About a week ago, a press release announced that the University of Virginia Press would be making tens of thousands of writings and documents from the nation’s Founding Fathers available on the Internet. By 2012, instead of having to rely on what was written about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, individuals will be able to read their original thoughts on many important subjects. The news is of obvious excitement to historians and other history buffs, but also serves as yet another indication of the growing importance of digital technology to businesses and society as a whole. Websites… Read More

About a week ago, a press release announced that the University of Virginia Press would be making tens of thousands of writings and documents from the nation’s Founding Fathers available on the Internet. By 2012, instead of having to rely on what was written about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, individuals will be able to read their original thoughts on many important subjects. The news is of obvious excitement to historians and other history buffs, but also serves as yet another indication of the growing importance of digital technology to businesses and society as a whole. Websites and social networks are other examples and mean continued leaps in demand for storing and retrieving increasing amounts of digital content. Tech giant Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) frequently talks about “the human network,” which it defines the most important asset in the information technology (IT) industry. It defines this network as “the platform to change the way the world works, lives, plays, and learns.” This statement definitely may be advertising fluff, but it also happens to be a good way to identify the vast array of markets the firm’s products address to make it a reality. Read More

The Russell 2000 index is widely seen as a proxy for small cap stocks. Yet the definition of “small cap” can be quite loose. Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD), the Russell 2000’s largest component, is worth more than $4 billion, while a number of members of the index are worth less than $200 million. Historically, the biggest names in this index eventually graduate, often to the S&P 500, where they become one of the smaller companies in this large company index. Such a… Read More

The Russell 2000 index is widely seen as a proxy for small cap stocks. Yet the definition of “small cap” can be quite loose. Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD), the Russell 2000’s largest component, is worth more than $4 billion, while a number of members of the index are worth less than $200 million. Historically, the biggest names in this index eventually graduate, often to the S&P 500, where they become one of the smaller companies in this large company index. Such a move often triggers a nice little gain, as index funds need to buy up shares of any new S&P 500 entrants to ensure that they own the whole portfolio. So which stocks are most likely to graduate and matriculate upwards? Let’s take a look. The candidates To gain inclusion in the S&P 500, decision-makers at Standard & Poor’s like to ensure that new entrants have a reasonable level of current business and a bright future. Here’s a look at the top 10 companies in the Russell… Read More

In the healthcare industry, when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs, the focus is usually on the major pharmaceutical companies (like Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)) that produce the drugs, and the retailers (like CVS (NYSE: CVS) and Walgreen (NYSE: WAG)) that sell them on store shelves… Read More

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is a compelling investment. Analysts expect the software giant’s stock to return +70% to +110% during the next three or four years. Furthermore, its current price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 12 looks cheap next to its five-year average P/E… Read More

$17 billion. That’s how much stock market value has been wiped out at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) in the latest foreclosure mess. JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) has seen its value shrink by several billion dollars, while Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo… Read More

Look around the room you are in. I guarantee there’s at least a dozen devices powered by electricity, and of those, at least a few are powered by batteries. Batteries — or in more precise terms, energy storage devices — have remained pretty much unchanged… Read More

As Americans were heading back to work from the long Memorial Day weekend, Europeans were fretting about a looming banking crisis that threatened to take down major banks in Ireland and Spain. Europe went on to dodge that bullet, and its equity markets have rebounded +30% in the last five… Read More

From time to time, the banking sector will see a transformative innovation, such as the ATM or online banking. But it often takes time to get consumers to change their habits. Yet when it happens, the results can be a big money maker. This appears to… Read More

It’s time to write the obituary for traditional cell phones. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has changed the game with its iPhone, and there are now a raft of other smartphones on the market as well. My favorite play on this theme is Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA), which was a… Read More

After a furious two-month rally that has pushed the major indices to yearly highs, it seems to be an appropriate time to look at stocks that have been receiving perhaps too much investor affection. When the market takes a breather, these are often the first stocks to be dumped by momentum investors. So, I ran a screen for stocks that have risen at least +40% in the last three months and sport projected 2011 price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples above 40. There are surely some high-growth names here, but there are also… Read More

After a furious two-month rally that has pushed the major indices to yearly highs, it seems to be an appropriate time to look at stocks that have been receiving perhaps too much investor affection. When the market takes a breather, these are often the first stocks to be dumped by momentum investors. So, I ran a screen for stocks that have risen at least +40% in the last three months and sport projected 2011 price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples above 40. There are surely some high-growth names here, but there are also low-growth stocks that, at least at first glance, don’t merit such a strong move. The logical rebounders Some of these stocks are here simply because they were likely too undervalued earlier in the summer. Back in July, I suggested that Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), trading at $120, was due for a rally and predicted that “as investors start to once again embrace the company’s robust long-term outlook, shares should eventually power past the $150 mark seen earlier this spring.” With shares now at $170, it’s hard to… Read More