I love little-elves companies, and no, I�� not referring to anything like the technical analysts dubbed ��lves��by the late Louis Rukeyser on his classic PBS weekly show, Wall Street Week.
I�� referring instead to situations where you read or hear about a company�� business and blurt out something like: �� didn�� know that sort of thing was done by publicly-traded corporations. I thought it was done by little elves.��nbsp; Forbes Low Priced Stock Report�� Top 40-company Insignia Systems Insignia Systems, which makes retail store shelf labels and small product signs (communicating information about prices, often in the context of promotion) is just such a company.
Those of us who still go to brick-and-mortar stores, which is pretty much all of us on many if not all days, encounter such labels (whether made by ISIG or others) all the time. Admittedly, we don�� always pay close attention to them and often reflexively reach for what we usually buy.
Top 5 Restaurant Stocks To Buy Right Now: Zix Corporation(ZIXI)
Zix Corporation provides Internet-based applications in software as a service model that enables the use of secure email for sensitive information exchange primarily in the healthcare, financial services, insurance, and government sectors in the United States. It offers email encryption service, a secure messaging service, which allows an enterprise to use policy-driven rules to determine which emails should be sent securely to comply with regulations or policies. The company also provides a solution that analyzes and encrypts email communications. Its services offer users the ability to deliver encrypted email to any email user at any email address by using the ZixCorp Best Method of Delivery protocol that automatically determines the direct and appropriate means of delivery, based on the sender?s and recipient?s communications environment and preferences. Zix Corporation sells its services through a direct sales force, and a network of resellers and other distribution partners. The company was formerly known as ZixIt Corporation and changed its name to Zix Corporation in 2002. Zix Corporation was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Zix (Nasdaq: ZIXI ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on April 23. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:
The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Zix's revenues will expand 15.0% and EPS will wither 0.0%.
Top 10 Tech Stocks For 2014: China Mobile(Hong Kong)
China Mobile Limited, an investment holding company, provides mobile telecommunications and related services primarily in the Mainland China. It offers various services comprising local calls, domestic long distance calls, international long distance calls, domestic roaming, and international roaming. The company also provides voice value-added services, including caller identity display, caller restrictions, call waiting, call forwarding, call holding, voice mail, and conference calls; customer-to-customer messages and corporate short message services; and mobile Internet access services. In addition, it engages in other data businesses, which primarily include multimedia messaging services; color ring services that enable users to customize the answer ring tone from various selection of songs, melodies, sound effects, or voice recordings; and mobile reading, mobile gaming, mobile video, mobile payment/wallet, mobile TV, mobile market, and Internet data center services. F urther, the company offers telecommunications network planning, design, and consulting services; roaming clearance services; technology platform development and maintenance services; and mobile data solutions, and system integration and development services, as well as operates a network and business coordination center. Additionally, China Mobile Limited sells mobile phone handsets and devices. As of March 31, 2011, it served approximately 600.8 million customers. The company was formerly known as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited and changed its name to China Mobile Limited in May 2006. China Mobile was founded in 1997. The company is based in Central, Hong Kong, and is considered a Red Chip company due to its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. China Mobile Limited is a subsidiary of China Mobile Hong Kong (BVI) Limited.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By GuruFocus]
China Mobile Ltd. was incorporated under the laws of Hong Kong on Sept. 3, 1997, as a limited liability company under the name China Telecom (Hong Kong) Limited. China Mobile Ltd. has a market cap of $194.9 billion; its shares were traded at around $48.48 with a P/E ratio of 9.70 and P/S ratio of 2.20. The dividend yield of China Mobile Ltd. stocks is 4.20%. China Mobile Ltd. had an annual average earnings growth of 16.60% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated China Mobile Ltd.�the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.
Top 10 Tech Stocks For 2014: Facebook Inc (FB)
Facebook, Inc. (Facebook), incorporated in July 2004, is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers. People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around them, and to share and express what matters to them to the people they care about. Developers can use the Facebook Platform to build applications and Websites that integrate with Facebook to reach its global network of users and to build personalized and social products. Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of its users based on information they have chosen to share with the Company, such as their age, location, gender, or interests. It offers advertisers a combination of reach, relevance, social context and engagement.
Products for Users
The Company�� products for users are free of charge and available on the Web, mobile Web, and mobile platforms, such as Android and iOS. It launched Timeline in September 2011, as an enhanced and updated version of the Facebook Profile. Timeline allows users to organize and display the events and activities that matter most to them, enabling them to curate their memories in a searchable personal narrative that is organized chronologically. Users choose what information to share on their Timeline, such as their interests, photos, education, work history, relationship status, and contact information, and users can control with whom each piece of content is shared on their Timeline. The Facebook News Feed is the core feature of a user�� homepage and is a regularly updating list of stories from friends, Pages, and other entities to which a user is connected on Facebook. It includes posts, photos, event updates, group memberships, app updates, and other activities. Each user�� News Feed is personalized based on his or her interests and the sharing activity of the user�� friends.
Facebook is a photo upload! ing service on the Web. Users can upload an unlimited number of high resolution photos, create photo albums, and share them with their friends or any audience they choose. Users can also upload and share videos. Users can set specific privacy settings for each of their photo albums and videos, making them visible to everyone, or only to certain friends. Users can arrange their photos, add captions, and tag people in a photo or video. Tagging allows users to identify a person in a photo or video as one of their friends. Its messaging products include email, chat, and text messaging. Groups are shared Facebook pages for groups of users to discuss common interests. Lists allow users to organize their friends in order to filter the stories shown in their News Feeds and reach or exclude specific people when they share on Facebook. Through Events, users can organize gatherings, manage invitations, and send event notifications and reminders to their friends. From the Events page, users can create a new event, check out upcoming events of interest to them and their friends, and view previous events.
Through Places, users can share their location and see where their friends are. They are able to see if any of their friends are nearby. Users can also check in to Places to tell their friends where they are, tag their friends in the Places they visit, or view Comments their friends have made about the Places they visit. Using Subscribe, users can sign up to receive public posts in their News Feeds from other Facebook users of interest, such as celebrities, thought leaders, and other public figures. Ticker is a live stream of the real-time activities of a user�� friends and the Pages and other entities to which the user is connected. On the top of each Facebook page, a highlighted icon is displayed to users when there is relevant and new information available to them, such as a new friend request, a new message from a friend, or an alert that the user has been tagged in a photo posted by a friend.
A Facebook Page is a public profile that allows anyone, including artists, public figures, businesses, brands, organizations, and charities to create a presence on Facebook and engage with the Facebook community. A Page owner can connect with interested users in order to provide updates, answer questions, receive feedback, or otherwise stimulate interest in the owner�� messages, products, and services. When a Facebook user likes a Page, the Page owner has the opportunity to publish stories to the user�� News Feed on an ongoing basis. In addition, when a Facebook user Likes or Comments on a post by a Page owner, that user�� action may be shared with the user�� friends via News Feed to drive awareness to a wider circle of users, increasing the Page�� exposure, recognition, and engagement. The Company does not charge for Pages, nor does it charge for the resulting organic distribution. As of March 31, 2012, there were more than 42 million Pages with 10 or more Likes, including Harvard, Lady Gaga, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Starbucks, and Boo (the World�� Cutest Dog), as well as millions of local businesses.Products for Developers
The Facebook Platform is a set of tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) that developers can use to build social apps on Facebook or to integrate their Websites with Facebook. As of March 31, 2012, more than nine million applications and Websites were integrated with Facebook. Some of the elements of the Facebook Platform include open graph, social plugins, payments, applications on Facebook, desktop applications, mobile applications and platform-integrated Websites. The Open Graph is a set of APIs that developers can use to build applications and Websites that enable users to share their activities with friends on Facebook. Social plugins are social features that developers can easily integrate with their Websites by incorporating a single line of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code.
Facebook provides an o! nline pay! ments infrastructure that enables developers to receive payments from users through a secure system. The Company has designed its Payments infrastructure to streamline the buying process between its users and developers. Its Payments system enables users to purchase virtual or digital goods from developers and third-party Websites by using debit and credit cards, PayPal, mobile phone payments, gift cards or other methods. Applications on Facebook run within the Facebook Website. The Facebook Platform has also enabled new types of social applications on Facebook beyond games to facilitate social sharing and discovery of music, news, television programming, and everyday interests, such as cooking, fitness, and travel. Developers can also build desktop apps that run on the operating system of a personal computer and offer experiences that are integrated with the Facebook Platform. The Facebook Platform for mobile has enabled developers to create engaging mobile applications that integrate with Facebook�� social and personalization capabilities. Websites can integrate with Facebook using social plugins, such as the Like button or design more deeply integrated social experiences built around users and their friends.
Products for Advertisers and Marketers
Facebook offers products that enable advertisers and marketers to leverage its combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement. When creating a Facebook ad, advertisers can specify a title, content, image, and destination Web page or Facebook Page to which a user is directed if he or she clicks on the ad. Advertisers can further engage their intended audiences by incorporating social context with their marketing messages. Social context includes actions a user�� friends have taken, such as Liking the advertiser�� Facebook Page. Ads with social context are shown only to a user�� friends, and the user�� privacy settings apply to social ads. It offers a range of ads with social context, from an ad with a sing! le Like b! utton to its Premium Ad paired with social context, which allows advertisers to highlight the interactions of a user�� friends with a brand or product.
Sponsored stories enable marketers to promote the stories they publish from their Facebook Page to users who have connected with the Page or to amplify the distribution of stories users are already sharing that are relevant to their marketing efforts. When advertisers create an ad campaign with Facebook, they specify the types of users they would like to reach based on information that users chose to share about their age, location, gender, relationship status, educational history, workplace, and interests. Advertisers choose to pay for their ads based on either cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on a fixed or bidded basis or cost per click (CPC) on a bidded basis. Facebook ad analytics enable advertisers to gain insights into which ads were displayed and clicked on. These analytics help advertisers make modifications to their ad campaigns. Advertisers with Facebook Pages can also view the number of users who Liked and Commented on their Page and a newly introduced metric, People Talking About This, which shows how many stories about their brand are being created and shared.
The Company competes with Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Cyworld, Mixi and vKontakte.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rex Moore]
In this installment of Investor Beat, Motley Fool analysts Matt Koppenheffer and Jason Moser explain why they're keeping a close eye on shares of CarMax (NYSE: KMX ) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) .
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
http://www.jhbuffalomeat.com For many American manufacturers, Internet sales can make or break a business. And with Cyber Monday gaining in popularity, many companies are turning attention to one-day Internet deals, promoted to potential consumers and current fans through email updates and Facebook (FB) posts. How Cyber Monday Began In 2005, shop.org debuted the term "Cyber Monday" in a news release hoping to persuade the public to shop online. E-commerce retailers had been looking for a way to highlight the spike in online spending seen the Monday after Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday allowed consumers to shop from their desk or home, with equal or better discounts to the stampedes, fights and long lines on Black Friday -- which was creeping into Thanksgiving. In 2013, comScore (SCOR) reported that Cyber Monday sales topped $1.735 billion -- an 18 percent increase from 2012. Joining the Monday Campaign For smaller manufacturers trying to make a name for themselves stateside -- often only selling online -- Cyber Monday can be a blessing. Consumers looking for an extra-special gift can find unique items not available in stores. The Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. in Jackson, Wyoming, does 60 percent of its business online and will embrace Cyber Monday for the first time this year. Owner Dan Marino purchased the company, which was founded in 1947, in 1997, when the Internet started to take off. He saw an opportunity to expand by offering the highest quality all-natural raised-in-the-USA products to those outside of Wyoming. "We do custom gift packs and corporate gifts, and we ship all over the USA," he said. "I saw a great opportunity to really make the Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. into a national supplier of game-type healthy meats, and make this company a household name brand." The Great Alaskan Bowl Co. in Fairbanks, Alaska, has used the Internet to sell it one-piecebowls, from sustainably harvested birch, to the rest of the United States -- and as far as Ind
Top 10 Tech Stocks For 2014: Zynga Inc (ZNGA)
Zynga Inc. (Zynga), is a provider of social game services with 240 million average monthly active users over 175 countries. The Company develops, markets and operates online social games as live services played over the Internet and on social networking sites and mobile platforms. The Company�� games are accessible on Facebook, other social networks and mobile platforms to players globally, wherever and whenever they want. It operates its games as live services. All of its games are free to play, and it generates revenue through the in-game sale of virtual goods and advertising. In March 2012, the Company acquired New York-based social game developer OMGPOP, makers of the cultural hit mobile game, Draw Something, and over 35 additional social games. In 2012, the Company launched several new games, including Hidden Chronicles, Zynga Bingo, Scramble With Friends, Slingo and Dream Heights.
Social Games
The Company designs its social games to provide players with shared experiences. Its social games leverage the global connectivity and distribution on Facebook, other social networks and mobile platforms, such as Apple iOS and Google Android. Its games are free to play, span a number of genres. It operates its games as live services and updates them with content and features. Its games include CityVille, Zynga Poker, FarmVille, CastleVille, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars and Word with Friends.
Virtual Goods
The Company�� primary revenue source is the sale of virtual currency, which players use to buy in-game virtual goods. Some forms of virtual currency are earned through game play, while other forms can only be acquired for cash or, in some cases, by accepting promotional offers from its advertising partners.
Advertising
The Company�� advertising services offer ways for marketers and advertisers to reach and engage with its players. Its advertising offerings include branded virtual goods and sponsorships, engagement ads, mobil! e ads and display Ads. It offers branded virtual goods and sponsorships integrate advertising within game play; Engagement Ads and Offers, in which players can answer certain questions or sign up for third party services to receive virtual currency; Mobile Ads through ad-supported free versions of its mobile games such as Words with Friends and Display Ads in its online web games include banner advertisements.
The Company competes with Crowdstar, Inc., DeNA, Electronic Arts Inc., King.com, The Walt Disney Company, Vostu, Ltd. wooga GmbH, Amazon.com, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation , Tencent Holdings Limited, Apple, Electronic Arts, GREE, DeNA Co. Ltd., Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Rovio Mobile Ltd , Storm8, Inc., Activision Blizzard, Inc., Big Fish Games, Inc., Electronic Arts, SEGA of America, Inc., and THQ Inc..
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sue Chang and Polya Lesova]
Internet-related stocks, viewed as a high-growth sector by analysts, were again weak. Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) �declined 0.9%, Groupon Inc. (GRPN) �lost 0.9%, Pandora Media Inc. (P) dropped 1.7%, and Yelp Inc. (YELP) �retreated 0.1%.
- [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]
Zynga provides a social game experience to consumers all around the world. The price of Bitcoin shot up past $1,000 Monday after the company�announced it would test using the digital currency as payment. The stock has remained in a range for most of the last couple of years, but is now surging higher. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been increasing while revenues have been decreasing, which has pleased investors. Relative to its peers and sector, Zynga has been a relative year-to-date performance leader. Look for Zynga to OUTPERFORM.
Top 10 Tech Stocks For 2014: Orbotech Ltd.(ORBK)
Orbotech Ltd. engages in designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing, and servicing yield-enhancing and production solutions for specialized applications in the supply chain of the electronics industry. The company?s products include automated optical inspection (AOI), automated optical repair, laser direct imaging, digital legend printing, laser drilling, laser plotters, computer-aided manufacturing, and engineering solutions for printed circuit boards (PCBs) and other electronics component manufacturing; and AOI, test, repair, and process monitoring systems for flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing. It also develops and markets character recognition solutions and services primarily to banks, financial institutions, and other payment processing institutions for use in check and healthcare payment processing. In addition, the company is involved in the research and development of products for the deposition of anti-reflective coating on crystalline silicon photovolta ic wafers for solar energy panels. It primarily serves manufacturer of PCB, FPD, liquid crystal displays, and other electronic components worldwide. The company was formerly known as Optrotech Ltd. and changed its name to Orbotech Ltd. as a result of its merger with Orbot Systems Ltd. in October 1992. Orbotech Ltd. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Yavne, Israel.
Advisors' Opinion:- [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 Orbotech (Nasdaq: ORBK ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top 10 Tech Stocks For 2014: Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc.(CNSL)
Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services to residential and business customers in Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Its telecommunications services include local and long-distance services, high-speed broadband Internet access, standard and high-definition digital television, digital telephone services, custom calling features, private line services, carrier access services, network capacity services over its regional fiber optic network, and competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) services. The company also offers telephone directory publishing services, wholesale transport services on its fiber-optic network in Texas, billing and collection services, inside wiring services, and maintenance services. In addition, it provides automated calling services for correctional facilities; and sells and supports telecommunications equipment, such as key, private branch exchange, and IP-based telephone system s to business customers in Texas and Illinois. The company serves residential customers, and universities and hospitals, as well as retail, commercial, light manufacturing, and service industry accounts in Illinois; manufacturing and retail industries, hospitals, local governments, and school districts in Texas; and small to mid-sized businesses, educational institutions, and healthcare facilities in Pennsylvania. As of December 31, 2011, it had 227,992 local access lines, 110,913 digital subscriber lines, 34,356 Internet protocol digital television subscribers, 9,199 voice over Internet protocol, and 89,774 CLEC access line equivalents. The company was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Mattoon, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By David Dittman]
Answer: I�� leery of the rural telecoms right now. I do recommend Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NSDQ: CNSL) in the UF Income Portfolio, but it benefits from a JV with Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) that generates substantial cash flow and sets it apart from its peers, who are otherwise struggling against declines in traditional wireline businesses as well as intense competition from bigger, better-funded national players in broadband and business service.
- [By David Dittman]
Second, your thoughts on Consolidated Communications Holding Inc (NSDQ: CNSL). I have a large position with an average cost of under 16. Thanks, UF!
- [By Seth Jayson]
Consolidated Communications Holdings (Nasdaq: CNSL ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on May 9. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:
- [By Garrett Cook]
In trading on Tuesday, telecommunications services shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.88 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR), up 14.81 percent, and Consolidated Communications Holdings (NASDAQ: CNSL), up 7.6 percent.
Top 10 Tech Stocks For 2014: Fluidigm Corporation(FLDM)
Fluidigm Corporation engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of microfluidic systems for growth markets in the life science and agricultural biotechnology (Ag-Bio) industries. The company?s proprietary microfluidic systems consist of instruments and consumables, including chips (integrated fluidic circuits) and reagents. Its technology enables customers to perform and measure various biochemical reactions on samples smaller than the content of a single cell by utilizing minute volumes of reagents and samples; and rapid preparation of multiple samples in parallel for next generation DNA sequencing. The company?s products include the BioMark HD system, which performs high-throughput gene expression analysis using real-time and end point PCR, SNP genotyping, single-cell analysis, and digital PCR using TaqMan, EvaGreen dye, and other chemistries; The EP1 System that performs end point PCR and is commonly used in production settings for Ag-Bio, digital PCR, and copy number variation experiments using TaqMan, EvaGreen dye, and other chemistries; and the Access Array system that enables automated sample preparation and tagging for next generation DNA sequencers. The company serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions, diagnostic laboratories, and Ag-Bio companies. Fluidigm Corporation distributes its instruments and supplies through direct field sales and support organizations in North America, Europe, and Japan; and through distributors or sales agents in parts of Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. The company was formerly known as Mycometrix Corporation and changed its name to Fluidigm Corporation in April 2001. Fluidigm Corporation was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Basic guidelines
In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at Fluidigm (Nasdaq: FLDM ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is Fluidigm doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, pretty well. Trailing-12-month revenue increased 24.0%, and inventory increased 14.4%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks decent. Revenue expanded 32.8%, and inventory increased 14.4%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks worrisome. Revenue dropped 7.2%, and inventory grew 2.8%.
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