Introduction and Overview An agreement has just been reached to drill for Brazil's offshore oil at its Libra Field, some 6,500 meters below sea level. The bidding process has been inauspicious as it results from the only offer, placed by a consortium led by Petrobras (PBR). Developing the field is projected to cost $184 billion, which leads to questions about whether it could mean business for any companies that offer equipment or expertise. The answer seems to be yes, and a firm that may benefit is Norway's Seadrill Limited (SDRL).
Petrobras is controlled by Brazil. It is affected in several ways that can be adverse to stockholders. While concerns about the corporation's profitability and future are regularly cited, it is taking strides to secure adequate resources for this project that benefits its government.
This Libra story only involves one location out of several around the globe that are favorable to offshore drillers. Some say the industry itself is poised to outperform. The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (OIH) could make sense to investors. The fund tracks 25 international companies, with Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) comprising 20.6% of its holdings, compared to 4.3% SDRL. Even with the heavy weighting toward SLB, diversification provides safety.
Top 5 Casino Companies To Watch For 2015: Compass Diversified Holdings (CODI)
Compass Diversified Holdings is a public investment firm specializing in acquiring controlling stakes in small to middle market companies. The firm seeks to make middle market and buyout investments. It seeks to invest in industries such as manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, and business services. The firm prefers to invest in companies based in North America with a preferred transaction size between $60 million and $300 million in value, cash flows between $5 million and $40 million, with enterprise values between $50 million and $250 million, and a minimum EBITDA of $10 million. It seeks to acquire controlling ownership interests in its portfolio companies and can also make additional platform acquisitions. The firm makes investments through balance sheet. Compass Diversified Holdings was founded in 2005 and is based in Westport, Connecticut. Compass Diversified Holdings operates as a subsidiary of The Compass Group LLC.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rick Munarriz]
Compass Diversified Holdings (NYSE: CODI ) owns several middle-market businesses. From printed circuit boards to gun safes -- from upholstered furniture to personal hydration products -- Compass lives up to the "Diversified" in its moniker.
Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Hillenbrand Industries Inc. (HRC)
Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. manufactures and provides medical technologies and related services for the health care industry worldwide. It offers patient support system, safe mobility and handling solutions, medical equipment rental services, surgical products, and information technology solutions, as well as non-invasive therapeutic products for acute and chronic medical conditions. The company rents and sells patient support systems, which include various bed systems, and integrated and non-integrated therapeutic bed surfaces for use in high, mid, and low acuity settings; and non-invasive therapeutic products and surfaces for the prevention and treatment of various acute and chronic medical conditions, including pulmonary, wound, and bariatric conditions. It also provides rentals and health care provider asset management services for moveable medical equipment, such as ventilators, defibrillators, intravenous pumps, and patient monitoring equipment; mobility solutions, inclu ding lifts and other devices used to move patients; architectural products comprising headwalls and power columns; and health care furniture solutions. In addition, the company develops and markets various communications technologies and software solutions primarily to improve patient safety at the point of care; and surgical products, including a range of positioning devices for use in shoulder, hip, spinal, and lithotomic surgeries, as well as platform-neutral positioning accessories for operating room tables. It sells its products primarily to acute and extended care health care facilities through direct sales force and distributors. The company was formerly known as Hillenbrand Industries, Inc. and changed its name to Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. in March 2008. Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Batesville, Indiana.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
Hill-Rom Holdings (NYSE: HRC) dropped 14.43% to $37.74 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 results and lowered its outlook. The company also announced its restructuring program.
- [By Stephen Simpson, CFA]
On the antennas side, PCTEL antennas can be used in a wide variety of applications from mobile radio to WiFi to GPS and machine-to-machine communication. PCTEL management defines the company's core addressable market as a 5% to 10% slice of a $30 billion market for process automation, smart grid, public safety, fleet management, and enterprise WLAN. Companies ranging from Harris (HRC) to Deere (DE) to Cisco (CSCO) have used PCTEL antennas, and Cisco incorporates the company's antennas into their higher-end wireless products.
- [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 Hill-Rom Holdings (NYSE: HRC ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS)
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (Barnes & Noble), incorporated on November 19, 1986, is a bookseller. The Company is a content, commerce and technology company that provides customers access to books, magazines, newspapers and other content across its multi-channel distribution platform. As of April 27, 2013, it operated 1,361 bookstores in 50 states, 686 bookstores on college campuses, and operates one of the Web eCommerce sites, and develops digital content products and software. Barnes & Noble operates in three segments: B&N Retail, B&N College and NOOK. The Company�� principal business is the sale of trade books (generally hardcover and paperback consumer titles), mass market paperbacks (such as mystery, romance, science fiction and other popular fiction), children�� books, eBooks and other digital content, NOOK and related accessories, bargain books, magazines, gifts, cafe products and services, educational toys & games, music and movies direct to customers through its bookstores or on barnesandnoble.com.
Of the Company�� 1,361 bookstores, 675 operate primarily under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers trade name. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC (B&N College), a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, operates 686 college bookstores at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble Retail (B&N Retail) operates the 675 retail bookstores. Retail also includes the Company�� eCommerce site and Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (Sterling or Sterling Publishing), a leader in general trade book publishing.
B&N Retail
This segment includes 675 bookstores as of April 27, 2013, primarily under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers trade name. These stores generally offer a dedicated NOOK area, a comprehensive trade book title base, a cafe, and departments dedicated to Juvenile, Toys & Games, DVDs, Music, Gift, Magazine and Bargain products. The stores also offer a calendar of ongoing events, including author appearances and children�� activities. The B&! N Retail segment also includes the Company�� eCommerce website, barnesandnoble.com, and its publishing operation, Sterling Publishing. Barnes & Noble stores range in size from 3,000 to 60,000 square feet depending upon market size, with an overall average store size of 26,000 square feet. During the fiscal year ended April 27, 2013 (fiscal), the Company reduced the Barnes & Noble store base by 0.3 million square feet, bringing the total square footage to 17.7 million square feet. The Company�� B&N Retail segment purchases physical books on a regular basis from over 800 publishers and over 50 wholesalers or distributors. As of April 27, 2013, Barnes & Noble had stores in 162 of the total 210 Designated Market Area markets.
Sterling Publishing is a publisher of non-fiction trade titles. It is a range of non-fiction and illustrated books and kits across a range of imprints, in categories, such as health and wellness, music and culture, food and wine, crafts and photography, puzzles and games, history and current affairs, as well as a children�� books.
B&N College
B&N College sells new and used textbooks in campus bookstores and online. As of April 27, 2013, B&N College operated 686 stores nationwide. The Company�� customer base, which is mainly consisted of students and faculty, can purchase various items from their campus stores, including textbooks and course-related materials, emblematic apparel and gifts, trade books, computer products, NOOK products and related accessories, school and dorm supplies, convenience and cafe items.
As of April 27, 2013, B&N College operates 651 traditional college bookstores and 35 academic superstores, which are generally larger in size, offer cafes and provide a sense of community that engages the surrounding campus and local communities in college activities and culture. The traditional bookstores range in size from 500 to 48,000 square feet. The academic superstores range in size from 8,000 to 75,000 square feet. B&! N College! �� three customer constituencies are students, faculty members and campus administrators.
NOOK
This segment includes the Company�� digital business, which includes the Company�� eBookstore, digital newsstand and sales of NOOK devices and accessories to third party distribution partners, as well as to B&N Retail and B&N College. Barnes & Noble�� NOOK digital bookstore and Reading Apps provide customers the ability to purchase and read their digital content and access to their Lifetime Library on a range of digital platforms, including Windows 8 PCs and tablets, iPad, iPhone , Android smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac. Barnes & Noble has implemented features on its digital platform to ensure that customers can access their NOOK content from almost all of today�� most popular devices.
The Company competes with Target, Books-A-Million, Waldenbooks, Amazon.com, Apple, Wal-Mart and Costco.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Chris Hill]
In this installment of Investor Beat, Andy and Jason explain why they're keeping a close eye on shares of AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV ) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS ) .
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Image Source My mom taught me to buy greeting cards at the dollar store. She says she refuses to pay a threefold markup for a Hallmark logo when it's the thought that counts. And most people toss cards after reading them anyway. Sometimes I take her advice. Other times I take it a step farther. When I discovered my local Barnes & Noble (BKS) sold plain photos slapped onto plain white pieces of folded stock paper as $5 greeting cards, I realized I could make better cards myself for even less than mom pays. They come out to about 20 cents apiece. You might find greeting cards for less if you bought in bulk, but handmade cards have a personal touch and sometimes a story behind them. That doesn't meant they have to look homemade, though. When my mom gave one of my cards to my boyfriend as a birthday card, he didn't believe it was homemade -– or that it was made by his girlfriend.
- [By Rich Duprey]
It used to be you could hit a bookstore wherever you threw a rock. There was B. Dalton's, Doubleday, and Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS ) and Scribner's, Borders and Brentano's. Then came the wave of the megalithic superstores that drove out the smallest booksellers and led to industry consolidation.�
- [By Jeremy Bowman]
Outside the Dow, Barnes & Noble's (NYSE: BKS ) shares tumbled 4.9% after hours following CEO William Lynch's resignation, effective immediately, after a disappointing quarter for Nook sales. The board didn't name a successor, but the news underscores the strong headwinds the venerable bookseller faces. The Nook was once seen as the company's savior, but now it seems to have become an albatross equal to the company's bricks-and-mortar real estate.
Best Oil Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Nash-Finch Company(NAFC)
Nash-Finch Company operates as a wholesale food distributor in the United States. The company?s Military segment distributes grocery products to the United States military commissaries and exchanges in the United States and the District of Columbia, Europe, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Azores, Egypt, and Bahrain. Its Food Distribution segment sells and distributes various branded and private label grocery products and perishable food products to approximately 1,500 independent retail locations through its 14 distribution centers. This segment also provides various services, including promotional, advertising, and merchandising programs; installation of computerized ordering, receiving, and scanning systems; retail equipment procurement assistance; accounting, budgeting, and payroll contract services; consumer and market research; remodeling and store development services; supply chain through Internet services; and securing existing grocery stores. The company?s Retail segment operates corporate-owned grocery stores under the Sun Mart, Econofoods, AVANZA, Family Thrift Center, Pick ?n Save, Family Fresh Market, Prairie Market, Saver?s Choice, Wally?s Supermarkets, and Wholesale Food Outlet banners primarily in the states of Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. This segment?s conventional grocery stores offer a range of grocery products and services, such as fresh meat counters, delicatessens, bakeries, eat-in cafes, pharmacies, banks, and floral departments, as well as provide check cashing, fax services, and money transfer services. As of December 31, 2011, the company served 93 retail stores operating under the IGA banner and 50 retail stores under the Food Pride banner; and operated 43 conventional supermarkets, 1 AVANZA grocery store, 1 Wholesale Food Outlet grocery store, and 1 Saver?s Choice store. Nash-Finch Company was founded in 1885 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jeremy Bowman]
What: Shares of Nash-Finch (NASDAQ: NAFC ) and Spartan Stores (NASDAQ: SPTN ) jumped as much as 16% and 15%, respectively, after Spartan said it would buy Nash-Finch, primarily for its military stores.
- [By Alex Planes]
Sysco has avoided the margin compression suffered by chicken producers Tyson (NYSE: TSN ) and Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ: CALM ) and which was more deeply felt by smaller food-service operator Nash-Finch (NASDAQ: NAFC ) . (It is omitted from this chart due to its drop into outright negative operating margin territory (a decline of roughly 250% in two years.) However, fellow food-service company United Natural Foods (NASDAQ: UNFI ) has actually improved its margins, and restaurant chains both large and small (well, mid-size) have done an admirable job of holding the margin line in the face of rising input costs. So it appears that scale alone isn't enough to help Sysco outrun the rising costs of its products.
No comments:
Post a Comment