Despite having studied hundreds of guru managers and their positions over the years, I still stumble across a trade or investment every now and then that prompts a verbal “Whoa!” out of me. #-ad_banner-#Billion-dollar positions are not out of the ordinary for successful hedge fund managers, especially those managers — like Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global — who are looking for places to stuff $24 billion in assets under management. However, when those positions are built in just a few months’ time, I sit up and take note. Halvorsen, a former commando in the Norwegian navy, is one of the… Read More

Despite having studied hundreds of guru managers and their positions over the years, I still stumble across a trade or investment every now and then that prompts a verbal “Whoa!” out of me. #-ad_banner-#Billion-dollar positions are not out of the ordinary for successful hedge fund managers, especially those managers — like Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global — who are looking for places to stuff $24 billion in assets under management. However, when those positions are built in just a few months’ time, I sit up and take note. Halvorsen, a former commando in the Norwegian navy, is one of the most successful of the so-called Tiger Cubs, proteges of legendary investor Julian Robertson. As an example of his stock-picking prowess, his newest fund, Viking Long, gained nearly 40% in 2013. After accumulating 5.5% of the outstanding shares of biotech firm Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN), Viking Global filed a Form 13G in March that showed it owned 7.1 million shares at that time, more than quadruple its 1.7 million-share position at the end of last year.  With the release of his first-quarter Form 13F in mid-May, we can now see that Halvorsen has continued to add to his position, with 8.9 million… Read More

For every Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) or Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN), you’ll find many more examples of Web-based business that failed to live up to their promise.  Companies like WebVan, Pets.com and eToys.com were once worth hundreds of millions of dollars… but failed to survive the eventual dot-com shakeout. Others survived — but are mere shadows of their former selves.  Case in point: online employment firm Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW), which has seen its shares slide more than 90% since their peak in the summer of 2000. Monster’s… Read More

For every Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) or Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN), you’ll find many more examples of Web-based business that failed to live up to their promise.  Companies like WebVan, Pets.com and eToys.com were once worth hundreds of millions of dollars… but failed to survive the eventual dot-com shakeout. Others survived — but are mere shadows of their former selves.  Case in point: online employment firm Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW), which has seen its shares slide more than 90% since their peak in the summer of 2000. Monster’s market value has fallen to just over $500 million, and in a sign of a clearly missed opportunity, rival LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) is worth a hefty $18 billion. That valuation gap may appear warranted. Monster now has just $800 million in annual sales, which have declined every year since 2008. LinkedIn now has more than $1.5 billion in sales and has boosted its top line by more than 50% every year.  But think about those numbers again for a moment. LinkedIn’s 2013 sales base was nearly twice as large, yet its market value is more than 35 times larger. Monster’s… Read More

Billionaire investor Howard Marks has said that “success in investing is not a function of what you buy — it’s a function of what you pay.”  #-ad_banner-#Basically, that means investors should look for opportunities to snatch up market-leading companies when they are trading cheaply.  The housing bubble and subsequent market pullback are a good example, creating a number of intriguing buying opportunities. Naturally, the construction industry was one of the hardest hit. The Dow Jones U.S. Heavy Construction Index fell 65% in just a few months in 2008.  All parts of the industry were impacted, especially construction equipment… Read More

Billionaire investor Howard Marks has said that “success in investing is not a function of what you buy — it’s a function of what you pay.”  #-ad_banner-#Basically, that means investors should look for opportunities to snatch up market-leading companies when they are trading cheaply.  The housing bubble and subsequent market pullback are a good example, creating a number of intriguing buying opportunities. Naturally, the construction industry was one of the hardest hit. The Dow Jones U.S. Heavy Construction Index fell 65% in just a few months in 2008.  All parts of the industry were impacted, especially construction equipment financing companies like CIT Group (NYSE: CIT), which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. Since then, the company has been rebuilding its image and revamping its balance sheet.  But the equipment financing business is still in recovery mode, and shares of CIT are down nearly 20% this year, especially after reporting lower than expected earnings last quarter. Its price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio is now below 1 — meaning that at its current price, CIT offers a compelling buy opportunity.  The market focused primarily on the fact that earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.55, compared with $0.81 a year… Read More

Is it possible to invest successfully with a spiritual perspective? Can one be super successful in the financial markets while maintaining a sense of compassionate purpose?​ #-ad_banner-#Believe it or not, there are individuals who have successfully combined the two seemingly incompatible qualities. The two largest hedge fund managers… Read More

When you think of stocks priced at $1,000 or more, what names come to mind? #-ad_banner-#The well-known online travel company Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN) (which my colleague Jody Chudley recently profiled), which is currently trading near $1,150?  How about Warren Buffett’s conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)? Class A shares are going for around $190,000 apiece.  Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) recently topped $1,200 and likely would have kept going if the firm hadn’t split the stock, resulting in two lower-priced share classes. There’s another great thousand-dollar stock every investor should know about, but I’ll bet few have ever heard of it… Read More

When you think of stocks priced at $1,000 or more, what names come to mind? #-ad_banner-#The well-known online travel company Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN) (which my colleague Jody Chudley recently profiled), which is currently trading near $1,150?  How about Warren Buffett’s conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)? Class A shares are going for around $190,000 apiece.  Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) recently topped $1,200 and likely would have kept going if the firm hadn’t split the stock, resulting in two lower-priced share classes. There’s another great thousand-dollar stock every investor should know about, but I’ll bet few have ever heard of it — despite a nearly $1,100 price tag and the fact that the underlying company is an industry leader envied by its rivals. It would be wise to learn as much about it as possible, though, because investing in it could just about double your money during the next five years. The company, a highly profitable homebuilder with earnings per share (EPS) of $53.90 and operations in 14 East Coast states and Washington, D.C., mainly builds single-family homes. However, townhouses and condos account for a significant portion (30%) of revenue, which is currently $4.3 billion annually. As analysts at investment… Read More

Here’s a little-known statistic that could prove highly profitable for you: Over the next four years, worldwide consumption of non-alcoholic beverages is expected to grow at a 6% compound annual rate.  In 2010, the retail market for non-alcoholic beverages was $135 billion. By 2020, it’s expected to increase by $300 billion. Global urban population growth, an expanding middle class and higher disposable incomes are driving this trend. With a strong chart and upbeat fundamental outlook, I’m excited about America’s third-largest soft drink company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS), which makes six of the top 10 non-cola soft… Read More

Here’s a little-known statistic that could prove highly profitable for you: Over the next four years, worldwide consumption of non-alcoholic beverages is expected to grow at a 6% compound annual rate.  In 2010, the retail market for non-alcoholic beverages was $135 billion. By 2020, it’s expected to increase by $300 billion. Global urban population growth, an expanding middle class and higher disposable incomes are driving this trend. With a strong chart and upbeat fundamental outlook, I’m excited about America’s third-largest soft drink company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS), which makes six of the top 10 non-cola soft drinks. In addition to its namesake Dr Pepper and Snapple drinks, the beverage company offers nearly 50 other brands, including 7Up, Mott’s and Canada Dry. These products are distributed throughout North and Latin America. Dr Pepper is clearly doing something right. In 2013, Citi Research said U.S. retail soft drink sales fell for the first time in 15 years. In the first quarter of 2014, they declined another 1.9%. Despite these drops, Dr Pepper’s sales volume rose 1% in the most recently reported first quarter, and revenue for the period increased 1.3%, to $1.4 billion. Through productivity improvements and reduced… Read More

When a stock falls 10% in a single day, it’s hard not to do a double take… especially when the stock in question is a company with a market cap of $13 billion-plus.  #-ad_banner-#Couple that with the fact that the company is the world’s largest supplier of chicken, pork and beef, and there’s a good chance this could be a great buying opportunity.  Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) is the latest stock to get hit. Shares took a big hit this month after missing expectations. This comes as the company faced margin pressure as supplies of hogs and cattle were tight. Read More

When a stock falls 10% in a single day, it’s hard not to do a double take… especially when the stock in question is a company with a market cap of $13 billion-plus.  #-ad_banner-#Couple that with the fact that the company is the world’s largest supplier of chicken, pork and beef, and there’s a good chance this could be a great buying opportunity.  Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) is the latest stock to get hit. Shares took a big hit this month after missing expectations. This comes as the company faced margin pressure as supplies of hogs and cattle were tight. However, this isn’t as big a deal as many investors might fear. It’s seeing a decreasing of feed costs, which should offset tightening supplies going forward.  Overall, the second quarter was a great one for Tyson. Rising beef and pork prices drove sales for the period up nearly 8% from a year ago, to just over $9 billion — the company’s first $9 billion quarter. Tyson revised its full-year sales target to $37 billion, $1 billion higher than its previous estimate. The company’s operating margin rose to 4% from 2.8%, and earnings per share (EPS) rose 58% to $0.60. Tyson’s… Read More

I’m in the process of increasing my life insurance. I’m taking advantage of my firm’s group life benefit to shore up my total face value to a number that will make my wife even happier should I head to the happy hunting ground sooner than expected.  #-ad_banner-#As I’ve been navigating the underwriting odyssey, I’ve realized that I haven’t looked at some of the bigger life insurance stocks in a while. So I set out to correct that — and I was intrigued by what I found.  Many investors have fallen out of love with large insurance company stocks over the… Read More

I’m in the process of increasing my life insurance. I’m taking advantage of my firm’s group life benefit to shore up my total face value to a number that will make my wife even happier should I head to the happy hunting ground sooner than expected.  #-ad_banner-#As I’ve been navigating the underwriting odyssey, I’ve realized that I haven’t looked at some of the bigger life insurance stocks in a while. So I set out to correct that — and I was intrigued by what I found.  Many investors have fallen out of love with large insurance company stocks over the past five years (if they were ever in love to begin with). The two main reasons are the two motivations that drive almost all behavior in financial markets: fear and greed.  From 2008 to 2011, fear drove the bus mainly due to the fallout from the global financial crises in U.S and European markets. Investors worried that the investment portfolios of the big insurers contained huge quantities of securities that were in danger of deep devaluation or even default due to the turmoil and depressive economic environment. The natural reaction was to sell and then avoid. This chart of MetLife… Read More

Warren Buffett is famously known as the world’s greatest investor — but he’s also famously averse to technology stocks. He tends to stick to things that he knows like banks, insurance companies and consumer goods.  #-ad_banner-#What if there was an investor with Buffett’s investing acumen… who also had a similarly advanced understanding of technology?  Well, luckily for investors, there’s one such investor who has assembled a company investing in technology with stakes in many different companies, just like Buffett has done with Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B). Masayoshi Son has transformed SoftBank Corp. (OTC: SFTBY) from a software wholesaler in Japan… Read More

Warren Buffett is famously known as the world’s greatest investor — but he’s also famously averse to technology stocks. He tends to stick to things that he knows like banks, insurance companies and consumer goods.  #-ad_banner-#What if there was an investor with Buffett’s investing acumen… who also had a similarly advanced understanding of technology?  Well, luckily for investors, there’s one such investor who has assembled a company investing in technology with stakes in many different companies, just like Buffett has done with Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B). Masayoshi Son has transformed SoftBank Corp. (OTC: SFTBY) from a software wholesaler in Japan to an investment vehicle like Berkshire Hathaway with stakes in more 1,300 technology companies. Last year, SoftBank purchased control of Sprint (NYSE: S) for $22 billion. SoftBank operates five key units, including mobile communications, fixed-line telecommunications, Internet and Sprint. (The fifth unit encompasses SoftBank’s other businesses, including a Japanese pro baseball team in Japan and investments in many other companies. This setup is similar to Berkshire Hathaway, except most of SoftBank’s companies are focused on technology.  The mobile segment consists of SoftBank Mobile, which was the first mobile provider to introduce Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone in Japan. As of last… Read More

Every once in a while the markets hand you an investment that practically screams buy or sell.  #-ad_banner-#Unfortunately, it’s usually only in hindsight that it becomes so obvious… but once in a while, the market gives you the clues that an investment could go much higher. The investors savvy enough to catch on are anointed gurus as the rest of us wonder why we didn’t see the writing on the wall.  While some of these “no-brainer” investments jump spectacularly, leaving little opportunity for later investors to profit, others are more gradual in their rise. While shares of this… Read More

Every once in a while the markets hand you an investment that practically screams buy or sell.  #-ad_banner-#Unfortunately, it’s usually only in hindsight that it becomes so obvious… but once in a while, the market gives you the clues that an investment could go much higher. The investors savvy enough to catch on are anointed gurus as the rest of us wonder why we didn’t see the writing on the wall.  While some of these “no-brainer” investments jump spectacularly, leaving little opportunity for later investors to profit, others are more gradual in their rise. While shares of this company have more than doubled since my colleague David Goodboy highlighted the opportunity in last June (and again in December), the investment I’m thinking of could still have much higher to go — and soon. Too Big To Scale In its most explicit acknowledgement yet that talk of winding down the Federal National Mortgage Association (OTC: FNMA) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (OTC: FMCC) — or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as they’re more commonly known — is futile, the key regulator for the government-supported enterprises (GSEs) recently said it would not reduce the size of the… Read More