In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by the gods. As the gods created her, each gave Pandora a special gift. Apollo bestowed on her the gift of music. Fast-forward about 3,000 years, and the Internet radio company that has taken her namesake could have a gift for investors. Pandora Media (NYSE: P) has that attractive combination of a strong chart and an outstanding fundamental growth story. In its most recent quarter, the company posted 50% year-over-year revenue growth, with sales climbing past $180 million. The number of active listeners rose 20%, to 70.9 million… Read More

In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by the gods. As the gods created her, each gave Pandora a special gift. Apollo bestowed on her the gift of music. Fast-forward about 3,000 years, and the Internet radio company that has taken her namesake could have a gift for investors. Pandora Media (NYSE: P) has that attractive combination of a strong chart and an outstanding fundamental growth story. In its most recent quarter, the company posted 50% year-over-year revenue growth, with sales climbing past $180 million. The number of active listeners rose 20%, to 70.9 million users.#-ad_banner-# Pandora is a free service, although it does offer a paid premium service. However, its free offerings can be highly profitable for the company since its growing user base has caught the attention of advertisers. Mobile ad revenue is a tremendous growth area for the company. In its fiscal third quarter, mobile ad sales hit $104.9 million, a 58% increase from the same period last year. Pandora’s mobile ad platform is very attractive because the site specializes in collecting and aggregating user data based on listening preferences. This capability allows advertisers to accurately market products to specific target markets. Read More

Across the country, investment bankers are catching up on their sleep. They’ve been remarkably busy helping a stunning number of companies go public over the past two months. The IPO docket should now be quiet for the next few weeks as the market digests more than 50 IPOs that were launched since late October, according to Renaissance Capital. And that only counts deals underwritten by top-tier firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.#-ad_banner-#​ The flurry of activity caps off one of the busiest years for IPOs in recent memory. Dealogic notes that 166… Read More

Across the country, investment bankers are catching up on their sleep. They’ve been remarkably busy helping a stunning number of companies go public over the past two months. The IPO docket should now be quiet for the next few weeks as the market digests more than 50 IPOs that were launched since late October, according to Renaissance Capital. And that only counts deals underwritten by top-tier firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.#-ad_banner-#​ The flurry of activity caps off one of the busiest years for IPOs in recent memory. Dealogic notes that 166 companies have raised $64 billion thus far this year. To put that in perspective, there were never more than 80 IPOs in any given year from 2006 through 2011, and around 120 last year. The volume of secondary offerings this year (in terms of number of deals and dollars raised), is also on track to break records. And these aren’t no-name companies stepping up to the IPO trough: Household names such as Hilton (NYSE: HLT), Extended Stay America (Nasdaq: STAY), The Container Store (NYSE: TCS) and of course Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR) have all come public in… Read More

Although the conventional wisdom is that the choice to purchase a home is the most important and expensive economic decision the average person or couple will make, there is another choice that is even costlier and more important — the choice to have children.#-ad_banner-# Raising children is an extremely expensive undertaking. This is particularly true if both spouses work and outside child care is necessary. One recent study found that annual child care costs varied by state, ranging from $4,863 to $16,430 per child. In addition, the Census Bureau reported in 2011 that child care… Read More

Although the conventional wisdom is that the choice to purchase a home is the most important and expensive economic decision the average person or couple will make, there is another choice that is even costlier and more important — the choice to have children.#-ad_banner-# Raising children is an extremely expensive undertaking. This is particularly true if both spouses work and outside child care is necessary. One recent study found that annual child care costs varied by state, ranging from $4,863 to $16,430 per child. In addition, the Census Bureau reported in 2011 that child care costs have increased dramatically since the 1980s. No matter how you slice it, this is one huge expense. The fact that the rising costs for families hasn’t translated into increased salaries for child care workers (per the Census Bureau’s report) can mean only one thing: Someone is making huge profits in the child care business. After recovering from the shock of these figures, I went to work to discover a way to profit from them. The child care business is primarily a fragmented industry of small-time operators ranging from home-based centers to regional chains. However, a newly public player in… Read More

There is a dangerous malady sweeping the United States.#-ad_banner-# According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over a third of American adults — more than 72 million people — suffer from this ailment. It is a well-known cause of killers like heart disease, stroke, certain cancers and Type 2 diabetes.  Unfortunately, here in the U.S., many aspects of advertising and the general culture actually seem to promote this condition, even though it costs Americans an estimated $147 billion in annual medical costs — nearly 10% of all U.S. medical spending. The American… Read More

There is a dangerous malady sweeping the United States.#-ad_banner-# According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over a third of American adults — more than 72 million people — suffer from this ailment. It is a well-known cause of killers like heart disease, stroke, certain cancers and Type 2 diabetes.  Unfortunately, here in the U.S., many aspects of advertising and the general culture actually seem to promote this condition, even though it costs Americans an estimated $147 billion in annual medical costs — nearly 10% of all U.S. medical spending. The American Heart Association has gone so far as to call this issue an epidemic and has projected that 44% of the U.S. population may be afflicted with this condition by 2030.   If you haven’t guessed, I’m referring to obesity. While the causes of this malady are many, society does little to curtail the constant promotion of factors that eventually result in an obese population. High-fat and high-sugar foods are not only usually among the least expensive, they are the most readily and easily available, not to mention the most heavily advertised.  Fortunately, many companies are focused on solving the obesity… Read More

Technology is all around us and in everything: our homes, cars, offices — and even in our clothing.#-ad_banner-# Apparel companies are looking more and more like technology companies these days. Wearable technology has become one of the fastest-growing markets over the past year, with apparel companies pushing the limits on recording our physical activity and then transforming it into useful data.  One of the fastest-growing and most innovative companies in the apparel space, Under Armour (NYSE: UA) is at the forefront of this trend. Under Armour has the insight of real-life athletes, the look of an apparel company… Read More

Technology is all around us and in everything: our homes, cars, offices — and even in our clothing.#-ad_banner-# Apparel companies are looking more and more like technology companies these days. Wearable technology has become one of the fastest-growing markets over the past year, with apparel companies pushing the limits on recording our physical activity and then transforming it into useful data.  One of the fastest-growing and most innovative companies in the apparel space, Under Armour (NYSE: UA) is at the forefront of this trend. Under Armour has the insight of real-life athletes, the look of an apparel company and the feel of a tech company. Under Armour’s products are sold to a number of teams and athletes, from colleges to the pros. The company’s founder, Kevin Plank, came up with the idea of performance apparel during the mid-1990s as the special teams captain of the University of Maryland football team.  When you look under the hood, Under Armour operates a little like a tech startup, hosting contests to improve its products and hiring more developers to build and improve their technology. And even though Under Armour has a well-recognized brand by now, it’s still a growth story.  Its… Read More

We are closing the books on a remarkable six-year cycle for stocks, bonds and the global economy. You can break this cycle down into four distinct phases: • In early 2008, global economies began to show some cracks, especially in the all-important U.S. housing sector, yet concerns of global overheating were still evident, as seen by the “super-spike” in crude oil to more than $140 a barrel in June 2008. That surge may have been the tipping point that pushed many economies to the breaking point, and by year’s end, the global economy was in freefall.  • In… Read More

We are closing the books on a remarkable six-year cycle for stocks, bonds and the global economy. You can break this cycle down into four distinct phases: • In early 2008, global economies began to show some cracks, especially in the all-important U.S. housing sector, yet concerns of global overheating were still evident, as seen by the “super-spike” in crude oil to more than $140 a barrel in June 2008. That surge may have been the tipping point that pushed many economies to the breaking point, and by year’s end, the global economy was in freefall.  • In 2009, unemployment surged, a slew of European economies appeared to be on the cusp of collapse, and government policy makers were scrambling to avoid a truly catastrophic global economic meltdown. • In 2010 and 2011, business conditions began to improve, most notably in the U.S. And China’s economic resilience helped many Asian neighbors buck the global malaise.  • In 2012 and 2013, investors finally realized that further global crises wouldn’t derail an impressive market rally in the U.S. (and eventually Europe), and as we wind down this six-year cycle, economists are calling for calmer days ahead in 2014, led by… Read More

It’s been hard to lose money in the market in 2013. But anyone unlucky enough to own the worst-performing stocks among the various S&P indices (400, 500 and 600) has to be less than displeased.​ In my first look at 2013’s losers earlier this week, I reviewed the carnage among commodity producers and retailers. This time around, I’m looking at the rest of the 2013 laggards in search of the best rebound candidates. I took a look at the factors affecting these stocks, and to be sure, many of them should still be avoided. #-ad_banner-#​Among… Read More

It’s been hard to lose money in the market in 2013. But anyone unlucky enough to own the worst-performing stocks among the various S&P indices (400, 500 and 600) has to be less than displeased.​ In my first look at 2013’s losers earlier this week, I reviewed the carnage among commodity producers and retailers. This time around, I’m looking at the rest of the 2013 laggards in search of the best rebound candidates. I took a look at the factors affecting these stocks, and to be sure, many of them should still be avoided. #-ad_banner-#​Among the “don’t bother” names: • Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB), which is on the wrong end of the sweeping changes in the wireline and wireless telecom industry. • Strayer Education (Nasdaq: STRA), a for-profit educator that is posting falling sales and profits in the face of staff layoffs and school closures. • Rackspace Holding (NYSE: RAX), as price cuts from cloud storage rivals such as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) ratchet up the pressure. Similar competitive pressures will likely dog Teradata (NYSE: TDC) in 2014 as well.  Among the remaining stocks on that table, some have huge upside but carry… Read More

On Sept. 24, I invested in one of the world’s leading automakers.#-ad_banner-# I liked that its valuation was cheap, that the stock had been keeping up with the market while offering about 30% less volatility, and that future growth prospects looked well above average. At about 2%, the dividend yield was a nice bonus. Of course, there are no guarantees with any stock, but I had hoped shares would at least continue pacing the market after I bought them. Well, if you invested when I did, you know that hasn’t been the case. Since then, the stock has been disappointing,… Read More

On Sept. 24, I invested in one of the world’s leading automakers.#-ad_banner-# I liked that its valuation was cheap, that the stock had been keeping up with the market while offering about 30% less volatility, and that future growth prospects looked well above average. At about 2%, the dividend yield was a nice bonus. Of course, there are no guarantees with any stock, but I had hoped shares would at least continue pacing the market after I bought them. Well, if you invested when I did, you know that hasn’t been the case. Since then, the stock has been disappointing, dropping about 7% versus about a 7% gain for the market.  I’m not worried, though, because the stock’s problems are related to an ongoing concern management is perfectly capable of resolving. Once it does, I expect the stock’s bullish run — shares are up 31% this year and more than 17% a year for the past three years — to resume. I’m talking about Toyota (NYSE: TM), and the company’s main issue now is recalls. You probably know recalls have plagued Toyota for some time now. One of the most publicized episodes occurred between 2009 and 2010, when more than… Read More

As we close the books on 2013, one clear theme has emerged. Investors have flocked to developed economies and shunned emerging markets. The S&P 500 Index is on track for a nearly 30% gain this year, but many emerging markets have tumbled by double digits.#-ad_banner-# That kind of massive performance gap only emerges every decade or so, and for farsighted investors willing to look past near-term headwinds, emerging markets now represent tremendous relative value. You don’t need to tell that to the executives at major U.S. companies. They already know that emerging markets have generated — and will continue to… Read More

As we close the books on 2013, one clear theme has emerged. Investors have flocked to developed economies and shunned emerging markets. The S&P 500 Index is on track for a nearly 30% gain this year, but many emerging markets have tumbled by double digits.#-ad_banner-# That kind of massive performance gap only emerges every decade or so, and for farsighted investors willing to look past near-term headwinds, emerging markets now represent tremendous relative value. You don’t need to tell that to the executives at major U.S. companies. They already know that emerging markets have generated — and will continue to generate — robust growth rates, thanks in large part to ever-rising middle classes. While developed economies are growing at a 2% pace, emerging-market economies are growing at a 4% to 5% pace. Asian emerging markets are rising an even more impressive 6%, according the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The key takeaway: Even if you’re wary of investing in volatile emerging markets directly, you can focus on the U.S. companies that are positioned to derive a rising level of sales and profits in these countries. Thankfully, the strategists at Citigroup have already done the heavy lifting. In a recent report, Citi’s… Read More

It may seem like a long time ago, but the epic stock market meltdown of half a decade ago is again worth pondering.#-ad_banner-# From around 1,300 in August 2008, the S&P 500 Index plummeted to 1,100 by late September and below 900 by the end of November. By the time we hit bottom in March 2009, the index had tumbled below the 700 mark. A nearly 50% plunge in just seven months is virtually unprecedented. Now, with the S&P back up to around 1,800, we’ve seen a five-year rebound that should make us all quite thankful. This year has been… Read More

It may seem like a long time ago, but the epic stock market meltdown of half a decade ago is again worth pondering.#-ad_banner-# From around 1,300 in August 2008, the S&P 500 Index plummeted to 1,100 by late September and below 900 by the end of November. By the time we hit bottom in March 2009, the index had tumbled below the 700 mark. A nearly 50% plunge in just seven months is virtually unprecedented. Now, with the S&P back up to around 1,800, we’ve seen a five-year rebound that should make us all quite thankful. This year has been especially fruitful, as the S&P 500 has tacked on more value this year (on the basis of market cap) than in any year in its history. The market hasn’t even needed any breather this year on its path to record heights. S&P 500 By Quarter But such success can breed hubris. As Warren Buffett said back in 2011, “Once you reach the point where everybody has made money no matter what system he or she followed, a crowd is attracted into the game that is responding not to interest rates and profits but simply to the fact… Read More