Tag Archives: Michael Smith

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

HomeAway Summit, Annual Educational Conference for Vacation Rental Owners and Professional Managers,

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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HomeAway Summit, Annual Educational Conference for Vacation Rental Owners and Professional Managers, Coming to Scottsdale

AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)– HomeAway, Inc. (NAS: AWAY) , the world’s leading online marketplace of vacation rentals, will present HomeAway® Summit, the fourth annual educational conference for vacation rental owners and professional managers, at the Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa At Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 17-19, 2013.

HomeAway Summit is packed with group and one-on-one education opportunities on optimizing the operation and marketing of a vacation rental home. Vacation rental owners and professional managers of every experience level can expect a crash course in topics such as “Listing Performance: Improving Rank and Reach,” “Get Analytical: Improving Bookings Through Organization & Persistence” and interactive sessions from HomeAway staff on “HomeAway Payments and Online Booking,” and “Sneak Peeks: The Future of HomeAway.” A half-day social media workshop will also be held on May 17, one of the conference’s consistently popular attractions.

Vacation rental owner and Community.HomeAway.com blogger Michael Smith notes in his latest blog, “The HomeAway Summit is Great for ROI,” that he most benefitted from his three-time Summit attendance through networking with other home owners at the conference to share best practices, interacting with HomeAway staff and industry influencers and opening his business to the new trial products HomeAway offers exclusively to Summit attendees.

“Summit is always an exciting time for me. Interacting with our customers face-to-face is the best way to learn from them what HomeAway is doing well as a company, and how we can improve our service and our customers’ businesses,” says Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway. “This is our first year holding Summit outside of our home city of Austin and I’m looking forward to expanding the conference.”

Registration automatically enters attendees into a drawing for a free HomeAway listing or free iPhone to be given away at the conference.

For Summit Agenda & Registration information visit: http://homeawaysummit.com

About HomeAway, Inc.

HomeAway, Inc., based in Austin, Texas, is the world’s leading online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, with sites representing over 711,000 paid listings of vacation rental homes in 171 countries. Through HomeAway, owners and property managers offer an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with memorable experiences and benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy, for less than the cost of …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why MFC Industrial Is Poised to Outperform

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By Brian Pacampara, Pacampara, The Motley Fool

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool’s free investing community, commodity supply chain company MFC Industrial has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

MFC facts

Headquarters (founded)

Vancouver, Canada (1951)

Market Cap

$608.6 million

Industry

Trading companies and distributors

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$503.4 million

Management

Chairman/CEO Michael Smith

Senior Vice President of Finance (Europe) Roland Schulien

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

15.6%

Cash/Debt

$278.9 million / $261.2 million

Dividend Yield

2%

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

On CAPS, 97% of the 264 members who have rated MFC believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just yesterday, one of those Fools, All-Star TMFDeej, highlighted MFC as a potentially attractive “jockey” bet:

I’m not under any illusion that I’m going to find the next Warren Buffett, but someone who’s half as good will still be a successful investment. Over on the TMF message boards, turb0kat, just reminded me about Michael Smith and his impressive history of generating solid returns. For some reason I have never invested alongside him, despite the fact that he is a favorite in some circles. He certainly uses lots of tricks and trinkets with his companies, along the lines of a John Malone type figure after drinking Red Bull. I certainly cannot profess to know a whole lot more about Michael Smith than that, but I plan on tracking his investment vehicle here in CAPS and to do more research on him in the near future.

If you want market-thumping returns, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Of course, despite a strong four-star rating, MFC may not be your top choice.

If that’s the case, we’ve compiled a special free report for investors called “The 3 Dow Stocks Dividend Investors Need,” which uncovers a few other juicy income opportunities. The report is 100% free, but it won’t be around forever, so click here to access it now.

Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.

The article Why MFC Industrial Is Poised to Outperform originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends MFC Industrial. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Articles of Interest

Harvard Cheating Scandal: School Reportedly Searched Deans’ Emails For Leaks To Press

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard University administrators secretly searched the emails of 16 deans last fall, looking for a leak to reporters about a case of cheating, two newspapers reported.

The email accounts belonged to deans on the Administrative Board, a committee addressing the cheating, The Boston Globe and The New York Times reported, citing school officials. The deans were not warned about the email access and only one was told of the search afterward.

Harvard will not comment on personnel matters or provide additional information about the board cases that were concluded during the fall term, Michael Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in an email Sunday. If the committee’s work were compromised, Harvard College would protect the process, he said.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

Why Traditional Banking Might Go the Way of the Piggy Bank

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By Erik Carter, Contributor Have you heard the saying “you get what you pay for?” Well, when it comes to your finances, you often get what you don’t pay for. For example, in this blog post, my colleague Michael Smith writes about how he once spent $10 on a piggy bank that he only saved $30 in. As a result, his savings vehicle ended up costing him 1/3 of his savings!
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest