It can pay to keep an eye on companies that have been public for only a few quarters. Many of them stumble out of the gate and get lost in the crowd. By the time these companies start to get back on track, you may be one of the few… Read More

Income investing has an unfair stigma attached to it. The conventional wisdom says invest in dividend payers — also known as “widow and orphan” stocks — if you’re just trying to stash your money somewhere. If you actually want to earn a decent return, then… Read More

For much of the past 18 months, it’s been fair to question whether the economy is truly on the mend. Not anymore. The recent employment trends have started cement a new reality: companies are starting to rebuild their workforces and consumer spending may finally turn up to a higher… Read More

The price of oil is around $110 a barrel. This with nearly 9% unemployment, anemic consumer spending and less-than-robust growth in the United States and European Union. Even China and India’s economic juggernauts are beginning to decelerate. It’s time to think about the inevitable future. And I think things are going to get better. We’re in the early stages — leaders are starting to put forth serious, detailed plans to significantly reduce federal outlays, including a complete overhaul of Medicare and Social Security. I think… Read More

The price of oil is around $110 a barrel. This with nearly 9% unemployment, anemic consumer spending and less-than-robust growth in the United States and European Union. Even China and India’s economic juggernauts are beginning to decelerate. It’s time to think about the inevitable future. And I think things are going to get better. We’re in the early stages — leaders are starting to put forth serious, detailed plans to significantly reduce federal outlays, including a complete overhaul of Medicare and Social Security. I think we’ll see a balanced budget before the end of the decade, as well as an honest-to-goodness budget surplus. I predict that Washington’s spending, currently around 25% of GDP, will fall dramatically in the coming years as these events unfold. When that occurs — notice I’m not hedging my bets here with conditional language like “if” — two things will result: 1. Businesses will be created as the nation’s entrepreneurs begin to feel more optimistic about the long-term future and more comfortable taking risks. We’ll see this in… Read More

Score one for the bulls. When I recommended shares of Couer D’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE) back in late January, there was a raging debate about whether silver prices would rally to new highs or finally come back to earth. I thought the bulls had a stronger case,… Read More

It’s fun to be right about a stock and I picked a real winner. Since I wrote about it on Nov. 11, 2010, this stock’s value has soared more than 35%, from around $39 a share to $53, compared with barely a 10% gain for the S&P 500. Read More

How does a $500 million company become a $1 billion company? The same way a $10 billion company turns into a $20 billion company: One dollar at a time. Investors have a lot of ways to count those dollars, or, more specifically, they have… Read More

When seeking out new investment ideas, I like to run stock screens to find companies that are inexpensive and relatively “safe.” Of course, one of the safest kinds of companies is one that is profitable, yet also has lots of cash on the books. In fact, some companies are so cash-rich that even after accounting for any borrowings, their cash can equate to 20%, 30% or even 40% of the entire company’s market value.  If you think about it, that also means these companies are fairly loathed by investors. Read More

When seeking out new investment ideas, I like to run stock screens to find companies that are inexpensive and relatively “safe.” Of course, one of the safest kinds of companies is one that is profitable, yet also has lots of cash on the books. In fact, some companies are so cash-rich that even after accounting for any borrowings, their cash can equate to 20%, 30% or even 40% of the entire company’s market value.  If you think about it, that also means these companies are fairly loathed by investors. It’s not just that they have so much cash, it also means their market value has slumped so low that the company isn’t really worth much more than that cash. All of the companies on the list above have real problems. Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), for example, has seen its shares fall back to levels seen in 1998, as sales growth has slowed. And all of that cash can’t always buy happiness. Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) has made a half-dozen key acquisitions in the past two years, yet analysts still think sales will only grow 4% to… Read More

Gold is one of the most malleable and least reactive elements known to man. It’s used for both practical and symbolic purposes. Historically, gold has been one of the most common forms of monetary exchange throughout human history. Its secondary place to paper currency did not come about until the 20th century. And after continuously rising to new highs even after a multi-year bull market, one other thing can be said about gold: It can also make traders a lot of money… With gold rallying to… Read More

Gold is one of the most malleable and least reactive elements known to man. It’s used for both practical and symbolic purposes. Historically, gold has been one of the most common forms of monetary exchange throughout human history. Its secondary place to paper currency did not come about until the 20th century. And after continuously rising to new highs even after a multi-year bull market, one other thing can be said about gold: It can also make traders a lot of money… With gold rallying to record highs almost daily, it’s seen increasingly as a way to protect oneself against worldwide currency inflation. Inflationary worries were prominent news this trading week. China’s central bank raised its interest rates — for the fourth time since mid-October — to head-off price increases running at nearly 5% a year. The European Central Bank also raised rates for the first time in nearly two years, in order to curtail rising food and energy costs. In the United States, rising interest rates may… Read More

“Beat and Raise.” The pattern of beating estimates and raising forward guidance has been the key theme in each earnings season of the past two years. This time will be different. The “beat” part will likely hold as companies and the analysts that follow them continue to play the game of low expectations that then get exceeded. The “raise” part? That just got much trickier. Companies raise guidance when they have a lot of certainty about what the coming months will bring. Right now, few can say with certainty about how… Read More

“Beat and Raise.” The pattern of beating estimates and raising forward guidance has been the key theme in each earnings season of the past two years. This time will be different. The “beat” part will likely hold as companies and the analysts that follow them continue to play the game of low expectations that then get exceeded. The “raise” part? That just got much trickier. Companies raise guidance when they have a lot of certainty about what the coming months will bring. Right now, few can say with certainty about how the wide range of domestic and global events will play out. Here’s a checklist of the issues these companies face. Later on, I’ll look at the potential impact on specific sectors.   Oil prices bring caution. Expect a number of companies, especially those that are focused on consumers or have high transportation costs, to express real concern about surging oil. Stressed consumers are in no mood to help shoulder the burden. For example, airlines had successfully pushed through six fare hikes since the start of the year. On the seventh try, consumers appear to have balked and airlines had… Read More