Bearish Onslaught Continues
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
This column is a weekly series that describes, at a very high level, how we manage our long-term portfolio. We use John Murphy’s inter-market ideas, looking at the performance of equities, bonds, commodities and foreign exchange markets. We attempt to measure appetite for risk, and from that draw conclusions on whether to go long or short these asset classes.
We attempt usually to avoid media driven sentiment, preferring instead to listen to the market, and try and “Do more of what is working, and less of what is not”.
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LSI Corp. Raises Guidance on Better Enterprise Demand
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Value Expectations submits:
LSI Corp. (NYSE:LSI) raised its Q1 adjusted EPS and revenue guidance last Wednesday, sending its shares up nearly 9% by the close. This newer guidance reflects better-than-expected strength in enterprise IT spending during LSI’s first quarter, which ends April 4th. CEO Abhi Talwalkar said,
as the majority of our revenues are tied to enterprise purchases of servers, data storage and networking infrastructure, we experienced strength across all product areas that exceeded our previous guidance.
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3 Deep Value Stocks With Price Momentum
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Scott’s Investments submits:
With the overall stock market’s return over the past year, deep value stocks with positive long-term price momentum have seemingly become extinct. While hundreds, if not thousands, of stocks were considered attractively valued at the March low in 2009, upward price momentum has priced out much of that value over the past year. Using Finviz.com, I searched for value stocks that traded at a 52 week high as of Friday, March 19th. The criteria to identify stocks are below:
- Traded (not necessarily closing) at 52 Week High on Friday March 19th
- Price/Book < 1
- Total Debt/Equity < 1
- Positive Return on Assets
- Positive Return on Equity
- Positive Return on Investment
- Market Cap > $100 million
Three stocks met this criteria last Friday. This is not necessarily the only or best way to search for value stocks. An investor could look for "beaten down" stocks that have had poor recent price performance in order to find value, which is typically the most common method for searching for value. The point of this search is to find value stocks which have shown strong price momentum but may not yet be fully valued.
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Patni Computer Systems: A Hidden Gem
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Sreeni Meka submits:
Patni Systems (PTI) incorporated on February 10, 1978 under the Indian Companies Act, registered at Pune, India and went public in 2003. Patni is one of the leading information technology service firms with multi-national operations, predominantly in North America. Patni provides comprehensive IT services through onsite and offshore delivery locations primarily in India. The majority of its customer base is in insurance, manufacturing retail and financial service sectors.
In 2009 insurance, manufacturing retail, communications media and financial services accounted for 29.7%, 29.0% 13.5%, and 12.8% of its revenue. Patni’s revenue grew from $ 450.3 million in 2005 to $ 655.9 million in 2009, at compounded annual growth of 9.9% and net income grew from $ 60.9 million in 2005 to $ 119.8 million in 2009, representing a CAGR of 18.4%.
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Peak Oil Investments I’m Putting My Money On: Part II, Hydrogen and Vehicle Electrification
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Tom Konrad (AltEnergyStocks) submits:
In Part I of this series, I listed four potential substitutes that have been proposed to replace oil as limited supply and growth in developing markets draw oil away from traditional users. I’ve since added a fifth to my list of potential substitutes:
- Biofuels and Biochemicals
- Vehicle Electrification
- Hydrogen
- Natural Gas
- Coal and Gas to Liquids
Part I looked deeper into the potential for biofuels to displace oil, and made some recommendations as to which stock might benefit most from this trend. In this article I’ll look at vehicle electrification (including traditional hybrid electric vehicles [HEVs] such as the Prius, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles [PHEVs] and pure electric vehicles [EVs]), and hydrogen vehicles, since they have many similarities.
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PepsiCo: A Consistent Dividend Aristocrat
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Dobromir Stoyanov submits:
Most dividend investors require consistency from their stock positions. As a result companies which are able to generate rising dividend income over time are viewed more favorably in comparison to companies such as Pfizer (PFE) or General Electric (GE), which have followed an inconsistent dividend policy over the past two years.
Just last week General Electric forecasted that there is a high chance for a dividend increase in 2011, coupled with a resumption of the company’s stock buyback plan and retirement of the company’s preferred stock. General Electric has had a pretty terrible timing of its share buyback plan over the past decade. The company spent billions between 2005 and 2007 repurchasing 513 million shares when prices were high. By 2009 the company had issued 517 million shares at much lower prices, in order to obtain liquidity in the wake of the global financial crisis. If the company does start increasing dividends in 2011 however, this could be a bullish sign. It would take at least a decade of consistent dividend raises however in order for the dividend to reach its previous levels of 31 cents/share.
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Thoughts on Jim Rogers’ Take on Greece, Euro
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Dian L. Chu submits:
After the Business News Network [BNN] interview on Mar. 18 (see previous post), famed currency and commodities investor Jim Rogers made an appearance at Bloomberg the following day (see clip below).
While he still maintains the call of another even deeper recession in the next few years, and $2,000 gold in ten years, he did say expect a gold bubble by the end of the bull market. In addition, Rogers also talks about the euro and prospect of Greek Bailout.
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Top 25 Dividend Stocks to Watch
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Dividend Inc. submits:
At the end of the week, our watch list contains 25 companies. Here is the watch list which ranks Dividend Achievers that are within 20% of the 52-week low for March 19, 2010.
| Symbol | Name | Price | % Yr Low | P/E | EPS | Div/Shr | Yield | Payout Ratio |
| XOM | Exxon Mobil Corp | 67.04 | 5.48% | 16.84 | 3.98 | 1.68 | 2.51% | 42% |
| FPL | FPL Group, Inc. | 48.16 | 6.34% | 12.13 | 3.97 | 2.00 | 4.15% | 50% |
| MON | Monsanto Company | 72.20 | 8.46% | 25.97 | 2.78 | 1.06 | 1.47% | 38% |
| BRO | Brown & Brown, Inc. | 17.98 | 10.17% | 16.13 | 1.12 | 0.31 | 1.72% | 28% |
| CWT | California Water Service | 37.07 | 10.69% | 19.01 | 1.95 | 1.19 | 3.21% | 61% |
| TMP | Tompkins Financial Corp. | 38.37 | 10.75% | 14.26 | 2.69 | 1.36 | 3.54% | 51% |
| AWR | American States Water | 34.17 | 10.87% | 21.09 | 1.62 | 1.04 | 3.04% | 64% |
| T | AT&T Inc. | 26.24 | 13.15% | 12.38 | 2.12 | 1.68 | 6.40% | 79% |
| UMBF | UMB Financial Corp. | 41.18 | 13.32% | 18.72 | 2.20 | 0.74 | 1.80% | 34% |
| WEYS | Weyco Group, Inc. | 23.62 | 13.45% | 21.28 | 1.11 | 0.60 | 2.54% | 54% |
| LKFN | Lakeland Financial Corp. | 18.62 | 13.88% | 14.78 | 1.26 | 0.62 | 3.33% | 49% |
| WTR | Aqua America, Inc. | 17.53 | 13.91% | 22.86 | 0.77 | 0.58 | 3.31% | 76% |
| LLY | Eli Lilly and Company | 36.17 | 17.02% | 9.18 | 3.94 | 1.96 | 5.42% | 50% |
| OTTR | Otter Tail Corp. | 21.92 | 17.66% | 30.87 | 0.71 | 1.19 | 5.43% | 168% |
| SFNC | Simmons First National Corp. | 27.04 | 17.82% | 15.54 | 1.74 | 0.76 | 2.81% | 44% |
| SYBT | S.Y. Bancorp, Inc. | 23.34 | 17.88% | 16.79 | 1.39 | 0.68 | 2.91% | 49% |
| THFF | First Financial Corp. | 29.87 | 17.92% | 17.27 | 1.73 | 0.90 | 3.01% | 52% |
| NWN | Northwest Natural Gas | 46.79 | 18.22% | 16.19 | 2.89 | 1.66 | 3.55% | 57% |
| MLM | Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. | 87.41 | 18.49% | 45.76 | 1.91 | 1.60 | 1.83% | 84% |
| NTRS | Northern Trust Corp. | 55.45 | 18.69% | 17.55 | 3.16 | 1.12 | 2.02% | 35% |
| PGN | Progress Energy Inc. | 39.84 | 18.93% | 14.49 | 2.75 | 2.48 | 6.22% | 90% |
| UGI | UGI Corp. | 26.52 | 19.95% | 12.01 | 2.21 | 0.80 | 3.02% | 36% |
| PBI | Pitney Bowes Inc. | 24.52 | 20.31% | 12.01 | 2.04 | 1.46 | 5.95% | 71% |
| MGEE | MGE Energy Inc. | 35.40 | 20.33% | 16.02 | 2.21 | 1.47 | 4.15% | 67% |
| WGL | WGL Holdings Inc. | 34.44 | 20.46% | 15.31 | 2.25 | 1.51 | 4.38% | 67% |
Watch List Summary
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Managed Care Space May Bear Brunt and Benefits of Reform. Here’s a Stock Worth Watching
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
Christopher Pavese submits:
The simple question, "Who is going to do it?," posed by legendary value investor Bruce Berkowitz, puts the consensus concerns surrounding the managed care industry into perspective. The bottom line is that the health insurers are the only shot we have at managing this mess. As much as he might like to, Obama does not have another entity to do it. And our growing government does not have the expertise or efficiency to manage the process.
The bear case for these stocks is well known and well discounted even at today’s levels. Let’s take Humana (HUM), for example – 60% of the analysts that cover the company rate it “hold” or worse. To help put this number in perspective, a whopping 1% of the S&P 500 is rated “sell” today. So suffice it to say that the “bad stuff” is in the price. And when the bar is set low enough, it is not difficult to surprise on the upside. Perhaps this is why earnings estimates for the company have been marching steadily higher in recent months. So let’s consider some of the potential “good stuff” that might shift sentiment in the period ahead:
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33 High-Yielding, Secure Dividend European Stocks – Morgan Stanley
March 22, 2010 by Seeking Alpha
Filed under Investment Ideas
Original Article from Seeking Alpha Long Investment
David Hunkar submits:
Some investors are avoiding Europe due to the Greek crisis. There are many European companies that are truly multinational firms with a strong presence in emerging markets. Hence despite the current crisis, one can be highly selective and pick quality stocks, European stocks that offer not only stable growth but also high dividends.
Saturday’s Wall Street Journal article Is It Safe to Buy Europe? discusses investment options in Europe. From the article:
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