Consumer spending up 0.3% in October

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers increased their spending in October even though their wages and salaries barely increased, raising questions about how strong the economy will grow at the end of the year.

Consumer spending increased 0.3% in October compared with September when spending rose 0.2%, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Wages and salaries rose a slight 0.1% after a much stronger 1% rise in September.

JOBS: Unemployment rate falls to 7%, 203,000 new jobs in November

Overall income actually fell 0.1% following a 0.5% rise in September. But September's gain was inflated by a legal settlement that boosted farm income that month, leading to a big decline in farm income in October.

The personal saving rate dipped to 4.8% of after-tax income in October, down from 5.2% in September, reflecting the difference between spending and income.

The rise in spending reflected gains in purchases of long-lasting manufactured goods such as autos and gains in spending on non-durable goods such as clothing and services such as rent and utilities. It meant a solid increase for the first month of the current quarter.

Best Safest Companies To Watch In Right Now

Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70% of economic activity.

The economy grew at a 3.6% annual rate from July through September, the fastest since early 2012, but nearly half the growth came from a buildup in business stockpiles, a trend that could reverse in the current quarter and hold back growth. When excluding inventories, the economy grew at a 1.9% rate in the third quarter, down from 2.1% in the spring. That's in line with the same subpar rate that the economy has seen since the Great Recession ended four years ago.

Many economists believe overall economic growth will dip below 2% in the current October-December quarter, in part because a slowdown in inventory building will act! as a drag on activity.

But there have been some signs of strength including a separate report Friday showing that the unemployment rate dropped to a five-year low of 7% in November as the economy created 203,000 jobs.

In the third-quarter, consumers increased their spending at a tepid 1.4% annual rate. That was the slowest since the final quarter of 2009, a few months after the recession officially ended. But the spending activity in the third quarter was held back by flat spending on services. That may have reflected an unusually mild summer, which cut demand for air conditioning. One hopeful sign: Consumers spent on goods at the fastest rate since early 2012.

An inflation gauge closely watched by the Federal Reserve showed prices were flat in October and have risen just 0.7% over the past 12 months, well below the Fed's 2% target for inflation.

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2014

According to recent findings from the National Federation of Independent Business, small business growth is up and business owners are more optimistic about the economy. Because most small business owners open a business near their home, we would expect major U.S. cities to see their fair share of new businesses. NerdWallet Taxes examined the top 20 biggest U.S. cities to find out how welcoming they are to small businesses. We calculated total scores for each city using data on local taxes, growth rates from the Milken Institute's 2012 Best Performing City survey, and business owner opinions of the local regulatory environment from the 2013 Thumbtack Small Business Friendliness Survey. Four of the top 10 cities are located in tax-friendly Texas, while New York City and San Francisco do not make the cut.

1. Austin, Texas
Tech giants Dell�and IBM make their home here, but Austin proves equally friendly to small businesses. The city scores highly thanks to no state or local personal income taxes, and its second-place rank in the Milken Institute's 2012 Best Performing Cities comes for favorable growth prospects in technology, real wages, and jobs.�Austin also scored second for its hassle-free business licensing requirements, according to data from Thumbtack's 2013 Small Business Friendliness Survey.

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Era Carbon Offsets Ltd (ESR.V)

ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd., through its subsidiary, ERA Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc. engages in the development and supply of forestry-based carbon offsets to the carbon offset markets in Canada, the United States, Africa, South America, and Australasia. The company provides project development and co-development services, including carbon modeling, financing, and consulting. It offers project development consulting services in the areas feasibility assessments, forest modeling, and methodology development. The company focuses on afforestation/reforestation, improved forest management, and reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation projects. It works with independent landowners, regional and state governments, land trusts, conservation NGOs, and intermediaries for evaluating, implementing, verifying, and commercializing forest carbon projects. The company is headquartered in North Vancouver, Canada.

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ENZN)

Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the research and development of therapeutics for cancer patients with unmet medical needs. The company?s drug-development programs utilize two platforms-Customized PEGylation Linker Technology and third-generation mRNA-targeting agents utilizing the Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology. It currently holds four compounds in clinical development and multiple novel LNA targets in preclinical research. The company?s development product pipeline consists of PEG-SN38 compound that utilizes Customized Linker Technology, which is in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of metastatic colorectal and breast cancer, as well as a Phase I trial for pediatric patients with cancer; and the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 alpha antagonist in Phase I studies for the treatment of solid tumors and lymphoma. Its product line also comprises Survivin antagonist in Phase I study in pediatric patients with recurrent acute lymphoblas tic leukemia; Androgen Receptor antagonist, a validated target for the treatment of prostate cancer that is in a Phase I study in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer; and rights to five compounds, including AR, HER3, beta-catenin, PI3KCA, and Gli2. Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Equities Lab]

  The stocks that currently pass the stock screen in order of market cap are Frontier Communications Corp , Crown Media Holdings (CRWN), Vonage Holding (VG), MCG Capital Corp (MCGC), 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (FLWS), MTR Gaming Corporation (MNTG), Alaska Communications (ALSK), and Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN).

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Enzon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ENZN) shares tumbled 28.28% to reach a new 52-week low of $1.15. Enzon Pharmaceuticals shares have dropped 63.30% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 28.75% in the same period.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy For 2014: Teleflex Incorporated(TFX)

Teleflex Incorporated designs, manufactures, and distributes specialty medical devices for a range of procedures in critical care and surgery worldwide. It offers disposable medical products for critical care that includes medical devices used in critical care procedures for vascular access, respiratory care, anesthesia and airway management, treatment of urologic conditions, and other specialty procedures; and devices used in the treatment of patients with severe cardiac conditions, including intra aortic balloon pump systems and intra aortic balloon catheters and accessories. The company also provides surgical devices and instruments used in general and specialty surgical procedures, such as ligation and closure products, including appliers, clips, and sutures; access ports used in minimally invasive surgical procedures comprising robotic surgery; fluid management products for chest drainage; and hand-held instruments for general and specialty surgical procedures under t he Deknatel, Pleur-evac, Pilling, Taut, and Weck brand names. In addition, it offers cardiac care products, including diagnostic catheters and capital equipment; instruments and devices for other medical device manufacturers; and customized medical instruments, implants, and components to original equipment manufacturers. The company sells its medical products through its sales forces, and independent representatives and distributor networks. Teleflex Incorporated was founded in 1938 and is based in Limerick, Pennsylvania.

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Great West Lifeco Com Npv (GWO.TO)

Great-West Lifeco Inc., a financial services holding company, operates in the life insurance, health insurance, retirement savings, investment management, and reinsurance businesses in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. It offers financial and benefit plan solutions, such as investment, savings, and retirement income plans, as well as life, disability, and health insurance for individuals and families; life, healthcare, critical illness, disability and wellness, and international benefits plans, as well as group retirement and savings plans, and online services for businesses and organizations; and life, annuity, and property and casualty reinsurance products. The company also provides financial security advice and planning services; creditor insurance for mortgages, loans, credit cards, lines of credit, and leases; and insurance and wealth management products and services, such as payout annuities, investments, group insurance, savings and individual insurance, pension products, fund-based pensions, and critical illness insurance. In addition, it offers employer-sponsored retirement savings plans and private-label record-keeping and administrative services; and money management services comprising various equity, fixed-income, asset allocation, and absolute return products, as well as other related services, including transfer agency, distribution, shareholder, trustee, and other fiduciary services to individual and institutional investors. Great-West Lifeco Inc markets its products and services through direct sales force, brokers, advisors, consultants, third-party administrators, financial institutions, discount brokers, managing general agencies, financial security advisors, financial institutions, automobile dealerships, other lending institutions, and a network of independent agencies. The company was founded in 1891 and is based in Winnipeg, Canada. Great-West Lifeco Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Power Financial Corporati on.

Top Performing Stocks To Own For 2014: Standard Parking Corporation(STAN)

Standard Parking Corporation provides parking management, ground transportation, and other ancillary services to commercial, institutional, and municipal clients in the United States and Canada. Its services include collection and deposit of parking revenues; daily housekeeping; restriping of the parking stalls; maintenance of parking equipment, such as ticket dispensing machines, parking gate arms, and fee computers; painting of walkways, curbs, ceilings, walls, and other facility surfaces; and snow removal from sidewalks and driveways. The company also provides shuttle bus vehicles and drivers to operate them in support of on-airport car rental operations, as well as private off-airport parking locations; and ancillary ground transportation services at airports, such as taxi and livery dispatch, concierge-type ground transportation information, and support services for arriving passengers. In addition, it offers shuttle bus services, on-street parking meter collection, a nd other parking enforcement services for municipalities; and valet parking and shuttle bus services for the medical center and hospital markets. The company serves private and public owners, municipalities, managers and developers of office buildings, residential properties, commercial properties, shopping centers and other retail properties, sports and special event complexes, hotels, and hospitals and medical centers. As of December 31, 2011, it managed approximately 2,200 parking facility locations containing approximately 1.2 million parking spaces in approximately 345 cities; operated 147 parking-related service centers serving 61 airports; and a fleet of approximately 550 shuttle buses. The company was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  Elekta AB dropped 4.3 percent after posting quarterly profit that missed forecasts. Standard Chartered (STAN) Plc slid 6.6 percent. PSA Peugeot Citroen advanced 2.4 percent as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added the shares to its conviction-buy list.

Tuesday Closing Bell: Markets Running with the Bulls

October 29, 2013: U.S. markets opened higher Tuesday morning following the report on PPI which showed inflation remaining very low and indicating that the FOMC meeting which began today will conclude with asset purchases remaining at the current $85 billion a month level and no increase in interest rates. Home prices rose again in August while consumer confidence dipped sharply in October. The DJIA pegged an all-time closing high today.

European markets closed mostly higher today, while Asian and Latin American markets closed mixed.

Wednesday's calendar includes the following scheduled data releases and events (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications 8:15 a.m. – ADP employment report 8:30 a.m. – Consumer price index 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report 1:00 p.m. – 7-year note auction 2:00 p.m. – FOMC meeting announcement

Here are the closing bell levels for Tuesday:

S&P500 1771.95 (+9.84; +0.56%) DJIA 15680.35 (+111.42; +0.72) NASDAQ 3952.34 (+12.21; +0.31%) 10YR TNOTE 2.505% (+0.1875) Gold $1,345.50 (-6.70; -0.5%) WTI Crude oil $98.20 (-0.48; -0.5%) Euro/Dollar: 1.3741 (-0.0044; -0.32%)

Big Earnings Movers: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is down 2.4% at $517.02 after reporting solid earnings that just weren't good enough for investors. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is up 1.7% at $31.27 on positive earnings. 3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) is up 4.3% at $59.45 after investors decided that lower EPS guidance was not a bad thing. Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) is up 1.9% at $40.21 after beating low expectations and offering some encouraging words on margins. Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is up 10.4% at $7.45 on better-than-expected earnings.

Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In 2014

Stocks on the Move: NQ Mobile Inc. (NYSE: NQ) is up 26% at $11.09 as the company fights back against a short-seller report. Celsion Corp. (NASDAQ: CLSN) is up 339.3% at $5.14 following a reverse 1:4.5 stock split. Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) is up 4.7% at $17.50.

In all, 219 NYSE stocks put up new 52-week highs today, while just 7 stocks posted new lows.

NetScout Systems Firm Q2 Product Revenue Contributed to nGeniusONE Platform

 

 NetScout Systems, Inc.  (NASDAQ: NTCT)

Price per share units of NTCT lauched 15.28% (+$3.90) to $29.43 today during mid-day trading session with three hundred plus thousand shares in play Thursday11:47AM EDT October 17, 2013. About four and a half hours prior ticker NTCT, an industry leader for advanced application and service assurance solutions reported firm Q2 notably growth in product revenue. The Company’s product revenue for Q2, on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis was $52.4 million. This increase is believed to be contributed by intentive consumer interest of their new released products in particular nGeniusONE™ platform. nGeniusONE Unified Performance Management Platform enables efficient IT service management with an all-inclusive set of capabilities delivering comprehensive, real-time situational awareness, historical visibility, and contextual, multi-layered performance analysis.

Ticker NTCT  also issued a guidance for fiscal year 2014 repeating the guidance they issued on April 25, 2013. The Company believes GAAP revenue to be in the range of $384 million to $399 million and non-GAAP revenue to be in the compass of $385 million to $400 million.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (“NTCT”, “NetScout” or the “Company”) is the market leader in Unified Service Delivery Management enabling comprehensive end-to-end network and application assurance. For 28 years, NetScout has delivered breakthrough packet-flow technology that provides trusted and comprehensive real-time network and application performance intelligence enabling unified assurance of the network, applications and users. These solutions enable IT staff to predict, preempt and resolve network and service delivery problems while facilitating the optimization and capacity planning of the network infrastructure. NetScout nGenius® and Sniffer® solutions are deployed at more than 20,000 of the world’s largest enterprises, government agencies, and more than 165 service providers, on over one million physical and 2,000 virtual network segments to assure the network, applications, and service delivery to their users and customers.

Read Full @ http://crweselect.com/disclaimer/

The following article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.

Posted-In: Markets

  Around the Web, We're Loving... Learn to Use Trading Platforms Like Hedge Fund Traders do Rumsfeld: Denial of Benefits to Fallen Soldiers' Families 'Inexcusable' Come See How the Pro's Trade in this Exclusive Webinar Facebook, Baidu Lead Big Caps Beating Shutdown What Should You Know About AMZN? Most Popular UPDATE: SolarCity Confirms Pricing of 3.4M Share Offering at $46.54/Share Trouble Brewing Under the Hood For The S&P 500? UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Upgrades AMR Corporation on Likelihood of US Airways Merger Earnings Scheduled For October 17, 2013 iPhone 5C Selling Out From One Carrier (AAPL) Google Up 5% After Topping Estimates (GOOG) Related Articles (NTCT) NetScout Systems Firm Q2 Product Revenue Contributed to nGeniusONE Platform View the discussion thread. Partner Network #marketfy-ae-block { display: none; border: 2px solid #0a3f75; overflow: hidden; width: 300px; height: 125px; text-align: center; background-color: #45719E; position: relative; z-index: 1; } #marketfy-ae-block a { display: block; width: 300px; height: 125px; position: relative; z-index: 2; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; } #marketfy-ae-block-countdown-text { color: #f9fc99; padding: 0px 0 0 0; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; } #marketfy-ae-block-countdown-text-start { font-size: 12px; } #marketfy-ae-block-countdown { padding: 5px 0 5px 0; font-size: 26px; } #marketfy-ae-block-signup { padding: 5px 47px; } #marketfy-ae-block-signup:hover { background-color: #457a1a; } #marketfy-ae-block #marketfy-ae-block-logo { display: block; padding: 3px 0 0 0; margin: 0; } #marketfy-ae-block-logo { text-indent: -9999px; } #marketfy-ae-block-free { display: block; position: absolute; top: 7px; right: -23px; width: 80px; height: 16px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; opacity: 1; -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); -moz-transform: rotate(45deg); -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); transform: rotate(45deg); font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; color: #333333; background-color: yellow; z-index: 500; text-shadow: 1px 1px #999999; } #marketfy-ae-block-arrow { position: relative; width: 60px; height: 60px; z-index: 10; margin: -80px 0 13px -21px; } #marketfy-ae-block-arrow img { height: 60px; width: auto; } Marketfy's International
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Tweeting About Twerking Seen as Lifeline for TV Industry

Meredith Parker, a 23-year-old sales rep in New York, spends most nights out meeting friends or attending work events. Any night but Monday.

That's when she rushes home to watch ABC's "The Bachelor," a reality show that begins its 18th season in January. In an era when DVRs, TiVo and Web-TV services like Netflix make it easy for audiences to view programs any time they want, Parker would rather see her favorite program right when it airs. Parker's motivation: the social-media frenzy that surrounds the show.

"Whether it's Twitter or Facebook, it's kind of forced me to watch it live that day," she said. "You have to keep up on your shows because of spoilers and just the general chatter. It's hard to avoid, and I don't want to miss out."

That sentiment underscores a surprising side effect of social media on television ratings and pay-TV providers. Twitter Inc. and Facebook (FB) Inc., often seen as new distractions competing for a viewer's time, have instead become forums for real-time referendums about TV -- whether it's to gripe about a passing blunder from a favorite football team or to express shock over the conclusion of AMC's "Breaking Bad."

Twitter and Facebook are providing a potential lifeline to pay-TV companies looking to hang onto subscribers, as well as networks struggling to maintain ratings. U.S. cable and satellite TV subscriptions are expected to decline in 2013 for the first time ever, dropping to 100.8 million from 100.9 million, according to research firm IHS.

Twerking Tweets

"Twitter and Facebook -- it's where our audience lives, and we have to be there," Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman said in an interview. He cited the torrent of Twitter activity around the VMA awards show, which aired on Viacom's MTV network in August. The program featured a bawdy "twerking" performance by Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke.

FULL COVERAGE: Pay TV Under Pressure

"People were tweeting abo! ut Miley, going, 'I gotta see this,'" Dauman said. "It's a great symbiotic relationship where we drive the conversation on Twitter, and that conversation on Twitter drives people back to watch our shows."

The show altogether generated 18.5 million tweets, accounting for 90 percent of the Twitter conversation about TV that evening, according to Social Guide, the unit of Nielsen that measures social media. The show's ratings were up 53 percent over the previous year as well, Nielsen found.

Ratings Decline

The phenomenon is mitigating concerns that consumers are likely to cut their cable and satellite bills in favor of Internet-delivered TV, which streams programs a day or more after their original broadcast. Major TV networks suffered a collective 7.2 percent drop in viewers last season. Cable providers, meanwhile, are seeing an exodus of TV customers as digital services such as Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC add users.

This week, Nielsen began publishing a regular ranking of the top TV shows most visible on Twitter. The firm is tallying how many people see tweets about a particular program, as well as how many Twitter messages are posted, offering new ways to gauge the success of shows.

"Breaking Bad" drew the biggest Twitter audience of any TV show for the last week of September, according to Nielsen, with 9.3 million people viewing 1.2 million tweets. On average, there are 50 times more people reading tweets about TV than there are those posting, Nielsen said.

Ratings Impact

Twitter has the ability to directly boost TV ratings, a Nielsen study from August found. The analysis showed that TV-related tweets increased ratings in 29 percent of the episodes sampled, opening up the possibility of TV executives using social media to lure people to live broadcasts.

In addition, at least two-thirds of people who subscribe to pay-TV providers such as Time Warner Cable Inc. or DirecTV do so because they want live programming, according to a separate st! udy condu! cted by consulting firm Altman Vilandrie & Co.

While TV executives are eager to attract Twitter users, the new rankings also raise concerns, said David Poltrack, the head of research for CBS Corp. (CBS)

"When Nielsen starts publishing Twitter ratings, they're going to be confusing for a lot of people," he said.

Poltrack cited the campy TV movie "Sharknado," which aired this year on NBCUniversal's cable network SyFy. The film, about a freak tornado that lifts sharks out of the ocean and shoots them throughout the neighborhoods of Los Angeles, spawned close to 700,000 tweets while attracting only 1.4 million television viewers, according to Poltrack. In contrast, the CBS series "Under the Dome" inspired 126,000 Twitter posts but drew a much bigger TV audience of 13.6 million.

No Connection?

"So on the major scale, there's really no correlation between tweets and program popularity," Poltrack said.

Only 3 percent of the total discussions around TV programs occur on Twitter and Facebook, while over 80 percent happen face to face, Poltrack said, citing research from marketing firm Keller Fay Group LLC. In order to provide a counterweight to Nielsen's new Twitter rankings, CBS has commissioned Keller Fay to start providing regular reports on where conversations about CBS shows are happening, whether they're online or offline.

Television still attracts more U.S. advertising dollars than the Internet, at $64.3 billion this year, compared with $36.3 billion online, according to ZenithOptimedia, the research arm of advertising company Publicis Groupe SA.

Part of Mix

"Twitter is one part of our overall media strategy, so to look at Twitter at driving TV ratings is a little bit like wondering if radio drives TV viewership," said David Wertheimer, president of digital for Fox Broadcasting. "It is part of an overall mix. It's a way to get impressions. You would never rely on just that one thing."

Both Twit! ter and F! acebook have lobbied TV executives to use their service to promote programs, as well as to mine its users' posts to broadcast in the shows themselves. Parker, the fan of "The Bachelor," said she enjoys seeing Twitter posts that appear on screen during the broadcasts.

"Some of the Twitter quotes that pop up throughout the show -- it's the exact thought I was having at that moment," she said.

Fred Graver, who heads up TV partnerships for Twitter, said the process of pulling Twitter posts for use on "The Bachelor" required a fair amount of coordination with ABC. A producer from the network decides which tweets best match up with what's on screen.

"What's great is it doesn't intrude on what's happening in the episode, it augments it," Graver said. "It's another way of storytelling."

Costolo's Plan

Twitter started courting the networks almost five years ago, when CEO Dick Costolo -- who was then the startup's chief operating officer -- decided that the short-messaging service worked best as a companion media, or a digital water cooler, according to George Schweitzer, head of marketing for CBS.

Schweitzer recalled meeting with Costolo at a midtown Manhattan restaurant, where the Twitter executive "made a very smart pitch."

"He said, 'I think we understand what we are. We're the adjunct media: the place where people go to talk about whatever is happening, whether it's on TV or anywhere else,'" Schweitzer said.

TV producers took notice of Twitter's popularity and started using it to promote shows that might not get the same live TV audience otherwise. Shonda Rhimes, the head producer behind the ABC show "Scandal," started tweeting about every episode from the first day, according to Ben Blatt, director of digital strategy for ABC.

'Viewing Party'

"So we posted tweets as people were watching it, and it had the feeling of a viewing party," he said. Rhimes also alerted Blatt and his! team to ! major future plot points as a way to drive viewership to the show.

"For 'Scandal' we had a consistent 2.0 rating early on," Blatt said, referring to the Nielsen ratings measurement where each point equals about 1.15 million homes. "When this Twitter initiative started, we were at 2.5, then 2.7, then we ended the season at 3.2. It's hard to ignore."

Twitter, which filed public documents last week for an initial public offering, has also forged partnerships with major TV networks and professional sports leagues, such as CBS and the NFL. The agreements let Twitter publish video clips of game highlights or TV programs within a tweet. Both the content owners and Twitter can sell short video ads that play in front of each clip and share in the revenue, according to Graver.

Facebook, the world's largest social network, has opened up some of its members' public musings about TV shows to broadcast networks such as ABC. As part of an agreement, the network has started to cull data about Facebook users for its reality show "Dancing With the Stars."

The program's producers are using Facebook to flash statistics on screen showing how many of its users are discussing the program's contestants at a given moment, as well as which dancing couples generated the most chatter.

In any case, there's no amount of social-networking buzz that can fix a bad show, CBS's Schweitzer said.

"The most important thing overall is it's got to be about good content," he said. "Bad content doesn't play in any world."

Does Verizon Have a Bright Future?

With shares of Verizon (NYSE:VZ) trading around $48, is VZ an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Verizon is a provider of communications, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental agencies. It operates in two primary segments: Verizon Wireless and Wireline. Verizon Wireless' communications products and services include wireless voice, data services, and equipment sales, which are provided to consumer, business, and government customers across the United States. Wireline's communications products and services include voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, Internet protocol network services, network access, long distance, and other services.

Numerous tech giants have been eager to publish what they can about government data requests, but telecoms haven’t been so forthcoming. Verizon is breaking some ground, though, with plans to publish semi-annual transparency reports starting in early 2014. While the reports will mostly reflect information that the carrier has already been publishing in some form, the data will be more accessible and consistent than before. Much like Google, Verizon plans to break down requests by type, such as court orders and warrants. It’s also asking the government if it can be more precise with the number of National Security Letters it received last year. Although it’s doubtful that the reports will reveal everything that the public would like to know, they represent a big step forward for a communications industry that many believe is too eager to cooperate with government eavesdroppers.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Mixed

Verizon stock has been pulling back in recent quarters. However, the stock is currently surging higher, but may need time to stabilize. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Verizon is trading below its rising key averages, which signal neutral to bearish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Verizon options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Top Financial Companies To Watch In Right Now Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Verizon options	21.00%	80%	78%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a very significant amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
January Options	Steep	Average
February Options	Steep	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and high demand by put buyers or low demand by put sellers, all neutral to bearish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bearish over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Verizon’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Verizon look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	39.29%	14.06%	15.25%	-107.21%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	4.39%	4.32%	4.17%	5.66%
Earnings Reaction	3.49%	-1.51%	2.76%	0.58%

Verizon has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been pleased with Verizon’s recent earnings announcements.

P = Average Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Verizon stock done relative to its peers, AT&T (NYSE:T), T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), Sprint (NYSE:S), and sector?

	Verizon	AT&T	T-Mobile	Sprint	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	-7.17%	-7.47%	74.94%	75.23%	21.10%

Verizon has been an average relative performer, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Verizon provides communications products and services through a variety of mediums to consumers and companies around the world. The company is breaking some ground, with plans to publish semi-annual transparency reports starting in early 2014. The stock has been pulling back in recent quarters, but is currently surging higher. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been increasing so investors have been pleased with recent earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, Verizon has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for Verizon to OUTPERFORM.

Pawning Goes Posh -- Got a Ferrari for Collateral?

When Mike Walsh needs cash for his homebuilding business, he borrows it from his Rolex watch.

"My bank cut my line of credit, but I still needed to float my business expenses," Walsh says. "I have a lot of valuable items, but can't get a loan against them."

In order to get the operating cash he needs, Walsh has turned to pawning -- and he doesn't even have to head to the seedy side of town to do it.

These days even well-off people are turning to pawnshops for short-term loans. And now a new breed of pawnshop is catering to this new client's needs.

Pawning for the well-heeled
Pawnshops have long had a reputation for being dingy and dismal; a place you'd rather not take your mother or even admit to having visited.

But now no one need be the wiser: Pawnshops have entered the modern age, with sites like Pawngo.com and UltraPawn.com offering a private, completely online short-term financing option for those who want to avoid traditional borrowing avenues such as payday loans and credit card advances. (Other high-end pawnbrokers -- aka "upscale collateral lenders" or "personal asset lenders" -- like Borro, The Provident Loan Society of New York and Beverly Loan Company (as in 90210), have online presences but conduct business primarily via their physical locations.)

The typical pawnshop customer has changed along with the times, too. "A lot of the people we work with have good credit," says George Souri, a former private equity finance expert and CEO of UltraPawn.com. "Our model is to give savvy consumers of financial services a viable alternative to other loans. Wealthy people have cash needs, too."

Indeed they do. For example, one customer borrowed $50,000 against a painting so he could take an expensive luxury cruise with his wife. He didn't want to sell any investments or take out a long-term loan, so he pawned the painting and repaid the loan once his bonus was paid. Another customer pawned a Ferrari.

Just like traditional pawnshops, online pawn sites evaluate your item and give you an offer, and, if accepted, quickly get the loan amount to you. They typically hold an item for 30 to 90 days. You pay a monthly finance charge and, at the end of the loan period, repay the principal balance of the loan and any remaining interest due. If you can't repay the loan, the pawnbroker renegotiates the loan or sells your item.

But unlike pawnshops that accept everything from gaming systems to televisions to household appliances, this new breed focuses on higher-end items, like Cartier jewelry, fine art, rare wine, antique maps, motorcycles, and loose diamonds. Correspondingly, the loan amounts are higher, too, and the loan terms can be longer.

Best China Stocks To Own Right Now

Pawngo and UltraPawn will make loans ranging from $500 to $1 million with loan terms for up to six months. (UltraPawn's loans average $5,000 to $20,000.) A typical brick-and-mortar pawnshop offers 30-day loan terms on much lower amounts (mostly in the hundreds of dollars). Because they're catering to a higher-end clientele, services like storage, insurance, and shipping are free.

There's also a difference in interest rates: "Traditionally pawnshops charge interest rates of 18 to 22 percent, but the online model for pawning offers tremendous operational efficiency compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores that require a building, a staff, and utility payments," says Souri. "We charge as little as 2 percent."

Getting credit off the grid
One of the "advantages" of pawning -- whether at a traditional shop or online -- is that your bad borrowing behavior won't haunt you for long.

Customers who can't repay their loans will not get calls from collection companies or discover negative notations on their credit reports. The only negative impact of defaulting on the loan is losing your possession.

On the flip side, a customer who builds a good payment record with a firm can be rewarded with lower interest rates on future loans. "So maybe we charge them 5 percent in interest on the first loan, but if they have a positive history with us we'll charge them 3 percent next time," Souri says.

While being a responsible borrower at a pawnshop has its rewards, your "credit history" doesn't translate to the real world of banking and borrowing. Still, pawning is one way to ease your cash flow, but remember that it won't help your long-term credit outlook.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now

You might not have noticed, but small cap stocks are actually leading the market higher. In fact, the Russell 2000 is within striking distance of its all-time high, while large cap benchmarks still have a bit more to go before they take out old highs.

The trend towards small caps has become particularly pronounced in the past three months with the capitalization level clearly beating out large caps in this time frame. Current performances show small cap ETFs like iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) gaining about 13.5% in the time period, with SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) putting up gains of just 8.4% in comparison.

Behind the Surge

There are a couple of reasons for why investors might prefer small caps at this time including the following:

Higher growth potential- With the lack of a taper by the Fed, some are taking a more risk-on stance in the markets, boosting the appeal of pint-sized securities that have more robust growth opportunities. Domestic Focus- Although many international markets are coming back, there is still a broad perception that the U.S. is the place to be for equities. Since small caps tend to have less foreign exposure, many investors have looked to this segment instead of their large cap counterparts. Less of a yield play- Dividend plays have certainly come back a bit in light of the ��o taper��announcement, but the outlook for these plays is still quite uncertain. Small caps aren�� exactly known for their income potential, so undoubtedly this ��rowth over income��play has been some of the reason for the trend towards the space as of late.

However, some investors are starting to grow concerned by this run in small caps, thinking that this level of outperformance cannot continue. PEs are starting to get a little high for the segment (22.21 forward PE for the S&P 600), while some volatility thanks to D.C. could result in serious profit taking for small caps.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Resource Capital Corp.(RSO)

Resource Capital Corp. operates as a specialty finance company that focuses primarily on commercial real estate and commercial finance in the United States. The company?s commercial real estate-related investments include first mortgage loans, first priority interests in first mortgage real estate loans, subordinate interests in first mortgage real estate loans, mezzanine loans, and commercial mortgage-backed securities. It also invests in commercial finance assets, including senior secured corporate loans, other asset-backed securities, equipment leases and notes, trust preferred securities, and debt tranches of collateralized debt and loan obligations. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, it is not subject to federal corporate income tax to the extent that it distributes 90% of its REIT taxable income. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Resource Capital (NYSE: RSO  ) is dipping into its coffers for another shareholder payout. The company has declared a dividend for its current quarter of $0.20 per share, which is to be paid on July 26 to shareholders of record as of June 28. That amount matches each of the company's previous five distributions, the most recent of which was paid in late April. Before that, Resource Capital was more generous, dispensing $0.25 per share.

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Shares of Resource Capital Corp. (RSO) �declined 3.8% to $5.82 in moderate volume after the real-estate investment trust said it would launch a $100 million offering in notes due 2018.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: CPFL Energia S.A.(CPL)

CPFL Energia S.A., through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, distribution, and sale of electricity in Brazil. It generates electricity through hydroelectric, thermal, biomass, and wind power plants. The company also involves in the provision of energy commercialization, consultancy, and advisory services to agents in the energy sector; manufacture, commercialization, rental, and maintenance of electromechanical equipment; and provision of administrative services, as well as telephone answering services. It has an installed generating capacity of 2,309 MW. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Brazilian electricity giant CPFL Energia S.A. (NYSE: CPL  ) sank 20%, and recently yielded 5.9%. Its long-term debt has been rising, largely due to acquisitions, and its free cash flow has been shrinking (and even turning negative�recently). But it has been investing heavily in alternative energies, and it serves a massive and growing market in Brazil. The country's growth has been slower than many would like, but that won't last forever.

5 Best Tech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Littelfuse Inc.(LFUS)

Littelfuse, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells circuit protection devices for use in the automotive, electronic, and electrical markets in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers electronic circuit protection products, such as fuses and protectors, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, varistors, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, discrete transient voltage suppression diodes, TVS diode arrays and protection thyristors, gas discharge tubes, and power switching components, as well as fuseholders, blocks, and related accessories under PICO II, and NANO2 SMF, TECCOR, SIDACtor, and Battrax brand names. It offers its electronic circuit protection products for use in wireless telephones, consumer electronics, computers, modems, telecommunications equipment, telephones, data transmission lines, and alarm systems. The company also provides automotive fuses that are used in automobiles, trucks, buses, and off-road equipment to protec t electrical circuits and the wires that supply electrical power to operate lights, heating, air conditioning, radios, windows, and other controls, as well as offers fuses for the protection of electric and hybrid vehicles. It markets its automotive fuse products under ATO, MINI, MAXI, MIDI, MEGA, MasterFuse, JCASE, and CablePro brand names. In addition, Littelfuse manufactures various low-voltage and medium-voltage circuit protection products, such as power fuses that are used in the protection from over-load and short-circuit currents in motor branch circuits, heating and cooling systems, control systems, lighting circuits, and electrical distribution networks to electrical distributors and their customers in the construction, original equipment manufacturers, and industrial maintenance and repair and operating supplies markets. Littelfuse sells its products through direct sales force and manufacturers? representatives. The company was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Littelfuse (NASDAQ: LFUS  ) has signed an agreement to acquire Key Safety Systems' Hamlin subsidiary for $145 million in cash, Littelfuse announced Monday.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Leggett & Platt Incorporated(LEG)

Leggett & Platt, Incorporated designs and produces various engineered components and products worldwide. Its Residential Furnishings segment offers bedding components, such as innersprings and wire forms; furniture components, including steel mechanisms, springs, seat suspensions, steel tubular seat frames, bed frames, ornamental beds, and power foundations; and structural fabrics, carpet underlay materials, and geo components. This segment serves manufacturers of finished bedding products or upholstered furniture. The company?s Commercial Fixturing & Components segment provides shelving, counters, showcases, and garment racks; standardized shelvings; point-of-purchase displays; and bases, columns, back rests, casters, and frames. This segment offers its products to retail chains and specialty shops; brand name marketers; distributors of consumer products; and office, institutional, and commercial furniture manufacturers. Its Industrial Materials segment provides steel rod s, drawn wires, steel billets, fabricated wire products, welded steel tubing, and fabricated tube components to bedding and furniture, and mechanical spring makers; automotive seating, and lawn and garden equipment manufacturers; and waste recyclers, waste removal businesses, and medical supply businesses. The company?s Specialized Products segment offers manual and power lumbar support and massage systems; seat suspension systems; automotive control cables; low voltage motors; actuation assemblies; formed metal and wire components; quilting machines; machines for shaping wire into springs; industrial sewing/finishing machines; van interiors; and docking stations, as well as specialty trailers for telephone, cable, and utility companies. It serves bedding and automobile seating manufacturers. The company sells its products through its sales representatives and distributors. Leggett & Platt, Incorporated was founded in 1883 and is based in Carthage, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG) makes a broad line of bedding and furniture components and other home, office and commercial furnishings, as well as products for non-furnishings markets. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1939 and has increased its dividend payments for 41 consecutive years. Yield: 3.6%

• [By Dividends4Life]

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• [By Holly LaFon]

  Leggett & Platt (LEG) is a leading manufacturer of engineered products and components. As the pioneer of steel coil springs found in mattresses and furniture, the company continues to supply a variety of components to bedding and furniture manufacturers. Additionally, Leggett & Platt's broader product line includes retail store fixtures, office furniture components, automotive seating components and industrial steel wire and tubing. Customers choose Leggett & Platt as a supplier because the company's manufacturing scale and processes result in lower costs than customers can produce themselves. We believe earnings should grow based on the contribution of new products, cost reduction efforts and the improving housing market. Moreover, future dividend growth appears likely based on a 42-year record of dividend increases. We believe Leggett & Platt is an attractive investment based on its 3.8% dividend yield and positive growth outlook.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: TECO Energy Inc.(TE)

TECO Energy, Inc., an electric and gas utility company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electric energy. It provides retail electric service to approximately 672,000 customers in West Central Florida with a net winter system generating capability of 4,684 megawatts. The company also engages in the purchase, distribution, and marketing of natural gas. It serves approximately 336,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and electric power generation customers in Florida. In addition, the company owns mineral rights, owns or operates surface and underground mines, and owns interests in coal processing and loading facilities. TECO Energy, Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Justin Loiseau]

  TECO Energy (NYSE: TE  ) reported earnings this week, making up at the bottom what it missed on its top line. With a 4.8% dividend yield and an increasingly cost-competitive, coal-centric portfolio, TECO shares are up 13% for 2013. Let's take a look at the company's latest report to see if there's still upside for this dividend stock.

• [By Justin Loiseau]

  Who's missing?
  Utilities aren't obligated to make Earth Day announcements ��and they shouldn't be. But investors shouldn't expect TECO Energy (NYSE: TE  ) to be talking green anytime soon. The company's more coal-centric than any other utility. Not only does 61% of its generation capacity come from coal, but the utility also owns and operates coal mines capable of producing 9 million tons annually. While coal might boost this dividend stock in the short term as rising natural gas prices make coal more cost effective, TECO will need major improvements in clean coal technology or a massive modernization project to keep it competitive in the years to come.

• [By Justin Loiseau]

  TECO Energy (NYSE: TE  ) reported Q1 earnings (link opens a PDF) today, missing on sales but topping analysts' earnings estimates. First-quarter revenue clocked in at $661 million, just shy of Mr. Market's $668 million prediction. But what the company cut off the top line, it made up for on bottom-line numbers. EPS came in at $0.19, two cents above analyst expectations. Compared with Q1 2012, sales are down 5.2% and net income dropped 18%.�

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Grupo Radio Centro S.A. de C.V.(RC)

Grupo Radio Centro, S.A.B. de C.V., a radio broadcasting company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the production and broadcasting of music, entertainment, news, and special event programs in Mexico. The company owns and operates 15 radio stations, which comprise 5 AM and 6 FM stations in Mexico City, 2 AM stations in Guadalajara and Monterrey, and 1 FM station in Los Angeles, as well as 1 AM radio station in Mexico City that is operated and managed by a third party. It also operates Organizaci

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Pepsico Inc.(PEP)

PepsiCo, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of foods, snacks, and carbonated and non-carbonated beverages worldwide. The company operates in four divisions: PepsiCo Americas Foods (PAF); PepsiCo Americas Beverages (PAB); PepsiCo Europe; and PepsiCo Asia, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA). The PAF division offers Lay?s and Ruffles potato chips, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips and dips, Cheetos cheese flavored snacks, Fritos corn chips, Quaker Chewy granola bars, and SunChips multigrain snacks in North America; Quaker oatmeal, Aunt Jemima mixes and syrups, Cap?n Crunch cereal, Quaker grits, and Life cereal, as well as Rice-A-Roni, Pasta Roni, and Near East side dishes in North America; and various snack foods under Doritos, Marias Gamesa, Cheetos, Ruffles, Emperador, Saladitas, Sabritas, and Lay?s brands in Latin America. The PAB division provides carbonated soft drinks, beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, 7UP, Tropicana Pure Premium, Electropura, Sierra Mist, Epura, and Mirinda brands; ready-to-drink tea, coffee, and water products through joint ventures with Unilever and Starbucks; and sells concentrate to authorized bottlers, and branded finished goods directly to independent distributors and retailers. This division also manufactures third-party brands, such as Dr Pepper, Crush, Rock Star, and Muscle Milk. The PepsiCo Europe division offers Frito Lay Snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices, and Quaker foods in Europe. The AMEA division provides snack food under the Lay?s, Kurkure, Chipsy, Doritos, Smith?s, Cheetos, Red Rock Deli, and Ruffles brands; Quaker-brand cereals and snacks; and beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under the Pepsi, Mirinda, 7UP, and Mountain Dew brands. PepsiCo, Inc. was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Coke was losing ground in the 1980s. By 1983, its flagship fizzy brown drink was outsold in supermarkets by the upstart Pepsi (NYSE: PEP  ) and its brilliant "Pepsi Challenge" campaign. Coke CEO Roberto Goizueta was ready to take a chainsaw to the company's core business if it meant winning over the youthful Boomer generation, and he had come into the corner office with experience tweaking Coke's iconic formula for regional tastes. A massive but highly secretive project began under the name "Project Kansas," with initially positive results. However, a small but highly vocal minority of Coke's top-secret taste-testers remained adamantly opposed to the notion of a different Coke. These complaints would come back to haunt Coke when it went ahead with the launch despite objections.

• [By Associated Press]

  NEW YORK (AP) -- PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP  ) says it plans to start testing a new fountain machine at restaurants that lets people create a variety of flavor combinations, such as strawberry Mountain Dew.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Mmm, snacktacular
  In another universe, the Dow might have chosen to replace General Motors with the world's largest diversified food processor: PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP  ) , which took on its modern form (or at least the better part of it) on June 8, 1965, when Pepsi-Cola merged with Frito-Lay. Pepsi was already a successful multinational at the time, with operations in 107 countries, and comments from CEO Donald Kendall revealed a pseudo-Machiavellian drive to create a whole world of snackers through the export of Frito-Lay brands. "Just as we exported soft drinks after World War II," he boasted, "we can export the snack habit. The snack food field is wide open, and our big opportunities are in the international field."

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Qualstar Corporation(QBAK)

Qualstar Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and sells automated magnetic tape libraries used to store, retrieve, and manage electronic data primarily in network computing environments worldwide. Its tape libraries consists of cartridge tape drives, tape cartridges, and robotics to move the cartridges from their storage locations to the tape drives under software control. The tape libraries also provide data storage solutions for organizations requiring backup, recovery, and archival storage of critical electronic information. The company also offers ancillary products related to its tape libraries, such as tape media, tape magazines, cables, bar code labels, and fiber channel adapters. In addition, it designs, develops, and sells switching power supplies that are used to convert alternate current line voltage to direct current voltages for use in electronic equipment, such as telecommunications equipment, servers, routers, switches, lighting, and gaming devices. Qualstar Corporation sells its tape drive products primarily to value added resellers and original equipment manufacturers, as well as switching power supplies primarily to original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Simi Valley, California.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Oneida Financial Corp.(ONFC)

Oneida Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for The Oneida Savings Bank that provides community banking services primarily in Madison and Oneida Counties in New York, and surrounding counties. Its deposit products include savings accounts, interest-bearing demand accounts, non interest-bearing checking accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises one-to-four family residential and commercial real estate loans, consumer loans, and commercial business loans. It also offers trust and investment services, including fiduciary services for trusts and estates, money management, and custodial services. In addition, the company sells insurance; provides employee benefits consulting services; and offers risk management services to help mitigate and prevent work related injuries. It operates through 10 full service branch offices in Madison and Oneida Counties; and 1 full service branch office in Onondaga County in New York. The company was founded in 1866 and is based in Oneida, New York. Oneida Financial Corp. is a subsidiary of Oneida Financial MHC.

Top 10 Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Paychex Inc.(PAYX)

Paychex Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small-to medium-sized businesses in the United States and Germany. It offers payroll processing services, including calculation, preparation, and delivery of employee payroll checks; production of internal accounting records and management reports; preparation of federal, state, and local payroll tax returns; and collection and remittance of clients? payroll obligations. The company also provides payroll tax administration services; employee payment services; and regulatory compliance services, such as new-hire reporting and garnishment processing. Its human resource outsourcing services include payroll, employer compliance, human resource and employee benefits administration, risk management outsourcing, and the on-site availability of a professionally trained human resource representative, as well as provides employee handbooks, management manuals, and r equired regulatory forms. In addition, the company offers retirement services administration; workers? compensation; business-owner policies; commercial auto; and health and benefits coverage, including health, dental, vision, and life. Further, it provides online human resource administration software products for employee benefits management and administration, and time and attendance solutions. As of May 31, 2010, the company served approximately 536,000 clients in the United States; and 1,700 clients in Germany. Paychex, Inc. was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Rochester, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Yates]

  When looking at small cap stocks, it is useful to compare the company with others that have expanded in both share price and size. For those considering investing in the $100 billion staffing industry, the growth of TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) shows what could be the potential path for Labor SMART (OTCBB: LTNC), as both operate in the $29 billion demand labor sector. Other firms have done well in the staffing industry include Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX) and ManPower Group (NYSE: MAN).

• [By Rich Smith]

  ADP stock is worse than average
  ADP shares have been on a bit of a tear these past 12 months, outperforming not just the S&P 500 in general, but also rivals Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX  ) and Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU  ) in particular. It's a bit of a mystery, however, understanding why investors like ADP stock so much.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX) reported its FQ1 earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $607.9 million. However, analysts projected earnings of $0.43 per share on revenue of $605.1 million. Paychex shares fell 0.74% to $40.34 in the after-hours trading session.

This Household Name Has Increased Its Dividend 32 Years In A Row

When it comes to investing, I want to have my cake and eat it too. 

While I love to find companies that rise when the markets do, I especially love stocks that buck the trend when the markets tumble. Investing is about finding opportunities that can deliver strong returns come rain or shine.

 

During the housing boom several years ago, I found a company that was on fire. Amid the frenzy of homebuilding and house-flipping, this company's products were selling left and right.

As the housing market collapsed amid the Great Recession, this company's distribution network and sticky customer base helped it weather the storm. In 2008, as the S&P 500 tumbled 37%, this company's stock was up 5.3%

This company makes and distributes paints, coatings and related products to markets around the world. It is the dominant player in the U.S. paint market, with a more than 30% market share, and it has a growing international presence. Its products are sold under leading brand names such as Dutch Boy, Krylon and Thompson's Water Seal.

Perhaps most impressively, this company is working on a 32-year streak of dividend increases, a testament to its remarkable performance through good economies and bad.

If you haven't guessed, the company I'm talking about is Sherwin-Williams (NYSE: SHW).

Sherwin-Williams products can be found on the shelves of two-thirds of all U.S. retailers that sell paint- or coating-related products. The depth of the company's brand and product portfolios has allowed it to develop strong brand recognition, making it a name of choice among consumers.

In addition to its network of nearly 3,400 company-owned stores, Sherwin-Williams uses some third-party retailers. This captive distribution network is one of its largest competitive advantages, allowing it to rely less on big-box retailers and more on the relationships it develops with its customers.

With the recovery in the U.S. construction market and existing-home sales well underway, Sherwin-Williams has seen its pricing power increase along with demand. The company also maintains a focus on product innovation, which helps differentiate itself from rivals in a very competitive market.

Sherwin-Williams also has substantial international growth potential, as foreign sales account for less than 20% of total revenue. In November 2012, it bought Mexico's leading paint company, Consorcio, opening the door to expansion in those markets.

In January, Sherwin-Williams reported strong results. Adjusted earnings (excluding one-time items) came in at $6.64 a share for the year, up 56.8% from 2011. This impressive growth was driven by increases in paint sales volume and price: For the year, net sales increased 8.8% to $9.53 billion.

For 2013, Sherwin-Williams expects net sales to increase by a mid-single-digit percentage. It is estimating earnings per share in the range of $7.45 to $7.55.

Risks to consider: Because many of Sherwin-Williams' customers are in the residential and commercial construction sectors, the demand for paint products can be quite cyclical. Raw material prices can also fluctuate, potentially squeezing margins. Additionally, if we see another downturn in the economy, consumers may turn to big-box retailers like Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) to save money.

Action to take --> Sherwin-Williams pays a dividend of about 1% and is a good buy up to $185 per share. Last year, it announced a 7% increase to its dividend, marking the 32nd consecutive year of dividend growth. My price target during the next 12 months on this company is $215, representing about 25% upside potential.

Order a Tesla Now and Get It in March

Even as America’s well to do continue to buy cars in impressive numbers, pushing inventories of some models low, most luxury vehicles can still be given as Christmas gifts. Not so the products of Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). The wait time for the once-popular car now is four months. Buy a Tesla S online, and have it by March — at the earliest. The deposit is only $2,500.

The demand for Tesla autos, which probably dropped on concerns about engine battery fires, likely will rise again. Tesla recently announced that one of its Model S vehicles and its battery charger were not the cause of a fire in a California garage last month. German investigators concluded a recent investigation into Tesla’s safety and said they found no manufacturer’s defects.

Tesla has said on a number of occasions that it cannot produce enough cars to keep up with demand. The car fire frenzy may have changed that math and allowed supply to build. At least investors may think so. Despite some recent recovery, Tesla’s share price is down 15% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 is up 5%. If investor sentiment is a reasonable proxy for a public company’s prospects, then assurances about the safety of Tesla cars have not caused a complete rebound in enthusiasm about the car, or dampened all worries that the blemish on the Tesla brand will be gone soon.

Presumably, a four-month wait for a car is a four-month wait, whether the car is bought at a dealer or online. Tesla has continued to battle the efforts of car dealers to block sales through Tesla-owned stores. The legal wrangling is likely to go on for some time as the challenges to the Tesla retail model move from state to state. Analysts who follow Tesla sometimes wonder what its sales would be if customers could walk directly into dealers, drive the cars and order them on the spot — as is the case with virtually every other luxury car in the world.

Dealers or not, the problem of a four-month wait for a new car cuts two ways. Some buyers will walk away to places where they can get a car right away. Others can brag to friends that they are on the Tesla wait list — at least until March.

Edmunds: Success in business and relationships

Hello Gladys: I have a question that I am pretty sure you haven't come across in the past. I have been in business for almost 20 years. I am single. I have never been married nor have I had a long-term, truly-committed relationship. I would love to find a really decent guy. Usually when I meet someone we get along just fine until he learns that I own a very successful business. After that the relationship seems to decline at a fairly rapid rate.

I have many girlfriends that are in the same position. They are women who are business owners and high-powered professional women and we often discuss this missing love link in our lives. Why can't women be both successful in business and have love at the same time? I'm getting older and a solid relationship is important to me. But so is the financial security that my business brings. Do I have to give up one in order to have the other? — S. K.

I remember several years ago having dinner with a friend, whom I will call Sue. She owns a nutritional consulting company and was single for many years following the death of her husband. Every time we would get together she would make comments on how lonely she was and how she wished and even prayed to be able to find a good man who wanted to settle down. She even signed up for a number of online dating services and had no luck finding Mr. Right.

Finally, one day I asked her why she hadn't found someone to her liking and she responded by saying, "My business keeps me so busy, I don't have time to play nursemaid to a man. And every guy I meet is either married, a loser, totally boring, or looking for someone to mother him. And when I meet someone that seems like the kind of fellow I could get into he gets intimidated by my business success."

I told her that whether we believe it or not, people can sense where we are coming from before we hardly speak a word. I reminded her of the time that I went with her to buy a car. While we looked under the hood and in the trunk, and got inside and sat beh! ind the wheel, the car salesman gawked at us like we were idiots who knew nothing about buying a car. I reminded Sue how insulted she was at his behavior and how she left the car dealers and purchased her car elsewhere.

We laughed as we recalled the event. I told Sue that the salesman never said anything derogatory or insulting to us but he made us feel uncomfortable. I went on to say that if I met a man who believed that all the women he met were either losers or totally boring. I would be able to feel his thoughts in the same way we felt the negative thoughts of the car salesman. Needless to say I would want nothing to do with that man.

Perhaps you might want to recheck the kind of energy you're putting out there toward men. I have witnessed women putting their bios on the table with the first date. I could be mistaken, but I don't think a man wants that on the first date.

There is a wonderful poem written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer called 'The Invitation'. The opening passage goes like this:

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
And if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing."

You can read the entire poem at www.oriahmountaindreamer.com. After reading the poem, review your thoughts and feelings when dating: pay attention to both your verbal and non-verbal communication when you are out on a date.

You do not have to trade your business for a meaningful relationship. I believe that there is someone for you.

When "Mr. Right" shows up you want to be ready and not make him run away. So check to make certain that you are not harboring thoughts and feelings that will find their way into your body language and words.

Gladys Edmunds, founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh, is an author and coach/consultant in business development. Her column appears Wednesdays. E-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com. An archive of her columns is here. Her website is gladysedmunds.com.

Verifone Systems Inc (NYSE:PAY): What To Watch In Q4 Results?

VeriFone Systems, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) will release its fiscal fourth quarter and full-year 2013 financial results after the market closes on Dec. 17, 2013. Management will host a webcast to review the financial results on the same day at 1:30 pm (PT). This will be the first conference call for Paul Galant, who was named VeriFone CEO in September.

San Jose, California-based VeriFone, which competes with NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR), makes global point of sale (POS) terminals and provides a wide array of hardware, service, and data security offerings that enable electronic payments processing for the global payments industry.

[Related -VeriFone Systems Inc (PAY): Buy This Leader In Mobile Payments On Its 55% Pullback]

Wall Street expects VeriFone to earn 26 cents a share, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The consensus estimate implies a drop of 65.8 percent from last year when it earned 76 cents a share. The company sees non-GAAP earnings of 25 cents a share for the period.

The company's quarterly earnings have managed to top Street view twice in the past four quarters, with the last quarter's earnings edging past consensus by 20 percent. Over the past 90 days, the consensus estimate remained unchanged, and in the past 30 days, one analyst raised the earnings estimate for the fourth quarter.

Quarterly revenues are estimated to fall 13.7 percent to $421.50 million from $488.56 million in the same quarter last year. VeriFone expects fourth quarter revenue of $418 million to $422 million.

[Related -Verifone Systems, Inc. (PAY) Q3 Earnings Preview: What To Expect?]

For the full year, analysts expect earnings of $1.44 a share on revenue of $1.70 billion.

Issues at VeriFone run deeper than just certification problems, as inferior products, pricing pressure, elongated sales cycle and secular headwinds towards mPOS continue to plague the company.

Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Keane believes the company might be challenged to regain prior lost market s! hare, which differs from the street's assumption that VeriFone will gain share back once certification issues are fixed.

Revenues are expected to decline double-digits organically for the third consecutive quarter due to product and distribution issues, as well as increased competitive pressure resulting in price declines.

Headwinds from the petroleum business in the US, certification issues in Canada and Europe, distributor loss in MEA, and weakness in Latin America (after accelerated move to wireless terminals over last few years) are expected to continue to weigh on the revenue growth. Pricing pressure and accelerated investment are also expected to weigh on the margins.

With conservative fourth quarter guidance, Keane sees modest upside to VeriFone's fourth quarter, but more importantly, potential for downside to street second half 2014 revenue estimates. He believes Street estimates of 10 percent organic revenue growth in the second half could prove too aggressive.

Moreover, investors will look to CEO Galant for the strategic direction. Galant would need to decide to take down the bar now or later and make the difficult transition towards a software/ services company away from hardware.

Hot Gold Companies To Invest In 2014

The secular disintermediation risk from the tablet-based cloud-enabled POS devices is playing out as small and medium businesses are increasingly adopting these devices for value-added services namely loyalty, offer redemption, real-time analytics, and inventory management.

First Data launched the Clover station as well as NCR, ROAM, and Shopkeep have upped their game with enhanced products and increased marketing. Large specialty retailers are also increasingly adopting mPOS to improve customer conversion. Longer-term, payments would move to a software apps based model in the cloud away from hardware and VeriFone should decide its strategy before t! ime runs ! out.

Investors could focus on how the two recent acquisitions (EFTPOS New Zealand Ltd and Sektor) are impacting the topline. They would also keep an eye on margins as VeriFone has been forced to cut prices as it continues to be plagued by product certifications, and competitive pressures.

In addition, the company mentioned that payment-as-a-service is growing even faster in the 11 to 13 percent range, and VeriFone believes it is well positioned in that market. Investors may want to hear how much leeway it has made into that space.

Cash flow could be another focus area. VeriFone was at risk of breaching its debt covenants in early fiscal 2014. Hence the company amended the debt covenants with its borrower in July 2013. As of July 31, the company had operating cash flow of $49 million and free cash flow of $31 million. It expects fourth quarter free cash flow of of $25 million, excluding shareholder settlement payment.

The Street would look for the first quarter forecast, and it may decide the movement of shares post results. In September, the company said it expects the first fiscal quarter of 2014 to reflect modest sequential improvement to the fourth quarter guidance.

Shares of PAY, which trade at 15.4 times its forward earnings, have gained 17 percent since its last quarterly report, yet slipped 18 percent this year. They have traded between $15.34 and $36.13 during the past 52-weeks.

Gold inches higher ahead of Fed meeting

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Gold futures moved nominally higher on Monday, keeping in a tight range as traders positioned themselves ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting and what it could mean for the central bank's bond-buying program.

Gold for February delivery (GCG4)  tacked on $1.10 to $1,235.70 an ounce, while March silver (SIH4)  gave up a penny to $19.59 an ounce.

AFP/Getty Images

Gold prices closed Friday's session with a 0.5% gain for the week. The precious metal took a big hit on Thursday, as a budget deal was seen as the latest evidence pointing to the likely onset of a tapering of the Federal Reserve's stimulus when the central bank meets this week.

Still, trader Simple Sahni of Heraeus Metals remains bullish about the next few days.

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"We expect to see a continuation of short covering in the markets until the Fed meets ... which is when investors will re-evaluate their positions," he said.

"The strong retail figures... increase the likelihood that the Fed can begin tapering at its next meeting, however market consensus is that a reduction in monetary stimulus will be seen in March 2014," Sahni said, referring to U.S. retail-sales data released last week.

Elsewhere in metals trading, January platinum (PLF4)   was down $3.50, or 0.3%, to $1,359.40 an ounce, while March palladium (PAH4)   added 75 cents, or 0.1%, to $717.50 an ounce.

High-grade copper for March delivery (HGH4)  lost a penny, or 0.3%, to $3.31 a pound.

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Canada’s Job Growth Beats Expectations

The pace of hiring in Canada during November greatly exceeded economists’ projections. The Canadian economy added 21,600 jobs last month versus a consensus forecast of just 12,000 jobs. That kept the unemployment rate at 6.9 percent for the third consecutive month, which is the lowest level since late 2008.

But while the headline numbers seem worth celebrating, the details underpinning those data show an economy that’s still trying to find its footing. On a year-to-date basis, for instance, employment growth has averaged 14,900 jobs per month, which is a marked deceleration from the average of 25,900 jobs added each month in 2012.

Additionally, the labor force participation rate remains at a 10-year low of 66.4 percent. This shows that a subset of the unemployed have simply given up on looking for work, as well as the fact that job creation has failed to keep up with population growth.

At the very least, however, the gulf between the participation rate’s pre-recession high and the current cycle’s low is not nearly as wide as it is in the US. Canada’s participation rate hit a high of 67.8 percent in early 2008, so the current figure is just 1.4 percentage points below that. By contrast, the participation rate in the US hit a high of 66.4 percent in late 2006 and is currently at 63 percent, just off its low, for a substantial difference of 3.4 percentage points.

The vast majority of Canada’s latest job gain was driven by growth in part-time employment, which was up by 20,000, while full-time employment grew by just 1,400. Part-time jobs tend to be both lower paying and of a lesser quality than full-time positions.

These numbers tend to be volatile on a month-to-month basis, so longer-term trends do a better job of putting these numbers in their proper context. On a trailing-year basis, full-time employment has grown by an average of 9,300 jobs per month, while over the past three years it’s grown by an average of 17,900 jobs per month.

Though that shows a clear decline underway, part of the story may simply be the government’s recent fiscal restraint. Public-sector employment is down by 1.2 percent year over year, including November’s drop of 29,000 jobs in this area. This downward trend in public-sector hiring is even more pronounced over the trailing nine-month period, during which it’s fallen by 7 percent, or 69,000 positions.

Meanwhile, private-sector employment is up 1.6 percent, or 187,000 jobs, over that same period, with 31,400 jobs added during November. That includes the addition of 25,000 jobs in Canada’s ailing manufacturing sector, though the level of employment in that area is still down by 2.5 percent from a year ago.

Economists with CIBC World Markets believe this means that businesses are not nearly as cautious as central bank policymakers might assume. While private-sector payrolls aren’t exactly expanding at a robust rate, companies are still investing in future growth.

Another data point that can presage future hiring is the average number of hours worked. That number fell by two-tenths of a percentage point in November, so that means the fourth quarter is currently tracking lower than the prior quarter’s results.

Fortunately, a surprisingly strong US jobs report, which we detailed in our latest issue, suggests that the economy of Canada’s largest trading partner is finally showing clearer signs of strengthening. And that could augur well for Canada’s export activity in the year ahead.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now

A year ago, I was somewhat skeptical about Hartford's (NYSE:HIG) decision to transition out of its traditional life insurance and annuity businesses and towards a greater focus on P&C. While I thought the stock was cheap on a long-term ROE basis, I didn't expect the nearly 90% increase in the share price, nor the rapid pace of improvement in the company's legacy and going-forward operations. While the shares now have more average long-term potential on a ROE basis, there could still be upside left for these shares if Wall Street elects to value these shares more in line with other P&C companies with similar return characteristics.

SEE: Should You Cut Financials Out Of Your Portfolio?

All About The P&C Now
While Hartford still has sizable run-off operations (largely under the name of Talcott), the company's future is as a P&C insurance company in both commercial and consumer markets. By no means is the company starting from zero.

Hartford is the third-largest workers comp insurance company, trailing only Liberty Mutual and Traveler's (NYSE:TRV) in an industry that rewards savvy underwriters and brutally punishes those who make mistakes. Although the company has lost some middle-market business due to higher rates, this is a business where I believe the good underwriters hold considerably advantages and where Hartford can benefit with an improving labor/employment situation.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: Rent-A-Center Inc.(RCII)

Rent-A-Center, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, primarily engages in leasing household durable goods to customers on a rent-to-own basis. The company?s stores offer durable products, such as consumer electronics, appliances, computers, and furniture and accessories under flexible rental purchase agreements that allow the customer to obtain ownership of the merchandise at the conclusion of an agreed upon rental period. It also provides merchandise on an installment sales basis in its stores. As of December 31, 2010, the company operated 3,008 company-owned stores in the United States, and in Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, including 42 retail installment sales stores under the names ?Get It Now? and ?Home Choice?; and 18 rent-to-own stores located in Canada under the ?Rent-A-Centre? name. It also operates 209 franchised rent-to-own stores in 32 states under the ColorTyme trade name; and 384 kiosk locations under the ?RAC Acceptance? model. In addition, the company, th rough its ColorTyme?s franchised stores, offers custom rims and tires for sale or rental under the trade names ?RimTyme? or ?ColorTyme Custom Wheels?. Rent-A-Center, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: Ur Energy Inc(URG)

Ur-Energy Inc., an exploration stage junior mining company, engages in the identification, acquisition, evaluation, exploration, and development of uranium mineral properties. The company has 13 projects located in Wyoming and Nebraska, the United States; and 3 exploration projects located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. Its landholdings cover approximately 90,000 acres in the United States and approximately 140,000 acres in Canada. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  You know, were it just Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:URRE) or just Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:URG) or just Uranerz Energy Corp. (NYSEMKT:URZ) making a decided bullish move, I might be able to dismiss it. Similarly, if URZ had only been moving higher for one or two days (or only URG or only URRE), it might be easy to not be impressed. Neither of those situations has been the actual case, however. All three stocks have been moving upward for several days now, quite a bit, on noticeably higher volume. There's something "going on", as it were, and if prior group-wide movements are any clue, it's the kind of move worth tapping into.

• [By The Energy Report]

  DS: Two of our top picks are Cameco Corp. (CCJ) and Ur-Energy Inc. (URG). For Cameco, we've got a $25/share target and an outperform rating. This company is the industry's go-to, the blue chip uranium company. It's organically growing very low-cost operations, which are for the most part in very safe jurisdictions. It has a lower-risk approach to contracts, with a targeted pricing mix of about 40% fixed-pricing and 60% market-related pricing in the contract book. The company's got a solid balance sheet. We think it's going to end Q3/13 with about $800M in working capital and another $2 billion [$2B] in undrawn lines of credit. It's also diversified across the nuclear fuel chain, with exposure not only to its core uranium mining business but also with nuclear fuel services, like conversion and fuel fabrication. It's got a stake in the Bruce nuclear power plant as well as a newly bolted-on uranium trading business, so it's quite diversified. On top of that, Cameco pays a 2% dividend. We think it offers a very attractive risk/reward proposition at these levels.

5 Best Financial Stocks To Watch For 2014: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated(UNH)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated provides healthcare services in the United States. Its Health Benefits segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; and non-employer based insurance options for purchase by individuals. It also provides health and well-being services for individuals aged 50 and older; and for services dealing with chronic disease and other specialized issues for older individuals, as well as health plans for the beneficiaries of acute and long-term care Medicaid plans. This segment offers its services through a network of 730,000 physicians and other health care professionals, and 5,300 hospitals. Its OptumHealth segment provides health, financial, and ancillary services and products that assist consumers through personalized health management solutions; benefit administration, and clinical and network management; health-based financi al services; behavioral solutions; and specialty benefits, such as dental, vision, life, critical illness, short-term disability, and stop-loss product offerings. The company?s Ingenix segment offers database and data management services, software products, publications, consulting and actuarial services, business process outsourcing services, and pharmaceutical data consulting and research services. Its Prescription Solutions segment provides integrated pharmacy benefit management services comprising retail network pharmacy contracting and management, claims processing, mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy, benefit design consultation, rebate contracting and management, drug utilization review, formulary management programs, disease therapy management, and adherence programs to employer groups, union trusts, managed care organizations, Medicare-contracted plans, Medicaid plans, and third party administrators. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Minne tonka, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  However, the biggest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH  ) , doesn't cover obesity drugs as of yet. The company provides reimbursement for bariatric surgery in some cases but excludes coverage for prescription drugs or any other weight-loss medications.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: DRDGOLD Limited(DROOY)

DRDGOLD Limited engages in the exploration, extraction, processing, and smelting of gold in South Africa. It holds interests in the Blyvoor mine; and the Crown gold surface tailings retreatment facility that reprocesses sand and slimes dumps, as well as involves in the surface retreatment operations. The company was incorporated in 1895 and is based in Roodepoort, South Africa.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: The Travelers Companies Inc.(TRV)

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Business Insurance; Financial, Professional, and International Insurance; and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers property and casualty products and services, such as commercial multi-peril, property, general liability, commercial auto, and workers? compensation insurance. It operates in six groups: Select Accounts, which serves small businesses; Commercial Accounts that serves mid-sized businesses; National Accounts, which serves large companies; Industry-Focused Underwriting that serves targeted industries; Target Risk Underwriting, which serves commercial businesses requiring specialized product underwriting, claims handling, and risk management services; and Special ized Distribution that offers products to customers through licensed wholesale, general, and program agents. The Financial, Professional, and International Insurance segment provides surety and financial liability coverage, which uses a credit-based underwriting process; and property and casualty products primarily in the United States., the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals. It distributes its products through independent agents, sponsoring organizations, joint marketing arrangements with other insurers, and direct marketing. The company was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  The Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $2.07 per share on revenue of $5.74 billion.

  Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ: SIAL) is expected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.99 per share on revenue of $661.29 million.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Only four of the 30 Dow components are in the red today, including Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) , which has slipped 0.5%. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Jay Fishman said the company had "no excuses" for weak performance and wouldn't be blaming natural disasters and low bond yields. He pointed to raising rates as one way to increase profits, which could be great for shareholders -- though it could push customers to competitors. For now, investors are focusing on the downside potential.�

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: Cowen Group Inc.(COWN)

Cowen Group, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides alternative investment management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services for its clients. It manages separate client focused portfolio through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in equity and fixed income markets. It also invests in alternative investments markets through its subsidiaries. Cowen Group, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is based in New York, New York with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, Dallas, Texas, and San Francisco, California.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: CVS Corporation(CVS)

CVS Caremark Corporation operates as a pharmacy services company in the United States. The company?s Pharmacy Services segment provides a range of pharmacy benefit management services, including mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy services, plan design and administration, formulary management, and claims processing; and drug benefits to eligible beneficiaries under the Federal Government?s Medicare Part D program. This segment primarily serves employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, managed care organizations and other sponsors of health benefit plans, and individuals. As of December 31, 2010, it operated 44 retail specialty pharmacy stores, 18 specialty mail order pharmacies, and 4 mail service pharmacies located in 25 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. This segment operates business under the CVS Caremark Pharmacy Services, Caremark, CVS Caremark, CarePlus CVS/pharmacy, CarePlus, RxAmerica, Accordant, and TheraCom names. The company?s Retail Pharmacy segment sells prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards, and convenience foods through its pharmacy retail stores and online, as well as offers film and photo finishing, and health care services. This segment operated 7,182 retail drugstores located in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia; and 560 retail health care clinics in 26 states and the District of Columbia under the MinuteClinic name. It has a strategic alliance with Alere, L.L.C. for the management of disease management program offerings that cover chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease. CVS Caremark Corporation was founded in 1892 and is based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  William Vazquez, Pfizer/AP TRENTON, N.J. -- Men who are bashful about needing help in the bedroom no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill. In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. (PFE) told The Associated Press that the drugmaker will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website. Men still will need a prescription to buy the blue, diamond-shaped pill on viagra.com, but they no longer have to face a pharmacist to get it filled. And for those who are bothered by Viagra's steep $25-a-pill price, Pfizer is offering three free pills with the first order and 30 percent off the second one. Pfizer's bold move blows up the drug industry's distribution model. Drugmakers don't sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices. But the world's second-largest drugmaker is trying a new strategy to tackle a problem that plagues the industry. Unscrupulous online pharmacies increasingly offer patients counterfeit versions of Viagra and other brand-name drugs for up to 95 percent off with no prescription needed. Patients don't realize the drugs are fake or that legitimate pharmacies require a prescription. Other major drugmakers likely will watch Pfizer's move closely. If it works, drugmakers could begin selling other medicines that are rampantly counterfeited and sold online, particularly treatments for non-urgent conditions seen as embarrassing. Think: diet drugs, medicines for baldness and birth control pills. "If it works, everybody will hop on the train," says Les Funtleyder, a health care strategist at private equity fund Poliwogg who believes Pfizer's site will attract "fence-sitters" who are nervous about buying online. The online Viagra sales are Pfizer's latest effort to combat a problem that has grown with the popularity of the Internet. In recent years, Americans have becom

• [By Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  Rite Aid also faces particular challenges as the smallest of the three major pharmacy chains. Walgreen and CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS  ) already offer much broader pharmacy networks than Rite Aid and have ample capital to expand onto Rite Aid's turf, whereas Rite Aid is shrinking. This process could lead to a growing cost gap that would hurt Rite Aid's long-term competitiveness.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  CVS has been a steady performer through the years. It�� also a company that takes care of its shareholders and has a strong history of beating earnings. These trends are likely to remain in place over the long haul. As far as CVS vs. Walgreen, Walgreen has outperformed CVS by a wide margin on an all-time basis. However, in recent years, the stocks have delivered similar performances. Therefore, it�� a wash.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: AeroVironment Inc.(AVAV)

AeroVironment, Inc. designs, develops, produces, and supports unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and efficient energy systems for various industries and governmental agencies. Its UAS provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, including real-time tactical reconnaissance, tracking, combat assessment, and geographic data to the small tactical unit or individual war fighter. The UAS wirelessly transmit critical live video and other information generated by their payload of electro-optical or infrared sensors directly to a hand-held ground control system, enabling the operator to view and capture images during the day or at night on a hand-held ground control unit. AeroVironment also provides spare equipment, alternative payload modules, batteries, chargers, repair services, and customer support for the UAS. In addition, the company produces industrial productivity and clean transportation solutions for commercial and government customers, develops potential clean t ransportation solutions, and performs contract engineering services; offers PosiCharge electric vehicle charging systems for industrial electric material handling fleets, electric vehicle charging systems for passenger and fleet vehicles, and power cycling and test systems for developers and manufacturers of plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as battery packs, electric motors, and fuel cells; and supplies power cycling and test systems to research and development organizations that focus on developing electric propulsion systems, electric generation systems, and electricity storage systems. It supplies its UAS primarily to the organizations within the United States department of defense. AeroVironment, Inc. was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Monrovia, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV  )
  Shifting over the implications of this news for automotive investments, the key attraction for AeroVironment investors (aside from selling UAVs into an Afghan war that's winding down) has been the company's "PosiCharge" electric-car battery recharging technology. AV says it beats all comers with the ability to recharge a lithium ion battery pack in mere minutes. But if Khare's invention bears fruit, and battery recharge times begin getting measured in seconds, AV's raison d' etre could vanish.

• [By Rich Smith]

  President Obama just released his 2014 proposed defense budget -- and it's chock-full of nada for investors in the fledgling drone/unmanned aerial vehicle industry. What does the lack of funding for drones portend for such manufacturers as General Atomics, Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC  ) , �AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV  ) , and Textron (NYSE: TXT  ) ?

• [By Rich Smith]

  California-based AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV  ) continues its relentless march -- or the airborne equivalent of a march -- to raking in every last cent of the $65.5 million the Pentagon has awarded it to produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the U.S. Army.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc.(WEN)

The Wendy's Company operates as a quick-service hamburger company in the United States. The company, through its subsidiary, Wendy's International, Inc., operates as a franchisor of the Wendy's restaurant system. As of December 26, 2011, the Wendy's system comprised approximately 6,500 franchise and company restaurants in the United States and the United States territories, as well as in 26 other countries worldwide. The company was formerly known as Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc. and changed its name to The Wendy's Company in July 2011. The Wendy's Company was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another under-$10 stock that's starting to move within range of triggering a major breakout trade is Wendy's (WEN), which operates quick-service restaurants specializing in hamburger sandwiches throughout the U.S. This stock has been on fire so far in 2013, with shares up sharply by 57%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Wendy's, you'll notice that this stock has been trending sideways and consolidating for the last two months, with shares moving between $8.11 on the downside and $8.88 on the upside. This consolidation has been occurring just above WEN's 50-day moving average of $8.23 a share. Shares of WEN are now starting to spike higher and move within range of triggering a major breakout trade above the upper-end of its recent range.

  Market players should now look for long-biased trades in WEN if it manages to break out above its 52-week high at $8.88 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 6.61 million shares. If that breakout hits soon, then WEN will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets of that breakout are $12 to $15 a share.

  Traders can look to buy WEN off weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its 50-day moving average at $8.23 a share, or below more support at $8.11 a share. One can also buy WEN off strength once it clears its 52-week high at $8.88 a share with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: First Busey Corporation(BUSE)

First Busey Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Busey Bank that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services to individual, corporate, institutional, and governmental customers in the United States. It accepts noninterest-bearing demand, interest-bearing transaction, savings, money market, and time deposits. The company?s loan portfolio includes commercial, agricultural, and real estate loans; individual, consumer, installment, first mortgage, and second mortgage loans; and commercial real estate, residential real estate, and consumer loans. It also provides money transfer, safe deposit, fiduciary, automated banking, and automated fund transfer services. In addition, the company provides asset management, brokerage, and fiduciary services, including financial planning, investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and trust and estate advisory services to individuals; investment management, business succession planning, an d employee retirement plan services to businesses; and investment management, investment strategy consulting, and fiduciary services to foundations. Further, it offers pay processing solutions, such as walk-in payments processing for payments delivered by customers to retail pay agents; online bill payment solutions for payments made by customers on a billing company?s Website; customer service payments for payments accepted over the telephone; direct debit services; electronic concentration of payments delivered by the automated clearing house network; money management software and credit card networks; and lockbox remittance processing of payments delivered by mail. The company has 33 locations in Illinois, 7 locations in southwest Florida, and 1 location in Indianapolis, Indiana. First Busey Corporation was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois.