Investing in smaller companies can offer individual investors many important advantages. Perhaps the most important of all is that these companies can grow very quickly, since it doesn’t take much for new sales and profits to make a big impact on overall growth. Many stocks with small market capitalizations also… Read More

Bill Clinton flipped a switch and changed the world. On May 1, 2000, the former President instructed the Federal Aviation Administration to turn off the “Selective Availability” option on the Global Positioning System (GPS), which had made the network of satellite signals usable only by high-tech… Read More

Thanks to space age, cutting-edge design, an enigmatic CEO and rabidly devoted customers, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) can sometimes give off the aura of a cult. After all, people line up at God-awful hours of the night/morning to buy the company’s shiny little gadgets the first day they hit the market… Read More

If you had a spare $300 billion lying around, then you could acquire Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Good thing you resisted the urge to do so back in 2000. Back then, it would have cost you nearly $1.2 trillion to buy the three tech giants. Who has that kind of money lying around? Microsoft looks like the relative hero of this group, having only fallen 55% since the end of the dot-com boom. Cisco has lost more than 80% of its value and Nokia nearly 90%. But if every dog… Read More

If you had a spare $300 billion lying around, then you could acquire Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Good thing you resisted the urge to do so back in 2000. Back then, it would have cost you nearly $1.2 trillion to buy the three tech giants. Who has that kind of money lying around? Microsoft looks like the relative hero of this group, having only fallen 55% since the end of the dot-com boom. Cisco has lost more than 80% of its value and Nokia nearly 90%. But if every dog has its day, then which of these dogs can regain some of the former luster? #-ad_banner-#Nokia and Microsoft: permanent casualties of Apple? Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) stunning growth (its market value has risen from $5 billion in 2003 to a recent $300 billion) has come at the expense of so many other tech companies, though perhaps none have felt the pain as much as Microsoft and Nokia, which were themselves once a favorite brand of tech consumers. These days, the two humbled giants are working together in hopes that their… Read More

In this current tough stock market, it pays to play defense with value-oriented stocks. But you should always make sure you have exposure to the more dynamic investment opportunities as well by holding at least a few names that carry major upside potential. Taking this approach, I… Read More

Even as the broader stock market shows signs of a clear pullback, some of the hottest stocks in the market remain near their 52-week highs — and they still carry very high valuations to boot. But if history is any guide, then these are now among the most vulnerable stocks in the market. Any further big drops in the broader market could prove especially painful for these highflyers. Richly-valued stocks can stay aloft at the beginning of a big market pullback, but as we saw in 2001 and again in 2008, they eventually can suffer massive corrections… Read More

Even as the broader stock market shows signs of a clear pullback, some of the hottest stocks in the market remain near their 52-week highs — and they still carry very high valuations to boot. But if history is any guide, then these are now among the most vulnerable stocks in the market. Any further big drops in the broader market could prove especially painful for these highflyers. Richly-valued stocks can stay aloft at the beginning of a big market pullback, but as we saw in 2001 and again in 2008, they eventually can suffer massive corrections as investors shift to defense and start to focus on value instead of growth. If you own highflying names like Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) or VMWare (NYSE: VMW), for example, then you need to seriously reconsider just how vulnerable stocks like these can be.   Salesforce.com As the economy emerged from the recession of 2008, this provider of customer-management software became a key focus area for investment technology (IT) managers. Sales grew 21% in fiscal (January) 2010 and another 27% in fiscal 2011. Look for similar results in the current… Read More

There’s nothing like being punished twice for something, which is sort of what happened to one big technology firm recently. On May 16, the company’s stock fell nearly 5% ahead of a scheduled earnings report, thanks to a leaked internal memo from the CEO forewarning of a tough third quarter. The CEO’s concerns officially became public the following day, and the stock resumed its slide for a total loss of about 10% since the initial leak. Sound familiar? I’m describing the latest of several recent setbacks suffered by the world’s No. 1 PC… Read More

There’s nothing like being punished twice for something, which is sort of what happened to one big technology firm recently. On May 16, the company’s stock fell nearly 5% ahead of a scheduled earnings report, thanks to a leaked internal memo from the CEO forewarning of a tough third quarter. The CEO’s concerns officially became public the following day, and the stock resumed its slide for a total loss of about 10% since the initial leak. Sound familiar? I’m describing the latest of several recent setbacks suffered by the world’s No. 1 PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co (NYSE: HPQ).  Two straight quarters of reduced full-year earnings guidance from management have also weighed on HP. The bad news hit before the stock even had a chance to fully recover from the scandal last August in which prior CEO Mark Hurd abruptly resigned amidst allegations of sexual harassment — a situation that led to the replacement of a third of HP’s board of directors. Considering these recent troubles and the fact that the PC business in general has been struggling with soft consumer demand, you might assume HP is a stock to avoid. You’d be… Read More

According to recent figures, U.S. companies hold an astounding $1 trillion in overseas bank accounts. The reason for holding this ungodly amount of money overseas? Because bringing the cash back to the United States would require a rather significant tax hit. So what are these companies doing with all this cash? Well, up until recently, not a lot. But that’s beginning to change and it’s one reason why individual investors should pay very close attention to this phenomenon… First, some background… This $1 trillion is a result of profits earned from overseas subsidiaries of… Read More

According to recent figures, U.S. companies hold an astounding $1 trillion in overseas bank accounts. The reason for holding this ungodly amount of money overseas? Because bringing the cash back to the United States would require a rather significant tax hit. So what are these companies doing with all this cash? Well, up until recently, not a lot. But that’s beginning to change and it’s one reason why individual investors should pay very close attention to this phenomenon… First, some background… This $1 trillion is a result of profits earned from overseas subsidiaries of global giants like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), GE, (NYSE: GE), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and others and were already taxed by a foreign government. Corporations often don’t repatriate most of these funds, as it would result in double taxation. Current U.S. tax laws require paying a corporate tax rate as high as 35% — regardless of whether taxes have already been paid in another country. As a result, many companies are choosing to keep the cash outside of the United States, and it’s hard to blame them. In many cases, the cash… Read More

In 1851, Prince Albert organized the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park. Not only was the building itself a wonder but attendees could also see the most fantastic products available, from an early version of the fax machine to American photographer Michael Brady’s daguerreotypes. Another exhibit was of an unusual photograph of Prince Albert’s wife, Queen Victoria. The image was presented in 3-D. Attendees were shocked by the technology. #-ad_banner-#Yet it was almost another 100 years before movie studios came up with the first generation of 3-D… Read More

In 1851, Prince Albert organized the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park. Not only was the building itself a wonder but attendees could also see the most fantastic products available, from an early version of the fax machine to American photographer Michael Brady’s daguerreotypes. Another exhibit was of an unusual photograph of Prince Albert’s wife, Queen Victoria. The image was presented in 3-D. Attendees were shocked by the technology. #-ad_banner-#Yet it was almost another 100 years before movie studios came up with the first generation of 3-D technology in an attempt to lure audiences away from their living-room televisions and back into the theater. A generation later, the advent of digital projection, computer-generated animation and other technological advancements culminated in “Avatar,” which was the first film to be devised specifically for 3-D technology. This was a game-changer. It’s the kind of watershed moment that gets me in research mode for Game-Changing Stocks. One of the biggest gambles of the project was Avatar’s producers James Cameron and Jon Landau’s pitch to movie theaters about the advent of a new… Read More

During any sort of boom, the businesses that provide supplies or any ancillary services to those chasing the boom usually make the most money. The California Gold Rush of 1849 is a prime example. A young immigrant named Levi Strauss realized he could make more money selling picks and shovels to the 49ers than the 49ers would ever make looking for gold. Eventually, he would also sell them rugged, canvas pants that became known as “blue jeans.” As the Internet emerged at the close of the 20th century as the new backbone of communication, tens of thousands… Read More

During any sort of boom, the businesses that provide supplies or any ancillary services to those chasing the boom usually make the most money. The California Gold Rush of 1849 is a prime example. A young immigrant named Levi Strauss realized he could make more money selling picks and shovels to the 49ers than the 49ers would ever make looking for gold. Eventually, he would also sell them rugged, canvas pants that became known as “blue jeans.” As the Internet emerged at the close of the 20th century as the new backbone of communication, tens of thousands of businesses sprang up to provide the picks and shovels: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) for networking, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) for database management software, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) for enterprise server hardware. Even more amazing is that the computer technology business has grown in what seems like the blink of an eye compared with the century or so it often takes other industries to develop. With the exponential growth comes the need for space. But providing real estate and related services for high-tech industry is very different than what it takes for other industries. Read More