There is one clear risk when looking at companies that may be “in play.” Even when companies are in the acquisition cross-hairs, a huge amount of patience is still required: a company may be actively holding discussions to sell itself, but any actual agreement… Read More

Biotech investing is the most exciting, highest-reward investment an investor can make. Not only is there the potential for huge gains, but the direct involvement with companies that may have a pivotal role in saving lives is icing on the cake for biotech investors.  But as in every investment, high… Read More

If you’re an executive at a struggling retailer, then you’ve been warned. Either come up with a way to turn the ship around, or get ready for investors to make life quite difficult. In this tough economic climate, investors are in no mood to hold on to any retail stock… Read More

For about a decade now, investors have been worried that consumers would “cut the cord” and replace their cable TV subscriptions with free online content, which has been increasingly available.  Truth is, this probably will never completely happen. #-ad_banner-#For starters, the programming content on the leading cable networks is world-class. Read More

The debt crisis in Europe is dominating the headlines this summer, roiling the world financial markets and keeping investors in a perpetual state of fear. The news focuses mainly on a handful of countries that have huge debt loads such as Greece and Italy, but stock markets on both sides… Read More

Whenever a company decides to pursue a growth-through-acquisition strategy, investors grow concerned. The payoff can be rapid growth and investors are certainly happy whenever that happens, but the risks are significant. Execution must be perfect, or hoped-for synergies will simply fail to materialize.  If that happens, then the stock could… Read More

Even though we all track a select group of stocks on a regular basis, we still need to keep one eye on everything else happening in the investing sphere. Actions at another company may help to support — or erode — our confidence in a stock we’ve been tracking. For… Read More

We’ve rarely seen such symmetry in stocks. In the first quarter of 2012, stocks zoomed ahead, almost to the very day that the quarter ended. Indeed, the S&P 500 hit its high mark for the year in the first trading session of the second quarter, and has been on the… Read More

High unemployment and slow economic growth are hardly conditions under which most companies thrive. But I’ve discovered an industry that is doing just that.  In fact, my favorite stock in this space saw annual sales gains of 8.5% in 2009, 15% in 2010 and 19% in 2011 while many other… Read More

Investors have been fretting about a weaker economy and the implications for economically-sensitive assets such as steel, copper, iron ore and other commodities. Indeed, the underlying spot prices for several key commodities are at multi-year lows and… Read More