Analysis Topic: Companies Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Is Microsoft Stock Price About to Break Out of Its 10-Year Slumber? / Companies / Microsoft
By: Money_Morning
David Mamos writes: Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the world's largest software company. It's also the world's largest afterthought for most investors.
"It's an ancient relic," they say, "Apple and Google are the only games in town."
Or there is always this complaint: "Microsoft has no attractive products and there is no growth"...blah, blah, blah.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Best Way to Invest in the "Golden Age of Materials Science" / Companies / Technology
By: Money_Morning
Michael A. Robinson writes: How often has your smartphone died during a conference call with your biggest client, or while you're enjoying the highlight replays of your favorite team's latest win?
A new substance that you've probably never heard of could end that worry - and a few others, as well.
Just created at the University of Buffalo, this advanced substance is billed as a portable hydrogen fuel cell. Just add water, and the chemical reaction will yield an instant way to charge your cellphone's dead battery.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Where Goldman Sachs Will Make Money in 2013 / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein spoke with Bloomberg TV's Stephanie Ruhle at the company's technology conference in San Francisco today. Blankfein said he has no plans to leave Goldman: "The combination of this being who I am and what I do and having absolutely no other interests makes me think this is what I'll be doing for a while."
Blankfein said that while he "would love to be wanted" for the role of Treasury Secretary, "that seems like such a distant hypothetical."
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
China Year of the Snake… U.S. Year of the Tank Car / Companies / Sector Analysis
By: Investment_U
David Fessler writes: In China, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. According to the website HanBan.com, this means that 2013 should be a year of steady progress and attention to detail. Focus and discipline will be necessary in order to achieve goals.
In the U.S., 2013 might well be called the Year of the Tanker Car, particularly if you are an oil producer in the Bakken or the Eagle Ford shale formations.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
A Classic Impulse Wave in General Electric / Companies / Company Chart Analysis
By: EWI
Impulse waves are an integral part of the Wave Principle. Understanding their rules, guidelines and Fibonacci multiples will improve your application and your ability to identify high-confidence trade setups.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
High Yield Dividend Stocks: What Every Investor Should Look For / Companies / Dividends
By: Casey_Research
It can be mighty hard to earn any interest at all in today’s banking environment. Many investors are looking to riskier investments to find the kind of returns they once got from an FDIC-insured CD or even a savings account.
But don’t despair. There are still a few decent ways to make your cash earn some income without putting it at too great a risk.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Are You Picking the Right Stock for Higher Oil Prices? / Companies / Oil Companies
By: InvestmentContrarian
Sasha Cekerevac writes: One of the most difficult aspects of investing is adjusting one’s economic forecast to the dynamic and ever-changing global economic environment. An investor cannot be so dogmatic that they are unable to shift their economic forecast as new data come out.
For much of the second half of last year, there were many fears that China was going to encounter a significant slowdown, and many analysts had been lowering their economic forecast for that nation. Recent data, however, show that perhaps the Chinese economy might be able to rebound, at least in the short term.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Electric Vehicles to Charge Up as Crude Oil Rises / Companies / US Auto's
By: InvestmentContrarian
George Leong writes: With the outlook for the U.S. and global economies looking more encouraging, we have seen a corresponding upward push by oil prices on the chart.
An issue for us is that oil prices continue to be largely dictated by the folks in the Middle East, namely the 11-member oil cartel Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC). At this time, OPEC feels oil prices of $100.00 a barrel are reasonable, and $80.00 is viewed as the low point that is acceptable for oil prices. This might be fine with OPEC, as it adds to their rich coffers; but with the average price of gasoline at $3.54 a gallon, consumers aren’t happy with these high oil prices. (Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration web site, last accessed February 8, 2013.)
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Investment Opportunity Due to a S&P Lawsuit? / Companies / Investing 2013
By: InvestmentContrarian
Sasha Cekerevac writes: Sometimes the best investment opportunity arises when a situation looks the bleakest. When a firm’s earnings outlook is stable and there is little volatility in the stock, this makes it extremely difficult to identify an investment opportunity, since all the good news is usually priced into the stock.
An interesting situation is taking place now, and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE/MHP) to court, alleging that the ratings agency was involved in fraudulent activities.
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Can "Perceptual Computing" Help Intel Get Its Groove Back? / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Michael A. Robinson writes: When you peruse the tech-dominated headlines these days, a lot of the talk is about how smartphones and tablets are taking over for notebooks and laptops - which had taken over for desktop PCs.
But with the confusing mix of keyboards, track pads, touch-screens, and even voice and gesture commands that are in use today, there are at least as many different ways to interact with all those computing devices as there are different devices themselves.
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Saturday, February 09, 2013
Another Look at Corporate Cash Hoarding / Companies / Corporate Earnings
By: Andy_Sutton
With Graham Mehl… In the most recent copy of the St. Louis Fed’s ‘Regional Economist’, two of its researchers query the status of corporate cash. Specifically, they’re interested in why companies are hoarding so much of it. Normally, such an article wouldn’t be noteworthy, but in this case we feel that delving into such an issue will be of assistance in terms of helping the average person to understand the truly broken nature of our economic and monetary systems.
During the course of the article, the researchers pose what would be considered normally expected explanations for this pile up of cash: tax-avoidance, structural changes in the business environment, and even the cost of research and development. We don't doubt that these are probably among the subset of correct answers, perhaps with a few additions varying by particular fields. However, we found it much more interesting and instructive to ask where the cash came from than why it was being accumulated. The media, especially in America, has gone out of its way to portray a robust economic recovery. This would lead one to conclude that these piles of cash came from business activity. We’ll see if the data and trends validate that conclusion.
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Saturday, February 09, 2013
How to Think about Stock Prices in Today’s Volatile Markets / Companies / Investing 2013
By: Charles_Carnevale
Price volatility is an unavoidable aspect of investing in common stocks. During periods when emotions are dominating reason, price volatility can become more pronounced than is normal during calmer times. The insidious part of this fact is that the more volatile stock prices are, the more fear and stress they generate, which only feeds even greater volatility. Of course, the same can be said when greed raises its ugly head. The purpose of this article is to provide some logic and reason that can be applied to stock price volatility that simultaneously weakens its potential damage.
Friday, February 08, 2013
Meredith Whitney Says Bank of America is Stock to Own Without a Doubt / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Bloomberg
Meredith Whitney appeared on "Bloomberg Surveillance" this morning and told Tom Keene and Sara Eisen and said that she's "uninspired" by Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat. Whitney said, "We don't really know Mike Corbat's agenda...He didn't give us an agenda and he didn't even give us a time stamp for when he's going to give us an agenda, so it left people a little bit uninspired."
Whitney also said, "I think that Citi does ok, but I think Bank of America is the stock to own this year without a doubt." She also said that the S&P fraud charge is "very hard to believe and I think that's going to be very hard to prove."
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Friday, February 08, 2013
Google Isn’t as Expensive as You May Believe / Companies / Google
By: InvestmentContrarian
George Leong writes: For all of you who are attracted by the battered price of Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ/FB), I suggest you keep on reading: Google Inc. (NASDAQ/GOOG) is the top player in the Internet space, in spite of it hitting an all-time record high of $776.60 last Friday, and here’s why.
My stock analysis indicates that some of you may feel that, at nearly $800.00 a share, Google is valued at way too lofty a price. Moreover, some may be spooked by the recent collapse of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ/AAPL) on the price chart after trading at over $705.00 a share in September 2012. What I would say to you is that Google is not Apple, and it’s definitely a much better company than Facebook, based on my stock analysis.
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Thursday, February 07, 2013
Which Technology Stock to Own for the Next Five Years / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Profit_Confidential
Technology stocks are not for the faint of heart. The business cycle exists, and companies have to continually re-invent themselves or get left in the dust, especially among technology stocks, where consumers will pay almost anything for innovation. The smartphone industry is the perfect example. BlackBerry (NASDAQ/BBRY;TSX/RIM), formerly Research In Motion Limited, dropped the ball on what was an outstanding leading position in the smartphone revolution. How about personal computers (PCs)? Dell Inc. (NASDAQ/DELL) is now a partial contributor to its own operational weakness because of the extreme commoditization of the PC that it helped foster. But Dell’s been struggling on the stock market for the last five years.
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Thursday, February 07, 2013
The Anatomy of an XOM Earnings Options Trade / Companies / Options & Warrants
By: J_W_Jones
One of the most interesting aspects of options is the myriad opportunities presented for high probability trades for those who understand the details of option behavior.
For example, I have recently discussed the routinely observed collapse of implied volatility immediately following an earnings release. We have looked at several examples of profitable trades constructed to benefit from this expected decline in implied volatility.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Tablet PC's Forced Dell to Go Private / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: A proposed deal taking Dell private shows just how hard it has become for the old guard of PC-based companies to survive in a world dominated by mobile computing.
Today (Tuesday) Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) announced that it had agreed to be acquired for $24.4 billion, or $13.65 per share, by a group that includes private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. Other investors are company founder and CEO Michael Dell, who is contributing about $3.7 billion, and investment firm MSD Capital.
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Friday, February 01, 2013
How the Pentagon Aims to Stop China's Cyber-Hacking of America / Companies / Cyber War
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon writes: Given the deficit fears and budget skirmishes that are focus of the moment down in Washington, it's tough to get excited about defense-related investments right now.
Defense outlays are destined to shrink.
But there's one area where spending is slated to go up ...
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
Facebook Stock Earnings Downgrades Keep Pouring In / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Diane Alter writes: They say third time's the charm, but no such luck for Facebook stock, which fell even though the company's third earnings report since going public beat expectations.
The numbers failed to charm Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) investors who expected the report would offer more to like, and analysis who found plenty of concern in the expenses.
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
Looking for the “Herbal” in Herbalife / Companies / Corporate News
By: Vitaliy_Katsenelson
Months before the recent Sturm und Drang surrounding nutritional-supplement maker Herbalife, my firm took a long, hard look at the company. On the surface it was a value investor’s dream: great balance sheet, high return on capital, high revenue and earnings growth, and attractive valuation. Of course, there was one problem: The validity of its multilevel marketing (MLM) pyramid structure was being questioned by some investors.