Long-time readers of my articles will notice a predilection for the phrase “love ’em when they’re hated.” That phrase has surely applied to Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) after its stock fell 80% in the past five years to less than $10 a share. Many had concluded that the nation’s… Read More

What would you do with $10 billion? That’s the tough question posed to a handful of CEOs every year. These executives must redeploy that much money every year, trying to find the right mix of acquisitions, share buybacks, debt reductions and dividend streams. How they spend it is largely a function of where that company is in its life cycle. For ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), the prodigious profits have a clear purpose. The energy giant topped the list of America’s most profitable companies and usually focused on stock buybacks. Exxon’s share count… Read More

What would you do with $10 billion? That’s the tough question posed to a handful of CEOs every year. These executives must redeploy that much money every year, trying to find the right mix of acquisitions, share buybacks, debt reductions and dividend streams. How they spend it is largely a function of where that company is in its life cycle. For ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), the prodigious profits have a clear purpose. The energy giant topped the list of America’s most profitable companies and usually focused on stock buybacks. Exxon’s share count fell for eight straight years before rising a bit in 2010. Profits were spread over 6.8 billion shares back in 2002, yet ExxonMobil has bought back two billion shares since then, leading to a 29% reduction in the share count. #-ad_banner-#Why did the share count rise slightly in 2010? It’s because the oil giant deviated from the game plan a bit, making a few stock-based acquisitions in the natural gas sector such as the early-year acquisition of XTO Energy. Assuming ExxonMobil will once again focus on stock… Read More

For clean energy investors, 2010 finished on a dismal note. A change of political control in Congress signaled diminished support in Washington for any kind of major financial incentives in alternative energy. In Europe, fiscal challenges led countries such as Italy and Germany to scale back their previous commitments to… Read More

Friday’s employment report has created an even hazier backdrop for stocks. Recent economic data showed an economy starting to cool, but with 244,000 jobs created in April — the best showing in 11 months — this expansion still may have legs after all. The key distinction: the economy‘s areas of support are not what you would have expected a few months ago. In recent weeks and months, investors have been trying to assess stocks in the context of a sharp spike in commodities — from oil to silver to… Read More

Friday’s employment report has created an even hazier backdrop for stocks. Recent economic data showed an economy starting to cool, but with 244,000 jobs created in April — the best showing in 11 months — this expansion still may have legs after all. The key distinction: the economy‘s areas of support are not what you would have expected a few months ago. In recent weeks and months, investors have been trying to assess stocks in the context of a sharp spike in commodities — from oil to silver to wheat. Only recently, we’ve seen how the massive flooding in the Midwest is leading to forecasts of sharply falling farm output and eventually, higher food prices. Consumers didn’t need to hear that while gasoline prices were eating a hole in their pocketbooks. #-ad_banner-#Despite that, stocks were able to rally through much of April, thanks to a declining dollar that was boosting prospects for U.S. blue chips. In effect, the domestic economic picture looked troubling, while the rest of the world promised to provide at least a decent tailwind. That scenario now looks backward, as… Read More

#-ad_banner-#Thanks to recent troubles, I knew shares of Axcelis Technologies (Nasdaq: ACLS) were cheap. But I had no idea how cheap. When Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) announced plans to buy a rival, an apples-to-apples comparison revealed a massive gap in how investors are assessing these firms. After a… Read More

It’s been a heck of a run for small-cap stocks. The Russell 2000 Index has risen roughly 80% in just two years and a number of individual stocks have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. The move is understandable; Small stocks were so badly beaten-up… Read More

Investors tend to place a strong emphasis on growth. If a company is boosting sales at a fast clip, then its stock may be lavished with a rich multiple. Yet the top-line focus causes many to overlook a much more important metric: cash-flow growth. It’s easy to miss, especially when… Read More

In the past 100 years, a clear pattern has been in place. The stock market has tended to trade in a similar fashion in each of the four years of a presidential cycle — that is to say, first-year results are similar from term to term, and so on. The… Read More

One of the real charms of energy sector is the potential for fast gains. Unlike staid utility stocks, energy stocks are so volatile that a six or 12-month price target can be secured in a matter of months. My “Better than Exxon” pick of Sandridge Energy (NYSE:… Read More

The most active traders, which usually man Wall Street’s trading desks, can alter market sentiment by either their presence or absence. As the weather warms, these traders take ever longer lunch breaks, which morphs into “Friday-free weekends,” culminating in their absence for decent chunk of the month of August. When these traders leave their desks, it’s a sign for the rest of us to cool off as well, in case thin trading volume causes one of our holdings to suddenly spike or plunge. Hence, the old-adage: “Sell in May and then go away.” (Until… Read More

The most active traders, which usually man Wall Street’s trading desks, can alter market sentiment by either their presence or absence. As the weather warms, these traders take ever longer lunch breaks, which morphs into “Friday-free weekends,” culminating in their absence for decent chunk of the month of August. When these traders leave their desks, it’s a sign for the rest of us to cool off as well, in case thin trading volume causes one of our holdings to suddenly spike or plunge. Hence, the old-adage: “Sell in May and then go away.” (Until the fall…) Is it a wise move? Let’s look. Well, we know April surely gives the impressions of a solid market rally. The S&P 500 rose, 4%, 4% and 10% respectively in each of the past three years and is up another 2.2% this month. That rally has recently extended into May, as the S&P 500 has rallied an average of 3% in the past three years. But by the end of May, the party seems to end.   The market has fallen in six of the past 10 Junes of the past decade,… Read More