In the world of high-speed wireless technology, known as 4G, you can bet on two horses: WiMax, which is a long-distance version of Wi-Fi, or LTE, which stands for Long-Term Evolution. Sprint (NYSE: S) has staked its fortunes on WiMax, and has an early head start, while Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) are expected to roll out LTE later this year and into 2011. Sprint made that WiMax bet after becoming a major shareholder in Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), a pure-play high-speed wireless provider in the process of rolling out service in major American cities. Read More

In the world of high-speed wireless technology, known as 4G, you can bet on two horses: WiMax, which is a long-distance version of Wi-Fi, or LTE, which stands for Long-Term Evolution. Sprint (NYSE: S) has staked its fortunes on WiMax, and has an early head start, while Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) are expected to roll out LTE later this year and into 2011. Sprint made that WiMax bet after becoming a major shareholder in Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), a pure-play high-speed wireless provider in the process of rolling out service in major American cities. Trouble is, Clearwire just announced it is having second thoughts. Perhaps LTE is indeed a solid choice after all, mused company CEO Bill Morrow on a conference call with investors Wednesday night. He conceded what many industry watchers already knew: that LTE is capable of carrying much higher volumes of high-speed data than WiMax. That’s bit hard to swallow for investors, as Clearwire has already consumed massive amounts of capital with its WiMax bet. More customers = more losses Clearwire has been an impressive growth story — as long as you ignore the rest of the… Read More

One might think that just because the economy stinks and consumers have cut back on spending that any stock described as being “retail” would be in trouble. For the most part, that would be right. However, there is a relatively unknown… Read More

At the behest of a key shareholder, bookseller Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is in search of a potential suitor. Yet the company’s prospects are dimming, and it’s unclear if any such buyer exists. If you own this stock, look to take profits now. If you don’t, it may be… Read More

Many investors would be surprised to learn from which country the United States imports the greatest amount of oil. It’s not Saudi Arabia. It’s not Russia. And while Venezuela is high on the list, it’s not that nation either. The answer is Canada. In… Read More

The coming months could prove to be an enticing time for investors. Many stocks are trading well off their highs under the assumption that the coming streams of economic data will prove to be disheartening. If we indeed are in for a tough slog in the months and quarters ahead,… Read More

Rarely do I see so many equities in the same sector come up as “top picks” as I have seen this week in my research. Normally, there will be a small bias to one sector or another, but 80% of the top 20 scoring equities are all from the same… Read More

Call it the winner’s curse. When companies grow at fast clip for a long time, investors come to assume they’ll never slow. Of course, all companies eventually grow too large to keep posting explosive growth. Some settle into a more moderate — but still respectable — plane of growth, while… Read More

When officers and directors decide to buy their company’s stock with their own cash, it’s invariably seen as a bullish sign for shares. Yet when they decide to sell, investors need not necessarily be overly concerned. Perhaps shares have had a nice run… Read More

We’d all love to find a way to find that +1,000% gainer. To capture this kind of upside, investors will have to take their chances on companies that may have a great future but little to show for it right now. These speculative plays, more often than not, fail to… Read More

After starting the year on a high note, economic worries and uncertainty over the current earnings season have caused volatility to return to the stock market. As a result, the market for initial public offerings (IPOs) remains tepid. And recent performance statistics place overall IPO returns in negative territory so far in 2010. Despite the tough IPO market, there are still a number of stocks that have done quite well. Below is an overview of the most popular and best performing IPOs during the… Read More

After starting the year on a high note, economic worries and uncertainty over the current earnings season have caused volatility to return to the stock market. As a result, the market for initial public offerings (IPOs) remains tepid. And recent performance statistics place overall IPO returns in negative territory so far in 2010. Despite the tough IPO market, there are still a number of stocks that have done quite well. Below is an overview of the most popular and best performing IPOs during the past year. Better yet, they still have plenty of room to run as the business cycle heats up and each firm has the ability to expand its market reach significantly after raising funds from their recent offerings. Tesla Motors Inc (Nasdaq: TSLA) Business: Auto Manufacturing Trailing 12-month Revenue: $111.9 Million Tesla’s IPO was one of the more widely covered and popular IPOs of the year. The firm is still tiny by many measures, including revenue just over $100 million during the past year and a market capitalization of… Read More