Throughout the 1990s shares of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) exploded higher year after year. Investors realized that these firms had so powerfully revolutionized their respective industries, that they could maintain solid growth far into the future. #-ad_banner-#Their faith was well placed. Wal-Mart, for example, which had racked up an impressive $156 billion in sales by fiscal (January) 2001, would boost sales above $300 billion by fiscal 2006 and $400 billion by fiscal 2010. For its part, Microsoft saw its sales grow from $23 billion in fiscal (June) 2000 to $60 billion by fiscal 2008. Trouble is, investors… Read More

Throughout the 1990s shares of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) exploded higher year after year. Investors realized that these firms had so powerfully revolutionized their respective industries, that they could maintain solid growth far into the future. #-ad_banner-#Their faith was well placed. Wal-Mart, for example, which had racked up an impressive $156 billion in sales by fiscal (January) 2001, would boost sales above $300 billion by fiscal 2006 and $400 billion by fiscal 2010. For its part, Microsoft saw its sales grow from $23 billion in fiscal (June) 2000 to $60 billion by fiscal 2008. Trouble is, investors didn’t benefit. Shares of Wal-Mart fell more than 25% from their 1999 peak over the next decade, while shares of Microsoft lost half of their value. In hindsight, it would have been wise to sell these two stocks prior to another decade of solid sales and profit growth. Simply put, their valuations had become so extended that the company’s financial performance needed a decade to catch up. That’s worth thinking about as investors continue to snap up shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), an extremely well-run company in the midst of robust growth, which is accompanied by too-rich valuations. Read More

I’d like to preface this issue by saying today’s essay might prove uncomfortable for some. At StreetAuthority, our job is to present you with the very best investing opportunities. To ignore an opportunity just because it might be morally objectionable would be doing you — as well as the rest of our subscribers — a grave injustice. With those disclaimers in mind, today I want to tell you about the current investment opportunities in the United States’ burgeoning marijuana industry. As you may know, 20 states have already made cannabis legal for medicinal purposes, while several others have recently added… Read More

I’d like to preface this issue by saying today’s essay might prove uncomfortable for some. At StreetAuthority, our job is to present you with the very best investing opportunities. To ignore an opportunity just because it might be morally objectionable would be doing you — as well as the rest of our subscribers — a grave injustice. With those disclaimers in mind, today I want to tell you about the current investment opportunities in the United States’ burgeoning marijuana industry. As you may know, 20 states have already made cannabis legal for medicinal purposes, while several others have recently added a medical marijuana provision to their statewide ballots. Voters in both Colorado and Washington state have even gone so far as to legalize the drug for recreational use. As a result, legal marijuana operations like Cannabis Science (OTC: CBIS) — a purveyor of some of the country’s finest grown hemp (or so I’ve been told) — have been popping up in “green” states all over the country. These dispensaries — or “compassion clubs,” as they’re sometimes called — have created a very interesting phenomenon… That’s because according to federal law, the possession and distribution of marijuana is still considered a… Read More

When assessing a company’s stock, many investors make it a point to check out its bonds, too. This can often provide insight into a firm’s financial health and where its stock price is headed. #-ad_banner-#Keeping an eye on credit ratings is especially smart if you’re thinking of buying stock in an out-of-favor company struggling to turn itself around. You certainly don’t want to sink hard-earned cash into a stock based on a nice-sounding turnaround story only to find out the hard way — by further decimation of the stock price — the firm was a financial wreck on the verge… Read More

When assessing a company’s stock, many investors make it a point to check out its bonds, too. This can often provide insight into a firm’s financial health and where its stock price is headed. #-ad_banner-#Keeping an eye on credit ratings is especially smart if you’re thinking of buying stock in an out-of-favor company struggling to turn itself around. You certainly don’t want to sink hard-earned cash into a stock based on a nice-sounding turnaround story only to find out the hard way — by further decimation of the stock price — the firm was a financial wreck on the verge of bankruptcy. If they don’t watch out, that’s just what could happen to shareholders in one struggling retailer. The company is the subject of much turnaround chatter. And its stock has shown the ability to post exciting returns recently, more than doubling from mid-November 2012 to mid-May 2013. After retreating over nearly a three-month period, it popped again, this time almost 60% from early August to mid-September 2013. Following another pullback, it was on the move yet again from mid-January to the end of February, rising 31% during that time. But despite these brief, intense updrafts, the stock is still… Read More

If you read StreetAuthority Daily on a regular basis, you know that we’ve been talking a lot about what we call “Legacy Assets” lately. We’ve shown you what they are, what they can do for your portfolio — and even shared a couple of our favorite Legacy Assets with you. Today, I want to tell you why they matter. #-ad_banner-#Warren Buffett, widely considered the greatest investor of all time and one of the world’s richest men, has said of his legacy: When you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the… Read More

If you read StreetAuthority Daily on a regular basis, you know that we’ve been talking a lot about what we call “Legacy Assets” lately. We’ve shown you what they are, what they can do for your portfolio — and even shared a couple of our favorite Legacy Assets with you. Today, I want to tell you why they matter. #-ad_banner-#Warren Buffett, widely considered the greatest investor of all time and one of the world’s richest men, has said of his legacy: When you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster. Buffett means what he says. And he backs up his words with action. In 2012, Buffett donated over $3 billion to charity, more than 3 times as… Read More

Successful short-term trading is a learnable skill. It takes a combination of a keen eye to identify changing fundamentals within the market or company and the ability to read price. By “reading price,” I mean the aptitude to study price changes on a spread sheet or chart in order to make an educated guess as to whether the price trend will continue or reverse.   #-ad_banner-#In addition, the ability to handle losses while not deviating from your trading plan is a key factor in short-term trading success. Using the above factors as a guide, I identified FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL)… Read More

Successful short-term trading is a learnable skill. It takes a combination of a keen eye to identify changing fundamentals within the market or company and the ability to read price. By “reading price,” I mean the aptitude to study price changes on a spread sheet or chart in order to make an educated guess as to whether the price trend will continue or reverse.   #-ad_banner-#In addition, the ability to handle losses while not deviating from your trading plan is a key factor in short-term trading success. Using the above factors as a guide, I identified FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) as a very likely candidate for substantial short-term profits. Let’s take a closer look at this innovative company. FuelCell Energy is a Danbury, Conn.-based manufacturer and distributor of stationary fuel cell power plants. In other words, the company makes large batteries and markets them to electric utilities, independent power producers, and the education, health care and hospitality industries, among a variety of other sectors. FCEL boasts a market cap of around $640 million, revenue of nearly $188 million in the past 12 months, and just under $68 million in cash.   Things appear to be improving for the company, which… Read More

One of my favorite stocks for the next Internet boom has recently come under a short-attack. Investors are betting an impressive $4 billion that the stock price will tumble, while more than 11.8 million shares of this company are borrowed and sold short. #-ad_banner-#But this isn’t one of your fly-by-night tech companies with no earnings. This $54 billion behemoth made almost $2.9 billion in earnings last year, and I think a bubble is forming that could send shares higher. It’s one of the most hated stocks on a shorted basis and I’m buying more. Bubbles Can Form On The Short-Side… Read More

One of my favorite stocks for the next Internet boom has recently come under a short-attack. Investors are betting an impressive $4 billion that the stock price will tumble, while more than 11.8 million shares of this company are borrowed and sold short. #-ad_banner-#But this isn’t one of your fly-by-night tech companies with no earnings. This $54 billion behemoth made almost $2.9 billion in earnings last year, and I think a bubble is forming that could send shares higher. It’s one of the most hated stocks on a shorted basis and I’m buying more. Bubbles Can Form On The Short-Side As Well High short interest in a company is usually reserved for small startups or financial train wrecks, companies that post little in the way of profits and trade at exaggerated price multiples. Risks are high in these stocks and investors on both the short- and long-side are looking at big moves if their theses plays out. But short attacks can hit other companies as well and sometimes the selling can build on its own momentum. Increased short selling can drive the share price down, which seemingly validates the reason to be short. Others jump on the bandwagon because… Read More

Right now, we are living in very exciting times. I’m sure many of you have parents or grandparents who witnessed some amazing events in their lifetimes. Just think, in a little over a century we’ve seen the start of mass-produced automobiles, motion pictures, television, space flight, personal computers, tablets and cell phones and much more… To be sure, those innovations and the investment returns that came along with them were incredible. The advent of the Internet alone has created more widespread wealth than the world has ever seen. And today, the pace of innovation is accelerating. In fact, I believe… Read More

Right now, we are living in very exciting times. I’m sure many of you have parents or grandparents who witnessed some amazing events in their lifetimes. Just think, in a little over a century we’ve seen the start of mass-produced automobiles, motion pictures, television, space flight, personal computers, tablets and cell phones and much more… To be sure, those innovations and the investment returns that came along with them were incredible. The advent of the Internet alone has created more widespread wealth than the world has ever seen. And today, the pace of innovation is accelerating. In fact, I believe we’re at the beginning of what could be the most fertile era of innovation in human history. Over the next 10, 20, or 50 years we’re going to see amazing developments that are sure to enrich investors beyond our wildest imaginations. #-ad_banner-#The goal of my new premium advisory, Five-Star Stocks, is to identify the companies who stand to give you the biggest investment returns from the most exciting developments ranging across all industries. Over the past several months, I’ve been focusing on one industry in particular — a sector that has been talked about for years… Read More

When struggling wireless firm BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) provided a quarterly update in late December, Merrill Lynch’s Tal Liani didn’t mince words: “Third-quarter results were abysmal, with hardware and services revenue continuing to decline at an alarming pace, and margins deep in negative territory,” he wrote. Shares, trading at $7.25 at the time, would soon fall to $6, he predicted. Liani’s views were digested by the market, and then summarily ignored. BlackBerry has gone on to post one of the best returns of any tech stock over the past two months. If you bought this stock just ahead of that quarterly… Read More

When struggling wireless firm BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) provided a quarterly update in late December, Merrill Lynch’s Tal Liani didn’t mince words: “Third-quarter results were abysmal, with hardware and services revenue continuing to decline at an alarming pace, and margins deep in negative territory,” he wrote. Shares, trading at $7.25 at the time, would soon fall to $6, he predicted. Liani’s views were digested by the market, and then summarily ignored. BlackBerry has gone on to post one of the best returns of any tech stock over the past two months. If you bought this stock just ahead of that quarterly earnings release, you’d be sitting on a quick 60% gain.   With BlackBerry again set to deliver quarterly results at the end of this month, it’s fair to ask: Should you buy it? Nothing to Sugarcoat As Merrill’s Liani noted, Blackberry’s fiscal third quarter (ended November) was awful. Not only did all of the key financial metrics fall far short of consensus forecasts, but the company likely sold just 1.1 million BB10-based phones in the quarter. This is the company’s newest and most advanced operating system, which was released to considerable fanfare a few years ago. Read More

There’s an old saying in the restaurant business: “Feed the rich, eat with the poor. Feed the poor, eat with the rich.” #-ad_banner-#It’s pretty self-explanatory. The guy who owns the four Popeye’s Fried Chicken locations probably has better personal cash flow than the owner of the high-end, nouvelle, southwest creole joint in a rehabbed old cotton warehouse downtown. Interestingly enough, that same philosophy can be applied to the car business. From 1919 to 1937, the Duesneberg name was the gold standard in transportation for tycoon and Hollywood types. Only 712 cars were produced. But 39-year-old… Read More

There’s an old saying in the restaurant business: “Feed the rich, eat with the poor. Feed the poor, eat with the rich.” #-ad_banner-#It’s pretty self-explanatory. The guy who owns the four Popeye’s Fried Chicken locations probably has better personal cash flow than the owner of the high-end, nouvelle, southwest creole joint in a rehabbed old cotton warehouse downtown. Interestingly enough, that same philosophy can be applied to the car business. From 1919 to 1937, the Duesneberg name was the gold standard in transportation for tycoon and Hollywood types. Only 712 cars were produced. But 39-year-old Henry Ford had a different business model. Ford (NYSE: F) had moving assembly lines and a good quality, but produced only a bare bones Model T automobile. You could get it in any color you wanted — as long as it was black. The rest is history. Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA), I’m afraid, is today’s Duesenberg. And the company’s stock does not merit its price. Led by another young business visionary, Elon Musk, Tesla manufactures an amazingly stylish and powerful all-electric sports car. My 11-year-old son has had the privilege of riding in one. “Dad!” he exclaimed. “It doesn’t… Read More

Large investors — the 3,600-plus people managing more than $100 million — are required to report their holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) every quarter. These investors have to submit a Form 13F within 45 days of the end of the quarter. In a market where information is literally swapped at the speed of light and news becomes stale after an hour, a 45-day-old snapshot of what an investor was holding may seem downright ancient. But the information can still provide plenty of value, if you know what to look for. As with any data related to the… Read More

Large investors — the 3,600-plus people managing more than $100 million — are required to report their holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) every quarter. These investors have to submit a Form 13F within 45 days of the end of the quarter. In a market where information is literally swapped at the speed of light and news becomes stale after an hour, a 45-day-old snapshot of what an investor was holding may seem downright ancient. But the information can still provide plenty of value, if you know what to look for. As with any data related to the stock market, it is important to isolate the information that is valuable and ignore the rest. In the 13F reports, the most important information will be found in the filings of long-term investors. Filings from short-term traders should be ignored. #-ad_banner-#This is because some high-frequency trading (HFT) firms could be required to report their holdings if they manage money for others, but their filings would simply be a snapshot of what the firm held at the close on the day the quarter ended. Odds are high that the firm had completely different holdings an hour after the open the next… Read More