company also provides smokeless tobacco products, including moist snuff under GRIZZLY and KODIAK brand names; pasteurized tobacco under CAMEL Snus brand name; milled tobacco under the brand name of CAMEL Dissolvables; other tobacco products, such as little cigars under WINCHESTER and CAPTAIN BLACK brand names; and roll-your-own tobacco under the brand name of BUGLER. RAI sells its products primarily through distributors, wholesalers, and other direct customers, including retail chains, as well as distributes its cigarettes to public warehouses. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Jeff Reeves At 2011-10-21
Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) is the tobacco giant behind such iconic brands as Winston, Camel and Kool cigarettes.

Current Yield: 5.5% ($2.12 a share annually)

Dividend History: In June 2010, the company paid 45 cents a share for its quarterly dividend (adjusted for a 2-for-1 split). This year, it will pay out 53 cents a share in June. That’s a nearly 16% increase.

Dividend Outlook: According to Bloomberg, Reynolds American has a three-year expected dividend growth rate of 8.2%.

Recent Performance: Reynolds American stock is up about 27% in the past year, compared with about 17% gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Strong Outlook for Shares: Amid economic uncertainty and a lack of other income investments, the reliability of Big Tobacco is popular with many investors. That buying pressure is good for shares, and coupled with the fact that “sin stocks” selling guilty pleasures tend to do well in tough times, RAI has a strong sales outlook.
By Quickel At 2011-10-6
Reynolds American (RAI), through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarette and other tobacco products in the United States. The company has raised dividends for 7 years in a row. The company has managed to double EPS over the past decade, and raise dividends by 9% per year as well. The forward dividend payout ratio is 79.70%. Yield: 6.20%.

10 Great Stocks 2013:Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (MFG)

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various banking and financial services in Japan and internationally. The company offers retail banking services, including housing and personal loans, credit cards, deposits, investment products, and consulting services; and corporate banking services comprising loans, syndicated loan arrangements, structured finance, advisory services, and capital markets financing services. It also provides derivatives and other risk hedging products; and securities services to individuals and corporate customers, as well as engages in the proprietary trading, such as foreign exchange and bond trading, and asset and liability management. In addition, the company offers wholesale securities and investment banking services, such as underwriting and trading of bonds and equities, advisory services, and structured finance. Further, it provides products and services related to trust, real estate, securitization and structured finance, pension and asset management, stock transfers, private banking, and trust and custody. Additionally, it offers non-banking services, including research and consulting services; information technology-related services; and advisory services to financial institutions. The company serves large corporations, financial institutions, public sector entities, foreign corporations, foreign governmental entities, individuals, small and medium sized enterprises, middle-market corporations, local governmental entities, and other public sector entities. It serves individual customers through its branch and automated teller machine network, as well as through telephone and Internet banking. As of March 31, 2010, the company had 431 branches in Japan. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

10 Great Stocks 2013:MEDIFAST INC (MED)

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, and sale of weight management and disease management products, and other consumable health and diet products in the United States. The company?s product lines include weight and disease management, meal replacement, and vitamins. It also operates weight control centers that offer Medifast programs for weight loss and maintenance, customized patient counseling, and inbody composition analysis. The company markets its products under the Medifast and Essential brand names, including shakes, appetite suppression shakes, women?s health shakes, diabetics shakes, joint health shakes, coronary health shakes, calorie burn drinks, calorie burn flavor infusers, antioxidant shakes, antioxidant flavor infusers, bars, crunch bars, soups, chili, oatmeal, pudding, scrambled eggs, hot cocoa, cappuccino, chai latte, iced teas, fruit drinks, pretzels, puffs, brownie, pancakes, soy crisps, crackers, and omega 3 and digestive health products. Medifast Inc. sells its products through various channels of distribution comprising Web, call center, independent health advisors, medical professionals, weight loss clinics, and direct consumer marketing supported via the phone and the Web; Take Shape for Life, a physician led network of independent health coaches; and weight control centers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Advisors' Opinion:

By Mark At 2011-8-26

Revenues are expected to grow 27% next year and yet MEDIFAST (MED: 15.68 0.00%) trades at only 16x consensus 2011 earnings. The company continues to gain market share in the competitive weight management sector and provides investors with the double benefit of both a growth stock and a potential acquisition target.

Don't Get Too Worked Up Over FedEx's Earnings

2012-02-23T21:56:00.001-08:00

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 FedEx (NYSE: FDX ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

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, FedEx generated $606.0 million cash while it booked net income of $1,750.0 million. That means it turned 1.5% of its revenue into FCF. That doesn't sound so great. 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 mean! s they n eed 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 FedEx 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 current as of 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 26.4% of operating cash flow coming from questionable sources, FedEx investors should take a closer look at the underlying numbers. Within the questionable cash flow figur! e plotte d in the TTM period above, other operating activities (which can include deferred income taxes, pension charges, and other one-off items) provided the biggest boost, at 19.2% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures, which consumed 85.6% 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 FedEx to My Watchlist.

Generac Holdings Outruns Estimates Again

2012-02-23T18:10:00.001-08:00

Generac Holdings (NYSE: GNRC ) reported earnings on Feb. 14. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Generac Holdings beat expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

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

Gross margins shrank, operating margins grew, net margins improved.

Revenue details
Generac Holdings reported revenue of $267.3 million. The seven analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ foresaw revenue of $227.8 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 66% higher than the prior-year quarter's $161.0 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 $0.58. The three earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.41 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS of $3.91 for Q4 were much higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.28 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 36.8%, 280 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 16.9%, 60 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 99.9%, 8,830 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $211.0 million.

Nex t year's average estimate for revenue is $858.1 million. The average EPS estimate is $1.18.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a five-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 38 members out of 42 rating the stock outperform, and four members rating it underperform. Among nine CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), nine give Generac Holdings a green thumbs-up, and none give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Generac Holdings is outperform, with an average price target of $25.50.

Over the decades, small-cap stocks, like Generac Holdings have provided market-beating returns, provided they're value priced and have solid businesses. Read about a pair of companies with a lock on their markets in "Too Small to Fail: Two Small Caps the Government Won't Let Go Broke." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add Generac Holdings to My Watchlist.

Tweets - Changing Dynamics of Communication

2012-02-23T14:23:00.001-08:00

Tweets form the backbone of any sort of communication on Twitter. Businesses and individuals use unique ways of communicating with each other. Tweets have to be interesting to capture the imagination of followers. The number of followers will increase dramatically if you make your tweets interesting and appealing.

The language used in Tweets should be free of any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. One should never use slang or abusive language. The tweet should reflect positive energy and abhor negative thoughts.

Tips for successful Tweets

* Choose tweeters who match your interest. You can learn the wonderful art of communication from them, apart building tweet links and using the social media platform for marketing.

* Tweets must reflect the human side of businesses. Check profiles of people you admire in your industry and try following their tweets in a diligent manner.

* You would need a plan of action to make your tweet interesting. Tweets tend to reflect a person's personality and followers like tweets which are unique and informative.

* Never use your tweets for aggressive marketing. If your tweets have just one single agenda of promoting the business, then will followers will start distancing themselves from you.

* Your followers should be able to learn something new from your tweets. If you use them only for promotional purposes, you might not be able to attract new followers

* Tweet on interesting stuff, share pictures and videos. Provide updated information to your readers. Never use the same tweet again and again.

* Never spam your followers. They are likely to get annoyed and un-follow you from their network. You will also get a bad online reputation.

* Do not keep tweeting the entire day. A couple of tweets a day would be fine. Make them interesting and informative.

* Follow a group of readers who share the same interest. Keep the channel of communication open with and reward them for their ! loyalty towards your brand by offering discount coupons and other offers.

* Listening to tweets is as important as tweeting yourself. Listening to customers will help you understand their views and thoughts about you.

* Your tweets must be compelling enough to make people read them with interest. If your tweets fail to generate interest, you would need to change your approach.

* Make your tweets outstanding and try to present the human side of things.

All these simple tips will help you attract new and existing customers to your business easily.

Introducing the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

2012-02-23T10:36:00.001-08:00

General Motors will be filing its IPO paperwork shortly.? It could come literally any hour now.? Today’s news of a recall may only be an asterisk in the grand scheme of things.? This is a large recall in size because it is 243,000 vehicles.? The issue comes down to rear seatbelts issues that could prevent secure latching in the Buick Enclave, the Chevrolet Traverse, the GMC Acadia and in the Saturn Outlook.

The exact damage appears to come from second row seat belts after the seats were lowered and then returned to the original upright position.? This is of course an unpopular event but this is not an end of the world recall.

Tuesday’s? strong stock market is likely to negate any major impact this recall might have.? But this brings another question.? We want to know what you think in an anonymous survey that will take you twenty seconds.? If you could get GM shares at the IPO price, would you really want to buy the shares?

JON C. OGG

Russia, China Veto UN Resolution on Syria

2012-02-23T03:03:00.001-08:00

UNITED NATIONS—Russia on Saturday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside hours after a reported government massacre in Homs emboldened Western powers to push for a vote despite Moscow's objections.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said she was "disgusted" after Russia and China veto U.N. resolution on Syria. (Video: Reuters/Photo: AP)

The U.N.'s failure to pass the resolution means Arab States must now go back to the drawing board and figure out a new strategy for trying to solve the conflict. Analysts believe Gulf states eager to see President Assad unseated may quietly step up financial and arms support for Syria's rebels if there appears little hope of ending the U.N. deadlock.

China joined Russia in voting against the resolution as both countries did with a weaker measure condemning violence in Syria in October. Thirteen of the 15 council members voted in favor Saturday.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador, told the council that "the draft did not accurately reflect the real state of affairs and sent an unbalanced signal to the parties."

Mr. Churkin accused "some influential members of the international community who have been undermining the possibility of a settlement in Syria by calling for regime change."

Chinese Ambassador Li Badong said China voted against the resolution because divisions on the council should have been resolved first. He said Russia's request to discuss amendments was "reasonable."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Saturday that a vote today would be "a scandal." Faced with unrest at home, Moscow is particularly sensitive to any U.N. action that asks a leader to step aside in the face of a popular revolt.

Instead Moscow proposed a ! slew of new amendments to resolution.

Among them was a rejection of the Arab League's timetable for President Assad to step aside for a unity government leading to democratic elections.

Russia also wanted peaceful demonstrators to disassociate from "armed groups." The changes also stripped details of human rights violations by the government, such as torture, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of children.

Russia wanted the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from cities to be in conjunction with the removal of armed opposition groups.

These were brushed aside by the West and its Arab supporters hours after residents of the restive Syrian city of Homs buried their dead Saturday morning after anti-regime activists say a blistering government artillery assault killed more than 200 people.

The Syrian government denied responsibility for the shelling and blamed armed rebels, calling it a bid to win support ahead of a key vote in the U.N. Security Council, according to the Syrian state news agency.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador, told reporters the Russian amendments were "unacceptable."

"The United States is disgusted that certain members of the council are obstructing our sole purpose here," which was to resolve the Syrian crisis, Ms. Rice told the council. "This is even more irresponsible by one of these members who continues to provide arms to Syria," she said in a reference to Russia.

Ms. Rice said that the Russian attempt for last-minute amendments was "unforgivable."

Philippe Bolopion, Human Rights Watch U.N. director, said: "Vetoes by Moscow and Beijing four months ago were irresponsible. Today, after weeks of Russian diplomatic games-playing and in the middle of a bloodbath in Homs, they are simply incendiary."

Enlarge Image

Reuters

Residents attend a burial ceremony for what activists say are victims of shelling by the Syrian army in Homs Saturday.

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The West and its Arab supporters had agreed to numerous changes in the text earlier this week to accommodate Russian demands.

The defeated resolution would have "fully" supported the Arab League plan for "a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system."

A specific call for Mr. Assad to step aside was cut from the draft under a the Russian veto threat. Western diplomats said full support for the Arab League would have implied that Mr. Assad would step aside, as that is a key part of the plan.

At Moscow's insistence, a voluntary arms embargo on Syria was also cut from the draft. Russia is a major arms supplier to Damascus, the capital of Sy! ria.

In addition, the rejected text made clear that it was not authorizing outside military intervention.

It was not clear what impact the vetoed resolution would have on the ground in Syria.

"Will their vote exacerbate the situation on the ground?," asked Peter Wittig, Germany's U.N. ambassador. "I hope not, but it is to be feared and therefore it would have been so important after that massacre today, after the violence that is in store in the coming days, to speak out strongly today. It did not happen and that is truly sad and despicable."

Before the vote a Western diplomat said the resolution "has the potential to make a difference on the ground." He said that if Russia and China would lend support, it would send "a huge signal to the people and leadership of Syria."

It remained impossible to verify activists' accounts of the fighting in Homs or to confirm casualty tolls. Opposition activists in the past have appeared to exaggerate violence reports, especially in the run-up to key U.N. or Arab League votes on Syria. Still, there appeared little doubt that Saturday morning in Homs had been one of the bloodiest episodes of the 11-month uprising.

Amateur videos shot by city residents and posted to YouTube showed dozens of corpses wrapped in white shrouds laid out on the ground waiting to be paraded to burial on the shoulders of thousands of mourners. Other footage showed dozens of mangled bodies stacked atop each other on the floors of a local hospital morgue.

A resident of Homs said government forces began shelling the neighborhood of Khalidiya, which is predominately Sunni Arab and a rebel stronghold, a little before 1 a.m. The attack was provoked, according to this resident, by a series of rebel attacks Friday evening against government checkpoints on the edges of the neighborhood.

The anti-government Free Syrian Army, composed mostly of defected soldiers, has been gaining strength in and around Homs in recent weeks and conducting more audacious and large-s! cale ope rations against government forces.

The shelling ended shortly after 3 a.m. according to activists and residents. Activists put the final death toll at between 217 and 237 dead, though they say they were able to bury only about 90 bodies on Saturday. Activists and one resident of Homs said sporadic shelling resumed late Saturday afternoon.

Fighting continued elsewhere in Syria, concentrated on the outskirts of the capital Damascus and in the province of Idlib on the Turkish border, killing 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Following the attack in Homs, Tunis severed relations with Syria and expelled the Syrian ambassador, according to a statement released by the Tunisian Presidents' Office. The decision by Tunis could be an early indication that Arab states may begin acting on their own to isolate Syria after Russia and China. Arab states had backed the resolution, hoping the U.N. would be able to muster the necessary leverage to resolve the crisis after the Arab League had failed to do so.

5 Investment Ideas From Wall Street: Jan. 27

2012-02-22T19:30:00.001-08:00

From Korea to Brazil, today's daily investment series is all about putting your money in overseas markets. After a horrible year for emerging markets in 2011, analysts say a rebound may be in the works. Here's what you need to know before building an international equities basket:

1) Two Sectors Shine in South Korea

Technology and consumer remain Credit Suisse's top picks for sectors to invest in within the South Korean market.

While the Korean Stock Exchange's KOSPI index has rebounded this year, sector gains are far from equal. The broader market is up 10.2% since the end of the 2011 third quarter. Meanwhile, for the same time period, utilities are up 15.8% and technology stocks are up 12.5%. Leading the losses have been telecoms, down 15.7%, and consumer stocks, down 13.5%.

Investors should watch for fourth quarter results from Korean corporations. "In the case for energy and material sectors, for example, the Street has cut fourth quarter 2011 operating profit estimates by about 19% in early January this year from that of October and November 2011," writes Credit Suisse. "On the other hand, sectors such as auto, technology and consumer have all seen an increase in OP estimates for fourth quarter 2011, by about 5%, 3% and 5%, respectively..."

Credit Suisse doesn't want to jump to conclusions for the year based on preliminary data, but it does believe that tech and consumers could lead earnings for the year.

The firm picks ten top stocks for the year: Samsung Electronics, multinational steel maker POSCO(PKX), Hyundai Motor, auto parts company Hyundai Mobis, Korea's largest chemical company LG Chemical, Hyundai Department Store, Hyundai Home Shopping, the world's largest LCD panel maker LG Display, online video game company NCsoft and the largest financial company in Korea Shinhan Financial Group.

Next>

2) B! razil Ge ts a Leg Up

Brazil is getting a large share of inflows to emerging markets so far this year. That might be because of the country's flexible approach to monetary policy.

As risk aversion fades, JP Morgan writes that inflows have been key for a market rebound. Some 36% of inflows to emerging market equity funds went to Brazil. The Ibovespa, an index of about 50 stocks on the Sao Paulo Stock, Mercantile & Futures Exchange, is up more than 10% this January and foreigners have poured in $2.7 billion year to date, notes the firm.

After a horrible year for the Latin American market in 2011, Brazil in particular is seeing a strong turnaround. Last year, foreigners put 74% less into than Brazilian market than they did in 2010. This year, a surge in foreign inflows is suggesting that investors from abroad are a lot more risk inclined. In fact, JP Morgan notes that they're even quicker to catch on than their Brazilian counterparts are.

"Foreign investors reached 39% of Bovespa total volume (the best mark since March 2006) and ended 2011 as the main investor class of the Brazilian stock exchange. On the opposite side, retail investors flew from the Bovespa, as December registered their weakest participation since the beginning of the historical series. Retail investors now account for only 18% of total Bovespa volume. This lastcategory suffered significant losses compared to last year, when their average participation reached 26.5%. Institutional investors' participation remained flat in December with 32% of the market share."

As for why the firm is bullish on Brazil for 2012, it says that the macro environment is supportive. "We see Brazil as the country with the most policy flexibility in the emerging market universe, with the capacity to continue to cut interest rates and provide for fiscal stimulus if growth were to weaken," the analysts write, also noting that inflation seems to be easing this year.

! The Bove spa Index current trades at 63,607 and JP Morgan analysts are forecasting 73,000 by the year end. That's a near 15% rise for the year. The firm recommends that investors buy cyclical stocks in Brazil. Think banks, homebuilders and retail.

Next>

3) Breakout the BRICs for 2012

Investors of emerging markets, listen up.

The MSCI BRICs index, with a gain of 12.2% so far this year, is beating global emerging markets, up 8.9% for the year. According to Geoffrey Dennis, analyst at Citigroup, "outperformance should be a key theme for 2012."

All four BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are ranked in the top eight for best performing emerging markets year to date. India is up 17.1%, Brazil up 14.1%, Russia up 11.1% and China up 9.4%.

Dennis' thesis is that "BRICS are at the forefront of the falling inflation and interest rate trends in emerging markets... All four BRIC countries have eased monetary policy recently."

The Citigroup analyst also points out that that valuations for BRICs are cheaper than their non-BRIC emerging market counterparts. "For example, BRICs currently trade at 9.6x forward verses 11.9x for the non-BRICs."

The firm is most bullish on China, followed by Brazil, Russia then India and forecasts at least a 25% gain for global emerging markets. In short, Citigroup says, buy on a pullback.

But take heed. Emerging markets got killed in 2011. India lost a whopping 38%. And, the "rotation" that Citigroup writes about may not sustain through the entire year.

Investors can find exchange-traded funds that track equities in BRIC countries as well as indices in emerging markets. TheStreet's top rated emerging market ETFs for 2012 include the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF(VWO) and the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets ETF(GMM).

Next>

4) Tips for Building a China Portfolio

If the rally in MSCI China sustains for the year, investors might want to look into distinguishing between sectors that will help buoy the trend and those that won't.

Credit Suisse writes in a recent research note that the four most undervalued sectors are banking, materials, real estate and energy. On the other end of the spectrum, the firm says that consumer staples are trading at a 124% premium to the region.

"We continue to suggest investors switch from staples to these more undervalued sectors," it writes, adding that earnings downgrades of consumer staples have been those for MSCI China overall. "We also note that real estate and materials led the rally from 2008 lows when TED spreads peaked and China eased." The TED spread is the difference between the interest rate that banks charge each other and the interest rate on U.S. Treasury bills.

Here's a list of Credit Suisse's top picks from its Asian Model Portfolio: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Sinopec, China Overseas Land & Investment, Anhui Conch and China Mobile(CHL).

Next>

5) Watch Warnings for a Global Double Dip

Risks abound in investing in Europe. Credit Suisse says that falling Euribor spreads are its number one concern. The firm has a list of seven indicators that it tracks as part of its "double dip watch."

The Euribor spread, currently at 79 basis points, is down 21 basis points from their high. Nevertheless, Credit Suisse is eying the spread closely: "While Euribor spreads have fallen, we are still putting this indicator together with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's leading indicator as potentially ! signalin g a hard landing."

The Euribor is the rate at which European banks say they see each other lending in euros for three months, while the Euribor spread is the difference between the euro interbank offered rate and overnight index swaps. The latter is essentially a measure of banks' reluctance to lend to one another in Europe. Market participants take it as a rough gauge for a European banking contagion. Hence, a tighter spread is good news even though the current spread is still high by historic standards.

The OECD's leading indicator index is an early measure of economic expansion or contraction.

For the full picture, investors should be watching several other indicators to get a sense of the state of emerging economies. Credit Suisse says five other indicators point more toward a soft-landing scenario: 1) German IFO Business Expectations 2) European Purchasing Managers Index 3) U.S. non-farm payrolls 4) U.S. retail sales and 5) U.S. capital expenditure.

>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to: @chao_deng

>To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com.

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Are Groupons Really a Great Deal?

2012-02-21T17:03:00.001-08:00

Group buying websites like Groupon, LivingSocial and Tippr?are all the rage these days — but how do you know if you’re really getting a good deal?

The short answer: you don’t. That $20 voucher for the Erotic Exotic Expo in Richmond, Calif., might have sounded like an amazing deal at the time (50% off!), but if you end up not going, you’ve simply ended up $20 poorer–not to mention non the wiser on matters erotic and exotic.

There are, of course, amazing deals to be had with group-buying sites — if you know what to watch out for. And this is something you can take away from “Bargain Babe” Julia Scott’s video for WalletPop, featured above and on WalletPop.com.

One of the main things to look for, Scott says, is the coupon’s expiration date: some of these expire in as little as three months. (Or, as in the example above, are for one-time events.)

Also, the coupons are typically from businesses you’ve likely never used. Not that this is a bad thing, many small businesses use these sites as a way to spread the word out and build up a clientele. But you may end up paying for dinner or?a massage at an establishment that doesn’t match up with your taste.

We’ll add one more word of caution: if the business in question is small (read: it doesn’t have the capacity to serve all those customers who bought coupons within the specified time frame) you may end up simply unable to book and use your voucher. Or you’ll have to schedule a massage three months ahead, without knowing that by that time you will have actually moved across the country. (True story!)

That said, the fine print on these deals is usually quite clear — be sure to read and understand it, and you’re good to go! And if you do end up unable to use your coupon due to unplanned-for circumstances, don’t hesitate to reach out to the vendor. As mentioned above, those are often small business looking for clie! ntele an d will likely at least do their best to accomodate your request.

As for tracking all of those deals and a suggestion for reselling your unused coupons (or buying ones for deals you’ve missed) — there are websites for that. Scott gives you the details in the video above, or on WalletPop.com.

Mint.com the best FREE way to manage your money. Get started here!

Why Target Loves Wu

2012-02-21T13:17:00.001-08:00

It was a big weekend for discount retailer Target (NYSE: TGT ) , with the chain launching its new collection from famous designer Jason Wu. Stores opened Sunday to throngs of shoppers eager to get their hands on one of 60 pieces by the fashion designer. The Jason Wu release, which featured merchandise priced from $19.99 to $59.99, sold out in a matter of hours.

Wu isn't the first world-renowned designer to make an exclusive line for the retailer. Last year, Target stores made headlines for its massive turnout at the Missoni launch, which was so popular that it managed to crash the Target website. This time around, the retailer's website remained up and running. However, by noon Sunday the entire Wu collection was out of stock on Target.com. Shoppers late out of the gate, however, could find items elsewhere online.

Within hours of the debut, many items appeared at marked-up prices on eBay. The auction website has become the go-to destination for sold-out designer items. A Jason Wu for Target sleeveless pleated shift dress that originally sold for $39.99 was selling on eBay on Sunday with six bids totaling $152.50 -- more than three times the retail price. ?

Designer apparel to designer devices
Target is bringing a unique boutique experience to its big-box stores, not only with limited edition collections, but also with its new concept stores. Part of this strategy includes Target's recent partnership with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) . The store-within-a-store format will sell Apple products and be staffed by Apple specialists at select Target stores. While Apple products won't be sold at a discount, customers shopping with their Target REDcard will enjoy 5% off every item purchased -- even iPads, iPhones, and other Apple merchandise.???

I'll say it again, if you're not yet long on Target, it's time to get on board. This is a bull's-eye ! investme nt that's already rewarding shareholders to the tune of a 2.30% dividend yield. That's just below Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT ) 2.35% dividend yield, and unlike Wal-Mart, Target has a lot more growth ahead of it. Target's stock looks reasonably priced with a current P/E of 12.18, slightly better than Wal-Mart's price-to-earnings of 13.97. Track and monitor these stocks by adding them to My Watchlist -- The Motley Fool's free tool for keeping up with your favorite companies.?

Add?Wal-Mart?Stores?to My Watchlist.
Add?Target?to My Watchlist.
Add?eBay?to My Watchlist.
Add?Apple?to My Watchlist.

Joy Global Falls After Demand Warning

2012-02-21T09:30:00.001-08:00

Joy Global (JOY) slid 12% in afternoon trading after the company warned that demand could taper off in 2012.

Joy Global posted $1.82 in fourth quarter EPS, six cents below analysts’ expectations. The company also said that demand might not be as robust next year.

We expect demand to grow at a more moderate rate in 2012, and our focus will be on long term growth and efficiencies, said CEO Mike Sutherlin. “Consistent with the outlook of current sluggishness leading to the return of strong growth, we will continue to move ahead with our capacity upgrades and expansion plans to meet the long term needs of our customers.”

Introducing the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

2012-02-21T01:57:00.001-08:00

It turns out that investors may have made a mistake by turning their noses up at the Dolan family’s $30 per share offer for Cablevision. Citi cut the company’s shares to a "sell" and dropped the price target to $27. Apparently the bank does not believe that Time Warner Cable or any other company is going to come in with a competing bid. No, it is just the company all by its lonesome.

If Citi is right, most of Wall St. and the Cablevision special board committee that rejected the Dolan’s offer will look like buffoons. No other company made an offer when the Dolan’s made their first, lower bid. So, why would anyone go after the company at a higher price?

Buffoons, indeed.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: TIM Participacoes

2012-02-20T22:10:00.001-08:00

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, Brazilian mobile telecom company TIM Participacoes (NYSE: TSU ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

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

TIM facts

Headquarters (founded)	Rio de Janeiro (1998)
Market Cap	$10.7 billion
Industry	Wireless telecommunication services
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$9.4 billion
Management	CEO Luca Luciani (since 2008) CFO Claudio Zezza (since 2008)
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)	13.7%
Cash/Debt	$1.2 billion / $2.0 billion
Dividend Yield	2.4%

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 92% of the 159 members who have rated TIM believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include ajbakerjr and All-Star kkconway, who is ranked in the top 2% of our community.

A few months ago, ajbakerjr nicely summed up the TIM bull case:

As Brazil continues its own version of the mobile telephony renaissance that we have already experienced in the US, companies in this space that know and serve the local market will flourish. Fundamentally, [TIM] is one of the standouts in this space and its nicely priced to boot.

In fact, TIM currently sports a particularly paltry price-to-cash! flow of 3.6. That represents a discount to other foreign telecom plays such as America Movil (NYSE: AMX ) (6.5), China Mobile (NYSE: CHL ) (5.5), and Vodafone (Nasdaq: VOD ) (8.1).

CAPS All-Star kkconway elaborates on the opportunity:

Seen on non-Fool technically oriented, newsletters, but the fundamentals, growth trajectory and political stability of late in Brazil (always a wild card) seem to align this one with the stars -- long enough some decent green CAPs points. I was buying options in real life until I noticed how thin it's traded for a 6 billion dollar telecom. The big boys are not hedging their buys with puts; yet another fantastic sign, I hope.

What do you think about TIM, 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!

Entertainment Expo Is Little Work, Plenty of Play

2012-02-20T18:23:00.001-08:00

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, a.k.a. E3, kicks off this week in Los Angeles, and one of the video industries biggest challenges moving forward will be to sustain growth as consumers try to keep discretionary spending down.

Game consoles can run up to $500 with top games priced around $60. It’s no wonder that Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst set video game sales for the fiscal year ending in March at $28.7 billion, up 13% and bigger than the $27 billion movie business.

Year-over-year numbers are solid, however, when take it one month at a time, it’s not so hot. In April U.S. sales of video games fell 17%, after sliding 23% in March, according to research group NPD.

The decline is somewhat skewed because two of the biggest games of 2008 were launched at the same time one year ago: “Grand Theft Auto IV" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl.”

Shares of the four largest game publishers have risen by an average of nearly 30% so far this year, well ahead of the NASDAQ’s 6% gain for the period.

In addition to a host of new video games from the likes of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), the crowd of 40,000 game enthusiasts are expected to see an updated portable game player -- call "PSP GO" -- from Sony, and an accessory for Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 that senses motion similar to remotes made for Nintendo's Wii remotes.

Nintendo, whose Wii console has sold more than 50 million units and dominated the market in recent years, is likely to unveil new versions of Zelda, and Wii Fit.

Take-Two is expected to show off the first sequel to its popular "BioShock" game, while THQ (NASDAQ: THQI) Inc. may show some of its new "Darksiders" property.

Shares of Take-Two were b! oosted l ast Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected results for its fiscal second quarter, though it posted a loss due to the lack of blockbuster game launches during the quarter.

As far as pre-show buzz goes, Xbox 360-maker Microsoft Corp. is rumored to have some new gaming products in the pipeline. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, the company is developing a type of video camera for the Xbox that would allow players to control the game with their body movements.
Sony is also rumored to have a new version of its handheld PSP that it may unveil -- one that removes the disk drive in favor of using wireless downloads to store and play games.

Another small company playing right along with the big boys is JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKKS). It offers various traditional toys, including action figures and accessories based on World Wrestling Entertainment, The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian, and Pokemon franchises; toy vehicles comprising Road Champs, RC Racers, and MXS toy vehicles and accessories, as well as those based on Nascar; and electronics products that include Plug It In & Play TV Games, EyeClops Bionic Eye products, and Laser Challenge.

Wal-Mart recently named JAKKS as the “Vendor of the Year” for the second time.

FOREX-Euro edges lower as Greek talks transfix – Reuters

2012-02-19T04:37:00.001-08:00

Trading Point

FOREX-Euro edges lower as Greek talks transfix
Reuters
* Euro resistance seen near 100-day moving average around .3333 * S&P says Greece debt 70 percent haircut not sustainable * BoE, ECB policy meetings on Thursday eyed By Julie Haviv NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) – The euro edged slightly lower against the …
WORLD FOREX: Euro Bounces Off 8-Week High As Market Awaits GreeceWall Street Journal
Forex: Euro hits 7-week high, Greece debt talks eyed – DailyFXNASDAQ
FOREX: Euro Outlook Bearish Regardless Of Greek Fiasco OutcomeTheStreet.com
Reuters UK -Trading Point
all 5,365 news articles »

{forex} – Forex News

Empire Resources Inc. (ERSO) Closes 86.34% Higher

2012-02-18T21:04:00.001-08:00

Shares of Empire Resources Inc. (OTC: ERSO) climbed more than 90% in today's trading. The OTC stock reached a high of $3.32 in trading closing 86.34% higher at $3, with volume up from daily average of 11,000 to 274,132. New Jersey-based Empire Resources is involved in the purchase, sale and distribution of principally semi-finished aluminum products. The company distributes its products to customers in the transportation, automotive, housing appliance and packaging industries. Its customers are spread out all across the globe.

The spike in the OTC stock came after the company announced its first-quarter results. The company reported first-quarter net income of $2,698,000, up from $218,000 reported for the same period last year. Diluted EPS increased from $0.02 reported last year to $0.29 in the first quarter of this year. Sales climbed 86% to $120,126,000 in the quarter.

Earlier in March, the company's board of directors declared a cash dividend of $0.025 per share. The company's board plans to review its dividend policy on a quarterly basis. Future dividend payments will be determined by the board after taking into account profitability, cash flow and other requirements of the company's business.

The OTC stock has a 52-week range of $0.90-$3.32, with the high of $3.32 reached in today's trading. It has a beta of 0.91. Currently, the OTC stock is trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

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Kass: A Contrarian's Dream

2012-02-18T13:30:00.001-08:00

This commentary originally appeared at 8:19 a.m. EST on Feb. 2 on Real Money Pro -- for access to all of legendary hedge fund manager Doug Kass's strategies and commentaries, click here.

Today's dominant investor classes -- individual investors, hedge funds and pension funds -- have de-risked and are relatively uncommitted to equities.

A re-allocation into stocks (and out of bonds) represents an underappreciated and potentially massive (and latent) demand that could easily be the catalyst for a move to all-time highs in the S&P 500 in 2012.

Individual Investors

According to the Investment Company Institute, in 2011 retail investors liquidated $130 billion of domestic equity mutual funds, accumulated $1.7 billion of international stock mutual funds, purchased $120 billion of bond funds and bought $8.4 billion of high-yield funds. Since the beginning of 2007 (through 2011), retail investors liquidated over $450 billion of domestic equity funds, accumulated $130 billion of international stock mutual funds and purchased $930 billion of bond funds. The near-$1.4-trillion swing out of domestic equity mutual funds and into bond mutual funds is unprecedented.

Since 2001, as measured by stock holdings as a percentage of total financial assets, individual investors' share of stocks has declined from 25% to only 18%. In the same time frame, stock mutual funds have dipped from 79% of total mutual fund assets (excluding money market funds) to only 65% at year-end 2011.

Hedge Fund Investors

After Wednesday's close the ISI Hedge Fund Survey, which is based on the actual exposure at 36 long/short funds, which have approximately $90 billion in assets, indicated that net hedge fund exposure moved down to 44.3% (while gross exposure dipped to 49.7%). This is close to the lowest level of long exposure in four years and equivalent to the low exposure at the generational low in ! March 20 09.

Large Pension Fund Investors

There are less official data on pension funds than on retail investors and hedge funds, but it is commonly recognized that pension funds are disproportionately exposed to fixed income over equities. This important asset class remains fearful of stocks, preferring the haven of safety available in low- or virtually non-yielding bonds (which provide returns well below actuarial assumptions).

Watch What They Do, Not What They Say

As most subscribers know by now, I prefer to watch what investors do, not what they say. That is why I am dismissive of many of the sentiment surveys (AAII, Investors Intelligence, etc.) as well as put/call ratios (which are further rendered relatively meaningless, owing to the proliferation of leveraged ETFs).

The aforementioned de-risking and flight to safety in bonds by all three dominant investor classes help to explain the last five years of action in domestic equities and the contraction in P/E ratios in 2011.

I expect the recent trend of large outflows over the last year (and last five years) to be reversed in 2012. Not only are interest rates at generational lows but many high-quality companies are yielding (at 2.5% or even better) well above the yield on the 10-year U.S. note.

At first, similar to the past two weeks, in which under $1.5 billion has come into stock mutual funds, the pace of inflows will be slow. As it becomes clearer that the domestic economy is self-sustaining, that the European debt crisis is showing continued evidence of stability, that a Republican presidential win in November grows more likely and that corporate profit (and margin) expectations will be achieved, I expect the rotation out of bonds and into stocks to accelerate.

Tactically, I favor the asset management stocks such as Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZM), T. Rowe Price (TROW), Waddell & Reed (WDR) and Legg Mason (LM) and the discount brokerage stocks such as E*Trade (ETFC) and Schwab (SCHW) as direct beneficiaries of the expected rotation out of bonds and into stocks in 2012.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints

Paul Krugman is Dead Wrong: Debt Matters

2012-02-18T09:43:00.001-08:00

Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economics professor, Nobel Prize winner, and regular New York Times op-ed contributor says, "Debt matters, but not that much."

Not only is he off the reservation on this one, but he's completely fallen off his high horse.

In the real world, debt actually matters a lot.

In a Houston Chronicle opinion piece last week, Krugman, riding his horse - whose name might as well be Liberal Conscience - trampled conservatives under the guise of an economics lesson that derided "deficit-worriers" for wrongly seeing "America as being like a family that took out too large a mortgage, and will have a hard time making the monthly payments."

According to Krugman, that's a bad analogy and "the way our politicians think about debt is all wrong, and exaggerates the problem's size."

Decide for yourself. Either debt matters a lot, or not that much...

The World According to Paul Krugman

Professor Krugman calls all the conversation in Washington about debt and deficits a "misplaced focus" and says all of the economic experts "on whom much of Congress relies have been repeatedly wrong about the short-run effects of budget deficits."

He derides the fears that deficits will cause interest rates to soar by pointing out that they haven't moved.

What he doesn't say is that they haven't moved because they're not free to move.

The fact is that the U.S. Federal Reserve has corralled the free market in interest rates by knocking short-term rates to almost zero through successive open market operations and extraordinary quantitative easing measures.

Mr. Krugman mocks those waiting for rates to rise and notes that while they wait "rates have dropped to historical lows."

Maybe what he doesn't realize is that the Fed's actions themselves have been nothing ! short of historical.

The crux of Mr. Krugman's supposition that debt doesn't matter much is based on his bashing of the popular analogy comparing America's debt problems to those of a mortgaged homeowner.

All of which Krugman claims is "a really bad analogy in at least two ways."

He says, "First, families have to pay back their debt. Governments don't - all they need to do is ensure that debt grows more slowly than their tax base."

"Second," he says, "an over-borrowed family owes the money to someone else; U.S. debt is, to a large extent, money we owe ourselves."

He goes on to say that the debt from World War II was never repaid and didn't make postwar America poorer.

In fact, the Professor points out, "the debt didn't prevent the postwar generation from experiencing the biggest rise in incomes and living standards in our nation's history."

Krugman is Flat Out Wrong

First off, the homeowner analogy is excellent--not irrelevant.

Mr. Krugman is wrong when he says that homeowners have to pay back their debt. The truth is they don't have to.

Just like the government, as long as their creditworthiness is intact and money is available, at whatever cost, homeowners can refinance their mortgages over and over. That's no different than how the government rolls over its own debts.

We saw this phenomenon play out in stark reality during the housing bubble.

Not only were homeowners refinancing their homes to take out money for consumption purposes, they leveraged themselves to buy more homes to multiply the wealth effect they were already experiencing.

In the case of the housing crash, borrowers were counting on rising property values to finance their expanding debts. That's the same as what Krugman says governments should do: make sure debt expansion doesn't outpace revenue growth, in this case taxes.

In the end! , though , didn't the bursting of the housing bubble prove that debt eventually matters?

To me, the housing bubble was a pretty darn good analogy as to what happens when mounting debts aren't repaid. When it happens on a systemic basis, the entire economy suffers.

Doesn't our nation's expanding debt and deficit in the face of falling tax revenues and worse, a lower base, portend similar problems on an even larger scale?

Of course, Krugman has it all figured out.

We just have to grow our debt at a slower pace than our tax base grows. Who knew the answer was so simple...

We'll just meet our expanding debt obligations by raising taxes faster. Perfect!

Second, to claim that U.S. debt doesn't matter because we owe it to ourselves, and that homeowners' debts do matter because they owe them to someone else, is absurd.

It is as if we are all going to say to the government, "It's okay you took all of those taxes from us and spent them on stuff we'll mostly never see, wipe the slate clean, we're good. And all the stuff you promised us that you didn't budget for, or worse, those set aside budgets you stole from, it's okay, we're good, we relieve you of what you owe us." It's just stupid.

Also, if you are a homeowner you are paying yourself too, in a sense.

While you are paying the mortgage to your bank you are also paying into a capital asset known as your home. You end up with something of fairly equal value, or more when home prices appreciate.

The Truth about Debt

But we screwed that all up because debts do matter.

Too much debt leads to depreciation and deleveraging, which leads to lower demand, lower production, fewer jobs and a lower tax base.

The last piece of Krugman's argument that our World War II debts were never repaid and that the huge deficits to pay for the war effort led to an extraordinary peacetime expansion is also frighteningly off the ma! rk.

Of course, the savings bonds issued to fund the War have matured and been paid off. And the portion of our national debt brought on by the War was paid off a long time ago.

Just because the U.S. continues to add to its deficit and has to continually rollover debts doesn't mean that we're rolling over debts from 70 years ago.

Mr. Krugman's own argument even addresses that. Rising incomes and our rapidly expanding economy in the postwar period generated a vastly rising tax base and led to prosperity.

But, that had nothing to do with deficits not mattering.

That had everything to do with soldiers returning home and being educated under the G.I. bill, being able to find work in revved-up manufacturing facilities, and the ensuing baby boom that would lead to a substantial increase in the population and tax base.

A Political Axe to Grind

There are a lot of problems with Professor Krugman's argument that deficits don't matter.

But, the biggest problem I have is that instead of addressing deficits in an organic, holistic and objective way, Mr. Krugman addresses these important issues from his political perspective rather than a purely economic perspective.

Bashing conservatives who say deficits matter and spending cuts along with a smaller government are the best way to solve our long-term fiscal problems, and arguing that "responsible governments -- that is governments that are willing to impose modestly higher taxes when the situation warrants it" are the answer to deficits that don't matter much, is polarizing at best and dangerous at worst.

What economists should be advocating is an apolitical approach to both our short-term and long-term problems.

We need smaller deficits over time and a smaller, more responsive government in the long-term.

In the short-term, we need real infrastructure spending, not quantitative easing for banks to increase their bonus poo! ls. We n eed a massive investment in education and we need an industrial policy that promotes manufacturing and job growth - not the exportation of our capital to less developed countries where labor cost advantages fatten up public corporations that don't pay enough U.S. taxes and hide the money from Uncle Sam in the loopholes Congress digs for them.

Both deficits and politics matter.

And if we don't figure out how to bridle both we are all going to end up in the dirt being trampled by stampeding emerging economies everywhere.

[Editor's Note: If you're fed up with the rampant corruption, double-dealing, and protection of Wall Street by Washington (at the expense of the taxpayers on America's Main Street), then you need to read Shah Gilani's Wall Street Insights & Indictments newsletter. As a retired hedge-fund manager, Gilani is a former Wall Street insider who knows where all the bodies are buried. But unlike most insiders, he's not afraid to tell you where they are. He's also got some pretty good ideas how to fix this mess - and how to protect yourself until the cleanup takes place. Please click here to find out more. The newsletter is free.]

How Long Does It Take to Make a Buck at Suburban Propane Partners?

2012-02-18T05:57:00.001-08:00

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 Suburban Propane Partners (NYSE: SPH ) .

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 Suburban Propane Partners, alongside the comparable figures from a few competitors and peers.

Company	TTM Revenue	TTM CCC
Suburban Propane Partners	$1,191	?30
Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP )	$6,485	?27
AmeriGas Partn! ers (NYSE: APU )	$2,538	?28
Dominion Resources (NYSE: D )	$14,947	?43

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 Suburban Propane Partners, 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 Suburban Propane Partners looks good. At 29.5 days, it is barely changed from the five-year average of 29.8 days. The biggest contributor to that improvement was DSO, which improved 1.4 days compared to the five-year average. That was partially offset by a 2.4-day increase in DPO.

Considering the numbers on a quarterly basis, the CCC trend at Suburban Propane Partners looks OK. At 53.6 days, it is 10.0 days worse than 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, Suburban Propane Partners 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 Suburban Propane Partners to My Watchlist.
Add Energy Transfer Partners to My Watchlist.
Add AmeriGas Partners to My Watchlist.
Add Dominion Resources to My Watchlist.

Tesla unveils its Model X

2012-02-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

Tesla has finally pulled the wraps off its mysterious Model X.

Tesla Motors

Tesla Model X.

It was a meticulously engineered promotional campaign. After teasing the public for months with glimpses of a svelte silhouette, we finally got to gawk at a fully illuminated version during a webcast late Thursday from Tesla��s design center near Los Angeles.

And what did we see? A crossover.

Admittedly, the Model X is a very cool crossover. It��s got that Tesla electric-hot rod chic plastered all over it. It��s stylistically a bit edgy, with doors that flip up, not out, to make you feel like you��re climbing into a cockpit rather than a car. (Just don��t call them ��gull wings��, which are forever wedded to the iconic Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing roadsters of the 1950s. No, the Model X carries ��falcon wing�� doors, riffing on the Falcon rocket ships in SpaceX, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk��s space program.)

Click to Play

Cheap gas stuck in Minnesota

There��s $70-a-barrel oil in the U.S. that is virtually inaccessible due to the lack of a pipeline. Photo: Reuters

But for all the glam, it��s a crossover nonetheless, filling a role occupied back in the day by station wagons. This is Tesla��s bid to pad out its lineup with something more practical than its $109,00! 0 Roadst er and something roomier (it seats up to seven adults) than its Model S sedan, which starts at $49,000 and goes all the way up to $97,900 for the Signature Performance edition.

The Model X, which won��t hit showrooms until 2013, carries a price tag estimated by Tesla at between $55,000 and $75,000. At that price, it��s not going to pose a serious threat to General Motors�� GM ?or Ford��s F ?market share.

But that��s never been Tesla��s objective. Tesla aims its cars at that happy market mix of wealthy environmentalists, hard-core geeks, performance fanatics and those who view luxury vehicles as public extensions of their wallets. Nothing says you��ve arrived like a Tesla in the driveway. Especially in Silicon Valley.

Predictably, initial reviews of the Tesla Model X are written by those who can��t wait to buy one. Or at least drive one.

But there��s another audience for the X Investors. They��re a tougher crowd. Tesla TSLA ?shares fell 5% Friday, so clearly they need a bit more convincing.

�� Jim Jelter

Top picks 2012: Twin Disc

2012-02-17T11:03:00.001-08:00

If you are looking for a solid growth company currently trading at a discount, then I strongly recommend Twin Disc, Inc. (TWIN).

The company is expected to grow at 45.6% in fiscal 2012, but is priced at a bargain relative? to its intrinsic value ($56), with a P/E ratio of only 11.57 times earnings. Further, the company is absolutely swamped with demand.

Twin Disc, is primarily in the business of producing and selling heavy duty off-highway power transmission equipment, marine transmissions, surface drives, propellers and boat management systems.

This company began 91 years ago, founding a company that made the first ��twin disc�� clutch for tractors but now has evolved into a company that manufactures and sells its products not only for pleasure craft, but for military marine markets, government and industrial, energy and natural resources and commercial markets.

The company has just introduced the Express Joystick System (EJS) to the marine market and is in the development of its 7500 series transmission which is in the final testing phase.
Twin Disc is backlogged 6-months as it works to keep up with the demand for its products.

For the first three quarters of 2011, Twin Disc, Inc. has seen its net income more than double from $4,034 (M) December 2010 to $9,581 (M) in September 2011. ?

Earnings grew by 45.6% this last quarter. Its gross margin is up 35.9% and has an overall growth rate of 39%. It pays a small dividend of just under 1%.

While its marine transmission business is diverse, TWIN has seen a boost in its revenues indirectly due to higher oil prices, which has allowed the oil and gas markets to boost its orders for TWIN marine transmission products use in offshore drilling marine craft.

There is risk tha! t if oil prices fall sharply in 2012, orders from this segment may be affected.

Yet, if the Fed continues to intervene in the marketplace to hold up the financial markets, oil prices could stay elevated as they have for the last few years.

TWIN is also benefiting from growing demand in the aftermarket, industrial and airport rescue and firefighting (ARFF) markets that have also added to its profitability.

Unlike some of its peers, the stock aggressively bounced back following the sell-off in the stock market in the third quarter to establish a three-year high and it is still selling at a deep discount to its intrinsic value.

From my perspective, what I look for in a stock is a company with solid earnings, selling at a bargain, with an established technical pattern of higher highs and higher lows over the previous few years.

The stock got as low as $23 last October but then shot up to $47 a share when investors spotted this value. Look to buy TWIN in the $25-$30 range with an upside target of $56.

Coca-Cola's Q4 Earnings Gives Bulls a Reason to Smile

2012-02-17T07:21:00.001-08:00

If you made me pick a stock that I I'd be forced to put 100% of my money in for the rest of my life, my choice would probably be Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) . (While I don't own Coke directly, it's been a CAPScall of mine and I own a considerable amount by way of Vanguard Dividend Appreciation and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B ) , which owns 8.6% of the company.)

The reason is that Coca-Cola may be world's safest company because of its near-monopoly market position. And when making a large non-diversified investment, safety is key.

The only thing that would be even better is if the world's safest company was generating double-digit growth and could be bought at an attractive price.

And wouldn't you know it, it is.

The sweet earnings details
Coke reported earnings per share for Q4 of $0.72 and full-year EPS of $3.69. Since the shares are trading for $68.70, basic math tells me the stock is trading at 18.6 times trailing earnings. Not bad for a company as safe as Coke. To put that into perspective, the Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (NYSE: VDC ) is trading at 16.5 times trailing earnings. But Coke's return of equity exceeds 40%, while VDC's is at 23.6%.

But it gets even better: Last year's earnings were somewhat unusual because of Coke's purchase of the North American operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

So when comparing apples to apples and taking out one-time items, Coke's EPS was up 10% for the quarter and the full year, at $0.79 and $3.84, respectively. This performance was fueled in part by explosive growth in China (volumes up 13%) as well as 19% energy-drink volume growth for the quarter.

And folks, for a mature market leader like Coke, 10% EPS growth is amazing. I'd argue that it's the equivalent of 20% growth for a normal comp! any.

But Coke isn't just resting on its laurels. The company is implementing a cost-cutting program that aims to remove up to $650 million in costs by 2015. Those savings give it the flexibility to spend in other areas, like stacking up more resources behind advertising.

Ordinarily I'm suspicious of such initiatives, but the company has successfully delivered on such measures in the past. And to my knowledge, the quality of Coca-Cola hasn't suffered.

So I'd like to buy the world a Coke -- a share of Coke stock, that is.

Coke is easily one of the most recognizable brands in the world, perhaps even the most recognized. That sort of exposure can make it hard to get a beat on the company, as most expectations are built into the stock price. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has uncovered one incredible, and still largely undiscovered, growth story in Latin America. We're so excited about this stock that we've named it The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012. We've compiled a special free report for investors to uncover this top pick today. Get access now, but hurry, because it won't be free forever.

Introducing the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

2012-02-17T03:30:00.001-08:00

Countrywide Financial (CFC) Mortgage mess driving shares back down. Hits $7.51 down from 52-week high of $45.26.

Jefferies Group (JEF) Investment bank says it will have loss. Trades down to $17.10 from 52-week high of $33.80.

JC Penney (JCP) Big retail shares keep falling. Down to $35.43 from 52-week high of $87.18.

ShoreTel (SHOR) Internet switch maker will miss forecasts. Drops to $5.73 from 52-week high of $19.96.

E*Trade (ETFC) Brokerage firm downgrade. Moves down to $2.81 from 52-week high of $26.08.

Douglas A. McIntyre

What Raytheon Does With Its Cash

2012-02-16T23:49:00.001-08:00

In the quest to find great investments, most investors focus on earnings to gauge a company's financial strength. This is a good start, but earnings can be misleading and incomplete. To get a clearer understanding of a company's ability to earn money and reward you, the shareholder, it's often better to focus on cash flow. In this series, we tear apart a company's cash flow statement to see how much money is truly being earned, and more importantly, what management is doing with that cash.

Step on up, Raytheon (NYSE: RTN ) . ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

The first step in analyzing cash flow is to look at net income. Raytheon's net income over the last five years has been impressive:

?	2011*	2010	2009	2008	2007
Normalized Net Income	$1.7 billion	$1.6 billion	$1.8 billion	$1.6 billion	$1.4 billion

Source: S&P Capital IQ. *12 months ended Sept. 30.??????????????????????????

Next, we add back in a few non-cash expenses like the depreciation of assets, and adjust net income for changes in inventory, accounts receivable, and accounts payable -- changes in cash levels that reflect a company either paying its bills, or being paid by customers. This yields a figure called cash from operating activities -- the amount of cash a company generates from doing everyday business.

From there, we subtract capital expenditures, or the amount a c! ompany s pends acquiring or fixing physical assets. This yields one version of a figure called free cash flow, or the true amount of cash a company has left over for its investors after doing business:

?	2011*	2010	2009	2008	2007
Free Cash Flow	$1.3 billion	$1.6 billion	$2.4 billion	$1.7 billion	$0.9 billion

Source: S&P Capital IQ. *12 months ended Sept. 30.

Now we know how much cash Raytheon is really pulling in each year. Next question: What is it doing with that cash?

There are two ways a company can use free cash flow to directly reward shareholders: dividends and share repurchases. Cash not returned to shareholders can either be stashed in the bank, used to invest in other companies, or to pay off debt.

Here's how much Raytheon has returned to shareholders in recent years:

?	2011*	2010	2009	2008	2007
Dividends	$0.6 billion	$0.5 billion	$0.5 billion	$0.5 billion	$0.4 billion
Share Repurchases	$! 1.2 bill ion	$1.5 billion	$1.2 billion	$1.7 billion	$1.6 billion
Total Returned to Shareholders	$1.8 billion	$2.0 billion	$1.7 billion	$2.2 billion	$2.0 billion

Source: S&P Capital IQ. *12 months ended Sept. 30. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

As you can see, the company has repurchased a decent amount of its own stock. That's caused shares outstanding to fall:

?	2011*	2010	2009	2008	2007
Shares Outstanding (millions)	357	373	390	417	439

Source: S&P Capital IQ. *12 months ended Sept. 30.

Now, companies tend to be fairly poor at repurchasing their own shares, buying feverishly when shares are expensive and backing away when they're cheap. Does Raytheon fall into this trap? Let's take a look:

Source: S&P Capital IQ.

This is encouraging. For the most part, Raytheon management has been fairly consistent with share buybacks regardless of share price. Very few companies can say the same these days. Given what looks like reasonable valuations in relation to earnings and cash flow, Raytheon's share buybacks have likely been a good deal for shareholders in recent years.

Finally, I lik! e to loo k at how dividends have added to total shareholder returns:

Source: S&P Capital IQ.

Over the last five years, Raytheon shares returned 4%, which drops to -8% without dividends -- not a bad boost to top off otherwise low returns.

To gauge how well a company is doing, keep an eye on the cash. How much a company earns is not as important as how much cash is actually coming in the door, and how much cash is coming in the door isn't as important as what management actually does with that cash. Remember, you, the shareholder, own the company. Are you happy with the way management has used Raytheon's cash? Sound off in the comment section below.

Add Raytheon to?My Watchlist.

Arch Coal (ACI) Q4 Misses Consensus, Cautious For 2012

2012-02-16T19:57:00.001-08:00

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE:ACI) earned 29 cents a share on an adjusted basis in Q4, trailing consensus estimate of 32 cents. Revenue of $1.23 billion also missed Wall Street projections of $1.30 billion.

The St. Louis, Missouri-based coal producer issued a cautious view for 2012?citing domestic thermal market concerns and is slashing its intended output volumes "to better align with weak generation and coal demand trends."

It sees volume reductions in excess of 5 million tons this year.

Shares are off 1.6% to $15.33 in premarket trading on Friday.

ACI shares, which have been trading in the 52-week range between $13.09 and $36.99, closed at $15.58 on Thursday.

{$end}

No hot tempers at consumer chief's House hearing

2012-02-16T16:10:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- No raised voices. No accusations of evading questions. No accusations of lying.

Anyone expecting fireworks from Richard Cordray's first hearing on Capitol Hill as chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was disappointed. Tuesday's session before a House Oversight subcommittee lacked the tense undertones and pointed questions that have marked previous hearings on the bureau.

Cordray's recess appointment earlier this month caused Republicans, especially those in the House, to denounce the president's move and question the legitimacy of the bureau's work.

While subcommittee chairman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina explained that he called the hearing to highlight the "unprecedented and legal consequences and uncertainty that this appointment would create," few lawmakers posed such questions to Cordray in person.

The Republican who came closest was California Rep. Darrell Issa. Issa, the chairman of the full Oversight Committee, asked Cordray if he had a back-up plan in case a court rules that the bureau's work is illegitimate under his tenure.

Cordray said he was open to suggestions, but added the bureau intends to move forward with its full powers.

Political veterans have predicted a bumpy road for the bureau after the president's recess appointment of Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, as the bureau's first official director.

Republicans in Congress tried for months to prevent the president from making exactly the appointment unless he agreed to structural changes in the consumer bureau. They say the House and Senate were not in recess when Obama made the appointment.

But lawmakers in the House hearing kept a civil tone, especially compared to past hearings with Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University law professor who helped set up the bureau.

McHenry, who came to blows with Warren last year, pushed Cordray to lay out a so-called "regulatory agenda," forecasting the types of enforcem! ent acti ons the bureau intends to pursue.

Cordray said he would consider it.

"I think our agenda has been pretty clear to everybody who has interacted with us, from the (U.S.) Chamber (of Commerce) to consumer groups," Cordray said. "I'm happy to have my staff work with you, and if it's a best practice, that's something we could do."

Risky Assets to Move Lower in the New Year?

2012-02-16T12:27:00.001-08:00

Risky assets across the board have fallen on above average volume during Wednesday's trading session. Over night, Italy had a better-than-expected 6-month debt auction; however, investors lost enthusiasm as they focus on Thursday's 10-year bond auction.

Just after 9:00 a.m. headlines crossed the wires that the International Monetary Fund announced no decision has been made with Hungary about when discussions of a fund-supported program will begin.

At the same time, rumors circulated that one of the rating agencies is considering a downgrade to France's AAA credit rating. Most major risky assets fell on heavy volume, following these events. The Euro fell about 100 pips versus the U.S. Dollar, gold futures fell over $25 per ounce, and silver futures fell over 4%.

As the risk-off trade continued, the U.S. Dollar simultaneously saw strength, spiking almost 1% higher.

Despite the Santa rally within the last couple of weeks, the fundamental picture for the world economy has not changed. The debt problems in the United States and abroad still exist.

European banks are taking a page out of the U.S. banks' playbook and essentially hoarding cash, after the European Central Bank's long-term refinancing operations, as European sovereigns know that trillions of dollars of debt need to be paid down in the coming years.

On top of that, China is dealing with its own problems, ready to slow the global economy even more. China's Purchasing Managers' Index for December fell below 50, signaling a contraction in the industry, which is a bearish indicator for the world's second biggest economy. China's Shanghai Composite Index has fallen over 20% year-to-date, and its housing sector continues to slow.

Europe is one of China's largest exporters. As Europe slows, so will China, and when China slows, so will demand for industrial commodities and risky assets like crude oil and copper.

Benzinga reached out to Brian LaRose, technical analyst at United-ICAP, to get his perspec! tive on where the global economy stands.

��We use a range of technical indicators and tools to predict where these markets will go, with the primary tool being Elliott Wave Theory,�� LaRose said. ��Elliott Wave Theory is very important as it takes in account the emotional aspects of the marketplace, which drives price action, especially today.��

��Almost all of our Technical indicators suggest further downside is ahead for riskier assets such as commodities and equities,�� LaRose continued. ��We may see some strength going into the New Year; however, any gains in commodities and equities are likely to be very short lived. We would prefer to be scale up sellers in this scenario.��

After asking to what will change their bearish view, LaRose continued:

��We would change our view if some of these markets break above their 2011 highs, but we suspect that will only happen with US Dollar weakness and Euro strength, both of which would require some fundamental catalyst that is unforeseen.��

Summing up United-ICAP's fundamental-short thesis in one sentence: ��Austerity does not promote growth.�� Well said.

ACTION ITEMS:

Bullish:
Traders who believe that the global debt problems are just beginning to take affect, might want to consider the following trades:

Long treasuries or the U.S. Dollar. As volatility and fear continue to boil up, investors and traders alike will look for a risk-off trade, and the U.S. Dollar and Treasury bonds are very risk-off assets. Take a look at the US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP)

Short industrial commodities. If contagion spreads, it will also spread to developing economies like China and India. As they slow, so will their manufacturing sectors and in-turn the demand for industrial commodities like copper and crude oil. Take a look at the Crude Oil Double Short ETN (NYSE: DTO) and the Base Metals Short ETN (NYSE: BOS)

Bearish:
Traders who believe that this is not the end of the world, may consider alternative positions:

Going long equity markets. Recently, the economic numbers in the United States have not been very poor and there a numerous amount of analysts saying that the S&P is cheap on a price-to-earnings metric. Take a look at the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)

Long the EUR/USD. If all debt becomes fixed in a timely manner, the Euro will strengthen. Take a look at CurrencyShares Euro Trust (NYSE: FXE)

Neither Benzinga nor its staff recommend that you buy, sell, or hold any security. We do not offer investment advice, personalized or otherwise. Benzinga recommends that you conduct your own due diligence and consult a certified financial professional for personalized advice about your financial situation.

Follow me on Twitter @bpilzner

Sign up for a free! subscri ption to the Weekly Radar - Benzinga's weekly newsletter highlighting technical levels and analysis for major markets for the week ahead.

Long Live Steve Jobs (and Apple's Profits)

2012-02-16T08:42:00.001-08:00

Apple(AAPL) has risen from a tech has-been to a profit-generating juggernaut in only a decade, and the maker of the iPhone and iPad shows no signs of slowing even after the death of the company's co-founder and chief innovator.

Apple, set to report fiscal fourth-quarter results after the close of trading today, is at a critical juncture following the Oct. 5 death of Steve Jobs, the company's former star CEO. After Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he helped turn around the struggling company by rolling out the successful iMac computer before branching out to the iPod music player and, eventually, the iPhone smartphone and iPad tablet computer. When Jobs returned to Apple, the stock was trading around $5 a share, and it's now at $419.

During his second go-around, Jobs turned Apple into a wildly successful company with his innovative vision. For example, Apple's gross margin widened from 23% at the end of fiscal 2001 to almost 40% by the end of this fiscal year. High-priced, high-margin devices are the main reason for that growth, as Jobs preferred to have Apple focus more on design and features than on lower prices.

Although he's gone, Jobs' fingerprints will be all over Apple's quarterly results now and into the future. CNet's Brooke Crothers, citing an unnamed source with knowledge, said the next iPhone is "a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited."

That helps to substantiate a report last week by The Daily Mail that Jobs left behind plans for four years' worth of new Apple products. If future products are anywhere nearly as successful as the iPhone 4S launch, that could mean a windfall for Apple for the next several years.

Investors are already seeing Apple continue its success without Jobs around. On Monday, Apple announced that it sold over 4 million of the new iPhone 4S over the weekend after the Oct. 14 launch. Technology writer Dan Frommer put ! that num ber in context, noting that weekend sales of the iPhone 4S may have eclipsed the first weekend sales of all other iPhone devices combined. Frommer says it's a safe assumption that Apple raked in at least $2 billion in iPhone sales last weekend. That news pushed Apple shares to an all-time high of $426.70 on Monday.

Although the iPhone is thought to be Apple's highest-margin product, Wall Street researchers speculate the company's profits could shrink. Analysts expect that Apple's gross margin will hit 39.6% in tomorrow's quarterly report, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters, down from a record 41.7% in the company's fiscal third quarter. In Apple's first fiscal quarter, which will include this holiday season, analysts are already forecasting constant gross margins of 39.6%.

Some analysts are now wondering aloud if gross margins could dwindle over time. They include Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, who on Monday raised his price target on Apple to $500 from $480 and also increased his estimates for what Apple will report tomorrow. In his report, Gardner noted Apple's declining margins and what it says for the company's future profitability.

"While we are modeling gross margins down 170 basis points [quarter-over-quarter] due to mix and product transitions, we see potential for upside here," Gardner writes. "Even with declining gross margin, Apple should be able to grow [earnings per share] 20% to 25% in [fiscal 2012]."

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, in an email today, says Apple may say it sold 12.5 million iPads in the most recent quarter. Interestingly, he says margins may actually have widened, to 41.5%, as component prices fall. All of this could mean that Ap! ple repo rts earnings per share of more than $8 for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Channing Smith, manager of the Capital Advisors Growth Fund(CIAOX), says shrinking margins aren't something new to big technology companies, and that investors shouldn't yet fear that Apple can't be as profitable as the company was under Steve Jobs.

"Profit margins matter, but any investor needs to understand that you have to accept the fact that profit margins will come down," Smith says. "If you're going to saturate the market, you're going to have to move downstream at some point. You have to bring the prices down, especially when moving into emerging markets, which impacts margins."

For example, Apple has now begun to offer its iPhone 3GS handset, launched in 2009, for free with new two-year contracts with wireless providers. Apple also cut the price of its iPhone 4 model, which debuted last year. The lower price points should hurt Apple's gross margin, although Smith argues the company "can make it up in volume. There is tremendous operating leverage there."

Smith says that, given the successful iPhone 4S launch, he doesn't see anything slowing down for Apple heading into the important holiday quarter.

"The road map is there, and they're executing and delivering and consumers have shown they still want their products, as evidenced with the iPhone 4S launch," Smith says. "Going into the holiday quarter, it looks like it's going to be gangbusters. Our price target, which is $500 to $600, is definitely achievable."

Beyond the holiday quarter, though, nothing is certain for Apple. Smith says his fund owns Google(GOOG) in addition to Apple shares, as he believes Android is the only viable competition. "Longer term, it will be more difficult for Apple to sustain this technological advantage," he says.

For now, though, Apple is able to maintain that compet! itive le ad with its current product line. "This isn't an amazing brand-new phone, but even with the incremental upgrades, it's still so much better than what is out there," Smith says of the iPhone 4S. "It proves Apple's technological advantage over the competition."

Even without considering competition, Apple could become its own worst enemy. The so-called Law of Large Numbers in business theorizes that companies that grow too large aren't able to keep up with previous growth rates. Apple recently eclipsed Exxon Mobil(XOM) to become the largest company in the world with a market cap of nearly $390 billion. Could Apple become the exception to this theory?

"We do respect the law of large numbers, and it will become more difficult for Apple to see the market cap continue to grow like it has in the past few years," Smith says. "But what you have to watch is how the company executes. Apple executes extremely well. We need to see Apple stumble before we begin to worry, and we have not seen that yet."

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Analysts Upgrades And Downgrades: SYNA, ALTR, AH, FSL

2012-02-16T04:51:00.001-08:00

Amidst the positive opening of the U.S. market, several stocks were either upgraded or downgraded by analysts and rating agencies. Some notable stocks are discussed here.

Synaptics Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNA), which develops and supplies custom-designed human interface solutions that enable people to interact with various mobile computing, communications, entertainment, and other electronic devices, is upgraded to Buy from Hold with a price target of $36, up from $28, by analysts at Craig-Hallum. In its FY 2012 Q1, the company registered a decline in its adjusted net income to $19.15 million, or $0.57 per share, from $24.23 million or $0.67 per share, in the year-ago quarter, but beat analysts' estimate of $0.47 per share. Net revenue for the quarter declined to $133.45 million from $153.19 million in the same quarter, but topped analysts' consensus estimate of $132.62 million by a whisker. Shares of SYNA jumped 11.77 percent, or $3.18, to trade at $30.20.

Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR), a semiconductor company that designs, manufactures, and markets programmable logic devices, HardCopy application-specific integrated circuit devices, pre-defined design building blocks, and associated development tools, is raised to Buy from Neutral by analysts at Mizuho Securities, with a price target of $40, up from $36. In its FY 2011 Q3, Altera reported a 5 percent decline revenue to $522 million. Shares of Altera rose 8.48 percent, or $2.80, to trade at $35.83.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded Accretive Health, Inc. (NYSE:AH), which provides end-to-end healthcare revenue cycle management services, to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $31. They believe the focus will shift back to the overwhe! lming ne ed for hospitals to improve profitability, which will accelerate traction for billing and collection outsourcing specialists. Shares of AH gained 9.61 percent, or $1.95, to trade at $22.25.

Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (NYSE:FSL), which engages in processing semiconductors and solutions for automotive, networking, industrial and consumer markets worldwide, is downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $12, down from $18. The company provided cautious guidance for the second quarter in a row, projecting revenue of $1 billion to $1.06 billion for the current period, down about 8 percent to 12 percent sequentially. Analysts expected revenue of $1.12 billion. Shares of FSL fell 9.30 percent, or $1.13, to trade at $11.02.

{$end}

Jefferies Upgrades Cummins, Joy Global On Low Valuations

2012-02-16T01:04:00.001-08:00

Jefferies & Co. upgraded a number of companies today, including Joy Global (JOYG) and Cummins (CMI), as recent selloffs have made both names too cheap.Analyst Stephen Volkmann now rates both names at Buy.

“In our view, JOYG hasamong the highest margins and returns in the machinery space and will be a key beneficiary of the re-capacitization of the mining sector,” he wrote, noting that top line growth is poised to accelerate.

Recent market gyrations “[have]created an opportunity for investors, thus our more constructive stance on the name,” while a bullish outlookfor coal, iron ore and coppermining support his new $100 target price.

As for Cummins, Volkmann writes “a disconnect has developed betweenvaluation and CMI’s long-term prospects, as an improved cost structure,increasing component value, and JV contributions are set to drive CMI towardits 2015 sales, margin, and EPS targets.”

His new $115 price target takes into account Cummins very high margins and demand for engines and components in response to stricter environmental regulations for vehicleemissions.

The Only Chinese Growth Story Worth Buying Right Now

2012-02-15T13:44:00.001-08:00

There’s an intriguing growth story in China right now that you need to be following — particularly one specific play that could help you take advantage of a powerful new trend before it catches fire. This growth market is so compelling, in fact, that it’s making me rethink my long-standing prohibition on Chinese ADRs.

But before I get into the details, let me explain why I’ve been so reluctant to take a serious look at any Chinese stock, even those trading on major U.S. exchanges…

For almost a year, I’ve honored a self-imposed ban on the purchase of any Chinese stocks. I haven’t touched a single Chinese ADR since my ban — and I haven’t recommended a single one to my readers.

The saga began last year with a small Chinese travel stock called Universal Travel Group (NYSE:UTA). Back in September 2010, I recommended shares of the small-cap Chinese travel company to my readers, pinning hopes on a dirt-cheap valuation and breakneck growth in the Chinese travel industry. But the morning after I sent out the recommendation, a short seller published a report detailing why UTA was a fraud and why he was actively betting against shares. The stock opened for trading down 30%, and we quickly sent out an alert for readers to sit tight before buying while we investigated the claims.

After some digging, I felt the claims boiled down to a misunderstanding of the company’s business. Every argument for UTA being a fraud looked incorrect. Luckily, we were able to take advantage of the situation, re-issue the buy recommendation — and even ended up booking gains on the investment.

Even though we did well on the UTA investment, we were concerned about the power that unknown! short s ellers could have over Chinese ADRs. While there had been some rumblings about the abundance of fraud in China, UTA was one of the first major short attacks on a Chinese stock.

Then the floodgates opened. Fraud allegations appeared left and right. And short sellers eventually targeted another one of my recommendations, Advanced Battery Technologies (PINK:ABAT).

ABAT was a Chinese battery stock I recommended back in March 2010. It was up as much as 21% early last year — but that was before another short attack shoved shares more than 40% lower in a single trading day. I ended up closing the position for a loss — but was spared the 90% drop that eventually crushed the stock.

That’s when my ban went into effect. Even if Chinese fraud wasn’t truly widespread, the risks of a short attack were just too real to justify buying any of these ADRs — no matter how rosy the growth picture may have been at the time. Investors were eating up every fraud report that hit the web. There was no telling what stock would be the next target —or if the claims of fraud would even be legitimate…

But now, something has changed. I’ve found this new growth market in China that could have the potential to deliver early investors significant gains. It has the potential to be so powerful, in fact, that it could easily repel short attacks just like the ones I’ve experienced firsthand…

I’m talking about the Chinese pharmaceutical market. It’s growing faster than any other drug market on the planet right now, with some projections expecting it to balloon to $115 billion in the next three years.

Here’s the kicker: Because the Chinese government requires local testing of medicines — and because the cost for conducting the animal research to perform these tests is about half what it is in the U.S., domestic companies are beating down the doors of these Chinese drug research firms. They ! want to get their foot in the door so they can grab some of the profits of this red-hot growth market.

Because these Chinese-based firms are now buyout targets for major U.S. Pharmaceutical firms, we now have an extra margin of safety while exploring the sector for potential investments. If Big Pharma has sent its best people to China to investigate these businesses and their growth claims, I sincerely doubt a short-selling raid would hold up to the scrutiny.

That’s why the small-cap ADR WuXi PharmaTech Inc. (NYSE:WX) has caught my eye. Not only does WuXi grab 70% of its revenue from research for U.S. companies, it also was involved in a “near miss” $1.6 billion takeover attempt from U.S.-based Charles River Labs, according to Bloomberg. The only reason the deal went sour is because Charles River shareholders voted it down because they felt the premium was too high.

In my view, this was a huge mistake made by short-sighted Charles River shareholders…

A precedent was set by the offer — which represents a premium of more than 60% above WuXi’s market value right now. Analysts don’t see the company accepting anything less. Frankly, neither do I. WuXi is simply making too much money — and monopolizing too much U.S. business — to humor a lowball offer. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, WuXi’s profit margins are 5 times that of its U.S. counterparts. WuXi is eating their lunch, and they know it.

A buyout offer is not a matter of “if” but “when” at this point. Someone will come along with a massive offer for WuXi — or even one if its competitors in the research sector. An event like this should trigger a ton of activity in the sector.

Can Geron Recover in 2012?

2012-02-15T09:56:00.001-08:00

With 2012 just beginning, now's a great time to gauge how the stocks you're interested in are likely to do this year and beyond. By knowing what stock analysts and fellow investors expect from a stock, you'll be smarter about whether you should buy it for your portfolio -- or sell it if you already own it.

Today, let's take a look at Geron (Nasdaq: GERN ) . The small biotech took it on the chin in 2011, losing more than 70% of its value as it wrestled with controversy about its stem-cell research program. But now that the company has made a huge strategic decision to move away from stem cells, the big question is whether the company can retain investor interest long enough to work through its pipeline of drugs. Below, I'll take a closer look at what people expect from Geron and its rivals.

Forecasts on Geron

Median Target Stock Price	$6
2011 EPS Estimate	($0.73)
2012 EPS Estimate	($0.65)
Expected Annual Earnings Growth, Next 5 Years	5%
CAPS Rating (out of 5)	***

Sources: Yahoo! Finance and S&P Capital IQ.

Will Geron bounce back in 2012?
Analysts certainly have very high hopes for Geron, with a price target that's quadruple what the shares currently go for. Yet they also realistically peg Geron's potential as a long-term play, projecting losses through 2012. Members of our Motley Fool CAPS community are neutral about the stock, giving it a mid-range three-star rating.

The big move that Geron made in 2011 was to give up its stem-cell research. By doing so, Geron hopes to avoid any further damage from controversies over stem cells. Along with! Geron, Cytori Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CYTX ) and Aastrom Biosciences (Nasdaq: ASTM ) have also seen big volatility in their shares, as advances in stem-cell research seem inevitably to give way to concerns about whether the companies are viable investments.

In addition to getting out of a controversial area, Geron will also save millions in research costs, as it expects to cut almost 40% of its workforce as a result of the move. Moreover, if the company is able to sell its stem-cell division to another buyer, it could bring in extra cash, which would be useful for clinical trials going forward. With their own stem-cell programs, Pfizer (NYSE: PFE ) or GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK ) could find the old Geron program a useful addition.

Geron has a number of drugs remaining in its pipeline after the move. Imetelstat is currently involved in four phase 2 clinical trials for various types of cancer. But both imetelstat and fellow cancer drug GRN1005 aren't expected to show results until late this year at the earliest. That means investors will have to wait awhile just to see if the drugs have enough promise to proceed to phase 3 trials. In the meantime, you should expect volatility from Geron shares anytime the company announces even the smallest bit of news.

Biotechs can make you a lot of money, but they're also very risky. Temper that risk with some more solid investments. The Fool's latest special report can point the way, with three smart stocks for long-term investors. It's free, but only available for a limited time, so click here and read it today.

Click here to add Geron to My Watchlist, which can find all of our Foolish analysis on it and all your other stocks.

Gold Prices Rebound on Technical Buying (Update 2)

2012-02-15T06:11:00.001-08:00

Gold prices popped higher, despite a stronger U.S. dollar, as technical traders jumped into the market.

Gold for February delivery closed up $9.50 to $1,664 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price has traded as high as $1,666.80 and as low as $1,645.20, while the spot gold price was adding $7, according to Kitco's gold index.

Silver prices added $1.16 to close at $31.67 an ounce. TheU.S. dollar index was up 0.18% at $80.22.

Gold prices jumped in mid morning trading on technical buying, holding on to gains after prices brushed up against the $1,650 an ounce level. Gold is primarily a "trading affair" today, says Phil Streible, senior commodities broker at RJO Futures. Streible says there is a lot of shorting gold -- that is betting against a higher gold price -- around the high $1,660 level and then a lot of "buying the dip" and short covering -- where traders buy back those positions -- around the $1,650 level. "This pop is technical based trading," he says, "I haven't seen anything dollar specific [to move prices]." A purely technical pop in gold does raise questions as to whether the rally is sustainable.

Anthony Neglia, president of Tower Trading, says the magic number is $1,700 an ounce. "If it doesn't make it there quick, in 1-2 days, look out below. Then gold should break $1,600 by middle of next week. "

Gold prices had been coming under pressure by a stronger U.S. dollar -- a trend which could continue next week. Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco.com, says that gold and the euro are still "holding hands," which means an inverse relationship to the dollar.

"We have to see how this goes into next week," says Nadler, "because a lot of the talks are ongoing with Greece and its creditors. The IMF still hasn't raised the money [nearly half a trillion dollars], so the market jury remains out as to just how sustainable this euro rally will be and! what ha ppens to gold in physical terms after the Chinese New Year comes to a conclusion."

China has been a stronger buyer of gold, adding a huge support to the gold price. The country imported 389 tons of gold in the first 11 months of 2011, but many experts think this may have been strategic buying ahead of the Chinese New Year, which starts next week, and might slow after the holiday.

"Next week is likely to be a volatile week with China closed for the New Year holiday," says William Adams, head of research for FastMarkets.com, "so it may be that the markets consolidate while they wait to see what the mood is once China returns to work on January 30th."

The mood so far is mixed. China Securities Journal reported that there might be 900-1,000 billion yuan in new loans for January. This comes after reports that China is pushing its 5 largest banks to increase new loans by 5% in the first quarter. More money in circulation could help support gold imports, but on the flip side HSBC said that manufacturing in December came in at 48.8. That figure was better than November's data but under that critical 50 level that signals growth.

"If we don't manage to overcome the $1,700-$1,720 level," in gold prices says Nadler, gold could sink to as low as $1,400. "In addition, I think we will see some impact in the re-allocation process that the various funds have already embarked upon," which could lead to a lot choppiness in the price.

Wayne Lin, portfolio manager and investment strategy analyst for Legg Mason Global Asset Allocation, goes one step further. "Given where things are from a fundamental economics point of view, unless we have hyper inflation around the corner, there is a potential for downside risk."

Lin says that the real price of gold is somewhere between $200-$400 an ounce. Throughout history, Lin says, gold has spiked two times -- in the late 1970's early 1980's and now starting right before the financial crisis.

"When people think there is going to be a crisis and when they lose faith in paper currencies," says Lin, "people have a knee jerk reaction [into gold]" with gold ETFs being the biggest recent demand driver.

Lin says when that knee jerk reaction calms down gold could revert back to its "real" price, although he gives no timeline on that forecast. "Its hard to forecast where gold is going to go from here," says Lin. "If you think that Europe is going to blow up odds are that gold will go up ... [if there is a] fear of hyper inflation then gold will go up. If you think those things will subside then gold will have a long way to come down."

Legg Mason doesn't really have an official view on gold, but Lin does issue a warning "[the price] is at elevated levels and that would lead an investor to see downside risk if the price reverted to the mean, which we think in the long run is what the economic fundamentals will dictate."

One big argument against Lin's view is the growing money supply in the world. U.S. M2 supply, meaning money in circulation plus savings, deposits and non institutional money market funds, is more than $9.6 trillion in the U.S. The European Central Bank's balance sheet has grown 27% since September and China is expected to loan out $9 trillion yuan in new loans this year.

Lin says its not enough to just look at the money supply but you have to look at if that money is making it out into circulation. "As long as GDP remains subdued it means that money really isn't circulating." Lin says industrial demand in the U.S. and employment are picking up, two things that could signal stronger growth and therefore more money in circulation, but that those factors are not at the level yet where inflation becomes a real concern.

Lin says the disaster scenario that would trigger hyper inflation would "take a policy shift from ECB and/or the Federal Reserve to say 'we are no longer concerned with the price level and we are just going to print money like it i! s going out of style.' I don't think we are there yet especially given the economic growth."

The real test will come as the economy recovers and as core inflation picks up. If the Fed withdraws money from the system, says Lin as he expects it to do, it would reaffirm its commitment to price stability and would perhaps signal the beginning of the end of gold's bull run. "The Fed is going to have to let it get pretty far for the market to think they are not committed to price stability [and even the Fed fails there] is still a possibility of another Paul Volcker."

Gold mining stocks were unable to stage a rally Friday. Kinross Gold(KGC) was adding 0.94% at $10.20 while Yamana Gold(AUY) was flat at $15.31. Other gold stocks, Agnico-Eagle(AEM) and Eldorado Gold(EGO) were lower at $35.03 and $13.54, respectively.

-- New York.

>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/adsteel.

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GAO Report A Terrible Thing To Mind

2012-02-15T02:24:00.001-08:00

Shares of for-profit education services providers bounced sharply higher in Monday’s trading after a government report failed to realize fearsthat the industry faced an onerous regulatory burden.

Shares of ITT Educational Services (ESI)jumped about 8%, while Bridgepoint Education (BPI)also improved by8%, and Apollo Group(APOL)advanced 7%.

Participants in for-profit educational services have braced since early summer for a government report that, in the worst-case scenario, may have imposed more-stringent regulations on areas such as operating margin and enrollment procedures. Becausethe overwhelming majority of students in these educational programs are being supported by government loans, there were some fears that the government would suggest restraints on margins and enrollment procedures.

The report, from the General Accounting Office, instead pursued more-benign suggestions, such as ensuring that qualified students enrolled in the schools, since unqualified students have a greater propensity to leave school without finishing their studies, and are more inclined todefault on student loans.

China Encourages Capital Inflows through Expedited QFII

2012-02-14T22:37:00.001-08:00

China has broadened approvals for its Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program since October, reversing a previous approval freeze that held investors at bay from May to October; according to official data that were released Thursday.

Reuters reported that combined quotas granted under the QFII program in 2011 totaled $1.92 billion, the lowest since 2007, partly due to that approval freeze. However, since October when the freeze was lifted, Beijing has allowed approval of nearly $1 billion in quotas for foreign institutions to invest in the country's capital markets.

Analysts believe that the change in policy was the result of capital outflows as some investors grew more concerned about the state of the markets and withdrew funds. That led to a weakening of the yuan against the dollar in the onshore market.

Howhow Zhang, head of research at Shanghai-based consultancy Z-Ben Advisors, was quoted saying, "Typically when the yuan faces pressure to appreciate, regulators slow or suspend quota approvals. I think now, because there is a capital outflow, approvals are being accelerated."

Just in December, five foreign companies, including Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali and Spanish bank BBVA were granted combined QFII quotas of $500 million, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. In October a total of $200 million was granted, and in November $250 million.

Guo Shuqing, newly appointed chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said earlier in the month that commission would expedite approvals. It grants licenses to qualified institutions under the system for allowing controlled inflows of capital for financial investment, but foreign exchange regulator SAFE grants the quotas themselves.

Since the QFII program was launched in 2003, permitting qualified foreign investors to purchase mainland stocks and bonds, it has granted total combined quotas of $21.6 billion.

Is Rick's Cabaret the Perfect Stock?

2012-02-14T15:03:00.001-08:00

Every investor would love to stumble upon the perfect stock. But will you ever really find a stock that provides everything you could possibly want?

One thing's for sure: You'll never discover truly great investments unless you actively look for them. Let's discuss the ideal qualities of a perfect stock, then decide if Rick's Cabaret (Nasdaq: RICK ) fits the bill.

The quest for perfection
Stocks that look great based on one factor may prove horrible elsewhere, making due diligence a crucial part of your investing research. The best stocks excel in many different areas, including these important factors:

Growth. Expanding businesses show healthy revenue growth. While past growth is no guarantee that revenue will keep rising, it's certainly a better sign than a stagnant top line.
Margins. Higher sales mean nothing if a company can't produce profits from them. Strong margins ensure that company can turn revenue into profit.
Balance sheet. At debt-laden companies, banks and bondholders compete with shareholders for management's attention. Companies with strong balance sheets don't have to worry about the distraction of debt.
Money-making opportunities. Return on equity helps measure how well a company is finding opportunities to turn its resources into profitable business endeavors.
Valuation. You can't afford to pay too much for even the best companies. By using normalized figures, you can see how a stock's simple earnings multiple fits into a longer-term context.
Dividends. For tangible proof of profits, a check to shareholders every three months can't be beat. Companies with solid dividends and strong commitments to increasing payouts treat shareholders well.

With those factors in mind, let's take a closer look at Rick's Cabaret.

Factor	What We Want to See	Actual	Pass or Fail?
Growth	5-Year Annual Revenue Growth > 15%	27.8%	Pass
?	1-Year Revenue Growth > 12%	12.7%	Pass
Margins	Gross Margin > 35%	65.6%	Pass
?	Net Margin > 15%	9.4%	Fail
Balance Sheet	Debt to Equity < 50%	44.3%	Pass
?	Current Ratio > 1.3	1.11	Fail
Opportunities	Return on Equity > 15%	13.4%	Fail
Valuation	Normalized P/E < 20	11.06	Pass
Dividends	Current Yield > 2%	0%	Fail
?	5-Year Dividend Growth > 10%	0%	Fail
?	?	?	?
?	Total Score	?	5 out of 10

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Total score = number of passes.

With a score of five, Rick's Cabaret finishes in the middle of the pack. The gentlemen's-club operator has seen some impressive growth in recent years, but the stock has largely languished for well over a decade.

So-called "sin stocks" raise an ethical conundrum for many investors. While few would argue that cigarette maker Altria (NYSE: MO&n! bsp;&nbs p;) or liquor company Diageo (NYSE: DEO ) aren't legitimate businesses making solid profits, some still aren't comfortable with the idea of making money from practices that they personally feel are questionable. Yet other investors take advantage of that squeamishness, figuring that company's like Rick's offer even better investment opportunities because some of their investing peers avoid bidding the shares up.

Until the recession hit, Rick's looked like a company with unlimited potential. Like many sin stocks, Rick's has a loyal customer base, and its nightclubs tend to see solid demand -- as long as money's flowing through the economy into corporate expense accounts and bonuses.

But in recent years, the company ran into bad timing. It bought a club in Las Vegas several years ago, figuring that it was a natural growth opportunity. But then the economy went south, and as Vegas-casino players MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ) and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS ) pulled out the stops to keep a dwindling customer base within their own walls, Rick's found itself on the outside with a big loss on its hands.

For Rick's to get on track for perfection, it needs to stick with its more conservative plan of organic expansion and the occasional acquisition. If it can do so, then Rick's could find itself regaining some of its lost ground since 2008 over the next few years.

Keep searching
No stock is a sure thing, but some stocks are a lot closer to perfect than others. By looking for the perfect stock, you'll go a long way toward improving your investing prowess and learning how to separate out the best investments from the rest.

Click here to add Rick's Cabaret to My Watchlist, which can find all of our Foolish analysis on it and all your other stocks.

How to Balance a Checkbook

2012-02-14T11:19:00.001-08:00

Balancing a checkbook has become something of a lost art in this era of digital access to accounts, online bill payments, debit cards, and other forms of electronic money. In fact, some people have done away with actual, physical checkbooks entirely by paying their bills entirely online, with debit cards, or by automatic payment.

Knowing how to balance a checking account is still important, maybe even more so in this era of e-money. It’s vital to know what’s in your account and where your money goes each month, since it’s the only way you will know for sure how much money you have, avoid overdrafts and completely understand your financial situation.

With all of that in mind, here is how to balance your checkbook in five easy steps:

Step 1: Keep Records

You must keep records of all of your deposits and purchases if you want to have any hope of balancing your checking account. This means that every time you use your debit card, write a check, deposit a check, make a withdrawal, transfer money, or make automated payments or deposits, you need to record it in your check register. Write them in?exactly, since exact amounts are key to balancing your account. If you use an accounting program or app, like mint.com’s free money management tools, these amounts will be electronically recorded for you, which will help you stay organized if you forget to write something down.

Step 2: Obtain Your Bank Statement

It seems obvious, but this is a vital step. Many people never even look at their bank statements, especially when they’re paperless and sent via email. It’s vital that you access and save your statements, even when they’re electronic. If you’re not sure how to get your statement, log into your bank account and check under “settings.” There is usually an option there to get your statement by mail, by email, or by both. Depending on your financial institution, you might also be able to integrate ! your sta tements with your accounting software, so that your statement automatically gets aligned with the records you’ve been keeping. Quicken has software tools that aggregate all your account information for you into an easy-to-read format.

Step 3: Find the Last Transaction

It’s important that you understand where the statement ends and when the bank stopped figuring amounts. This will be a specific date and time, and your statement will have this marked at the top for your information. You’ll also want to look for the last transaction to determine whether it’s a payment or a deposit. This will let you know the window of time that you’re looking at and give you the baseline figure from which you can balance your checking account. Record the balance that is at the last transaction on your account and then compare that balance to the one that’s after the same transaction in your records. If the number is the same, lucky you! Your account has balanced. If it’s not, however, it’s time for the next step.

Step 4: Check What’s Cleared and What Hasn’t

The fact is, not all payments or deposits from or into a checking account clear immediately, and you’ll need to determine the status of all pending transactions in order to balance your account. Go through the statement line-by-line and check off which payments and deposits have cleared, and which are still outstanding. If you’re using software, you might be able to do this electronically. If not, you’ll need to do this by hand. It’s somewhat tedious but it’s at the heart of balancing a checkbook, since you need to know exactly how your records match up with your bank’s.

Step 5: Subtract or Add as Necessary

Here’s the tricky part. If you have any deposits that haven’t cleared, you’ll need to subtract them from the bank’s balance. Likewise, if you have any payments that haven’t cleared, you’ll need to! add tho se to your bank’s balance. You’ll also want to look at your bank statement for any fees that might have been applied to your account such as, overdrafts, ATM transactions, or monthly surcharges. Then, subtract these from the balance in your checking account to bring the two balances in line with one another. Ideally, once you’ve done all this, the balances should match exactly. If they don’t, it means that there is an error somewhere, and it’s usually going to be something you left out of your records. Go back over step 4 and 5 until you get the balances to match.

Congratulations! When you’ve made it this far, you’ve balanced your checking account. You’re all set — until you have to do it all over again in a month.

Investments for Income Lovers

2012-02-14T07:31:00.001-08:00

In this four-part series, I'll be taking a look at some of the best investments around for adding yield to your portfolio. In Part 1, I highlighted two top-tier actively managed stock funds that incorporate income generation into their investment approach.

In this installment, I'll turn to some of the better "core" stock-centered exchange-traded funds on the market that can help you boost your income power. These are funds that can play a larger role in your core stock allocation. We'll turn to "alternative" dividend-producing stock ETFs in Part 4, but for now, let's focus on well-diversified funds that crank up the dividend juice.

SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSE: SDY )
This exchange-traded fund tracks the performance of the S&P High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index, which measures the returns of the 60 highest-yielding members of the S&P Composite 1500 that have consistently increased their dividends every year for at least 25 years. That's one of the things that make this fund so attractive -- you don't have to worry about exposure to stocks that have a high yield simply because their price has dropped from some recent difficulties. The only names that make it through the screen here are companies with a long history of successful financial management and strong dividend policies.

With just 60 holdings, the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF is a bit more concentrated than many other dividend-focused funds, but it is still diversified enough to serve as a core dividend holding. Its trailing 12-month yield is a healthy 3.17%, a decent payout for any investor. Over the past five-year period, the fund has posted an annualized 1.7% return. That doesn't seem like a whole lot in absolute terms, but considering the S&P 500 Index was up only 0.7% and the average large value fund up 0.2% in that time, this fund has done well for itself. And it should continue to do well in what looks to be a continued slow-growth environment i! n 2012, where financially stable market leaders will likely excel.

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSE: VIG )
This exchange-traded fund focuses more on the megacap side of the market capitalization spectrum. While the SPDR Dividend ETF has an average market cap of $13.7 billion, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF measures in with an average market cap of $39.6 billion. So here you'll find recognizable blue-chip names like Coca-Cola and IBM landing among the fund's top holdings. This fund tracks the Dividend Achievers Select Index, which also tracks companies with increasing dividends over time. At last glance, roughly 128 names made the cut into the portfolio, the largest portions of which were in the industrial and consumer defensive sectors.

This fund hasn't been around for all that long yet, but in its short life, it has managed to put up one of the most impressive track records in its category. Over the most recent trailing five-year period, the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF was up 2.9% on an annualized basis. That puts it in the top 1% of all large-cap blend funds in that time period. Low 15% annual turnover and rock-bottom 0.18% expenses add to this fund's charms, making it one of the best choices around for large-cap dividend exposure.

Further afield
While I think large-cap dividend-producers will be the hot spot for dividend-seekers in the immediate future, investors who want to branch out a bit have a few choices for dividend coverage in smaller markets. WisdomTree comes to the rescue here with two options -- WisdomTree MidCap Dividend ETF (NYSE: DON ) and WisdomTree SmallCap Dividend ETF (NYSE: DES ) . Both funds invest in several hundred mid- or small-cap companies that pay regular cash dividends.

The indices each of the two! funds t rack are both dividend-weighted so companies that make higher payouts receive proportionally larger representation in the index. Both funds will run you 0.38% in expenses per year, which isn't cheap compared to larger dividend-focused ETFs, but they are still one of the most inexpensive options for gaining direct access to the smaller segment of the dividend-producing market.

Likewise, investors who want to expand their dividend coverage beyond domestic borders might want to consider a fund like the SPDR S&P International Dividend ETF (NYSE: DWX ) . This fund invests in about 120 high-yielding stocks from around the globe, in both developed and emerging markets. According to Morningstar, roughly 81% of assets are devoted to stocks headquartered in developed nations.

While this fund is a good option for foreign dividend exposure, turnover is high, so investors should be wary about adding this fund to a taxable account. And given the foreign nature of the fund, investors should expect a fair amount of volatility. However, in small doses, this fund could serve as a good complement to your more domestically focused dividend exposure.

Stay tuned for the next installment in this series where we'll take a look at some of the best high-yielding bond funds for your portfolio.

Reaching your retirement goals will require more work than just investing in the best income-producing investments around. Our newest special free report highlights the shocking truth about your retirement. Don't miss this chance to grab your free copy of this can't miss report today!

3M Downgraded To 'Hold' By Deutsche Bank On Valuation, CEO Retirement

2012-02-14T03:43:00.001-08:00

Deutsche Bank (DB) downgraded its rating on 3M Co. (NYSE:MMM) to "Hold" from "Buy" on valuation and the retirement of CEO George Buckley.

David Begleiter, an analyst at DB, said 3M's announcement today that its Board has opted not to renew Buckley's contract is also a key factor in his move to the sidelines. With the departure of the chief architect of 3M's successful innovation driven growth strategy, his conviction level on the shares has lessened, he wrote.

"While we do not consider 3M shares to be expensive, with the shares within 8% of our price target and in-line with historical absolute and relative valuation metrics, we no longer find valuation compelling," Begleiter said. "While we believe 3M's NPVI target of 40% in 2016 is achievable (and the linchpin of the 3M's 2016 sales target of $50B [5-yr CAGR: 11%]), we believe the Board's decision not to extend Mr. Buckley's term for 2 more yrs (as he sought) will make the achievement of these targets more difficult."

Begleiter has a price target of $95.00 on the stock, which is currently up 0.11% to trade at $88.07.

{$end}

Introducing the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

2012-02-12T06:24:00.001-08:00

It looks like the analysts at Bank of America has been running around to consumer electronics stories to check Playstation 3 sales. Their conclusion: Bank of America's Michael Savner this morning says recent checks find "sluggish PS3 sales, despite much improved availability.", according to Barron’s. Part of the reason seems to be that the price point is too high.

No wonder the less expensive Ninetendo Wii is doing well and the company reported home run earnings which were up 40% in the most recent quarter.

Sony’s (SNE) stock has rallied from $37 in October to a current price of almost $48.

Maybe that is a bit over the top.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

The Kroger Co. Crossed 52 Week High Price - NYSE:KR

2012-02-10T01:30:00.001-08:00

The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) achieved its new 52 week high price of $25.48 where it was opened at $25.36 UP 0.12 points or +0.47% by closing at $25.48. KR transacted shares during the day were over 4.59 million shares however it has an average volume of 5.83 million shares.

KR has a market capitalization $15.81 billion and an enterprise value at $22.88 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.19 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 2.98. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 1.36% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 2.71%.

The company made a return on asset of 5.96% in past twelve months and return on equity of 22.16% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $82.19 billion gaining $129.43 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 7.40% holding 9.00% quarterly earnings growth.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $825.00 million cash in hand making cash per share at 1.33. The total of $7.89 billion debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 148.96. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 0.94 and book value per share was 8.54.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 25.38% where the stock price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average with $24.40 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average with $22.95.

KR holds 620.64 million outstanding shares with 583.96 million floating shares where insider possessed 5.79% and institutions kept 82.00%.

Why Clorox's Earnings May Be Less Than Awesome

2012-02-09T06:38:00.001-08:00

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?"

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. The CCC figure for Clorox for the trailing 12 months is 44.0.

In this series, I'm most interested in comparing a company's CCC to its prior per! formance . 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.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

On a 12-month basis, the trend at Clorox looks less than great. At 44.0 days, it is 13.3 days worse than the five-year average of 30.7 days. The biggest contributor to that degradation was DIO, which worsened 8.8 days when compared to the five-year average.

Considering the numbers on a quarterly basis, the CCC trend at Clorox looks OK. At 47.6 days, it is 8.6 days worse than 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 both 12-month and quarterly CCC running worse than average, Clorox gets low marks in this cash-conversion checkup.

Add Clorox to My Watchlist.

Is The U.S. Leading the Global Economy Out of a Downturn?

2012-02-08T19:17:00.001-08:00

Emerging market stocks rose on positive U.S. unemployment and economic data. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF) gained 1.37% on Friday, climbing over 3% throughout the week on course for its longest run of weekly advances since October 2010, reports Bloomberg.

U.S. employment data showed payrolls increased by 243,000 last month, the highest since April, and lowest rate unemployment rate (8.3%) since February 2009. The results were well beyond expectations.

Employment data is a leading indicator or economic growth, especially because it correlates with higher consumer spending. Positive U.S. data therefore has a strong effect on emerging markets that have an economic dependence on America's consumer market.

Business section: Investing ideas
Interested in investing in companies that could benefit from this turnaround in growth?

For ideas, we created a universe of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) stocks trading on the U.S. exchanges. We then collected data on short-selling activity, and identified a list of companies that have seen significant short covering over the last month.

Short-sellers seem to think these stocks are ready to pop higher -- do you agree? (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

1. Cninsure: Provides insurance brokerage and agency services, and insurance claims adjusting services in the People's Republic of China. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 2.82M to 2.44M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.44% of the company's float of 26.47M shares.

2. Changyou.com (Nasdaq: CYOU ) : Develops and operates online games in the People's Republic of China. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 372.33K to 220.03K over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.52% of the company's float of 10.04M shares.

3. GOL Linhas A (NYSE: GOL ! ; ) : Operates as a low-cost low-fare airline in Latin America. Brazil. Shares shorted have decreased from 7.42M to 6.06M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.49% of the company's float of 91.12M shares.

4. Zhongpin (Nasdaq: HOGS ) : Engages in the processing and distribution of meat and food products primarily in the People's Republic of China. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 3.74M to 3.20M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 2.07% of the company's float of 26.10M shares.

5. Mindray Medical International: Mindray Medical International Limited, through its subsidiary, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd., develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices worldwide. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 14.59M to 13.40M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.42% of the company's float of 83.77M shares.

6. Noah Holdings: Engages in the distribution of wealth management products to the high net worth population in China. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 2.63M to 2.29M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.95% of the company's float of 17.44M shares.

7. SouFun Holdings: Provides marketing, listing, technology, and information consultancy services to real estate and home furnishing industries in the People's Republic of China. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 2.11M to 1.90M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.91% of the company's float of 11.00M shares.

8. Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL ) : Designs, develops, manufactures, and sells photovoltaic (PV) modules worldwide. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 16.27M to 15.58M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.16% of the company's float of 59.34M shares.

9. VanceInfo Technologies (NYSE: VIT ) : Engages in the provision of information technology (IT) services. China. Shares shorted have decreased from 7.48M to 7.10M over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.51% of the company's float of 25.18M shares.

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Kapitall's Rebecca Lipman does not own any of the shares mentioned above. Short data sourced from Yahoo! Finance.

The Credit Crisis and the Real Story Behind the Collapse of AIG

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

see photos

Click for full photo gallery: Boardroom To Business Plan

Rochelle Behrens spent five years in political affairs as both a White House intern and an associate at a bipartisan lobbying firm. She loved the political scene but by age 25, something began to bother her. Like many of her Millennial peers, Behrens says she was raised on a diet of encouragement to live her dreams. ��The attitude was very much, ��Do what you love and success will follow,�� she says, ��and so there��s this pressure to not just succeed at a young age, but to be fulfilled and passionate about your day-to-day.��

For Behrens, that sense of passion was missing. ��I began to feel a sense of ennui that I wasn��t doing what I loved.�� And that��s when things got interesting. Rather than enter the sophomore slump of career dissatisfaction, Behrens took her life��s savings of $50,000 and struck a new path as an entrepreneur. Her year-old, single-product company, The Shirt, a patented button-down oxford for women that claims to eliminate bust line gapping, has beenfeatured on the Today Show and Oprah Winfrey named it her ��Must-Have Fashion Item�� of 2011. 15,000 units were sold last year alone. Not bad for a passion project.

In late 2011 a wildly popular ForbesWomanpost argued that Millennial women are ��burning out�� in the workplace by age 30. Citing ��career flameouts,�� contributor Larissa Faw pointed to McKinsey numbers to illustrate astark drop-off of women in the corporate ranks: 53% of entry level jobs are held by women (presumably the aforementioned ��Millennials��), but women hold only 37% of mid-management positions and 26% in senior management. By this measuring stick, it��s easy to see that not all women are making it up the ladder. Faw points to ��unrealistic expectations,�� muddied career goals and short-sighted thinking as reasons why unhappy women aren��t advancing.!

B ut what if that��s not a bad thing?

The silver lining of a generation of malcontents just might be an indicator of an explosion of new business. A recent Kauffmanpoll shows that Gen-Y may be poised to be themost entrepreneurial bunchthe world has seen. “Fifty-four percent of the nation’s Millennials either want to start a business or already have started one,�� says Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. Paired with data on the rise of female entrepreneurs, the outlook for young women is promising. As Lesa Mitchell, Kauffman��s vice president of innovation pointed out “Women’s entrepreneurship is an economic issue, not a gender-equity issue.” The next 10 years are being called the ‘Decade of the Woman Entrepreneur‘.

If Faw��s ��unrealistic expectations�� are schedule flexibility, increased control and unlimited earning potential, then the jump to entrepreneurship from a traditional climb up the corporate ladder is easily explained for Millennial women. More and more anecdotal evidencepoints to the search for independence, fulfillment and control as the real driver of Gen-Y women to pursue aspirations of entrepreneurship. According to a 2010 poll conducted by Gen-Y evangelist Lindsey Pollak, which aimed to measure the sentiments of 1,000 Millennial women worldwide, 96% listed being independent as their most important life goal, with more than 87% defining success as the ability to shape her own future. Perhaps this, then is the real reason women are abandoning the corporate ladder to strike out into the often much scarier and demanding arena of entrepreneurship. If necessity is the mother of invention, career dissatisfaction just might be the necessary driver of the next economic boom.

Rebecca Woodcock, whose Cake Health is touted as the ��Mint.com of health insurance�� and was a darling of TechCrunch Disrupt says she was driven to leave her career in market research to find increased decision mak! ing powe r. ��At the end of the day, the person in charge could do what they wanted with my recommendations. ?I had a strong desire to make a bigger impact on the companies I worked for and often felt stifled. ?This frustrated me, and as a result, l started something of my own.��

In San Francisco tech startups are as commonplace as cable cars, which mean leaving corporate culture for the greener pastures of self-fulfillment is the natural course of action for young employees. Not surprising then, that, Foodspottingcofounder Alexa Andrzejewski��s decision to strike out echoes Woodcock��s. ?At only 26, after four years as a design consultant working on the projects of others, control became an issue. ��It��s a fact of life in consulting that most of the things you design will never see the light of day, at least not quite as you imagined them,�� she says, hedging that her position at Adaptive Path was a ��dream job�� and both inspired and encouraged her entrepreneurial goals. ��I rarely had the opportunity to oversee my research, strategy and design work into the execution phase.��

Why This American Icon Will Rise Even Further

2012-02-08T00:25:00.001-08:00

The following video is part of our "Motley Fool Conversations" series, in which industrials editor and analyst Brendan Byrnes and technology editor and analyst Andrew Tonner discuss topics across the investing world.

In today's edition, Brendan and Andrew discuss the Caterpillar and its exceptional year so far. The stock is up over 25% year-to-date, but the company has gotten some bad press recently after closing a Canadian plant. We explain why Caterpillar is still a solid pick for the year ahead.

If Caterpillar's 1.6% dividend yield isn't quite enough for you, fear not. The Motley Fool has compiled a special free report outlining our 11 top, dependable, dividend-paying stocks. It's called "Secure Your Future With 11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks." You can access your complimentary copy today at no cost! Just click here to discover the winners we've picked.

Introducing the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

2012-02-07T05:30:00.001-08:00

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 name 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 range 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

Stop Ignoring This Entire Industry

2012-02-07T01:44:00.001-08:00

The following video is part of our "Motley Fool Conversations" series, in which Austin Smith, consumer goods editor and analyst, and Brendan Byrnes, industrials editor and analyst, discuss topics across the investing world.

In today's edition, they discuss how there is opportunity in this industry, and Warren Buffet has even stated that he is bullish on it (and owns a major player in it). The sector may seem dull, but these are solid and steady dividend producers that should be around for the foreseeable future. Shippers, on the other hand, are suffering from an oversupply problem. They are also very vulnerable to global economic slowdowns, and it doesn't help that three of the major dry bulk shippers are based out of Greece.

CSX and Union Pacific look like solid long-term picks going into the future, but if you'd like to take a look at the one company that our Chief Investment Officer picked out for explosive growth in 2012, check out our newest free report, "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012." It highlights a company that is revolutionizing commerce in Latin America. You can get instant access to the name of this company by?clicking here -- it's free.

Microsoft and Blackberry to be the Next Google and Motorola

2012-02-06T03:05:00.001-08:00

First Motorola, Next BlackBerry.

With Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) for $12.5 billion, is Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) next up for auction?

Mid-February, Research In Motion was trading just under $70 a share. Tuesday, the stock is down to $27 per share with slight increases due to Google's purchase. But with Societe Generale downgrading its RIMM position from "hold" to "sell," there may not be a better opportunity to buy the BlackBerry manufacturer.

During the summer of 2009, BlackBerry controlled the smartphone world with a 21 percent market share. But with recent competition from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google's Android, BlackBerry now holds only 12 percent, or 13.3 million smartphones. With multiple new phones being released soon, including the Bold 9900 and 9930, a comeback could be within reach if the new OS 7 operating system is a success, especially with younger smartphone users.

Sale Price

Motorola sold for a 63 percent premium and two analysts believe that Research In Motion could go for more. Citigroup analyst Jim Suva estimates "a blended target price of $49 ($35 based on EV/Sales, $64 based on P/E)." RBC analyst Mike Abramsky "estimates $14.4 billion enterprise value for RIM or $33/share or 34 percent premium." Both estimates are well above the current stock price.

Potential Buyers

Steve Makris believes Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) could be in the running due to most BlackBerry users also using the Windows Platform. Abramsky believes other possible acquirers could be Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), and Samsung.

While Microsoft does have a partnership with Nokia (NYSE: NOK), purchasing Research In Motion would open the door to owning both the BlackBerry OS 7 operating system and seven newly released phones.

Oil Heads for Third Yearly Gain

2012-02-05T23:17:00.001-08:00

Crude futures headed for a thirdyearly advance on speculation escalating tension in the MiddleEast may disrupt supplies as a recovery in the U.S. economybolsters demand.

West Texas Intermediate futures lost as much as 0.8 percenttoday after gaining yesterday when U.S. jobless claims fell to athree-year low. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman yesterdaycalled Iran��s threats to shut the Strait of Hormuz ��irrationalbehavior.�� About one-sixth of global supply travels through theseaway. The country faces sanctions on its crude exports and apossible boycott by European buyers.

��The geopolitical risk premium will support higher pricesat the outset of 2012,�� said Thina Saltvedt, an analyst atNordea Bank AB in Oslo. ��I expect prices to increase at thestart of next week as the tension increases in the world��s mostvital oil-producing area.��

Crude for February delivery was at $99.05 a barrel, down 60cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 1:18 p.m.London time. Futures advanced 8.2 percent this year, afterclimbing 15 percent in 2010.

Brent for February settlement was at $106.86 a barrel, down$1.15 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange, andheading for a 13 percent increase this year. The Europeancontract��s premium to New York crude was $7.80.

Crude surged to the highest in more than two years in May,trading at $114.83 in New York after a popular uprising inTunisia sparked similar protests across the Middle East andNorth Africa. Clashes in Libya between rebels and forces loyalto then-leader Muammar Qaddafi cut off more than 1.5 millionbarrels a day of oil exports from the country.

IEA Release

A meeting of the Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries broke down June 8 when six members, including Iran andVenezuela, opposed a Saudi Arabian-led push to supply more oilto compensate for lost Libyan output. The International EnergyAgency responded with a coordinated release of 60 millionbarrels of emergency oil stockpiles on June 23.

! Prices g ave up the year��s gains by August amid concern theU.S. economic recovery was stalling and speculation that Libyawould resume oil production faster than expected after Qaddafi��souster that month. New York crude slipped to $74.95 on Oct. 4,the lowest in a year, as Europe��s escalating debt crisis sappedconfidence in the health of the global economy.

Iran, Confidence

An improving economic outlook in the U.S., combined withthe escalation of tension in the Middle East, has taken pricesback above $100 a barrel this month and last, even as Europe��sdebt crisis threatens to plunge the region into recession andChina shows signs of weaker growth.

Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi issued awarning to shut the Straits of Hormuz in a Dec. 27 reportpublished by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. About15.5 million barrels of oil a day passes through the waterwaybetween Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf,according to the U.S. Energy Department.

��We��ve seen quite a bit of irrational behavior from Iranrecently,�� said Victoria Nuland, a State Departmentspokeswoman, when asked yesterday about Iran��s threats. ��Onecan only guess the sanctions are beginning to pinch.��

The country pumped 3.56 million barrels a day of crude inNovember, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, making it thesecond-largest producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia.

��Geopolitical Premium��

��For a country that relies so heavily on oil exports likeIran does, it��s obviously not something that they would dolightly,�� said Land. ��But certainly the threat of it is enoughto add back the geopolitical premium we��re seeing.��

Prices may rise next week amid Iran��s threat, a BloombergNews survey showed. Thirteen of 32 analysts, or 41 percent,forecast oil will increase through Jan. 6. Ten respondents, or31 percent, predicted prices will decrease and nine estimatedthere will be little change.

Oil also gained earlier today on signs the U.S. economy isweathering! Europe� �s debt crisis. The four-week moving averagefor jobless claims dropped to 375,000 last week, the lowestlevel since June 2008, Labor Department data showed inWashington yesterday.

��At this stage, WTI looks like it��s found a fairlycomfortable range at $95 to $100,�� Land said. ��If the U.S.starts showing better-than-expected improvement, that would go along way to make the outlook for the global economy more rosythan currently.��

Price Dislocation

Oil prices in the U.S. and Europe became dislocated in 2011as the loss of Libyan supplies, used primarily by refiners inEurope, combined with a glut of crude at WTI��s delivery point inCushing, Oklahoma, to push Brent to a record $28.08 a barrelabove New York futures on Oct. 14.

The premium has since narrowed more than 70 percent,settling at $7.93 on Dec. 27, the lowest since January, afterEnbridge Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners LP said theywould reverse the 500-mile (805-kilometer) Seaway pipeline fromCushing to refineries on the Gulf Coast, opening an outlet toclear supplies.

U.S. crude inventories (DOESCRUD) rose 3.9 million barrels to 327.5million in the week ended Dec. 23, the Energy Departmentreported. Supplies were forecast to drop 2.5 million barrels,based on the median of 10 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg Newssurvey. Stockpiles at Cushing shrank to 29.9 million barrels,the lowest since February 2010.

Hedge-Fund Refuge Sought by Traders as Banks Cut 233,000 Jobs: Commodities

2012-02-03T03:17:00.001-08:00

Damien Bombell left JPMorgan Chase &Co. (JPM) a year ago after the largest and most profitable U.S. bankshut its group trading commodities for the company��s ownaccount. Now chief investment officer of his own hedge fund,he��s hiring four people before accepting money from investorsnext month.

��I can��t say there��s anything I miss about banking,�� saidBombell, who turned 40 last week and plans to have at least $200million under management at the Strand Global Macro Fund in Zug,Switzerland. ��I have more freedom.��

Traders in energy, metals and agriculture are opening orjoining hedge funds after leaving financial firms that cut morethan 233,000 jobs this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.Departures of commodity traders from banks probably rose 10percent this year, according to Commodity Search Partners Ltd.,a Brighton, England-based recruiter. Pay for that group willdrop 24 percent on average, estimates Options Group, a New York-based recruitment firm.

Financial firms are losing people as U.S. and Europeanregulators seek to limit holdings across raw materials and banso-called proprietary trading that uses shareholders�� cash.Slowing economic growth and Europe��s deepening debt crisis maycrimp earnings and limit compensation for traders.

��Banks are particularly vulnerable at the moment to losingpeople,�� said Peter Henry, New York-based head of front-officesearch at Commodity Search Partners, which recruits about 40commodity traders each year. ��Increasing regulations areforcing banks to defer more pay in stock as opposed to cash aswell as constraining the traders�� ability to trade.��

Industry Average

Commodity hedge funds attracted $8.66 billion frominvestors in the year through November, up 11 percent from theend of 2010 and above the hedge-fund industry average of 1.9percent, according to New York-based eVestment|HFN. Assets undermanagement at commodity funds after their performance rose $4.95billion to $82.7 billion through November, the resear! ch compa nyestimates. The funds lost 3.4 percent on average in the period,according to the Newedge Commodity Trading Index.

George ��Beau�� Taylor, the 41-year-old former head ofglobal commodity proprietary trading at Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN),started a hedge fund in February. It now has more than $1billion of assets, a person with direct knowledge of the mattersaid. Gil Saiz, the 36-year-old who spent a decade at New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), closed his Vector Commodity Fundto money from new investors in May after raising $600 million,two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Duet Commodities

The Duet Commodities Fund co-managed by Tony Hall, the 31-year-old former head of distillates trading at a venture betweenCredit Suisse and Barr, Switzerland-based Glencore InternationalAG, said in a letter to investors in November that it returned27.5 percent in the first 10 months.

Starting a new commodity hedge fund is getting tougherbecause managers need to comply with more demands frominvestors, said Marcus Storr, head of hedge funds at Feri TrustGmbH in Bad Homburg, Germany.

��You need more money to launch, you need more professionalbackup,�� said Storr, whose company manages about 16 billioneuros ($20.8 billion) of assets, including investments in 12commodity hedge funds. ��These are all elements which hadn��tbeen much cared about before the crisis, and are now soimportant. That��s why many who want to set up hedge funds thesedays, they can��t launch.��

A new fund probably needs to raise about $100 million frominvestors to generate the income needed to pay for expenses suchas offices and trading systems, said David Mooney, the chiefinvestment officer of Schroders NewFinance Capital in London,who has been involved in commodities for more than two decades.

Barclays Capital

Departing bankers include Todd Edgar and his team of fourcommodity traders who left Barclays Capital in London in thethird quarter and are setting up a fund in New York! , two pe oplewith knowledge of the preparations said earlier this month.

Tim Jones, 47 and formerly of JPMorgan and Edinburgh-basedRoyal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), started a metals hedge fund inJuly at RK Capital Management LLP, the London-based adviser tothe Red Kite group of funds said in an e-mail in May.

Kieran McKenna resigned from Zurich-based Credit Suisse asglobal head of oil and refined products at the end of July andstarted the Mastic Commodity Fund last month in Zug, his newcompany said in an e-mail.

Bank of America

��It��s very clear that it��s possible to operate in a muchmore efficient manner to take advantage of significantopportunities that are becoming increasingly difficult toexploit in more complex corporate structures,�� said McKenna,37. ��Regulation is necessary, yet it isn��t often designed orapplied in a consistent manner.��

Bank regulations govern investment risk, borrowing levels,and how much money is invested in each asset class, said Peter Douglas, the founder of Singapore-based GFIA Pte, which advisesinvestors wanting to allocate money to hedge funds.

��Those are going to be regulated in black and white withinthe banks, increasingly constrained by external regulators andshareholders,�� he said. ��In a hedge fund, those parameters arepurely determined by the manager.��

JPMorgan and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank ofAmerica Corp. (BAC) shut proprietary trading before the implementationnext year of the rule named for former Federal Reserve ChairmanPaul Volcker that will limit such practices. JPMorgan told itstraders about the closing in August last year, according to aperson briefed on the matter. Bank of America said Nov. 3 it hadclosed its proprietary trading in stocks, bonds, currencies andcommodities as of June 30.

Nicolas Sarkozy

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted three to twoon Oct. 18 to curb trading in 28 commodity futures including oiland gold. The Basel III rules, which come fully into effec! t in2019 , force banks to hold more capital against businesses deemedto be riskier, such as proprietary trading.

European regulators are seeking limits on commoditiesderivatives trading after French President Nicolas Sarkozydemanded steps to curb speculation, which he blames for drivingup world food prices.

��Expect commodities risk at banks to decreasesignificantly toward levels that are justified by market makingor client facilitation business,�� said Diego Parrilla, theformer head of the Asian commodity team at Bank of America whois now raising money for his hedge fund in Singapore. ��The daysof betting the bank��s capital on, say, a cold snap in the U.S.seem harder to justify.��

The Standard & Poor��s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materialshas risen 0.5 percent this year. Stocks as measured by the MSCIAll-Country Index have slumped 11 percent in the same period,while U.S. Treasuries have advanced 10 percent, according to aBank of America index.

Investment Banks

The world��s biggest investment banks have more staffturnover in commodities than in fixed-income and currencies,according to Coalition. The London-based research company basedits analysis on company announcements, its own research, newsarticles and information from people in the industry

Sales at the 10 largest investment banks�� commodity unitsrose almost 16 percent to a combined $5.49 billion in the firstnine months from a year earlier, Coalition said. That compareswith a 12 percent contraction across their businesses combined.

��You��ve got one institution that is limping along, you getone part of that institution that has made reasonable returns,��said Justin Pearson, the managing director and co-founder ofHuman Capital, a London-based firm which recruits about 100commodity traders a year. ��They aren��t going to be able to paythose staff in the profitable department anywhere as much asthey would have done�� in a bull market year, he said.

Bonuses at some banks are now paid out as 75 percen! t instoc k deferred over three years, while traders outside thosecompanies can get all of it in cash, Pearson said.

Search Partners

Commodity traders at banks who meet their targets and havebeen there for five years may earn $500,000 to $2 million thisyear through cash and shares, Commodity Search Partners�� Henryestimates. There won��t be ��a huge difference�� in pay from lastyear, he said.

While the biggest investment banks have more staff turnoverin commodities than in fixed-income and currencies, the rate ofjob cuts in raw materials is smaller, said Coalition.

Companies trading physical commodities such as Greenwich,Connecticut-based Freepoint Commodities LLC and Noble Group Ltd. (NOBL)of Hong Kong, are also attracting traders leaving banks.

��The top proprietary traders at the best bank desks havemany competing opportunities, perhaps the strongest of which arethe physical trading houses that are building derivativesbusinesses,�� said John Thompson, a partner at Energy AlphaStrategies Ltd., an investment firm that helps set up andfinance commodity hedge funds. ��The amount of traders hoping tolaunch is increasing, and will accelerate in 2012.��

Solar Shines As Obama Reiterates Commitment

2012-02-02T15:57:00.001-08:00

The trade is favorable today in solar energy companies after President Obama this morning defended government subsidies for renewable energy, as reported by Reuters’s Roberta Rampton.

In the wake of the high-profile failure in August of Solyndra, a California firm whose federal backing has drawn a congressional investigation, the president remarked during a press conference, “We knew from the start that the loan guarantee program was going to entail some risk.”

Solyndra, which has ceased operations and plans to file for bankruptcy, has called into question the political will to continue to offer loan guarantees to solar firms for U.S. projects, a concern that has weighed on the shares of top solar names, including First Solar (FSLR).

Obama is in some sense defending the line of reasoning eloquently laid out by James Surowiecki in the latest issue of New Yorker magazine, namely, that investment by government involves risk, no different from investment by venture capitalists.

In any event, solar names are outperforming today. First Solar is up $3.65, or 6%, at $64.51; ReneSola (SOL) is up 29 cents, or almost 18%, at $1.93; JA Solar Holdings (JASO) is up 14 cents, or 7.4%, at $2.03; SunPower (SPWRA) is up 55 cents, or 7%, at $8.33; and Trina Solar (TSL) is up 59 cents, or almost 8%, at $8.12.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services at its Peak Price of the Year - NYSEAMEX:LTS

2012-02-02T12:10:00.001-08:00

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services (NYSEAMEX:LTS) achieved its new 52 week high price of $2.38 where it was opened at $2.33 up 0.10 points or +4.44% by closing at $2.35. LTS transacted shares during the day were over 3.42 shares however it has an average volume of 438,318 shares.

LTS has a market capitalization $430.04 million and an enterprise value at $447.88 million. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 2.01 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 9.29. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at -1.67% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 2.59%.

The company made a return on asset of -3.63% in past twelve months and return on equity of -7.75% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $213.79 billion gaining $1.17 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 0.70%.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $12.21 million cash in hand making cash per share at 0.07. The total of $30.05 million debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 64.83. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 1.80 and book value per share was 0.25.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 2.08% where the stock current price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average price $1.89 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average price $1.53.

LTS holds 183.00 million outstanding shares with 79.16 million floating shares where insider possessed 41.84% and institutions kept 9.40%.

Is Total the Right Stock to Retire With?

2012-02-02T08:23:00.001-08:00

Now more than ever, a comfortable retirement depends on secure, stable investments. Unfortunately, the right stocks for retirement won't just fall into your lap. In this series, I look at 10 measures to show what makes a great retirement-oriented stock.

Energy prices have reined in by a small amount in recent months as many question the sustainability of the slow economic expansion we've seen since the financial crisis. But near the epicenter of the European crisis, French oil giant Total (NYSE: TOT ) has long enjoyed the same success as its U.S. counterparts across the pond. Is Europe a trap for Total shareholders, or will the company shine in the long run? Below, we'll look at how the company does on our 10-point scale.

The right stocks for retirees
With decades to go before you need to tap your investments, you can take greater risks, weighing the chance of big losses against the potential for mind-blowing returns. But as retirement approaches, you no longer have the luxury of waiting out a downturn.

Sure, you still want good returns, but you also need to manage your risk and protect yourself against bear markets, which can maul your finances at the worst possible time. The right stocks combine both of these elements in a single investment.

When scrutinizing a stock, retirees should look for:

Size. Most retirees would rather not take a flyer on unproven businesses. Bigger companies may lack their smaller counterparts' growth potential, but they do offer greater security.
Consistency. While many investors look for fast-growing companies, conservative investors want to see steady, consistent gains in revenue, free cash flow, and other key metrics. Slow growth won't make headlines, but it will help prevent the kind of ugly surprises that suddenly torpedo a stock's share price.
Stock stability. Conservative retirement i! nvestors prefer investments that move less dramatically than typical stocks, and they particularly want to avoid big losses. These investments will give up some gains during bull markets, but they won't fall as far or as fast during bear markets. Beta measures volatility, but we also want a track record of solid performance as well.
Valuation. No one can afford to pay too much for a stock, even if its prospects are good. Using normalized earnings multiples helps smooth out one-time effects, giving you a longer-term context.
Dividends. Most of all, retirees look for stocks that can provide income through dividends. Retirees want healthy payouts now and consistent dividend growth over time -- as long as it doesn't jeopardize the company's financial health.

With those factors in mind, let's take a closer look at Total.

Factor	What We Want to See	Actual	Pass or Fail?
Size	Market cap > $10 billion	$114.4 billion	Pass
Consistency	Revenue growth > 0% in at least four of five past years	3 years	Fail
?	Free cash flow growth > 0% in at least four of past five years	2 years	Fail
Stock stability	Beta < 0.9	0.54	Pass
?	Worst loss in past five years no greater than 20%	(31.3%)	Fail
Valuation	Normalized P/E < 18	5.15	Pass
Dividends	Current yield > 2%	6 .2%	Pass
?	5-year dividend growth > 10%	10.4%	Pass
?	Streak of dividend increases >= 10 years	0 years	Fail
?	Payout ratio < 75%	53.3%	Pass
?	?	?	?
?	Total score	?	6 out of 10

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Total score = number of passes.

With six points, Total gives conservative investors some but definitely not all of what they like to see in a stock. Volatility in energy prices and the overall negative environment in Europe have sent shares on a wild ride lately, but a substantially growing dividend in recent years should give shareholders some confidence.

With more than $200 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Total fully deserves its membership among the world's oil giants. But Total hasn't seen the price appreciation that peers including Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) , ExxonMobil, and even fellow European Statoil (NYSE: STO ) have experienced -- despite having similar production numbers.

Being in Europe has posed some problems for Total. The company's biggest challenge lately is the disruption of its Libyan operations when uprisings began earlier this year. With the recent death of Muammar Qaddafi, Total can hope that it will restore full operations in Libya soon, although it will undoubtedly take some time.

Despite its European base, Total has operations around the world. Its joint venture with Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK ) gives it a presence in the Barnett shale play of northern Texas. With increased shale activity i! n Argent ina, Total has staked its claim there, along with rivals including Petrobras (NYSE: PBR ) and Apache (NYSE: APA ) . And going beyond oil and gas, Total recently made a sizable investment in SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA ) , taking advantage of ridiculously cheap share prices to tap into what could be the primary energy source of the future.

For retirees and other conservative investors, the yield over 6% that Total currently enjoys is definitely a drawing point. Moreover, bargain-hunters are getting a good deal on the oil company. Although the ups and downs of energy prices have caused revenue and free cash flow to jump around, Total still deserves a close look for those who need oil and gas exposure in their retirement portfolios.

Keep searching
Finding exactly the right stock to retire with is a tough task, but it's not impossible. Searching for the best candidates will help improve your investing skills, and teach you how to separate the right stocks from the risky ones.

Add Total to My Watchlist, which will aggregate our Foolish analysis on it and all your other stocks.

If you want to retire rich, you need to be confident that you've got the basics of your investment strategy down pat. See if you're on track by following the "13 Steps to Investing Foolishly."

Consumer confidence will continue to rise, as it did in 2011

2012-02-02T00:50:00.001-08:00

If you’ve been following my recommendations for a year or more, you��ll know all too well that the “experts” on Wall Street were warning everyone about the troubled retail sector and proclaimed the American consumer was dead. But I chose to ignore their ramblings — and made outstanding profits on the very sector they lambasted.

Just take a look at the year-to-date returns of these retail- and consumer-based companies:

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) +25%

AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) +20%

Limited Brands (NYSE:LTD) +32%

McDonald��s (NYSE:MCD) +31%

O’Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ:ORLY) +33%

These are just a few of the retail investments I have in my blue-chip portfolio. In 2012, it would behoove you to secure these in your portfolio as well, because although these 12-month gains came in the face of extreme market pessimism, we’re now seeing the biggest surge in consumer confidence in eight years. This includes strong consumer spending (including robust holiday sales) and, as I previously discussed in my New Year’s Prediction #2, steadily improving job growth.

So, in the coming months, I’m going to continue looking for opportunities to capitalize on this powerful trend. In fact, I recommend buying stock in VF Corp. (NYSE:VFC), the apparel and footwear powerhouse behind a number of blowout brands such as The North Face, Wrangler, Reef and Nautica, to name a few. I��ve enjoyed some remarkable returns in select consumer-based companies, and I believe the best is yet to come in 2012.

Prediction #5: Where the Indexes and Our Stocks Are Headed

RF Micro FYQ3 EPS Misses, Q4 View Weak

2012-02-01T17:16:00.001-08:00

Wireless chip maker RF Micro Devices (RFMD) this afternoon reported fiscal Q3 revenue in line with expectations but profit per share below analysts’ estimates.

Revenue in the three months ended in December rose to $225.4, yielding EPS of 2 cents.

Analysts on average had been modeling $225.02 million, and EPS of 3 cents per share.

For the current quarter, the company sees a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $185 million, below the consensus 3 cents profit and $204.5 million in revenue.

Management cited a breakdown in cellular phone sales in China as a culprit for the forecast, stating, “The Company currently forecasts a greater-than-seasonal decline in sales to cellular handset manufacturers in China, primarily as a result of the impact of lunar new year on order visibility and the projected impact of channel inventory.”

RFMD shares are up 4 cents, or 0.8%, at $4.89 in late trading.

Where Have all the Short-Sellers Gone?

2012-02-01T13:33:00.001-08:00

Short-covering can help boost controversial stocks, and on some days may even push the entire market ahead. But the market may get less of a boost from short covering in the weeks ahead, as the number of outstanding shorts on the NYSE is at its lowest level in a year, says Strategas Research Partners technical analyst Chris Verrone, per this post on the WSJ’s MarketBeat.

It’s a data point that may give investors pause — while it means fewer people are going short, it also means “the short covering phase of this rally is likely exhausted,” Verrone wrote.

CES: 10 Future-Forward Gadgets - SmartMoney.com

2012-02-01T09:43:00.001-08:00

Senior consumer reporter and "Deal of Day" columnist Kelli B. Grant traveled booth to booth at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to find the best, the worst, and the most-hyped gadgets and gizmos. Read her dispatches at Pay Dirt.

Also See

CES: 10 Over -Hyped Gadgets

In the future, you may be able to slip on high-tech glasses that can shift lenses for reading or distance at the touch of a button. Or command your TV to find a movie with your favorite star without ever touching the remote. Then there's the possibility of sending a text to the washer to move that load of soggy laundry to the dryer.

Last week, as thousands poured into the Las Vegas Convention Center for the Consumer Electronics Show, Americans got a glimpse of the not-too-distant future. But they also got a peek a lot of products that critics say may take years to go mainstream, if they make it to the market at all. Here are ten that may fit that category.

Bifocals for Early Adopters

The new emPower electronic eyeglasses have liquid crystal in the lenses, which will transform from distance to reading prescriptions with the tap of a button. Set them to automatic mode and they'll shift automatically based on the angle of the wearer's head. The catch: they don't come cheap. One pair costs $1,250, which a spokesman says is only slightly more than a top-end pair of traditional bifocals in designer frames.

Kelli B. Grant

A "Smart" Fix for Laun! dry Woes

The first of the smart appliances are coming to market this year. Among them, a Whirlpool line that connects to the Internet and lets householders start the dishwasher remotely or get text reminders of an abandoned load in the dryer. Prices are expected to be 10% to 20% over standard machines, says a spokesman. Whirlpool's refrigerator and dishwasher will be available in late 2012, and its washer and dryer in 2013.

Kelli B. Grant

In-Flight Wi-Fi 4 Times Faster

For travelers who can't get Wi-Fi or from A to B fast enough, in-flight Internet provider Go-Go will soon launch in-flight Wi-Fi that's four times faster than the 3G-like speed most airlines currently offer. Prices range from $1.95 for 15 minutes, up to $14.95 for a cross-country flight. But the technology isn't fleet-wide yet on many airlines, a spokesman says, and global travelers will have to wait until 2015 for uninterrupted global service via satellite.

Kelli B. Grant

A Conversation with the TV

The remote control may become obsolete, experts say. Voice command technology courtesy of Vlingo, a start-up company, wants consumers to holler at their television to find a movie starring their favorite movie star. There are other competitors in the space, too, but it's early days for most. A Vlingo spokesman says the company is hoping to license the technology to cable providers and gadget makers who might in turn offer it to consumers.

iStockphoto

A Thermostat that Adjusts to Your Schedule

Another angle of the growing home automation fields: appliances that learn the homeowners' habits. The $349 EverSense unit from Allure Energy uses GPS to note the proximity of the owner's Apple and Android devices and adjust the temperature to pre-set home or away settings. (A spokesman says that location data stays private.) The thermostat has plenty of competition, though, including the $249 Nest.

iStockphoto

(Another) Death Knell for the Fax Machine

Docusign wants bring e-signatures to the next level: It's offering free software for creating them and/or signing initials to insert in emailed or scanned documents. The company says someday, it could be more common for parents to give digital approval for a field trip instead of trusting their child to remember the slip in his backpack. Worried about hacking? A spokesman says e-signing is more secure than a fax.

Kelli B. Grant

Smartphone Control Over Video Content

Shodogg promises to allow customers use their smartphones to send content to any web-connected TV, computer or other device, and pull content from those devices to watch on their smartphone. It also serves as a remote-control, letting them pause, ply and fast-for! ward. Th e app is just signing up consumers for alpha testing now, though, says a spokesman. It could be a while before everyone gets a try.

Getty Images

Virtual Credit Cards, Take 2

MasterCard is reinventing virtual credit card numbers with its new globalVCard, which includes an app and works for mobile payments. It's one of many new takes on the growing mobile payment space, and one that could work well for online shoppers leery of credit card fraud as well -- although a spokeswoman says it may not function well in stores as a plastic card substitute.

iStockPhoto

The Family Flatscreen, Now A 42? Phone

Analysts have noted the trend of consumers cutting their home phone line in favor of wireless, and innovations like Biscotti could hasten the trend. Hooked up to the TV and a home Internet connection, the $199 set-top box allows for video calls, as well as voice calling. Right now, the other party needs a Biscotti or Google Video Chat for a video call, but a spokesman says the company is exploring other partnerships.

Kelli B. Grant

Plugging a Mobile Security Leak

Hackers newest target: your cellphone. Analysts say security protection software for phones is a tech area of incre! asing im portance as consumers try mobile banking and shopping. NQ Mobile offers a new suite of free security apps for many devices, and a premium six-month subscription for $6. But different phones have different needs, says a spokesman. Right now, experts say, Andrid phones have a higher risk for malware; iOS devices, phishing.

Kelli B. Grant

Citi Gets Okay For Gov’t Convert

2012-02-01T05:56:00.001-08:00

The good news for Citigroup (C) shareholders is that the stock is going to $35 a share.

At a Glance
Citigroup (C)

Stock Price:	$4.77
52-Wk High:	$23.50
52-Wk Low:	$.97
Dividend Yield:	0.84%

Sources: Barron's Online, Thomson Reuters

The bad news: they’re not going to book a 700% appreciation. When – if – shares get there, it will be the result of a mechanical adjustment in its share count. This after holders approved an initiative giving the board permission to conduct a reverse split that would exchange up to seven shares for every one currently outstanding. There are a variety of exchange ratios that received approval, with one-for-seven representing the outside, so the ultimate exchange could be different.

In the same spate of initiatives, Citi holders also gave the final approval to the board to increase the authorized common shares outstanding to complete the share exchange that w! ill turn the preferred shares currently held by the government and by certain private holders into common. That initiative had been preliminarily undertaken in July.

The authorization to increase the outstanding common shares would be an event that would substantially dilute the holdings of existing shareholders. However, the move also would allow Citi to eliminate the dividends on the preferred shares that it’s currently paying, and make some overall improvements to the balance sheet – both of which offer some offset to the dilutive effects. Citi shares, which have bulged in value the last several weeks amid some momentum trading and bets that the banks current price doesn’t fully reflect its value under improved circumstances, added another 5% in Thursday’s trading.

Down the road, though, there could be some risks, as the higher share price – post the reverse split – coupled with improved liquidity could put the stock at greater risk of short sales.

Introducing the 24/7 Wall St. Wire

2012-02-01T02:10:00.001-08:00

JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) reported a 2008 fourth quarter loss of -$0.11/share, lower than analysts’ estimates of a -$0.02 loss. Revenue for the quarter reached $143.5 million, beating expectations of $117.94 million, but nearly 7% lower than the year-ago quarter and nearly 54% lower sequentially.

When First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) reported its earnings last month, it showed impressive performance backed by lowered guidance for 2009. Not only did First Solar shares fall on the news, they dragged everyone else down with them.

JA is not likely to pull everyone down with it simply because the shares have already fallen more than 85% in the past year, and the company is really not a bellweather in the solar space the way that First Solar is.? Consensus estimates for 2009 revenues were $853.9 million, and JA’s guidance for 2009 puts that number near the low end of the company’s expectations. That’s about right.

JA closed at $2.07/share yesterday, only about half a dollar above its 52-week low. Today’s news report is one that would normally push the company closer its lows.? But enthusiasm this morning seems to be prevailing.? Whether its gains this morning can hold up is probably not up to the company itself.? At 9:20 AM this stock looks like it is up almost 6% at $2.19.? Keep in mind that this is still down over 90% from its 52-week high.

Paul Ausick
March 10, 2009

FedEx Equals The Economy, Stupid

2012-01-31T18:37:00.001-08:00

In one of the most-encouraging indicators of the economy to date, FedEx (FDX)raised its guidance.

The package-delivery giantlong has been regarded as aproxy for the overall economy. Whether producers are manufacturing it, or consumers are buying it, somebody has totraffic it. And since the USPS doesn’t report quarterly, lots of folkslook at FedEx as the standard-bearer.

At a Glance
FedEx (FDX)


Sources: Barron's Online, Thomson Reuters

And the outlook for FedEx seemed pretty straightforward: the economy has gotten better. Morestuff is being moved.

Earnings for the current first quarter are expected to come in at 58 cents. Analysts had projected 43 cents. The company, which – granted – has a tendency to give some wide guidance, had been saying 30 to 45 cents.

The subsequent quarter shaped up nicely as well, looking at 65 to 95 cents – there’sthat wide guidance thing again – versus the 70 cents that analysts had anticipated.

FedEx indicated that stronger international shipments, as well as its cost-cutting measures,accounted for the improvement in its outlook.Whatever the reasons – those are good ones- it’s welcome.

Throw Them All Out: An Interview with Peter Schweizer

2012-01-31T14:54:00.001-08:00

Sometimes a subtitle tells you quite a lot about a book. The one for Peter Schweizer's Throw Them All Out reads: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison.

That's a powerful statement, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Schweizer's book has had an enormous impact on the debate over Congressional insider trading. In fact, one could argue that Schweizer's interview with CBS's 60 Minutes was one of the biggest catalysts in bringing this issue to the attention of the American public.

Our very own Chris Hill was able to sit down with Schweizer for an interview recently. An edited audio recording of the interview as well as a transcript are included below.

Chris Hill: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. Insider trading is against the law, unless apparently you are a member of the United States Congress. Then it's completely legal. Peter Schweizer is a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and he's the author of the new best-seller Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison. Peter, welcome to Motley Fool Money.

Peter Schweizer: Hey, it's great to be on with you. Thanks for having me.

Hill: There is a lot to get to here, but I want to start at the beginning of this project for you. How did you come up with the idea for this book?

Schweizer: Well, you know, somebody sent me an article that appeared in an academic journal a few years ago. It's a journal called the Journal of Quantitative Economics. If you have trouble sleeping at night, this might be a good place to go.

But this study was actually very interesting, because thes! e schola rs looked at 6,000 stock trades by U.S. senators, and what they found, shockingly, was that while the average American tends to underperform the market averages, the average corporate executive beats the market by 5% a year and the average hedge fund beats the market by 7 to 8% a year. This study found that U.S. senators beat the market by 12% a year...

Hill: Wow!

Schweizer: Yeah. And so, it left me wondering, you know: "OK, gee. Either these guys are really, really smart geniuses that I don't give them enough credit for, or something else is going on." And it really only took me a split second to say, "You know, I think something else is going on."

Hill: And again, there's so much research that you and your team did for this book. How did you go about connecting the dots?

Schweizer: Well, you know, it was very difficult. What we really wanted to do was show and sort of overlay the financial transactions of members of Congress. They're required to disclose them once a year. They're required to show what their holdings are and also the dates of transactions, but they only give the amounts in ranges, so you don't know exactly how much money they're trading.

But we took that material, and then we looked at their legislative activity or things that were going on where they had access to special information. Like for example, during the 2008 financial crisis, they had a lot of closed-door meetings with the Fed chairman and Treasury secretary. And once we overlaid those, we found, astonishingly, that people who served on financial committees were aggressively trading bank stocks. Those that were involved in the health-care bill, the health-care reform debate in 2009 were aggressively buying and selling all sorts of health care-related stocks, and it was kind of stunning. So, once we had this overlay, then we started to track to see what sort of investment decisions they were making and how they did in terms of tho! se inves tments.

Hill: Why are we just hearing about this now? I mean, if this has been going on for this long...

Schweizer: It's a good question. I think for a couple of reasons. No. 1, it takes a lot of work, because they don't file their financial disclosures even electronically. You'd think this is the 21st century, but they fill them out on paper, and they basically are put somewhere by the ethics committees. So you have to really go and find them and get them.

The second thing is that, frankly, I think journalists in Washington, D.C. that cover Congress are in a bit of a quandary. The example that I would give is imagine that you are the sports reporter covering the baseball team, and you write a story that says the owner is a drunk and the players are corrupt. Guess what? You're not going to get invited into the locker room anymore. And I think that a lot of reporters in Washington face that dilemma. If they start reporting these kinds of stories, they're not going to get leaks. They're not going to get exclusive interviews. So, I think the media has frankly, in Washington, been much more of a lapdog than a watchdog because they don't want to lose their access.

Hill: You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Talking with Peter Schweizer, author of the new best-seller Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison. There's a lot there in the subtitle. Let's start with the insider stock tips. Could you elaborate on some of the ways that politicians... let's just take John Kerry, for example. He's one of the people that you cite in the book. How is John Kerry -- who is already a wealthy guy to begin with -- how is he doing it?

Schweizer: Well, it's a great question. What's so interesting about insider trading -- whether it's in the private sector or in Congress -- is that whether you're rich or poor, pe! ople are tempted to do it. In the case of John Kerry, here's a guy that was very much involved in writing and structuring two big pieces of health-care legislation. One was the 2003 benefits for Medicare to add a prescription drug benefit, which basically was a huge boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Kerry, at the time he was helping that bill go through the Senate and craft it, the investment funds that he and his wife owned were actually aggressively buying Big Pharma stock, and they had a capital gains of about $2 million on those Big Pharma stocks.

And again in 2009, during the debate over health-care reform -- or ObamaCare, whatever you want to call it -- the same thing applied. He was dumping companies that were going to lose in that reform and he was buying companies like generic-drug manufacturers who were going to be winners.

You know, this is perfectly legal. It's deemed ethical. But were you to do this while you were working for a company, you would face either fraud charges or insider trading charges, because you're just simply not allowed to mix your investment decisions with private information or knowledge that you have of what's going to happen to your company.

Hill: Is that ultimately what this comes down to, is the unfairness of it? Because I could see someone making the argument like, "Yeah, this is going on, but this is a victimless crime. This isn't actually hurting anyone. It's advantageous to members of Congress, but it's not really hurting anyone."

Schweizer: Well, no, I would disagree with you slightly. I mean, you can argue how much the hurt really is, but every time that you are a member of Congress who is buying a stock or selling a stock, there's somebody on the other end of that transaction that is not privy to the information you have. So to pick an example, during the 2008 financial crisis, on the evening of Sept. 18, there was a closed-door briefing with the Treasury secretary and with the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke. And! as Paul son recounts in his memoirs, this was an apocalyptic briefing. They said that the market's going to go down at least 20%. We're looking at a major economic crisis.

Well, people that were in that meeting -- members of Congress -- the next day lots of them went out and dumped their shares of stock. And the Dow at that time was over 11,000, and within three weeks, it would be down to 8000. So, they were able to avoid those trades, and when you're buying and selling stock, there's somebody on the other side of that transaction. So, I don't think it's totally a victimless crime.

Hill: You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Talking with Peter Schweizer, author of the new book Throw Them All Out. One of the things that is clear from your book, Peter, is that for people who are seeking bipartisanship in Washington, D.C., they can certainly find it when it comes to insider trading because you mentioned Senator Kerry. John Boehner, the Speaker of the House -- he's in your book for buying shares of different public companies as he's essentially killing the public option on health care.

Schweizer: Yeah. I mean, this is not something that is a partisan issue. I mean, the bottom line is human nature is human nature and politicians, to varying degrees, are looking out for their own financial interests. So yes, John Boehner was doing it. Another Republican that I think was particularly egregious is Spencer Bachus, who was the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. He was at that apocalyptic briefing that I just mentioned, whereby they were told the market was going to go down significantly.

Literally, the next day he went out and bought something called Proshares Ultra-Short QQQ, which is a leveraged option buy -- a leverage betting that the market's going to go down -- and he literally doubled his money in a matter of a couple of days based on that information. And he wasn't done, by the way. He did 40 options trades ! during t he financial crisis, and made tens of thousands of dollars doing so. So, yeah -- this swings to both parties, and I think it's one of those reasons that we haven't heard a lot about it, because both sides have a motive and an incentive to keep it quiet.

Hill: Well, and just to pick one other example, also in the financial space but just sort of outside the big banks on Wall Street, you had Nancy Pelosi who was the Speaker of the House. At the Motley Fool, we're constantly cautioning people to stay clear of IPOs, because you want to see how a public company performs as a public company for maybe six, twelve months. But in the case of Visa (NYSE: V ) , Nancy Pelosi got in on the IPO and it really seemed to work out well for her.

Schweizer: Yeah, I think you're right to be cautious about IPOs. But if you have particularly IPOs that are in demand like Visa, which was a very profitable company, everybody wanted its stock and they simply were not able to because there was so much demand. The Pelosis, however, while she was Speaker of the House, were given access to 5,000 IPO shares. They were able to buy it at $44 a share. The day it went public, the next day, it was up to $64 a share, and within a matter of a couple of months, it had doubled. It was trading at over $90 a share. So, they did very well. They made several hundred thousands of dollars on that transaction.

And here's the bottom line: When they took that from Visa, there were two pieces of legislation that Visa was very concerned about that had been introduced in the House that would deal with merchant fees, which is where Visa makes its money. Those bills came out of committees with bipartisan support, but as Speaker of the House, she just simply did not allow them to come to the House floor for even a vote. So Visa basically had that legislation delayed for not one year, but two years. The Pelosis did well, Visa got what it wanted, and I t! hink it raises real concerns about conflict of interest.

Hill: You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Talking with Peter Schweizer, author of the book Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison. When it comes to trading stocks on privileged information -- because at the Motley Fool we're very focused on stocks -- who are the most egregious members of Congress? I know we've talked about a few. But who are the most egregious? And please tell me that, on the flip side, there are some shining lights, some members of Congress who are actually being not just above the board legally -- because as you pointed out, this is all legal -- but they've really gone beyond the call in terms of being highly ethical.

Schweizer: No, I think that's a great point. I'll mention one liberal Democrat and one conservative Republican that if you look at their financial investments, you look at what they do, are very clean on this out of principle. The liberal Democrat I would mention would be Barney Frank, who is the once-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. He's from Massachusetts. He's retiring. He does not invest in stocks as a matter of principle. He puts all of his money into municipal bonds.

On the Republican side, you could take a conservative like Michele Bachmann who basically does the same thing. She's from Minnesota. Had an ill-fated presidential run here. She's the political opposite of Barney Frank, but she does the same thing. And there are others, and I think we need to applaud them.

I would look at the stock traders and say that John Kerry and his wife have a lot of assets. They do a lot of stock transactions that seem to be patterned on legislative activity, so he would be somebody I would pick on the Democratic side. Spencer Bachus, who I've mentioned, I would pick on the Republican side. He is an aggressive trader in options.

I'm su re you've talked at the Motley Fool about how that is a very high-risk investment strategy. Most people don't make money. They lose money doing that. But Bachus has done this for years, and he does it in trading stock options in companies like United Airlines, for example, or Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE ) or General Electric (NYSE: GE ) . And he does this when he's privy to all sorts of information. And although most options traders lose money, he consistently makes a lot of money. In fact, I think it was in 2007, he made $160,000 which was the equivalent of his Congressional salary.

Hill: Maybe these guys should open up a side business where they can basically be brokers...

Schweizer: [Laughing]

Hill: You know, if someone's got that kind of track record, if they're getting those kind of returns, I would think seriously about investing my money with them.

Schweizer: Well, what I would do is I think Motley Fool needs to set up a Congressional Index Fund. If we could get these guys to do instant disclosure of their financial transactions, and Motley Fool were to just track their investment choices, we would all be beating the market by 12% a year. So I think maybe that's the future direction we need to go.

Hill: We've talked a lot about the problems as you've laid them out in your book. Let's think in terms of solutions. There is a bill before Congress right now -- the STOCK Act. It does have wide bipartisan support in the House. I think it has over 240 co-sponsors. This would effectively kill the type of insider trading that we're talking about. I'm curious. What do you think about that legislation and the chances that it has in the new year to pass?

Schweizer: I think the STOCK Act has a pretty good chance of passing and I think it's a goo! d step f orward, but I don't think it goes far enough, simply because what the law does is it makes congressional insider trading illegal. The question is enforcement. Is the Securities and Exchange Commission really going to go after, say, a powerful congressman on this issue? And past experience is not good. I mean, when the FBI was investigating William Jefferson, the congressman who famously had the money in his freezer...

Hill: In his freezer, yeah...

Schweizer: Yeah, when they got a search warrant to search his congressional office, both political parties said that this was a breach of congressional privilege, and they threatened to cut the FBI budget. So I don't think the SEC is going to enforce it. I think that we should pass the bill out of principle. I think we should also pass something that's been introduced called the RESTRICT Act. It's been introduced by Congressman Duffy and has co-sponsors from both political parties.

Duffy's, I think, is very good in that he would basically give members of Congress an option. No. 1, you need to put your assets in a blind trust and one that's certified and recognized as a blind trust. Or, if you don't want to do that, you have to disclose all of your transactions within three business days. So, in other words, if there's a health-care bill on Capitol Hill, we could see on a website that this congressman was buying or selling Big Pharma stock. And I think transparency would be a huge step forward. So, I think we need both of these bills to be passed.

Hill: You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Talking with Peter Schweizer. His new book is Throw Them All Out. What surprised you the most when you were working on this book?

Schweizer: What surprised me the most is that wealthy members of Congress did this? -- this just wasn't the guy who was kind of scraping by and trying to make money -- and how large some of the amounts were. During the health-care debate, for! example , you had a congressman from Colorado, Jared Polis, who's very wealthy, making multimillion-dollar bets on health company businesses that were going to benefit from health-care reform which he was supporting. So, the sheer amounts, in some cases, and the frequency of these transactions by members of Congress really stunned me.

Hill: What has the response on Capitol Hill been to your book?

Schweizer: Oh, you know, it's been mixed. What I found is that in Washington, D.C., the response has been to sort of attack me or to say it's not that big an issue. The response around the country has been the opposite. It's been on the best-seller list, now, for six weeks. People are very angry and frustrated about it. The media interest has been keen. And people from both political parties have really adopted the mantra that I've said, which is even if it's your guy that's doing this, we have to have a zero-tolerance policy.

For example, I'm a conservative Republican. If a conservative Republican is doing this, I need to vote against him and help throw him out of office, because they use the fact that they're with us on the issues to justify themselves staying in power and enriching themselves. And I think we need to stop, or otherwise this problem is just going to get worse and continue.

Hill: The book is Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison. Very thought-provoking stuff. A lot of great ideas. Peter, thanks so much for being here.

Schweizer: Hey, thanks for having me.

Survey: Money managers grow more pessimistic about economy

2012-01-31T11:03:00.001-08:00

Investment managers expressed disappointment in most equity classes in a recent survey by Russell Investments. Developed markets were especially disheartening, dropping 21 percentage points.

"The markets have rebounded significantly from the lows of last March, but managers want to see real economic growth before they begin to believe in another strong rise for equities," said Erik Ogard, director of client investment strategies for the company.

Sixty percent of managers believe the market is fairly valued, down slightly from 63 percent last quarter. More managers believe the market is undervalued now than it was last quarter; 28 percent said it was undervalued, up from 19 percent.

Managers are still bullish about the technology, materials and processing, and energy sectors, the survey found. The health care sector increased slightly from last quarter's survey.

Bullishness for cash was at an all-time low since Russell Investments began surveying managers. Treasuries were equally unsatisfying as 6 percent of managers reported that both asset classes were "priced too expensively to garner much interest."

Gold extends post-Fed rally to 6-week high

2012-01-30T01:07:00.001-08:00

MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE

Gold prices rise to their highest level since early December, extending gains that followed the Federal Reserve��s announcement that it plans to hold rates near zero until the end of 2014. See full story.

Economy improving, leading indicators say

The U.S. economy is expected to improve early this year, though global conditions present risk, the Conference Board says. See full story.

December new-home sales dip to end worst-ever year

Sales of new homes slumped 2.2% in December, disappointing analysts who had expected another big gain in the month after a strong report in November. Sales for the year hit a new record low. See full story.

Jobless claims in U.S. rise sharply

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose sharply last week, but initials claims remained at a level that usually suggests a modest improvement in the U.S. labor market. See full story.

U.S. stocks open up on earnings and data

Wall Street stocks open higher after a round of better-than-expected earnings from companies including Caterpillar and as jobless claims remain below the 400,000 threshold. 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

Gold has been on! e of the greatest investment stories of the decade, and despite some recent weakness, its safe-haven appeal is likely to continue. But regardless of the price gyrations in gold futures and demand, do we really know what the cost of gold is in human terms? See full story.

Two Harbors Investment Corp at Year Record Breaking Price - NYSE:TWO

2012-01-29T17:30:00.001-08:00

Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO) achieved its new 52 week high price of $11.00 where it was opened at $10.97 UP 0.11 points or +1.01% by closing at $10.98. TWO transacted shares during the day were over 2.57 million shares however it has an average volume of 2.91 million shares.

TWO has a market capitalization $500.82 million and an enterprise value at $2.41 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 8.00 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 0.73. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 84.36% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 85.33%.

The company made a return on asset of 2.48% in past twelve months and return on equity of 13.02% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $62.60 million gaining $2.06 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 320.00% holding 320.10% quarterly earnings growth.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $707.68 million cash in hand making cash per share at 15.52. The total of $2.62 billion debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 381.90. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 0.26 and book value per share was 15.03.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 30.14% where the stock current price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average price of $10.65 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average price of $10.40.

TWO holds 45.61 million outstanding shares with 45.22 million floating shares where insider possessed 6.73% and institutions kept 40.40%.