You wouldn’t think this was an opportunity. In the last three months, only the Euro dropped further than the Canadian dollar. Canada’s currency recently hit a five-and-a-half year low. And because of two powerful catalysts — which I’ll tell you more about in a moment — I expect its value to remain depressed at least through the end of 2015. But this is good news in disguise. If history is any guide, then foreign investors could be positioned for major profit opportunities from this country in the months ahead. Read More

You wouldn’t think this was an opportunity. In the last three months, only the Euro dropped further than the Canadian dollar. Canada’s currency recently hit a five-and-a-half year low. And because of two powerful catalysts — which I’ll tell you more about in a moment — I expect its value to remain depressed at least through the end of 2015. But this is good news in disguise. If history is any guide, then foreign investors could be positioned for major profit opportunities from this country in the months ahead. In the first quarter of 2015, the Canadian dollar fell 7.14%. #-ad_banner-#Two powerful trends have been holding down the country’s dollar. I don’t expect either of them to change soon, but together they’re creating a clear divide in the country’s economy. One side is making major profits right now, the other is losing out. I can show you how to profit from the winners, but first let me show you what’s going on. Interest Rate Increases The Federal Reserve is the only major central bank in the world considering… Read More

Robert Shiller is a professor of economics at Yale University, a closely followed housing index is named in his honor, and in 2013, he won a Nobel Prize for his research in economics. Between 2005 and 2007, he was one of the few who sounded the warning bells about a potential bubble in the U.S. and global housing markets. Investors who followed Schiller’s advice avoided real estate at the top of a massive bubble. Investors who ignored him suffered huge losses. Today, he’s warning of a new danger. And if… Read More

Robert Shiller is a professor of economics at Yale University, a closely followed housing index is named in his honor, and in 2013, he won a Nobel Prize for his research in economics. Between 2005 and 2007, he was one of the few who sounded the warning bells about a potential bubble in the U.S. and global housing markets. Investors who followed Schiller’s advice avoided real estate at the top of a massive bubble. Investors who ignored him suffered huge losses. Today, he’s warning of a new danger. And if history is any guide, it pays to listen. “I’m thinking about getting out of the United States somewhat,” said Schiller in a February CNBC interview. “Europe is so much cheaper.” To that effect, he’s already invested in Spanish and Italian indexes. Schiller’s decision is based on particular valuation models, which he developed. He did this by looking at a common ratio, price-to-earnings, in a new light: adjusted for market cycles over a longer period of time. Shiller’s cyclically-adjusted P/E ratio is commonly referred to as the CAPE ratio. Currently, the United States has… Read More

$71.8 billion. That’s the amount of cash this one sector in the S&P 500 paid stockholders in 2007. Put another way, this industry accounted for nearly one-third of all dividends in the entire S&P 500. However, the financial crash took its toll on this industry — all but eliminating these hefty shareholder payouts in recent years. As a result, investors went elsewhere for income. But now the tides have turned. These companies have mounted an amazing comeback and recently reclaimed their spot as the market’s top dividend-payers. Read More

$71.8 billion. That’s the amount of cash this one sector in the S&P 500 paid stockholders in 2007. Put another way, this industry accounted for nearly one-third of all dividends in the entire S&P 500. However, the financial crash took its toll on this industry — all but eliminating these hefty shareholder payouts in recent years. As a result, investors went elsewhere for income. But now the tides have turned. These companies have mounted an amazing comeback and recently reclaimed their spot as the market’s top dividend-payers. In the next 12 months, this group is slated to distribute $56.5 billion in payments. That’s a full $1 billion more than the runner-up: technology. I’m talking about the financial sector. You see, these companies are not free to raise their dividends whenever they like. New regulations implemented after the financial crisis force them to seek permission from the Federal Reserve. Well, permission granted. Having successfully completed the gauntlet of tests, the nation’s biggest banks were given the green light to share their growing wealth with… Read More

If I asked you to name one of America’s greatest companies, then I would undoubtedly receive a wide range of responses. Many might say Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for the way it transformed our daily lives with its revolutionary mobile devices. Some would choose Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), which generates a staggering $437 billion in annual sales. Still others might point to Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), an iconic business whose beloved movies, characters and theme parks are enjoyed by millions. There is no right or wrong answer, merely opinion. The point is to provoke a… Read More

If I asked you to name one of America’s greatest companies, then I would undoubtedly receive a wide range of responses. Many might say Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for the way it transformed our daily lives with its revolutionary mobile devices. Some would choose Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), which generates a staggering $437 billion in annual sales. Still others might point to Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), an iconic business whose beloved movies, characters and theme parks are enjoyed by millions. There is no right or wrong answer, merely opinion. The point is to provoke a discussion of which attributes make a company “great.” Is it popular products? Dominant market share? Colossal sales? Sky-high profit margins? I, for one, would say none of the above. Let me explain… #-ad_banner-#In The 1927 New York Yankees baseball team is widely regarded as the best team in baseball history. For decades pundits have swooned over the team’s high winning percentage, massive number of home runs and a whole host of other absurd statistics. But none of those stats made the team great; they were simply the byproduct of a great… Read More

The global population continues to expand at a steady pace, and agronomists believe that crop yields will need to double by 2050 to meet rising food demand. That should be leading to rising demand for fertilizer producers, but these firms haven’t seen much benefit from the trend in recent years.   Blame goes to a weakening Chinese economy and lower commodity prices, which reduce farm incomes.  The knockout punch came in July 2013 when Russian potash miner Uralkali decided to abandon cartel-like pricing policies and favor sales volumes over pricing. Potash is one of the three key compounds, along with nitrogen… Read More

The global population continues to expand at a steady pace, and agronomists believe that crop yields will need to double by 2050 to meet rising food demand. That should be leading to rising demand for fertilizer producers, but these firms haven’t seen much benefit from the trend in recent years.   Blame goes to a weakening Chinese economy and lower commodity prices, which reduce farm incomes.  The knockout punch came in July 2013 when Russian potash miner Uralkali decided to abandon cartel-like pricing policies and favor sales volumes over pricing. Potash is one of the three key compounds, along with nitrogen and phosphate, in organic fertilizers. #-ad_banner-#Until that seismic event, global potash prices had been set by two trading companies: the Belarusian Potash Company and Canpotex. The former is a joint venture between Uralkali and Belaruskali. The latter is controlled by Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Inc. (NYSE: POT), Agrium, Inc. (NYSE: AGU) and The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS). By limiting potash production, the group kept prices higher than natural supply and demand would allow. When Uralkali decided to produce at full capacity in 2013, the publicly-traded companies saw 30% of their market capitalization erased in a single… Read More

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. I know this sounds a bit morbid, but it’s a common phrase used in the finance industry. The word “guarantee” is taught to be nixed from your vocabulary. And while this truth about death and taxes may be true, there are other near-certainties in life — some of which have made (and lost) investors millions of dollars over the last few centuries. One of these certainties is population growth. Every minute there are roughly 255 births worldwide, along with… Read More

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. I know this sounds a bit morbid, but it’s a common phrase used in the finance industry. The word “guarantee” is taught to be nixed from your vocabulary. And while this truth about death and taxes may be true, there are other near-certainties in life — some of which have made (and lost) investors millions of dollars over the last few centuries. One of these certainties is population growth. Every minute there are roughly 255 births worldwide, along with about 108 deaths. That leaves 147 net additions to the world every single minute. That works out to be more than 211,000 people every day added to the world population. During 2015, the world’s population will grow by about 80 million — equal to the population of California, New York and Texas combined. My colleague Nathan Slaughter of Total Yield gave an interesting perspective on the stress that the growing global population has on the economy and the transportation industry, in particular. #-ad_banner-#Nathan discussed the drastic steps local officials have taken… Read More

Great companies share one key trait: They can sustain market leadership and growth for decades and even generations. Still, on rare occasion, a dependable blue chip will start to lose its way. Over time, factors like increased competition, changing product landscapes or simply a failure to adapt with the changing times can gradually — almost imperceptibly — erode a once-dominant market leader into an outmoded underperformer. Today, perhaps the most poignant example of this is the iconic food products manufacturer Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB). While Campbell is still formidable, the core products that drove its success for generations are… Read More

Great companies share one key trait: They can sustain market leadership and growth for decades and even generations. Still, on rare occasion, a dependable blue chip will start to lose its way. Over time, factors like increased competition, changing product landscapes or simply a failure to adapt with the changing times can gradually — almost imperceptibly — erode a once-dominant market leader into an outmoded underperformer. Today, perhaps the most poignant example of this is the iconic food products manufacturer Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB). While Campbell is still formidable, the core products that drove its success for generations are now a hindrance. Simply put, consumers have been shifting to fresh and organic foods, leaving fewer dollars for the company’s less healthful pre-packaged soups, vegetable-based beverages and sauces that account for the bulk of Campbell’s revenue. Because of this trend, the firm has been stunted for many years. At $8.3 billion, the top line increased a mere 9% in the past decade. Current earnings per share (EPS) of $2.41 represent a 4% compound growth rate during that time. In fact, profits have been stuck in neutral since 2010. Campbell’s stock, unsurprisingly, has lagged the broader market. Results are… Read More

As we’ve noted on many occasions over the past few years, investors have shown a clear preference for companies that issue steadily rising dividends and super-sized share buyback plans. Such stocks not only produce solid income streams, but also tend to show above-average growth in earnings per share, thanks to steadily falling share counts. Of course, in StreetAuthority’s Total Yield newsletter, we’ve been clearly focused on this theme. (We define Total Yield as the net dollar value of dividend payments and share buybacks, divided by a company’s market value.)  #-ad_banner-#The newsletter has reaped big gains since it began in 2014. Read More

As we’ve noted on many occasions over the past few years, investors have shown a clear preference for companies that issue steadily rising dividends and super-sized share buyback plans. Such stocks not only produce solid income streams, but also tend to show above-average growth in earnings per share, thanks to steadily falling share counts. Of course, in StreetAuthority’s Total Yield newsletter, we’ve been clearly focused on this theme. (We define Total Yield as the net dollar value of dividend payments and share buybacks, divided by a company’s market value.)  #-ad_banner-#The newsletter has reaped big gains since it began in 2014. Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is up 114% in 15 months; Anthem, Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) is up 29% in seven months; and Flextronics International Ltd. (Nasdaq: FLEX) is up 15% in just five months. Looking for a way to augment your gains using this approach? Keep a watchful eye for companies that have not yet embraced a Total Yield strategy, but likely soon will. The key is to spot companies that already have robust free cash flow yields. As we’ve seen in recent years, companies with strong free cash flow have focused on dividends and buybacks, rather than the traditional… Read More

By the end of 2015, it’s estimated that nearly 4.9 billion people worldwide will use mobile phones, up 5% from last year. By 2018, it’s projected there will be 5.5 billion users, a 12% increase in a three-year period. This growth provides a strong tailwind for select telecom stocks. I say “select” because mobile phone usage is not evenly divided across the world. In many countries, the market is already close to saturated. China, India and the United States, for example, have the highest mobile usage, in that order. In the United States, there are more mobile phones in use… Read More

By the end of 2015, it’s estimated that nearly 4.9 billion people worldwide will use mobile phones, up 5% from last year. By 2018, it’s projected there will be 5.5 billion users, a 12% increase in a three-year period. This growth provides a strong tailwind for select telecom stocks. I say “select” because mobile phone usage is not evenly divided across the world. In many countries, the market is already close to saturated. China, India and the United States, for example, have the highest mobile usage, in that order. In the United States, there are more mobile phones in use than there are people living in the country, as many people have more than one active phone. The U.S. market is also fragmented. There are five major wireless providers and dozens of smaller ones. #-ad_banner-#The picture is much different north of the border. In Canada, there is far less competition. In fact, there are only three main providers: BCE (NYSE: BCE), formerly known as Bell Canada Enterprises, Rogers Communications (NYSE: RCI) and Telus (NYSE: TU).  Although Canada’s population and market is smaller than that of the United States, several factors point to strong mobile phone growth ahead. Currently, only about… Read More

For novice investors it’s always the hardest part: where do you begin? But it’s not only novice investors that have this problem. No matter where an investor falls on the learning curve, it’s tough to know what stock to buy, which strategy to pursue or which retirement account to use. Even the basics can be overwhelming for somebody new to the market. Should you invest in a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, Simple IRA, SEP IRA, Uni-401(k), Mutual Funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds? The list goes on… Investors are literally inundated with options. And if you go to a financial advisor, most… Read More

For novice investors it’s always the hardest part: where do you begin? But it’s not only novice investors that have this problem. No matter where an investor falls on the learning curve, it’s tough to know what stock to buy, which strategy to pursue or which retirement account to use. Even the basics can be overwhelming for somebody new to the market. Should you invest in a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, Simple IRA, SEP IRA, Uni-401(k), Mutual Funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds? The list goes on… Investors are literally inundated with options. And if you go to a financial advisor, most require at least $50,000 and can charge outrageous fees. Most investors start out with a few hundred bucks and stuff it in a savings account, earning next to nothing, simply because they don’t know what else to do with it. #-ad_banner-#These were the shoes Matthew Michaels, a young father who works here in the StreetAuthority office, was in when his grandparents gave his two young daughters money for Christmas last year. At first, he figured he’d use the money to buy more diapers and onesies, but after talking it over with his wife, they decided to invest it for their… Read More