California Home Depots on the Block

It wasn't too hard to guess a few years ago, back when the housing bubble began to burst, that real estate auction companies like REDC would someday be quite busy trying to liquidate 4BR+2.5BA foreclosures. But, who would have guessed they'd be selling Home Depots (HD)?
This ad has been in the Wednesday Real Estate section of the Wall Street Journal for a few weeks now. Hopefully, REDC will do a better job selling these than they do single family homes. Around here, the same houses just keep showing up in auction after auction.

China Biotech In Review: China Featured At J.P. Morgan Confab

The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare extravaganza, held last week in San Francisco, was buzzing with excitement about China. Optimism was running high and, best of all, participants were discussing real deals. It was the second year the conference included a China-specific track. The room was often filled to its 200-seat capacity, forcing some attendees to stand at the back and even more to peer in through the glass doors at the back of the room. The strong sense of positive energy evident throughout J.P. Morgan this year was even more apparent in the China Reception following the company presentations.

Deals and Transactions

Amerigen Pharma announced two new cross-border relationships in quick succession. The agreements move the company toward its goals of developing a large portfolio of differentiated generic drugs for sale in the US and China. With Shanghai Fosun Omni Pharma, Amerigen will develop controlled release oral generic products, which Amerigen will commercialize in the US. Amerigen also signed an MOU with VIWA Pharma, a China company, to set up a JV that will develop and register a number of branded generics for sale in China.

Shanghai Pharma announced its subsidiary, Shanghai Zhongxi Sunve Pharmaceutical, acquired a 51% stake in Shanghai Jinhe Biotechnology. Sunve produces APIs and intermediates for cancer drugs, and it has over half the China market for taxane APIs. Sunve is expected to report sales of 94 million RMB ($14.9 million) in 2011. The price was not disclosed.

NovaBay Pharma (AMEX: NBY) of California signed a partnership agreement with Pioneer Pharma, a Shanghai company that distributes high-end medical products in China (see story). The agreement gives Pioneer responsibility for China commercialization of NovaBay’s anti-infective wound-cleaning product, NeutroPhase. NovaBay received an upfront payment of over $300,000, and it could earn pre-launch milestones of an additional $1 million.

Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine has entered a strategic partnership with Crown Bioscience to discover and commercialize a novel monoclonal antibody, which will be developed for China and global markets. Hengrui signed the deal with Crown’s subsidiary, CrownBio Taicang Biologics Division. CrownBio, which will lead the discovery program and deliver a humanized IND candidate, will receive research support and a success-based incentive payment.

Aeras, a US-based non-profit dedicated to developing effective TB vaccines and biologics, has partnered with the China National Biotec Group (CNBG) to develop a recombinant form of Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the only TB vaccine currently approved. Aeras will provide financial support and technical expertise to CNBG as part of the partnership.

Company News

Mindray Medical (NYSE: MR), China’s international medical device maker, said its preliminary 2011 revenues rose 25% to $878 million (see story). The company also expects non-GAAP revenues to increase at least 10%. It predicted revenues for 2012 would climb another 18%. Investors reacted positively to the announcement, sending Mindray up more than 5%. In early going, the stock was trading at $27.90, up $1.57, on heavy volume.

Disclosure: none.

GE, Boeing and Others Could See Prolonged Pension Pain

General Electric (GE), Boeing (BA), Lockheed Martin (LMT) and numerous other companies with large pension liabilities are in a bind: the Fed is keeping interest rates at historically low levels, but new regulations say that companies need to quickly find funding for their pension liabilities, Bloomberg notes today.

The changes could mean that pension liabilities weigh on the results of these large companies for the next few years as long as the Fed holds tight to its pledge to keep rates low into 2014.

A law that went into affect in 2008 made employers fully fund their pension or retirement plans within seven years, and use interest rate projections to account for future payment requirements. Clearly, with the Fed in stimulus mode, the rate calculations will work against companies for the next few years, possibly forcing them to dip into earnings and cash to keep up with liabilities.

Boeing already said earlier this year that its pension costs are expected to rise 63% this year, and GE will contribute $1 billion to its pension plans, the first time it’s had to put money into pensions since 1987.

Las Vegas Sands: Without Continued Pick Up In Economy, Stock Has No Further To Go

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) has had a nice post economic crisis recovery off its lows of less than $2 a share, a 30 bagger in just 3 years. That's something to keep in mind for the next market drought as levered casinos will see a significant fall and if they're able to stay afloat, a significant rally after the sell-off. A lot of risk but the reward potential is enormous. However, now, the stock seems to be in the right range as all of the metrics suggest that the stock is about at the ballpark of its fair valuation. However, a pickup in the economy (Chinese and/or American) that's better than expected will lead to valuation adjustments for economic sensitive stocks like casinos and will give it more upside than current valuation metrics suggest.

Recent results suggest that things are going very well for the company. In its Q4 release, the company said that "we are pleased to report record financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2011. Strong growth and record EBITDA margin at our Macao property portfolio, together with continued growth at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and a solid performance from our domestic properties contributed to record revenue, operating income and EBITDA for the quarter." Below is an in depth look at the valuation metrics and stock chart.

Valuation: Las Vegas Sands' trailing 5 year valuation metrics suggest that the stock is undervalued as all of the metrics are below their respective 5 year averages. Las Vegas Sands' current P/B ratio is 5.4 and it has averaged 5.7 over the past 5 years with a high of 21.5 and low of 0.5. Las Vegas Sands' current P/S ratio is 4.5 and it has averaged 4.8 over the past 5 years with a high of 18.7 and low of 0.4.

Price Target: The consensus price target for the analysts who follow Las Vegas Sands is $63. That is upside of 9% from today's stock price of $57.91 and suggests that the stock is overvalued at these levels. This also suggests that the stock has limited upside and should be avoided at its current stock price.

Forward Valuation: Las Vegas Sands is currently trading at about $58 a share with analysts expecting EPS of $3.13 next year, an earnings increase of 21% y/y, for a forward P/E ratio of 18.5. Taking a look at the company's publicly traded comparisons will give us a better idea of the stock's relative valuation. Penn National Gaming (PENN) is currently trading at about $46 a share with analysts expecting EPS of $2.81 next year, an earnings increase of 14% y/y, for a forward P/E ratio of 16.2. Wynn Resorts (WYNN) is currently trading at about $129 a share with analysts expecting EPS of $6.93 next year, an earnings increase of 16% y/y, for a forward P/E ratio of 18.6. Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL) is currently trading at about $16 a share with analysts expecting EPS of $0.83 next year, an earnings increase of 26% y/y, for a forward P/E ratio of 18.8. The mean forward P/E of Las Vegas Sands' competitors is 17.9 which suggests that Las Vegas Sands is fairly valued relative to its publicly traded competitors.

Earnings Estimates: Las Vegas Sands has beat EPS estimates 2 times in the past 4 quarters. The company's EPS figures have come in between -7 cents and 10 cents from consensus estimates or about -15.9% to 22.7% from analyst estimates. The company has reported earnings that have differed from analyst estimates by a wide margin which suggests that the stock may experience upside from earnings surprises.

Price Action: Las Vegas Sands is up 26% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 5.8%. Looking at the technicals, the stock is currently above its 50 day moving average, which sits at $56.19 and above its 200 day moving average, which sits at $47.66.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Why Nov. 1 Will Be a Big Day for Energy Investors

Take a walk outside and, in much of the country, you'll quickly realize that fall is upon us.

The changing of the seasons means many different things for different people. For investors, it means the end of the third quarter, and the beginning of earnings season. We here at the Fool encourage investing with a long-term time horizon. That means that we should take a balanced view of quarterly earnings reports, paying attention, but never giving too much weight to any one report.

At the same time, it's always a good idea to check in with your stocks a few times a year, and this earnings season is as good a time as any.

Read below to find out why Nov. 1 will be such an important date for energy investors, and at the end of the article, I'll offer up access to a special free report that identifies one stock as a�must own�energy holding.

The morning of Nov. 1
When companies report earnings, they usually will do it either before the market opens at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast, or after it closes at 4:00 p.m. The following three companies, all important within their respective fields, will be reporting earnings before the market opens on Nov. 1. For context, I've also included what analysts are expecting from each company.

Company	Expected EPS	Expected Revenue
�Ultra Petroleum� (NYSE: UPL  )	�$0.46	�$277 million
�ExxonMobil� (NYSE: XOM  )	�$1.92	�$116 billion
�Royal Dutch Shell� (NYSE: RDS-B  )	�$1.97	�$117 billion

Source: E*TRADE.

Not only is ExxonMobil one of the largest companies the financial world has ever seen, a leader in providing gas for both our cars and industry, but it's also the largest natural gas extractor in the United States. �

The company recently announced plans�to boost capacity for specialty lubricants by 25%, further entrenching itself within peripheral energy fields.

And to top it off, the company's nice 2.5% dividend yield only uses up 23% of the company's earnings to pay out -- meaning there's a lot of room for growth. Don't expect any news on the dividend front, however, as changes are usually announced during the fourth-quarter-earnings release.

Royal Dutch Shell, on the other hand, also has its fingers in several energy pies. One thing to look for in the earnings call will be any comments regarding the company's shutting down�a Nigerian oil pipeline after a fire broke out at the beginning of the month.

On the natural gas front, the company is focusing on helping to supply and build out natural gas filling stations at over 100 U.S. locations, as well as in Western Canada, dubbed the "Green Corridor Project." Keep your ears open for any news on this front as well.

Finally, we have the much smaller Ultra Petroleum. The company's main focus is on natural gas, having grown its proven reserves from 444 billion cubic feet in 2000 to 4.4 trillion by the end of 2010.The problem for the company, however, is that the cheap price of natural gas has driven down its stock as well. �

Several of our own analysts think the natural gas sector is poised for a rebound, however. So keep your eyes and ears open to see if the management at Ultra is willing to say it feels the same way.

The evening of Nov. 1
Once the market is done handing down its short-term verdict on the three companies mentioned above, the following two energy companies will be releasing their earnings numbers after hours.

Company	Expected EPS	Expected Revenue
�Chesapeake Energy� (NYSE: CHK  )	�$0.09	�$2.4 billion
�Kodak Oil & Gas� (NYSE: KOG  )	�$0.12	�$126 million

You'd be hard pressed to find an energy company that's had a more trying year than Chesapeake. The country's second-largest natural gas producer has been dogged by dubious behavior from its CEO Aubrey McClendon, and questionable practices in land acquisition.

That being said, the stock is up almost 50% since hitting its mid-May lows. Investors likely will be paying attention to both the company's plans to unload lots of land and any moves that might be made in the executive suite.

And finally, we have much smaller Kodak Oil & Gas. The company is concentrated almost entirely on extracting natural gas and oil from the Bakken Shale along the U.S. and Canadian border.

Though natural gas prices have started a slow recovery, investors aren't buying into the potential from Kodak quite yet. The stock trades for a somewhat pricey 25 times earnings, but analysts are expecting earnings to grow by almost 70% between 2012 and 2013. Keep your eyes open to see if the company can really fulfill that potential.

Beyond this one date
Clearly, it'll be important to keep your eyes and ears open come Nov. 1. But in reality, there�are�more than just these five companies to invest in if you're interested in energy companies.

With the swelling of the global middle class energy consumption will skyrocket over the next few decades, and long-term investors know that you want exposure to this space now. We've picked one incredible natural gas company that presents a rare "double-play" investment opportunity today. We're calling it "The One Energy Stock You Must Own Before 2014," and you can uncover it today, totally free, in our premium research report. Click here to read more.

Diversify Your Options Universe

Diversification, important in all investments, is critical when it comes to trading options.

Especially for novice option traders, because some of your positions will be losers, the more positions you have means increased odds of hitting a home run. But with only a few positions, you could easily wipe out your portfolio very quickly.

Diversification means you should own both puts and calls, and a variety of each in myriad sectors and with different expiration dates. Further, take at least two or three different options positions, and buy at least four contracts per position to reduce commission costs.

The most important type of diversification is what I want to discuss with you today — diversifying over time!

Be sure you’re investing in options from different expiration months and keeping both short-term plays (like we do in my Fast Options Profits trading service) and some longer-term plays, any where from a couple of months to several years. Take advantage of Long-term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPS) to buy up to two-and-a-half years’ worth of time to take advantage of stocks going up or down over the long term.

A staggered strategy allows you to collect profits year-round and also insulates you from global crises and other events that may impact the U.S. markets significantly.

When you are diversifying your options portfolio over time, don’t confuse that premise with buying a lot of option positions all at once. You are betting on market volatility, and if the market goes to sleep, you are sunk if your options melt away and expire. (Although we’re in exciting times, sometimes the market hits the snooze button for a year or so.)

Enter option positions gradually over time, patiently waiting for the market or a stock to explode. Once you see the market waking up, you can increase your option buying activity.

A good game tactic is planning to spend a set amount of dollars each year and to gradually invest the allotted capital over that period, possibly using seasonal tendencies (i.e., being prepared to make extra trades around earnings announcements and major conferences, while scaling back on trades during slow or exceptionally volatile times) to maximize your opportunities and gains.

Time diversity is also important because it ensures you will have enough money in reserve to return and play another day if you happen to encounter a losing run — I want you to be trading options for a long time to come!

The Newest Threat to Dividend Stocks

Dividend stocks have never been more popular. With interest rates on most competing investments at rock-bottom levels, dividend yields remain attractively high -- almost unimaginably high in many cases. Regardless of whether it's a smart move from a risk perspective, investing in dividend-paying stocks is probably the only thing giving many investors the income they need from their hard-earned nest eggs.

That could all change, though. With the new proposed federal budget, a much larger tax penalty for dividends could push the pendulum back toward alternative methods of returning capital to shareholders -- methods that haven't worked nearly as well historically.

The budget and you
Yesterday's proposed budget for fiscal 2013 included provisions that would mark a policy reversal for the administration. Previously, the budget for the current fiscal year had suggested setting a new maximum rate on dividend income of 20%, matching the level of capital gains taxes that applied before the 2003 tax cuts took effect.

But now, the budget would send dividend tax rates all the way up to ordinary income rates for couples earning $250,000 or more and singles earning $200,000 and above. That would push the top tax rate on dividends up to nearly 40% -- not including the proposed surtax connected with the health-care reform law from 2010.

Companies fighting back
It's not just taxpayers that are fighting the new proposed dividend tax rates. Many high-profile companies are also backing opposition as part of more general concern about the uncompetitive state of U.S. taxation on businesses compared to other nations.

The Alliance for Savings and Investment claims as its top priority "making permanent today's current low tax rates on capital gains and dividends" as a boost for investors and the overall economy. The group, which includes Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR  ) , Altria (NYSE: MO  ) , and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN  ) , argues that private investment is the key to economic recovery and job growth.

Of course, those companies and many of the group's other members would be at the epicenter of the proposed tax changes. As high-yield dividend stocks, their shareholders would take the biggest hit from a dividend tax hike.

End of a trend?
Leaving aside the fairness of such a tax, increasing taxes on dividends would likely put a stop to the decade-long trend toward higher dividends. Following the 2003 tax-law change that established lower rates for dividends, corporations suffered less from the double taxation of dividend income and therefore were more willing to pay dividends. That in turn gave investors, rather than corporate executives, the decision-making authority about whether to reinvest that cash into more shares of stock or use it for other purposes.

With high dividend taxes, corporations will likely go back to doing more share repurchases. Unfortunately, they've done a horrible job of timing those purchases, often buying back shares at exactly the worst time for shareholders.

Of course, some companies will be unaffected by higher dividend taxes. Mortgage REITs Annaly Capital (NYSE: NLY  ) and Chimera Investment (NYSE: CIM  ) already saddle their shareholders with ordinary-income rates on their payouts, because their dividends generally don't qualify for the preferential rate. A number of other stocks and other income-producing investments similarly incur higher tax rates.

In addition, you can always invest within tax-favored retirement accounts to avoid a higher tax bite. In fact, the end of preferential dividend rates will make owning stocks in IRAs and 401(k) plans more attractive, because you'll no longer have a disparity between the lower rates that apply in taxable accounts versus the higher rates that apply to withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s in retirement.

Be ready
Regardless of higher taxes, investors should be wary of letting corporations take away the cash they receive through dividends. With billions of dollars sitting in corporate coffers, the opportunity for mismanagement is so great that I'd argue you should take a highly taxed bird in hand over a possibly squandered two in the bush.

In the end, of course, the best stocks will provide outstanding returns even if tax rates go up. But first, you have to find them. Please accept my invitation to read The Motley Fool's latest special report, in which you'll find three attractive stock ideas for long-term investors. The report is free -- but don't wait: Click here and read it today.

5 Most Crazy Company Sellers Since the Financial Crisis

On Tuesday TheStreet wrote about the companies that madecrisis-time acquisitions leading to growth opportunities, if they aren't already paying dividends.

But some companies haven't had the luxury to go shopping in the crisis and instead have been using ventures and business line fire sales to stabilize bleeding operations.

See if (AIG) is in our portfolio

At first glance, it looks as if the S&P 500 Index at 1236 points has barely changed since the Friday before Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, but many of the biggest sectors like financials, energy and autos have been completely upended by the turmoil in markets. Plummeting sales, consumer confidence and -- most critically -- cash turned some companies into desperate sellers as they focused others on growth opportunities.While some giants like Wachovia, Merrill Lynch, General Motors (GM) CIT Group (CIT) and recently MF Global either went bankrupt or fell into the arms of a last ditch buyer, others used a flurry of asset sales and piles of government money to weather the Great Recession. TheStreet did a screen for the biggest sellers since the crisis and picked a few survivors, using Bloomberg data.To be seen is whether disposals will be a lost opportunity for years to come, or if the sales create a blank slate that will set the stage for future growth. We found the five most frequent sellers and offer our thoughts on what it means for their prospects.

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American International Group (AIG)It should come as no surprise that the company which gave birth to the saying "too big to fail" sold billions in assets and took even more billions in bailout money for last minute cash to survive the crisis. Overall, AIG did 13 asset sales to raise $28.3 billion and sold $25 billion in IPO's for much needed cash. The sales supplemented $182 billion in bailout funds that the insurance giant needed after its financial products unit became the guarantor to a significant portion of the junk that Wall Street created prior to the crisis. As a result of the bailout, the Treasury took a 92% stake in the company.In March 2010, the insurance giant sold its Alico insurance unit for nearly $15 billion to Metlife (MET) and also announced its biggest crisis sale prospect in a $35 billion deal to unload its Asian insurance unit AIA Group to Britain's Prudential PLC. The latter deal was later quashed as a result of defections among AIA's senior ranks and price negotiations that made the takeover untenable. After the sale fail, AIG then did a public offering of $17.8 billion worth of AIA shares in a Hong Kong IPO.In May, AIG sold $8.7 billion worth of stock in its insurance unit in one of the biggest post-crisis IPO's that valued shares at $29. The share sale reduced the government's stake in the company to 77%, nevertheless even after the IPO, the government retained 1.5 billion AIG shares. In September 2011, AIG's International Lease Finance Corporation, its aircraft lease division, filed a $100 million IPO.Even if the IPO were a startling success, it still wouldn't change the fact that the insurer, which lost nearly $4 billion in its most recent quarter and $99 billion in 2008, still owes the U.S. Treasury nearly $50 billion. Clearly, a lot more selling is in store for AIG.

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General Electric (GE)In 2008, the industrial conglomerate General Electric surprised many when, as a result of the freezing in commercial paper markets, it needed to convert to a bank holding company and take a $139 billion debt backing by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company.Many familiar with the GE for its steady returns and epic strings of profitability found it crazy that the world's largest engineering company would qualify as a bank and need debt guarantees from the government. However, a reliance on the $60 plus billion revenue earning GE Capital division and the short term funds needed to run it put GE into crisis as credit markets froze after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.In October 2008, Warren Buffett took a $3 billion warrant in General Electric, which inspired enough confidence in the company for it to sell an additional $12 billion worth of stock to raise much needed capital -- the investment was one of Buffett's big investments in America in a time of crisis. General Electric also struck a host of deals to bring in cash and manage its GE Capital business.In December 2009, General Electric sold a controlling interest in its NBC Universal division to Comcast (CMCSA) for $13.75 billion. While the deal netted General Electric some much needed cash and allowed it to avoid a multibillion dollar buyback of NBC from Vivendi, it ceded control of GE's 4th largest and most glamorous business line.GE Capital's also cut some of its sprawling overseas financial businesses like a 20% stake in Istanbul -based Turkiye Garanti Bankasi to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) for over $3.7 billion and a Central American bank to Colombia's Grupo Aval for $1.9 billion in the biggest ever acquisition for a Colombia company. Overall, GE sold $23.5 billion worth of businesses through the crisisIn part as a result of the divestitures, GE's earnings have fallen from $180 billion in sales and $20 billion in profits before the crisis to $150 billion and $11.6 billion in revenue and profits respectively. Nevertheless, the company's cash has increased to a record $91.4 billion in its most recent quarter, a more than ten-fold increase from 2005 levels - and it's cut short-term liabilities below $200 billion.The sales and balance sheet improvements have allowed GE to strike focused deals to bolster its engineering specialty. In October 2010, GE bought oil equipment maker Dresser for $3 billion. In 2011, GE also bought wind turbine maker Converteam for $3.2 billion, signaling that as it scales back its risky finance activities, GE will refocus on its industrial engineering dominance. It may be a smart play, while shares of the largest banks in the U.S like Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) are down at last 20% this year, GE's shares haven't suffered as much, falling 12%.

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Citigroup (C)One of the largest Troubled Asset Relief Program and Treasury bailout recipients during the financial crisis, Citigroup took over $45 billion in government funds in exchange for preferred shares to survive. The company, which saw its stock fall below the price of a McDonalds(MCD) hamburger, has spent the last three years selling assets to raise much needed capital. In 2008, Citigroup created CitiHoldings to unwind or sell $850 billion in "non-core" assets to pay back its government ownership, which peaked at nearly 40%, and repair its balance sheet.As a result, Citigroup(C) earnings are being dictated by what we've called an ever lightening Sisyphean rock in CitiHoldings.In 2009, just after the split between Citi and CitiHoldings took effect, asset sales began at a frenetic pace. That January, Citi ceded its ownership of brokerage Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley(MS)in a joint venture that formed the world's largest brokerage and netted Citi almost $3 billion in much needed cash.Months later, Citi sold its Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the third largest bank in Japan for nearly $8 billion and it got another $2 billion in excess cash. Citi kept one Asian brokerage unit, Nikko Asset Management, which it later sold to Sumitomo for roughly $1.25 billion -ending an ambitious foray into Asia.In 2010, the sales kept on humming at CitiHoldings; during the year Citi reduced its assets by over $140 billion -a reduction of 28%. Among the most publicized sales was a selling of shares in its insurance unit Primerica(PRI) to private equity fund Warburg Pincus, which later were sold in an IPO. That sale, a further push away from Citi's "financial supermarket" business model where anything money could be done under the roof of Citigroup.Last year, the company also started selling some of its bundles of securities tied to real estate and credit card debt the bank had issued. In September 2010, Citi sold its stake in Student Loan Corp to Discover Financial(DFS) for $600 million and another $3.5 billion in commercial real estate debt to JPMorgan Chase(JPM).Earlier in November, Citigroup sold music titan EMI in two separate pieces for $4.1 billion after seizing the company from private equity firm Terra Firma earlier in the year.With the EMI sales, Citigroup's crisis sales are nearing $20 billion in total, but company management has cautioned investors against expecting many more sales. Instead, the company will let its CitiHoldings assets mature over years, if not decades. Meanwhile, the stock flounders.

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Chesapeake Energy (CHK)Of any oil and gas company, Chesapeake Energy's had the most eventful time dealing with the crisis. The company, who's taken stakes in an array of gas exploration partnerships, has seen its shares plummet and then rocket back during the crisis as its unloaded billions in asset sales.Overall, Chesapeake Energy's cut 13 sales to raise nearly $14 billion of much needed cash to survive volatile earnings that have swayed between a $5 billion-plus loss in 2009 and a near $2 billion profit in 2010. Meanwhile, the company's only made just one minor purchase, an April 2011 buy of Bronco Drilling for $311 million.Earnings sways as a result of volatile gas selling prices, a huge overhang of debt, a shortage of cash and a sprawl of energy assets, the U.S. second largest gas producer has, caused Chesapeake shares dip into single digits at some points in the crisis.To shore up its balance sheet, Chesapeake has relied on foreign buyers. The company sold its Fayetteville shale assets to Australia's BHP (BHP) for $4.75 billion, Barnett shale assets to France's Total (TOT) for $2.25 billion, Marcellus shale assets to Norway's Statoil (STO) form $1.25 billion and Eagle Ford shale assets to China's CNOOC (CEO) for another $1.08 billion among others.The hard work in shale sales has paid off for Chesapeake in the short term however. Its shares have risen over 14% from this time last year, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index have risen nearly 5%.

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Devon Energy (DVN)After losing more than $2 billion in 2008 and 2009, Devon Energy has used crisis asset sales to sharpen its focus on onshore oil and gas prospects, while spinning riskier deepwater oil drilling assets literally months before the devastating BP (BP) Macondo oil spill. As a result, Devon's been able to double its cash from pre-crisis levels, cut its debt and consolidate its most strategic oil and gas assets.In March 2010, Devon Energy sold some of its deepwater portfolio in the Gulf of Mexico to BP for $7 billion just over a month before the British oil giant had a well blowout that led to the worst man made environmental catastrophe in U.S. history. Previous to the blowout, Devon also sold billions more of Gulf of Mexico deepwater assets to Maersk and to Apache (APC). The sales turned out to be fortunate as companies with a deepwater focus saw their shares fall precipitously in the aftermath of the BP spill.While, Devon made eleven divestitures during the crisis and made no acquisitions that drew in over $10 billion, its now found the cash to develop a balance of onshore drilling prospects. Currently, Devon counts on onshore gas production for over 66% of revenue and oils for another 30%. In 2010, Devon earned its first profit since the recession taking in $4.5 billion in net earnings. Nine months into 2011, the company's already eclipsed its 2010 profit. Shares, however have fallen 14% year-to-date as a result of falling commodity prices. In April, Devon Energy's stock rose to a post-crisis high of $93.56 -- but they've fallen by a third since.--.

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3 Healthcare Stocks That Make for Good Portfolio Candidates

by David Sterman

A clear trend has emerged in the health care sector. Large companies are having an awfully hard time finding ways to grow. As an example, I recently took a look at the dimming outlook for industry giant Medtronic (NYSE: MDT).

In that column, I added that, "it's been a great era to invest in smaller medical device companies." These firms (which should be widened to include the companies in the field of health care diagnostics) seem better equipped to move nimbly in new markets, and some have proven to be attractive buyout candidates. Well, I've been tracking three companies that I think make great investments -- with or without a buyout. All three are expected to boost sales around +20% to +30% both this year and next, and all three are well off of their highs seen a few years ago.

eResearch Technology (Nasdaq: ERES)
I first took a deep look at this company, which helps test the cardiac side effects on new, untested drugs, back in May after it had made a smart acquisition in the respiratory monitoring space.
[See: Big Pharma's Best Friend is about to Get Bigger]

Shares have been flat since then, but quarterly results have surely been impressive. The company surged past forecasts in the June quarter, thanks in part to the newly-acquired respiratory division. As a result, earnings estimates have been raised for both 2010 and 2011. Most importantly, I think analysts are still underestimating all of the benefits of this deal, and I expect 2011 profit forecasts to rise higher in coming months.

The key to that bullish outlook is a swelling backlog. Both of eResearch's divisions are bringing in new business at a fast pace, and the company's recent book-to-bill ratio was 1.5, which means that for every dollar in sales the company had in the June quarter, it secured $1.50 in new contracts. Backlog now stands at $300 million, which implies that the company should have little trouble matching estimates through 2011. And as new contracts come in, the 2012 slate is filling up as well.

Demand is so strong because of changes at the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). An increasing number of drugs have been rejected for insufficient analysis of side effects, known as toxicity. By using eResearch's software and hardware in the testing process, drug companies can provide a much deeper set of data for regulators to analyze.

I expect shares to move toward the $11 mark during the next year, which translates into 20 times next year's likely profits. That represents a solid +40% upside from current levels.

NuVasive (Nasdaq: NUVA)
When a stock on my watch list sells off, I look at the reasons why. If events have led me to change my long-term view of a company, then I take it off of my watch list. But if the factors behind a stock drop are part of my investment thesis, then shares can be considered even more appealing. That's the story behind NuVasive, which has lost about a third of its value since March due to expectations of slowing growth.

On Tuesday, NuVasive cautioned that sales are only likely to grow +15% to +20% this year, which is in sync with what some more bearish investors had expected. Even as the company laid out that new slightly lower growth target, shares barely budged as investors now view forecasts to be more realistic.

Nuvasive sells a set of products to make back surgery a far less onerous experience, and the medical community has quickly warmed to the company's devices. Even as the overall spinal surgery market has been growing at a slow pace, NuVasive's sales have risen at least +48% in each of the past eight years.

Nuvasive's gear, which provides surgeons with more than 50 tools to operate more delicately and quickly, allows doctors to make a less invasive incision in the side of the body. The company's visualization systems avoid nerve damage, reduce trauma and cut operating times by half. In addition, patient recovery times are faster, hospital stays are shorter and the body suffers less blood loss and trauma.

As noted earlier, sales growth is starting to cool, but I still expect NuVasive to grow at a +15% to +20% pace in the coming years, thanks to a program that continually trains more doctors on the company's platform. (Only 10% of all back surgeons have been trained on the platform thus far).

NuVasive recently made a pair of acquisitions to bolster its position in bone graft regeneration and in the field of cervical disc replacement. The company is also rolling out new products targeting specific back ailments like deformity and scoliosis. Lastly, the company is just getting underway in the untapped international market. International sales accounted for just 3% of revenue in 2009, but with new offices opened across Europe, that figure should rise to 10% to 15% within a few years.

Thanks to this summer's sell-off, shares now trade for less than 20 times next year's profits -- the lowest forward multiple in the company's history. I think earnings per share (EPS) can reach $3 by 2013 thanks to steady sales growth and better leverage off of the company's fixed overhead. Shares trade for around 10 times that view. As investors come to expect moderating growth that can be sustained in the long-term, shares should re-visit the 52-week high of $46, which is roughly +50% above current levels.

Luminex (Nasdaq: LMNX)
As is the case with NuVasive, this company has also adjusted to a world of slower, albeit respectable, growth. Sales rose +40% in 2007 and 2008, and are now growing closer to +20%. That's fine with me, especially since there is a clear case to be made that this level of growth can be sustained for quite some time to come.

Luminex makes diagnostic tools for genetic analysis, drug discovery, clinical diagnostics and biomedical research, and offers exposure to a wide range of medical technology trends. The strength of Luminex's technology lies in its ability to rapidly analyze massive amounts of genomic and biologic data. Previous machines were quite fast, but not fully accurate. Luminex's xMap system ends that trade-off by offering highly-accurate and speedy results.

Luminex sells its gear to research labs, which also end up buying a host of consumables used in the testing process. The company also sells its software to other industry players, which incorporate the xMap engine into their hardware. That technology is protected by more than 50 patents, with an additional 100 patents pending.

Why do I think growth can be sustained? The company has more than $100 million in cash, which has led to a strong jump in the development of new products. For example, a 3-D mapping system has been a recent hit with customers.

This is not a cheap stock, trading at nearly 40 times projected 2011 profits. But as sales continue to grow at a steady pace, profits should grow even faster in subsequent years. The company has just emerged from a period of heavy investments that will dampen 2010 profit growth, but set the stage for very robust profit growth starting next year.

It's hard to place a target price on this kind of business model, as the real value lies in the core technology and the ability to grow market share, and not simply near-term profit trends. As Luminex continues to grow at a solid pace in coming quarters, shares should break out of their year-long mid-teens trading range and move up toward the $20 mark.

All three of these stocks make for good portfolio candidates. These companies are building wide moats around their business by investing heavily in R&D or growth-inducing acquisitions. They may no longer be growing at extreme rates, but they appear to be settling into solid long-term growth in the +15% to +20% range. Shares may trade erratically, thanks to the occasional quarterly miss, but should power higher into 2011 -- and beyond.

Disclosure: Neither David Sterman nor StreetAuthority, LLC hold positions in any securities mentioned in this article.

Original Post

Shedding Some Light on Peak Oil

On January 26, Bloomberg Businessweek printed an editorial by Charles Kenny titled, "Everything You Know About Peak Oil Is Wrong". This editorial reflects several common misunderstandings.

According to Kenny:

Titled Limits to Growth, their report suggested the world was heading toward economic collapse as it exhausted the natural resources, such as oil and copper, required for economic production. The report forecast that the world would run out of new gold in 2001 and petroleum by 2022, at the latest.

Limits to Growth gives a table that might be interpreted to show that oil and gold new extraction will be exhausted by the dates indicated. The book is careful to explain that the situation is more complicated, though. The way the book summarizes the issue is as a price problem:

Given present resource consumption rates and the projected increase in these rates, the great majority of non-renewable resources will be extremely costly 100 years from now.

In fact, high cost is precisely the issue with oil right now, and we are still ten years away from 2022. A graph of recent crude oil production is shown below. The amount of production has not been able to rise above about 75 million barrels a day (MBD) since 2005. At the same time, price is very high.

Figure 1. World crude oil production has been bumping up against a limit of about 75 million barrels a day (MBD) since 2005, as oil prices have gyrated wildly. (EIA data)

If we look at gold production and prices, it shows pretty much the same story: stalled out production and very high prices.

Figure 2. Gold production has been flat to slightly declining as gold prices soared. Gold production from USGS; Gold Price is from World Bank Commodity Markets Pink Sheet.

The problem is a two-fold problem: it is a price problem, and a problem of not being to increase extraction as much as one would like. The issue is one of declining quality of resources, as lower grade ores are found, and more difficult to extract oil is found. There are plenty of resources available; the issue is that we cannot afford the high cost of extracting them.

Kenny says, “Far from being depleted, worldwide reserves of minerals continue to climb.” He then goes on to list a whole host of resources: natural gas liquids of 1.2 trillion barrels, shale oil of 4.8 trillion barrels, and tar sands of 6 trillion barrels.

These are lower and lower quality resources. In order to make sense for these resources to be extracted, it is important that the cost of extraction not be too high. Many of the large oil importing nations went into recession in 2008-2009 when oil prices climbed to $147 barrel, and quite a few economies are struggling now, with prices in the $100 to $110 barrel range. Unless we can get the oil out at a reasonable price, there is no point in even counting them in the base.

There is also an issue of how quickly resources can be extracted. Canada has been attempting to develop the oil sands since 1967, but even after more than 40 years of attempted development, only 2% of the world’s oil supply is from this source.

Kenny also doesn’t seem to understand that Daniel Yergin is far from an unbiased observer. He says,

And yet according to renowned oil analyst Daniel Yergen [sic], technology advances and new discoveries have allowed oil reserves worldwide to keep growing.

Daniel Yergin is chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and Executive Vice President of IHS. The companies he works for do consulting work for oil companies. These oil companies would like you to think that their prospects for the future are as good as possible. In many ways, Daniel Yergin’s role is not too different from that of Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. If a person checks back, one finds that many of Yergin’s rosy predictions have proven false.

Kenny has another overstatement:

New technologies suggest the dawn of U.S. energy independence.

This is flowery language, but doesn’t represent the real situation. A big part of the reason our imports are down in recent years is because US oil consumption is down. People who are laid off from work drive less, and with high oil prices, fewer people take driving vacations or go by airplane. The EIA shows this graph of net imports.

Figure 3. Net imports as percentage of petroleum products supplied--Graph created by EIA.http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_6.pdf

We are still importing 45.2% of “products supplied”. This comparison is on a volume basis, not on an energy basis. If the comparison were on an energy basis, we would be importing over 50% of petroleum products. Biofuels and natural gas liquids, which are lower energy than oil, are treated if they were substituting for oil on a barrel for barrel basis, but they really are not.

We hear a lot about having very low natural gas prices right now, because of higher production of natural gas combined with a warm winter. Unfortunately, having more natural gas doesn’t fix our oil problem. Our oil problem is the fact that price is too high because of inadequate world supply and also because much of the cheap-to-extract oil is already gone. We have had to move on to more expensive-to-extract oil supplies.

Over time, natural gas may make a small dent in our oil problem, if a few vehicles can be converted to natural gas. But the large size of natural gas tanks and lack of refueling stations make them unsuitable for many uses. The amount of natural gas available for substitution also isn’t all that high, relative to the world oil deficit.

Kenny also said:

Limits to Growth suggested the world would be on the verge of complete economic collapse around about now, with industrial output falling to its level of 1900 by the end of this century, as resources vital to sustaining a modern economy dried up. However dire today’s global financial crisis, we are nowhere near such a doomsday scenario.

I would disagree with Kenny on this. He doesn’t seem to see the close connection between high oil prices and the economic problems we are seeing today. With high oil prices, people cut back on discretionary goods, resulting in layoffs among people who work in those industries. For example, fewer people have jobs in vacation industries (for example, in Greece and Spain) if oil prices are high. This leads to recession and debt defaults. If one country defaults, ripple effects can spread to banks around the world.

Our economy has a high level of debt. We need economic growth in order to repay that debt with interest. If oil supply remains flat, or worse yet, falls, it will be difficult to produce the level of economic growth needed to prevent debt defaults.

Hopefully, Kenny will be right about the issue of economic collapse, but it seems to me that the possibility should be a serious concern. Peak oil and the related issue of Limits to Growth are real issues, even if Charles Kenny doesn’t understand them.

*Post courtesy of Gail Tverberg, Oilprice.com

Gail Tverberg is a writer and speaker about energy issues. She is especially known for her work with financial issues associated with peak oil. Her personal blog is ourfiniteworld.com.

 

Top Stocks For 2012-1-17-20

Global Hunter Corp. (GBLHF.PK)

Copper is strong but malleable and an outstanding conductor. Its conductive qualities are linked to molecular structure, which in the case of copper, is quite loose. With 29 protons in each copper molecule’s nucleus, it contains one free-floating electron which easily conducts heat and electricity through the metal. Copper electric wires work well for the same reason copper pans do. Copper, often praised as the ultimate culinary metal, has characteristics which make it very desirable for cooking. Because it is such a good heat conductor, heat is transferred from flame or coil throughout the pan base and up the sides.

Global Hunter’s focus is on strategic and base metals, with an advanced stage copper oxide project in Chile and a highly prospective molybdenum property in British Columbia, Canada. GBLHF teams are working on developing the Corona de Cobre property in Chile and the Rabbit south property in British Columbia.

Global Hunter Corp. (GBLHF.PK) is pleased to announce initial assay results from its previously announced surface sampling program. The results are encouraging with new gold showings as well as very positive copper oxide assays over wide-spread areas.

Highlights of the entire program
9 mineralized shear and/or alteration zones sampled total of 13.5 kilometers of strike length along know copper bearing shear and alteration zones tested with 205 rock chip samples
Good grades of soluble copper (oxide) over a significantly large area have been identified, however they represent only about 50% of the total copper grade indicating a mixed oxide-sulphide zone. Numerous iron oxide structures have also been mapped but no iron assays have been received to date.

The Company is planning to re-assay samples for iron to determine if iron is present in significant quantities to represent another target.

For more information http://www.globalhunter.ca/homeabout.html

ORBCOMM, Inc. (Nasdaq:ORBC) announced that Elon Musk, well-known high-tech visionary, entrepreneur and philanthropist, will serve as a keynote speaker at ORBCOMM’s 2011 Global Solutions Conference at the Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad, CA, from October 12-14. Mr. Musk will join Captain James Lovell, NASA legend and commander of Apollo 13, who will also be a keynote speaker at the conference.

ORBCOMM Inc., a satellite-based data communication company, operates a two-way wireless data messaging system optimized for narrowband data communications in the United States and internationally.

Dot Hill Systems Corp (Nasdaq:HILL) announced Stratus Technologies has selected the Dot Hill 3000 Series next-generation storage platform for their ftScalable storage line to address the continuous availability data management requirements for mission-critical applications in the financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, public safety, government, and travel & transportation sectors.

Dot Hill Systems Corp. designs, manufactures, and markets a range of software and hardware storage systems for the entry and midrange storage markets worldwide.

MAJESTIC GOLD CORP (MJGCF.PK)

Gold has been used for centuries for jewellery and decoration. In addition to the more familiar rings, brooches, necklaces, and ear rings, gold is used as gold leaf for decoration and protection, screen printing (directly on to bone china, earthenware, porcelain, and glass surfaces or decals). Gold is a really useful metal for electronics because of its inertness and physical properties. Gold is used for electrical contacts, spring contacts, bonding wire, solder alloys, bonding wire, bumping wire, electroplating, and sputtering targets. Gold is also a useful brazing material. Gold is used for coating space satellites, as it is a good IR reflector and is inert.

MAJESTIC GOLD CORP (MJGCF.PK) engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in China. The company focuses on its gold project located in the prolific gold region of Song Jiagou in eastern Shandong Province. Majestic Gold Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

MAJESTIC GOLD CORP (MJGCF.PK) has arranged a $10,000,000 loan to advance its Song Jiagou project in China. Nine million dollars ($9,000,000) from the proceeds from the loan will be used by the Company to in connection with its Song Jiagou project and the balance of one million dollars ($1,000,000) for general working capital purposes.

The loan will have a one year term and loan principal will be convertible at the option of the lender in whole or in part into common shares (”Shares”) of the Company until twelve months from the date of the loan advance at the price of $0.205 per Share. The loan will bear interest at the rate of 7.5% per annum, payable on maturity, and accrued and unpaid interest will be convertible at the option of the lender in whole or in part into shares of the Company until twelve months from the date of the loan advance at Market Price at the time of conversion.

The lender is at arm’s length from the Company and will not become an insider as a result of any conversion of principal and interest. All shares issued on any conversion of loan principal or interest will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of advance of loan proceeds. The loan is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.

As additional consideration for the loan, the Company has agreed to forward at least $9 million to Majestic Yantai Gold Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company owned 94% by the Company to be used to further advance its Song Jiagou project. The Borrower has also agreed to a 90 day period for reciprocal due diligence reviews and discussions for the possible further involvement of the Lender in the Song Jiagou project.

In the event that no further agreement is reached between the Lender and the Company during the 90 day period, then the loan and a minimum of seven (7) months interest will automatically convert to shares in the Company at a price of $0.205 per share and the interest at Market Price respectively. In addition the Company is pleased to announce that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of up to 15,000,000 shares to be issued at the price of $0.20 per share for gross proceeds of $3,000,000.

For more information about MAJESTIC GOLD CORP. Visit its website: http://www.majesticgold.net

Arotech Corp. (Nasdaq:ARTX) announced that its Battery and Power Systems Division’s new SWIPES product had been named one of the U.S. Army’s ten greatest inventions of 2011.

Arotech Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides defense and security products. It operates in three divisions: Training and Simulation, Battery and Power Systems, and Armor.

Don’t Wait Any Longer to Buy IBM

IBM (NYSE:IBM) — �Big Blue� is the bluest of the blue-chip technology giants. Its global capabilities in information technology, software, computer hardware and related financing make it a household name.

It is a company that is in full maturity, so future growth is expected to result from strong trends in emerging markets and improved profitability in its more developed markets. Earnings for 2011 are estimated to increase to $13.40 from $11.52 in 2010, and early this year, analysts targeted the stock at $200 to $205 within 12 months.

On Dec. 13, the Trade of the Day said, �Technically IBM had been advancing in a bull channel, but upside breaks have been followed by sharp corrections. Revenues are expected to rise 3.5% in 2012 versus 7.5% this year, thus IBM may be somewhat overpriced at $192.

�Owners of IBM should consider writing options on the stock, and those thinking of investing should wait for a pullback to under $180.�

IBM is very close to the $180 mark. Rather than missing a move higher, investors should buy now.

Swatch Group Sees Record Sales of $7.5 Billion in 2011

Despite a difficult economic environment, Swatch Group saw its gross sales increase 21.7 percent, year-over-year, to 7.14 billion Swiss francs ($7.5 billion) in 2011 with December posting the strongest month in sales in company history.

The world�s largest watchmaker shrugged off the impact of the strong Swiss franc, which negatively affected sales by 10.8 percent. �Despite this extremely negative currency effect, sales in CHF increased by an impressive 10.9 percent over the previous record year 2010,� the company said.

The company also noted that �despite enormous pressure on margins due to the catastrophic currency situation,� it expects 2012 to be another good year for operating profit and net income.

Swatch�s Watches & Jewelry segment recorded an increase in sales of 26.1 percent at constant rates to 6.312 billion Swiss francs ($6.65 billion). Greater China was a very strong market but the company said it �experienced significant growth� in all regions and price segments.

�Investment in retail activities as well as numerous marketing offensives throughout the world contributed to these gratifying sales figures,� the company said.

The brand�s Production segment, where it provides watch components to other watch companies, reported a 32.6 percent increase in sales to 2.015 billion Swiss francs ($2.12 billion) due to �an enormous increase in demand for all types of components. Despite an expansion of production capacity, there were and still are major production bottlenecks.�

The Electronics Systems segment mainly felt the effects of the overvalued Swiss franc against the U.S. Dollar and the downtrend in certain key markets. Gross sales fell 16.3 percent to 336 million Swiss francs ($354.1 million).

�Despite the strongly negative currency impact during the course of the year and our traditionally defensive policy concerning price increases, Group Management expects good results for operating profit and net income,� the company said in its report. �The Swatch Group is confident of again generating qualitative growth in 2012, despite the ever more challenging comparison basis.�

Follow me on my Jewelry News Network blog, on my Jewelry News Network facebook page and on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet.

4 IPOs Planned For The Week Of April 2

Enerkem (NRKM), which has developed a platform that converts municipal waste into cellulosic ethanol, plans to raise $131 million by offering 7.3 million shares at a price range of $17.00 to $19.00. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Enerkem would command a market value of $534 million. Enerkem, which was founded in 2000, booked $3 million in sales over the last 12 months. The Montreal, Canada-based company plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol NRKM. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and BMO Capital Markets are the joint bookrunners on the deal.

Erickson Air-Crane (EAC), which provides aerial firefighting and timber harvesting service on heavy-lift helicopters, plans to raise $75 million by offering 5.4 million shares at a price range of $13.00 to $15.00. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Erickson Air-Crane would command a market value of $146 million. Erickson Air-Crane, which was founded in 1971, booked $153 million in sales over the last 12 months. The Portland, OR-based company plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol EAC. Stifel Nicolaus Weisel is the lead bookrunner on the deal.

Luca Technologies (LUCA), which uses biotechnology to create and produce coalbed methane (natural gas), plans to raise $102 million by offering 8.5 million shares at a price range of $11.00 to $13.00. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Luca Technologies would command a market value of $352 million. Luca Technologies, which was founded in 2003, booked $1 million in sales over the last 12 months. The Golden, CO-based company plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol LUCA. Citi, Piper Jaffray and Raymond James are the joint bookrunners on the deal.

Retail Properties of America (RPAI), the third largest shopping center REIT in the US, plans to raise $350 million by offering 31.8 million shares at a price range of $10.00 to $12.00. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Retail Properties of America would command a market value of $2.49 billion. Retail Properties of America, which was founded in 2003, booked $606 million in sales over the last 12 months. The Oak Brook, IL-based company plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol RPAI. J.P. Morgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank Securities and KeyBanc Capital Markets are the joint bookrunners on the deal.

Renaissance Capital will have Pre-IPO Research available on each of these upcoming IPOs prior to its pricing.

Last week, there were 9 IPO pricings. Annie's (BNNY), which is a leading natural and organic packaged food company known for its mac-n-cheese, was the week's winner, ending up 83% from its IPO price.

Dell shares drop after earnings miss

MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE

Shares of the computer maker fall after hours after missing adjusted Wall Street earnings estimates by a penny a share. See full story.

U.S. stocks mostly up after Dow hits 13,000

U.S. stocks finish mainly ahead after European leaders back more aid for Greece. See full story.

Dow 13,000 under siege

With this week�s upturn, Dow 13,000 is under siege. See full story.

Dollar edges up after Greece rescue deal

The euro recovers against the U.S. dollar in the wake of a euro-zone agreement to approve a long-awaited bailout for Greece. See full story.

Oil rallies 2.5% on Iran tensions, Greek deal

Crude-oil futures end at a nine-month high over $105 on fears of more supply disruptions and as traders cheered Greece�s second bailout. See full story.

MARKETWATCH COMMENTARY

Instead of acknowledging that banks have become a part of government, we keep pretending they are private institutions, writes David Weidner. See full story.

MARKETWATCH PERSONAL FINANCE

Some boomers are tapping their home equity and investing the money in tax-deferred accounts. There are risks and rewards to this sort of leveraging strategy. See full story.

Roche, Novartis Showcase Game-Changing Breast Cancer Drug Data

Roche and Novartis (NYSE: NVS  ) put out new data yesterday on two treatments that promise to fundamentally reshape the way the majority of breast cancer patients are treated. Roche clearly impressed specialists and analysts with the news that pertuzumab combined with Herceptin and chemotherapy checked tumor development for a median of slightly more than six months -- from 8.5 months to 12.4 months. And Novartis's Afinitor demonstrated a four-month delay in disease progression among metastatic patients.

"These are two new therapies, targeted therapies, that will change the standard of care for women with metastatic disease," Jose Baselga, chief of oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author for both studies, tells Bloomberg. "They are elegant, they are hypothesis-driven and they are working through well-known mechanisms."

Afinitor is already approved for other cancers, following Novartis's game plan for mapping a path to a steadily growing marketplace. But it was the experimental pertuzumab that had gripped the attention of the field in the lead-up to the big San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The treatment offers a second pathway to managing HER2-positive breast cancer, which is present in about one in four cases. By offering a much-improved combination therapy for breast cancer, Roche puts itself on the road to an approval that could gain an additional $2 billion a year in revenue while guarding itself against any new biosimilars of Herceptin.

"These are among the most significant findings in drugs for metastatic cancer in the past five years," Dana-Farber's Eric Winer tells The Wall Street Journal. But Roche and Novartis still have a ways to go before they complete their case on breast cancer. The gold standard for cancer data is an overall survival rate, and investigators are still piecing that picture together. Roche has already filed for an approval of pertruzumab in Europe and is expected to file soon in the U.S.

This article originally published here. Get your free daily biotech briefing here.

Related Articles:

• Roche preps full data on blockbuster hopeful for breast cancer
• Afinitor data could be 'game-changer' in breast cancer
• Roche gearing up to seek approvals of breast cancer treatment

Top Stocks For 5/16/2012-2

Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:SPRD) announced that it has acquired approximately 48.44% of the total outstanding shares of MobilePeak Holdings, Ltd. (”MobilePeak”), a privately held fabless semiconductor company based in Shanghai and San Diego that specializes in the design of highly integrated UMTS/HSPA+ modem chipsets.

Spreadtrum Communications, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, designs, develops, and markets baseband processors, radio frequency (RF) transceivers, and turnkey solutions for the wireless communications and mobile television markets.

Cleantech Transit, Inc. (CLNO)

Burning biomass is not the only way to release its energy. Biomass can be converted to other useable forms of energy, such as methane gas or transportation fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel. Crops like corn and sugar cane can be fermented to produce ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats.

Cleantech Transit, Inc. is in the business of producing and conserving power. They produce and sell clean electricity globally, with a focus on sustainable energies using renewable resources such as Geothermal, Solar and Wind. Cleantech Transit, Inc goal is to use innovative technologies to reduce electricity consumption and dependence on carbon based energy.

Cleantech Transit Inc. was founded to capitalize on technology advances and manufacturing opportunities in the growing clean energy public transportation sector. The Company has expanded its focus to invest directly in specific green projects. Recognizing the many economic and operational advances of converting wood waste into renewable sources of energy, Cleantech has selected to invest in Phoenix Energy (www.phoenixenergy.net). This project could benefit the Company’s manufacturing clients worldwide.

Cleantech Transit Inc. recently announced that funding to be provided to Phoenix Energy for the commercialization of a 500 Kilowatt biomass gasification plant should be eligible to apply for a renewable energy cash back incentive program offered by the U.S. Federal Government. Once the final interconnect process and applications are complete the grant should be received within 60 days. The 5-year grant vesting period, means all parties must remain owner of record for that length of time, underscoring Cleantech and its partners’ commitment to this project and the host community. The U.S. Treasury’s cash grant program was created to provide funding, in lieu of tax credits, for the development of clean energy projects and clean tech jobs nationwide.

The Merced facility has already employed several individuals, both for the construction phase and subsequent plant operations once in service. As Company announced, the full commercial operation of the first plant is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2011.

For more information about Cleantech Transit, Inc. visit its website www.cleantechtransitinc.com

National Health Partners, Inc. (NHPR)

Health insurance costs are rising and rising quickly for a number of reasons that include uninsured patients, the cost of bringing new drugs to market, and the unhealthy habits of Americans. Some commentators and industry sources will tell you that the cost of uninsured patients is what is driving up the cost of premiums. Medical sources suggest that the cost of healthcare, on average, is jumping up to four times the rate of inflation. This line of reasoning suggests that when uninsured Americans do not pay for their health care services, the price of health insurance increases for everyone.

National Health Partners, Inc. is a national healthcare savings organization that provides discount healthcare membership programs to uninsured and underinsured people through a national healthcare savings network called “CARExpress.” CARExpress is one of the largest networks of hospitals, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other healthcare providers in the country and is comprised of over 1,000,000 medical professionals that belong to such PPOs as CareMark and Aetna. The company’s primary target customer group is the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance of any kind. The company’s secondary target customer group includes the millions of Americans who lack complete health insurance coverage. The company is headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

National Health Partners, Inc. announced the successful launch of a new, major marketing campaign that has caused the number of the company’s new member enrollments to increase sharply.

While only in its infancy, the campaign has been so successful that National Health Partners is on pace to more than triple the number of new members generated recently compared to the number of new members generated in the past. This growth should continue to build at an equally fast pace, especially over the next several months, as new facets of the marketing campaign are rolled out. Thereafter, the campaign will continue to generate an increasing number of new members for the company indefinitely into the future.

NHPR expects to achieve significant profits during 2011 driven by the substantial sales growth that this campaign may provide.

Please visit its website at www.nationalhealthpartners.com

Responsys Inc. (Nasdaq:MKTG) announced the Responsys Certification program, designed to train and certify marketers on the industry leading cross-channel marketing platform. The Responsys Certification program provides value to businesses and professionals to ensure their competency in executing cross-channel marketing campaigns across the interactive channels consumers are embracing — email, mobile, social and the web.

Responsys, Inc. provides on-demand software and professional services to enterprise and larger mid-market companies.

QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC) announced that its 8200 Series 10GbE converged networking adapters (CNAs) are now available from Hitachi Data Systems (HDS). QLogic’s third generation (3GCNA) adapters are fully qualified for 10Gb iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) environments and are interoperable with the comprehensive HDS portfolio of storage systems, including the midrange Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) 2000 family and Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) enterprise system. Paired with the 10Gb iSCSI capabilities of Hitachi AMS arrays, QLogic 8200 Series adapters enable HDS to provide customers with end-to-end 10Gb iSCSI storage networks.

QLogic Corporation engages in the design and supply of storage networking, high performance computing networking, and converged networking infrastructure solutions.

Debt Supercommitee: Doomed From the Start

When the congressional supercomittee tasked with finding more than $1 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years first met in August, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Kent.) declared that �failure is not an option� for the�dozen-member bipartisan group. He couldn�t have been more wrong.

Failure, as anyone with common sense will tell you, is always an �option.” That�s especially the case in Washington, where partisan gridlock this summer nearly caused the U.S. to default on its obligations and triggered an unprecedented downgrade of the debt of the world�s largest economy. �The supercommittee process was designed to find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade or else $1.2 trillion in mandatory spending cuts — $500 billion in defense spending alone — would be triggered. That, of course, is an option that neither Democrats nor Republicans want, which should — in theory — encourage them to compromise.

Sadly, that has not happened.

As the Nov. 23 deadline approaches, numerous media reports indicate that members of the bipartisan panel are scrambling — with no breakthroughs yet — to make a deal. �Worse still, decisions on hard issues about the debt and deficit are being delayed. The New York Times recently reported that members are �looking for an escape hatch that would let them strike an accord on revenue levels but delay until next year tough decisions about exactly how to raise taxes.�

Democrats and Republicans are at odds over many issues. The Obama administration continues to push for higher taxes on the wealthy, while Republicans would sooner gnaw off a limb than force anyone to pay more to the government, especially� during a week economy. Supercommittee member Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) is trying to strike a middle ground between the two disparate factions.

Under his plan, which Republicans say would raise $290 billion over the next 10 tears, the value of some tax deductions favored by the wealthy would be scaled back and loopholes will be closed. The estate tax, which Republicans have wanted to abolish for years, would be retained, though the top tax rate would be reduced to 28% from 35%. It also maintains the preferential treatment for dividend income and capital gains established under the Bush administration. Some critics are crying foul.

�Consequently, the proposal seems designed to make only a modest revenue contribution toward deficit reduction and then to take revenues off the table for the larger rounds of deficit reduction that must follow,� according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. �Moreover, even while yielding modest savings, the revenue component would make the package less balanced by conferring large new tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans while forcing low- and middle-income Americans to bear most of the plan�s budget cuts as well as its tax increases.�

Toomey�s plan, though, will have to serve as a blueprint for any deal. The Republican, who is backed by the Tea Party, is the former head of the Club For Growth, a think tank that promotes fiscal conservatism. His views on economic policy carry weight in his party.

The sad part about the supercommitee process is its pointlessness. The ills of the federal budget are no mystery to anyone with basic math skills or a memory because many of the same ideas were discussed by The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform chaired by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles. Congress could have saved itself lots of time if it simply adopted its recommendations.

It’s also obvious that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending is surging out of control. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will rise to about 17% of GDP in 2035 from 10% today. Many of the most cherished tax breaks such as the mortgage interest deductions are simply unaffordable. That tax break, which critics argue encourages people to buy bigger homes than they can afford, will cost Uncle Sam around $100 billion in 2012.

�Fierce opposition greets any attempt to raise revenues or reduce spending,� wrote Alice Rivlin, a Democrat who served on the commission, in her final statement last year. �The only feasible way to control the debt is for both parties to agree on a compromise plan reflecting tough choices.�

As the supercommittee members know, that�s easier said than done.

Follow Jonathan Berr on Twitter @jdberr

Wednesday Options Recap

Sentiment

Stock market averages are lower again on worries about the deepening European Debt Crisis. A poor auction of German bonds added to recent worries that the risks from the debt mess are spreading to the core of the Eurozone. A poor reading on Chinese manufacturing, which sent Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 2.1 percent lower Wednesday, added to elevated anxiety levels on Wall Street as well. The domestic economic news was mixed. Data showed personal spending up just .1 percent in October and the University of Michigan Sentiment Index little changed at 64.1 in late-November. Orders for Durable Goods fell .7 percent in October and .2 percent less than expected. Meanwhile, jobless claims increased by 2,000 to 393K last week and 2,000 more than expected. The domestic economic data continues to take a backseat to worries about the unfolding debt saga on the other side of the Atlantic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 206 points and the tech-heavy NASDAQ lost 54. With about 90 minutes left to trade, CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up 1.58 points to 33.55. Trading in the options market remains active, but is slowing ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. 6.2 million calls and 7 million puts traded across the exchanges so far.

Bullish Flow

Walgreens (WAG) touched a new 52-week low this morning, but rallied midday and is now up $1.23 to $31.97 amid heavy trading in the options on the drug store chain. 47,000 calls and 13,000 puts traded on the stock so far, which is 3X the daily average. Dec 35 calls, which are 9.5 percent out-of-the-money and expiring in 23 days, are the most actives. 11,700 traded. Dec 33, Dec 34, Dec 36, Dec 37, Jan 34, and Jan 35 calls on Walgreens are actively traded as well. Meanwhile, implied volatility in options on the stock is up 15 percent to 37. A flurry of activity surfaced in WAG upside calls on talk the company has reached a settlement with Express scripts. However, the speculation has not been confirmed by any of the major news services.

Bearish Flow

Dendreon (DNDN) loses 56 cents to $7.79 and one strategist initiates a three-way spread on the biotech. 4,560 Jan 9 puts were bought on the stock for $1.94 and the Jan 7 – 10 strangle sold at $1.35, 6900X. In other words, they apparently sold Jan 10 calls to buy the 3X2 Jan 7.5 – 9 put ratio spread. The position looks opening and was tied to 220.4K shares at $7.75.

Harmony Gold (HMY) loses 62 cents to $12.40 on a rough stretch for the gold miners after the yellow metal lost another $21.60 to $1,680.60 an ounce. PHLX Gold and Silver Mining Index (.XAU) is off 5.71 to 189.50 today and is down 10.8 percent since 11/11. In options action, one strategist seems to throwing in a towel on a bullish trade in HMY, as a Jan 12.5 – 14 put spread is bought on the miner for 99 cents, 8000X. It likely closes a position opened last Wednesday when the same spread was sold at 47 cents, 8000X.

Implied volatility Mover

Express scripts (ESRX) is seeing relative strength and high call volume amid strength in the space on unconfirmed talk of a possible settlement between the company and Walgreens (Briefing). ESRX is up 50 cents to $42.91. Options volume on the stock is 19,000 calls and 4,200 puts. The flow is scattered across a number of Dec, Jan and Feb calls. Jan 50s are the most actives, with 3900 traded. Meanwhile, implied volatility in ESRX options is up 9 percent to 41, as no official settlement announcement has apparently been made.

Ford Betting Big on China

Ford (F) announced today that it will build a $760 million plant in Hangzhou, China, with the ability to produce 250,000 vehicles a year. The announcement comes after the company said a week and a half ago that it will build a plant in Chongqing that can produce 350,000 vehicles.

Ford’s big push into China is arguably a little late — double-digit sales growth of the past decade has tapered off this year, and dealers are using incentives to draw people into showrooms, the New York Times notes. The Chinese market is among the most competitive in the world for automakers.

“Should we have done this five years ago? Sure. But we can’t change that. We can only change the future,” Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, told the Wall Street Journal.

Ford shares fell 1% in midday trading.

Top Stocks For 4/12/2012-15

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

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Tuesday November 10, 2009

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I’d like to bring your attention to a company that has a remarkable success story and I think this is only the beginning of their outstanding growth and should definitely be on your watch list.
TaxMasters, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TAXS) was founded by Patrick Cox in Texas in 2001 and since then has grown to over 250 employees, has served tens of thousands of clients saving them millions of dollars.

You’ve probably seen one of their many tv commercials they broadcast nationally. In less than one decade TAXS has grown to become one of the most reliable trusted companies with an expertise in helping their clients with IRS problems, audits, past filings and more.

TAXS is strategically located in Houston Texas taking advantage of the central time zone to accommodate clients from the east coast, west coast and in between. Keeping their work force in one location exposes TAXS‘ employees to the many needs and requirements of all 50 states. Even clients from Alaska and Hawaii are able to be serviced.

TAXS is available at well under $1.00!

TAXS was recently trading at $2.50 and is now trading around $0.50 - $0.55, a huge discount from just 2 months!

Keep TAXS on your long term watch list!!

More about TAXS at: www.txmstr.com

Energizer Expected to Benefit From Growing Lithium Batteries Market

We are upgrading Energizer Holdings, Inc. (ENR) to Neutral from our previous Underperform rating, indicating that it will continue to perform in line with the market. The target price of $66.00 is based on a P/E multiple of 12.5X our 2010 EPS estimate.

Energizer Holdings’ first quarter earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate on higher sales of batteries and razors and increased cost cutting. We also remain upbeat about ENR’s personal care division. The feminine and infant care businesses are still struggling, as both Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Gerber Scientific Inc. (GRB) play a significant role in the infant care segment.

We believe that the results for Energizer are improving due to higher sales of new batteries and razors. Currently, the fastest growing area for Energizer is its lithium battery business (sales expected to grow at a 5-year CAGR of 29.8%). As only a few companies specialize in manufacturing lithium batteries, Energizer is expected to benefit from the growing market.

Also, Energizer has recently announced that its new Schick Hydro razor will be launched in April 2010. The Hydro comes in three and five-blade varieties. Schick also plans to begin selling a line of Hydro-branded shaving gel.

Although pricing remains uncertain, the three-blade razor is less expensive than the company's Quattro brand, while the five-blade razor is Schick's highest-end shaver and would cost more than Schick's existing Quattro. Energizer has invested more than five years of research and spent more than $150 million on these products.

The company focuses on product innovation and continued implementation of productivity programs. The company is committed to accelerating growth and gaining market share based on innovative new product launches across all categories. The new products launched drove 7% growth in fiscal 2009. We believe revenue growth will come from new products. However, competition remains a concern.

Energizer's new Schick Hydro razor may face increased competition from Gillette, a unit of Procter & Gamble Co. (PG), which is expected to launch its own new razor Fusion ProGlide in June 2010 for $10.99.

The company stands to benefit from acquisitions, restructuring initiatives, product innovations, strong cash flow and increased debt repayment. We remain positive on the company’s robust cash flow from operations, which increased by $73.3 million from the previous quarter to $97.3 million in the first quarter of 2010. The prudent use of the company’s cash flow has allowed management to return value to shareholders through share repurchases.

However, weaker margins, a delay in stock buybacks, intense competition and increased marketing spending are potential negatives.

While Energizer is seeing some stabilization in its battery business, the company has provided a cautious guidance for its battery business in 2010 due to intense competition, weak demand and weak prices. ENR remains cautious regarding the battery category, as consumption remains sluggish and the effect of device trends in the battery category remains difficult to assess due to the economic downturn.

We believe the company’s new product launches and increased consumer spending this year could provide some upside to the stock. We therefore have a Neutral rating on the stock.

Top Stocks For 3/27/2012-19

National Health Partners, Inc. (NHPR)

National Health Partners, Inc. is a national healthcare savings organization that provides discount healthcare membership programs to uninsured and underinsured people through a national healthcare savings network called “CARExpress.” CARExpress is one of the largest networks of hospitals, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other healthcare providers in the country and is comprised of over 1,000,000 medical professionals that belong to such PPOs as CareMark and Aetna.

Most people who have managed care health insurance don’t even understand the concept or why they might be better or worse than ordinary insurance plans. Under managed care insurance, companies attempt to control the cost of health care for employers by introducing specific guidelines or protocols health care professionals must follow and improve the ways both employees and employers select their medical providers and facilities. The assumption is the plan will allow a financial accounting that shows the results of various medical treatments in both patient responses and quality of life issues. The belief is that a managed care system will allow both employers and employees to make better judgments concerning quality health care providers.

The company’s primary target customer group is the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance of any kind. The company’s secondary target customer group includes the millions of Americans who lack complete health insurance coverage. The company is headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

National Health Partners, Inc. recently announced that it has signed a new agreement with a major marketing company that will significantly enhance the growth of its CARExpress membership base.

According to the Company, this deal, in combination with the previous partnership with Xpress Healthcare, will enable the company to build its membership base exponentially, initially generating in excess of an additional 2,000 new members per month. The new campaign is set to launch within the next few weeks and will provide a material positive impact on the company’s 2nd quarter sales.

National Health Partners anticipate that this new marketing agreement will provide a major impact on their overall sales not only for the 2nd quarter, but more importantly for the year. They look forward to building on the profits that they anticipate generating in 2011 that will be driven by substantial growth in sales of their CARExpress health discount programs. The combination of their substantial growth with their low price-to-equity ratio should reflect itself in the price of their stock over the coming months.

For more information about National Health Partners, Inc visit its website www.nationalhealthpartners.com

Global Hunter Corp. (BOB.V)

Copper has been known since prehistoric time. It has been mined for more than 5000 years. Sometimes copper appears in its native state. It is found in many minerals, including malachite, cuprite, bornite, azurite, and chalcopyrite.

Global Hunter Corp. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada and Chile. It primarily explores for gold, copper, and base and precious metals. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Copper is widely used in the electrical industry. In addition to many other uses, copper is used in plumbing and for cookware. Brass and bronze are two important copper alloys. Copper compounds are toxic to invertebrates and are used as algicides and pesticides. Copper compounds are used in analytical chemistry, as in the use of Fehling’s solution to test for sugar. American coins contain copper.

Global Hunter Corp. announced that it recently completed a surface sampling program at La Corona de Cobre. The program was designed to collect surface samples from the numerous prospective shear zones. This would aid in the definition of drill targets to expand on the copper oxide mineralization. The company has collected approximately 250 samples from the shear zones listed below.

The shear zones and areas of alteration that have been sampled (from East to West) include the following zones:
- El Manto.
- La Golondrina.
- Cerro Borracho.
- El Tazon.
- La Copa.
- La Varrilla.
- Et Tazon.
- Vino Fino.
- Abisinia.
The samples have been collected from outcrops along the entire strike lengths of the shears and will be shipped to ALS Chemex Labs in La Serena Chile for analysis.

For more information about Global Hunter Corp please visit http://www.globalhunter.ca

Solera Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLH) will release its financial results for the third quarter ended March 31, 2011 on Monday, May 9, 2011 after the market closes. A conference call will be hosted by Tony Aquila, Solera’s founder, chairman and CEO, and Renato Giger, Solera’s CFO, at 5:00 p.m. EDT that evening. The conference call will be webcast live in listen-only mode and can be accessed by visiting the Investor Relations section of the Solera website: www.solerainc.com.

Solera Holdings, Inc. provides software and services to the automobile insurance claims processing industry.

The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX) reported April 2011 sales results. Sales for the four-week period ended April 30, 2011, were $1.7 billion, up 9% over the $1.6 billion achieved during the four-week period ended May 1, 2010. For the 13-week period ended April 30, 2011, sales reached $5.2 billion, a 4% increase over the $5.0 billion achieved in the same period last year. Consolidated comparable store sales for the four-week period ended April 30, 2011 increased 5% compared with a 4% increase in the same period last year. For the 13-week, year-to-date period, consolidated comparable store sales increased 2% on top of a strong 9% increase in the same period last year.

The TJX Companies, Inc. operates as an off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the United States and internationally. Its stores offer apparel, including footwear and accessories; home fashions, including home basics, accent furniture, lamps, rugs, wall decor, decorative accessories, and giftware; jewelry and accessories; men and juniors offerings; childrens furniture; seasonal merchandise; and other merchandise.

American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. Jim Taiclet, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer stated, “Our financial results for the first quarter demonstrate the robust environment in the U.S. wireless market, driven by immense growth in demand for broadband data services, and the ongoing success of our international expansion strategy. To address the rapid growth in data services, some of our U.S. wireless customers were pursuing strategic initiatives to improve their networks’ ability to meet those needs. We support these types of initiatives, which will enable our customers to deploy next generation services to more subscribers rapidly and efficiently. During the next few years, we anticipate the deployment of three to four national 4G networks in the U.S., which will provide significant opportunity for ongoing revenue growth.

American Tower Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as a wireless and broadcast communications infrastructure company. It develops, owns, and operates communications sites.