October 17th was a good day for investors. The Dow, reeling from a six-day slide, rebounded with a powerful 250-point gain. But for one small group of stockholders it was an especially great day. Shares of Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) rocketed more than $16 per share, hitting $208.59 in heavy trading. #-ad_banner-#This pop was triggered by the declaration of a dividend… but not just any dividend.    The board approved a one-time special dividend payment of $7.57 per share in connection with the firm’s restructuring into a… Read More

October 17th was a good day for investors. The Dow, reeling from a six-day slide, rebounded with a powerful 250-point gain. But for one small group of stockholders it was an especially great day. Shares of Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) rocketed more than $16 per share, hitting $208.59 in heavy trading. #-ad_banner-#This pop was triggered by the declaration of a dividend… but not just any dividend.    The board approved a one-time special dividend payment of $7.57 per share in connection with the firm’s restructuring into a real estate investment trust (REIT). This isn’t the only cash windfall that EQIX shareholders will be receiving. The company, which owns large data centers, is planning another special dividend in 2015 that will be even larger. It’s no wonder why the shares continue to attract attention, up almost 10% since the original announcement. This is the type of situation that investors love to be involved with. In fact, subscribers of my premium advisory service High-Yield Investing were able to cash in from the same exact scenario recently with a stock I… Read More

Talk about a lousy way to start the day. #-ad_banner-#Each morning, even when he’s on vacation, the President of the United States sits with top intelligence officials, usually in the Oval Office, to review the President’s Daily Brief. This is a classified document that lists potential threats against the United States. It contains the latest in intercepted communications, satellite imagery, human intelligence and analysis from the nation’s top security agencies. If you wonder what’s been turning Obama’s hair gray — or what did it to Bush and Clinton — it’s this… Read More

Talk about a lousy way to start the day. #-ad_banner-#Each morning, even when he’s on vacation, the President of the United States sits with top intelligence officials, usually in the Oval Office, to review the President’s Daily Brief. This is a classified document that lists potential threats against the United States. It contains the latest in intercepted communications, satellite imagery, human intelligence and analysis from the nation’s top security agencies. If you wonder what’s been turning Obama’s hair gray — or what did it to Bush and Clinton — it’s this nettlesome little report. Being the leader of the free world has its perks, but this isn’t one of them. Most of the threats against national security detailed in this report are handled by the government. However, in order to address the country’s top threat, which I will talk more about in a minute, the government will need to rely on a burgeoning industry that investors can capitalize on today. The president receives this information as Washington begins its day. Over on C Street, just west of John Marshall Park, the staffers at… Read More

Investors have been warming up to bank stocks in a big way.  The KBW Bank Index jumped 50% over the past two years, and a brightening economy suggests further good times ahead for the industry.                                                        Yet looks are deceiving. A series of regulatory changes actually portend tougher days ahead.   Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), which has been repeatedly cited by Warren Buffett as America’s best-run bank, should buck the head-winds. Frankly, it’s the only bank stock you should have in your portfolio right now.   Still Tweaking The Regulations Dodd-Frank regulation is… Read More

Investors have been warming up to bank stocks in a big way.  The KBW Bank Index jumped 50% over the past two years, and a brightening economy suggests further good times ahead for the industry.                                                        Yet looks are deceiving. A series of regulatory changes actually portend tougher days ahead.   Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), which has been repeatedly cited by Warren Buffett as America’s best-run bank, should buck the head-winds. Frankly, it’s the only bank stock you should have in your portfolio right now.   Still Tweaking The Regulations Dodd-Frank regulation is the most comprehensive reform of the banking industry since the Great Depression. It’s so detailed that only 220 of the 398 required rules have been finalized.   The move away from institutional credit ratings for risk-based capital will mean larger due diligence departments for  banks of all sizes. One local bank surveyed by the Washington Post reported a seven-fold increase in its compliance team. Mergers between smaller banks are increasing to better handle the regulatory burden. And in the quarters ahead, the  regulatory burden will only grow greater.   On top of existing regulations put in place… Read More

       Haste makes waste. That’s the possible view on the corner offices at software giant Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), which seems to have taken its sweet time in embracing cloud computing.   Now, management appears to have a clear vision of how it wants the firm to be positioned in the “cloud.” Cloud software is loosely defined as the migration of data storage and analytics to the public internet and away from private, local servers.   To be sure, the $38.5 billion (in revenue) behemoth is well behind cloud leaders like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:… Read More

       Haste makes waste. That’s the possible view on the corner offices at software giant Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), which seems to have taken its sweet time in embracing cloud computing.   Now, management appears to have a clear vision of how it wants the firm to be positioned in the “cloud.” Cloud software is loosely defined as the migration of data storage and analytics to the public internet and away from private, local servers.   To be sure, the $38.5 billion (in revenue) behemoth is well behind cloud leaders like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT); however, its vast resources and huge customer base make it a good bet to become a top player in what’s still an emerging industry.   What’s more, Oracle doesn’t have to make the transition overnight.   #-ad_banner-#What investors sometimes forget is the broader movement to the cloud is still relatively new and will be a multi-year process. So Oracle’s traditional business remains an enormous asset. In fact, the firm still has 310,000 database customers and about nine in 10 of these renew each year.   As a result, things like software… Read More

There is a classic conundrum facing dividend-focused investors: Income or capital appreciation?   The iShares Select Dividend ETF (NYSE: DVY) is a classic example. It delivers a 3% yield and relatively low volatility, but has underperformed the iShares S&P 500 Growth Fund (NYSE: IVW) by roughly 40 percentage points  over the past ten years on  a total return basis.      A decent yield is always nice, but a 40% gap is too large to ignore.   There is one way to get the best of both worlds. The secret is what type of income stocks you… Read More

There is a classic conundrum facing dividend-focused investors: Income or capital appreciation?   The iShares Select Dividend ETF (NYSE: DVY) is a classic example. It delivers a 3% yield and relatively low volatility, but has underperformed the iShares S&P 500 Growth Fund (NYSE: IVW) by roughly 40 percentage points  over the past ten years on  a total return basis.      A decent yield is always nice, but a 40% gap is too large to ignore.   There is one way to get the best of both worlds. The secret is what type of income stocks you focus on.   Many  dividend-paying companies operate in mature industries with slower sales growth and competitive environments. Such dynamics often generate solid cash flow, but high payout ratios and saturated markets mean little in the way of stock price appreciation.   Find one of these cash machines with new growth engines and you’ve got yourself a stock that could be the best of both worlds.   A Cash Machine With Nowhere To Go For years, the U.S. telecom sector has been the model of slow-growth dividend stocks. Despite fairly reliable cash yields, the iShares U.S. Telecommunications ETF (NYSE: IYZ), for… Read More

Europeans have a clear case of high-tech envy. American companies like Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), The Priceline Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN) and Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) are building major market share across Europe, while homegrown tech stars are few and far between. Paris-based Criteo (Nasdaq: CRTO) would like to change that perception. Not only is the company in the midst of robust growth, but it is outperforming many of its U.S.-based rivals. And its shares, which have fallen by more than one-third from the 52-week high, sport an impressive GARP (growth at… Read More

Europeans have a clear case of high-tech envy. American companies like Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), The Priceline Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN) and Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) are building major market share across Europe, while homegrown tech stars are few and far between. Paris-based Criteo (Nasdaq: CRTO) would like to change that perception. Not only is the company in the midst of robust growth, but it is outperforming many of its U.S.-based rivals. And its shares, which have fallen by more than one-third from the 52-week high, sport an impressive GARP (growth at a reasonable price) value proposition. #-ad_banner-#At first blush, Criteo may seem to be just another internet advertising company. Companies like Rocket Fuel, Inc. (Nasdaq: FUEL), The Rubicon Project, Inc. (Nasdaq: RUBI) and even almighty Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) are adept at matching web surfers with relevant, targeted ads. But Criteo goes one step further, offering the kind of cloud-based “Big Data” analytics that has helped firms like Splunk, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLK) and Tableau Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: DATA) garner lush market values in excess of $5 billion. As analysts at Goldman Sachs note, in prose that only a financial professional could… Read More

Despite the incredible, often life-saving benefits of medical devices such as pacemakers, stents, catheters, implants, etc., the companies who manufacture them have a big tax bull’s-eye on their backs courtesy of Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has a provision in it called the medical device tax, which is a 2.3% excise tax on a wide variety of medical devices, including most of the products sold by one of the biggest, and in my view, best, companies in the space: Medtronic (NYSE: MDT). Fortunately for Medtronic, and partially because of the industry’s aggressive lobbying, the medical device tax… Read More

Despite the incredible, often life-saving benefits of medical devices such as pacemakers, stents, catheters, implants, etc., the companies who manufacture them have a big tax bull’s-eye on their backs courtesy of Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has a provision in it called the medical device tax, which is a 2.3% excise tax on a wide variety of medical devices, including most of the products sold by one of the biggest, and in my view, best, companies in the space: Medtronic (NYSE: MDT). Fortunately for Medtronic, and partially because of the industry’s aggressive lobbying, the medical device tax could soon be erased from Obamacare. That’s because, in a rare display of bipartisanship in Congress, lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle want to repeal the tax. #-ad_banner-# In fact, a recent Washington Post article called the repeal “one of Washington’s top priorities” and actually mentioned Medtronic by name, as the Minnesota-based company has its two Democrat senators, Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, on record supporting it. The repeal is almost certainly going to become an even… 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… 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