Sometimes Mr. Market offers long-term investors quality assets at distressed prices. We believe that now is such a time. Negative sentiment and excessive pessimism, in our view, have been plaguing Hong Kong and China for several months. This has opened up an opportunity for the Fund to buy Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. ("SHK"), the largest property developer and landlord in Hong Kong, at what we believe is a substant ial discount to its net asset value . SHK is not a household name in the U.S., but consider this: think about prime office buildings and desirable residential towers located in central parts of the city that are closest to you, and you'lI get a picture of SHK's business in Hong Kong as well as Shanghai, where the company is rapidly expanding its domain. With occupancy rates for its office and retail properties close to 100%, brisk demand for its apartments marketed to the mass affluent, and a full pipeline of new projects in premier areas, we believe that SHK is a package of solid assets that is trading at an attractive discount to its underlying value . Fears about a serious slowdown in China's economy, as well as local government efforts to cool property price increases, have fed into the negative market sentiment . Another issue that has cast a shadow over the company is the Hong Kong government's legal action that commenced two years ago against the co-chairmen of the company, brothers Raymond and Thomas Kwok. While the day-to-day operations of the company may not have been impacted, there has been an effect on investors who speculate about the impact on the company. Our view is that this legal issue has been discounted in the share price, and what we are left to analyze is the value of SHK's enormous property holdings. When this fog lifts - and we believe it will -we expect SHK's discount to net asset value to narrow, with the possibility of allowing Wintergreen's shareholders to profit from this glaring mismatch between current market price and intrinsic value.
Top 5 Financial Companies For 2015: iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)
iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the long-term sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Index (the Index). The Index includes all publicly issued, the United States Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity greater than 20 years, are non-convertible, are denominated in United States dollars, are rated investment grade (Baa3 or better) by Moody�� Investors Service, are fixed rate, and have more than $150 million par outstanding. Excluded from the Index are certain special issues, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds, and coupon issues that have been stripped from assets that are already included in the Index.
The Index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The Fund invests in a representative sample of the securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisor.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Luke Jacobi]
Treasuries added a little value today. The iShares ETF (NYSE: TLT) which tracks the performance of 20 plus year government bonds was down 0.28 percent heading into the close. The ETF make a huge move to gain 2.07 percent this week.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
But bond investments have seen huge losses. Consider how broad-based the bond-market massacre has been:
Broad measures of the overall bond market have shown definite signs of weakness, with iShares Core U.S. Bond (NYSEMKT: AGG ) falling more than 3% since the end of April and the actively managed PIMCO Total Return (NYSEMKT: BOND ) down almost 4% over that time frame. Longer-term-focused bonds have posted even worse results, with iShares 20+ Treasury (NYSEMKT: TLT ) having fallen more than 8% since late April. Inflation-protected bonds are generally seen providing some defense against rising interest rates, but iShares Barclays TIPS Bond (NYSEMKT: TIP ) has fallen by more than 7%. Even niche areas of the bond market have seen big losses, with the municipal-bond-focused iShares S&P Municipal Bond (NYSEMKT: MUB ) down almost 5%, while the emerging-market bond ETF WisdomTree Emerging Markets Local Debt has fallen 10%.A combination of factors has led to some of these declines, with the strong U.S. dollar hurting international bonds. But the driving force behind all of the drops comes from rising interest rates, and investors need to understand the threat that those rates pose to the future of their bond investments.
- [By Ben Eisen]
The Barclays U.S. Treasury 20+ Year index, tracked by the iShares 20+ year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) , had returned nearly 13% so far this year . That�� easily outperformed the 6.2% returns of the S&P 500 index (SPX) , excluding dividends.
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
It is no secret now that interest rates have risen. Long-term Treasury yields and even intermediate Treasury yields are now perhaps even starting to normalize even with Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve keeping Fed Funds down at the 0.00% to 0.25% target rate. The problem that is going to startle longer-term bond investors is that the 10-year Treasury Note is getting closer and closer to 3% and the 30-year Treasury Bond is getting closer to 4%. We are seeing that the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (NYSEMKT: TLT) and the ProShares�UltraShort�20+ Year Treasury (NYSEMKT: TBT) are also starting to reach critical levels.
Hot Quality Stocks For 2014: Baker Hughes Inc (BHI)
Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes) is engaged in the oilfield services industry. Baker Hughes is a supplier of oilfield services, products, technology and systems to the worldwide oil and natural gas industry. It also provides industrial and other products and services to the downstream refining, and the process and pipeline industries. The Company may conduct its operations through subsidiaries, affiliates, ventures and alliances. It operates in more than 80 countries worldwide. The Company operates in five segments. Four of these segments represent its oilfield operations and their geographic organization: North America (U.S. Land, Gulf of Mexico and Canada), Latin America, Europe/Africa/Russia Caspian and Middle East/Asia Pacific. Its Industrial Services and Other segment includes downstream chemicals, process and pipeline services, and the reservoir development services group.
The geographic organization supports its oilfield operations and is responsible for sales, field operations and well site execution. Western Hemisphere operations consist of four regions - Canada, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, and the United States Land, Gulf of Mexico and Latin America regions. Eastern Hemisphere operations consist of five regions - Europe, England; Africa, France; Russia Caspian, Russia; Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and Asia Pacific, Malaysia.
Oilfield Operations
The Company offers a suite of products and services to its customers worldwide. Its oilfield products and services fall into one of two groups, Drilling and Evaluation or Completion and Production. The Drilling and Evaluation group consists of Drill Bits, Drilling Services, Wireline Services, and Drilling and Completion Fluids. Drill Bits includes Tricone and PDC or diamond drill bits used for performance drilling, hole enlargement and coring. Drilling Services includes conventional and rotary steerable systems used to drill wells directionally and horizontally; measurement-while-drilling and! logging-while-drilling systems used to perform reservoir navigation services; drilling optimization services; tools for coil tubing drilling and wellbore re-entry systems; coring drilling systems, and surface logging.
Wireline Services includes tools for both open hole and cased hole well logging used to gather data to perform petrophysical and geophysical analysis; reservoir evaluation coring; casing perforation; fluid characterization; production logging; well integrity testing; pipe recovery, and seismic and microseismic services. Drilling and Completion Fluids includes emulsion and water-based drilling fluids systems; reservoir drill-in fluids, and fluids environmental services.
The Completion and Production group consists of Completion Systems, Wellbore Intervention, Intelligent Production Systems, Artificial Lift, Tubular Services, Upstream Chemicals and Pressure Pumping. Completion Systems includes products and services used to control the flow of hydrocarbons within a wellbore, including sand control systems; liner hangers; wellbore isolation; expandable tubulars; multilaterals; safety systems; packers and flow control, and tubing conveyed perforating. Wellbore Intervention includes products and services used in existing wellbores to improve their performance, including thru-tubing fishing; thru-tubing inflatables; conventional fishing; casing exit systems; production injection packers; remedial and stimulation tools, and wellbore cleanup.
Intelligent Production Systems includes products and services used to monitor and dynamically control the production from individual wells or fields, including production decisions services; chemical injection services; well monitoring services; intelligent well systems, and artificial lift monitoring. Artificial Lift includes electric submersible pump systems; progressing cavity pump systems; gas lift systems, and surface horizontal pumping systems used to lift large volumes of oil and water when a reservoir is no long! er able t! o flow on its own. Tubular Services includes hammer services; tubular running systems, and completion assembly systems. Upstream Chemicals includes chemicals and chemical application systems to provide flow assurance, integrity management and production management for upstream hydrocarbon production. Pressure Pumping includes cementing, stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing, and coil tubing services used in the completion of new oil and natural gas wells and in remedial work on existing wells, both onshore and offshore.
The Company competes with Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford, National Oilwell Varco, Champion Technologies, Ecolab, Newpark Resources, and Frac Tech Services.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Arjun Sreekumar]
Opportunities for oilfield services firms
Not surprisingly, Halliburton and other major energy companies view Chinese shale gas development as a significant opportunity for future growth. Many of them, including Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI ) , ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP ) , and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB ) , have already developed strategic relationships with Chinese firms to better evaluate the nation's shale gas potential. - [By Monica Wolfe]
Baker Hughes (BHI)
The guru�� third largest holding is in Baker Hughes where he holds on to 9,699,551 shares of the company�� stock. His holdings make up for 3.4% of his total portfolio and 2.39% of the company�� shares outstanding.
- [By Matt DiLallo]
Investors won't have to wait very long: Schlumberger reports its earnings on July 19 and rival�Baker Hughes� (NYSE: BHI ) �reports the same day. By the time Halliburton reports on July 22, investors should already have a pretty good idea how its quarter will turn out. The key bottom-line numbers to watch are earnings expectations, which for Schlumberger are $1.10 per share, while Baker Hughes is expected to earn about $0.65 a share. If those companies can meet or exceed these numbers, then Halliburton investors will have more confidence in its ability to meet or beat its own earnings estimate, which is currently $0.73 per share.�
Hot Quality Stocks For 2014: Amyris Inc.(AMRS)
Amyris, Inc., an integrated renewable products company, provides alternatives to a range of petroleum-sourced products used in specialty chemical and transportation fuel markets worldwide. The company uses its industrial synthetic biology platform to modify microorganisms, primarily yeast, to convert plant-sourced sugars into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules that serve as flexible building blocks to be used in a range of products. It is also involved in the sale of ethanol and ethanol blended gasoline to wholesale customers through a network of terminals primarily in the southeastern Unites States. In addition, the company sells farnesene or Biofene, which is used as an ingredient in a range of consumer and industrial products, including detergents, cosmetics, perfumes, and industrial lubricants. Further, it focuses on the commercialization of renewable diesel and jet fuel. The company was formerly known as Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Amyris, Inc . in June 2010. Amyris, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Emeryville, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares dropped by 0.30 percent. Among the sector stocks, Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS) was down more than 8.5 percent, while Universal Stainless & Alloy Products (NASDAQ: USAP) tumbled around 5 percent.
- [By Maxx Chatsko]
Shares of synthetic biology pioneer Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS ) closed Tuesday down 5% and opened today down as much as 8% on news that an investor was bringing a lawsuit against the company with Milberg LLP. Cue the parade of law firms initiating their own class action lawsuits for their piece of the pie. While I do think Amyris management got a little ahead of itself in early projections, I also think this lawsuit is baseless.
Hot Quality Stocks For 2014: Wizard World Inc (WIZD)
Wizard World, Inc., incorporated on May 2, 2001, produces pop culture and live multimedia conventions (Comic Cons) across North America that provide a social networking and entertainment venue for fiction enthusiasts of movies, television shows, video games, technology, toys, social networking/gaming platforms, comic books and graphic novels. The Company has two lines of business: live multimedia events, which involves ticket sales and exhibitor booth space, and sponsorships and advertising. On December 7, 2010, the Company acquired Conventions (which collectively refers to Kick The Can Corp. and its predecessors Wizard Conventions, Inc. and Kicking The Can, L.L.C) pursuant to a Share Purchase and Share Exchange Agreement (the Exchange Agreement). As the result of the Share Exchange, Conventions became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The Company, through, Conventions, is a producer of pop culture and live multimedia conventions. On November 13, 2010, the Company acquired the production rights to the Mid-Ohio Comic Con from GCX Holdings.
These Comic Cons provide entertainment companies, toy companies, gaming companies, publishing companies and retailers venues for their sales, marketing, promotions, public relations, advertising and sponsorships efforts. On March 18, 2011, the Company formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Wizard World Digital, Inc. (Digital). Among other things, Digital monitors and sends emails to its fan database; manages its Website www.wizardworld.com and its online accounts, and produces the Company�� online newsletter, Wizard World Digital. The Company also produces Wizard World Digital, an online publication covering new and upcoming products and talents in the pop culture world, which is distributed on a weekly basis to online and iPad users worldwide. Kick The Can Corp. was incorporated in Nevada on September 20, 2010. As of November 17, 2011, the Conventions held the production rights to 11 conventions: Atlanta Comic Con (Atlanta, GA); Big Apple Comic Co! n (New York, NY); Cincinnati Comic Con (Cincinnati, OH); Connecticut Comic Con (Hartford, CT); Nashville Comic Con (Nashville, TN); New England Comic Con (Boston, MA); North Coast Comic Con (Akron, OH); Toronto Comic Con (Toronto, Ontario); Nola Comic Con (New Orleans, LA); Central Canada Comic Con (Winnipeg, Manitoba), and Mid-Ohio Comic Con (Columbus, OH). The Company developed the Comic Cons in Miami, FL, Anaheim, CA, Austin, TX, Philadelphia, PA and Chicago, IL.
The Company competes with Reed Exhibitions Limited and Hobby Star Marketing Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
Today, WIZD remains (0.00%) +0.000 at $.520 thus far (ref. google finance June 20, 2013).
Wizard World, Inc. previously reported record financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 today.
Convention revenue was $1,793,476 for the three months ended March 31, 2013, as compared to $520,155 for the comparable period ended March 31, 2012, an increase of $1,273,321. The Company produced two events during the period ended March 31, 2013, as compared to one event during the comparable period ended March 31, 2012. Average revenue generated per event in 2013 was $896,737 as compared to $520,155 during 2012.
Hot Quality Stocks For 2014: Simplicity Bancorp Inc (SMPL)
Simplicity Bancorp Inc., formerly K-Fed Bancorp, is a federally-chartered stock holding company. K-Fed Bancorp is a wholly owned subsidiary of K-Fed Mutual Holding Company (the MHC), a federally-chartered mutual holding company. K-Fed Bancorp operates through its subsidiary, Kaiser Federal Bank (the Bank), a federally chartered stock savings bank, which provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and business customers from its nine branch and financial service center locations throughout California. The Bank is a community-oriented financial institution offering a variety of financial services. The Bank�� principal business activity consists of attracting retail deposits from the general public and originating primarily loans secured by first mortgages on owner-occupied one-to-four family residences and multi-family residences located in its market area and, to a lesser extent, automobile and other consumer loans. Its revenues are derived principally from interest on loans and mortgage-backed and related securities. It also generates revenue from service charges and other income. The Bank offers a variety of deposit accounts having a range of interest rates and terms, which generally include savings accounts, money market accounts, demand deposit accounts and certificate of deposit accounts with varied terms ranging from 90 days to 5 years.
Lending Activities
The Bank originates consumer loans, primarily automobile loans. As of June 30, 2010, its net loan portfolio totaled $758 million, which constituted 87.4% of its total assets. As of June 30, 2010, the Bank�� first lien one-to-four family residential mortgage loans totaled $335.6 million, or 43.5%, of its gross loan portfolio. It originates one-to-four family mortgage loans on a fixed rate and adjustable rate basis. As of June 30, 2010, the Bank�� one-to-four family adjustable rate mortgage loan portfolio totaled $58.6 million, or 7.6% of its gross loan portfolio. As of June 30, 2010, the fixed r! ate one-to-four family mortgage loan portfolio totaled $276.9 million, or 35.9% of its gross loan portfolio. Included in non-accrual loans at June 30, 2010, were $2.9 million in adjustable rate one-to-four family mortgage loans and $21.9 million in fixed rate one-to-four family mortgage loans.
The Bank also offers multi-family residential real estate loans. These loans are secured by real estate located in its primary market areas, within the state of California. As of June 30, 2010, multi-family residential loans totaled $278.4 million, or 36.1%, of its gross loan portfolio, and consists of 415 loans outstanding with an average loan balance of approximately $670,000. It offers a variety of secured consumer loans, including home equity lines of credit, new and used automobile loans, and loans secured by savings deposits. It also offers a limited amount of unsecured loans. At June 30, 2010, the Bank�� consumer loan portfolio, exclusive of automobile loans, totaled $13.8 million, or 1.8%, of its gross loan portfolio.
Investment Activities
The Bank is authorized to invest in various types of liquid assets, including the United States Treasury obligations, securities of various federal agencies, certain certificates of deposit of insured banks and savings institutions, certain bankers��acceptances, repurchase agreements and federal funds. At June 30, 2010, the Bank�� investment portfolio totaled $6 million and consisted principally of investment grade collateralized mortgage obligations and mortgage-backed securities. It invests in mortgage-backed securities insured or guaranteed by Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) or Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). As of June 30, 2010, it also had an investment in an affordable housing fund totaling $1.2 million.
Sources of Funds
The Bank�� sources of funds are deposits, payment of principal and interest ! on loans,! interest earned on or maturity of investment securities, borrowings, and funds provided from operations. It offers a variety of deposit accounts to consumers with a range of interest rates and terms. Its deposits consist of time deposit accounts, savings, money market and demand deposit accounts. The Bank�� borrowings consist of advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. It may obtain advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco upon the security of its mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities. As of June 30, 2010, the Bank had $137 million in Federal Home Loan Bank advances outstanding. At June 30, 2010, it had available additional advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) of San Francisco in the amount of $219.1 million.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tim Melvin]
HBCP stock is trading at 94% of book value and is very attractive at the current price.
Simplicity Bancorp (SMPL)Simplicity Bancorp (SMPL) in Covina, Calif., started out decades ago as a credit union for employees of the Kaiser Foundation Hospital. It has since grown to a nine-branch bank with $834 million in assets. SMPL had its conversion IPO back in 2010, and is an extremely attractive takeover target right now. The bank’s equity-to-asset ratio is 16, and nonperforming assets are less than 2% of the total, so that’s a solid financial condition to be in.
Hot Quality Stocks For 2014: Northwest Natural Gas Company(NWN)
Northwest Natural Gas Company stores and distributes natural gas primarily in Oregon, Washington, and California. The company operates in two segments, Local Gas Distribution and Gas Storage. The Local Gas Distribution segment distributes natural gas in Oregon and southwest Washington. The Local Gas Distribution segment distributes natural gas in Oregon and southwest Washington. This segment engages in building and maintaining pipeline distribution system, purchasing gas from producers and marketers, contracting for the transportation of gas over pipelines from the supply basins to service territory, and reselling the gas to customers. It also transports gas owned by customers from the interstate pipeline connection, or city gate, to the customers? facilities. This segment serves various industries, including pulp, paper, and other forest products; companies manufacturing electronic, electrochemical, and electrometallurgical products; companies engaged in processing of fa rm and food products; metal fabrication and casting companies; organizations that produce various mineral products, machine tools, machinery, and textiles; companies that manufacture asphalt, concrete, and rubber; printing and publishing companies; nurseries; government and educational institutions; and electric generation companies. It has approximately 674,000 utility customers comprising approximately 611,000 residential, 62,000 commercial, and 1,000 industrial customers. The Gas Storage segment offers underground natural gas storage services to interstate and intrastate customers. It holds interests in approximately 9,900 net acres of underground natural gas storage in Oregon and approximately 5,000 net acres of underground natural gas storage in California. This segment serves primarily natural gas distribution, electric generation, and energy marketing companies. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Fredrik Arnold]
The balance of the top ten included one technology firm, AT&T Inc. (T) in fourth place; one consumer goods, Altria Group Inc. (MO), placed fifth; Bowl America Class A (BWL.A) in seventh place was the lone service dog. Two utilities, Northwest Natural Gas (NWN), and Consolidated Edison (ED), in ninth and tenth places completed the representation of market sectors in the champions index.
Hot Quality Stocks For 2014: Symmetricom Inc.(SYMM)
Symmetricom, Inc. provides timekeeping technologies, instruments, and solutions worldwide. Its Communications business unit provides timing technologies and services for communications infrastructure. The Communications business unit products comprise primary reference sources; edge clocks and distribution products for synchronization outside the network core; building integrated timing supply and sync supply unit for the central office; the PackeTime product suite; data over cable service interface specifications timing interface systems; network management and monitoring software; and embedded hardware and software solutions for integration with various elements of the communications ecosystem, such as silicon, routers, switches, microwave backhaul, and base stations. The company?s Government business unit offers time technology products for aerospace/defense, IT infrastructure, power infrastructure, and science and metrology applications. The Government business unit p roduct portfolio comprises timescale clock sources; network time servers; network time displays; time code generators; bus level timing cards; primary reference standards, such as rubidium and cesium oscillator standards; high stability masers; chip-scale atomic clocks; ruggedized crystal oscillators; and custom time and frequency systems. It offers timekeeping in GPS satellites, national time references, and national power grids, as well as in critical military and civilian networks, which enable data, voice, mobile, and video networks and services. The company sells its products through distributors, systems integrators, and manufacturer sales representatives. It serves various markets, including communications service providers; network equipment manufacturers; silicon suppliers; aerospace/defense; power utility infrastructure; IT infrastructure; underwater exploration and navigation; and science and metrology. The company was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in San J ose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
San Jose, Calif.-based Symmetricom (NASDAQ: SYMM ) has a new chief executive officer.
On Tuesday, the "precise time" computer announced a series of changes in upper management. Current CEO David G. Cote is leaving the company "to pursue other interests" and has been replaced by new CEO Elizabeth A. Fetter, a current board member. Details on Fetter's compensation have yet to be filed with the SEC.
- [By Lauren Pollock]
Microsemi Corp.(MSCC) agreed to pay almost $298 million to acquire Symmetricom Inc.(SYMM), a deal that will expand the power-management supplier’s exposure into the aerospace and defense industries while also immediately adding to earnings. Shares in Symmetricom soared.
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