Can Apple Be The Stock It Once Was?

With shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) trading around $449.98, is AAPL an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Apple designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, and a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. The company’s products and services include iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple TV, The App Store, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the iOS and OS X operating systems, iCloud, and a variety of accessory, service and support offerings. Apple has revolutionized many products and has given then an aesthetic spin over the last several years. Many consumers long for an Apple product, if they do not already have one. As an increasing number of countries are exposed to Apple’s products, demand will continue to rise and so will profits for this innovative giant.

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T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Weak

Apple stock has been a brilliant pick over the long-term. However, the stock has retraced significantly from its highs established last year. Currently, Apple stock is attempting to stabilize and possibly bounce back. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Apple is trading around its declining key averages which signal neutral to bearish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Apple options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Apple Options	26.58%	3%	0%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a minimal amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
May Options	Average	Average
June Options	Average	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call and put buyers or sellers, neutral over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a minimal amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Apple’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Apple look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q1	2012 Q4	2012 Q3	2012 Q2
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	-17.97%	-0.43%	23.03%	19.64%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	11.27%	17.65%	27.22%	22.58%
Earnings Reaction	-0.16%	-12.35%	-0.9%	-4.31%

Apple has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over most of the last four quarters. From these figures, the markets have clearly expected more from Apple’s recent earnings announcements.

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P = Poor Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Apple stock done relative to its peers, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Research in Motion (NASDAQ:BBRY), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and sector?

	Apple	HP	Research in Motion	Microsoft	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	-17.49%	42.53%	32.27%	22.28%	9.56%

Apple has been a relative underperformer, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Apple has revolutionized the phone and personal computer industry by offering beautiful and simple products to an increasing user base around the world. The stock has been a big winner for long-term investors but has seen increased selling in recent times. Earnings and revenue figures have been increasing for most of the last four quarters, however, investors have grown to expect more from the company. Relative to its peers and sector, Apple stock has lagged in year-to-date performance by a significant spread. WAIT AND SEE what Apple does this coming quarter.

Five Dividend Stocks with Growth Potential

By exploring Ryan Crowther's "discounted cash flow analysis" strategy, John Heinzl, of the Globe and Mail, maps out five potential stocks for you to consider for future growth.

You might call it Ryan Crowther's investing world according to GARP.

No, it's not a new John Irving novel. GARP, in this case, stands for growth at a reasonable price, and it's the principle that guides the stock-selection strategy of Mr. Crowther and his colleagues at Franklin Bissett Investment Management in Calgary.

"We are definitely looking for growth as part of the equation, so it's not strictly a dividend mandate," says the co-lead manager of the Franklin Bissett Canadian Dividend Fund. "We're approaching our valuation and the market in general through a long-term lens. We're not fixating...on where things are going today or next quarter."

As for the reasonable price part of GARP, Mr. Crowther and his team focus on discounted cash flow analysis. In basic terms, it involves projecting all of the future cash flows of a company and then discounting them back to a present value—that is, determining what the cash would be worth in today's dollars. This is what's known as the stock's intrinsic value, and if the shares are trading below this number, it can indicate that the stock is cheap.

Patience is another key ingredient in the GARP style. "If we're going into a name, we're ready to wear that for a long time. We're not transient shareholders," he says.

The methodology has produced some impressive results. For the five years ended September 20, the fund returned an annualized 8.5%, compared with 4.8% for the S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index, according to Morningstar. Here's a sample of the stocks the fund currently holds.

Enbridge (ENB)

Dividend yield: 2.9%

Pipeline giant Enbridge has raised its dividend at a 13.6% annual clip over the past five years, and the next five years should bring more double-digit increases, Mr. Crowther says. Despite its strong growth prospects, the stock has been weak of late—it's off about 10% from its 52-week high of $49.17 in May. "I definitely wouldn't call it a cheap stock, but it's not expensive either," he says.

CIBC (CM)

Dividend yield: 4.4%

The fund holds all of the big banks, and it added to its positions earlier this year. "They've got good valuations and good dividend yields across the board," Mr. Crowther says. Plus, the banks' diversified lines of business—retail banking, wholesale banking, and wealth management—will help them manage through a rough patch, such as a slowdown in mortgage lending. "Among the group, [CIBC] trades at the most attractive valuation," he says.

Potash Corp. (POT)

Dividend yield: 4.4%

Potash Corp. may seem like an unusual pick, given the negative sentiment swirling around the company since the July breakup of the Russian-Belarussian potash cartel BPC. But Mr. Crowther believes Potash Corp.'s dividend is safe and the company has a bright future, despite the short-term upheaval in the potash marketplace. "We think there's a demand growth story there with potash that will play out over a long time frame," he says. "You'd have to see potash prices come down significantly before you'd really see the dividend at risk."

Wajax (WJX)

Dividend yield: 6.3%

Wajax is another stock that's had a rough ride lately, but which should produce solid long-term returns, Mr. Crowther says. Hurt by the sluggish economy, the distributor of heavy equipment, industrial components, and power systems slashed its dividend by 26% in May, and this month it issued weaker-than-expected third-quarter guidance. "We're trying to look through that. We know what this business can do profit-wise when conditions are good," he says. "We think it's an attractively valued stock at this point."

Keyera (TSX:KEY)

Dividend yield: 4.1%

Keyera, which is involved in natural gas liquids gathering, processing, fractionation, storage, transportation, and marketing, has raised its dividend by nearly 7% annually over the past five years. And Mr. Crowther expects that both the dividend and share price will continue to grow. "They are very well situated, in terms of where their footprint is, to be able to service those basins that have experienced that fast-growing production," he says. "We think that's a tailwind that's going to persist...for years to come."

Disclosure: The author personally owns shares of Enbridge and CIBC.

Read more from the Globe and Mail here…

Can Morgan Stanley Move Higher?

With shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) trading around $29, is MS an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides its products and services to a range of clients and customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. The company operates in three segments: institutional securities, global wealth management group, and asset management. Morgan Stanley provides financial advisory and capital-raising services; equity, fixed income, and alternative investments; and merchant banking services. It participates in an industry that powers most other types of businesses around the world.

Morgan Stanley is reportedly in discussions with the Federal Reserve for the bank to buy back more stock in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reports. Morgan Stanley bought back $500 million of its own stock this year for the first time since the financial crisis. Morgan Stanley is looking to raise its return on equity, which is still behind other banks despite strong earnings reports in recent quarters that have raised the stock price 52 percent thus far this year. The Journal noted that it's unclear if the buyback amount will be more or less than this year.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Strong

Morgan Stanley stock been trending higher in recent months. The stock is moving higher this year and looks ready to continue. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Morgan Stanley is trading above its rising key averages, which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Morgan Stanley options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Morgan Stanley Options	23.47%	10%	10%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a minimal amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
November Options	Flat	Average
December Options	Flat	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a minimal amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Morgan Stanley’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Morgan Stanley look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	78.57%	41.38%	916.67%	294.20%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	7.44%	22.49%	17.64%	22.85%
Earnings Reaction	2.25%	4.37%	-5.40%	7.85%

Morgan Stanley has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been pleased with Morgan Stanley’s recent earnings announcements.

P = Average Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Morgan Stanley stock done relative to its peers, UBS (NYSE:UBS), TD Ameritrade (NYSE:AMTD), Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), and sector?

	Morgan Stanley	UBS	TD Ameritrade	Charles Schwab	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	52.14%	25.67%	64.01%	60.31%	51.53%

Morgan Stanley has been an average relative performer, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Morgan Stanley is a financial services company that provides service to consumers and companies across the globe. The company is buying back its own stock this year for the first time since the financial crisis and discusses with the Federal Reserve for the bank to buy back more stock in 2014. The stock has been trending higher in the last year and looks ready to continue. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been on the rise which has left investors pleased about earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, Morgan Stanley has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for Morgan Stanley to OUTPERFORM.

Will Disney Resume Its Uptrend?

With shares of Disney (NYSE:DIS) trading around $64, is the company an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Disney is a diversified worldwide entertainment company. The company operates in five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive. Disney offers entertainment that sends smiles to consumers across a range of countries around the world. Its movies and shows, theme parks, and products have remained a main attraction for many years and will continue well into the future.

Disney has been in the news quite frequently lately. It was announced recently that chairman and CEO Robert Iger will remain at the head of the company for longer than expected. The company shares interest in Hulu with Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA) that may be sold to potential bidders in the video streaming service.  As Disney continues to provide excellent entertainment, look for the company to remain a leader in the industry.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Strong

Disney stock has soared higher in the past few years and does not see any significant long-term signs of slowing. Currently, the stock is taking a breather before its next move. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages: 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow). As seen in the daily price chart below, Disney is trading between its rising key averages, which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility and implied volatility skew levels of Disney options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Disney Options	26.11%	86%	83%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a significant amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
July Options	Flat	Average
August Options	Flat	Average

As of today, there is average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Disney’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and year-over-year revenue growth figures for Disney look like and, more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q1	2012 Q4	2012 Q3	2012 Q2
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	36.21%	-3.75%	17.34%	31.17%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	9.89%	5.21%	3.42%	3.87%
Earnings Reaction	-0.12%	0.42%	-5.95%	1.36%

Disney has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures in the past four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have mostly been pleased with Disney’s recent earnings announcements.

P = Average Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Disney stock done relative to its peers, Dreamworks (NASDAQ:DWA), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA), and sector?

	Disney	Dreamworks	Time Warner	21st Century Fox	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	29.68%	56.85%	27.33%	36.85%	28.46%

Disney has been an average relative performer, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Disney is a global entertainment company that sends smiles to many consumers. The stock has been exploding higher over the last few years, which has taken it to all-time high prices. Over the last four quarters, investors in the company have been pleased as earnings and revenue figures have been rising. Relative to its strong peers and sector, Disney has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for Disney to OUTPERFORM.

Value Investing Professor Aswath Damodaran's Twitter Valuation

From Professor Damodaran's blog:

The Twitter IPO: Thoughts on the IPO End Game

The Twitter IPO moved into its final phase, with the announcement last week of the preliminary pricing estimates per share and details of the offering. The company surprised many investors by setting an offering price of $17 to $20 per share, at the low end of market expectations, and pairing it with a plan to sell 70 million shares. Having posted on my estimate of Twitter's price when the IPO was first announced and following up with my estimate of value, when the company filed its prospectus (S-1) with Twitter, I thought it would make sense to both update my valuation, with the new information that has emerged since, and to try to make sense of the pricing game that Twitter and its bankers are playing.

Updated valuation

In my original valuation of Twitter, just over a month ago, I used the Twitter's initial S-1 filing which contained information through the first two quarters of 2013 (ending June 30, 2013) and the rough details of what investors expected the IPO proceeds to be. Since then, Twitter has released three amended filings with the most recent one containing third quarter operating details and share numbers that reflect changes since June 30. Incorporating the information in this filing as well as the offering details contained in the report leads me to a (mostly minor) reassessment of my estimate of Twitter's value.

Operating Results: Twitter's third quarter report contained both good news and bad news. The good news was that revenue growth continued to accelerate, with revenues more than doubling relative to revenues in the same quarter in 2012, but it was accompanied by losses, which also surged. The table below compares the trailing 12-month values of key operating metrics from June 2013 (that I used in my prior valuation) with the updated values using the September 2013 reports:

[ Enlarge Image ]

As with prior periods, the R&D expense was a major reason for the reported losses and capitalizing that value does make the company very mildly profitable. Note that while the numbers have shifted significantly, there is little in the report that would lead me to reassess my narrative for the company: it remains a young company with significant growth potential in a competitive market. Consequently, my targeted revenues in 2023 ($11.2 billion) and the operating margin estimates (25%) for the company remain close to my initial estimates (October 5).

IPO proceeds: In the most recent filing, the company announced its intent to issue 70 million shares, with the option to increase that number by 10.5 million shares. In conjunction with the price range of $17-$20 that is also specified, that implies that the proceeds from the offering will range anywhere from $1.19 billion (70 million shares at $17/share) at the low end to $1.61 billion (80.5 million shares at $20/share) at the high end. In my valuation, I will assume that the offering will happen at the mid-range price ($18.50) and that the option to expand the offering will not be utilized, leading to an expected proceeds of $1.295 billion.

Share number: As with most young companies, the share number is a moving target as options get exercised and new shares are issued to employees and to fund acquisitions. In the table below, I compare the share numbers (actual, RSU and options) from the first S-1 filing with those in the most recent filing:

[ Enlarge Image ]

The share count has increased by about 8.02 million shares, since the last filing, while there has been a slight drop off in options outstanding. (Note: The most recent filing also references 80.3 million shares for future issuance to cover equity incentive & ESOP plans ! that I ha! ve not counted.)

The final valuation is contained in this spreadsheet, but it has changed little from my original estimate, with the value per share increasing to $17.84/share from my original estimate of $17.36/share. The picture is below:
[ Enlarge Image ]

Reading the pricing tea leaves

Now that the company (and its bankers) have announced a price range ($17-$20) that is close to my estimate of value, my ego, of course, wants me to believe that this is a testimonial to my valuation skills but I know better. There is a fairy tale scenario, where my value is right, Goldman Sachs has come up with a value very close to mine and the market price happens to reflect that value. It is a fantasy for a simple reason. As I noted in my price versus value post, the IPO process has little to do with value and everything to do with price, and given how the market is pricing other social media companies, I find it difficult to believe that price and value have magically converged, with Twitter.

Continue reading here.

Will Arena Pharmaceuticals See Rising Prices?

With shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA) trading around $8, is ARNA an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Arena Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing drugs. Its primary focus is on four therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, central nervous system, inflammatory and metabolic diseases. The company’s main product is Belviq, a drug approved by the United States food and drug administration for chronic weight management in adults. Arena Pharmaceuticals is also involved in the development of drugs for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, thrombotic diseases, autoimmune diseases, pain, and type 2 diabetes. Look for Arena Pharmaceuticals to continue to make progress in their respective research areas and revolutionize treatments of illness and diseases that cause distress among consumers worldwide.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Mixed

Arena Pharmaceuticals stock has seen a downtrend over the last few years. However, the stock saw a powerful run just last year and is currently consolidating the gains from this move. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Arena Pharmaceuticals is trading around its key averages which signal neutral price action in the near-term.

NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW!

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Arena Pharmaceuticals options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Arena Pharmaceuticals Options	74.33%	70%	68%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a very significant amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
June Options	Steep	Average
July Options	Steep	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and high demand by put buyers or low demand by put sellers, all neutral to bearish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bearish over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Improving Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Arena Pharmaceuticals’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Arena Pharmaceuticals look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q1	2012 Q4	2012 Q3	2012 Q2
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	50%	39.61%	56.25%	25%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	8.41%	-6.74%	-57.07%	574.3%
Earnings Reaction	-0.12%	-1.79%	-4.73%	-1.22%

Arena Pharmaceuticals has seen improving earnings and mixed revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been fairly disappointed with Arena Pharmaceuticals’s recent earnings announcements.

P = Poor Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Arena Pharmaceuticals stock done relative to its peers, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Biomarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN), NuPathe (NASDAQ:PATH), and sector?

	Arena Pharmaceuticals	GlaxoSmithKline	Biomarin Pharmaceutical	NuPathe	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	-3.22%	20.06%	17.66%	-8.28%	20.31%

Arena Pharmaceuticals has been a poor relative performer, year-to-date.

NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW!

Conclusion

Arena Pharmaceuticals is involved in the research and development of valuable pharmaceuticals that may help consumers live better lives. The stock saw a powerful move just last year and is still in the process of digesting its gains. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been improving while revenue figures have been mixed, which has disappointed investors in the stock. Relative to its peers and sector, Arena Pharmaceuticals has been a poor year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what Arena Pharmaceuticals does in coming quarters.

Corn Futures and Annuities?

Even high-level traders are finding that specific types of annuities can compliment a portfolio by solving for the longevity risk of outliving your money. These unique transfer of risk annuity strategies are explained here by Stan The Annuity Man.

There’s nothing like a MoneyShow show attendee or MoneyShow.com reader. Market savvy, educated, well read, opinionated, confident, and open to new ideas. But when it comes to annuities, it’s like throwing a garlic light at a vampire! Annuities! Those “non-investments” are for simple-minded fly-over types that troll the weekly bad chicken dinner seminars for their next meal.  Right?.....well maybe.

I have officially “burnt the boat” when it comes to annuities. That’s all I do. That’s all I recommend. I’m so “committed” that I call myself and my company…Stan The Annuity Man. I’ve been a regular speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, and supporter of all things MoneyShow, so I am very familiar with the valid argument that traders and stock-market-type investors have against annuities. I get it. But ever since the volatility of 2008, I have seen a trend of high IQ investors using annuities as non-correlated assets, and for what they were designed to do…transfer risk.

A lot of my clients, surprisingly, are high-octane traders that consistently roll the dice with a running start when it comes to their investment strategies. One such client is a top corn futures trader that sits in his penthouse overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and consistently dominates his world of corn. When “Trader Jim” (let’s call him that) approached me at a past MoneyShow event a few years ago with what he called a unique idea, I thought he was going to describe his quant trading strategies and how Wheaties (i.e. made from corn) should actually put a picture of him on their cereal box.

Instead, “Trader Jim” started telling me about his past military background, his kids, and his wonderful wife who he said could care less about markets and how good he is at his craft. In other words, “Trader Jim’s” trading secrets and capitalistic instincts were going to follow him into the grave. His wife was so disinterested in all things having to do with the market that she was doing some power shopping at a local high-end mall instead of listening to all of the “master of the universe” presentations at the MoneyShow event. The gall!  How could she? 

What “Trader Jim” wanted to set up was a lifetime income stream for his wife because she definitely didn’t care about trading algorithms or candlestick charting, and voiced that sentiment to him repeatedly just to make sure that he was crystal clear on the subject. All she cared about was lifestyle. To be more specific, she only cared about her lifestyle, her kids’ lifestyle, and her future grandkids’ lifestyle when Jim finally went to the final corn trading pit in the sky.

So my new friend “Trader Jim” and I set up a regimented and disciplined plan to take some of his trading profits at specific dates throughout each year and buy a target-dated lifetime income annuities for both him and his wife. 

What we set up was a target-date income plan using fixed annuities that would guarantee that she would never outlive the money and the insurance company would never keep one penny, meaning that all unused proceeds would go to their beneficiaries. The two strategies used were fixed annuities with attached income rider benefits, and longevity annuities (aka: deferred income annuities).  Here’s how they work, and how you can do the same thing as good old “Trader Jim.”

NEXT PAGE: Transfer-of-Risk Annuities

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Japan stocks rebound after heavy losses

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Japanese stocks opened sharply higher Monday, with the Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NIK) advancing 1.1% to 14,242.86 after falling 2.8% Friday, as end-of-the-week gains for U.S. shares and some earnings news helped lift the market. The Topix also saw solid gains, up 0.8% in early moves. Major advances included a 2.5% rise for Hitachi Ltd. (JP:6501) (HTHIF) , a 4.1% surge for Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (JP:7211) (MMTOF) , and a 2.6% improvement for KDDI Corp. (JP:9433) (KDDIF) after the Nikkei business daily said the telecom will report a 50% increase for operating profit in the fiscal first half compared to a year earlier. Sony Corp. (JP:6758) (SNE) added 2% after scoring a Credit Suisse upgrade to outperform. Shares of NTT DoCoMo Inc. (JP:9437) (NTDMF) traded 1.1% higher after posting above-forecast quarterly results Friday, while JFE Holdings Inc. (JP:5411) (JFEEF) fell 3.2% after the steel producer also reported earnings.

Read the full story:
Asia stocks higher after recent declines

Can Microsoft Still Win the Console Wars of 2013?

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) and Sony (NYSE: SNE  ) are doing all they can to win the 2013 edition of the video game console wars. One analysts believes Mr. Softy may have done enough to overcome early missteps, calling the Xbox One a winner for the holidays.

The next-generation console painted itself into a corner early on as Microsoft outlined some downright draconian content policies. Sony's PlayStation 4 is comparable in every way that matters, but it also comes without restrictive content licenses and costs $100 less than the $499 Xbox One. It looked like game over in the first round.

But Microsoft quickly apologized for its heavy hand over what gamers can and can't do with their Xbox One games, and it ended up removing most of the unpopular restrictions. The console is still more expensive than the Sony product, but maybe that's not enough to hold the product back anymore.

Analyst firm Robert W. Baird says the Xbox is on a winning track. Analyst Colin Sebastian ran checks against the supply chains of both consoles and came away with a dramatic conclusion: "Microsoft may have the benefit of a 2-3x unit advantage at launch compared to Sony's PS4."

That's not a small victory, but a savage rout. If Sebastian's sources are on the money, Microsoft will most definitely win this round of the console wars.

Well, Redmond will take the early battles, anyway. Both systems are expected to launch into heavy demand, with manufacturing capacity becoming the limiting factor at first. In other words, Sony might still rule the roost when it comes to public opinion and the potential for long-term success. But Microsoft shows mastery of the supply chain game at this point -- secure more components, build more units, and look good in the early sales statistics.

The real takeaway from this unexpected win is this: Microsoft is serious about hardware.

We all know Microsoft as a software giant, built on decades of success via Windows and the Office suite. That's how Bill Gates got his Dow Jones (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) membership card, and these are still the core operations of a market giant with a $266 billion market cap and $78 billion in 2012 sales. But that's changing fast.

The recent and ongoing reorganization into a "devices and services" company is for real. Redmond is beating hardware specialist Sony at its own manufacturing game. The feat is even more impressive when you consider that most of a modern game console's parts are made somewhere in Southeast Asia. Sony has these sources right in its extended backyard, and Microsoft is still slapping its hand away with authority.

There's still a lot more to say and do before the cows come home, but Microsoft may be onto something good with the new hardware focus. The lessons learned in building consoles might even translate into smartphone and tablet success somewhere down the road. Maybe that's how Microsoft will earn its keep as a Dow member over the next decade.

It's incredible how our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped by just a handful of companies. Find out "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?" in The Motley Fool's latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged by the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

Apple Website for Software Developers Hacked

Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) developer website has been hacked, according to a message displayed on Apple's online developer portal. The site has been offline since last Thursday, when "an intruder" attempted to access personal information, according to the company.

Apple assured developers that their more sensitive information was encrypted, but noted that names, mailing addresses, and email addresses might have been revealed.

According to The Guardian, "Turkish security researcher" Ibrahim Balic has claimed responsibility, citing his desire to expose Apple's flawed security and privacy system. Balic's Twitter feed that The Guardian links to includes the tweet: "Apple hear our voice we dont have any bad intention!!!"  The Guardian reports the Apple site has 275,000 registered third-party developers.   

Apple added that "in order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we're completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon."

link

Microsoft Surprises The Street With Good Earnings

Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) has been out of fashion on Wall Street for a long time, which makes its better-than-expected quarterly earnings report issued yesterday especially shocking,

The Redmond, Wash. company earned $5.24 billion, or 62 cents per share, on revenue of $18.5 billion, well ahead of the 54 cent profit and $17.8 billion in sales analysts had expected. Not surprisingly, shares of the software giant traded up on the news and continued to surge today, gaining 6.7% to $35.97.

Though IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) both reported disappointing results because of lackluster spending by large corporate customers, Microsoft's business with large enterprises is booming. Revenue from commercial cloud computing, where companies run software on remote servers, more than doubled in the quarter. Demand was also strong for Office 365, Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online, the company said. Moreover, the PC business, whose decline has hobbled Microsoft for years, performed better than Microsoft expected. The company also has high hopes for its upcoming release of its latest Xbox gaming console and its newest Surface tablets.

"… we are executing better, getting our customers what they want and making meaningful progress through the early stages of our transformation," Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on the earnings conference call.

As for Microsoft's stock, even with the recent run-up, it remains too cheap for investors to ignore. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings multiple of about 13, which is under its average five-year high, according to Reuters. Wall Street firms are ratcheting up their price targets on the software giant. Nomura's is now at $40 and Jefferies is at $42, which implies an 18% upside from current prices.

Of course, one quarter does not make a trend. Investors have gotten burned before waiting for a Microsoft turnaround and some pundits remain skeptical that better times lie ahead. Analysts at Goldman Sachs noted that while the company's quarterly performance was good that it will take years for the company to transform. They reiterated a "sell" rating on the stock.

Indeed, there are many questions yet to be answered about Microsoft including who will replace CEO Steve Ballmer when he "retires" at the end of the year. Moreover, some investors disapprove Microsoft's planned $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's device and services business and others are trying to oust co-founder Bill Gates from the company's board of directors. Some pundits have advocated that the company split itself up, saying it is too unwieldy to manage.

The Bottom Line

Microsoft, which has a market capitalization of nearly $300 billion, isn't withering away anytime soon. The company should post solid numbers in the current quarter as well with revenue growth expected to top 7%. While that's hardly the double-digit growth that tech investors see in high-flying tech stocks, it proves that it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. The time to buy Microsoft is now because if it becomes "fashionable" to like the company again, its share price will surely soar.

Disclosure - At the time of writing, the author did not own shares of any company mentioned in this article. Jonathan Berr does freelance writing for MSN, which is owned by Microsoft.

Boeing Books 747-8 Freighter Sales

Don't look now, but Boeing's (NYSE: BA  ) order book just got a little bit bigger.

On Thursday, the Seattle planemaker announced that Azerbaijani cargo airline Silk Way Airlines has ordered two 747-8 freighter aircraft, valued at $704 million together at list prices. SW Holding President Zaur Akhundov called the purchase a move toward making subsidiary Silk Way "a successful and profitable cargo operator... investing in its fleet and services and continuing to increase its regional and international footprint."

Silk Way's fleet is currently comprised of Boeing 747-400 and 767-300 freighters. Vice president for Middle East, Russia, and Central Asia Sales at Boeing Commercial Airplanes Marty Bentrott said in a statement that, "the 747-8 Freighter is the most efficient large freighter in the air and carries with it the 747 family's legacy of leadership in the air-cargo sector." 

So far, Boeing has delivered 36 747-8 freighters to customers around the globe.

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now

Pengrowth Energy (NYSE: PGH  ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and with shares having climbed recently, investors seem to be expecting good things from the company. Yet Pengrowth earnings expectations don't appear to be behind the jump in the stock lately, with some one-time events drawing the bulk of investor attention instead.

As a former Canadian royalty trust, Pengrowth had to transform itself into a corporation to comply with tax law changes. Despite being a generous source of dividends, the stock has seen its price perform very badly over the past couple of years. What's behind the company's weak results? Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Pengrowth Energy over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Pengrowth Energy

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.03

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: People's United Financial Inc.(PBCT)

People?s United Financial, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for People?s United Bank that provides commercial banking, retail and business banking, and wealth management services to individual, corporate, and municipal customers. Its Commercial Banking segment provides commercial and industrial lending, commercial real estate lending, and commercial deposit gathering services, as well as equipment financing, cash management, correspondent banking, and municipal banking services. The company?s Retail and Business Banking segment offers consumer and business deposit gathering services; consumer lending products, including residential mortgage, home equity, and indirect auto lending; business lending; and merchant services. Its Wealth Management segment provides trust services, corporate trust, brokerage, financial advisory services, investment management services, and life insurance and other insurance services, as well as private banking services. The company also offers online and telephone banking, and investment trading services, and automated teller machine (ATM) services. As of March 31, 2011, it operated a network of approximately 341 branches, including full-service supermarket branches, investment and brokerage offices, and commercial banking offices, as well as approximately 518 automated teller machines in Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1842 and is headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of People's United Financial Inc. (PBCT). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

• [By John Maxfield]

  While it's not obvious from the chart, you can separate these institutions into three different buckets. The first bucket concerns the most widely discussed too-big-to-fail banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Then comes the unofficial too-big-to-fail lenders (those with assets in excess of $50 billion and thus subject to the Federal Reserve's more stringent stress test process). This group contains U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB  ) , PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC  ) , and BB&T Bank (NYSE: BBT  ) , among others. And the final group encompasses lesser-known banks like First Niagara Financial (NASDAQ: FNFG  ) and People's United Financial (NASDAQ: PBCT  ) with between $20 billion and $50 billion in assets.

• [By Dividends4Life]

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Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Eaton Corporation(ETN)

Eaton Corporation operates as a power management company worldwide. It provides electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution, and control; hydraulics components, systems, and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics, and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain, and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy, and safety. The company also manufactures screw-in cartridge valves, custom-engineered hydraulic valves, and manifold systems; and electrical and electromechanical systems. In addition, it designs, manufactures, and distributes intake and exhaust valves for diesel and gasoline engines; supplies electrical components for commercial and residential building applications and industrial controls for industrial equipment applications; and manufactures human machine interfaces, programmable logic controllers, and input/output devices. Further, the company also operates a s a provider of customized enclosures, rack systems, and air-flow management systems to store, power, and secure mission-critical IT data center electronics; and manufacturer, distributor, and service provider of single-phase and three-phase uninterruptible power supply systems. Eaton Corporation was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  In the mid-cap growth portfolio, Argus is recommending that investors add Eaton Corp. PLC (NYSE: ETN) at $66.00 for some 2.6% of the portfolio. It is selling 100% of its position in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NASDAQ: GT) at $18.75. Since inclusion in July 2012, Goodyear shares appreciated 69%. Argus said of Eaton”

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The Motley Fool named Cummins the best company in America based on its focus on engine solutions that balance the needs of its customers against the good of society. Cummins has made a viable business model out of developing high-performance engines that nevertheless provide fuel efficiency and reliability while producing less pollution. Just last month, Cummins announced a deal with Eaton (NYSE: ETN  ) to produce a heavy-truck powertrain package to improve fuel economy by 3% to 6%.

Best Casino Companies To Watch In Right Now: Xcel Energy Inc.(XEL)

Xcel Energy Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial customers, as well as to public authorities in the United States. The company generates electricity using coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydro, wood, diesel, and wind energy. It also engages in the purchase, transportation, distribution, and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company serves customers in portions of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. As of December 31, 2010, it provided electricity services to 3,391,611 customers; and natural gas services to 1,893,250 customers. Xcel Energy, through its joint venture interests in WYCO Development LLC, develops and leases natural gas pipeline, storage, and compression facilities. The company was founded in 1909 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Schadenfreude's in season
  Not everyone's opposed to the law, necessarily. For example, Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL  ) is already working to expand its portfolio of wind-generated power in the state, and two years ago, it put into operation a 19-megawatt solar farm in cooperation with SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR  ) . As a so-called "investor-owned utility," Xcel is already subject to a target of 30% renewables use by 2020 -- so a law making its rural rivals hit a 20% target probably didn't upset Xcel all that much.

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: CenturyLink Inc.(CTL)

CenturyLink, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated communications company. The company provides a range of communications services, including voice, Internet, data, and video services in the continental United States. Its services include local exchange and long distance voice telephone services, as well as enhanced voice services, such as call forwarding, caller identification, conference calling, voicemail, selective call ringing, and call waiting; wholesale local network access services; and data services, including high-speed Internet access services, data transmission services over special circuits and private lines, and switched digital television services, as well as special access and private line services. The company also offers fiber transport, competitive local exchange carrier, security monitoring, and other communications, as well as professional and business information services. In addition, it provides other related services, such as leasing, selling, installing, and maintaining customer premise telecommunications equipment and wiring; payphone services; and network database services, as well as participates in the publication of local telephone directories. Further, the company offers printing, direct mail services, and cable television services; and wireless broadband Internet access services and satellite television services. As of December 31, 2010, it operated approximately 6.5 million telephone access lines. CenturyLink, Inc was founded in 1968 and is based in Monroe, Louisiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ong Kang Wei]

  For example, Digital Realty (DLR) is the undoubted leader in the data storage industry, with a market cap of $8.3B. Its other three competitors, DuPont Fabros (DFT), CoreSite Realty (COR) and CyrusOne (CONE), have market caps of $1.5B, $930M and $430M respectively. In addition, with the level of complexity involving Digital's business making it immensely difficult for companies to operate data centre facilities, the company is in a good position for future growth. The company also has a wide network of 595 tenants (significantly more than other competitors), including CenturyLink (CTL), AT&T and Morgan Stanley (MS). This further secures its long term business prospects and also its dominance over its competitors.

• [By Sue Chang and Polya Lesova]

  CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) �shares rose 3%. The stock is one of the top net payout yield stocks so far in October, according to Seeking Alpha.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Finally, Citadel's biggest closed positions included NetApp�and Newell Rubbermaid. Other closed positions of interest include CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL  ) and Corning (NYSE: GLW  ) . Telecom company CenturyLink has recently been yielding 6.1%, but that reflects a recent dividend cut of about 25% as the company focuses more on share buybacks. It landed a hefty Pentagon contract in April, with a possible 10-year value of $750 million, and has been moving into promising arenas such as cloud computing. The company has substantial debt, topping $19 billion, but also significant free cash flow, near $3 billion annually. Its debt load is lower than some peers, too.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Wednesday, CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise.�

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Tyco International Ltd.(Switzerland)

Tyco International Ltd. provides security products and services, fire protection and detection products and services, valves and controls, and other industrial products worldwide. The company?s Tyco Security Solutions segment designs, sells, installs, services, and monitors electronic security, productivity, and lifestyle enhancement systems for residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental customers. This segment also designs, manufactures, and sells security products, including intrusion, security, access control, electronic article surveillance, and video management systems. Its Tyco Fire Protection segment designs, manufactures, sells, installs, and services fire detection and fire suppression systems, and building and life safety products for commercial, industrial, and governmental customers. The company?s Tyco Flow Control segment designs, manufactures, sells, and services valves, pipes, fittings, valve automation, and heat tracing products for general proce ss, energy, and mining markets, as well as the water and wastewater markets. Tyco International Ltd. was founded in 1960 and is based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Colgate-Palmolive Company(CL)

Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. It offers oral care products, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, and mouth rinses, as well as dental floss and pharmaceutical products for dentists and other oral health professionals; personal care products, such as liquid hand soap, shower gels, bar soaps, deodorants, antiperspirants, shampoos, and conditioners; and home care products comprising laundry and dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, bleaches, dishwashing liquids, and oil soaps. The company offers its oral, personal, and home care products under the Colgate Total, Colgate Max Fresh, Colgate 360 Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  It's one of the steadiest dividend payers on the market, and it's continuing to fly level. Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) has declared a fresh quarterly common stock dividend, which is to be $0.34 per share, paid on August 15 to shareholders of record as of July 23. That amount matches the firm's previous distribution; this was paid in May. Prior to that, Colgate-Palmolive handed out $0.31 per share.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  One concern, though, is how the company handled news of Venezuela's currency devaluation. Clorox (NYSE: CLX  ) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) also felt the pinch, with Clorox taking about a $0.05 to $0.10 per-share earnings hit and Colgate losing about $0.50 per share. But they also addressed the potential devaluation more proactively than P&G did. Clorox actually�anticipated�the devaluation in its February earnings report, projecting the potential hit if a devaluation took place. Colgate didn't provide specific guidance in advance but clearly saw it as an issue, delivering on a promise to give prompt guidance revisions after the devaluation occurred.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Investors have always been interested in stocks that pay dividends, but lately, low interest rates on bonds and other fixed-income investments have made solid dividend payers even more valuable. Among the most promising dividend stocks in the market is Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , and one big reason is that it is one of the few exclusive companies to make the list of Dividend Aristocrats. In order to become a member of this elite group, a company must have raised its dividend payouts to shareholders every single year for at least a quarter-century. Only a few dozen stocks manage to make the cut, and those that do tend to stay there for a long time.

2 Cheap Income Stocks Everyone Should Own

Popular Posts: 2 Cheap Income Stocks Everyone Should Own2 Perfect Stocks — Yes, You Read That Right9 Stocks Trading on the Cheap Right Now Recent Posts: 2 Cheap Income Stocks Everyone Should Own SGU: A High-Dividend Star Among Value Stocks Forget Predictions — Stick to What You Know View All Posts

Investors in need of reliable income are finding it increasingly difficult to find income stocks that offer decent dividends at a good price. Yield-chasing by individuals and institutions alike has distorted the price of many dividend-paying and interest-bearing securities in the past two years, and the search for reasonable opportunities seems to get more difficult by the day.

I sat down this morning and ran some screens using some of the criteria laid out by Ben Graham in The Intelligent Investor. Specifically I looked for income stocks that pay a decent dividend yield, trade at a reasonable price-to-book-value and have a solid balance sheet with plenty of cash on hand to pay the bills. I added a criteria of dividend growth potential, as the key component for income investors right now is buying a stream of cash flows that grow along with their needs year by year.

I found a handful of stocks that make a lot of sense from an income and value perspective for long-term investors.

Corning (GLW) was one of my favorite stocks last year. Shares of the glass company have moved up a bit and are no longer the asset value that they were, but they still trade at only a small premium to book value. The company's products are used in smartphones, tablet computers, emission control devices and lab equipment, among a host of other uses in faster growing segments of the economy. The balance sheet is rock-solid, with $5.4 billion of cash and just $2.3 billion of low-cost debt. Technology sales should drive growth at Corning as products like Gorilla Glass are now considered an essential part of most smartphones and tablets. The stock yields 2.71% right now, and the company should be able to grow the dividend by better than 15% annually for the foreseeable future. This stock should be in just about all income portfolios, in my opinion.

Comtech Telecommunications (CMTL) is another company with a solid dividend whose shares trade at a decent price. The company makes advanced telecommunication products and sells to a wide range of users, including satellite systems integrators, wireless providers, broadcasters and defense contractors — as well as the U.S. government. The company has seen some weakness as military and government orders have slowed and the marketplace remains very competitive, but the long-term outlook is pretty strong. The company has been actively buying back stock and has spent almost $25 million in purchases in the past nine months. Comtech has more than enough cash on hand and very little debt, so the balance sheet is solid and the stock yields 4.5% right now. The company should be able to increase the dividend at a double-digit pace for the next several years at least.

Yield-oriented investors need to be very price-conscious and buy dividends at a reasonable price, and focus on companies with the potential for steadily rising payouts. These two income stocks can get you started on a portfolio of dividend growth at a good price.

At the time of publication, Melvin was long GLW.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014

San Francisco-based industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) - Prologis Inc. (PLD) recast $2.0 billion global line of credit. The move has helped the company lower its borrowing expenses and enhance its capacity.

With a consortium of 20 banks, the credit facility has been elevated by Prologis to $2.0 billion from $1.65 billion. Moreover, as one of the features, it may be further enhanced by $1.0 billion to a total of $3.0 billion, subject to the attainment of additional lender commitments.

Prologis enjoys the benefit of drawing the funds in US dollars, euros, Canadian dollars, British pound sterling, and Japanese yen. This credit facility is slated to mature on Jul 11, 2017. However, on the fulfilment of certain conditions and the payment of an extension fee, the maturity date can be extended for another year.

Based on Prologis��public debt ratings, the pricing on this credit facility currently stands at LIBOR plus 130 basis points ��reflecting a reduction of 40 basis points from that of the prior global credit facility.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: EMC Corporation(EMC)

EMC Corporation develops, delivers, and supports the information and virtual infrastructure technologies and solutions. The company offers enterprise storage systems and software, which are deployed in storage area networks (SAN), networked attached storage (NAS), unified storage combining NAS and SAN, object storage, and/or direct attached storage environments, as well as provides backup and recovery, and disaster recovery and archiving solutions. It also offers information security solutions in various areas, such as enterprise governance, risk and compliance, data loss prevention, security information management, continuous network monitoring, fraud protection, identity assurance and access control, and encryption and key management. In addition, the company provides information intelligence software, solutions, and services, including EMC Captiva for intelligent enterprise capture; EMC Document Sciences for customer communications management; EMC Kazeon for e-discovery ; EMC Documentum xCP for building business solutions and an action engine for big data; and the EMC Documentum platform for managing and delivering enterprise information. Further, it offers virtual and cloud infrastructure products, such as virtualization and virtualization-based cloud infrastructure solutions that address a range of IT problems, as well as facilitate access to cloud computing capacity, business continuity, software lifecycle management, and corporate end-user computing device management In addition, the company provides consulting, technology deployment, managed, customer support, and training and certification services. EMC Corporation markets its products through direct sales and through multiple distribution channels in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lu Wang]

  Telephone and utility shares helped lead a retreat in companies that offer stable earnings and high dividends as Exelon Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. tumbled at least 5.7 percent. Financial and technology stocks were the only groups with gains among the S&P 500 (SPX)�� 10 main industries. Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley jumped more than 3 percent as Moody�� Investors Service lifted its outlook for the U.S. banking system. EMC (EMC) Corp. rose 4.7 percent after expanding its share buyback plan and starting a quarterly dividend.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a new $28 price target by Barclays.

  Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral, and the price target was lifted to $55 from $32, at Citigroup.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (BIN)

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. operates as a vertically integrated non-hazardous solid waste management company in North America. It operates through three segments: Canada, the U.S. south, and the U.S. northeast. The company provides waste collection, transfer, recycling, and disposal services to commercial, industrial, municipal, and residential customers in 13 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 6 Canadian provinces. It also owns and operates a power generating plant fuelled by landfill gas; and generates and sells methane gas. The company was formerly known as IESI-BFC Ltd. and changed its name to Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. in May 2011. Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. was founded in 2001 and is based in Vaughan, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Keep in mind, though, this is a sectorwide problem, not just one affecting Waste Management. Canada's Progressive Waste Solutions (NYSE: BIN  ) delivered an 11% increase in first-quarter revenue but succumbed to a decrease of 0.5% in recycling revenue because of lower realized metal prices. �

Hot Penny Stocks To Buy Right Now: DCP Midstream Partners LP (DPM)

DCP Midstream Partners, LP, together with its subsidiaries, engages in gathering, compressing, treating, processing, transporting, storing, and selling natural gas in the United States. It also transports, stores, and sells propane in wholesale markets; and produces, fractionates, transports, stores, and sells natural gas liquids (NGLs) and condensate. The company operates in three segments: Natural Gas Services, Wholesale Propane Logistics, and NGL Logistics. The Natural Gas Services segment operates Northern Louisiana system that gathers, process, and transports natural gas; Southern Oklahoma system; Colorado system; Wyoming system that covers 1,300 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines that cover approximately 4,000 square miles in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming; and Michigan system. It also operates Discovery system, East Texas system, and Southeast Texas system. The Wholesale Propane Logistics segment owns and operates a propane marine import terminal; a leased propane marine terminal; a propane pipeline terminal; and six propane rail terminals, as well as access to several open access pipeline terminals. This segment sells its propane to retail propane distributors. The NGL Logistics segment operates Seabreeze and Wilbreeze NGL transportation pipelines, the Wattenberg NGL transportation pipeline, the Black Lake interstate NGL pipeline, and the NGL storage facility in Marysville, Michigan. DCP Midstream Partners, LP was founded in 2005 and is based in Denver, Colorado.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust(PMT)

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is based in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Sterne Agee’s team said, “We continue to prefer credit risk oriented Mortgage REITs over their Agency-only focused counterparts. Among the larger cap names in our coverage, our top picks are MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA) and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT).”

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: Abbott Laboratories(ABT)

Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of health care products worldwide. The company offers adult and pediatric pharmaceuticals for rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease; dyslipidemia; HIV infection; prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and anemia caused by uterine fibroids; respiratory syncytial virus; adult males who have low or no testosterone; secondary hyperparathyroidism; hypothyroidism; and pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, as well as anesthesia products. It also provides diagnostic products, such as immunoassay systems; chemistry systems; assays used for screening and/or diagnosis for drugs of abuse, cancer, therapeutic drug monitoring, fertility, physiological, and infectious diseases; instruments that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infections agents; genomic-b ased tests; hematology systems and reagents; and point-of-care diagnostic systems and tests for blood analysis. In addition, the company offers a line of pediatric and adult nutritional products. Further, it provides coronary, endovascular, vessel closure, and structural heart devices, such as drug-eluting stent systems, coronary metallic stents, balloon dilatation products, coronary guidewires, vessel closure devices, carotid stent systems, percutaneous valve repair systems, and drug eluting bioresorbable vascular products. Additionally, the company provides blood glucose monitoring meters, test strips, data management software, and accessories for people with diabetes; and medical devices for the eye, including cataract surgery, lasik surgery, contact lens, and dry eye products, as well as branded generic pharmaceutical products. Abbott primarily serves retailers, wholesalers, hospitals, and health care facilities. Abbott was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Orelli]

  There are a few reasons doctors haven't flocked to prescribe Qsymia in large numbers:

  One bitten, twice shy. It's not particularly surprising that doctors might be a little tentative about prescribing an obesity drug, considering how previous obesity drugs have fared. Wyeth's fen-phen, Abbott Labs' (NYSE: ABT  ) Meridia, and Sanofi's (NYSE: SNY  ) Acomplia were all pulled off the shelves after side effects were discovered. Meridia's heart issues were uncovered in a post-marketing clinical trial. Acomplia never made it to market in the U.S., and European regulators pulled it off the market after real-world usage showed less efficacy and more-common psychiatric side effects.
  
  It costs what? There are probably some patients not taking the drug simply because of the cost. Only one third of patients with insurance have coverage for Qsymia, and many of those are at the Tier 3 level, where copays are higher, typically $50 to $100. VIVUS is shooting for having 50% coverage of people on private insurance by end of the year, which should help with sticker shock, as have the free trials and discount drugs for those not covered by insurance.
  
  Not for sale (here). When Qsymia launched last year, the Food and Drug Administration limited its sales to mail-order pharmacies. While it's arguably more convenient to get drugs delivered to your doorstep, ordering through a mail-order pharmacy requires more initial effort than purchasing drugs at a local pharmacy. Fortunately last month, the FDA told VIVUS it could start selling Qsymia in retail pharmacies, which will begin by mid-July.

  VIVUS has spent lots of money jumping over hurdles to make the drug more appealing to patients. And it plans to spend more launching a direct-to-consumer print and digital media campaign. With any luck, VIVUS will be able to find a partner to help pay for the investment. It certainly isn't cheap, and there aren't any guarantees of making it back.

• [By Brian Orelli]

  AbbVie (NYSE: ABT  ) is the only pure pharma in the Dividend Aristocrats club, which requires 25 consecutive years of dividend increases. The six-month-old company is in the index because it spun out of Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT  ) , which was in the index before the split. Even Abbott technically cut its dividend because it lost a substantial amount of its cash flow from AbbVie's drug. Still, I think the S&P let them stay in the index�simply because there are so few health care companies in the Dividend Aristocrats.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Since spinning off AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV  ) at the beginning of the year, Abbott Laboratories' (NYSE: ABT  ) stock has done pretty well, rising over 13%. The company announced first-quarter financial results on Wednesday. How will these results impact Abbott's nice stock run?

• [By Brian Marckx]

  Several large pharma companies have OA drug candidates in various stages of clinical trials including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), and Forest Laboratories (FRX) and would have potentially significant interest in a test such as ILIU's OA test.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: Information Services Group Inc.(III)

Information Services Group, Inc. operates as a fact-based sourcing advisory company principally in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It provides strategic consulting, benchmarking and analytics, managed services, and research services with a focus on information technology, business process transformation, and enterprise resource planning. The company serves financial services, telecom, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, transportation and travel, and energy and utilities industries; and state and local governments and airport and transit authorities. Information Services Group, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company(DD)

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company operates as a science and technology company worldwide. It operates in seven segments: Agriculture & Nutrition, Electronics & Communications, Performance Chemicals, Performance Coatings, Performance Materials, Safety & Protection, and Pharmaceuticals. The Agriculture & Nutrition segment provides hybrid seed corn and soybean seed, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, value enhanced grains, and soy protein under the Pioneer brand name. The Electronics & Communications segment supplies materials and systems for photovoltaic products, consumer electronics, displays, and advanced printing. The Performance Chemicals segment offers fluorochemicals, fluoropolymers, specialty and industrial chemicals, and white pigments for various markets, such as plastics and coatings, textiles, mining, pulp and paper, water treatment, and healthcare. The Performance Coatings segment supplies high performance liquid and powder coatings for motor vehicle origi nal equipment manufacturers (OEM); the motor vehicle after-market; and general industrial applications, such as such as coatings for heavy equipment, pipes and appliances, and electrical insulation. The Performance Materials segment provides polymers, elastomers, films, parts, and systems and solutions for the automotive OEM and associated after-market industries, as well as electrical, electronics, packaging, construction, oil, photovoltaics, aerospace, chemical processing, and consumer durable goods. The Safety & Protection segment primarily offers nonwovens, aramids, and solid surfaces for the construction, transportation, communications, industrial chemicals, oil and gas, electric utilities, automotive, manufacturing, defense, homeland security, and safety consulting industries. The Pharmaceuticals segment represents its interest in the collaboration relating to Cozaar/Hyzaar antihypertensive drugs. The company was founded in 1802 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Dela ware.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Shares of DuPont (NYSE: DD  ) fell slightly more than 1% today despite a favorable Supreme Court ruling earlier in the day. The court ruled that farmers can't use later-generation seeds or previously genetically engineered seeds without paying the owners of the patented product. While DuPont wasn't directly involved in the case, Monsanto (NYSE: MON  ) a DuPont competitor and a seed developer with which DuPont has licensing deals, was the plaintiff in the case. The high court ruled in favor of Monsanto, which sued a farmer for using second- and third-generation seeds that came from plants grown from first-generation genetically engineered Monsanto soybean seeds. Today's ruling will sustain the business model of both Monsanto and DuPont when it comes to their seed technology units.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Not every crop is so protected. Between�Monsanto,�DuPont� (NYSE: DD  ) , and�Syngenta� (NYSE: SYT  ) -- the "three sisters" of GMO seeds -- they�control 53% of the world's seed production, yet their control of our food supply is almost universal because of their cross-licensing�agreements among themselves and with others, like Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW  ) .

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: Encana Corporation(ECA)

Encana Corporation and its subsidiaries engage in the exploration for, development, production, and marketing of natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids. The company owns interests in resource plays that primarily include the Greater Sierra, Cutbank Ridge, Bighorn, and Coalbed Methane resource plays located in British Columbia and Alberta, as well as the Deep Panuke natural gas project offshore Nova Scotia in Canada. It also holds interests in resource plays comprising the Jonah in southwest Wyoming, Piceance in northwest Colorado, Haynesville in Louisiana, and Texas resource play, including east Texas and north Texas. The company serves primarily local distribution companies, industrials, energy marketing companies, and other producers. Encana Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Smith]

  Tending to a tiny town
  Fossil fuel companies and the EPA have hardly formed a mutual admiration society during the past four years. The Wall Street Journal maintained as much 18 months ago in an editorial precipitated by an interminable -- and still ongoing -- look into the possibility that fracking by Encana (NYSE: ECA  ) has fouled the water table�at minuscule (population 175) Pavillion, Wyo. As the paper observed: "The agency is dominated by anticarbon true believers, and the Obama Administration has waged a campaign to raise the price(s) and limit the production of fossil fuels."�

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Comparing CEO compensations
  Last year, McClendon received a base salary of $975,000 and a total compensation of $16.9 million. Meanwhile, chief executives at Encana (NYSE: ECA  ) and Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN  ) , two natural gas producers with very similar market capitalizations, had substantially smaller pay packages last year.

• [By Sara Murphy]

  However, some are clearly more engaged than others. Encana (NYSE: ECA  ) and Talisman Energy (NYSE: TLM  ) have joined seven other natural gas producers to team up with the Environmental Defense Fund at the University of Texas at Austin to estimate their methane emission rates. It's too soon to know what they will do with this information, but the very fact that they're participating suggests that they intend to manage the problem.

• [By Richard Zeits]

  Earlier this year, after almost a year of active but unsuccessful marketing of a Mississippian Lime Joint Venture and following several mixed test results, Encana Corporation (ECA) designated its ~320,000 net Mississippian Lime acres in Kansas for sale. In July, Encana followed with a decision to divest its remaining acreage in Osage County in Oklahoma, including seven producing wells.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: Bank Of Montreal (BMO)

Bank of Montreal, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of retail banking, wealth management, and investment banking products and solutions in North America and internationally. It offers personal banking products and services to consumers and small businesses, including deposit and investment services, mortgages, consumer credit, small business lending, and other banking services; and commercial banking products and services to small business, medium-sized enterprise, and mid-market banking clients comprising lending, deposits, treasury management, and risk management services. The company also offers cards and payments services; investment and wealth advisory services; self-directed investing services; private banking services to high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients; investment fund solutions across a range of channels; pension plans; investment management services; and creditor insurance, and life insurance and annuity products and services. In add ition, it provides capital markets products and services, including equity and debt underwriting, corporate lending and project financing, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and recapitalizations, balance sheet management, liquidity management, merchant banking, securitization, foreign exchange, derivatives, debt and equity research, and institutional sales and trading to corporate, institutional, and government clients. As of October 31, 2010, Bank of Montreal operated and maintained approximately 1,230 bank branches in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Wednesday, Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO  ) will release its latest quarterly results. With a solid reputation as a strong Canadian financial institution, the bank has benefited from superior conditions in the Canadian economy over the past several years, avoiding much of the trouble that U.S. banks suffered during the financial crisis in 2008.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  U.S. investors first became aware of the relative strength of Canadian banks during the U.S. financial crisis, but since then, they've realized the benefits of looking north of the border. Canada does have its own systemically important banks, which include not only Scotiabank but also Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY  ) , Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO  ) , and three other large financial institutions, but high capital requirements have demonstrated their creditworthiness and relative safety.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Invest In 2014: Research in Motion Limited(RIMM)

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) designs, manufactures, and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. The company, through the development of integrated hardware, software, and services, provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information, including email, phone, short messaging service, and Internet and Intranet-based applications and browsing. Its products and services principally comprise the BlackBerry wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld product line, software development tools, and other software and hardware. The company?s BlackBerry smartphones use wireless, push-based technology that delivers data to mobile users? business and consumer applications. Its BlackBerry smartphone portfolio includes BlackBerry Bold series, the BlackBerry Torch, BlackBerry Curve series, the BlackBerry Style, BlackBerry Storm series, the BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Pearl series, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. T he company?s BlackBerry enterprise solutions comprise BlackBerry enterprise server, BlackBerry enterprise server express, BlackBerry mobile voice system, and hosted BlackBerry services. Its technology also enables third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services through software development kits, wireless connectivity to data, and third-party support programs. In addition, the company offers BlackBerry technical support services, non-warranty repairs, and nonrecurring engineering services. Further, it provides BlackBerry App World that offers BlackBerry smartphone users an electronic catalogue that aids in the discovery and download/purchase of applications directly from their BlackBerry smartphone. The company markets and sells its BlackBerry wireless solutions primarily through global wireless communications carriers, and third party distribution channels. Research In Motion Limited was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Waterloo, Canad a.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon]

  This is an important question because you may have in mind that you have a lot of faith in Apple right now. That faith may be well founded. But if you have little faith in Apple four or five or six years out ��do you really think you will be the first to spot the company's loss of leadership? Think about how quickly companies like Nokia (NOK) and Research In Motion (RIMM) saw their P/E ratios contract when investors realized just how far they were behind the competition. Do you really think you will be fast enough to spot a change in Apple's position? It�� not enough to see the writing on the wall. You have to see it faster than everyone else. You have to sell before they do.