I went out on a limb last week, and now it's time to see how that decision played out.
I predicted that Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD ) would close higher on the week. I thought the turnaround story at the drugstore chain has been validated with every passing quarter, and even though the stock was already at a five-year high, I believed that Thursday's quarterly report would be enough to push the retailer higher. Rite Aid did come through with better-than -xpected results, but it's hard to impress the market when the Dow is getting slammed. After closing higher on Monday, Rite Aid shares proceeded to head lower every single day after that. I was wrong. I predicted that the tech-heavy Nasdaq would outperform the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) . This has been a tricky call lately, so how did it play out this time? Well, the market closed sharply lower this week. The Nasdaq moved 1.9% lower, but the Dow managed to close just 1.8% lower. I was wrong. My final call was for Kroger (NYSE: KR ) to beat Wall Street's income estimates in its latest quarter. The supermarket operator has been posting blowout quarterly results over the past year, and I was banking on seeing the trend continue. Analysts were looking for a profit of $0.88 a share during the quarter, and it came through with net income of $0.92 a share. I was right.One out of three? Bummer! I can do better than that.
10 Best Defense Stocks To Own Right Now: Datawatch Corporation(DWCH)
Datawatch Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and support of business computer software products primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company?s products include Monarch 11, a desktop reporting and data analysis application that allows users to extract and manipulate data from ASCII report files, PDF files, or HTML files; Monarch Data Pump, a data replication and migration tool, which provides information delivery and data extract, and transform and load capabilities in one automated solution; and Monarch Enterprise Server that offers Web-enabled report storage, transformation, and distribution, including data analysis, visualization, and MS Excel integration. It also offers Monarch RMS, a Web-based report analytics solution that integrates with existing enterprise content management system; Monarch Report Manager on Demand, a document archive system that stores text, images, intelligent data streams, and unstructur ed content with file compression and encryption; and Datawatch Dashboards, an interactive dashboard solution that gives various levels of users a visual overview of operational performance, as well as the ability to monitor specific business processes and events. In addition, the company provides iMergence iStore, a report management solution, which manages computer-generated reports, mines the data contained in them, and allows users to interactively merge and transform them into new reports; Visual QSM, a Web-enabled IT service management system that incorporates workflow and network management capabilities, and provides Web access to multiple databases while enabling customers to interact through browser; and Visual Help Desk, which offers Web-based help desk and call center solutions. It sells its products through direct sales force, value added resellers, and distributors. Datawatch Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By James Oberweis]
Steve Halpern: We're conducting a series of interviews with the top performing advisors from last year's Top Picks Report. This past year, your top stock pick, Datawatch (DWCH) rose more than 150%. Congratulations on that.
- [By Sean Williams]
A clouded future
With cost-cutting and operational efficiency being the name of the game for most tech companies in this uncertain growth environment, companies like Datawatch (NASDAQ: DWCH ) , which provides information optimization for enterprise networks, are thriving.
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Watch For 2014: Southwest Airlines Co (LUV)
Southwest Airlines Co., incorporated on March 9, 1967, operates Southwest Airlines, a passenger airline, which provides scheduled air transportation in the United States. As of December 31, 2011, the Company was serving 72 cities in 37 states throughout the United States. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company added addition services in two new states and three new cities: Charleston, South Carolina; Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Newark, New Jersey. Southwest provides point-to-point. On May 2, 2011, the Company acquired AirTran Holdings, Inc. (AirTran).
AirTran�� route system provides hub-and-spoke, rather than point-to-point, service, with approximately half of AirTran�� flights originating or terminating at its hub in Atlanta, Georgia. AirTran also serves a range of markets with non-stop service from bases of operation in Baltimore, Maryland; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Orlando, Florida. As of December 31, 2011, AirTran was serving 68 United States and near-international destinations, including San Juan, Puerto Rico; Cancun, Mexico; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Nassau, The Bahamas; Oranjestad, Aruba; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and Bermuda. As of January 31, 2012, AirTran served 65 destinations. During 2011, approximately 71% of Southwest�� customers flew non-stop, and Southwest�� average aircraft trip stage length was 664 miles with an average duration of approximately 1.8 hours.
As of December 31, 2011, Southwest offered 25 weekday roundtrips from Dallas Love Field to Houston Hobby, 13 weekday roundtrips from Phoenix to Las Vegas, 13 weekday roundtrips from Burbank to Oakland, and 12 weekday roundtrips from Los Angeles International to Oakland. Southwest offers connecting service opportunities from over 60 Southwest cities to different Volaris airports in Mexico including Aguascalientes, Guadalajara, Mexico City (MEX), Mexico City-Toluca (TLC), Morelia, and Zacatecas. The Company�� International Connect portal conducts two separate transac! tions: one with Southwest�� reservation system and one with Volaris�� reservation system.
Southwest bundles fares into three categories: Wanna Get Away, Anytime, and Business Select. Wanna Get Away fares are lowest fares. Business Select fares are refundable and changeable, and funds may be applied toward future travel on Southwest. Business Select fares also include additional perks, such as priority boarding, a frequent flyer point multiplier, priority security and ticket counter access in select airports, and one complimentary adult beverage coupon for the day of travel. The Company�� Internet Website, southwest.com, is the avenue for Southwest Customers to purchase tickets online. During 2011, southwest.com accounted for approximately 78% of all Southwest bookings. During 2011, approximately 84% of Southwest�� Passenger revenues came through its Website, including revenues from SWABIZ, the Company�� business travel reservation Web page.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Getty ImagesAruba is one of Southwest's new destinations. At the beginning of July, Southwest Airlines (LUV) did something it hadn't previously done in its 43 years of existence: It landed a Southwest-branded commercial flight in a foreign country. Its move abroad is a departure for the carrier, which over the decades built a reputation as a charmingly low-frills airline flying only domestic routes. In a tough industry, it's done well with this business profile, so why is it starting to go overseas now? International Income Domestic air travel is growing relatively slowly. In 2013, total passenger numbers for intra-U.S. voyages rose by less than 1 percent on a year-over-year basis, and just over 4 percent from 2009 to 2013. Those growth numbers for international travel, meanwhile, were 3 percent and 17 percent, respectively. American Airlines Group (AAL) brought in around 40 percent of its total $23 billion or so in passenger revenues from international flights in fiscal 2013. United Continental (UAL) doesn't break down its take by domestic versus international hauling. It does, however, admit that for June its revenue passenger miles (a key figure of total paying customer volume) for domestic flights totaled 8.36 billion, while that for international came in at 8.40 billion -- an almost exact 50/50 split. Cheaper Caribbean Southwest plans to use its famous discounts to win business for its new routes -- the nearby vacation destinations of Jamaica, the Bahamas and Aruba. For example, booking one of Southwest's round-trip, nonstop flights from Atlanta to Montego Bay, Jamaica, for midweek departure and return in September at the lowest available fare recently brought up a ticket for just under $300. The cheapest option for a nonstop round trip for the same dates on Priceline Group's (PCLN) Kayak booking engine was a bit over $400 from Delta (DAL). That was similar to the price returned from a search on the airline's own site. Meanwhile, Priceline's propr
- [By Ben Levisohn]
While we suspect some investors may be cautious following the strong performance of airline stocks over the past 12��4 months, we believe there is significant runway remaining. It is important to note that despite the major consolidations that have been announced over the past five years, only one merger ��Delta-Northwest ��has been fully implemented, while remaining combinations ��Southwest (LUV)-AirTran, United-Continental, and U.S. Airways-American Airlines (AAL) ��are in various stages of achieving synergies. We expect the primary benefits of consolidation to be: (1) a more favorable pricing environment, (2) reduced risk of irrational pricing, and (3) an improved ability to use ancillary revenues to affect passenger fares and further mitigate fuel cost risk.
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Watch For 2014: HealthStream Inc (HSTM)
HealthStream, Inc. (HealthStream), incorporated in September 27, 1990, provides Internet-based learning and research solutions for healthcare organizations. The Company�� learning products are used by healthcare organizations to meet a range of their training, certification, and development needs, while its research products provide the customers information about patients��experiences, workforce engagement, physician relations, and community perceptions of their services. HealthStream�� products and services are organized into two segments: HealthStream Learning and HealthStream Research. HealthStream�� customers include healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and other participants in the healthcare industry. Its customer base across both learning and research business units includes over 3,000 healthcare organizations (predominately acute-care facilities) throughout all 50 states of the United States. In March 2014, the Company acquired Health Care Compliance Strategies, Inc., a Jericho, New York-based company focused on interactive and engaging online compliance training for healthcare organizations.
The Company�� core learning product is the HealthStream Learning Center (HLC), its learning platform provided through the Internet through software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. As of December 31, 2012, HealthStream had approximately 3.1 million contracted, primarily hospital-based subscribers, to the HLC platform. It delivers educational and training courseware to its customers through the HLC platform. Its research products and service offerings include satisfaction surveys, data analyses of survey results, and other research-based measurement tools focused on patients, physicians, employees, and members of the community. The Company�� core research product is the Patient Insights survey.
HealthStream Learning & Talent Management
Within HealthStream Learning & Talent Management, the Company brings training, assessment and! education content together with administrative and management tools through its HLC , HCC, and HPC. It also offers a more streamlined version of the HLC, HealthStream Express, along with HealthStream Connect, a content delivery platform that is designed for the singular purpose of allowing access to its content libraries. These content libraries allow HLC platform customers to subscribe to an array of additional courseware. Additionally, through its Hospital Direct capability in the HLC, medical device companies can offer online training support for their products and sponsor continuing education directly to healthcare workers.
The Company�� learning management system supports healthcare administrators in configuring training to meet the needs of various groups of employees, modifying training materials, and documenting training completion. It offer training, implementation, and account management services to facilitate adoption of its platform. Offered via a SaaS model, its Internet-based platform and its courseware are hosted in a central data center that allows authorized subscribers Internet access to its services.
In addition to the HLC, the Company offers an array of platform extensions, each serving a function for hospitals and health systems. The Authoring Center is a platform extension that provides healthcare organizations the capability to create Internet-based courses by moving their existing course material online or self-authoring new material and electively sharing these materials with its other customers through a courseware exchange. It also offers Authoring Pro, an upgraded product, which includes a licensed image library, as an additional subscription to this product. The HealthStream Competency Center (HCC) is its SaaS-based platform extension for competency management solution for healthcare organizations, provides customers tools to assess competency and appraise performance.
SimCenter, the Company�� platform extension offer products and ! services ! focused on accelerating the global adoption of simulation-based learning by healthcare providers with a focus on improving clinical competencies and patient outcomes. The new venture offers healthcare organizations and medical and nursing schools worldwide a range of integrated SaaS applications that accelerate development and distribution of simulation content; enable enterprise-wide management of simulation centers, simulators, and programs, and support assessment of the effectiveness of simulation training as part of complete curricula.
The HealthStream Improvement Center is a SaaS-based platform extension related to its research offering. This extension is an online system for hospital leaders to optimize and accelerate the execution of improvement plans, including those based on results from its patient, employee, physician, and community surveys. The Improvement Center, a licensed technology, is one of a number of solutions from HealthStream Research that include a line of survey products, national benchmarks, HCAHPS Improvement Library, consulting services, and other support tools.
HealthStream Research
HealthStream Research complements HealthStream Learning�� product and service offerings by providing hospital-based customers with Patient Insights, Employee Insights, Physician Insights, and Community Insights surveys, data analyses of survey results, and other research-based measurement tools. Its services are designed to provide thorough analyses that provide insightful recommendations for change; benchmarking capability using its databases, and consulting services to identify solutions for its customers based on their survey results. Its survey and research solutions focus on providing valid data to assist its customers. In addition to collecting and reporting data, the Company provides analysis and consulting to help customers understand their survey results and the underlying impact on their business. It is with this insight that healthcare organizati! ons are a! ble to develop plans for improved performance that can be delivered through its learning solutions.
The Company competes with Cornerstone OnDemand, Healthcare Source, Oracle, SABA, SAP, SumTotal Systems, Avatar International, Gallup, National Research Corporation, Press Ganey Associates, Professional Research Consultants, Inc., Kenexa, Foresight, B-Line Medical, CAE/Meti, and EMS
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Healthstream (Nasdaq: HSTM ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Sean Williams]
What: Shares of HealthStream (NASDAQ: HSTM ) , an Internet-based talent management company that provides learning solutions to the health care industry, jumped as much as 16% after the company reported its second-quarter earnings results.
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Watch For 2014: National Retail Properties (NNN)
National Retail Properties, Inc. is a publicly owned equity real estate investment trust. The firm acquires, owns, manages, and develops retail properties in the United States. It provides complete turn-key and built-to-suit development services including market analysis, site selection and acquisition, entitlements, permitting, and construction management. The firm also focuses on purchasing and financing net-leased retail properties. It was formerly known as Commercial Net Lease Realty, Inc. National Retail Properties was founded in August 1984 and is based in Orlando, Florida.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Burrows]
Here are the three dependable dividend stocks that are up at least 10% year-to-date, as of Feb. 11:
Dependable Dividend Stocks: National Retail Properties (NNN)Dividend Yield: 4.9%
YTD Gain: 10% - [By Charles Sizemore]
ARCP has a shorter trading history than some of its peers, such as Realty Income (O) and National Retail Properties (NNN), which largely explains why its yield is higher. As a relatively new REIT, ARCP stock is largely unfollowed by investors. But once its merger with Cole Properties (COLE) is completed, ARCP will be the largest trip-net REIT by market cap and total square footage, and it will no longer be flying under Wall Street�� radar.
- [By Brad Thomas]
Other REITs mentioned: (O), (NNN), (STAG), (DCT), (EGP), (PDM), (DRE), (LRY)
Source: Chambers Street: More Liquidity Magic On The Way In REIT-DomDisclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Watch For 2014: QAD Inc. (QADB)
QAD Inc. provides enterprise software applications, and related services and support for manufacturing companies worldwide. The company offers QAD Enterprise Applications, an integrated suite of software applications, which support the business processes. Its QAD Enterprise Applications include suites, such as QAD Financials to manage and control fiscal business processes at various levels; QAD Customer Management suite for manufacturers to acquire new customers and retain customers through service and support; QAD Manufacturing that offers solutions in the areas of planning and scheduling, cost management, material control, shop floor control, and reporting in various mixed-mode manufacturing environments; and QAD Supply Chain that fulfills materials planning and logistics requirements. The QAD Enterprise Applications also comprise QAD Service and Support product suite that handles service calls, manages service queues, and organizes mobile field resources, as well as pro vides project management support; QAD Enterprise Asset Management for managing assets from inception through operations and replacement; QAD Supply Chain Execution that provides capabilities to manage execution throughout a company�s supply chain; QAD Analytics that helps customers in analyses, decision-making, and performance management; and QAD QXtend toolset for open interoperability. The company also provides customer support and professional services. In addition, it operates QAD Store that enables customers to obtain information and to access updated software and add-on products. It serves automotive, consumer products, food and beverage, high technology, industrial products, and life sciences industries. The company sells its products directly; and through distributors and sales agents. QAD Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
QAD (NASDAQ: QADB) shares gained 4.23% to reach a new 52-week high of $18.00 on Q4 results.
McEwen Mining (NYSE: MUX) shares rose 5.93% to touch a new 52-week high of $3.72 after the company reported 4 updated reserve & resource estimate at the San Jose mine in Argentina.
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Watch For 2014: Koss Corporation(KOSS)
Koss Corporation, together with its subsidiary, Koss Classics Ltd., designs, manufactures, and sells stereo headphones and related accessories primarily in the United States and Europe. It offers a line of high-fidelity stereo headphones, speaker-phones, computer headsets, telecommunications headsets, active noise canceling stereo headphones, wireless stereo headphones, and compact disc recordings of American Symphony Orchestras under the Koss Classics label. The company sells its products through national retailers, international distributors, audio specialty stores, the Internet, direct mail catalogs, regional department store chains, discount department stores, military exchanges, and prisons under the Koss name. It also sells its products to distributors for resale to school systems, and directly to other manufacturers. The company was founded in 1953 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Yesterday after the market closed, small cap audio stock Skullcandy Inc (NASDAQ: SKUL) reported earnings and began rising in after hours trading, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with the performance of other audio stocks like mid cap Harman International Industries Inc (NYSE: HAR) and small caps Koss Corporation (NASDAQ: KOSS) and Parametric Sound Corp (NASDAQ: PAMT). I should mention that in�late 2012, Skullcandy had the dubious distinction of being the market�� most shorted stock (see: Long Live the Shorts or the Short Squeeze? SKUL, AM & UBNT) with short�interest of 86.47% and there would still be a lot of shorts out there who might start feeling the squeeze (Note: SKUL is at least no longer on the HighShortInterest.com list)
- [By Jason Rivera]
Koss Corporation (KOSS) was no different because after looking over its balance sheet and profitability numbers I found substantial NOLs, little debt and reasonable profitability levels which usually are good signs that the company may be a good investment if the company is undervalued. This however is not an article about a company that I will ever invest in due to it being a grossly overvalued, dying company, which has major management concerns.
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Watch For 2014: Embarr Downs Inc (EMBR)
Embarr Downs, Inc. is a development-stage company. The Company's business is the buying, selling and racing of thoroughbreds that can race in the allowance and stakes levels of thoroughbred racing. The Company intends to acquire 4-6 horses in its claiming division before acquiring horses for its allowance/stakes division. These 4-6 horses will provide the Company with revenue and a foundation to build out a stakes level stable. The Company�� main focus will be acquiring horses that will be capable of racing in stake races throughout the Country. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap stocks IDGlobal Corp (OTCMKTS: IDGC), Embarr Downs Inc (OTCMKTS: EMBR) and SourcingLink.net, Inc (OTCMKTS: SNET) have been getting some extra attention in various investment newsletters or investor alerts lately as at least two of these stocks have been the subject of paid promotions or other types of investor relations activities. Of course, there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed promotions or investor relations activities. But just how hot are these two small cap stocks? Here is a closer look and a quick reality check:
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