Charles Schwab & Co.’s chief investment strategist, Liz Ann Sonders, gave a generally positive address Sunday to Schwab Advisor Services' assembled advisors on the U.S. economy and markets Sunday evening.
She jokingly bristled over those who call her a “perma-bull,” though she admitted to having been generally bullish “since 2009.” Following Potomac Research strategist Greg Valliere’s politically focused speech at Schwab Impact 2013’s preconference session in Washington, Sonders delivered her assessment that “the market is quite cheap,” and that its outperformance last year and this one was “primarily because of corporate earnings” rather than the consensus view that the Fed’s quantitative easing was the prime driver of strong market performance.
Looking at the economy now, she said that the third-quarter GDP report was “better than expected,” noting in particular that consumer spending’s share of GDP fell in the quarter to 68% from the 71% reported in the second quarter. However, she also said that the government’s share of GDP remained stubbornly high, and that “government spending still needs to be deleveraged.”
Hot Long Term Companies For 2015: Walter Bau AG (WTB)
Walter Bau AG is an international construction group based in Augsburg, southern Germany. The Company's core construction-related services are planning, financing, project development and facilities management. It is active in the fields of turnkey construction, civil engineering, international construction and transportation infrastructure. Its subsidiary, DYWIDAG-Systems International markets the Company's products and systems worldwide, particularly in the field of post-tensioning and geotechnics, as well as special civil engineering processes. Walter Bau also provides operation and financing solutions, as well as developing commercial and residential real estate projects. Facilities Management is offered by DYWIDAG Service GmbH. Its Logistics Competence Center in Augsburg bundles the Company's Germany-wide activities as a general contractor in the planning, construction and support of distribution centers. The Company commenced insolvency proceedings in April 2005. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Namitha Jagadeesh]
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Rio Tinto Group, the world�� biggest mining companies, fell at least 3 percent. Whitbread Plc (WTB) dropped 2.8 percent after UBS AG downgraded the owner of the Costa Coffee chain. British Land Co., the U.K.�� second-largest real estate investment trust, advanced 1.2 percent after saying it bought commercial property in London for 470 million pounds ($707 million).
Top 10 Gas Utility Companies To Own In Right Now: Dril-Quip Inc. (DRQ)
Dril-Quip, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered offshore drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. It operates in three segments: Western Hemisphere, Eastern Hemisphere, and Asia-Pacific. The company’s principal products consist of subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, subsea control systems and manifolds, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipe, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, and diverters. Its products are used for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms; tension leg platforms, which are floating production platforms connected to the ocean floor via vertical mooring tethers; Spars, a floating cylindrical structure; and floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels, as well as to explore for oil and gas from offshore drillin g rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs. The company also provides services, including technical advisory services, rework and reconditioning services, and rental of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products. It primarily serves integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as offshore drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. Dril-Quip, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Dril-Quip (NYSE: DRQ) was also on the rise, gaining 12.27 percent to $107.68 after the company's fourth quarter report impressed the street.
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Endologix (NASDAQ: ELGX) were down 24.85 percent to $13.43 on lowered guidance, analyst downgrades. Oppenheimer downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform and cut the price target from $20.00 to $16.00. - [By Ben Levisohn]
While Schlumberger has a free-cash-flow yield of about 3.5%, Cameron International’s (CAM) and Dril-Quip’s (DRQ) are just over 3% and�FMC Technologies‘ (FTI) is just under 3%. Halliburton (HAL) has a free-cash-flow yield of just over 1%.
- [By Michael Fitzsimmons]
General Electric's (GE) Oil & Gas division is on fire and growing much faster than the rest of the company. Yet it is such a small part of the company, its valuation is being diluted by GE's other businesses. However, the company has a cash hoard and CEO Jeff Immelt has spoken frequently about his desire to grow the industrial base while reducing the size of GE Capital. As a result, the best way to invest in GE Oil's & Gas business may be to invest companies which GE is likely to takeover. Two likely candidates are the Dresser Rand Corp. (DRC) and Dril-Quip (DRQ).
Top 10 Gas Utility Companies To Own In Right Now: Humboldt Capital Corp (HMB)
Humboldt Capital Corporation (Humboldt) is an investment company with its holdings concentrated in the resource sector. The Company�� principal business is to purchase securities for investment income and capital appreciation over the long term. The Company provides early-stage risk capital, business experience and guidance to junior oil and gas enterprises. Humboldt is engaged in making investments in a range of very small to large companies, which are in turn engaged in the exploration, development, production and acquisition of crude oil and natural gas or minerals, or companies, which provides services to such companies. Humboldt also makes investments in other businesses that have potential for growth. Humboldt has investments in western Canadian energy companies, international oil and gas companies and in the mining sector, with particular emphasis on companies exploring or producing commodities. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tom Stoukas]
Ladbrokes (LAD) Plc plunged to its lowest price in almost a year after issuing a profit warning for its digital division. Thomas Cook Group Plc slid 6.6 percent after it said winter bookings have slowed. Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMB), Europe�� second-biggest clothing retailer, rose to its highest price after posting third-quarter profit that beat analysts��estimates.
Top 10 Gas Utility Companies To Own In Right Now: Aqua America Inc.(WTR)
Aqua America, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water or wastewater services in the United States. The company serves residential, commercial, fire protection, industrial, and other water and wastewater customers in Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Florida, Indiana, Virginia, Maine, Missouri, and Georgia. It also provides water and wastewater services through operating and maintenance contracts with municipal authorities and other parties, as well as sludge hauling, septage and grease services, and backflow prevention services. The company was formerly known as Philadelphia Suburban Corporation and changed its name to Aqua America, Inc. in 2004. Aqua America, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Vita Nelson]
Our latest featured dividend reinvestment idea is Aqua America (WTR). Founded in 1968, and headquartered in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Aqua America operates regulated utilities that provide water or wastewater services in the United States.
- [By Justin Loiseau]
Is Aqua dried up?
Aqua America (NYSE: WTR ) announced this week that Chairman, President, and CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis recently sold around $3 million worth of shares. Management stock sales usually make Wall Street worry that the top dogs know something Mr. Market doesn't. If corporate executives sell stock, they may believe their company is overvalued -- or they may know there's trouble ahead.
Top 10 Gas Utility Companies To Own In Right Now: Tableau Software Inc (DATA)
Tableau Software, Inc., incorporated on July 19, 2004, is a computer software company. The Company�� products are used by people across all kinds of organizations, including Fortune 500 corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies, universities, research institutions and non-profits. Organizations employ its products in a range of use cases, such as increasing sales, streamlining operations, improving customer service, managing investments, assessing quality and safety, studying and treating diseases, completing academic research, addressing environmental problems and improving education. The Company�� product helps a single user on a laptop analyze data from a simple spreadsheet, or to enable thousands of users across an enterprise to execute queries against databases.
The Company�� technology includes VizQL and its Hybrid Data Architecture. VizQL, translates drag-and-drop actions into data queries and then expresses that information visually. VizQL unifies the formerly disparate tasks of query and visualization and allows users to transform questions into pictures without the need for software scripts, chart wizards or dialogue boxes that inhibit speed and flexibility. The Company�� Hybrid Data Architecture combines the power and flexibility of its Live Query and In-Memory Data Engines. The Company�� Live Query Engine allows users to instantaneously connect to volumes of data in its existing format and location, reducing the need for time-consuming data transformation processes that only technical specialists can perform. In addition, this capability allows customers to leverage investments in their existing data platforms and to capitalize on the capabilities of high performance databases. The Company�� In-Memory Data Engine enables users to import amounts of data into its own in-memory database.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tim Beyers]
Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA ) , one of this year's most exciting new IPOs, burst onto the scene with two straight days of surging stock prices. There's much to like about the business of data visualization, so keep an eye on this stock.
Top 10 Gas Utility Companies To Own In Right Now: Total System Services Inc.(TSS)
Total System Services, Inc. provides electronic payment processing and other services to card-issuing and merchant acquiring institutions. The company offers issuer account solutions, including processing the card application, initiating service for the cardholder, processing each card transaction for the issuing retailer or financial institution, and accumulating the account's transactions; fraud management services; and other services, such as customized communications to cardholders, and information verification associated with granting credit, debt collection, and customer service. It also provides merchant processing and related services that comprise processing various payment forms, such as credit, debit, prepaid, electronic benefit transfer, and electronic check; authorization and capture of transactions; clearing and settlement of transactions; information reporting services related to transactions; merchant billing services; and point-of-sale equipment sales and service. In addition, the company offers issuer and merchant card solutions. Total System Services, Inc. provides its services through online accounting and electronic payment processing systems. It operates primarily in the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Asia Pacific, and Brazil. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Columbus, Georgia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jane Edmondson]
One additional item of note: the stock has been a rumored take-out candidate since another large competitor, NetSpend (NTSP), received an offer to be acquired in February by global payment solutions provider TSYS (TSS).
Top 10 Gas Utility Companies To Own In Right Now: iShares Transportation Average ETF (IYT)
iShares Dow Jones Transportation Average Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the transportation sector of the United States equity market, and includes companies in primary groups, such as airlines, trucking, railroads, air freight, transportation services and industrial services.
The Index is subset of the Dow Jones U.S Total Market Index. The components stocks are weighted based on the price of the component securities, with the highest priced securities generally having higher weighting in the Index. The Index is adjusted to reflect changes in capitalization resulting from mergers, acquisitions, stock rights, substitutions and other capital events. The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Chad Fraser] 2013 was a strong year for railroad stocks: the iShares Transportation ETF (NYSE: IYT), about the closest you can get to a gauge for the industry (roughly 30% of the fund’s portfolio is devoted to railway operators) gained 39% during the year.
That’s miles ahead of the Dow Jones Industrials (up 26%) and the S&P 500 (up 29%).
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