Insider buying really slowed last week. Consumer confidence dipped last week, and it looks as if corporate confidence agrees with Main Street.� Only 53 companies, as we measure it, reported records from directors and executive team members buying.
But that doesn't mean there aren't companies worth highlighting. This week insider focus is Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN). �Huntington is a multi-state diversified regional bank holding company. Through its subsidiaries, including its bank subsidiary, The Huntington National Bank (the Bank), Huntington is engaged in providing full-service commercial, small business, consumer banking services, mortgage banking services, automobile financing, equipment leasing, investment management, trust services, brokerage services, customized insurance programs, and other financial products and services.
5 Best Semiconductor Stocks To Buy Right Now: Brookline Bancorp Inc.(BRKL)
Brookline Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Brookline Bank, Bank Rhode Island, and The First National Bank of Ipswich, which provide commercial and retail banking services, and cash management and investment services to customers in Central New England. The company accepts various deposit products, including non-interest-bearing checking accounts, interest-bearing NOW accounts, savings accounts and money market savings accounts, certificate of deposit accounts, individual retirement accounts, and other qualified plan accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises first mortgage loans secured by commercial, multi-family, and residential real estate properties; auto loans; loans to business entities consisting of commercial lines of credit; and loans to condominium associations, as well as loans for financing equipment used by small businesses. Brookline Bancorp, Inc. also provides financing for construction and development projects, home equity, and other consumer l oans; and loans to finance coin-operated laundry, dry cleaning, and convenience store equipment and businesses. As of January 25, 2012, it operated 43 branches in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The company was founded in 1871 and is headquartered in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL) announced today that it will report third quarter earnings 2012 at the close of business Wednesday, October 24, 2012. Management will host a conference call to review this information at 1:30 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, October 25, 2012.
- [By Dividends4Life]
Memberships and Peers: PBCT is a member of the S&P 500 and a member of the Broad Dividend Achievers��Index. The company's peer group includes: Bank of America Corporation (BAC) with a 0.3% yield, Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (BRKL) with a 3.7% yield and Westfield Financial Inc. (WFD) with a 3.5% yield.
Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: STERIS Corporation(STE)
STERIS Corporation and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture, and sell infection prevention, contamination control, microbial reduction, and surgical support products and services for healthcare, pharmaceutical, scientific, research, industrial, and governmental customers worldwide. It provides steam, vaporized hydrogen peroxide, and ethylene oxide sterilizers; liquid chemical sterilant processing systems; washer/disinfector systems; general and specialty surgical tables; surgical and examination lights; equipment management systems; operating room storage cabinets; warming cabinets; scrub sinks; and other products and accessories. The company also offers connectivity solutions, such as operating room integration, workflow, patient tracking, and instrument management that allow transfer of information and images; cleaning chemistries and sterility assurance products; cleansing products, including hard surface disinfectants, and skin care and hand hygiene solutions; high-pu rity water equipment; vaporized hydrogen peroxide generators. In addition, it sells contract materials processing services using gamma irradiation and ethylene oxide technologies, as well as offers microbial reduction services based on customer specifications. Further, the company provides maintenance programs and repair services, sterilization and surgical management consulting services, information management and decision support services, and other support services, such as construction and facility planning, engineering support, device testing, customer education, hand hygiene process excellence, asset management/planning, and the sale of replacement parts. STERIS Corporation sells its products to end users, dealers, and distributors through direct field sales and service representatives. The company was formerly known as Innovative Medical Technologies and changed its name to STERIS Corporation in 1987. STERIS Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Ment or, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sean Williams]
What: Shares of Steris (NYSE: STE ) �-- a manufacturer of infection prevention, contamination control, and surgical support products for the health-care industry -- jumped as much as 10% after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.
Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Inergy L.P. (NRGY)
Inergy, L.P. engages in the storage and transportation of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States and Canada. The company is also involved in the fractionation and distribution of NGL; and processing of natural gas and distribution of propane, marketing, and price risk management services to users, retailers, and resellers. In addition, it engages in the production and sale of salt products. The company owns and operates four natural gas storage facilities that include Stagecoach, Thomas Corners, Steuben, and Seneca Lake; natural gas transportation assets in New York and Pennsylvania; NGL storage facility in New York; and solution-mining and salt production company in New York. Its customers primarily include natural gas local distribution companies, electric generation companies, natural gas producers, other natural gas pipelines, and natural gas marketing companies. Inergy, L.P. founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
Consolidation has been the name of the game for growth in the propane industry lately, with some deals having made big changes to the industry over the past year. Last spring, Inergy (NYSE: NRGY ) decided to sell off its retail propane business to Suburban Propane (NYSE: SPH ) , vastly increasing Suburban's size while giving Inergy a big stake in its former rival. Meanwhile, Ferrellgas has continued its string of more modest acquisitions, with the company's buyout of privately held Western Petroleum marking the fifth purchase Ferrellgas has made since last August.
- [By Robert Rapier]
Early returns suggest this proposition is generating plenty of enthusiasm. When�NRG Energy�(NYSE: NRGY) became the first company to spin off a YieldCo subsidiary holding solar generating assets last July, the offering price for�NRG Yield�(NYSE: NYLD) provided for a 5.5 percent yield at the promised dividend rate. The IPO was more than 10 times oversubscribed — an indication of pent up investor demand for such offerings. Less than 11 months later, NYLD’s share price has more than doubled, so even though it has already raised its dividend the yield is down to 2.7 percent.
- [By Matt DiLallo]
Inergy (NYSE: NRGY )
With operations that include a natural gas storage business as well as natural gas liquids assets, Inergy is another MLP to consider if you are on the lookout for a dividend-paying stock. There are a lot of moving parts with this company, which makes it an interesting stock to watch. The company, along with its affiliate Inergy Midstream (NYSE: NRGM ) , is in the process of merging with Crestwood Midstream Partners (NYSE: CMLP ) to create a company boasting increased size, scale, and diversity, as you can see below. Once the transformational transaction is complete, the company can pursue its opportunity-rich organic growth projects which should drive both returns and income growth for investors.
Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: LifeLock Inc (LOCK)
LifeLock, Inc., incorporated on April 12, 2005, is a provider of proactive identity theft protection services for consumers and identity risk assessment and fraud protection services for enterprises. It operates in two segments: consumer segment and an enterprise segment. In its consumer segment, the Company offer identity theft protection services to consumers on a monthly or annual subscription basis. In its enterprise segment, it offer identity risk assessment and fraud protection services to enterprise customers who pay the Company based on their monthly volume of transactions with it. It protects its consumer subscribers, whom it refers to as its members, by monitoring identity-related events, such as new account openings and credit-related applications. It also provides remediation services to its members in the event that an identity theft actually occurs. On March 14, 2012, the Company acquired ID Analytics, Inc. In December 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Lemon Inc.
Consumer Business
The Company protects its members by proactively monitoring identity-related events, such as new account openings and credit-related applications, which may present a risk of identity theft. If it detects that a member�� personally identifiable information is being used, the Company sends notifications and alerts, including proactive, near real-time, actionable alerts, to the member via text message, phone call, or e-mail through its LifeLock Identity Alert system that allows the member to confirm valid or unauthorized identity use.
Enterprise Business
The Company delivers on-demand identity risk assessment and authentication information about consumers to its enterprise customers in their daily transaction flows. Its enterprise customers utilize this information in real time to authenticate their customers, assess their risk profile, and enhance the enterprise�� decision making process on which to base account opening, le! nding, credit, and other risk-based decisions. By integrating its services into their business processes, its enterprise customers can reduce potential financial losses from identity fraud. Information generated from the transaction flow at its enterprise customers is transmitted back to its data repositories, which continually enhances the LifeLock ecosystem and helps strengthen the services the Company can provide to its customers in the future.
The Company competes with Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Affinion, Early Warning Systems, Intersections and LexisNexis.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]
AFP/Getty Images/Gabriel Bouys Companies can make brilliant moves, but there are also times when things don't work out quite as planned. From a luxury electric car maker ramping up its production to sandwich makers failing to make dough rise, here's a rundown of the week's smartest moves and biggest blunders in the business world. Tesla Motors (TSLA) -- Winner The Model S isn't cheap, but Tesla is selling enough of them to impress investors. Shares of the maker of plug-in electric vehicles raced to a new high after announcing that it delivered 6,892 cars in its latest quarter. Things will get even better in 2014 as Tesla expects to sell and deliver 35,000 vehicles. Tesla will need to ramp up its production -- currently, roughly 600 cars a week -- to closer to 1,000 Model S and new Model X cars by the end of the year. Conn's (CONN) -- Loser It isn't easy running a consumer electronics store these days. Shares of Conn's plunged 43 percent on Thursday after warning that its holiday quarter results will fall well short of its earlier expectations. If that seems like a significant drop for a mere miss, let's dive a little deeper. Conn's also warned that it's suffering from higher loan delinquencies than usual. Conn's provides in-house consumer credit on its appliances, furniture, mattresses, and consumer electronics, so revealing that 8.8 percent of its loan portfolio hasn't made a payment in more than 60 days is problematic. Conn's, which has stores in the Southwest, blames cold weather for disrupting payments, but things are never as simple as that. Conn's was holding up better than its peers that had imploded earlier this year on reports that the holidays weren't so jolly this time around. Now we know that Conn's is merely mortal, and that way too many of its customers last year aren't current on their payments. Candy Crush Saga -- Winner The company behind "Candy Crush Saga" filed to go public this week. Dublin-based King Digital Entertainment is hoping
Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Salesforce.com Inc (CRM)
Salesforce.com, inc., incorporated in February 1999, is a provider of enterprise cloud computing and social enterprise solutions. The Company provides a customer and collaboration relationship management (CRM), applications through the Internet or cloud. Cloud computing refers to the use of Internet-based computing, storage and connectivity technology to deliver a variety of different services. The Company delivers its service through Internet browsers and mobile devices. It markets its social enterprise applications and platforms to businesses on a subscription basis, primarily through its direct sales efforts and indirectly through partners. In January 2011, it acquired Heroku, Inc. and DimDim, Inc. In May 2011, the Company acquired Radian6 Technologies Inc. In September 2011, the Company acquired Assistly. In August 2012, the Company acquired Buddy Media. In May 2013, SalesForce.com Inc acquired Clipboard Inc.
The Company introduced Chatter, a collaboration application for the enterprise to connect and share information securely and in real-time. It serves its customers from third-party data center hosting facilities located in the United States and other countries. The Company�� primary applications are sales cloud, service cloud, salesforce chatter, Salesforce Radian6 and Salesforce Data.com.
The Company�� customers are able to establish a system and process for recording, tracking, and sharing information about sales opportunities, sales leads, sales forecasts, the sales process, and closed business, as well as managing sales territories. Customers are able to create social profiles of their customers, based on information from social networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Its customers are also able to manage unstructured information, such as sales collateral, presentations, price lists, and video assets. In addition, the Sales Cloud encompasses partner relationship management functionality (including channel management and partner portals) and m! arketing automation (including campaigns, and return-on-investment tracking).
The Company�� customer service and support automation features are marketed under its Service Cloud brand and allow its customers to service and engage with their customers. Using the Service Cloud, companies can access a solution for their customer service interactions across every service channel: call centers with phone, email, and chat; Web portals for self-service and customer collaboration; and community interactions within social networks. In addition, built-in collaboration tools enable customer service agents to share information on how to better service customers.
The Company�� Chatter application enables customers to create private employee social networks for companies of all sizes in order to improve employee collaboration. For customers of its Sales and Service Cloud editions, Chatter is included free for all subscribers. In addition, it offers Chatter Plus edition, designed to provide access to Chatter for employees in customers��organizations who are not subscribers of a Sales or Service Cloud edition. It delivered features, including Chatter Now for real-time collaboration, and Chatter Customer Groups enabling users to invite people outside their organizations, such as customers and partners, into their Chatter network to collaborate in a secure environment. Chatter is a core attribute of its Force.com platform and its social capabilities are an integral part of each of its application offerings and its Social Enterprise solution.
The Company�� Radian6 application provides its customers a tool for social media monitoring and marketing. The application allows companies to listen, analyze, engage and measure their brand�� presence within social media. It provides companies with a database of business contacts, company profiles and social insights. Delivered as a service, data.com integrates with its applications to provide the business data that helps companies in! crease th! eir pipeline of sales leads.
The Company�� cloud platforms provide application developers access to new capabilities that can be built into their business applications. These platforms include features popularized by social networking companies, such as profiles, status updates and feeds, and also the capability to extend applications for use on mobile devices. In addition, they run on its Database.com offering, an open enterprise database built for social and mobile computing. Its cloud platforms allow both information technology (IT) departments and independent software vendors (ISV) developers to use several programming languages to build their applications. Developers are able to use the programming languages on its cloud platforms, such as Java and Ruby, to build their applications, and its cloud platforms support multiple other languages to provide developers openness and choice.
The Company has two platform offerings: Force.com and Heroku, and offer additional developer tools, such as Database.com and the AppExchange. The Force.com cloud computing platform provides a feature set and technology environment for building business applications, including data models and objects to manage data, a workflow engine for managing collaboration of data between users, a user interface model to handle forms and other interactions, and a Web services API for programmatic access and integration. Heroku is a cloud platform for application developers to build and deploy social and mobile applications. Built on open standards, Heroku supports multiple frameworks, databases, and languages, including Java and Ruby. The AppExchange is an online directory that provides customers a way to browse, sample, share, and install applications developed on its Force.com platform. Partners and developers can offer their applications and services for a fee on the AppExchange directory. This directory gives its users a way to find and install applications to expand their use of the Force.com platform t! o areas t! hat are complementary to its social enterprise solution.
The Company offer consulting, deployment and training services to our customers to facilitate the adoption of its social enterprise services. Consulting services consist of services, such as business process mapping, project management services and guidance on best practices in using its service. Deployment services include systems integration, technical architecture and development, configuration and data conversion, as well as developing and delivering customized education programs for its customers. Most of its consulting and deployment engagements are billed on a time and materials basis. It offer a number of traditional classroom and online educational classes that address topics, such as deploying, using, administering and developing on its service. It also offers classes for its partners who deploy its service on behalf of its customers.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jason Cunningham]
"Whether it's LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), Pandora (NYSE: P), Yelp (NYSE: YELP), you go back to Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Workday (NYSE: WDAY), NetSuite (NYSE: N), I think we've proven to the clients in that industry we're a better partner, and now it's up to us to execute, 'cause Thursday is all about Twitter and the investors. It's not about us."
- [By Lee Jackson]
Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) has not only dominated the customer relationship management (CRM) software business, it has absolutely blown away the short sellers who have doubted the stock for years. This stock also has become a darling of CNBC pundit Jim Cramer, which may or may not be a good thing. The consensus price target for the stock is $50.
- [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]
Salesforce is a leading provider of cloud computing and CRM technology to companies and consumers worldwide. The stock has had an explosive move higher over the last several years and is now trading at all-time high prices. Earnings have been decreasing while revenues have been increasing over the last four quarters. This has led to excited investors who have bid the stock higher. Relative to its peers and sector, Salesforce has been a year-to-date performance leader. Look for Salesforce to OUTPERFORM.
- [By Inyoung Hwang]
Heather Bellini, a software analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) who ranked second in her industry, started coverage of Salesforce.com (CRM) Inc. in July 2011, putting the largest maker of customer-management software on Goldman�� buy list. She saw cash flow rising on the continued success of Salesforce�� Sales Cloud -- its core product -- as well as newer offerings such as the Service Cloud customer-support software. The shares fell after her July 12, 2011, buy recommendation and then gained 66 percent in 2012. The stock is up 6.3 perpercent this year as Aug. 14.
Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: F5 Networks Inc.(FFIV)
F5 Networks, Inc. provides application delivery networking technology that optimizes the delivery of network-based applications, and the security, performance, and availability of servers, data storage devices, and other network resources in the Americas, EMEA, Japan, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers BIG-IP, an application delivery controller; VIPRION, a chassis-based application delivery controller; and FirePass, an appliance that provides SSL VPN access for remote users of Internet protocol networks, and applications connected to the networks from Web browser on any device. It also offers Application Security Manager, an application firewall; WebAccelerator that speeds Web transactions by optimizing individual network object requests, connections, and end-to-end transactions from browser to databases; WAN Optimization Manager, which integrates application delivery with WAN optimization technologies; Access Policy Manager that provides secure, granular, and contex t-aware control of access to applications; Edge Gateway, a remote access product, which offers context-aware, policy controlled, and remote access to applications at LAN speed; Enterprise Manager that allows customers to discover and view company?s products in a single window; and ARX product family, a series of high performance and enterprise-class intelligent file virtualization devices. In addition, F5 Networks provides Data Manager, a software product, which interfaces with file storage devices; iControl, an application programming interface that allows customers to control their products in the network; iRules, a programming language embedded in TMOS architecture; and consulting, training, maintenance, and other technical support services. The company sells its products to enterprise customers and service providers through various channels, including distributors, value-added resellers, and systems integrators. F5 Networks, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lee Jackson]
F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) has been all over the board in the past year, trading in an almost 45 point range. Analysts around Wall Street in addition to Deutsche Bank are very positive on core growth accelerating in the second half of 2013 as data center orders build. Deutsche Bank has a $100 price objective, and the consensus target is $96.
- [By MONEYMORNING]
In addition to weakness in emerging markets, which the company acknowledged last year, rivals Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and F5 Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: FFIV) have been nibbling at Cisco's market share.
- [By Muhammad Bazil]
There is a looming monumental change in the information technology sector that will obviously benefit some existing producers of technology networking equipment but unfortunately, some will be drowned in the ensuing storm. The size of the networking equipment industry where Cisco Systems (CSCO) currently plays a prominent role is massive: The industry is worth about $50 billion in annual spending. Cisco is a tech manufacturing company that manufactures and markets Internet protocol-based switches and routers commonly used by networking companies and professionals for data and voice transmission across networks. Other major players in this industry include F5 Networks (FFIV), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Brocade (BRCD).
Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: AEP Industries Inc.(AEPI)
AEP Industries Inc. engages in the production, manufacture, and distribution of plastic packaging products in the United States and Canada. The company offers a line of polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polypropylene flexible packaging products for consumer, industrial, and agricultural applications. Its products include custom films for industrial applications, including sheeting, tubing, and bags; films that protect items stored outdoors or in transit, such as boats and cars; a range of shrink films, barrier films, and overwrap films; stretch film products for hand wrap and rotary applications; and pre stretch and high performance products for commodity and specialty uses. The company also provides food wraps products, including blown plastic film fold-top bags, twist-tie bags, and food containers under the Seal Wrap brand for the supermarket and industrial markets; a range of coextruded polyolefin films and monolayer films for food, pharmaceutical, and medical appli cations; and canliners product line comprising trash bags and institutional bags. In addition, it offers printed rollstock to the food and beverage industries, and manufacturing and distributing companies; and unplasticized polyvinyl chloride films for use in battery labels, twist films, and credit card laminates; and various film products with agricultural applications, such as silage, smooth mulch films, and fumigation films. Further, the company provides disposable consumer and institutional plastic products, which include table covers and skirts, aisle runners, aprons, bibs, gloves, boots, freezer/storage bags, saddle pack bags, locker wrap and custom imprint designs for the food service, party supply, and school/collegiate markets under the Sta-Dri brand. AEP Industries Inc. markets its products directly to end-users, as well as through distributors. The company was founded in 1970 and is based in South Hackensack, New Jersey.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Victor Selva]
Competitors such as AEP Industries Inc. (AEPI) and Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) will be better options in term of ROE.
Final Comment
- [By Bryan Murphy]
It's certainly not as big as Berry Plastics Group Inc. (NYSE:BERY). It's not even as big as Tredegar Corporation (NYSE:TG). There's one big way AEP Industries (NASDAQ:AEPI) can certainly compete head-on with BERY and TG right now, however... as an investment opportunity. Thanks to the bullish bump AEPI gave us last week, a long-standing selloff has been revered, and there's a whole lot of ground to make up.
- [By Lisa Levin]
AEP Industries (NASDAQ: AEPI) shares touched a new 52-week low of $34.20. AEP shares have dropped 56.11% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 15.91% in the same period.
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