For the past few decades, oil refining has been a lousy business. An arcane set of regulations and fierce competition from abroad created lots of headaches with only small returns.#-ad_banner-#​ The U.S. shale boom changes all that. Our newfound abundance of oil and gas means U.S. refiners can produce gasoline, diesel and other distillates at cheaper prices than their foreign rivals. The U.S. has even begun to become a major exporter of these refined products.  The change in fortune has caught the industry off guard. Suddenly, leading firms are producing massive amounts of cash… Read More

For the past few decades, oil refining has been a lousy business. An arcane set of regulations and fierce competition from abroad created lots of headaches with only small returns.#-ad_banner-#​ The U.S. shale boom changes all that. Our newfound abundance of oil and gas means U.S. refiners can produce gasoline, diesel and other distillates at cheaper prices than their foreign rivals. The U.S. has even begun to become a major exporter of these refined products.  The change in fortune has caught the industry off guard. Suddenly, leading firms are producing massive amounts of cash flow, and they are scrambling for ways to reward investors. Many of the refiners I profiled back in August are now in the midst of massive share buyback programs, dividend boosts and debt reduction — the three components that make up impressive Total Yields. Simply put, “Total Yield” stocks are companies that use the cash they generate to 1) pay steady dividends, 2) buy back large amounts of their own stock, and 3) pay down debt. Why should investors care about these three strategies? When companies execute on all three fronts, it beats the S&P 500 — as well as regular… Read More

Oil production in the United States increased rapidly from the turn of the 20th century until 1970. It had a lot to do with making the country the richest on Earth. But production decreased just as steadily between 1970 and 2009. #-ad_banner-#Well, fortune is once again smiling on the U.S., and it seems America might have another chance at energy independence. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts the U.S. will become the world’s top oil producer by next year. While America’s new energy future is one of my favorite themes, I am not yet ready to… Read More

Oil production in the United States increased rapidly from the turn of the 20th century until 1970. It had a lot to do with making the country the richest on Earth. But production decreased just as steadily between 1970 and 2009. #-ad_banner-#Well, fortune is once again smiling on the U.S., and it seems America might have another chance at energy independence. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts the U.S. will become the world’s top oil producer by next year. While America’s new energy future is one of my favorite themes, I am not yet ready to bet on oil prices. The price of a barrel of crude was less than $30 for nearly two decades before prices surged in 2003. Easing tensions with big producers like Iran, combined with surging global production, could mean lower prices and trouble for some upstream companies like Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM).  That is why I am looking at one segment in particular that benefits from the volume of energy used, rather than prices.  Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are companies set up to manage energy infrastructure assets like pipelines, terminals and storage. These companies pay no taxes but pass their depreciation… Read More

Have you ever loved a particular product — but had no clue about the company that made it? #-ad_banner-#​ It’s easy to identify the companies behind some beloved consumer products, such as Apple’s gizmos or Coach’s leather goods. It’s just as easy to look up those companies and invest in their stocks.  Yet there are tons of great companies that make a variety of great products — but get little respect because investors fail to connect the products with the product makers.  Ever wonder who owns the Sharpie brand? Parker pens? Liquid Paper? Calphalon cookware?… Read More

Have you ever loved a particular product — but had no clue about the company that made it? #-ad_banner-#​ It’s easy to identify the companies behind some beloved consumer products, such as Apple’s gizmos or Coach’s leather goods. It’s just as easy to look up those companies and invest in their stocks.  Yet there are tons of great companies that make a variety of great products — but get little respect because investors fail to connect the products with the product makers.  Ever wonder who owns the Sharpie brand? Parker pens? Liquid Paper? Calphalon cookware? Even the popular baby products company Garco?  Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) is one such overlooked company. Most investors know Newell Rubbermaid for its Rubbermaid brand of trash cans and food storage containers, but this diversified consumer products company makes a variety of other products that make the company itself a compelling investment.  Writing products is the company’s top segment when it comes to revenue generation, with home solutions in a close second, generating 30% and 28%, respectively. Making up the rest of its revenue are its tools, commercial products, and baby and parenting products segments.      … Read More

In the investing world, one shareholder’s disappointment is often another’s opportunity. #-ad_banner-#The stock I have in mind sold off nearly 6% after the company reported that its 1% year-over-year increase in third-quarter revenue fell just shy of analysts’ estimates.  Granted, growth has slowed in recent times for this… Read More

$1,265,836,000,000. This is the amount of cash that S&P 500 companies (excluding banks and other financial institutions) are currently sitting on. As of the beginning of the third quarter in 2013, the largest U.S. companies collectively held $1.27 trillion. That’s about 13.5% more than a year earlier.  Remember, this is just the 500 members of the S&P. The number also excludes the cash held by the other 9,500 public companies that don’t belong to the index.  As you can see from the chart below, corporate America has never been as flush with cash as it is right now. If you… Read More

$1,265,836,000,000. This is the amount of cash that S&P 500 companies (excluding banks and other financial institutions) are currently sitting on. As of the beginning of the third quarter in 2013, the largest U.S. companies collectively held $1.27 trillion. That’s about 13.5% more than a year earlier.  Remember, this is just the 500 members of the S&P. The number also excludes the cash held by the other 9,500 public companies that don’t belong to the index.  As you can see from the chart below, corporate America has never been as flush with cash as it is right now. If you converted all this money into $100 bills and stacked them up, the pile would stretch 800 miles high. And if it was spent at the rate of $250 million a year, it would take 5,100 years to exhaust the supply.   Where is this cash coming from? Well, borrowing accounts for some of it. But mostly, companies are simply generating cash faster than they are spending it. The widening difference between cash inflows and outflows has allowed businesses to sock away $150 billion over the past twelve months. As a result, cash stockpiles have ballooned from $1.11 trillion… Read More

For any investors in search of yield, May 21, 2013, will be remembered for a long time to come. That’s the day that Federal Reserve released the minutes from a prior meeting, suggesting that the multi-year massive stimulus program known as quantitative easing would start to wind down. Though the Fed wouldn’t actually take such action for a few more quarters, the psychological blow against dividend-paying stocks had begun. Competing fixed-income investments began to rise, leading yield-producing stocks to be among the worst performers of the rest of 2013. #-ad_banner-#Perhaps no group took it quite as hard as… Read More

For any investors in search of yield, May 21, 2013, will be remembered for a long time to come. That’s the day that Federal Reserve released the minutes from a prior meeting, suggesting that the multi-year massive stimulus program known as quantitative easing would start to wind down. Though the Fed wouldn’t actually take such action for a few more quarters, the psychological blow against dividend-paying stocks had begun. Competing fixed-income investments began to rise, leading yield-producing stocks to be among the worst performers of the rest of 2013. #-ad_banner-#Perhaps no group took it quite as hard as the mortgage REITs (also known as mREITs). These firms had been making a killing on the wide spreads between low short-term rates and higher mortgage rates. And as interest rates begin to move higher, the profit margins at these firms may compress. For investors, there are two important questions to consider: Are these companies still capable of solid profits in the years ahead? And is it wise to wait the two to three years before the rising rate cycle has fully played out before they become safe to buy? The Road Ahead Make no mistake, the mREITs would be… Read More

In the notoriously fickle apparel industry, trends can change quickly. For investors who are looking for exposure to the sector, it’s best to be diversified. #-ad_banner-#The Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) is one of the best diversified apparel retailers in the market. In addition to its three core brands (Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy), it has a popular women’s athletic brand, Athleta, that’s been going head to head with Lululemon (Nasdaq: LULU) and winning market share. With its brand portfolio, Gap has a unique ability to target low-end and high-end shoppers alike.  Gap got very aggressive with its… Read More

In the notoriously fickle apparel industry, trends can change quickly. For investors who are looking for exposure to the sector, it’s best to be diversified. #-ad_banner-#The Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) is one of the best diversified apparel retailers in the market. In addition to its three core brands (Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy), it has a popular women’s athletic brand, Athleta, that’s been going head to head with Lululemon (Nasdaq: LULU) and winning market share. With its brand portfolio, Gap has a unique ability to target low-end and high-end shoppers alike.  Gap got very aggressive with its promotions in December, including offering discounts of up to 50% off for most of the month. This should have helped drive more traffic to Gap’s stores as consumers flocked to deals and focused on discount brands.  What’s more is that Gap recently posted December same-store sales that were flat, but sales for the holiday season were up 2% year over year. In its most recent quarter, Gap posted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.72, up from $0.63 in the year-earlier period.  Back From The Brink Do you remember how Gap struggled in the latter part of the past decade?… Read More

I can’t believe more people aren’t taking advantage of this… With bond yields near record lows and traditional income securities like savings accounts and certificates of deposit earning next to nothing, we’re regularly finding “instant yields” as high as 9.2%… 13.7%… and even some as much as 19.8%. #-ad_banner-#For instance, right now our research is showing an opportunity to collect a $1,575 cash payment from Visa (NYSE: V) for a 7.8% instant yield… a $980 cash payment from Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) for a 12.8% instant yield… and we’ve even identified an opportunity to earn a $2,070 payment from International Business… Read More

I can’t believe more people aren’t taking advantage of this… With bond yields near record lows and traditional income securities like savings accounts and certificates of deposit earning next to nothing, we’re regularly finding “instant yields” as high as 9.2%… 13.7%… and even some as much as 19.8%. #-ad_banner-#For instance, right now our research is showing an opportunity to collect a $1,575 cash payment from Visa (NYSE: V) for a 7.8% instant yield… a $980 cash payment from Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) for a 12.8% instant yield… and we’ve even identified an opportunity to earn a $2,070 payment from International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) for a 9.6% instant yield.   And the best part thing about these “instant yields” is that there’s nothing complicated about them. To collect, you don’t have to monitor your brokerage statement daily. Nor do you need a million-dollar bank account and access to a high-powered financial advisor. In fact, all you really need is 100 shares of a single stock — and the willingness to sell those shares for a profit. I’m talking, as you might have guessed, about selling covered calls. If you read this recent issue of StreetAuthority Daily, then you know that a… Read More

Roughly a decade ago, technology futurists predicted we’d be living in a paperless world by now. It hasn’t happened as fast as they predicted, but with each passing year, digital publishing — from newspapers to utility bills to corporate invoices — is tightening its grip. #-ad_banner-#The executives at Xerox (NYSE: XRX) saw the writing on the wall, realizing that demand for its printers, copiers and fax machines did not have a bright future. So in 2009, they made an audacious $6.4 billion bid for Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a leading provider of business process management and outsourcing services. Read More

Roughly a decade ago, technology futurists predicted we’d be living in a paperless world by now. It hasn’t happened as fast as they predicted, but with each passing year, digital publishing — from newspapers to utility bills to corporate invoices — is tightening its grip. #-ad_banner-#The executives at Xerox (NYSE: XRX) saw the writing on the wall, realizing that demand for its printers, copiers and fax machines did not have a bright future. So in 2009, they made an audacious $6.4 billion bid for Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a leading provider of business process management and outsourcing services. The move delivered instant returns. Fast-forward to 2014, and those returns are still flowing in. Xerox is now one of the leading generators of “Total Yield,” which is a key investment strategy you should be tracking. Simply put, “Total Yield” stocks are companies that use the cash they generate to 1) pay steady dividends, 2) buy back large amounts of their own stock, and 3) pay down debt. Why should investors care about these three strategies? When companies execute on all three fronts, it beats the S&P 500 — as well as regular dividend investing — hands down. (To learn… Read More

Driven by a surge in e-commerce, low interest rates and accommodative Federal Reserve policy, this stock surged over 46% higher in 2013. #-ad_banner-#But at the start of 2014, the company suffered a reversal of fortune. Word of a weaker-than-expected Christmas season, combined with profit-taking, sent shares tumbling. An earnings warning from the company accelerated the selling. The selling intensified despite the company’s strong fundamentals, incredible $10 billion stock repurchase plan and solid dividend. Shares have plunged nearly 8% since the selling began. The selling resulted in many investors panicking or avoiding the stock completely. While this reaction is… Read More

Driven by a surge in e-commerce, low interest rates and accommodative Federal Reserve policy, this stock surged over 46% higher in 2013. #-ad_banner-#But at the start of 2014, the company suffered a reversal of fortune. Word of a weaker-than-expected Christmas season, combined with profit-taking, sent shares tumbling. An earnings warning from the company accelerated the selling. The selling intensified despite the company’s strong fundamentals, incredible $10 billion stock repurchase plan and solid dividend. Shares have plunged nearly 8% since the selling began. The selling resulted in many investors panicking or avoiding the stock completely. While this reaction is understandable, it is the exact opposite of what savvy investors do. Although sell-offs are often harbingers of worse things to come, they’re also often great opportunities to purchase shares at a discount. This is particularly true when the stock’s fundamentals are strong and the selling is an overreaction to short-term bad news.  I think that’s the case here — and investors should buy rather than sell shares of package delivery giant United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), which is setting up to be an incredibly discounted buy candidate.  A nearly $93 billion company that posted revenue of nearly $55 billion and… Read More