With shares of International Business Machines�(NYSE:IBM) trading around $186, is IBM an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let�� analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:
T = Trends for a Stock’s MovementIBM is an information technology company. The company operates in five segments: Global Technology Services, Global Business Services, Software, Systems and Technology, and Global Financing. Technology products and services are in high demand worldwide as consumers want to be up-to-speed, and companies always need the latest and greatest to stay ahead of the competition. Cloud computing has been hot in recent times, which has not been good news for IBM. Should the company want to hold on to its market share, it needs to make moves quickly, and provide the technology products and services that worldwide consumers and companies demand.
Recently, IBM reported earnings that topped analyst expectations. Also, the company announced it is furloughing the majority of its U.S. hardware employees, forcing them to work one week with reduced pay as the company tries to shed costs amidst slumping demand. Sales in the second quarter dropped 12 percent from last year while the company cut around 3,300 employees across North America.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: Reed Elsevier NV (ENL)
Reed Elsevier NV offers professional information solutions in North America and Europe. The company�s Scientific, Technical & Medical segment publishes research, reference, and education content; and offers database and workflow solutions for scientists, research leaders and administrators, doctors, nurses, health professionals, and students, as well as hospitals, academic and research institutions, health insurers, managed healthcare organizations, research corporations, and governments. It also provides abstract and citation database of research literature; an oil and gas exploration tool that packages research-relevant geological content and tags that content to enable search functionality; and solutions for synthetic chemists. In addition, this segment offers software and tools that enhance research outcomes of academic institutions and researchers; and Web-based tools for the engineering community. Its Risk Solutions segment provides data and analytics to property an d casualty personal and commercial, and life insurance carriers; and risk and identity management, fraud detection, credit risk management, and compliance solutions for financial institutions, as well as offers risk-related information to the legal industry. The company�s Business Information segment provides data services, such as information and pricing services for the chemicals, fertilizers, and energy sectors; payment routing data and anti-money laundering services, as well as compliance information to the banking and corporate sectors; online regulatory guidance, practices, and tools for HR professionals; and online construction data and information to the construction industry. Its Legal segment offers legal, regulatory, news and business, and analysis services to legal, corporate, government, and academic customers. The company�s Exhibitions segment organizes exhibitions and conferences in various industries. Reed Elsevier NV was founded in 1903 and is based in Ams terdam, the Netherlands.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Vanina Egea]
Reed Elsevier NV (ENL) is a diversified publisher and information provider. It works on a wide range of market segments that include scientific, technical and medical (STM); legal; risks solutions and business information and exhibitions. The key of the company�� growth, however, lies almost exclusively in two brands: Elsevier and LexisNexis.
- [By David Hunkar]
Current Dividend Yield: 4.68%
Company: Reed Elsevier NV (ENL)
Sector: Electric Utilities
Country: PortugalCurrent Dividend Yield: 3.03%
Sector: Media
Country: The Netherlands
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: Cavco Industries Inc. (CVCO)
Cavco Industries, Inc. engages in the design, production, wholesale, and retail sale of manufactured homes. It also produces modular homes, which include single and multi-section/modular ranch-style dwellings; split-level homes; Cape Cod style homes; two and three story homes; and multi-family units, such as apartments and duplexes. In addition, the company manufactures park model homes and vacation cabins, as well as commercial structures, including apartment buildings, condominiums, hotels, schools, and housing for U.S. military troops. Further, it provides conforming mortgages to purchasers of factory-built and site-built homes; and property and casualty insurance to owners of manufactured homes. The company sells its products under the Cavco Homes, Fleetwood Homes, Palm Harbor Homes, and Nationwide Homes brands. As of March 31, 2012, it distributed its homes through 53 company-owned retail outlets, and a network of approximately 1,029 independent retail outlets n the U nited States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
Manufactured Housing: This industry moved up 1.33% by 10:30 am. The top performer in this industry was Cavco Industries (NASDAQ: CVCO), which gained 1.4%. Cavco Industries' PEG ratio is 1.16.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Cavco Industries (Nasdaq: CVCO ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Best Supermarket Stocks To Invest In 2015: News Corporation(NWSA)
News Corporation operates as a diversified media company worldwide. Its Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news, business news, sports, general entertainment, and movie programming for distribution through cable television systems and direct broadcast satellite operators primarily in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The company?s Filmed Entertainment segment produces and acquires live-action and animated motion pictures for distribution and licensing in entertainment media, as well as produces and licenses television programming worldwide. Its Television segment operates 27 broadcast television stations in the United States. The company?s Direct Broadcast Satellite Television segment distributes programming services via satellite and broadband directly to subscribers in Italy. Its Publishing segment provides newspapers and information services, such as publishing national newspapers in the United Kingdom, approximately 146 newspapers in Australia, and a metropolitan and a national newspaper in the United States; book publishing services, including the publishing of English language books worldwide; and integrated marketing services comprising the publishing of free-standing inserts, which are marketing booklets containing coupons, rebates, and other consumer offers, as well as provides in-store marketing products and services, primarily to consumer packaged goods manufacturers in the United States and Canada. The company also sells advertising, sponsorships, and subscription services on the company?s various digital media properties and outdoor advertising space on various media primarily in Russia and eastern Europe; and provides data systems and professional services that enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver individualized instructions. News Corporation was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]
News Corp. is a media and information services company that has recently spun-off of its very profitable entertainment segment. The company�reported its first quarterly financial results after splitting from 21st Century Fox. The stock has seen progress but is now pulling back as investors book gains. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been on the rise, which has left investors optimistic about the company. Relative to its peers and sector, News Corp. has been a weak year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what News Corp. does this quarter.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: Multimedia Games Holding Company Inc.(MGAM)
Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, distribution, and maintenance of gaming machines, video lottery terminals, and associated systems and equipment. The company provides a range of networked gaming systems that control and operate Class II gaming machines, video lottery terminals, and bingo terminals at Native American and commercial gaming facilities. It offers various classic 3-reel and 5-reel mechanical reel games, which provide players with a slot gaming experience; Side Action series of slot games; Maximum Lockdown, a hybrid mechanical reel game; Treasure Top series, a range of 3-reel mechanical games that includes LED lights and a video spinning wheel; TournEvent, a slot tournament system, which allow operators to switch from in-revenue gaming to out-of-revenue tournaments; and High Rise Games. The company also offers back-office accounting and slot management systems that are used to manage the floor operations; and server-based centrally-linked player terminals, which are placed and sold in Class II, video lottery terminal, and bingo settings, as well as standalone player terminals that are placed and sold in Class III settings. It provides its gaming systems to Native American and commercial casino operators in North America; domestic and selected international lottery operators; and charity and commercial bingo gaming facility operators. The company was formerly known as Multimedia Games, Inc and changed its name to Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc. in April 2011. Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is based in Austin, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Multimedia Games Holding (Nasdaq: MGAM ) reported earnings on April 30. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 31 (Q2), Multimedia Games Holding beat expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share. - [By James Brumley]
The 17% pullback over the first quarter of the year had less to do with the company’s portfolio and more to do with the market’s mood, and now that the broad market is easing up, the market’s mood regarding Hercules Technology Growth Capital looks poised to improve.
Multimedia Games (MGAM)With the stock down more than 13% since early March, it would be easy to assume Multimedia Games Holding Company (MGAM) was headed for a nasty earnings report at the end of April. The market was wrong, however. MGAM posted a 25% increase in revenue for the quarter, and a 28% improvement in earnings … and that was before the acquisition of PokerTek (PTEK). Bringing PokertTek into the fold will almost assure a fourth straight year of revenue and income growth.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: AIA Group Ltd (AAIGF.PK)
AIA Group Limited is an investment holding company. The Company and its subsidiaries are engaged in provision of products and services to individuals and businesses for their insurance, protection, savings, investment and retirement needs. The Company operates life insurance business, providing life, pensions, and accident and health products to customers in its local market, and distributes related investment and other financial services products. The Company serves more than 100,000 corporate clients with more than 13 million group insurance scheme members. It has operations in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Macau and Brunei. As of November 30, 2012, its subsidiaries included American International Assurance Company, Limited (AIA Co.), American International Assurance Company (Bermuda) Limited (AIA-B), AIA Australia Limited and PT AIA Financial, among others. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Holly LaFon]
Berkowitz�� top holdings continue to be: American International Group Inc. (AIG), AIA Group Ltd. (AAIGF.PK), Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM).
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: eGain Corp (EGAN)
eGain Corporation (eGain), formerly eGain Communications Corporation, incorporated in September 1997, provides multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for in-house or cloud deployment. The Company�� application suite, eGain Service, is available through both licensed and hosted models. It includes integrated applications for social customer service, Web self-service, e-mail management, paper and fax management, chat, co-browsing, short message service (SMS), call tracking and resolution, proactive notifications, cross-channel knowledge management, case management and service fulfillment. These robust applications are built on the eGain OpenCIH platform. The eGain OpenCIH platform enables end-to-end service process management and multichannel, multisite contact center management, and includes certified out of the box integrations with call center, content and business systems. Its applications and platform are built on a service-oriented architecture. It serves a global customer base across a range of industry sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, insurance, outsourced services, retail, technology, manufacturing and consumer goods.
Products and Services
eGain Service 9 is a customer service management solution. It consists of a multichannel customer interaction hub (CIH) platform, eGain OpenCIH Platform, and the eGain Web Customer Experience Suite and the eGain Unified Contact Center Suite, which includes applications for social customer service, Web self-service, and the contact center. The eGain OpenCIH Platform centralizes business rules, interactions, knowledge bases, workflow, analytics, administration and integrations in one common foundation. eGain Mail is a solution for processing inbound customer e-mails and providing mission-critical e-mail customer service. Secure messaging, lifecycle audits and real-time archival are some of the features that provide its customers e-mail management platform for their enterprises. Addi! tional modules include eGain Fax to route, track and respond to faxes with the same infrastructure that is used to handle e-mails and Web form submissions.
The Company�� eGain CallTrack is a phone call logging system. Together with eGain KnowledgeAgent, it provides an integrated solution for phone call logging, tracking and resolution, as well as follow-on task management for service fulfillment. eGain Chat gives contact center agents a range of tools for serving customers in real-time. eGain Chat supports two-way, follow me Web browsing so that agents and customers can lead each other to specific Web pages. Its eGain CoBrowse enables contact center agents to provide live collaboration options to online customers and prospects. It gives companies the ability to deliver real-time assistance. The capabilities include enabling the agent and the customer to fill out forms together, creation of business rules for specific Web pages, and allowing phone agents to provide experience by conducting a co-browse session.
The Company�� eGain SelfService is a solution supporting dynamic frequently asked questions (FAQs), topic-based browsing, natural language search, guided help, virtual assistant technology and case tracking. eGain SelfService offers multi-access self-service capabilities built on a collaborative knowledge management framework within eGain OpenCIH Platform. The modules of this solution are eGain Portals, eGain Guided Help and eGain MessageCenter. eGain Portals deliver a secure and personalized Web self-service gateway, through which customers can retrieve information. This online customer service portal delivers to customers the personal information they want, the way they want to see it, and when they want to see it. Customers can view FAQs, manage their own accounts, review open service tickets, and review their communications with the company within a secure, personalized environment. Its eGain Guided Help gives customers interactive access to the company�� knowl! edge base! , allowing them to find answers and troubleshoot problems by themselves at their convenience. It uses patented search and reasoning technology, coupled with natural language and advanced linguistic processing to search, suggest additional questions and recommend solutions.
The Company�� eGain MessageCenter enables secure and authenticated messaging between a business and its customers. eGain MessageCenter is a secure Web-based portal for customers to read confidential messages, including attachments. Based on a business-configurable option, agent responses to customer inquiries are automatically replaced with a dynamically generated universal resource locator (URL), which directs the customers to the eGain MessageCenter where they authenticate themselves to read the message details. Customers can also send messages to the business through this secure site. All messages are stored within the eGain Platform as part of the multichannel customer history. Its eGain Chatbot is used to create virtual assistants to engage Website visitors, answer their queries, escort them on the Website, and escalate seamlessly to live agents. Chatbots help deflect phone calls to Web self-service, provide memorable and brand-aligned customer service experiences, and increase online sales conversion.
The Company�� eGain Social helps a business monitor the Web and social media sites for conversations about itself. It enables the business to identify and respond to customer inquiries or complaints. It also helps harvest useful content from experts in these channels and develops it into knowledge base articles that can be shared with their other customers. Its eGain Adviser empowers agents handle complex customer interactions. Agents receive guided help for providing contextual up-sell and cross-sell, follow-on service fulfillment and value-added advice through conversations that are compliant with regulations. The solution includes a user interface, integrated workflow and interactive process guida! nce, powe! red by the eGain Inference Reasoning Engine.
The Company�� eGain KnowledgeAgent uses patented search and reasoning technology coupled with natural language and advanced linguistic processing to search, suggest additional questions, and recommend solutions. This solution, in conjunction with eGain Content Adapter, also allows agents to access information stored in external systems. Its eGain IVR enables phone self-service experiences by adding intelligence to interactive voice response, (IVR) and unifying it with other interaction channels, including Web self-service. It offers intelligent dialogs driven by eGain�� case-based reasoning technology and seamless movement across channels.
The Company�� eGain Notify is a flexible, easy-to-use application for managing and delivering automatic reminders, alerts, and updates at all stages of the customer relationship cycle. It is used to provide proactive customer service by sending alerts to customers through multiple interaction channels, such as e-mail, phone and SMS. Its eGain AutoClassify enables companies to increase response turnaround and improve problem resolution by categorizing and routing incoming e-mail and other inquiries. It can also be set up to provide auto-suggestions and auto-responses. eGain AutoClassify understands the customer�� issue and routes inquiries to queues based on categories and the confidence level assigned to those categories. Customer interactions can be placed into multiple independent categories.
The Company�� eGain AutoWorkflow enables businesses to automate complex fulfillment processes that require little or no agent interaction once initiated. Tasks initiated from either e-mails, Webforms, or time-driven processes are automatically handled using the capabilities of the eGain Workflow engine. Its eGain SME is an enterprise collaboration tool that allows subject matter experts (SMEs), to participate in the process of resolving customer queries. SMEs, both internal in the contact ! center an! d external in other departments or companies, are able to fully participate in both solving ongoing problems and suggesting new solutions for inclusion in the knowledge base.
The Company�� eGain Adapters include a set of out-of-the-box integration modules for connecting eGain applications with content repositories, call center telephony solutions, databases and business applications. Its offers three integration modules: eGain Content Adapter, eGain CTI Adapter, and eGain Data Adapter. Its eGain Widgets (Web and Mobile) provides contextual access to the knowledge base and customer accounts from various parts of the businesses��Websites, as well as mobile interfaces.
eGain OnDemand
eGain OnDemand, the software as a service version of the Company�� software suite, is a robust and scalable solution that is used by enterprises to build customer interaction hubs. It hosts applications on servers located in its third party SAS 70 Type II data center. The hosting solution allows rapid deployment of eGain products, including seamless secure access to customer�� in-house data systems; round the clock management of infrastructure, security, servers, operating systems and databases; management systems to monitor servers and applications allowing for availability and performance; easy migration from eGain OnDemand to in-house option and vice-versa. Its value-added services include e-mail spam and virus cleaning, post office services, virtual private networks, remote data access, encrypted backups, and test/reporting/warm spare servers.
eGain SLaaS
eGain SLaaS, the solution-as-a-service version of the Company�� software suite. It is designed to take the risk out of mission-critical customer interaction software deployments and enables companies to validate and realize business value with usage-based pricing and no long-term contracts.
Consulting and Education Services
The Company�� global professional services ! organizat! ion provides consulting and education services designed to facilitate customer success and build customer loyalty. Its consulting services group offers rapid implementation services, custom solution development and systems integration services. It provides these services independently or in partnership with systems integrators who have developed consulting expertise on its platform. The Company�� consulting strategy is to increase margins by providing customers with a range of pre-packaged solutions built on top of our product line.The Company�� education services group provides a range of basic and customized training programs to its customers and partners. Training programs are offered either in-person at the customer site, or at one of its global training centers.The Company�� education services strategy is to provide training and delivery methods for its customers and partners.
eGain Customer Support Service
The Company offers a range of support services designed to rapidly respond to inquiries. Its technical support services are available to customers globally under maintenance agreements. Its customer support service strategy is to provide customer support account managers for large enterprise customers. The customer support service team uses eGain�� own software suite to provide services to its customers through customer support service centers located in California, the United Kingdom, and India.
The Company competes with Art Technology Group, Inc., Avaya, Inc., Consona Corporation, Alcatel, InQuira, Inc., Kana Software, Inc., Live Person, Inc., nGenera Corporation, RightNow Technologies, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com Inc. and SAP Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Small cap cloud contact software provider Five9 Inc (NASDAQ: FIVN) saw a small pop when it debuted in an IPO last Friday but its now trended back down to its debut price, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with some potential peers or benchmarks like Incontact Inc (NASDAQ: SAAS), eGain Corp (NASDAQ: EGAN) and LivePerson, Inc (NASDAQ: LPSN).
- [By Monica Gerson]
eGain (NASDAQ: EGAN) shares fell 3.76% to reach a new 52-week low of $6.40. eGain's trailing-twelve-month ROE is -8.92%
Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) shares tumbled 6.81% to reach a new 52-week low of $4.57. Aeropostale shares have dropped 65.05% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 15.37% in the same period.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: Biosev SA (BSEV3)
Biosev SA, formerly LDC Bioenergia SA, is a Brazil-based company active in the sugar and energy business. It is primarily engaged in the sugarcane processing. The Company produces sugar and ethanol, and supplies its products to domestic and international markets. Its refined sugar is sold under the Estrela brand name on the Brazilian retail market. The ethanol products comprise: hydrous ethanol, anhydrous ethanol and neutral ethanol. Other products from its plants include animal feed, dry yeast, molasses powder and bioelectricity from sugarcane bagasse. The Company�� customers include Nestle, Coca-Cola, AmBev, Kraft, Dori and Unilever, among others. The Company's production units are present in five Brazilian states: Mato Grosso do Sul, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lucia Kassai]
Biosev SA (BSEV3), Louis Dreyfus Holding BV�� Brazil unit, tumbled in its debut after giving investors in its initial public offering a money-back guarantee.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In Right Now: Cohen & Steers Inc (CNS)
Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS) is a global investment management firm focused on global real estate securities, global listed infrastructure, real assets, large cap value stocks, and preferred securities. The Company also manages alternative investment strategies such as hedged real estate securities portfolios and private real estate multimanager strategies for qualified investors. It serves individual and institutional investors through a range of investment vehicles. CNS manages three types of accounts: institutional accounts, open-end mutual funds and closed-end mutual funds. Its revenue is derived primarily from investment advisory, administration, distribution and service fees received from open-end and closed-end mutual funds and investment advisory fees received from institutional accounts.
Institutional Accounts
The 113 institutional accounts for which the Company is an investment adviser represent portfolios of securities it manage for institutional clients. It manages the assets in each institutional account in a manner tailored to the investment preferences of that individual client as defined within each client's individual investment advisory agreement. Sub-advisory assets, which may be sold to retail investors, are included in its institutional account assets. Sub-advisory assets represent accounts for which it has been named as a sub-adviser by the investment adviser to that account.
Open-End Mutual Funds
The 14 open-end mutual funds for which the Company is an investment adviser offer and issue new shares continuously as funds are invested and redeem shares when funds are withdrawn. Investment advisory fees for the open-end mutual funds vary based on each fund's investment objective and strategy, fees charged by other comparable mutual funds and the nature of the investors to whom the mutual fund is offered. In addition, it receives a separate fee for providing administrative services to each open-end mutual fund at a rate that is design! ed to reimburse the Company for the cost of providing these services. Each of the open-end mutual funds pays the Company a monthly administration fee based on a percentage of the fund's average assets under management.
Closed-End Mutual Funds
The eight closed-end mutual funds for which the Company is an investment adviser are registered investment companies that have issued a fixed number of shares through public offerings. It receives a separate fee for providing administrative services to seven of the eight closed-end mutual funds at a rate that is designed to reimburse the Company for the cost of providing these services.
Portfolio Consulting and Other Services
The Company maintains two indices, Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index (RMP) and Cohen & Steers Global Realty Majors Index (GRM). RMP is the basis for the iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund (ICF) sponsored by BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. GRM is the basis for Cohen & Steers Global Realty Majors Fund (GRI) sponsored by ALPS Fund Services, Inc. and Claymore Global Real Estate ETF (CGR) sponsored by Claymore Investments, Inc. It provides services in connection with model-based strategies (MBS) accounts. As portfolio consultant for a number of MBS accounts, it constructs portfolios of securities that fulfill the investment objective of the mandate and supply models on a regular basis. As portfolio consultant, it provides several services in connection with investment products, such as unit investment trusts (UITs). As portfolio consultant to a number of UITs, it constructs a portfolio of securities.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jonathan Yates]
Another one to consider is Cohen & Steers Inc (NYSE: CNS), an asset manager based in New York City.
While the dividend yield for a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index averages around 1.9 percent, for Cohen & Steers it is just over 5 percent, much higher than that for BP or Caterpillar. Cohen & Steer's has a beta of 1.56, which means the share price moves up and down nearly 60 percent more than the stock market as a whole, which has a beta of 1.
- [By Anna Prior]
Cohen & Steers Inc.(CNS) said Monday that it will separate the chairman and chief executive roles in January, as the investment management firm divides up the positions among its two namesakes.
- [By Victor Selva]
Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) is one of the largest U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies in the area of developing, producing and selling central nervous system (CNS)-related prescription drugs. The company also focuses on the development and introduction of new products, including products developed in collaboration with licensing partners.
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