Investors didn’t have too much to crow about in the past few days, with a government shutdown derailing the markets’ recent rally and sending the S&P 500 to dip in the red for the trading week.
Top 5 Low Price Companies To Invest In 2015: Potomac Electric Power Company(POM)
Pepco Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the transmission, distribution, and supply of electricity. The company also distributes and supplies natural gas. It distributes electricity to approximately 1.8 million customers in the mid-Atlantic region and delivers natural gas to approximately 123,000 customers in Delaware. In addition, the company involves in the retail supply of electricity and natural gas; provision of energy efficiency services to federal, state, and local government customers; and designs, constructs, and operates combined heat and power and central energy plants, as well as owns and operates two oil-fired generation facilities. Further, it offers high voltage electric construction and maintenance services, low voltage electric construction and maintenance services, and streetlight construction and asset management services to utilities, municipalities, and other customers in the Washington, District of Columbia. Additionally, the company holds investments in eight cross-border energy leases. Pepco Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1896 and is based in Washington, District of Columbia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sally Jones]
Highlight: Pepco Holdings Inc. (POM)The POM share price is currently $18.17 or 20.0% off the 52-week high of $22.72. Its yield is 5.90%.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Top Headline
Pepco Holdings (NYSE: POM) reported a 35% rise in its fourth-quarter profit. For the year, Pepco projects earnings of $1.12 to $1.27 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $1.22 per share. Pepco's quarterly earnings surged to $58 million, or $0.23 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $43 million, or $0.18 per share. Excluding one ��ime items, its earnings from continuing operations came in at $0.24 per share. Its total operating revenue climbed 3.3% to $1.09 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.21 per share on revenue of $1.11 billion.
Top 10 Income Companies To Buy For 2014: Mellanox Technologies Ltd.(MLNX)
Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., a fabless semiconductor company, engages in the design, development, marketing, and sale of interconnect products primarily in North America, Israel, Europe, and Asia. It offers semiconductor interconnect products that facilitate data transmission between servers, communications infrastructure equipment, and storage systems in enterprise data centers, high-performance computing, and embedded systems. The company provides solutions based on InfiniBand, including host channel adapter, switch and gateway ICs, adapter cards, switch and gateway systems, cables, and software. Its products also support the Ethernet standard. The company provides adapters to server, storage, communications infrastructure, and embedded systems OEMs as ICs or standard card form factors with PCI-X or PCI express interfaces; support server operating systems, including Linux, Windows, AIX, HPUX, Solaris, and VxWorks; and InfiniBand switch ICs to server, storage, communicati ons infrastructure, and embedded systems OEMs to create switching equipment. The company offers its products under the Mellanox, BridgeX, ConnectX, InfiniBlast, InfiniBridge, InfiniHost, InfiniPCI, InfiniRISC, PhyX, InfiniScale, and Virtual Protocol Interconnect trademarks in the United States. It primarily serves enterprise data center, high-performance computing, and embedded end-user markets, as well as embedded systems OEMs. The company sells its products directly, as well as through a network of domestic and international sales representatives, and independent distributors. Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Yokneam, Israel.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Luke Jacobi]
Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX) also closed up, gaining 5.90 percent to $37.97 after the company announced general availability of MetroX solutions.
- [By Alex Planes]
What: Shares of Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX ) lost nearly 13% of their value today despite beating expectations last night. Analysts at two investment firms are not at all convinced that last night's good news will translate into long-term strength.
Top 10 Income Companies To Buy For 2014: Autodesk Inc.(ADSK)
Autodesk, Inc. provides design software and services to customers worldwide. Its Platform Solutions and Emerging Business segment offers AutoCAD software, a customizable and extensible computer-aided design (CAD) application for professional design, drafting, detailing, and visualization in fields ranging from construction to manufacturing, civil engineering, and process plant design; and AutoCAD LT, a professional drafting and detailing software that includes document sharing capability. The company?s Architecture, Engineering and Construction segment offers Autodesk Revit products, which provide model-based design and documentation system for architects, structural engineers, and design-build teams, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers; AutoCAD Civil 3D products, which provide a surveying, design, analysis, and documentation solution for civil engineering; AutoCAD Architecture software that includes architecture industry-specific tools to improve co ordination; and AutoCAD Map 3D software, which provides direct access to data needed for infrastructure planning, design, and management activities. Autodesk, Inc.?s Manufacturing segment?s products comprise Autodesk Inventor, which offers engineers a set of tools for 3D mechanical design, simulation, analysis, tooling, visualization, and documentation; AutoCAD Mechanical software that accelerates the mechanical design process; and Autodesk Moldflow, which provides tools that help manufacturers optimize the design of plastic parts and injection molds, and study the injection molding process. Its Media and Entertainment segment offers animation products that provide tools for digital sculpting, modeling, animation, effects, rendering, and compositing; and creative finishing products that provide editing, finishing, and visual effects design and color grading. The company also offers design and creation suites. Autodesk, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in San R afael, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
The Q2 2014 earnings report for software stock Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE), a potential peer or performance benchmark of other software stocks or players like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Autodesk, Inc (NASDAQ: ADSK) and iShares S&P GSTI Software Index Fund (NYSEARCA: IGV), is scheduled for after the market closes on Tuesday. Aside from the Adobe Systems Incorporated earnings report, it should be said that Microsoft Corporation reported Q3 2014 earnings on April 24th (FYQ3 revenues and�EPS beat; cloud revenue doubled; Q4 view was light) and Autodesk, Inc reported Q1 2015 earnings on�May 15th (Q1 revenues beat and�earnings met�estimates). The last time Adobe Systems reported earnings, it beat expectations thanks to strong adoption of Creative Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud as the�company has been shifting away from from physical products to cloud-based software that users subscribe to.
- [By Benjamin Pimentel]
Shares of Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) �also rallied more than 3% after the design-software company announced Wednesday that it was acquiring Graitec�� Advance Steel and Advance Concrete product lines.
- [By Erin McCarthy]
Autodesk Inc.(ADSK) said its fiscal first-quarter earnings fell 49% as higher costs offset the design-software company’s revenue growth, though adjusted earnings and revenue beat expectations.
Top 10 Income Companies To Buy For 2014: Allot Communications Ltd.(ALLT)
Allot Communications Ltd. engages in developing, selling, and marketing Internet protocol service optimization and revenue generation solutions in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Its solutions are used to create policies to monitor network applications, enforce quality of service policies that guarantee mission-critical application performance, mitigate security risks, and leverage network infrastructure investments. The company offers traffic management systems, including Service Gateway platform for broadband service control and optimization based on DPI; and NetEnforcer traffic management system that inspects, monitors, and controls network traffic by application and by user. Its network management application suites comprise NetXplorer that provides service providers and enterprise customers a view of traffic on the network; and Subscriber Management Platform, a system that helps service providers build an intelligent service network d esigned to deliver the quality of experience. The company also offers ServiceProtector, which ensures service continuity, and guards network integrity against known and unknown threats, as well as enables surgical mitigation through immediate identification of denial of service attacks, zero day attacks, worms, zombie, and botnets. In addition, it provides MediaSwift that caches and accelerates popular Internet video. The company markets and sells its products to carriers, mobile operators, cable operators, educational institutions, governments, and enterprises, as well as wireless, wireline, and satellite Internet service providers. It sells it products through distributors, resellers, OEMs, value added resellers, and system integrators, as well as through direct sales. The company was formerly known as Ariadne Ltd. and changed its name to Allot Communications Ltd. in September 1997. Allot Communications Ltd. was founded in 1996 and is based in Hod-Hasharon, Israel.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Evan Niu, CFA]
What: Shares of Allot Communications (NASDAQ: ALLT ) have popped today by as much as 10% after the company scored a big contract.
So what: Allot said it landed a $6.5 million order from a "Tier-1" mobile operator in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Intelligent Steering and Value-Added Service licenses. The company added that the contract is a licensing expansion of an existing deployment. The customer will add functionalities to the current Allot Service Gateways deployment.
- [By Garrett Cook]
Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.25 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), Allot Communications (NASDAQ: ALLT), and SK Telecom Co (NYSE: SKM).
- [By Garrett Cook]
Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.25 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), Allot Communications (NASDAQ: ALLT), and SK Telecom Co (NYSE: SKM).
Top 10 Income Companies To Buy For 2014: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Alex Planes]
The era of personal computing didn't really begin when IBM (NYSE: IBM ) launched the PC in 1981. It began four years earlier, on April 16, 1977, when more than 12,000 computer enthusiasts flooded into the San Francisco Civic Auditorium to take part in the first West Coast Computer Faire. One booth in prime convention entry-hall space was staffed by a young and enthusiastic pair of guys both named Steve, exhibiting a machine that would become the gateway into technology for millions of children and young adults during the following decade: the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) II.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
At the other end of the spectrum is IBM (NYSE: IBM ) , which is by far the most influential stock in the Dow. Its 5% return over the past year isn't all that bad, but because IBM has more than 10% weighting in the average, its underperformance cost the overall Dow more than a percentage point of returns compared to an equal-weight Dow.
- [By Matt Thalman]
The Dow's triple-digit move higher allowed all but three of its components to move higher today. The three losers were IBM (NYSE: IBM ) , Alcoa, and Caterpillar. This afternoon I discussed why Alcoa and Caterpillar were moving lower, now let's take a look at IBM.
Top 10 Income Companies To Buy For 2014: Micropac Industries Inc (MPAD)
Micropac Industries, Inc. (Micropac), incorporated on March 3, 1969, manufactures and distributes various types of hybrid microelectronic circuits, solid state relays, power operational amplifiers, and optoelectronic components and assemblies. Micropac�� products are used as components in a range of military, space and industrial systems, including aircraft instrumentation and navigation systems, power supplies, electronic controls, computers, medical devices, and high-temperature (200o degree Celsius) products. The Company�� products are either custom (being application-specific circuits designed and manufactured to meet the particular requirements of a single customer) or standard components. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 (fiscal 2011), its custom-designed components accounted for approximately 34% of its revenue and standard components accounted for approximately 66% of its revenue.
Micropac occupies approximately 36,000 square feet of manufacturing, engineering and office space in Garland, Texas. The Company owns 31,200 square feet of that space and leases an additional 4,800 square feet. It also sub-contracts some manufacturing to Inmobiliaria San Jose De Ciuddad Juarez S.A. DE C.V, a maquila contract manufacturer in Juarez, Mexico.
Micropac provides microelectronic and optoelectronic components and assemblies along with contract electronic manufacturing services, and offers a range of products sold to the industrial, medical, military, aerospace and space markets. The Microcircuits product line includes custom microcircuits, solid state relays, power operational amplifiers, and regulators. During fiscal 2011, microcircuits product line accounted for 51% of its revenue and the optoelectronics product line accounted for 62% of its business respectively. The Company�� core technology is the packaging and interconnects of miniature electronic components, utilizing thick film and thin film substrates, forming microelectronics circuits. Other technologi! es include light emitting and light sensitive materials and products, including light emitting diodes and silicon phototransistors used in its optoelectronic components, and assemblies.
The Company�� basic products and technologies include custom design hybrid microelectronic circuits, solid state relays and power controllers, custom optoelectronic assemblies and components, optocouplers, light-emitting diodes, Hall-Effect devices, displays, power operational amplifiers, fiber optic components and assemblies, and high temperature (200o degree Celsius) products. Micropac�� products are primarily sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEM��) who serve major markets, which includes military/aerospace, such as aircraft instrumentation, guidance and navigations systems, control circuitry, power supplies and laser positioning; space, which include control circuitry, power monitoring and sensing, and industrial, which includes power control equipment and robotics.
The Company�� products are marketed throughout the United States and in Western Europe. During fiscal 2011, approximately 21% of the Company�� revenue was from international customers. The Company�� major customers include contractors to the United States Government. During fiscal 2010, sales to these customers for the Department of Defense (DOD) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contracts accounted for approximately 62% of its revenues. The Company�� customers are Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Rockwell Int��, and NASA.
The Company compete with Teledyne Industries, Inc., MS Kennedy, Honeywell, Avago and International Rectifier.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Geoff Gannon] % of NCAV, has similar (slightly better) z- and f-scores, a FCF margin of 6%, but has ROA of 28%.
ADDvantage (AEY) sells at 95% of NCAV, has similar (in the ballpark) scores and FCF and ROA of 23%.The slightly better businesses are currently more expensive in terms of price/NCAV. They have less asset-based downside protection, but they are better businesses.
How do you quantify and qualify what is cheap enough? To me, there's a big difference in relative cheapness in a company selling at 74% of NCAV versus one selling at 95%. I'm wondering if I'm putting too much weight on this cheapness measurement instead of acknowledging that any decent business selling at less than NCAV is cheap enough. Yet, one has to have some quantifiable idea of when something is not cheap enough anymore.
Can you help me put this into a unified framework?
Dan
There�� a great post over at Oddball Stocks called: �� Stock is a Business�� Read it. Then go over to Richard Beddard�� Interactive Investor Blog. Bookmark that blog. Read it religiously. He looks at Ben Graham type stocks in the U.K. And he looks at them not just as stocks but as pieces of a business.
Here�� what Richard said in a post called ��iving Up on Mastery of the Universe��
I need to know:
1. Whether the managers have made good decisions in the past, and whether their incentives work in the interests of the owners, because those kind of managers often add value to a company.
2. The products a company sells will still be in demand for years to come, because if they��e not then the past, which we know, does not tell us anything about the future, which we don��.
3. A company is financially strong enough to withstand the kinds of shocks companies typically experience bearing in mind some are more sensitive to events than others.
4. How to judge whether the share price undervalues the company, bearing in mind the preceding three factors.
- [By Geoff Gannon] strong>ADDvantage Technologies (AEY)
路 Solitron Devices (SODI)
路 OPT-Sciences (OPST)
Micropac
Micropac is 76% owned by Heinz-Werner Hempel. He�� a German businessman. You can see the German company he founded here. He�� had control of Micropac for a long-time. I don�� have an exact number in front of me. But I would guess it�� been something like 25 years.
ADDvantage
ADDvantage Technologies is controlled by the Chymiak brothers. See the company�� April 4 press release explaining their decision to turn over the CEO position to an outsider. Regardless, the Chymiaks still control 47% of the company. Ken Chymiak is now chairman. And David Chymiak is still a director and now the company�� chief technology officer. Clearly, it�� still their company.
By the way, the name ADDvantage Technologies has nothing to do with the Chymiaks. Today�� AEY really traces its roots to a private company called Tulsat. The Chymiak brothers acquired that company about 27 years ago. So, effectively, when you buy shares of AEY you are buying into a 27-year-old family-controlled company.
That�� pretty typical in the world of net-nets.
Solitron
Solitron Devices is 29% owned by Shevach Saraf. He has been the CEO for 20 years. The post-bankruptcy Solitron has never known another CEO. Before the bankruptcy, Solitron was a much bigger, much different company. So even though we are not talking about the founder here ��and even though 70% of the company�� shares are not held by the CEO ��we��e still talking about a company where one person has a lot of control. Solitron only has three directors. Saraf is the chairman, CEO, president, CFO and treasurer. Neither of the other two directors joined the board within the last 15 years. So, we aren�� talking about a lot of tumult at the top.
In fact, profitable net-nets seem to be especially common candidates for abandoning the responsibilities of a public comp
Top 10 Income Companies To Buy For 2014: Chindex International Inc.(CHDX)
Chindex International, Inc. engages in the provision of healthcare services; and sale of medical equipment, instrumentation, and products. The company operates in two segments, Healthcare Services and Medical Products. The Healthcare Services segment owns and operates the United Family Healthcare network of private hospitals and clinics in the Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou markets. This segment also operates a managed clinic in the city of Wuxi, south of Shanghai. It offers a range of family healthcare services, including 24/7 emergency rooms, intensive care units, and neonatal intensive care units, operating rooms, clinical laboratory, radiology, and blood banking services for men, women, and children. The Medical Products segment markets, distributes, and sells medical capital equipment, instrumentation, and other medical products for use in hospitals in China and Hong Kong. It offers diagnostic color ultrasound imaging devices, robotic surgical systems and instrument ation, mammography and breast biopsy devices, and lasers for cosmetic surgery. This segment sells its products through its direct sales force. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in Bethesda, Maryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading the sector was strength from Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) and Chindex International (NASDAQ: CHDX) on acquisition news. In trading on Tuesday, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by 0.2%.
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