Top 10 Construction Material Companies To Own For 2015

Top 10 Construction Material Companies To Own For 2015: Texas Industries Inc (TXI)

Texas Industries, Inc., incorporated on April 19, 1951, is a supplier of construction materials in the southwestern United States. The Company operates in three segments: cement, aggregates and consumer products. Its cement segment produces gray portland cement and specialty cements. The Companys cement production and distribution facilities are concentrated primarily in Texas and California. Its aggregates segment produces natural aggregates, including sand, gravel and crushed limestone. The Companys consumer products segment produces ready-mix concrete. It is also a supplier of natural aggregates and ready-mix concrete in Texas and northern Louisiana and in Oklahoma and Arkansas. As of May 31, 2013, the Company had 123 manufacturing facilities in five states.

Cement Segment

The Company produces specialty cements, such as masonry and oil well cements. Its cement production facilities are located at Midlothian, Texas, south of Dallas/Fort Wo rth, Hunter, Texas, between Austin and San Antonio, and Oro Grande, California, near Los Angeles. It also operates a cement terminal and packaging facility at its Crestmore plant near Riverside, California, and the Company operates its gray portland cement grinding facility on an as needed basis. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013), it produced approximately 4.3 million tons of finished cement. The Company shipped approximately 4.4 million tons during fiscal 2013, of which 3.8 million tons were shipped to outside trade customers.

Aggregates Segment

The Companys operations are conducted from facilities primarily serving the Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin areas in Texas; the southern Oklahoma area, and the Alexandria and Monroe areas in Louisiana. The Company produced approximately 14.2 million tons of natural aggregates during fiscal 2013. It shipped approximately 14.8 million tons of natural aggregates ! during fiscal 2013, of whi ch 11.3 million tons were shipped to outside trade customers! . The Company shipped approximately 1.0 million cubic yards of lightweight aggregates during fiscal 2013, of which approximately 0.9 million cubic yards were shipped to outside trade customers.

Consumer Products Segment

The Companys ready-mix concrete operations are situated in three areas in Texas (the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area of north Texas, the Austin area of central Texas and from Beaumont to Texarkana in east Texas), in north and central Louisiana, and in southwestern Arkansas. It is also a 40% partner in a joint venture that has ready mix concrete operations in the northern part of central Texas area centered around Waco, Texas. It shipped approximately 2.8 million cubic yards of ready-mix concrete during fiscal 2013. The Company manufacture and supply a substantial amount of the cement and aggregates raw materials used by our ready-mix plants. The Company also marketed its Maximizer packaged concrete mixes in southern California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Fox Rubin]

  Building materials company Texas Industries Inc.(TXI) is considering a sale, Bloomberg News reported, citing three people familiar with knowledge of the matter. Shares of the company jumped 12% premarket to $65.50.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI  )
  In spite of the steady rebound in the construction industry, certain companies look predisposed to underperform. Take Texas Industries as a perfect example. It provides heavy construction aggregates to the commercial construction industry while also acting a cement supplier to the consumer segment. Although its orders, and even to some remote extent its pricing power for cement, has improved modestly as the housing sector has rebounded, Texas Industries is still turning only marginal profits. In fact, looking toward next year you'd see a forward P/E approaching 500!

• ! [By Monic! a Gerson]

  Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI) is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.01 per share on revenue of $233.63 million.

  National American University Holdings (NASDAQ: NAUH) is projected to post a Q1 loss at $0.01 per share on revenue of $30.58 million.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-10-construction-material-companies-to-own-for-2015.html

Valeant's latest Allergan bid tops $53 billion

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has sweetened its offer to buy Botox maker Allergan for the second time this week.

The Canadian drugmaker said Friday it will now offer $72 and a portion of its stock for each Allergan share. That's up from an offer of $58.30 per share that Valeant extended on Wednesday.

The latest bid could be worth more than $53 billion, based on Thursday's closing price for U.S.-traded shares of Valeant. But it's contingent on Allergan engaging in a prompt, good-faith negotiation of a merger agreement, Valeant said.

Shares in Allergan, based in Irvine, California, jumped nearly 6 percent in afternoon trading Friday, while Valeant shares added 1.6 percent.

Earlier this month, Allergan rejected an offer of nearly $46 billion, saying it undervalued the company. On Wednesday, Valeant increased its initial bid, throwing in a contingent value right worth up to $25 per share, based on future sales of a potential eye treatment.

Allergan responded by issuing a statement saying it would consider the unsolicited, revised offer.

As part of Friday's offer, Pershing Square Capital Management, Allergan's largest shareholder, agreed to receive no cash if the deal goes through. That amounts to forfeiting up to $600 million in value to other Allergan shareholders, said Bill Ackman, Pershing Square's chief executive.

"We are very committed to getting this deal done, and are now modifying our offer with the assistance of Pershing Square to increase the economics for all Allergan shareholders," said J. Michael Pearson, Valeant's chairman and chief executive.

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Allergan did not immediately return call seeking comment Friday.

Allergan, which also makes the dry eye treatment Restasis, has said repeatedly that it opposes a deal with Valeant, which it sees as having uncertain long-term growth prospects and a business model tha! t creates a risk for Allergan shareholders. It also contends that Valeant has limited experience with "large, global scale products" and would cut research and development costs too much.

Valeant has said that Allergan's analysis of its business is full of errors, adding that its operating model would speed up growth for Allergan products, especially in developing markets.

Allergan shares ended regular trading Friday up $8.96, or 5.7 percent, to $167.46.

U.S.-traded shares of Valeant rose $2.65, or 1.9 percent, to $142.76.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Own Right Now

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Own Right Now: Maiden Hldgs Ltd(MHLD)

Maiden Holdings, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance solutions to regional and specialty insurers primarily in the United States and Europe. The company offers property, casualty, accident, and health reinsurance products. It offers its products through the treaties with other insurers on a quota share or excess of loss basis, as well as on a facultative basis through third-party intermediaries and on direct basis. Maiden Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered Hamilton, Bermuda.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Bermuda-based reinsurance solutions provider Maiden Holdings (MHLD) raised its quarterly dividend 22% to 11 cents per share, payable on Jan. 15 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 2.
  MHLD Dividend Yield: 3.79%
  

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/10-best-net-payout-yield-stocks-to-own-right-now.html

Top 10 Promising Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Top 10 Promising Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Territorial Bancorp Inc.(TBNK)

Territorial Bancorp Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Territorial Savings Bank, a federally-chartered savings bank that provides a range of financial services to individuals, families, and businesses in Hawaii. It involves in accepting deposits from the general public and investing those deposits together with funds generated from operations and borrowings in loans and investment securities. The company?s deposit products include passbook and statement savings accounts, certificates of deposits, money market accounts, commercial and regular checking accounts, and NOW accounts. Its loan products include one-to-four-family residential mortgage loans; home equity loans and lines of credit; construction, commercial, and other non-residential real estate loans; consumer loans; and multi-family mortgage loans. The company, through its subsidiary, Territorial Financial Services, Inc., also engages in insurance agency activities. In addition, it provides various non-d eposit investments, including annuities and mutual funds through a third-party broker-dealer. As of December 31, 2010, the company operated 26 full-service branch offices in Hawaii. The company was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Territorial Bancorp (NASDAQ: TBNK) shares touched a new 52-week low of $21.31. Territorial Bancorp shares have dropped 9.43% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 16.18% in the same period.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-10-promising-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html

Top 5 Growth Companies To Buy For 2015

Top 5 Growth Companies To Buy For 2015: Thoratec Corporation(THOR)

Thoratec Corporation engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of proprietary medical devices used for circulatory support. The company?s primary product lines include ventricular assist devices, such as HeartMate II, an implantable left ventricular assist device consisting of a rotary blood pump to provide intermediate and long-term mechanical circulatory support (MCS); and HeartMate XVE, an implantable and pulsatile left ventricular assist device for intermediate and longer-term MCS. Its ventricular assist devices also comprise Paracorporeal Ventricular Assist Device, an external pulsatile ventricular assist device, which provides left, right, and biventricular MCS approved for bridge-to-transplantation (BTT), including home discharge, and post-cardiotomy myocardial recovery; and Implantable Ventricular Assist Device, an implantable and pulsatile ventricular assist device designed to provide left, right, and biventricular MCS approved for BTT comprising hom e discharge, and post-cardiotomy myocardial recovery. The company also provides CentriMag, an extracorporeal full-flow acute surgical support platform that offers support up to 30 days for cardiac and respiratory failure. In addition, it offers PediMag and PediVAS extracorporeal full-flow acute surgical support platforms designed to provide acute surgical support to pediatric patients. The company sells its products through direct sales force in the United States, as well as through a network of distributors internationally. Thoratec Corporation was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Todd Campbell]

  Competing for heart pump market share
  Abiomed's products provide circulatory support for up to six hours and are designed for use in cardiac cath labs or during heart surgery, but competitors Thoratec (NASDAQ: THOR  ) and Heartware (NASDAQ: HTWR  ) t! arget the intermediate- and long-term-use market instead.

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of medical device company Thoratec (NASDAQ: THOR  ) sank 12% today after its quarterly results missed Wall Street expectations.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-5-growth-companies-to-buy-for-2015.html

Gold finds no bounce from February lows

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Gold's drop to levels not seen since early February still wasn't enough to lure buyers back, as prices weakened further on Wednesday.

Gold for June delivery (GCM4)  lost $1.40, or 0.1%, to $1,264.10 an ounce in electronic trade, finding no rebound from its 2% retreat a day earlier. July silver (SIN4) , however, managed to tack on 2 cents, or 0.2%, to $19.09 an ounce.

AFP/Getty Images

A day earlier, gold was hammered as traders seemed to react to perceived stability in Ukraine in the wake of last weekend's decisive election result. The fact that investors are moving back into global equities lately isn't helping, and there are also some technical headwinds in play.

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Seeing as this is an historically weak time of year for gold, Dow Theory Letters editor Richard Russel says that the precious metal could get a seasonality boost.

"Gold has the tendency to decline in these months [May and June] while bottoming in July. If gold does not decline appreciably between now and July, I will consider it bullish for the metal," Russel said.

Elsewhere in metals trading, July platinum (PLN4)  rose $3.90, or 0.3%, to $1,466.20 an ounce, while June palladium (PAM4)  edged fractionally higher to $831 an ounce.

High-grade copper for July delivery (HGN4)  gave up a penny to $3.17 a pound.

Other must-read MarketWatch stories include:

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OBJ Enterprises and Partners Submit Bluff Wars 2.0 to Apple App Store (OTCBB:OBJE)

OBJ Enterprises (OBJE)

Today, OBJE has shed (-1.80%) down -0.009 at $.490 with 16,712 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:32AM EDT September 3, 2013).

OBJ Enterprises and its development partners reached another major milestone last week as the hot new mobile gaming app Bluff Wars 2.0 was submitted to the Apple App Store. Developed and released in partnership with FangTooth Studios, Bluff Wars 2.0 is a hilariously addictive trivia game carefully calibrated to help OBJE capture a growing share of the $50 billion global mobile app market. Similar in concept to massively popular games such as Words With Friends and Draw Something, Bluff Wars translates the fun of hit party games like Apples to Apples from the coffee table to users' tablets and smartphone

OBJ Enterprises (OBJE) 5 day chart:

U.S. Private Equity Deals Fall From Last Quarter but Continue Overall Rise

First-quarter private equity investment volume and fundraising fell from the fourth quarter but beat the first-quarter levels of the past five years, according to the Private Equity Growth Capital Council.

The council’s quarterly Trends Report also showed that exit volume declined, but still outperformed first quarter results since 2005.

“Despite the severe winter weather, private equity activity in the first quarter was a bright spot for the U.S. economy,” Bronwyn Bailey, PEGCC’s vice president of research, said in a statement.

“Private equity activity continues to experience year-over-year growth since the Great Recession, providing a source of capital to promising companies and investment returns to pension funds, charitable foundations and university endowments.”

The quarterly report’s analysis was based on data from PitchBook, Preqin and Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary & Data. 

Following are some key factors in the new report:

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Check out Taming Risk in Alts to Fit Into Client Portfolios on ThinkAdvisor.

Stocks to Watch: Aeropostale, Fresh Market, GameStop

Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Friday’s session are Aeropostale Inc.(ARO), Fresh Market Inc.(TFM) and GameStop Corp.(GME)

Aeropostale Inc.’s fiscal first-quarter loss widened as the youth-focused apparel retailer was unable to stem falling sales. Aeropostale, which operates children’s and teen retail chains, has faced challenges in its core basics business, especially with its graphic T-shirts and fleece offerings that haven’t resonated with fashion-conscious teen shoppers. Shares fell 18% to $3.69 premarket.

Fresh Market Inc.’s first-quarter earnings fell by more than half as higher costs masked a double-digit increase in sales that benefited from special promotions and the Easter holiday, partially offsetting the negative impact of harsh winter weather. Shares rose 8% to $31 premarket.

GameStop Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose 25% as continued strong demand for Microsoft Corp.'s(MSFT) Xbox One and Sony Corp.'s(6758.TO) PlayStation 4 led sales growth. Shares rose 5.6% to $38.95 premarket.

Foot Locker Inc.(FL) on Friday said its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 17%, as sales and margins improved. The results handily topped analysts’ expectations. Shares rose 2.8% to $49.50 premarket.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.'s(MRVL) earnings nearly doubled driven by better-than-expected demand in its LTE solutions segment, the company said. The chipmaker, which specializes in microprocessor architecture and digital-signal processing, has benefited from an uptick in demand from mobile, wireless and storage customers. However, its outlook for the current quarter was mostly below analysts’ expectations. Shares fell 1.2% to $15.40 premarket.

TiVo Inc.(TIVO) swung to a first-quarter profit as the maker of television set-top boxes reported the highest level of subscriptions in the company’s history and an increase in its service and technology revenues. Shares rose 4.6% to $12.48 premarket.

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Gap Inc.(GPS) reaffirmed its full-year outlook as the apparel retailer reported a 22% decline in first-quarter earnings, hurt by weakening foreign currencies.

Hewlett-Packard Co.(HPQ) said its fiscal second-quarter profit rose 18%, but the computer maker recorded another quarter of lower revenue and said it plans to eliminate more jobs as part of an ongoing restructuring.

Hibbett Sports Inc.(HIBB) posted an 8.3% rise in fiscal first-quarter earnings, with the sporting-goods retailer saying it is benefiting from stronger demand in footwear and apparel.

Ross Stores Inc.'s(ROST) fiscal first-quarter earnings rose 4% as the off-price retailer benefited from sales growth as well as inventory and cost controls.

Shoe Carnival Inc.(SCVL) sales were hurt by harsh winter weather conditions and weak traffic, as the company reported a 4% earnings drop for the first quarter. The Indiana footwear and accessories chain’s results missed expectations, and the company issued a weaker projection for the current quarter.

Zumiez Inc.(ZUMZ) said its fiscal first-quarter earnings were essentially flat with the year-ago period, though the teen apparel and sports-equipment retailer saw net sales increase.

Earnings Watch: 5 Crummy Retail Stocks on Deck

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First-quarter earnings season sure didn’t save the best for last.

Reporting season is coming to a close, which means it’s time for the last of the retail stocks to release quarterly results. And considering a number of the most troubled retailers are on the docket, expect ugly to reign supreme.

True, terrible winter weather took a toll on retailers and retail stocks. But tepid demand — especially amid lower-income consumers — is likewise pressuring revenue. Just look at what happened at Walmart (WMT) in the first quarter. As bad as the weather was, it's the almost-stalled pace of economic recovery that's the real threat to retailers’ businesses.

The blended earnings growth rate for the retail sector is projected to be less than 2% in the first quarter, according to data from FactSet. Of the 13 retail subsectors, only four are expected to post year-over-year profit growth.

So it’s almost fitting that this week brings earnings from some of the most challenged retail stocks. From office supplies to teen fashion, here’s a look at five struggling retailers and what to expect from earnings:

Staples (SPLS)

Staples (SPLS) reports first-quarter earnings Tuesday morning, and for the sake of anyone holding SPLS stock, the company had better offer up some positive surprises. SPLS stock is down 17% year-to-date.

Office supply retailers have long seen their market eroded by online rivals, notably Amazon (AMZN). That’s why Office Depot (ODP) merged with OfficeMax last year.

That all adds up to more pain for SPLS stock.

Staples earnings are forecast to fall to 21 cents a share from 26 cents a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue is projected to fall 3.4%.

And that’s the way it looks to be for a long time. SPLS is expected to suffer declining sales and profits through 2015 at least.

A beat-and-raise quarter sure would help SPLS stock, but that might be too much to wish for.

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) releases results Wednesday before the bell, and the market expects more ugliness on the top and bottom lines.

Like most teen retailers, American Eagle and AEO stock never really recovered from the recession, proving that it’s not just lower-income folks who are struggling. AEO stock is down 18% for the year-to-date and a staggering 40% over the past 52 weeks.

If nothing else, at least AEO issued such a negative forecast that it should be able to beat it. Same-store sales are projected to decline in the high single-digits. Analysts, on average, forecast AEO to breakeven in the quarter, down from 18 cents a year ago. Sales are seen falling 4.5%.

Even without the harsh winter weather, American Eagle was getting hammered by macroeconomic factors and higher costs. True, AEO can do something about costs, but the weak recovery is out of its hands and that portends more weakness ahead.

Best Buy (BBY)

Best Buy (BBY) earnings come Thursday, and investors will be hoping for something to snap BBY stock out of its hangover. After jumping more than 235% in 2013, BBY stock is off 36% so far in 2014.

But like Staples, Best Buy and BBY stock are getting hurt by Amazon — and there’s only so much the specialty electronics retailer can do to fight back.

As we noted last quarter, BBY has an unsustainable model for turning itself around. Cost cuts will only get you so far as long as sales keep falling.

All consumer electronics retailers had a terrible start to the year, in part because of the weather, but the lack of any new must-have gadgets is also to blame. So much for top-line growth.

Best Buy is projected to report earnings of 20 cents a share, down from 32 a year ago. Meanwhile, revenue is expected to fall 2%.

BBY will get high marks for its expense reduction, but that’s about it.

Sears Holdings (SHLD)

Sears Holdings (SHLD) looks like it’s going out of business, and there’s no reason to think earnings — released Thursday — will change the outlook. SHLD stock is essentially flat for the year-to-date, but that decent performance is due to the market’s valuation of its real estate assets — not its operations.

Sears is bleeding cash and slowly dismantling itself, selling every part of the company it can. Most recently, SHLD said it wants to sell its stake in Sears Canada.

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This slow-motion liquidation sale won’t boost revenue, not when SHLD closed 100 stores over the last year.

No surprise here: SHLD earnings are going to be terrible. Its loss is forecast to widen to $1.77 a share from $1.54 last year. Sales are expected to decline more than 8%.

Sears is burning through cash, posting losses and getting smaller. There’s no reason to hold SHLD stock.

Aeropostale (ARO)

Aeropostale (ARO) is another teen retailer that never came back from the last recession. But as Thursday’s results will show, Aeropostale and ARO stock are in much deeper trouble than American Eagle.

ARO stock is off more than 50% for the year-to-date alone, and 70% over the past 52 weeks. Meanwhile, Aeropostale is closing stores and cutting employees, but it remains to be seen whether its new strategy can work. Aeropostale, which is currently dependent on mall traffic, wants to focus on off-mall locations, international operations and e-commerce.

Good luck with that.

Wall Street expects ARO to post a much wider loss this quarter: 70 cents vs. a loss of 16 cents a year ago. Sales are tumbling and will continue to do so. Revenue is forecast to drop 10% year-over-year. If Aeropostale can turn itself around before it runs out of cash, there will be big upside in ARO stock.

Unfortunately, bankruptcy looks like the more likely outcome.

As of this writing, Dan Burrows did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) Q1 Earnings Preview: Another Polar Vortex Casualty?

Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ:URBN) is scheduled to report first quarter, fiscal year (FY) 2015 sales and earnings after the close of financial markets on Monday, May 19, 2014. On the same day, management will host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET to discuss the results.

Wall Street anticipates that the apparel retailer will earn $0.27 per share for the quarter, which is $0.05 less than last year's profit of $0.32 per share. iStock expects URBN to hit Wall Street's consensus number, the iEstimate is $0.27, too.

Revenue, unlike earnings, is expected to move up, increasing 4.9% year-over-year (YoY). Urban Outfitters' consensus revenue estimate for Q1 is $680.18 million, more than last year's $648.18 million.

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Urban Outfitters, Inc. (Urban Outfitters) is a lifestyle specialty retail company, which operates under the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN brands.

Urban has done a praiseworthy job of managing Wall Street's expectations as earning out-produced the consensus estimate 11 of the last 16 quarters. On average, URBN earned $0.3 more than forecasted with a range of $0.1 to $0.09 more than anticipated. Meanwhile, the typical bearish miss for the handful of shortfalls averaged -$0.03 less than the consensus – symmetry in numbers.

In what could be a bullish sign, two of the 36 analysts with an Urban EPS estimate lifted the outlook within the last week. Upping profit projections on the doorstep of the announcement takes some courage or knowledge of what is coming. Let's examine Google's Search Volume Intensity (SVI) to see if the pair with brighter outlooks are on to something.

[Related -Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) Q4 Earnings Preview: Couldn't Stand The Weather]

Since Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie account for nearly 80% of URBN's revenue, we'll focus on them as where they go, sales and profits are sure to go.

Compared to the first quarter of FY 2014, SVI for the keyword "Urban Outfitters" is down 7.6%. Meanwhile, Anthropologie's SVI is flat YoY. If Google Trends translate, it could put a dent in Q1 FY 2015's top-line – blame it on the Polar Vortex.

On the plus side, margins should remain health as cost of goods sold (COGS) fell in last year according to URBN's annual report. The savings allowed the company to spend more on selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A). Hopefully, most of the difference was spent on selling.

The balance sheet is mostly to our liking, as well. Inventory growth was in-line with sales growth, which is a sign that management has the right supply v. demand balance and discounting mostly unnecessary – another plus for margins.

Overall: Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ:URBN) could be another victim of winter weather; however, URBN should recover quickly as their financial house appears in order. 

Fiduciary Will Stay on SEC Agenda ‘Until It’s Solved’

Steve Luparello, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets, said Monday that the issue of whether to craft a fiduciary rule for brokers is “not so much a policy challenge as an implementation challenge,” and that while deciding whether to move forward on a fiduciary rule is on the agency’s agenda this year, “being on the agenda and getting it done are two different things.”

Luparello, who made his comments during a panel discussion at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s annual conference in Washington, noted after being asked by FINRA CEO Richard Ketchum where the agency’s debate on the “the F word” currently stands, the lack of “coalescence of thought” among the SEC commissioners on how to move forward with a rulemaking.

However, Luparello added that the “fiduciary issue will stay on the commission’s agenda until it’s solved.”

Ketchum noted that he sees the main stumbling blocks to the SEC deciding on a rule proposal being the “interpretive laws” as well as the “concern with litigation.” But Ketchum said he sees an “overwhelming cultural benefit” for firms to build a compliance culture around “what’s in the best interest of the investor.”

Said Ketchum: “For some time I’ve said that we need to get there [to adopting a fiduciary rule], but you have to describe what that means to existing business models today. There’s a good deal of debate on what the impact is.”

Dan Kosowsky, chief compliance officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, agreed that crafting and implementing a fiduciary rule is “a tougher challenge than just adding a fiduciary duty and saying you’re done.”

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As to how the SEC is collaborating with the DOL regarding its rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and what Ketchum called the “potential for inconsistent standards” among the agencies' rules, Luparello said that it has been “very important to include the DOL in [the SEC’s fiduciary] conversations, and that’s what’s been happening.”

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Check out FINRA ‘Aggressively’ Seeking BD Feedback on CARDS: Ketchum on ThinkAdvisor.

 

Macy's, Inc. (M) Q1 Earnings Preview: Small Bullish Surprise Coming

Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M) is scheduled to report its first quarter 2014 sales and earnings before the opening of financial markets on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. The company will webcast a call with financial analysts and investors that day at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Wall Street anticipates that the retail leader will earn $0.59 per share for the quarter, which is $0.04 more than last year's profit of $0.54 per share. iStock expects M to hit Wall Street's consensus number, the iEstimate is $0.59, too.

Revenue, like earnings, is expected to increase, a slight 1.1% year-over-year (YoY). Macy's consensus revenue estimate for Q1 is $6.46 billion, a little more than last year's $6.39 billion.

[Related -Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) Q1 Earnings Preview: A Penny Here a Penny There]

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Macy's is a retail organization operating stores and Internet Websites under two brands (Macy's and Bloomingdale's) that sell a range of merchandise, including apparel and accessories (men's, women's and children's), cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

The Census Bureau's Advanced Monthly Retail Trade Report for March 2014 confirms small growth for general merchandise stores. Compared to February through April 2013, sales for general merchandise stores increased 1.1%, which is spot on for Macy's forecasted top-line growth.  Generally speaking, M outperforms the group as a whole; so, there could be some room for a little, little upside.

[Related -Macy's, Inc. (M): The One Department Store Stock You Can Trust]

Upside earnings surprises are what Macy's management has delivered 12 of the last 13 quarterly checkups. On average, the retailer earned 19.85% more than the consensus estimate.

For the most part, M's share price tagged along with surprises. Wall Street reacted positively eight of the last 13 with the stock gaining 0.16% to 9.94% in the days surrounding the earnings announcement. Meanwhile, the stock backpedaled five times by an average of -4.22%.

For retailers, the difference between an EPS bullish and bearish surprise usually comes down to margins. Macy's margins were steady in 2013 versus 2012 with gross margin of 40.12% versus 40.27%, respectively.

One minor, MINOR concern is inventory, which increased 4.69% versus YoY sales growth of 0.88%. We'd like the two line items to be in-line or for revenue to boast the higher percentage. However, the difference is so great that clearance sales go on endlessly.

Overall: Macy's, Inc.'s (NYSE:M) history, iEtimate and April's Advanced Monthly Retail Trade Report suggest earnings should be at least on target with room to the upside. 

Top 5 Restaurant Companies For 2015

That's not pixie dust in your Starbucks Grande Caffe Latte.

But there is plenty of pixie dust in the air, as Starbucks on Monday opens an outside-the-box coffee shop at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim's Downtown Disney, complete with an outdoor wall designed with 1,000 native plants in the shape of a coffee cup.

Starbucks is wishing upon a star named Disney. The world's largest coffee chain is all-out linking its brand to the Happiest Place on Earth. Although a handful of Starbucks licensed stores already exist inside Disney theme parks, those are operated by Disney. This is the first company-owned Starbucks store on a Disney property ��and more are on tap, says Arthur Rubinfeld, chief creative officer and president, global innovation for Starbucks.

"This will be one of the most unique indoor/outdoor Starbucks stores in North America," says Rubinfeld. Besides the unusual plant wall outside the location, the 150-seat restaurant will have a huge video screen inside showing imagery of places where Starbucks grows and harvests its coffee beans. And the store also features a sprawling, chalkboard-like interactive touch screen that Starbucks customers can draw or write on, too.

Top 5 Restaurant Companies For 2015: BAB Inc (BABB)

BAB, Inc., incorporated on July 12, 2000, franchises and licenses bagel and muffin retail units under the Big Apple Bagel (BAB) and My Favorite Muffin (MFM) trade names. At November 30, 2012, the Company had 100 franchise units and 6 licensed units in operation in 24 states. The Company additionally derives income from the sale of its trademark bagels, muffins and coffee through nontraditional channels of distribution including under licensing agreements with Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard, Kaleidoscoops, Green Beans Coffee, Sodexo and through direct home delivery of specialty muffin gift baskets and coffee. The Company has two wholly owned subsidiaries: BAB Systems, Inc. (Systems) and BAB Operations, Inc. (Operations). At November 30, 2012, the Company had 100 franchise units and six licensed units in operation in 24 states.

The Company additionally derives income from the sale of its trademark bagels, muffins and coffee through nontraditional channels of distribution including under licensing agreements with Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard, Kaleidoscoops, Green Beans Coffee, Sodexo and through direct home delivery of specialty muffin gift baskets and coffee. The BAB franchised brand consists of units operating as Big Apple Bagels, featuring daily baked bagels, flavored cream cheeses, premium coffees, gourmet bagel sandwiches and other related products. Licensed BAB units serve the Company's par-baked frozen bagel and related products baked daily. BAB units are primarily concentrated in the Midwest and Western United States. The MFM brand consists of units operating as My Favorite Muffin, featuring a variety of freshly baked muffins, coffees and related products, and units operating as My Favorite Muffin and Bagel Cafe, featuring these products as well as a variety of specialty bagel sandwiches and related products.

The Company�� BAB offering franchises in all 50 states, its initial development focus is targeted for the Midwest, specifically Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. A! s part of its introductory development plan, BAB will be donating 10% of the initial franchise fee from its 50 SweetDuet units to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, of which BAB is a corporate sponsor. SweetDuet, as its name implies, is a fusion concept, pairing self-serve frozen yogurt with BAB's exclusive line of My Favorite Muffin gourmet muffins, broadening the shop's offering and therefore differentiating itself from the numerous frozen yogurt outlets already populating the market. SweetDuet shops include BAB's Brewster's Coffee and a streamlined breakfast menu. The concept is designed to work in 1600 square feet of space.

BAB franchised stores daily bake a variety of fresh bagels and offer up to 11 varieties of cream cheese spreads. Stores also offer a variety of breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches, salads, soups, various dessert items, fruit smoothies, gourmet coffees and other beverages. A typical BAB store is in an area with a mix of both residential and commercial properties and ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. The Company's current store design is approximately 1,800 square feet, with seating capacity for 20 to 30 persons, and includes approximately 750 square feet devoted to production and baking. A satellite store is typically smaller than a production store, averaging 800 to 1,200 square feet. Although franchise stores may vary in size from other franchise stores, store layout is generally consistent.

MFM franchised stores daily bake 20 to 25 varieties of muffins from over 250 recipes, plus a variety of bagels. They also serve gourmet coffees, beverages and, at My Favorite Muffin and Bagel Cafe locations, a variety of bagel sandwiches and related products. The typical MFM store design is approximately 1,800 square feet, with seating capacity for 20 to 30 persons.The Company advertises its franchising opportunities in directories, newspapers and the Internet.

The Company competes with Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Panera Bread Company and Brue! gger's Ba! gel Bakery.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, BABB remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.800 thus far (ref. google finance July 11, 2013).

  For the quarter ended May 31, 2013, BAB had revenues of $658,000 and net income of $125,000, or $0.02 per share, versus revenues of $826,000 and net income of $267,000, or $0.04 per share, for the same quarter last year. For the quarter ended May 31, 2012, the Company received a $171,000 payment for the buyout of the Franchise Agreement from its Minot, ND franchisee so the franchisee could pursue its other business interests associated with the local energy boom. In that acceptance by the Company of the voluntary buyout is unique, no such transaction occurred nor was such income earned in the quarter ended May 31, 2013.

Top 5 Restaurant Companies For 2015: Ignite Restaurant Group Inc (IRG)

Ignite Restaurant Group, Inc., incorporated on February 4, 2002, operates two restaurant brands, Joe's Crab Shack (Joe's) and Brick House Tavern + Tap (Brick House). The Company�� Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern + Tap operate in a diverse set of markets across the United States. Joe's Crab Shack is a national chain of casual seafood restaurants serving a variety of seafood items, with an emphasis on crab. Brick House Tavern + Tap is a casual restaurant brand that provides guests a gastro pub experience by offering a blend of menu items. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned and operated 144 restaurants in 33 states. In September 2013, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc announced the opening of its newest Joe's Crab Shack restaurant, located in Newark, New Jersey.

Joe's Crab Shack

The Company�� Joe's Crab Shack offers an outdoor patio for guests to enjoy eating and drinking and a children's playground. Joe's also has many locations that are located on waterfront property. Interior design elements include a nautical, vacation theme to invoke memories of beach vacations and a genuine crab shack experience. Joe's Crab Shack restaurants have over 200 seats. Many of the Company�� restaurants also include a small gift shop where guests can purchase souvenirs to commemorate their dining experience. Joe's Crab Shack also leverages its crab-forward menu with other crab items, including Made-From-Scratch Crab Cakes, Crab Nachos and Crazy-Good Crab Dip. In addition to its core crab-focused menu, Joe's also offers a range of entrees featuring a variety of seafood, including the Get Stuffed Snapper, Surf 'N Turf Burger and The Big Hook Up, as well as a range of traditional seafood entrees like the Fisherman's Platter. Joe's also offers several out of water options, such as Pan Fried Cheesy Chicken and Whiskey Smoked Ribs. In addition, alcoholic beverages include the Shark Bite, Category 5 Hurricane and Mason Jar cocktails emerging as guests' top choices. Joe's menu inc! ludes more than 29 items made with either Queen, Snow, Dungeness or King Crabs sourced from government regulated and sustainable fisheries. Its menu offers 14 appetizers, including Made-From-Scratch Crab Cakes, Crab Nachos and Crazy-Good Crab Dip, and over 50 entrees, including Steampots, Crab in a Bucket, Skillet Paella, Stuffed Snapper and out of water options like Whiskey Smoked Ribs.

Brick House Tavern + Tap

The Company�� Brick House's interior decor includes custom lighting, dark mahogany woods, open sight lines, high definition television (HD TVs), and an inviting fireplace. In addition to a traditional dining room and bar area, Brick House also offers large communal tables and a section of leather recliners positioned in front of large HD TVs, where guests receive their own TV tray for dining. Outdoor seating is also available on the patio or around an open fire pit at nearly all locations. Both food and beverages are served by personable and engaging service staff. The typical Brick House restaurant is approximately 8,500 square feet and averages approximately 250 seats, which includes both traditional tables and seating options. Brick House offers its guests a selection of contemporary tavern food. Brick House's menu includes 17 appetizers and over 53 entrees. Handcrafted appetizers include Deviled Eggs, Meatloaf Sliders, Brick Pizza, Meat and Cheese Board and Fried Stuffed Olives. Brick House offers an array of burgers, including The Kobe, which is hand formed from American Wagyu beef. Guests can also choose from a selection of homemade entrees, such as Drunken Chops, BBQ Baby Backs, Chicken & Waffles, and its Prime Rib Sandwich. In addition, Brick House's Brick Burgers, include the Gun Show Burger and the Black & Bleu Burger. Brick House's beverage selection includes imported and domestic beers along with hand-pulled cask beer. All Brick House restaurants have a bar that supports a variety of liquor drinks, wine and beer cocktails like the Shandy and Bee Sting, a! s well as! specialty cocktails like the Dark & Stormy, Moscow Mule and The Zombie.

The Company competes with Red Lobster, Bonefish Grill, Landry's Seafood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, BJ's Restaurants, Yard House, Cheesecake Factory, Bravo Brio and Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee's, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Victor Selva]

  The firm is currently Zacks Rank # 3 - Hold, and it also has a longer-term recommendation of ��nderperfom.��For investors looking for a Zacks Rank # 1 ��Strong Buy, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc. (IRG) and The Wendy's Company (WEN) could be the options.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Margins matter. The more Ignite Restaurant Group (Nasdaq: IRG  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Ignite Restaurant Group's competitive position could be.

Top 5 Machinery Stocks To Watch For 2015: Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc (PLKI)

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc, formerly AFC Enterprises, Inc. incorporated on July 27, 1992, develops, operates, and franchises quick-service restaurants (QSRs or restaurants) under the trade names Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (collectively Popeyes). Within Popeyes, it manages two business segments: franchise operations and ompany-operated restaurants. Within the QSR industry, Popeyes distinguishes itself with a Louisiana style menu, which features spicy chicken, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, fried shrimp and other seafood, red beans and rice and other regional items. As of December 25, 2012, the Company operated and franchised 2,104 Popeyes restaurants in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Cayman Islands and 26 foreign countries. As of December 25, 2012, of its 1,634 domestic franchised restaurants, approximately 70% were concentrated in Texas, California, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Virginia and Mississippi. Of its 425 international franchised restaurants, approximately 60% were located in Korea, Canada, and Turkey. Of its 45 Company-operated restaurants, approximately 80% were concentrated in Louisiana and Tennessee. In November 2012, the Company acquired 27 restaurants in Minnesota and California.

As of December 25, 2012, the Company had 340 franchisees operating restaurants within the Popeyes system. During the fiscal year ended December 25, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Popeyes system opened 141 restaurants, which included 75 domestic and 65 international restaurants. During fiscal 2011, the Popeyes system permanently closed 75 restaurants, resulting in 66 net restaurant openings, compared to 65 net openings. As of December 25, 2012, it leased 12 restaurants and subleased 44 restaurants to franchisees. In addition, it leased three properties to unrelated third parties. Of the restaurants leased or subleased to franchisees, 29 were located in Texas and 16 were located in Georgia. On November 7, 2012,! the Company entered into a new agreement with the King Features Syndicate Division of Hearst Holdings, Inc., licensor of the Popeye the Sailorman and associated cartoon characters.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]

  Alamy Fried chicken and waffles is a staple menu item at countless soul food and comfort food restaurants, but that's not stopping Burger King (BKW) from trying to give the meal a fast-food spin. Burger King is testing a new sandwich in the Northeast that takes the breaded chicken patty used in its Classic Crispy Chicken Sandwich from its King Deals Value Menu and replaces the bun with a split waffle. Burger King's Chicken & Waffle Sandwich isn't as hearty as the meal that it's based on. It's selling for as little as $2.29. But the chain's latest attempt to turn heads with a unique menu item will at least attract curious nibblers if it does decide to broaden the offering across the country. Waffling About Burger King isn't the first popular chain to attempt to reinvent this classic dish. As Nation's Restaurant News points out, last summer, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (PLKI) offered Chicken Waffle Tenders -- consisting of chicken tenders dipped in a vanilla maple-scented waffle batter, served with a honey maple dipping sauce. DineEquity's (DIN) IHOP did it three years ago by combining its chicken strips with Belgian waffle quarters. Yum! Brands (YUM) tried to breathe new life into its breakfast business last summer by testing a Waffle Taco -- an egg, sausage, and waffle breakfast sandwich. Even if it doesn't succeed -- and some of the early taste tests haven't been very flattering to the chain's new sandwich -- it's at least comforting to see that Burger King isn't just copying McDonald's (MCD) the way that it has for the past couple of years. Burger King followed McDonald's in offering fancy coffee drinks, fresh fruit smoothies, and popcorn chicken. It has gone on to roll out doppelgangers of the Egg McMuffin and McRib sandwiches. In November, it introduced the Big King, which any patron will quickly recognize as a body double to the Big Mac. Then again, it's not as if following McDonald's lead is such a clever idea right now. The world's largest re

Top 5 Restaurant Companies For 2015: Planet Platinum Ltd (PPN)

Planet Platinum Limited is an Australia-based company engaged in the operation of Showgirls Bar 20 and the on-going rental of property in Elsternwick. The Company operates in two segments: hospitality and entertainment and property rental businesses. The Company�� hospitality and entertainment segment comprises operations of Showgirls Bar 20 in Melbourne and is engaged in the nightclub through the provision of beverages and adult entertainment. Property segment comprise maintaining of rental property at Home Street, Elsternwick. The Company continues to receive lease rentals from its Home Street property. The investment property is located at 12 Home Street, Elsternwick Victoria. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tabitha Jean Naylor]

  Americans consume a lot of chicken. It estimated that Americans consume about 81 pounds of poultry per year, per capita. With there being upwards of 310 million people living in the United States, it is no wonder why poultry production is big business. Two of the biggest names in poultry production are Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) and Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ: PPN).

Top 5 Restaurant Companies For 2015: Noodles & Co (NDLS)

Noodles & Company, incorporated on December 19, 2002, is a casual restaurant concept offering lunch and dinner. The Company offers noodle and pasta dishes, staples of many cuisines, with the goal of delivering fresh ingredients and flavors globally under one roof from Pad Thai to Mac & Cheese. The Company�� globally inspired menu includes a variety of cooked-to-order dishes, including noodles and pasta, soups, salads and sandwiches, which are served on china by its friendly team members.

As of May 28, 2013, including the 16 Company owned restaurants and one franchise restaurant opened in 2013. The Company opened 39 new company owned restaurants and six franchise restaurants. In 2012, the Company began using Your World Kitchen to describe the breadth of its offering and its customers' dining experience.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Traders Reserve]

  I�� a big fan of Noodles & Co. (NDLS). I eat there often with my two young daughters.

  That said, how much pasta does the world need? I think many investors compare Noodles to Chipotle. They are not the same. In fact, if the country figures out that we need less pasta and not more, Noodles & Co. could be in big trouble. The company reports earnings on Wednesday after the market closes.

Nordstrom, Dillard's start 2014 strong

A slew of retail first-quarter earnings announcements Thursday showed Wal-Mart, the country's largest retailer, slumping — but beleaguered J.C. Penney recovering.

Wal-Mart reported a profit decline of 5% as bad weather, poor sales abroad and cuts to food stamps sent net income down to $3.6 billion from $3.78 billion a year ago. Earnings per share fell 3.5% to $1.10, missing analyst estimates.

"Like other retailers in the United States, the unseasonably cold and disruptive weather negatively impacted U.S. sales and drove operating expenses higher than expected," said Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon in a statement.

Meanwhile, J.C. Penney appears to be making a comeback a little more than a year after former CEO Ron Johnson left after an unsuccessful turnaround attempt. The retailer beat analysts' expectations with an earnings per share loss of $1.15 — analysts expected a loss of $1.26 a share — and sales up 6.3% to $2.8 billion, from $2.6 billion a year ago.

Penney shares leaped nearly 20% in after-hours trading to $10.03. The company also announced that it took out a $2.35 billion line of credit to increase liquidity during peak times such as the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons.

"It is clear that our efforts to re-merchandise many areas of the store and revamp our messaging to the customer are taking hold," CEO Mike Ullman said in a company statement. "We expect to carry this momentum into the second quarter as we continue to position the company for long-term profitable growth."

Department stores Nordstrom and Dillard's both reported successful first quarters, with positive sales so far in 2014, the companies said Thursday.

Nordstrom's net sales grew 6.8% to $2.8 billion, compared with $2.65 billion last year. Earnings fell to $140 million from $145 million, which the company attributed to planned investments in technology. Earnings per share were 72 cents, beating the company's own estimates of from 60 to 70 cents.

Same-store sales, or sales a! t stores open at least a year, grew 3.3%, up from last year's 3.1% growth, thanks to strong performance in accessories, cosmetics and women's shoes.

Dillard's reported a gain of $2.56 per share, vs. $2.50 last year. Net income was $111.7 million, vs. $117.2 million last year. The 2013 first quarter included a net after-tax credit of $4.4 million. Total sales increased 1% to about $1.54 billion from $1.53 billion.

CEO William Dillard said in a statement that the 2% increase in same-store sales marked the 15th-consecutive quarter of positive sales.

While Wal-Mart saw same-store sales fall 1.4%, sales at the company's Neighborhood Markets, smaller stores that compete with drugstores and grocery stores, continue to climb. Sales at the Markets rose 5%, and Wal-Mart reaffirmed plans to open more. In September, Wal-Mart said it would have about 500 Neighborhood Markets by the spring of 2015, up from 290 at the time.

Penney continues to promote heavy sales, especially around holidays such as Valentine's Day and Easter, in an attempt to regain customer traffic. Ullman said that April marked the first time in more than 30 months that Penney's experienced positive store traffic.

Brian Sozzi, CEO of Belus Capital Advisors, says Penney's merchandise assortment has improved and is better displayed in stores.

"J.C. Penney stores looked visually appealing in the first quarter," he says. "Clothing was folded. Merchandise was properly ticketed."

He adds, "I think the consumer saw the old school J.C. Penney back in action, with promotions consistently in the range of 30% to 45%. "(Ullman) is taking J.C. Penney back to what he knows: heavily promoted and well merchandized."

Contributing: Roger Yu

Stocks Hitting 52-Week Highs

Related STKL Morning Market Movers SunOpta Outlines Details for Added Expansion of Aseptic Processing, Packaging Capabilities Related CXDC Stocks Hitting 52-Week Highs Morning Market Movers

SunOpta (NASDAQ: STKL) shares reached a new 52-week high of $12.76 after the company reported upbeat Q1 earnings.

China XD Plastics Company (NASDAQ: CXDC) shares rose 6.34% to touch a new 52-week high of $8.39 after the company reported its Q1 earnings of $0.34 per share.

Windstream Holdings (NASDAQ: WIN) shares gained 0.43% to touch a new 52-week high of $9.24. Windstream's trailing-twelve-month ROE is 22.79%.

The WhiteWave Foods Company (NYSE: WWAV) surged 1.57% to reach a new 52-week high of $31.07. WhiteWave Foods shares have jumped 61.25% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 14.97% in the same period.

Posted-In: 52-Week HighsNews Intraday Update Markets Movers

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2015

LONDON -- A popular way to dig out reasonably priced stocks with robust growth potential is through the "Growth At A Reasonable Price," or�GARP, strategy.

This theory uses the price-to-earnings to growth (PEG) ratio to show how a share's price weighs up in relation to its near-term growth prospects -- a reading below one is generally considered decent value for money.

Today, I am looking at�Wm. Morrison Supermarkets� (LSE: MRW  ) to see how it measures up.

What are�Morrison's earnings expected to do?

�Metric 2014 2015 EPS Growth -5% 3% P/E Ratio 10.1 9.8 PEG Ratio n/a 2.9

Source: Digital Look.

Morrison is expected to buck four years of consecutive earnings growth with a slight profit dip in the year ending January 2014, although a modest rebound is anticipated by City analysts in the following 12-month period.

Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2015: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA (BMPS)

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is an Italy-based company engaged in the banking sector. It provides traditional banking services, asset management and private banking, including life insurance, pension funds and investment trusts. It operates though three business segments. The Retail Banking segment covers consumer lending, insurance, provision of financial and non-financial services to retail customers, wealth management, tax planning, financial advisory and planning for private customers. The Corporate Banking division oversees the Group's business strategies targeted to small and medium enterprises, institutions and large corporate for which it offers leasing, factoring, lending and financial products, among others. The Corporate Center segment includes the cancellation of intergroup entries, treasure, governance and support functions. In January 2014, the Company completed the sale of its entire shareholding in Sorin SpA, equal to approximately 5.7%. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Corinne Gretler]

  Kesko Oyj, Finland�� biggest publicly traded retailer, rallied 9 percent. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA (BMPS) added 2 percent as Italy�� third-largest lender set out a plan to return to profit after cutting costs and raising capital as part of its restructuring plan. Speedy Hire Plc sank the most since 2009 after the construction-equipment leasing company said it found evidence of false accounting at one of its units.

Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2015: BioDelivery Sciences International Inc.(BDSI)

BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing products in the areas of pain management and oncology supportive care. The company uses its patented BioErodible MucoAdhesive (BEMA) and Bioral cochleate drug delivery technologies in the development of its products. The BEMA technology is a small erodible polymer film for application to the buccal mucosa; and the Bioral cochleate drug delivery technology encapsulates a selected drug or therapeutic in a cochleate cylinder. Its pain franchise consists of products utilizing the patented BEMA technology, including ONSOLIS, a fentanyl buccal soluble film for the management of pain in opioid tolerant adult patients with cancer; and BEMA Buprenorphine, which is in the development stage for the treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain, as well as for the treatment of opioid dependence. The company also engages in developing product candidates utilizing the B EMA technology for conditions, such as nausea/vomiting. BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Kell]

  Shares of BioDelivery Sciences International Inc.(BDSI) jumped after the company disclosed favorable results for a Phase 3 study of a treatment for severe chronic pain. BioDelivery shares surged 45% to $9.04 premarket.

Best Gas Stocks To Own Right Now: Hittite Microwave Corporation(HITT)

Hittite Microwave Corporation designs, develops, and sells integrated circuits (ICs), modules, subsystems, and instrumentation products for radio frequency (RF) microwave and millimeterwave applications worldwide. The company?s IC products include amplifiers, digital and voltage variable attenuators, broadband time delays, automatic gain control products, clocks and timing products, comparators, cross point switches, data converters, direct current power conditioning and power management products, dielectric resonator oscillators, frequency dividers and detectors, frequency multipliers, digital logic products, intermediate frequency signal processing products, interface, and limiting amplifiers. Its IC products also comprise mixers and converters, modulators and demodulators, multiplexers/demultiplexers, optical modulator drivers, passives, phase lock loops, phase lock loops with integrated voltage controlled oscillators, phase shifters, power detectors, sensors, switches , Successive detection logarithmic video amplifiers, transimpedance amplifiers, tunable filters, variable gain amplifiers, and voltage controlled and phase locked oscillators. In addition, the company provides signal generators/instrumentation products for engineering, production, and screening applications; connectorized modules for use in test and measurement equipment; RF, microwave, and millimeterwave receivers and synthesizers that are used in military communication, targeting, guidance, and countermeasure systems; and phase locked oscillator modules, which are used in fiber optic test systems. Further, it outsources wafer manufacturing to multiple third party fabricators and foundries. The company sells its products through direct sales force and applications engineering staff, sales representatives, and distributors, as well as through its Web site. Hittite Microwave Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ant贸nio Costa]

  Hittite Microwave Corp (NASDAQ: HITT) is holding up well and looks ready to move higher from here. Next buy point for HITT is at 65.2.

  ( click to enlarge )

  Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) hits a new 52 week high and held up very well when the nasdaq was tanking. The stock is on fire.

Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2015: SBA Communications Corporation(SBAC)

SBA Communications Corporation owns and operates wireless communications towers primarily in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. The company leases antenna space primarily to wireless service providers on towers and other structures that it owns, manages, or leases from others. As of December 31, 2011, it owned 10,524 tower sites. The company also manages or leases approximately 4,800 actual or potential communications sites. In addition, it provides various site development consulting services comprising network pre-design, site audits, identification of potential locations for towers and antennas, support in buying or leasing of the location, and assistance in obtaining zoning approvals and permits, as well as engages in assisting wireless service providers in developing and maintaining wireless service networks. Further, the company offers various site development construction services, including tower and related site c onstruction; antenna installation; and radio equipment installation, commissioning, and maintenance. SBA Communications Corporation was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  We just gave a fresh synopsis of which telecom and wireless players could still be up for M&A in the final round of consolidation. American Tower’s market cap is about $28 billion and shares are up more than 4.5% at $71.75. To show how hard things have been, the 52-week trading range is $67.89 to $85.26. What today’s transaction does is quite simply add value to the rest of the public companies that own and operate cell towers:

  Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) is up almost 2.5% at $70.90, against a 52-week range of $63.16 to $81.16. SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC) is up about 1.8% at $76.70. against a 52-week range of $59.00 to $82.31.

  American Tower expects that the portfolio addition will generate about $345 million in revenues and approximately $270 million of gross margin in 2014. If you value the deal solely on the 5,400 or so owned U.S. towers, this comes up to about $611,000 per tower before calculating the debt and other rights. Suddenly, SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC) is vindicated because a deal it made in 2012 was deemed pricey as it paid about $1.45 billion for 3,252 towers from TowerCo, at about $445,000 per tower. Crown Castle also has spent close to $2.4 billion to acquire T-Mobile cell tower rights in late 2012.

Top 5 Supermarket Stocks To Own For 2015: Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation(CDE)

Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the ownership, operation, exploration, and development of silver and gold mining properties located primarily in South America, Mexico, the United States, and Australia. The company also explores for lead and zinc ores. Its properties include the Palmarejo mine located in the state of Chihuahua, northern Mexico; San Bartolome mine located near Potosi, Bolivia; Kensington mine located north-northwest of Juneau, Alaska; Rochester mine located in northwestern Nevada; Martha mine located in Santa Cruz, Argentina; and the Endeavor mine in New South Wales, Australia, as well as Joaquin, Tornado, and Satelite properties in Santa Cruz, Argentina. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Coeur d?Alene, Idaho.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Coeur d'Alene Mines (NYSE: CDE  ) is to sell its interest in two mines, one in Australia, and one in Chile.� The company has entered into a letter of intent with private company XDM to sell its stake in the silver production and reserves from the Endeavor mine in the former, and the royalty from the Cerro Bayo gold and silver mine in the latter.

Four Healthy Plays from The Chartist

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Own Right Now

Technically, it's still way too early to worry about an impending bear market; our models remain in a highly bullish mode, says Dan Sullivan, editor of The Chartist; here, he looks at four well-positioned drug stocks.

Our overbought/oversold indicator is back to neutral after being heavily overbought as recently as July 18.

Stocks appeared to be on the verge of trending lower over the near-term, however, looking further out, it remains, in our opinion, a very powerful bull market that has further to run.

All the key averages remain comfortably above their uptrending 50- and 200-day moving averages, which is typical bull market action.

Abbott Labs (ABT) reported better than expected second-quarter earnings as a result of improved profit margins and cost controls.

The nutritional segment of their business continues to be the star performer. Sales of Similac formula and Ensure rose 7.9% to $1.7 billion, representing one-third of Abbott's total revenue.

Abbott, which is in Dan's Aggressive Account and the Traders Portfolio, has been an okay performer. Its spin-off company, AbbVie (ABBV), has been a much better performer since trading on its own.

AbbVie reported second quarter earnings and revenues which beat expectations. The company earned 82 cents per share on revenues of $4.7 billion. Their key drug, Humira, recorded a sales increase of 12.1%, with revenue sold $2.6 billion.

AbbVie is poised for strong growth with a significant pipeline of new drugs with terrific potential. They are looking for 15 FDA approvals between 2013 and 2017.

Besides being a solid performer in Dan's Account and the Traders Portfolio, the stock has a good yield of 3.6%.

Amgen (AMGN), the world's largest biotech company, reported second quarter earnings and sales that surpassed analysts' expectations.

For the quarter, the company earned $1.89 per share. They are projecting full year revenue to be in the $17.8 billion to $18.2 billion range. The stock is in Dan's Portfolio and our Trading Portfolio.

Biogen (BIIB) reported that second quarter profits exceeded analysts' expectations. Biogen reported earnings of $2.29 per share, well above Zacks Consensus estimate of $1.83. Revenues for the quarter jumped 21% to $1.7 billion.

The company again raised its earnings guidance for 2013 and now expects earnings in the range of $8.25 to $8.50 per share. The stock continues to be one of the best performers in the Actual Cash Account, Dan's Account, and the Traders Portfolio.

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Craft beer trends: Sour, less boozy,…

Beer lovers are far from souring on craft beer, but many brewers are turning to sour beers and other new twists to keep the growing beer category fresh.

In addition to beers that may cause lips to pucker, there's an inpouring of hoppy but lower-alcohol session brews and luxuriant, wildly inventive beers borne out of collaborations between brewers.

Such experimentation is "pushing the envelope of what beer can be and finding new flavors," says Greg Engert, beer director of Bluejacket brewery and restaurant in Washington, D.C.

As overall U.S. beer consumption has declined slightly in recent years, craft beer is on the rise. Consumers spent an estimated $14.3 billion on craft beer in 2013, according to the Brewers Association, up 20% from the $11.9 billion spent in 2012.

"The craft brewing industry has evolved from a raggedy bunch of home brewers and dreamers to a bona fide 10% segment of the $100 billion American beer industry," writes Brooklyn Brewery co-founder and president Steve Hindy in his recent book, The Craft Beer Revolution: How a Band of Microbrewers is Transforming the World's Favorite Drink (Palgrave Macmillan, $25).

Actually, it's even more than that, as last year craft beer's share of the total U.S. beer market grew to more than 14%, the association says. Today there are more than 2,800 craft breweries in the U.S., surpassing even pre-Prohibition days.

"You are seeing a big boom in not just production facilities that are doing shipping of beer offsite, but also in the on-premise sales of brewpubs," says Engert, who oversees a lineup of 25 on-site brewed beers at Bluejacket, which opened late last year near Nationals Park.

At breweries and brewpubs, brewers are trying new styles to satisfy their creative urges — and quench ever-adventurous customer palates. "Over the last 150 to 200 years, beers got kind of mainlined into a very clean and consistent product," Engert says. "A lot of craft brewers today are interested in making crisp and clean full-f! avored lagers, hop-driven IPAs (India Pale Ales) and pale ales, but also want to showcase that wild side of beer."

A variety of beers at Bluejacket brewery and restaurant in Washington, D.C.(Photo11: H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY)

A perfect example is the growing sour beer movement. Building off classic Belgian and German styles, U.S. brewers are using wild yeast and bacteria to create beers that range from slightly tart to downright puckering.

Belgian-born brewer Peter Bouckaert began making sour beers 17 years ago at New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colo., including a red ale called La Folie, which takes two years to age, resulting in a sourness that the brewer equates to that of a Granny Smith apple. A recent release, Transatlantique Kriek, is a blend of a sour cherry lambic ale with a Champagne-like consistency.

Russian River Brewing Co. is another brewery that led the charge for barrel-aged sour beers and was among the first to let beers spontaneously ferment in open-air vats, allowing the growth of bacteria, airborne yeast and Brettanomyces, a yeast that can bring out fruity and funky flavors. Bluejacket has one, too.

The Santa Rosa, Calif.-brewpub, however, remains a testament that super-hoppy beers have not been set aside. Russian River has become a beer geek destination for its hopmonsters, including the double IPA Pliny the Elder and the hard-to-find, draft-only Triple IPA Pliny the Younger. IPA sales account for about 70% of production at the brewery, while sours make up 10%.

"It's cool to see such a big interest in the consumer side in sour beers as well as from the brewers," says Natalie Cilurzo, company co-owner with husband and brewmaster Vinnie. "But it's still all about IPA."

Craft beer industry! leader S! amuel Adams (Boston Beer Co.) has also embraced sour and funky beers, too, with a tart, spicy beer called Tetravis, created with a base ale called Kosmic Mother Funk (available year-round, first released in September 2013).

Women, in particular, seem to gravitate to sour beers, says Kim Jordan, who co-founded New Belgium in 1991. "Where more of the mainstream beers in the U.S. have been seen as a man's drink, I think craft brewers are more approachable for women," she says. "Some particular styles, sour being among them ... are really appealing to (women) because they are sophisticated and flavorful and not crazy (alcohol) bombs."

The brewery also recently released a beer that reflects another trend: lower-alcohol beers, or session beers, so named because you can have more than one or two in a drinking session. Some industry experts say session beers top out at 4.5% alcohol, but Snapshot is a 5% wheat beer just now hitting stores, with a slight tartness — a possible gateway beer to new sour explorations.

Similarly, Widmer Brothers Brewing recently released its Citra Blonde Summer Brew, now in its third year of availability, which has a healthy hoppiness despite its 4.3% alcohol level. Also available this spring is Goose Island Endless IPA, a new 5% alcohol limited release with a grassy, earthy aroma and bitterness from Amarillo hops.

Brewers are also finding inspiration through collaboration. Bluejacket and New Belgium, along with Brooklyn Brewery, teamed up for three beers, featured during their seminar on collaboration ales at the SAVOR craft beer and food event this weekend in Washington, D.C. The beers will subsequently be available on tap at Bluejacket, as well as in Colorado and New York.

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One, a malty ale that got its name from a favorite Flemish poem of Bouckaert's called Twee Horsen. All three use a strain of Brettanomy! ces, know! n for its funky flavor — as well as the additions of oak spirals and endive as an ingredient. "With craft beer you can mix different flavors in small levels and it surprises you what they will do to the ultimate overall characteristic of the beer," Jordan says.

Another, the sour and funky Rheinard de Vos (the red fox), was inspired by a wine that Engert, Bouckaert and Brooklyn Brewing brewmaster Garrett Oliver shared during a brewing brainstorming weekend in New York. "None of our breweries would have come up with these beers had we not gotten together for this fateful weekend in New York City," Engert says.

It's an opportune time for new beer exploration as the industry celebrates American Craft Beer Week May 12-18 with activities planned nationwide. And many pioneering breweries, including Boston Beer Co., Bridgeport Brewing, Pyramid Breweries and Widmer Brothers Brewing, both in Portland, Ore., celebrate 30th anniversaries this year.

"A lot of those packaging brewers made it through the more difficult times of the late '90s and really boomed," says Paul Gatza director of the Brewers Association, which puts on SAVOR and the Great American Beer Festival. "Every year now we're going to hear about anniversaries going forward."

U.S. Economy Grew at Sluggish 1.7% Pace in Q2

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew from April through June at an annual rate of 1.7% — a sluggish pace but stronger than in the previous quarter. Businesses spent more, and the federal government cut less, offsetting weaker spending by consumers.

The government on Wednesday sharply revised down its estimate of growth in the January-March quarter to a 1.1% annual rate from a previously estimated 1.8% rate.

Though growth remains weak, the pickup last quarter supports forecasts that the economy will accelerate in the rest of the year. Economists think businesses will step up investment, job growth will fuel more consumer spending and the drag from government cuts will fade. If so, the Federal Reserve could scale back its stimulus later this year.

The April-June growth figure indicates that "the recovery is gaining momentum," Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.

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During the April-June quarter, businesses increased their spending 4.6% after cutting by the same amount in the January-March period. And spending on home construction grew 13.4%, in line with the previous quarter.

At the same time, the federal government cut spending only 1.5% after slashing it 8.4% in the first quarter. And state and local governments spent more for the first time in a year.

Still, government cutbacks have weighed heavily on the economy the past 12 months. Over the past four quarters, the economy has grown at just a 1.4% annual rate. But if you exclude federal, state and local governments, the private sector has expanded at a much stronger 2.3% rate.

The "ongoing fiscal drag is masking private sector health," said Joseph LaVorgna, an economist at Deutsche Bank, said.

The weaker growth in consumer spending last quarter was significant because consumers account for about 70% of the economy. And a surge in imports reduced growth by the most in three years.

Yet economists say steady job growth should provide enough money for Americans to spend more and help the economy expand at an annual rate of around 2.5% in the third and fourth quarters.

Some signs in the report suggest that companies expect demand to pick up. Businesses added to their stockpiles last quarter — typically a sign that they foresee higher sales.

On Wednesday, the government also released comprehensive revisions that updated the nation's gross domestic product, or GDP, over the past several decades. Those figures showed that the Great Recession wasn't quite as steep as initially estimated and that the recovery has been stronger than earlier thought.

The revisions showed that the economy grew 2.8% in 2012, up from an earlier estimate of 2.2%. Growth in last year's first quarter was revised much higher. And growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 was reduced to an annual rate of just 0.1%.

GDP is the broadest measure of the nation's output of goods and services. It includes everything from manicures to industrial machinery. But the government's comprehensive revisions included changes in how GDP is defined.

Research and development spending is now counted as investment, rather than an expense. So is spending on the development of entertainment products such as movies, music, books and TV shows. Those changes increased the size of the economy by about $470 billion, or about 3%, as of the end of 2012.

Pension benefit promises are now counted as income. That's a shift from the previous approach, which counted only actual cash payments by companies and government agencies into pension plans. This change boosted the savings rate by 1.5%age points in 2011 and 2012 to about 5.6%. In the second quarter, Americans saved 4.5% of their after-tax income, up from 4% in the first quarter.

Despite the still-sluggish economy, recent data have been encouraging and suggest that growth will strengthen.

Home construction, sales and prices have been growing since early last year. Americans bought newly built homes in June at the fastest pace in five years. That's helped raise builder confidence to a seven-year high, which should lead to increases in construction and more jobs.

Overall hiring has accelerated this year. Employers added an average of 202,000 jobs a month from January through June, up from 180,000 in the previous six months.

A separate report Wednesday pointed to solid job gains in July. Payroll provider ADP estimated that businesses added 200,000 jobs in July, the most since December.

And auto sales topped 7.8 million in the first six months of 2013, the best first-half total since 2007. Analysts expect sales to remain solid the rest of the year.

Unemployment is still high at 7.6%, limiting consumer spending. And budget fights in Washington could lead to a government shutdown this fall, potentially disrupting the economy.

Federal Reserve officials have forecast better growth in the second half of the year. And Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the Fed could scale back its bond purchases later this year if the economy strengthens. But Fed officials typically put more weight on employment and inflation data than on GDP figures.

The Fed ends a two-day policy meeting Wednesday, after which it could clarify its interest-rate policies in a statement.

Stocks Hitting 52-Week Lows

Related KBR The Storm Rolls In: UBS Downgrades KBR On Cloudy Earnings Visibility Benzinga's Top Downgrades

Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) shares fell 10.50% to reach a new 52-week low of $34.68 on the end of lockup period.

KBR (NYSE: KBR) shares fell 1.16% to touch a new 52-week low of $23.95 after UBS downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral.

AEP Industries (NASDAQ: AEPI) shares touched a new 52-week low of $34.20. AEP shares have dropped 56.11% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 15.91% in the same period.

Electro Rent (NASDAQ: ELRC) shares fell 0.77% to reach a new 52-week low of $15.39. Electro Rent's trailing-twelve-month profit margin is 9.24%.

Posted-In: 52-Week LowsNews Movers & Shakers Intraday Update Markets

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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How to Find Obscure Stocks

Investors should either own an index fund or they should focus on obscure stocks. Trying to analyze the largest stocks in the S&P 500 is a waste of time. Especially if you diversify. It is very easy to be a closet indexer. As this post from Crossing Wall Street explains:

"One takeaway for investors is that a big secret on Wall Street is how easy it is for someone to be a closet indexer. I can easily construct a small portfolio that closely follows the market without appearing to. A few years ago, I found that a three-stock index fund of DuPont, Disney and United Technologies had an 85.4% correlation with the daily movements of the S&P 500. If we added five more stocks (Walmart, ExxonMobil, American Express, Verizon and IBM), the daily correlation rises to 95%."

I sometimes write about very big stocks. I've mentioned Omnicom (OMC) before. And – of course – Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)(BRK.B). There is nothing wrong with owning huge stocks. There is something wrong with spending a lot of time picking them.

The best way to own huge stocks is to own an index fund. You only need one. So go with the S&P 500. Mutual funds are mostly a waste of time. There are a couple – like Fairholme – that really do make big, concentrated bets that don't mirror index funds. And there are some other funds – like Hussman Strategic Growth and Third Avenue Focused Credit – that are structured to do something other than chase an index. I'm not sure those funds will perform well. I am sure they will give you diversity. They'll actually add something to your account – beyond most mutual funds.

The biggest problem for most investors is bad timing. They are greedy when others are greedy and fearful when others are fearful. That's a problem no matter what you invest in. It's a problem in an index fund. It's a problem in a mutual fund. And it's a problem in a stock. The biggest challenge for most investors is getting over that. If you can be greedy when others are fearful and! fearful when others are greedy – you can make money in index funds, mutual funds and individual stocks. If not, you will always underperform the assets you invest in.

Can you do any better than that though? Can you actually improve on an index's performance through stock picking?

Sure. And it's not that hard. There are many strategies that outperform indexes. I've mentioned a few before. I will once again mention an insanely simple one that will tend to work over time.

Rule #1: Never pay more than 8 times EBITDA for a stock.

Rule #2: Never buy a stock that has lost money in any of the last 10 years.

Rule #3: Never sell a stock within the first year of buying it.

Rule #4: Hold 10 stocks.

Rule #5: Hold the stocks with the longest history of consistent profits.

This is a very simple screen. It's not optimal. Paying less than 6 times EBITDA would do better than paying less than 8 times EBITDA. But that would be more of an extreme value screen. Using 8 times EBITDA is just a common sense requirement never to pay an unreasonable price for a stock's current earnings – and never to be fooled by leverage.

Today, following those five rules would put you in these stocks:

Superior Uniform (SGC)

Friedman (FRD)

Stepan (SCL)

Frisch's (FRS)

Eastman (EML)

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)

Walgreen (WAG)

Weis Markets (WMK)

H&R Block (HRB)

John Wiley (JW.A)

Notice that 4 of those 10 stocks have a market cap under $100 million. This is shocking. I'm ranking the companies by years of positive earnings (special items – which explain H&R Block's losses – are excluded). If a company earns money for several decades – this group has tended to be profitable for over 30 years – and it retains that money, it will end up with a big market cap.

Some of these companies have ended up with big market caps. Walgreen has a market cap over $30 billion. Archer Daniels is around $17 billion. ! Those are! huge companies.

What is the advantage of being a huge company? There are some. For one, we know the business is – or was – growable. A lot of small companies stay small because their circle of competence is small. Paradise (PARF) is an over the counter stock. It has a market cap of $10 million. And it dominates the candied fruit market in the U.S. Why isn't the company bigger?

The candied fruit market is tiny. Even with 100% market share – no company in the industry could have a market cap anywhere near $100 million.

We'll use that $100 million market cap level as a cut-off. A lot of investors do. A lot of investors have never owned a stock with a market cap less than $100 million.

How much of the market are they missing? In dollar terms – almost nothing. In company terms – probably about 35% of America's public companies.

When you limit yourself to stocks with a market cap over $100 million – you are limiting yourself to the two-thirds of American companies that are best known and best followed by analysts, investors, the media, etc. You are ignoring the one-third of American companies that are obscure. That is the group I want to focus on today.

Is it just a question of market cap? Are the smallest companies in terms of market cap always the most obscure companies?

And what if you have a lot of money to invest? What if you can't invest in stocks with a market cap of $10 million or $30 million? Does that mean you can't buy obscure stocks?

Not necessarily. There are some big obscure stocks. The example everyone who knows obscure stocks will give you is Seaboard (SEB). This is a company with a $3 billion market cap. But it's also a company that has been run the way obscure companies are run.

It is family controlled. It doesn't split the stock – shares go for $2,529. Most of the information you can turn up about the company is in the form of SEC reports, legal documents, and unauthorized (often unfriendly) news stories. Ya! hoo tells! me no analysts cover Seaboard. But there were reports written on the company. So that's a bit of an overstatement of the stock's obscurity. Still, Seaboard fits the mold of a big, obscure stock.

What makes a stock obscure?

Think about when you hear about a stock. Probably it's from some sort of news involving analysts, conference calls, press releases, acquisitions, and share issuances.

Imagine companies that aren't followed by analysts, don't hold conference calls, don't put out press releases, don't do (investment banker sourced) acquisitions, and don't issue stock or bonds. Those companies will tend to stay out of the public eye.

There is one other – very powerful but hard to find – reason why a public company stays unknown. The shares were spread out weirdly. There are companies where shareholders got stock because of a bankruptcy, antitrust issue, tax issue, spin-off, etc. The further this event happened from Wall Street's eyes – the more obscure the stock will be.

Imagine a situation where trade creditors end up with common stock. That's very different from a situation where distressed debt investors end up with common stock. From Warren Buffett's career we have the example of the Blue Chip Stamps consent decree. That put Blue Chip stamps in the hands of grocery stores. Grocery stores are not exactly institutional investors. Buffett took advantage of this. He didn't just buy Blue Chip shares. He even bought shares of grocers figuring he could convince them to swap Blue Chip shares for their own shares.

Look for shareholders who aren't institutions. This is something you can screen for.

That brings me to the best way to find obscure stocks. Stocks you can't screen for are harder to find than stocks you can screen for. Measures like EPS and book value are very easy to screen for. Excessive depreciation, understated asset values, tax assets, etc., are hard to screen for.

Look for companies that use short useful live! s in thei! r depreciation calculations, LIFO inventory accounting, carry old real estate, don't have to pay taxes for a while, and use the equity method of accounting. Public companies that own parts of other public companies are always worth investigating.

This is the real work you want to do. But it's too much to ask of most investors who have never invested in obscure stocks before. So, let's talk about starting points. You want to end up thinking about all the things I've mentioned – family control, unusual accounting, "hidden" assets, etc. But where do you start? Where can you come up with lists of obscure stocks?

There is a new website called Unlistedstocks.net. It looks like it will be an excellent starting place. That site was started by the author of Oddball Stocks. I know Oddball Stocks is already a great place to find obscure stocks. Read all of that blog's archives. And keep a file with the names of obscure stocks covered on the blog. You can also read blogs like OTC Adventures and Whopper Investments in the U.S. And the Share Sleuth blog in the UK.

The other way to find obscure stocks is to screen for them. But you'll need a good screener. You should use StockScreen123. And you should create your own screens. Anything else is unlikely to do the job as well. So don't skimp on your search for obscure stocks by trying to find a free screener. It's not worth it.

The same goes for UnlistedStocks.net. It costs $300 a year. Or $75 if you contribute obscure stocks to the database. If you do the math on how much obscure stocks can earn you beyond an index fund – you'll find that it's probably worth the investment in that $300-a-year subscription.

Even a cheapskate like Warren Buffett has subscribed to some very expensive trade magazines since his partnership days. When you find an information source that suits your process – it's worth paying for it. Don't be stupid about trying to save money. If it sacrifices return on investment – it's not! worth it! .

So what kind of screens should you run at StockScreen123? A simple low float search works well in turning up obscure companies. As a rule, float in share terms works best. Float in terms of market capitalization is trickier. And float in percentage terms can be low at some large, well known companies.

Why does float in terms of shares matter?

Share splits and share issuance are both signs of management that cares what the public thinks about the company.

You will find many fine companies where fewer than 5 million shares are in the hands of outsiders. A simple screen for such companies – again putting the companies with the longest history of consistent profitability on top – looks like this:

Weyco (WEYS)

Bowl America (BWL.A)

The Washington Post (WPO)

New Ulm (NULM)

Atrion (ATRI)

Arden (ARDNA)

RGC Resources (RGCO)

National Presto (NPK)

National Technical Systems (NTSC)

Micropac (MPAD)

Utah Medical Products (UTMD)

There are some interesting stories on that list. Buffett watchers know The Washington Post. Ben Graham fans know National Presto. Anyone who follows net-nets is familiar with Micropac. If you're a high ROC investor you've probably come across Utah Medical Products (operating margins are over 30%). Atrion has one of the most interesting histories of value creation starting in the 1990s. And Arden is a grocer that earns a 15% return on equity in a bad year.

And that's not a finessed list. All I did is eliminate all stocks with more than 5 million shares in the hands of outsiders. Then I sorted by years of consecutive profitability.

As you can see, it's very easy to turn up stocks most people have never heard of.

You'd be much better off fishing in the pond of stocks with a float of 5 million shares or less than in a pond like the S&P 500.

One of the benefits of studying obscure stocks is that it teaches you a lot about business. Most investors can't imagin! e a groce! r that earns 15% to 30% on equity (while using less leverage than the big boys).

If you can't understand a grocer with $400 million in sales – how can you understand a grocer with $90 billion sales? Kroger (KR) is 225 bigger than Arden. Its competitive position is more tenuous. And its financial position is a lot more tenuous than Arden's.

It's a lot harder to value the equity of Kroger than the equity of Arden. And yet more investors are trying to value Kroger's stock price than Arden's. That's a problem for the folks trying to value Kroger. And it's an opportunity for the investors focused on Arden.

The other problem with ignoring obscure stocks is best illustrated with this quote from an analyst report:

"The Kroger Company is the only traditional grocery store operator to consistently generate returns above its cost of capital."

There are several grocers that earn their cost of capital. They just aren't in the S&P 500.

Line up the return on capital lines – for the last 10 years – for Arden, Village (VLGEA), Weis, Harris Teeter (HTSI), and Kroger and you'll see that the grocer this analyst thinks is unique clearly isn't. Other grocers earn their cost of capital. They just aren't as well known.

To understand a grocer – any grocer – it helps to have an understanding of the industry. Of all the real life ways different species of grocers differ. It helps to be able to look at Arden and Village and Ingles (IMKTA). It helps to see three different approaches. And see which elements of each work and which don't.

The worst part of focusing on big stocks is how narrow minded it makes your analysis.

Talk to Geoff about How to Find Obscure Stocks