Shareholder activists hate to see a company with too much cash. They rattle cages in hopes of getting a company to issue a one-time hefty dividend, or make some other bold move that can shake up a stock. But many companies simply refuse… Read More

Very few companies can boast of six straight years of sales growth in excess of 25%. And fewer still can match this pace for the next few years as well. So would you want to own the stock? I’m talking about a company that had roughly $7 billion in sales… Read More

If you’ve been a regular reader of my articles during the past four months, then you know how much I feared the eventual market rout we’re now witnessing. I only mention this to make it clear that my current, increasingly… Read More

The number 666 has spooky connotations for fans of horror films. It’s also an ominous number that analysts at France-based Societe Generale (SoGen) want you to think about. That’s their target price for the S&P 500.  The S&P 500’s 120 point drop since late March to a recent 1,305 has… Read More

In the spring of 2008, Corporate America was caught off guard. Many companies carried hefty debt loads, and once the financial crisis hit that summer, a number of stocks plunged precipitously on looming bankruptcy fears. The most vulnerable among them: companies with more debt coming due in the following 12… Read More

According to official data, the Chinese economy is cooling a bit, with 2012 growth projected to come in around 7% or 8% — a multi-year low.  Don’t you believe it.  Statistics provided by the Chinese government are strictly a form of propaganda, used to… Read More

Every spring, the same headline flashes across the screen: “The housing sector is perking up and it’s time to buy.” As time passed, the newfound momentum invariably petered out, leading to the follow-up refrain “wait ’til next year.”  #-ad_banner-#The fact that housing stocks posted solid gains in the past few… Read More

  I got a chance to catch up with old colleagues at a tech investment conference this past week. And one topic dominated our hour-long discussion: Now that Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) are trading far from their all-time highs, is either one a bargain? More specifically, how… Read More

In a rising stock market, it pays to focus on a company’s income statement. Each move up in the share price usually correlates to the company’s bottom-line performance. But when the market is in sell-off mode, you should shift your focus to the balance sheet. That’s where you can measure a company’s real worth and get a handle on how much risk the stock can hold.  Although a company’s market value can fall below the… Read More

In a rising stock market, it pays to focus on a company’s income statement. Each move up in the share price usually correlates to the company’s bottom-line performance. But when the market is in sell-off mode, you should shift your focus to the balance sheet. That’s where you can measure a company’s real worth and get a handle on how much risk the stock can hold.  Although a company’s market value can fall below the level of tangible book value on its balance sheet, it is likely to fall much less than most, even if the broader market plunges to fresh lows. That’s no small concern at a time when the European and Chinese economies are now weakening. Fresh reports point to a global economic slowdown, and you should be focusing on defensive “below book” stocks right now. These carry solid upside like growth stocks, but defensive stocks that trade below tangible book value will allow you to sleep better at night.  #-ad_banner-#After reviewing the 1,500 stocks that comprise… Read More

  If you were angling for a piece of the Facebook (NYSE: FB) IPO — only to see it quickly drop — then know that it could have been worse. You could have invested in stocks like Brightcove (Nasdaq: BCOV) or Millennial Media… Read More