Wall Street analysts take a lot of heat, which may be a bit unfair considering they have one of the toughest jobs imaginable — predicting the future. And though analysts often misread the future tea leaves, they also get it right plenty of the time. One stock that is favored by analysts indeed appears to have an alright (if controversial) future. I’m talking about Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA), which is rated as “Buy” or “Strong Buy” by 24 out of the 27 analysts that cover the company. Comcast is the nation’s largest cable TV provider, and it will grow yet… Read More

Wall Street analysts take a lot of heat, which may be a bit unfair considering they have one of the toughest jobs imaginable — predicting the future. And though analysts often misread the future tea leaves, they also get it right plenty of the time. One stock that is favored by analysts indeed appears to have an alright (if controversial) future. I’m talking about Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA), which is rated as “Buy” or “Strong Buy” by 24 out of the 27 analysts that cover the company. Comcast is the nation’s largest cable TV provider, and it will grow yet larger if its merger with Time Warner Cable, Inc. (NYSE: TWC) is approved. Prior to that deal’s consummation, Comcast has already been a solid growth story. Profits grew at a 20% clip over the past five years, and analysts expect double-digit growth this year as well. Comcast is boosting profits the old-fashion way: Through superior operating metrics. The firm is well ahead of the industry averages in almost every key measure of growth and profitability, as the table below shows. Comcast Growth and Profitability Metrics   Revenue Growth (3-yr. avg.) Net Income Growth (3-yr. avg.) Operating Margin (past 12 months)… Read More

Warren Buffett has made a career out of honing in on the world’s best investments. Through his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A), he’s invested nearly half of his portfolio in four of the world’s greatest businesses — Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, American Express and IBM. But have you ever wondered how Buffett decides which company is truly one of the market’s best investments? #-ad_banner-#The answer is simple — he looks at companies with what he calls “economic moats.” Since 1986 Warren Buffett has mentioned moats more than 20 times in his annual shareholder letters. He calls them “essential for sustained… Read More

Warren Buffett has made a career out of honing in on the world’s best investments. Through his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A), he’s invested nearly half of his portfolio in four of the world’s greatest businesses — Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, American Express and IBM. But have you ever wondered how Buffett decides which company is truly one of the market’s best investments? #-ad_banner-#The answer is simple — he looks at companies with what he calls “economic moats.” Since 1986 Warren Buffett has mentioned moats more than 20 times in his annual shareholder letters. He calls them “essential for sustained success.” As Buffett put it in his 2007 shareholder letter… “A truly great business must have an enduring ‘moat’ that protects excellent returns on invested capital. The dynamics of capitalism guarantee that competitors will repeatedly assault any business ‘castle’ that is earning high returns. Therefore a formidable barrier … is essential for sustained success.” As you would expect, Buffett’s moat strategy has paid off. Combined, Berkshire Hathaway’s four large-moat companies have returned 139% over the past decade — well ahead of the market’s 118%. Now, I know many of you — perhaps most of you — have probably already heard… Read More

  As New Year’s rolls around each year, 45% of Americans typically make resolutions to better their life, according to StatisticBrain.com. Of that group of people, only 8% are successful in their resolve.   #-ad_banner-#I gave up resolutions a few years ago for just that reason. I am a type-A personality and regularly make goals anyway, so I didn’t see the need for the perennial tradition.   These days, I am focused on the resolutions made by others. Simply understanding how others are expected to act in the New Year can be a basis for a winning investment. Read More

  As New Year’s rolls around each year, 45% of Americans typically make resolutions to better their life, according to StatisticBrain.com. Of that group of people, only 8% are successful in their resolve.   #-ad_banner-#I gave up resolutions a few years ago for just that reason. I am a type-A personality and regularly make goals anyway, so I didn’t see the need for the perennial tradition.   These days, I am focused on the resolutions made by others. Simply understanding how others are expected to act in the New Year can be a basis for a winning investment.   Fitness And Finances We’ve all been there. The holidays are over and you’ve accomplished two things, increasing your pants size and decreasing the size of your savings account. That’s why fitness tops the list with the first and fifth most common resolutions (improving financial health is  the third most common resolution).   In January, Americans will flood the fitness clubs and will resolve to save more of their money. This could mean strong sales for exercise facilities, active wear apparel and financial services firms with a share in the retail market.   Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: LTM) operates… Read More

When it comes to finding stocks that are more likely to go up than down, nobody has a crystal ball. What we do have, however, is evidence that we can weigh, compare and, if necessary, massage — but only a little. I liken chart analysis to a judging a civil trial in the courts. We look for a preponderance of evidence to make our judgment to buy, sell or hold, and right now I see a good case to buy Tesaro (NASDAQ: TSRO).  Tesaro is an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, and that is its first bit of evidence. Biotech… Read More

When it comes to finding stocks that are more likely to go up than down, nobody has a crystal ball. What we do have, however, is evidence that we can weigh, compare and, if necessary, massage — but only a little. I liken chart analysis to a judging a civil trial in the courts. We look for a preponderance of evidence to make our judgment to buy, sell or hold, and right now I see a good case to buy Tesaro (NASDAQ: TSRO).  Tesaro is an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, and that is its first bit of evidence. Biotech as a sector is beating the market and in fairly good shape. A strong sector is a big part of a stock’s strength, so this goes in the plus column.  The next is the big picture. Since peaking in June of last year, roughly a year after it began trading as a public company, the stock eased lower for many months. Weekly charts show a clear declining trendline from that time and a somewhat less clear parallel channel guiding it lower.  This is not a positive on its own, but it does leave us with a good trigger for the… Read More

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has been in the news a lot lately thanks to the insulting utterances of its “architect,” MIT economist Jonathan Gruber.  Yet the controversy over Gruber’s comments surrounding the “stupidity of the American voter” aside, the fact is that just about everybody needs health care and health care insurance, in one form or another. It’s this understanding that has likely led investors to buy into this defensive sector.  This year, health care has been one of the market’s best-performing sectors, up nearly 25% in 2014, compared with 12% for the S&P 500. And… Read More

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has been in the news a lot lately thanks to the insulting utterances of its “architect,” MIT economist Jonathan Gruber.  Yet the controversy over Gruber’s comments surrounding the “stupidity of the American voter” aside, the fact is that just about everybody needs health care and health care insurance, in one form or another. It’s this understanding that has likely led investors to buy into this defensive sector.  This year, health care has been one of the market’s best-performing sectors, up nearly 25% in 2014, compared with 12% for the S&P 500. And one of the best-performing stocks in the health care sector is health insurance provider Centene Corp. (NYSE: CNC). #-ad_banner-#Centene provides programs and services related to the so-called “underinsured” via Medicaid and Medicaid-related health coverage. Government subsidies associated with the Affordable Care Act have helped this segment of CNC’s business blossom.  In late October, Centene reported better-than-expected Q3 revenue and profit that was primarily fueled by growth in Medicaid members. The company said its total membership count rose 42% year over year in the quarter to 3.7 million as of Sept. 30. Nearly 70% of that was Medicaid members. Read More

As an American living in Colombia, I have seen firsthand how watching the U.S.-based news feed can skew investor perspectives and limit opportunities. Sometimes looking beyond the popular press to the real facts behind the story can lead to some great investments. For example: Ask about investing in Colombia and most investors would wonder if you’ve gone mad with visions of drug lords and rebel groups coming to mind. Why? Because these dramatic problems are all that plays on the 24-hour news feed. I know I have earned consistent double-digit returns on my investments in Colombia. But to overcome my… Read More

As an American living in Colombia, I have seen firsthand how watching the U.S.-based news feed can skew investor perspectives and limit opportunities. Sometimes looking beyond the popular press to the real facts behind the story can lead to some great investments. For example: Ask about investing in Colombia and most investors would wonder if you’ve gone mad with visions of drug lords and rebel groups coming to mind. Why? Because these dramatic problems are all that plays on the 24-hour news feed. I know I have earned consistent double-digit returns on my investments in Colombia. But to overcome my limited and media-driven understanding of the opportunities, I had to dig deeper and look at the facts. And that is exactly the case with another investment opportunity I have been watching. If you are following the U.S.-based news feed, all you see about this country recently is its interference in a neighbor’s conflict and the power-hungry ambitions of its president.  Look beyond the superficial sound bites and you see record low stock valuations and annualized investment returns of 45% and higher. #-ad_banner-#How Do You Say ‘Record Low’ in Russian? Prices for stocks on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) have… Read More

Investing in semiconductor stocks is always tricky. Industry cycles can lead to bumps in the road for the bigger players and massive potholes for the smaller ones. And one niche chip stock looks especially vulnerable to potholes right now. At first blush, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) is the picture of health. The company appears to have solid momentum as its parlays its strength as a niche chipmaker into higher profits. #-ad_banner-#Cypress’ Programmable Systems Division, for example, is a world leader in high-performance programmable systems-on-a-chip (PSoC), which have applications in consumer electronics, communications, automotive, medicine, industrial and other sectors. As… Read More

Investing in semiconductor stocks is always tricky. Industry cycles can lead to bumps in the road for the bigger players and massive potholes for the smaller ones. And one niche chip stock looks especially vulnerable to potholes right now. At first blush, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) is the picture of health. The company appears to have solid momentum as its parlays its strength as a niche chipmaker into higher profits. #-ad_banner-#Cypress’ Programmable Systems Division, for example, is a world leader in high-performance programmable systems-on-a-chip (PSoC), which have applications in consumer electronics, communications, automotive, medicine, industrial and other sectors. As its name suggests, PSoC incorporates computing, communicating and dozens of other functions all on one chip. That’s a big advantage for electronics manufacturers because it reduces design time, power consumption, space usage and, ultimately, production costs. It also enables these customers to make smaller, more sophisticated devices with more operating features and longer battery life. Cypress’ Programmable Systems division also makes touchscreens and other crucial PSoC interfaces. The other main segment, Memory Products, is a top producer of several forms of random access memory for use in consumer electronics, telecom equipment, wireless infrastructure and military avionics, among other areas. There’s… Read More

I recently finished a brand new report called “The 10 Stocks To Own For The Rest Of Your Life.” The title is pretty self-explanatory — I compiled a group of stocks so strong and dependable that I think you could buy them now and profit from them forever. #-ad_banner-#Unsurprisingly, they have a remarkable track record. These 10 stocks gained an average of 829% over the past decade, beating the S&P 500 by 700 percentage points. That’s equivalent to an average return of 25% a year. To find these “Forever Stocks,” I searched for companies with three key traits that many… Read More

I recently finished a brand new report called “The 10 Stocks To Own For The Rest Of Your Life.” The title is pretty self-explanatory — I compiled a group of stocks so strong and dependable that I think you could buy them now and profit from them forever. #-ad_banner-#Unsurprisingly, they have a remarkable track record. These 10 stocks gained an average of 829% over the past decade, beating the S&P 500 by 700 percentage points. That’s equivalent to an average return of 25% a year. To find these “Forever Stocks,” I searched for companies with three key traits that many of the market’s strongest performers share. I started by honing in on companies that possess what I like to call “Irreplaceable Assets.” If you’ve ever been to Boulder Canyon in Nevada, you may have seen firsthand how Irreplaceable Assets can create wealth for the long haul. The harsh canyon in the heart of the desert holds one of the greatest investments in U.S. history: the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam is a profit machine. Finished in 1936 at a cost of $49 million, the dam today generates and sells about $63 million in electricity every year — nearly 130% of… Read More

Michael Corbat has circled Jan. 5, 2015, on his calendar. That’s when his administrative staff at Citigroup (NYSE: C) will turn in reams of paperwork for the Federal Reserve’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR). And when regulators get back to Corbat in subsequent weeks, he may finally be able to breathe a big sigh of relief.  Citigroup has tried — and failed — to get the green light before, which has prevented the bank from pursuing a massive stock buyback and dividend hike. Not only would a clean bill of health in the CCAR pave the way for a… Read More

Michael Corbat has circled Jan. 5, 2015, on his calendar. That’s when his administrative staff at Citigroup (NYSE: C) will turn in reams of paperwork for the Federal Reserve’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR). And when regulators get back to Corbat in subsequent weeks, he may finally be able to breathe a big sigh of relief.  Citigroup has tried — and failed — to get the green light before, which has prevented the bank from pursuing a massive stock buyback and dividend hike. Not only would a clean bill of health in the CCAR pave the way for a string of such shareholder perks, but the stock should make a rapid beeline up to book value, implying 25%-30% upside from current levels.  Further, the longer-term potential upside is significantly higher thanks to strong positioning vis-a-vis interest rates and the U.S. housing market. #-ad_banner-#The previous rejection of the bank’s dividend and stock buyback plans was a serious black eye, as it suggested Citi had failed to clean up its act more than five years after the financial crisis began.  Regulators expressed concern that Citigroup’s business model was too unwieldy and not yet capable of weathering another deep financial crisis. They… Read More

Baron Rothschild’s advice to, “Buy when there’s blood in the streets,” is not thought to be a literal recommendation. The idea is that overwhelming fear drives rational investors to irrationally sell good stocks, which can be picked up for huge discounts while emotions dominate sentiment. Sometimes, unfortunately, battles over territory lead to actual bloodshed, as we’ve been witnessing in Eastern Europe. #-ad_banner-#The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has continued for longer than almost anyone predicted and still shows no sign of easing. Investors have responded by dumping Russian stocks. The Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSE: RSX) has slid nearly… Read More

Baron Rothschild’s advice to, “Buy when there’s blood in the streets,” is not thought to be a literal recommendation. The idea is that overwhelming fear drives rational investors to irrationally sell good stocks, which can be picked up for huge discounts while emotions dominate sentiment. Sometimes, unfortunately, battles over territory lead to actual bloodshed, as we’ve been witnessing in Eastern Europe. #-ad_banner-#The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has continued for longer than almost anyone predicted and still shows no sign of easing. Investors have responded by dumping Russian stocks. The Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSE: RSX) has slid nearly 30% this year, matching the steady slide of the Russian ruble.  Concerns of an expanded conflict, coupled with a rapidly-slowing Russian economy, means that the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) now trades for less than five times trailing earnings. The index is trading at its steepest discount to emerging market equities since at least 2005. Rational investors may want to heed Baron Rothschild’s advice and look beyond short-term fears. Indeed behind the grim news are some real positives: Russia recently signed two huge trade deals with China that go a long way to blunt economic sanctions from the West. China… Read More