Tag Archives: Yahoo Finance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 Numbers AT&T Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

While  AT&T‘s success isn’t as tied to Apple and the iPhone as it once was, investors watching this week still need to know if increased competition is taking a toll.

There’s plenty of it. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile have joined Verizon in carrying the iPhone. All four are pitching deals to get customers to switch, though only T-Mobile has taken the dramatic step of ending subsidies and lock-in contracts. What will that mean for AT&T, whose network operates on a similar GSM band to that operated by T-Mobile?  We’ll know more when the carrier reports earnings on April 23.

For perspective, AT&T activated 8.6 million iPhones in the fourth quarter. A good number, to be sure. But for investors, it’s the 4.3 million new iPhones AT&T customers activated in last year’s Q1.

Wall Street is expecting Q1 revenue to decline 0.20% to $31.75 billion, resulting in $0.64 of profit per share. The company beat earnings estimates in each of the first three quarters of 2012, only to suffer a 4.3% miss in Q4, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. AT&T stock is up about 27% over that period.

Would a beat help AT&T stock rally further? Will AT&T continue to be the top iPhone supplier to U.S. consumers? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on these questions in the following video. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know whether you would buy, sell, or short AT&T stock at current prices.

The mobile revolution is still in its infancy, but with so many different companies, it can be daunting to know how to profit in the space. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has released a free report on mobile named “The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution” that tells you how. The report describes why this seismic shift will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it and also names the company at the forefront of the trend. You can access this report today by clicking here — it’s free.

The article 2 Numbers AT&T Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the 
Motley Fool Rule Breakers
stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Apple at the time of publication. Check out Tim’s Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t 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

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-2-numbers-att-stock-investors-sh/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 Number Apple Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

If Apple stock rallies after the company reports earnings on April 23, it’ll be because of iPad sales. According to Fortune‘s survey of analyst projections, the median estimate is 18 million tablets sold, or about 56% more than last year’s fiscal Q2 total of 11.8 million. Recent history and industry reports suggest that the iPad Mini could account for the majority of those sales.

Smaller tablets are gaining ground as a whole. Five of the nine most popular tablets listed at Amazon.com were 7 or 8 inches. The Mini ranked ninth, while Samsung’s 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab ranked sixth. Various models of Amazon’s Kindle occupied the other spots.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting fiscal Q2 revenue to increase 8.9% to $42.68 billion, resulting in $10.13 of profit per share. The company beat earnings estimates in only two of its past four quarters, highlighted by a 10.1% miss in the June quarter, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. Apple stock is down 32% over that period.

Will Apple stock rally following the report? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the following video. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know whether you would buy, sell, or short Apple stock at current prices.

It’s incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out “Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks” in The Motley Fool’s latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged among the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

The article 1 Number Apple Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.


Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the 
Motley Fool Rule Breakers
stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Apple at the time of publication. Check out Tim’s Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com and Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t 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 reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-1-number-apple-stock-investors-s/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 Number Google Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

If Google stock rallies after the company reports earnings on Thursday, it’ll be because costs per click are rising again. But there’s another element to the story that’s equally important, if not more so: Apps usage.

Microsoft is still the king of the market for productivity software, but Google is catching on, with more than 40 million reported users of its Google Apps suite. New efforts to bolster the offering with Keep, an Evernote lookalike, could help win customers over time. Rumored efforts to boost messaging could also prove popular, especially with Facebook taking steps to boost its own capabilities in this area via the “Home” app for Android.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting Q1 revenue to soar 72.5% to $14.04 billion, resulting in $10.69 of profit per share. The company beat earnings estimates in three of its past four quarters, with a 15.2% miss in the September quarter counting as its only aberration, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. Google stock is up roughly 25% over that period.

Will Google stock rally following the report? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the video below. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know whether you would buy, sell, or short Google stock at current prices.

For further analysis of Google’s Apps ambitions, try our newest premium research report, in which we dissect Google’s sprawling empire and tell you what the search king is really worth, and whether the stock deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report now by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Tim Beyers“, contentId: “cms.30453”, contentTickers: “NASDAQ:MSFT, NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:FB”,

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-1-number-google-stock-investors/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 Numbers eBay Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

If PayPal keeps winning, so, too, will eBay stock investors.

What can we expect from the payments platform when the auctioneer reports earnings on April 17? Outsized growth seems likely. Despite growing competition from Square, Google , and even Groupon , PayPal handled 700 million payments transactions and served 123 million active accounts in the fourth quarter. Investors should be looking for meaningful growth in both figures in the Q1 report.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting first-quarter revenue to grow 14.9% to $3.76 billion, resulting in $0.62 of profit per share. The company has marginally beaten earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. eBay stock is up more than 61% over that period.

Would a bigger beat help eBay stock rally further? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the video below. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know what you whether you would buy, sell, or short eBay stock at current prices.

It’s incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out “Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks” in The Motley Fool’s latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged among the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

The article 2 Numbers eBay Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.


Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the 
Motley Fool Rule Breakers
stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Google at the time of publication. Check out Tim’s Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of eBay and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t 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 reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-2-numbers-ebay-stock-investors-s/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 Number Microsoft Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

How painful is it to own shares of Microsoft stock right now? Plenty. Just when shares of Mr. Softy were rallying on news that the company was making a smart and well-times appeal to small-business owners who have yet to upgrade to Windows 8, IDC reports that the PC business is coming apart at the seams. Shares of Dell , Hewlett-Packard , and Intel also fell sharply following the report.

The timing stinks for Microsoft, which is due to report earnings on Thursday. It’s a sure bet investors will be looking for an update on not only on WIndows 8 licenses sold (60 million, according to Mr. Softy’s last estimate) but also on Windows 8 PCs in use today. IDC‘s data isn’t encouraging.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting Q1 revenue to grow 18.8% to $20.68 billion, resulting in $0.76 of profit per share. The company beat earnings estimates in three of the past four quarters, only to suffer a 5.4% miss in the September quarter, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. Microsoft stock is down nearly 7% over that period.

Would a beat help Microsoft stock kick off a sustained rally? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the following video. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know whether you would buy, sell, or short Microsoft stock at current prices.

For further analysis of Microsoft’s global ambitions, try our newest premium research report in which we dissect Mr. Softy’s sprawling empire and tell you what the company is really worth, and whether the stock deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report now by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Tim Beyers“, contentId: “cms.30455”, contentTickers: “NYSE:HPQ, NASDAQ:INTC, NASDAQ:DELL, NASDAQ:MSFT”,

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-1-number-microsoft-stock-investo/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 Numbers Verizon Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Waging wireless war isn’t easy. But for investors tuning in this earnings season, there’s no better gauge for who’s winning than smartphone activations. Or, more specifically, iPhone activations.

Of the 9.8 million smart handsets Verizon activated in Q4, 6.2 million were iPhones. Investors can expect a sequential decline when the carrier reports earnings this week. But gains over last year’s 3.2 million iPhones sold is also to be expected, especially in light of how slow AT&T has with offering LTE in major metropolitan areas.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting first-quarter revenue to grow 4.6% to $29.54 billion, resulting in $0.65 of profit per share. The company beat earnings estimates in each of the first three quarters of 2012, only to record a 10% miss in the Q4, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. Verizon stock is up more than 34% over that period.

Would a beat help Verizon stock rally further? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the following video. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know what you whether you would buy, sell, or short Verizon stock at current prices.

The mobile revolution is still in its infancy, but with so many different companies, it can be daunting to know how to profit in the space. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has released a free report on mobile named “The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution” that tells you how. The report describes why this seismic shift will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it and also names the company at the forefront of the trend. You can access this report today by clicking here — it’s free.

The article 2 Numbers Verizon Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.


Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the 
Motley Fool Rule Breakers
stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He didn’t own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article at the time of publication. Check out Tim’s Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t 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 reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-2-numbers-verizon-stock-investor/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 Number Intuitive Surgical Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Procedures. For Intuitive Surgical investors, nothing matters so much as seeing the da Vinci robotic surgery system used in more procedures, especially general surgery.

Despite reports of errors using the da Vinci system, Intuitive Surgical has put up good numbers so far. Total procedures rose 25% in the fourth quarter and 29% in last year’s first quarter. The company sold 175 and 140 da Vinci systems, respectively, during those periods.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting revenue to grow 17.7% to $582.9 million, resulting in $3.99 of profit per share. The company has beat earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. Intuitive Surgical stock is still down nearly 6% over that period.

Would another beat send Intuitive Surgical stock soaring? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the video below. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know what you whether you would buy, sell, or short Intuitive Surgical stock at current prices.

Are stories of this demise greatly exaggerated?
Recently, some investors have questioned Intuitive Surgical‘s future. However, Intuitive Surgical expert Karl Thiel believes a visible path to long-term growth persists. Will Intuitive capitalize, or be crushed by unforeseen pitfalls? His report highlights all of the key opportunities and risks facing the company — and includes a full year of ongoing updates as key new hits — so be sure to claim your copy by clicking here now.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Tim Beyers“, contentId: “cms.30468”, contentTickers: “NASDAQ:ISRG”, contentTitle: “1 Number Intuitive Surgical Stock Investors Should Know

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/1-number-intuitive-surgical-stock-investors-should/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

When Did High Tech Become High Yield?

Leave a comment

By Chuck Saletta, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

As the portfolio manager for the real-money Inflation-Protected Income Growth portfolio, Chuck Saletta is always on the lookout for companies with growing, well-covered dividends. In the brief video below, he discusses the amazing recent transformation that has turned high-growth, high-tech titans into stocks with higher-than-market yields.

To follow the iPIG portfolio as buy and sell decisions are made, watch Chuck’s article feed by clicking here. To join The Motley Fool’s free discussion board dedicated to the iPIG portfolio to see which of these high-tech titans did make the cut for that real-money portfolio, simply click here.

For more Foolish dividend picks
If you’re on the lookout for stocks that reliably pay you to own them, The Motley Fool has compiled a special free report outlining our nine top dependable dividend-paying stocks. It’s called “Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks.” You can access your copy today at no cost! Just click here.

Company statistics mentioned in the video:

Company Current Yield Payout Ratio Debt-to-Equity Ratio
S&P Depositary Receipts 2% N/A N/A
Apple 2.5% 12% 0.0
Microsoft 3.2% 45% 0.2
Cisco Systems 3.3% 25% 0.3
Intel 4.3% 21% 0.3

Source: Data from Yahoo! Finance, as of April 9, 2013.

The article When Did High Tech Become High Yield? originally appeared on Fool.com.


Chuck Saletta owns shares of Microsoft and Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Cisco Systems, and Intel. It owns shares of Apple, Intel, and Microsoft. 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 reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
}
}

addEvent(window, "load", function(){new FoolVisualSciences();})
addEvent(window, "load", function(){new PickAd();})

var themeName = 'dailyfinance.com';
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount',

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Are Stocks About to Get Crushed?

Leave a comment

By John Maxfield, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Earnings season is upon us, and many analysts are predicting that it won’t be pretty. According to data analysis company FactSet Research Systems, earnings at S&P 500 companies are expected to contract by 0.6% (link opens PDF), marking the second year-over-year decline in three quarters.

Aluminum-maker Alcoa kicks things off after the bell today. Figures available on Yahoo! Finance show that analysts expect Alcoa to report between $0.04 and $0.13 per share in earnings, with a consensus estimate of $0.08 per share.

But while the purported economic bellwether is the first company on the Dow Jones Industrial Average to report, does its performance set the tone for the rest of earnings season? FactSet’s John Butters suggests that it just may be: “Recent history shows that when Alcoa has beat estimates, the price of the index has increased about 80% of the time over the next three months.” Yet, as Butters goes on to explain, “When Alcoa has missed estimates, the price of the index has actually increased nearly as often as it has decreased over the next three months.”

In other words, perhaps there isn’t such a strong causal relationship after all.

The bigger issue is how the banks performed over the first three months of the year. “Most of the people I’m talking to have low expectations for earnings,” an executive told The Wall Street Journal. “There’s a lot of trepidation over what the banks will report.”

The nation’s first- and fourth-largest banks by assets, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, get the ball rolling this Friday. As I discussed, analysts will be watching three things in particular: mortgage originations, expenses, and trading profits or losses in the wake of the Cyprus bailout.

To be fair, if the performance of the market today is any indication, investors don’t seem to be overly concerned, as the Dow is up a negligible four points with an hour left in trading.

Today’s sluggish market could, however, have more to do with an impending speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke scheduled for later today. Bernanke is expected to reaffirm the central bank’s support for its current monetary policy, under which it’s buying $85 billion in Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities per month in order to boost housing demand and compress long-term interest rates.

So will stocks get crushed this earnings season? It remains to be seen. On the one hand, earnings could well be lackluster, led in particular by the banks. But on the other, the Fed is doing everything it can to pick up the slack.

Is now a good time to buy Alcoa stock?
Materials industries are traditionally known for their high barriers to entry, and the aluminum industry is no exception. Controlling about 15% of global production in this highly consolidated industry, Alcoa is in prime position to take advantage of growth that some expect will lead to total industry revenue approaching $160 billion by 2017. Based …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Sterling Bancorp Shareholder Alert: Briscoe Law Firm and Powers Taylor, LLP Investigate Sale to Prov

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Sterling Bancorp Shareholder Alert: Briscoe Law Firm and Powers Taylor, LLP Investigate Sale to Provident New York

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Former United States Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Willie Briscoe and the securities litigation firm of Powers Taylor, LLP are investigating the sale of Sterling Bancorp (“Sterling”) (NYS: STL) to Provident New York Bancorp for shareholders. Under the terms of the proposed transaction valued at approximately $344 million, Sterling shareholders will only receive 1.2625 shares of Provident for each share of Sterling stock owned, valued at approximately $11.12 per share.

If you are an affected investor, and you want to learn more about the lawsuit or join the action, contact Willie Briscoe at The Briscoe Law Firm, PLLC, (214) 239-4568, or via email at WBriscoe@TheBriscoeLawFirm.com, or Zach Groover at Powers Taylor, LLP, toll free (877) 728-9607, via e-mail at zach@powerstaylor.com. There is no cost or fee to you.

The Sterling sale investigation centers on whether Sterling’s shareholders are receiving adequate compensation for their shares in the buyout, whether the transaction undervalues Sterling’s stock, and whether Sterling’s board attempted to obtain the highest share price for all shareholders prior to agreeing to the deal. Notably, according to Yahoo! Finance, at least one analyst valued the true inherent price of Sterling stock at $11.50 per share. Shareholder rights attorney Patrick Powers stated that “due to the nature of the stock for stock transaction, the proposed sale price, the size of the deal and other factors, we believe this transaction may undervalue Sterling’s stock. Our proposed lawsuit will seek to ensure that shareholders are receiving the highest share price for their shares.”

The Briscoe Law Firm, PLLC is a full service business litigation and shareholder rights advocacy firm with more than 20 years of experience in complex litigation and transactional matters.

Powers Taylor, LLP is a boutique litigation law firm that handles a variety of complex business litigation matters, including claims of investor and stockholder fraud, shareholder oppression, shareholder derivative suits, and security class actions.

The Briscoe Law Firm, PLLC
Willie Briscoe, 214-239-4568
WBriscoe@TheBriscoeLawFirm.com
or
Powers Taylor, LLP
Zach Groover, 877-728-9607
zach@powerstaylor.com

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Texas

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

The article Sterling Bancorp …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Will Apple Hit a New Low?

Leave a comment

By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

After putting up an encouraging bounce back to $470 at the end of March, shares of Apple have promptly given back nearly all of those gains. The Mac maker dropped by as much as 1.5% on Friday, in part because of the disappointing jobs report that dragged down the broader market.

In the final hour of trading, shares tanked for no apparent reason to as low as $419.69 — just pennies away from tapping a fresh 52-week low. Shares promptly recovered just as quickly and inexplicably.

AAPL data by YCharts.

Will Apple hit a new low?

Never say never
Shares have mostly stayed range-bound for the past couple of months following the January earnings plunge, lacking any positive or negative catalysts to speak of. The most apparent positive catalyst that investors are anxiously awaiting remains the inevitable dividend boost, but all has stayed quiet on the cash front so far this year.

The biggest potentially negative catalyst on the horizon is the fiscal second-quarter earnings release that’s due out on April 23. The March quarter is a seasonally slow one for the iPhone maker, and there’s a distinct possibility that Apple may miss consensus estimates. On top of that, this will be the first earnings release under Apple’s revised guidance philosophy, so investors really have no idea how to interpret its forecast of $41 billion to $43 billion in revenue or CFO Peter Oppenheimer’s vague description of the change:

In the past we provided a single-point estimate of guidance that was conservative, that we had reasonable confidence in achieving. This quarter and going forward we’re going to provide a range of guidance that we believe that we’re likely to report within.

Not only will March be a tough quarter, but the June quarter may be even more challenging. There are numerous flagship smartphones launching in April, including Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and HTC’s One, while consumers and investors are expecting new iPhones as early as this summer.

BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk fears that June guidance could potentially drive shares below $400, even as he recently upgraded shares to “buy” with a $540 price target and thinks the risk is worth taking.

Who compares?
Since Apple had such a monster 2012, it’s facing tough comparisons this year. Trailing-12-month EPS is projected to decline over the next couple of quarters.

Source: SEC filings and Yahoo! Finance.

If Apple hits the March EPS consensus of $10.15 on the dot, it will have earned $41.95 per share over the past four quarters. That would represent negative earnings growth during the quarter (down from $12.30 EPS a year ago), which would inevitably make for some gloomy headlines.

That might scare some investors, especially if they compared possible headlines of “Apple Earnings Fall 17%” with ones earlier this week of “Samsung expects first-quarter profits of $7.7B, up 53 percent.” Of course, Apple will still beat Samsung in absolute dollars with closer …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is This Apple Stock Position Still Worth Holding?

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Each week, I endeavor to report the results of the Big Idea Portfolio, a collection of five tech stocks that I believe will crush the market over a three-year period. I’ve done it before; my last tussle with Mr. Market ended with me beating the index’s average return by 13.35%.

Real money was on the line then as it is now, which means any one of the five stocks you see below could cause me a lot of public embarrassment. Apple has caused the most trouble over the past several months. Count this week’s 3.5 percentage-point drop as the latest dip.

Apple’s stock price has fallen more than 33% over the past 12 months and is down 20% year to date, despite an 8% rise in the S&P 500. Holding in hopes of seeing CEO Tim Cook and his team make good on long-promised innovations in delivering televised entertainment has cost me dearly.

Bullish investors will nevertheless tell you that Apple stock looks like a bargain at current prices. They’re right. Google and Microsoft both trade at a noticeable premium to Apple when you factor in liquid assets:

AAPL Price to Earnings Less Cash TTM data by YCharts.

Selling now would amount to declaring that the Mac maker is incapable of generating even 10% annual earnings growth for the foreseeable future. Analysts are modeling for 18.9% annual gains over the next five years, according to Yahoo! Finance.

A decade of investing has taught me that winning is less a matter of wits and more a matter of willpower. Apple is testing my will to hold, so I shall.

What’s the Big Idea this week?
Elsewhere, Google and Riverbed Technology barely budged as my other two tech holdings plunged, costing me another 420 basis points in my three-year battle with Mr. Market. Among the indexes, only the Dow reported a marginal 0.19% gain.

This time, the Russell 2000 led the laggards with a 2.72% decline, followed by the Nasdaq’s 1.30% drop, and the S&P 500’s 0.59% dip, according to data supplied by The Wall Street Journal. Here’s a closer look at where I stood through Thursday’s close:

Company

Starting Price*

Recent Price

Total Return

Apple

$416.26**

$427.72

2.8%

Google

$650.09

$795.07

22.3%

Rackspace Hosting

$41.65

$46.86

12.5%

Riverbed Technology

$25.95

$14.96

(42.4%)

Salesforce.com

$100.93

$166.41

64.9%

AVERAGE RETURN

—

—

12.02%

S&P 500 SPDR

$124.39**

$155.86

25.29%

DIFFERENCE

—

—

(13.27%)

Source: Yahoo! Finance.
*Tracking began at market close on Jan. 6, 2012.
**Adjusted for dividends and other returns of capital.

Notable newsmakers
Among the other tech stocks making news last week:

  • Facebook took its fight with Google to next level by introducing “Home,” an overlay for Android phones that assumes control of a handset’s home and lock screen. An accompanying “cover feed” reveals what friends are up to while making chat accessible from any app or screen.

  • Tesla Motors soared this week after the company said Model S sales came in at 4,750, above the 4,500 projected earlier. The company also forecast a surprise first-quarter profit. Tesla next reports earnings on May 6.

  • Finally, in yet another …read more

    Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The SEC Wants You to "Friend" Corporate America

Leave a comment

By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Life got a little bit harder for investors this week. And believe it or not, the SEC is to blame.

Aiming to accommodate corporate “social networking” efforts, the SEC on Tuesday gave companies permission to announce major corporate news on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter — rather than through online searchable press releases or filings on the SEC‘s own website, as had previously been the typical practice.

But why?

A bit of background
On July 1, 2012, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings went on Facebook to crow over the momentous news that his company had just finished sending out 1 billion viewing hours to Netflix streaming subscribers in June. Five months later, fellow tech entrepreneur Elon Musk — CEO of electric-car company Tesla Motors — followed in Hastings’ footsteps by going on Twitter to announce that for one week in December, his company was cash-flow positive. (A whole week, eh. Congratulations?)

What these two events have in common is that they both seemed to run afoul of Securities and Exchange Commission regulation FD. Reg FD, as it’s commonly called, mandates that whenever a company releases information that’s “material” to its business, it must do so in a manner that’s “broad” and “non-exclusionary.”

This language was drafted to curb the practice of companies revealing useful data only to their favorite investment-banking analysts — a club that’s certainly not broad — and not letting the rest of us investors know what was up until after the favored few had heard it, which is without a doubt “exclusionary.”

Now here’s the problem. Over the dozen years since Reg FD came into effect, companies have followed the law carefully, releasing information in ways and in places where people were likely to find it. Generally speaking, material announcements came out as press releases that showed up promptly in the companies’ ticker feeds on Yahoo! Finance. They were also usually filed as 8-K filings with the SEC.

As a result, anybody who wanted to know what was going on knew how to find out. There were basically just two websites to check: Yahoo’s and the SEC‘s.

Life just got complicated
I tell you this as a preface to explaining why I, for one, am not thrilled with the SEC‘s decision to let companies disclose material information on their Facebook pages.

Why not? Listen — it was bad enough when the SEC gave the greenlight in 2008 to companies like Google who wanted to stop paying publication fees to PRNewswire and start self-publishing their most interesting announcements on their corporate websites. Ever since, more and more companies have been taking the SEC up on its offer, leaving investors with many places to look for corporate news updates, rather than just two.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions
Sure, the SEC says companies still need to take “steps … to alert the market about which forms of communication a company intends to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Which Top 5 S&amp;P 500 Performer Has the Best Shot at Outperforming in Q2

Leave a comment

By Sean Williams, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

With investors enjoying a rare three-day weekend thanks to Good Friday, and basking in a fresh all-time closing high for the S&P 500, I thought it important to take the time to review the index’s top five performers in the first-quarter to see if they offer any clues as to which may roll its gains into the second quarter.

Netflix + 104.4%
Netflix was the best performer within the S&P 500 by a mile. Netflix more than doubled up for shareholders after showing the benefits of content streaming, both domestically, and abroad. Despite seeing a continued slowdown in its traditional DVD business, Netflix added 2 million streaming customers domestically, and an additional 1.8 million abroad. Furthermore, streaming gross margin came in higher than anyone had expected, resulting in a $0.13 fourth-quarter profit, when Wall Street had been anticipating a $0.13 loss per share. 

Best Buy + 88.4% (dividend-adjusted)
Big-box retailer Best Buy turned in a phenomenal performance in the first-quarter for a company that many had left for dead. Best Buy‘s turnaround strategy – which involves downsizing its stores, focusing on mobile products like smartphones and tablets, incentivizing its employees with sales bonuses and, most importantly, matching competitor’s prices — appears to be working like a charm. The company left its dividend untouched at $0.17 per quarter, and reversed a string of same-store sales declines by posting a 0.9% same-store sales increase over the year-ago period. 

Hewlett-Packard + 68.4% (dividend-adjusted)
Like Best Buy, HP was left for dead by shareholders at the beginning of the year after unveiling sweeping reforms and job cut plans last year. However, HP put some of those dissenters on the back burner after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings in February. HP‘s revenue of $28.4 billion, and its EPS forecast for 2013 of $2.30-$2.50, was markedly higher than the $27.8 billion that the Street had expected, and the $2.10-$2.30 that HP‘s management had previous projected.

H&R Block + 59.5% (dividend-adjusted)
Tax preparation service H&R Block delivered a nearly 60% gain in the first-quarter to shareholders despite just weeks ago running into a snafu with its at-home tax preparation software that modestly delayed up to 660,000 returns. H&R Block, which derives nearly all of its profits between the end of January and April 15, anticipates filings will be up by 1%-2% this year, and CEO Bill Cobb noted three weeks ago that he felt H&R Block was outperforming its competitors.

Micron Technology + 57.3%
Memory chip maker Micron snagged the fifth-best performance within the S&P 500 this quarter in anticipation of stronger margins and decreasing costs, which should help its bottom line performance. Handily topping Wall Street‘s revenue expectations in its second-quarter results, Micron has benefited from robust smartphone and tablet sales, as well as demand for data center infrastructure.

Source: Finviz, Yahoo! Finance.

Which of these five can head higher in Q2?
It really …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Obamacare Is Changing Health Insurance Forever

Leave a comment

By Brandy Betz, The Motley Fool

HUM Total Return Price Chart

Filed under:

Is health insurance really insurance — and does it matter?

True insurance protects against catastrophic losses. Think of flood insurance covering the damage as the couch floats by the window, or a life insurance policy paying out after a loved one’s death. Health insurance slants more toward maintenance care, such as annual checkups, that the other insurances tend to avoid. Good luck getting your car insurance to pick up your 60,000-mile tuneup.

The different types of insurance have had similar means of funding. Customers pay a fee set according to risk level. Screening guidelines kept out the riskiest individuals and mitigated the overall level of risk the company would assume. The excluded might have included homes in hurricane-prone areas or individuals with a history of serious health problems.

But the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, is changing how private health insurers can screen patients and the premiums they can charge. That change is causing a new health industry shift that could redefine its future.

Redefining health insurance
Health insurance in the United States dates back to the Civil War era, when accident coverage proved popular enough to encourage more comprehensive private plans. But insurance as we know it started much later, following some innovations in the medical community. A look at that start helps explain the current path.

In 1929, a doctor at Baylor University Hospital in Texas noticed that teachers weren’t settling medical bills. So he started a system where the teachers could pay in a small amount, or a premium, and receive up to 21 days of health coverage  The Baylor Plan began to spread as the Great Depression took off.

Cut to three decades later and a group of hospitals decided to merge their plans into one nonprofit called Blue Cross. The company faced increasing competition from private plans — which charged premiums based on level of risk — and soon adopted a similar business model. The methods of the private plans became the norm.

Insurers thrived in the new market and have continued to evolve over the years. Five companies have fought to the top of the heap as business boomed. Take a look at how those company’s performed versus the S&P 500 over the past 10 years.

HUM Total Return Price data by YCharts.

Most of the companies have grown significantly over the past years thanks to acquisitions.  Here’s how they stacked up in market position at the end of fiscal 2012.

Company

Market Cap

P/E Ratio

Covered lives*, in millions

UnitedHealth

56.1 billion

10.37

40.925

WellPoint

19.8 billion

7.97

36.130

Aetna

16.9 billion

10.70

18.242

Cigna

17.7 billion

11.06

14.045

Humana

10.9 billion

9.22

9.103

Sources: Company 10-K reports, Yahoo! Finance. *Medical coverage only; excludes dental, Medicare Part D, etc.

But change is in the wind, thanks to the ACA, and insurers won’t have the same risk mitigation options. Under the new health insurance exchanges, insurers can’t deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions and have limits to how much they can increase premium charges due to a patient’s history.

The insurers’ long …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

CAPS' Weekly Top Stock Idea

Leave a comment

By Dan Dzombak, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Each week I cull a top stock idea from the pitches made on CAPS, the Motley Fool‘s 180,000-member free investing community. Want your idea considered for this series? Make a compelling pitch on CAPS with a minimum length of 400 words. Want to follow the weekly picks? Follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Company

Coach

Star Rating

****

Industry

Consumer goods

Market Cap

$13.93 billion

Sources: S&P Capital IQ, Yahoo! Finance, and Motley Fool CAPS.

Coach investors have had a rough year, with the stock down almost 35% in the past year and down 10.5% year to date after the company missed earnings expectations in January. The company is attempting to reinvent itself as a “lifestyle” brand as it strives to compete with fast-growing competitors Michael Kors , Ralph Lauren , and Tory Burch, which benefit from their famous founding fashion designers. The stock is down as investors are nervous over the company’s transition which will include a new CEO next year. Some investors think the drop is an opportunity, including CAPS All-Star NovaTodd. Last September, NovaTodd picked the stock to outperform the market over the next five years, and just last week, NovaTodd made a pitch for Coach.

Coach Outperform Pick

Pitch Submitted By:

NovaTodd

Member Rating:

84.80

Submitted On:

March 20, 2013

Stock Price at Original Outperform Recommendation:

$53.33

Sources: S&P Capital IQ, Yahoo! Finance, and Motley Fool CAPS.

This Week’s Pitch:
I bought yesterday at $48.00. I consider this a bargain for a company with such an outstanding track record of efficiency and profitability. ROIC has been consistently north of 40% over the past several years, and checked in at 56% last year; sales per square foot is close to $2,000 and ranks among the very best in the retail sector. Coach has a rock-solid balance sheet with a strong cash position and minimal long-term obligations; in fact, FCF generated last year alone adds up to about 80% of total liabilities on the balance sheet.

The valuation looks good right now: Price/Cash Flow is about 11.5, which is below the industry average of 16 and the company’s own five year average of 15. The shares yield 2.4%, and the current dividend payout is only about 35% of free cash flow. Realistically, the shares could yield north of 4% in five years using the current price and applying a fairly conservative growth estimate to the dividend. The share count has also been in decline over the past few years.

I’m no fashion aficionado, but I think Coach has built a durable brand that will continue to command a premium price for the next several years.

Another fresh idea
The retail space is in the midst of the biggest paradigm shift since mail order took off at the turn of last century. Only those most forward-looking and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Avoid This Pharma Stock

Leave a comment

By Dan Dzombak, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Editor’s note: This article is a stock pitch made by a member on CAPS, The Motley Fool’s free investing community. The pitch is published unedited and is the opinion of the CAPS member whose pitch it is, in this case: zzlangerhans.

Each week I cull a top stock idea from the pitches made on CAPS, the Motley Fool‘s 180,000-member free investing community. Want your idea considered for this series? Make a compelling pitch on CAPS with a minimum length of 400 words. Want to follow the weekly picks? Follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Company

AP Pharma

Star Rating (out of 5)

*

Industry

Health care

Market Cap

$177 million

 

AP Pharma Underperform Pick

zzlangerhans

Member Rating

99.66

Submitted On

3/26/2013

Stock Price At Underperform Recommendation

$0.63

Sources: S&P Capital IQ, Yahoo! Finance, and Motley Fool CAPS.

This Week’s Pitch:

I’ve watched from the sidelines as AP Pharma stock ran and sagged ahead of the APF530 PDUFA, likely the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy of the “run-up” enthusiasts. As always, it is good to be an early adopter of manufactured momentum plays in low float stocks and painful to be late to the party. Getting back to fundamentals, I see AP as a prime candidate for a post-PDUFA decline regardless of outcome. In my mind, the company’s goose was cooked when results of the phase III trial indicated that APF530 was equivalent but not superior to the standard of care Aloxi. The smart money abandoned the stock and the next few years were a blur of CRL, time and resource-consuming studies, and dilution. The penny stock share price masks a startling 193M market cap, the result of a massive dilution last July that suggests the company is already looking ahead to their next act after APF530. Even if approved, APF530 is unlikely to become a significant player in the generic-dominated CINV market.

While you can certainly make huge gains in biotech and pharmaceuticals, the best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool‘s free report “3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich” names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies that every investor should be aware of. Click here now to keep reading.

The article Avoid This Pharma Stock originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Dan Dzombak can be found on Twitter @DanDzombak or on his Facebook page, DanDzombak. He has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Law Firm Brower Piven Announces Investigation of San Diego Trust Bank Proposed Buyout

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Law Firm Brower Piven Announces Investigation of San Diego Trust Bank Proposed Buyout

STEVENSON, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The securities litigation firm of Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation, has commenced an investigation into possible breaches of fiduciary duty to current shareholders of San Diego Trust Bank (“San Diego Trust” or the “Company”) (OTC: SDBK) and other violations of state law by the board of directors of San Diego Trust relating to the proposed buyout of the Company by Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc. (“Pacific Premier“). The firm’s investigation seeks to determine, among other things, whether San Diego Trust‘s board of directors breached their fiduciary duties by failing to maximize shareholder value.

As stated in the press release announcing the proposed buyout, San Diego Trust shareholders will have a choice between electing to receive $13.41 per share in cash or 1.114 shares of Pacific Premier common stock for each share of San Diego Trust they own or a combination thereof. According to Yahoo! Finance, San Diego Trust shares were trading at $14.50 the week before the proposed buyout was announced.

If you currently own common stock of San Diego Trust and would like to learn more about the investigation being conducted by Brower Piven, you may email or call Brower Piven, who will, without obligation or cost to you, attempt to answer your questions. You may contact Brower Piven by email at hoffman@browerpiven.com, by calling (410) 415-6616, or at Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation, 1925 Old Valley Road, Stevenson, Maryland 21153. Attorneys at Brower Piven have combined experience litigating securities and other class action cases of over 60 years.

Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation
Stevenson, Maryland
Charles J. Piven, 410-415-6616
hoffman@browerpiven.com

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  California  Maryland

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

The article Law Firm Brower Piven Announces Investigation of San Diego Trust Bank Proposed Buyout originally appeared on Fool.com.

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 reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Was This Week a Turning Point for the Dow?

Leave a comment

By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

After a couple of epic weeks and a bullish streak of historic proportions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average looks likely to end this week on a level with last Friday’s closing prices. Positive housing and jobs data battled with negative vibes out of Cyprus, of all places, and we gained as much on the swings as we lost on the carousel.

That doesn’t mean the bull run is dead. Most weeks don’t move the Dow very far in either direction. The last 53 weeks, volatile as they may have seemed, saw only nine weekly moves larger than 2%. Even more surprisingly, bullish weeks haven’t been radically more frequent than bearish weeks. We’re looking back at 30 positive periods versus 23 negative ones.

So which stocks were fighting hard for every yard of weekly gains? Have a look:

Data from Yahoo! Finance.

Home Depot has surged 40% over the last year, helped by resurgent home sales. But insurance outfit Travelers fared even better with a 44% gain that added nearly 200 points to the Dow all by itself. The oft-overlooked stock did more than any other Dow component to help us reach all-time highs. Not even Superstorm Sandy could slow down the insurer’s rise to the top, which points to a fantastically well-managed business.

On the downside, Intel held the Dow back by 53 points as the stock swooned 24%. The PC market is buckling under an assault from tablets and smartphones, and Intel’s server chips haven’t been able to make up the difference yet.

Last, and definitely least in this context, construction equipment giant Caterpillar reduced the Dow by more than 150 points. While this stock seems to tap into the same construction markets that drove Home Depot higher, Caterpillar investors clearly worry more about economic swings and large-scale infrastructure projects.

Next week, the Dow might resume the seemingly stalled bull march. Or it might take a longer breather or even fall a bit. Whatever happens, the upticks are sure to overwhelm the downticks in the long run. Don’t do anything too drastic based on one week of market moves.

When it comes to dominating markets, it doesn’t get much better than Intel’s position in the PC microprocessor arena. However, that market is maturing, and Intel must find new avenues for growth. In this premium research report on Intel, our analyst runs through all of the key topics investors should understand about the chip giant. Click here now to learn more.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

CAPS' Weekly Top Stock Idea: CARBO Ceramics

Leave a comment

By Dan Dzombak, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Each week I cull a top stock idea from the pitches made on CAPS, the Motley Fool‘s 180,000-member, free investing community. Want your idea considered for this series? Make a compelling pitch on CAPS with a minimum length of 400 words.

Company

CARBO Ceramics

Star Rating

*****

Industry

Oil & Gas Equipment and Services

Market Cap

$2.22 billion

Outperform Pick Submitted By:

googlespooch

Member Rating:

37.88

Submitted On:

3/18/2013

Stock Price At Outperform Recommendation:

$95.98

Sources: S&P Capital IQ, Yahoo! Finance, and Motley Fool CAPS

This week’s pitch:

Carbo Ceramics makes some of the best proppant in the entire industry. Unlike US Silica’s sand-based proppant and Chinese low-quality sand/ceramic proppant, Carbo Ceramics makes ceramic proppant that is high in quality. In doing so, Carbo Ceramics improves the yields of the companies that it does business with (Halliburton and Schlumberger). This fact has started to greatly improve Carbo Ceramics‘ position with these and other drillers as drillers are starting to realize that Carbo Ceramics can provide them with a greater ROI.

In addition, Carbo Ceramics is in the process of opening a new plant in the Bakken in order to be closer to its customers so that it does not have to deal with shipping its inventory to the Bakken. This should help greatly in reducing logistical costs (which I can imagine are high considering that proppant is dealt with in millions of tons).

It is very important to also consider that, while rig counts are currently depressed, they will not likely stay that way in the long run. Many experts are starting to figure that there will be a large economic boom resulting from the Bakken oil drilling as well as other American drilling. Resulting from this will be increased focus on oil plays and other liquid plays. As anyone will agree, a rising ocean lifts all boats… and Carbo Ceramics is one of those lucky boats.

Making an investment in Carbo Ceramics protects the investor from the commodity prices of oil to some degree since all drillers will need proppant of some kind in order to continue fracking operations. Though rig count may increase or decrease, Carbo’s products will still be needed regardless.

This is why I’m putting Carbo Ceramics as outperform for the long-term.

Another idea
CARBO Ceramics is highly dependent on drilling activity in the U.S., which is currently booming as companies switch from natural gas to drilling for oil. While drilling activity can fluctuate wildly, oil and natural gas needs to be moved from the fields to where it is in demand.

It’s easy to forget the necessity of midstream operators that seamlessly transport oil and gas throughout the United States. Kinder Morgan is one of these operators, and one …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance