Everyone likes to get something for nothing. Whether it’s a hot breakfast with your hotel room, a car wash with an oil change or an order of fries with a hamburger, it’s always satisfying to feel like you’re on the receiving… Read More

If every year brings a fresh theme for investors, then 2011 will surely go down as the year cash-rich companies spent a lot more money buying back their own stock. In past periods of slow economic growth, companies deployed their cash to make deals in order to… Read More

“Insurance is sold, not bought.” This old saying may be true from the consumer side. From the shrewd investor’s point of view, however, it’s an entirely different story. Legendary value investor Shelby Cullom Davis, for instance turned $50,000 into a fortune of $800 million dollars by buying… Read More

It’s no secret that small-cap and micro-cap stocks really take it on the chin when investors grow skittish. A 5% or 10% drop in the broader market can lead to even deeper hits for these riskier stocks. The converse is also true: When… Read More

When the going gets tough, the tough… break out their checkbooks? After seeing stocks crater this summer, this is precisely what Warren Buffett did through his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B). Buffett and his team invested $7 billion in the third quarter. To put that in perspective,… Read More

Has Warren Buffett drawn up a new playbook? The legendary mega-investor who has created vast wealth for shareholders through his investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B), has announced that he’s been secretly buying shares of one of the world’s largest tech… Read More

Even the world’s top investors need to move slowly when deciding to make major new investments. So when shares of health care information provider WebMD (Nasdaq: WEBMD) started falling in the spring, two billionaire investors, Carl Icahn and George Soros, likely tasked their team… Read More

Follow the smart money. That’s a classic adage in the investment lexicon, but it’s really not hard to follow the steps of all-time investment experts such as Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn and George Soros. Thanks to the 13F filing from the… Read More

Focusing on “turnaround” stocks was a favorite angle for investors in the 1990s. Many companies had been run poorly, but new management could easily unlock value by focusing on a deep restructuring. The key was to find businesses that still possessed sizable… Read More

The stock market is increasingly looking like a boxing match. In one corner, you have a global bruiser named Greece looking to send stocks down to new lows. In the other corner, you have earnings season, which has been generally — and surprisingly — positive. In fact, quarterly results have been so encouraging, two-thirds of the 350 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results thus far have topped estimates, translating into an average 6% upside surprise. The… Read More

The stock market is increasingly looking like a boxing match. In one corner, you have a global bruiser named Greece looking to send stocks down to new lows. In the other corner, you have earnings season, which has been generally — and surprisingly — positive. In fact, quarterly results have been so encouraging, two-thirds of the 350 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results thus far have topped estimates, translating into an average 6% upside surprise. The earnings theme helped propel the market higher in October, but events in Europe have put a new scare in the market in early November. At this point, however, it’s best to tune out the noise and focus on the company-specific positives. This strategy paid off handsomely for those willing to brave the challenges of August and September, and it will likely pay off again for the patient investor. The charm of earnings season is that it always presents new investment opportunities. So to in order to identify where investors should be focusing now, I’ve dug up… Read More