After stocks slumped badly this summer, many questioned the wisdom of big stock buyback programs. After all, companies were spending huge amounts of cash on repurchases at formerly higher prices and would have been able to buy a lot more shares if they waited… Read More

While many investors moved to the sidelines in August and September, the market slide was no deterrent to officers and directors at many companies. Insider-buying was robust throughout the period and continues at high levels now that… Read More

“Stick your neck out and it will get chopped.” That notion is widely known among Wall Street analysts. They realize it’s a lot safer to keep your earnings and target prices in line with the hoard of other analysts. If you… Read More

It’s no big secret how most stocks have been devalued during the past three months. Debt worries in Europe, combined with sluggish economic data in the United States (including a pesky unemployment rate above 9%) have had investors heading for the exit. Read More

I’ll bet you can name most of the world’s top 10 economies. Most of them, such as the U.S. economy, the Japanese economy and the British economy have long been global powerhouses, yet their days of peak growth have likely passed. Only two of… Read More

If you’re investing in an industry with a range of headwinds, then it pays to stick with the company that offers the strongest track record, lowest costs and most visible long-term backlog. That’s been my logic in support of First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), which… Read More

The first to slump and the last to rally — that’s the usual fate of stocks of smaller companies when the markets wildly gyrate. Their perceived riskiness — relative to blue chips — keeps them in the doghouse, even after the broader market posts… Read More

While the market churns up and down, one stock is making a great upward move. And the rumor mill gets all the credit.     Trading desks are abuzz with anticipation that IBM (NYSE: IBM), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) or one of their… Read More

Despite all the recent negative publicity surrounding solar power, such as diminishing government subsidies due to austerity measures and the Solyndra scandal (the Obama administration gave the company a $528 million loan as a part of the 2008 stimulus package, whereupon the company later went belly-up), the U.S. solar-power industry… Read More

As investors await the outcome of various global crises — from Athens to Washington — they’re going to great lengths to avoid risk. Many are shunning any new stock purchases until confidence can be restored. But some investors aren’t waiting for the “all clear” to sound, snapping up great companies… Read More