Hedge fund managers like to find management teams with “skin in the game.”#-ad_banner-# It’s important to know that CEOs and CFOs own a sizable chunk of company stock, and are therefore as keen to build a rising share price as outsiders. Of course, a lot of these executives get their hands on company stock through the generosity of stock options grant doled out by the broad of directors. You want to focus on executives that are boosting their holdings by opening up their own wallets. That’s truly a way to put some skin in the game. Here are five companies… Read More

Hedge fund managers like to find management teams with “skin in the game.”#-ad_banner-# It’s important to know that CEOs and CFOs own a sizable chunk of company stock, and are therefore as keen to build a rising share price as outsiders. Of course, a lot of these executives get their hands on company stock through the generosity of stock options grant doled out by the broad of directors. You want to focus on executives that are boosting their holdings by opening up their own wallets. That’s truly a way to put some skin in the game. Here are five companies where solid clusters of buying have recently emerged. (All data provided by InsiderInsights.com.) 1. Internap (Nasdaq: INAP )​ This provider of data center hosting services has been caught up the recent tech sell-off, and its shares are now roughly 30% below levels seen last summer.  The downward move has brought out insider support: Director Kevin Dotts bought 10,000 shares last month at $7.73, and more recently, director Debora Wilson has bought the same amount (at $6.79 a share). Though shares have slumped, business trends are solid. First-quarter sales rose 11% sequentially and 18% from the first quarter of 2013, thanks in part to an… Read More

Last week, we told you about the Alpha Score, a little-known indicator that can flag exactly which stocks are about to jump 61.5%, 26% or even 118% within weeks and months. #-ad_banner-#On Jan. 14, for example, the Alpha Score triggered a “buy” signal in AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN), a drug manufacturer with a market cap of nearly $100 billion. At the time, most analysts were extremely bearish on the stock. AZN had been suffering from what one analyst called, “the steepest patent cliff in the industry.” The Alpha Score disagreed with the bearish assessment. It signaled that AZN was one… Read More

Last week, we told you about the Alpha Score, a little-known indicator that can flag exactly which stocks are about to jump 61.5%, 26% or even 118% within weeks and months. #-ad_banner-#On Jan. 14, for example, the Alpha Score triggered a “buy” signal in AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN), a drug manufacturer with a market cap of nearly $100 billion. At the time, most analysts were extremely bearish on the stock. AZN had been suffering from what one analyst called, “the steepest patent cliff in the industry.” The Alpha Score disagreed with the bearish assessment. It signaled that AZN was one of the stocks most likely to outperform the market in the short term. You see, the day we published our report, AZN sported an Alpha Score of 178. AZN is now up more than 25% since Jan. 14, easily outperforming the S&P 500, which is up less than 3%. What no analyst knew about AZN at the time was that its Alpha Score was one of the highest in the market. Every stock has an Alpha Score, and it can range from 0 to 200. The higher a stock’s Alpha Score, the more potential it has. The Score… Read More

Today I want to tell you about an investing strategy that defies logic. It shouldn’t work based on everything we’ve learned about the stock market. Yet it does. In fact, for over half a century, investors and traders have used this strategy to produce unparalleled results. And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this strategy doesn’t involve options, derivatives or any other obscure financial product. What’s more, what I’m about to show you can be used as part of any general investing strategy — regardless of whether you’re focusing on income, growth, blue chips, small caps or… Read More

Today I want to tell you about an investing strategy that defies logic. It shouldn’t work based on everything we’ve learned about the stock market. Yet it does. In fact, for over half a century, investors and traders have used this strategy to produce unparalleled results. And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this strategy doesn’t involve options, derivatives or any other obscure financial product. What’s more, what I’m about to show you can be used as part of any general investing strategy — regardless of whether you’re focusing on income, growth, blue chips, small caps or even commodities. Specifically, I’m talking about relative-strength investing. Longtime readers might already be familiar with relative strength investing. We’ve talked about it before in previous StreetAuthority Daily issues. For those who need a refresher, allow me to provide a brief recap. Relative-strength investing is simply a type of momentum investing. It involves buying the best-performing stocks (relative to the market) and holding them until their momentum changes course. To most investors, especially those considered value investors, this strategy probably sounds ridiculous. After all, most people have heard the phrase “buy low, sell high.” Since relative-strength investors buy stocks that are… Read More

When Merck (NYSE: MRK) announced plans this week to sell its consumer products business to Germany’s Bayer (Nasdaq: BAYRY) for $14 billion, industry watchers may have merely shrugged. #-ad_banner-#After all, Novartis (NYSE: NVS) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) only recently agreed to a $20 billion asset swap. And Valeant Pharma (NYSE: VRX) is dangling $45 billion in front of Allergan’s (NYSE: AGN) shareholders in a deal that has yet to be consummated. Why are these firms now throwing around such big money? Two reasons. First, the global economy is growing at a sufficiently slow pace that companies must seek deals to… Read More

When Merck (NYSE: MRK) announced plans this week to sell its consumer products business to Germany’s Bayer (Nasdaq: BAYRY) for $14 billion, industry watchers may have merely shrugged. #-ad_banner-#After all, Novartis (NYSE: NVS) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) only recently agreed to a $20 billion asset swap. And Valeant Pharma (NYSE: VRX) is dangling $45 billion in front of Allergan’s (NYSE: AGN) shareholders in a deal that has yet to be consummated. Why are these firms now throwing around such big money? Two reasons. First, the global economy is growing at a sufficiently slow pace that companies must seek deals to shake up their portfolios to boost profits. Second, most major economies are now healthy enough to avoid the risk of a fresh economic slowdown or crisis. Companies don’t like to do deals when the economic environment is uncertain. Those two reasons add up to a Goldilocks scenario for deal makers, operating in an economy that is neither too hot nor too cold. As long as we remain in this middling growth phase, look for many more deals in coming quarters. Here’s a look at the industries and types of companies that will be on the buying and selling ends of… Read More

When I started in the investing business some two decades ago, one of the first things I learned about how to properly select stock winners was to look at the price action. More specifically, I was taught directly by Investor’s Business Daily founder William O’Neil that what matters most is the price action of a stock relative to the rest of the market.  #-ad_banner-#I soon found out that measuring a stock’s relative price strength, or simply relative strength (RS), was a key filter used to identify the stocks the smart money was banking on for market-beating returns. RS… Read More

When I started in the investing business some two decades ago, one of the first things I learned about how to properly select stock winners was to look at the price action. More specifically, I was taught directly by Investor’s Business Daily founder William O’Neil that what matters most is the price action of a stock relative to the rest of the market.  #-ad_banner-#I soon found out that measuring a stock’s relative price strength, or simply relative strength (RS), was a key filter used to identify the stocks the smart money was banking on for market-beating returns. RS assigns a numerical score from zero to 100 to a stock based on its price performance relative to other stocks in the market over the past six months. It gives you a great sense of the strength of a stock’s past performance, and therefore, how it is likely to perform going forward. As someone who has used RS to identify many winning companies over the years, I’m a big believer in this metric. Of course, I’m not the only one.  According to professor Eugene Fama at the University of Chicago, relative strength was one of the three factors identified as… Read More

While ripe with actionable information, one of the primary drawbacks of SEC-required disclosures of funds’ holdings is that a delay can be present between the actual trade and the time of publishing. #-ad_banner-# Such is often the case with 13F filings, which highlight long-only equity, debt and option positions of large asset managers. The SEC requires the forms to be filed 45 days after quarter’s end, which is why choosing which funds to follow is crucial. Managers who invest on longer horizons tend to keep portfolios that better mirror the ones outlined in a 13F. However, some funds have been… Read More

While ripe with actionable information, one of the primary drawbacks of SEC-required disclosures of funds’ holdings is that a delay can be present between the actual trade and the time of publishing. #-ad_banner-# Such is often the case with 13F filings, which highlight long-only equity, debt and option positions of large asset managers. The SEC requires the forms to be filed 45 days after quarter’s end, which is why choosing which funds to follow is crucial. Managers who invest on longer horizons tend to keep portfolios that better mirror the ones outlined in a 13F. However, some funds have been known to file early, which in effect gives investors a more accurate look at their snapshot portfolios with much less lag. It is not uncommon to see an asset manager load up on a stock a quarter prior as well, ahead of a merger closing or stock-moving news. Keeping in time with these portfolio plays could be the difference between a big win or missing the boat entirely (or worse, buying in after).   ​     YouTube/Fisher Investments     With a net worth of $2.4 billion, Fisher and his team of analysts have a… Read More

If you’ve been paying attention to the biotech and pharmaceutical space over the past few months (like my colleague David Sterman surely has), you know that these stocks have been hammered amid a sector rotation into late-cycle stocks.  #-ad_banner-#Big, profitable companies like Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB), and Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) fell by as much as 25%. Opportunities for both traders and buy-and-hold investors abound, as the stocks re-establish price support. Yet my favorite stock in this group is the one that has fallen the furthest.  Gilead Sciences (Nadsaq: GILD) is a tremendously undervalued… Read More

If you’ve been paying attention to the biotech and pharmaceutical space over the past few months (like my colleague David Sterman surely has), you know that these stocks have been hammered amid a sector rotation into late-cycle stocks.  #-ad_banner-#Big, profitable companies like Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB), and Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) fell by as much as 25%. Opportunities for both traders and buy-and-hold investors abound, as the stocks re-establish price support. Yet my favorite stock in this group is the one that has fallen the furthest.  Gilead Sciences (Nadsaq: GILD) is a tremendously undervalued aggressive-growth biopharmaceutical stock. (As you might have guessed, David Sterman is also a fan.) Gilead makes and markets treatments for immune deficiencies and a host of other ailments. The company operates in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.  Gilead is a leader in HIV and hepatitis C therapies. Its Sovaldi drug, which the FDA approved late last year, has proved effective in combination with other medicines in curing hepatitis C. Sovaldi is joined in Gilead’s portfolio by Stribild, a top-selling one-a-day HIV treatment, and the company’s newest HIV medicine, Tybost, which boosts the function of other HIV medicines, including Gilead’s… Read More

Here are two important facts if you’re a trader: #-ad_banner-#First, research firm Nielsen just reported that global consumer confidence is at its highest level since 2007. Second, in March, U.S. consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in nearly five years. MasterCard (NYSE: MA), the world’s second largest credit card company, is a clear beneficiary of heightened consumer activity.  The company recently reported strong first-quarter results. Revenue for the period swelled 14% year over year to $2.2 billion as people around the globe plunked down their credit cards. Earnings jumped 18% to $0.73 per share. MasterCard processed 9.8 billion transactions… Read More

Here are two important facts if you’re a trader: #-ad_banner-#First, research firm Nielsen just reported that global consumer confidence is at its highest level since 2007. Second, in March, U.S. consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in nearly five years. MasterCard (NYSE: MA), the world’s second largest credit card company, is a clear beneficiary of heightened consumer activity.  The company recently reported strong first-quarter results. Revenue for the period swelled 14% year over year to $2.2 billion as people around the globe plunked down their credit cards. Earnings jumped 18% to $0.73 per share. MasterCard processed 9.8 billion transactions in the first quarter, 14% more than the same period last year. Worldwide purchases increased 13% from the year-earlier quarter, totaling $759 billion. Of this amount, only 35%, or $268 billion, came from the United States. That represents a 9% year-over-year increase, while Latin America, Asia and Europe all saw strong growth ranging between 11% and 22%. Management reiterated that it expects revenue growth of 11% to 14% from current levels by 2015. Several catalysts underlie this strong projected growth. The payment provider just inked two new card agreements with major retailers Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Sam’s Club and Target (NYSE:… Read More

We’re stuck in a binary stock market. In recent years, investors have been willing to embrace richly valued high-growth stocks during “risk-on” buying phases. #-ad_banner-#But right now, we’re in a “risk-off” phase of the market. Risky biotechs, dot-coms and recent IPOs have all slumped badly, while value stocks are faring well. The shift away from risk brings a silver lining: Stocks that were only recently in the investing stratosphere have fallen so hard that they now carry a lot less risk then they once did. The key in such market shifts is to find companies that are truly on the… Read More

We’re stuck in a binary stock market. In recent years, investors have been willing to embrace richly valued high-growth stocks during “risk-on” buying phases. #-ad_banner-#But right now, we’re in a “risk-off” phase of the market. Risky biotechs, dot-coms and recent IPOs have all slumped badly, while value stocks are faring well. The shift away from risk brings a silver lining: Stocks that were only recently in the investing stratosphere have fallen so hard that they now carry a lot less risk then they once did. The key in such market shifts is to find companies that are truly on the forefront of a major industry trend, what we here at StreetAuthority call “game-changers.” As an example, there is a clear migration away from traditional radio and toward music streaming services. This trend is poised to continue as automakers roll out car stereos with integrated streaming radio apps. And no company is as well-positioned as Pandora (NYSE: P). As I recently noted, “Pandora has a real shot at becoming the de facto car radio for millions of listeners, and the recent share price pullback provides a fresh chance to latch on to this high-growth business model.” In a similar vein, I’ve been… Read More

When it comes to picking winners and losers, it’s unwise to back the little guy when the big guy is so much more powerful.  That was a key concern I had about Pandora Media (NYSE: P), in its attempts to steal the music spotlight from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its iTunes juggernaut. That analysis proved to be very wrong. Pandora went on to deliver a pair of solid quarters, highlighted by robust growth, and this surging stock became a short seller’s nightmare. #-ad_banner-#Yet in just the past week, this stock has plunged sharply, all the way down to $23. … Read More

When it comes to picking winners and losers, it’s unwise to back the little guy when the big guy is so much more powerful.  That was a key concern I had about Pandora Media (NYSE: P), in its attempts to steal the music spotlight from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its iTunes juggernaut. That analysis proved to be very wrong. Pandora went on to deliver a pair of solid quarters, highlighted by robust growth, and this surging stock became a short seller’s nightmare. #-ad_banner-#Yet in just the past week, this stock has plunged sharply, all the way down to $23.  The formerly bearish view, in hindsight, would seemingly be justified. But I’m not betting against this stock twice. Pandora’s recent string of quarterly growth metrics are a harbinger of even better days to come. The share price may say this company is now in trouble. Yet media industry trends paint a very different picture. And I’m pivoting away from the bearish camp and joining the bulls.  Rapid Growth At first glance, Pandora’s first-quarter results provided no hint of the share price carnage to come. GAAP revenue surged 69% from a year ago to $194 million. Three-fourths… Read More