This year’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) annual meeting in Omaha provided CEO Warren Buffett to tackle really one main topic — The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS). Buffett, always the teacher, explained the transaction at issue, analyzed what Goldman did and what it should have done (which… Read More

It’s fun to be courted by two suitors. Rental-car firm DollarThrifty (NYSE: DTG) is back in play just days after Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) agreed to acquire the firm. Not so fast, says Avis Budget (NYSE: CAR), which hopes to top Hertz’s bid. Dollar Thrifty is no belle of the ball,… Read More

Until emergency crews can stem the flow of oil that is leaking from the broken well-head in the gulf, other drilling firms will continue to see their shares under pressure. The Obama administration has signaled that additional drilling permits may not be issued in… Read More

Most of the time, there’s a trade-off between yields and capital gains. Want a stock that could rapidly rise? You’ll have to give up a high dividend yield. Want a stock that pays double-digit income? The share price is unlikely to rise too… Read More

Very early Saturday morning I’ll leave my farm in North Central Kansas and drive to Omaha for a sit-down with Warren Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) annual meeting. With his longtime partner and vice chairman Charlie Munger, Buffett will speak without notes and answer every question until the… Read More

We all like to stock our portfolio with some high-growth/high-potential names along with some more conservative investments to sleep well at night. With the stock market now approaching the 14-month point of a remarkable bull run, it may be time to add another conservative… Read More

The whole DVD rental business has befuddled short-sellers. For several years, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) disproved its detractors, and its shares have steadily climbed, forcing short-sellers to eat big losses. The same appears to be happening for Netflix’s rival Coinstar (Nasdaq: CSTR), which rents… Read More

In cost-competitive markets, managements often need to decide to pursue either market share or firm pricing. One approach can preclude the other. Management at MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR), which had been smarting from lost market share in recent years, chose to win… Read More

If you thought Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement Wednesday of an offshore wind farm was big news for alternative-energy investing, then you must have missed the far bigger news from his Cabinet colleague, Energy Secretary Steven Chu. While Salazar was standing behind a rostrum touting a 130-turbine… Read More

The Senate officially brought financial reform to the floor today after a deal was reached to end a three-day Republican filibuster on the bill, which seeks to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system. “The Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010,” Democrats say, aims to set… Read More