Sooner or later, every company’s growth prospects hit a wall. Companies that grow rapidly have an even tougher time, as the corporate culture is built around rapid expansion and growing market share as quickly as possible. Technology firms, in particular, face intense competition and short product-development cycles,  making it… Read More

In recent years, Warren Buffett seems to have drifted from his roots. The legendary investor was a pure disciple of Graham & Dodd, seeking out companies that possessed clear tangible value, either in the form of a rock-solid balance sheet or under-appreciated equity in its brand. More recently, Buffett started to look like a lot of other portfolio managers, shifting into stocks that were in high-growth mode. More important, he no longer seemed inclined to hold stocks for the long haul, shuffling some positions with — for him — a high… Read More

In recent years, Warren Buffett seems to have drifted from his roots. The legendary investor was a pure disciple of Graham & Dodd, seeking out companies that possessed clear tangible value, either in the form of a rock-solid balance sheet or under-appreciated equity in its brand. More recently, Buffett started to look like a lot of other portfolio managers, shifting into stocks that were in high-growth mode. More important, he no longer seemed inclined to hold stocks for the long haul, shuffling some positions with — for him — a high degree of frequency. And when he bought into risky but potentially lucrative special investments from the likes of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) at the height of the financial crisis, the Buffett we once knew seemed to have truly changed his stripes. (That Goldman stake is now worth more than $5 billion and will likely be bought out by Goldman in coming quarters.) You can’t blame him. Value investing hasn’t been as profitable as in decades past and Buffett simply learned to “beat the market at its own game.” Kudos to the elderly investor for showing the flexibility… Read More

Before the explosive growth of the new fangled Internet machine, apartment and house hunters relied on the classified ads in the local newspaper or the slick-paper, free real estate guides that were strategically placed outside of grocery store entrances and in other high-traffic retail areas. Well, free to the… Read More

For more than a century now, small-cap stocks have outperformed large caps quite reliably. Sure, some years are better than others and some years are downright bad. But throughout the past 80 years, small caps have averaged an annual gain of 11.0%, while large caps have averaged an annual gain… Read More

So far this year, the market (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) has rallied almost 5%. In stark contrast, this leading big-box retailer is down about 15% to start off 2011 and is trading near its lows of 2010. I can’t find any valid reason for this near-term… Read More

Given the popularity of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android phones in the United States, it would be tempting for investors to think the growth story behind the smartphone revolution is almost over. But that’s not the case. In fact, it may be just… Read More

The stock market has seen plenty of ups and downs in the past 25 years. Through it all, hedge fund Baupost Group’s Seth Klarman has managed to stay on the right side of the ledger, racking up an average annual gain of about 20%. Read More

A profitable investment strategy is to buy into a stock with a major catalyst that can potentially take hold and send a stock price higher. That’s obviously easier said than done, but many savvy investors who identify a catalyst early on can often… Read More

How many ways are there to value a stock? Too many, which is why the market’s participants rarely agree on which stock truly is “the most undervalued” name. That one-dimensional approach, though — where a measure like a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio or earnings growth is used as the yardstick — is the very reason the hunt for value doesn’t always find a winner. A truly undervalued stock looks good by all the relevant measures. Such an approach certainly whittles down the number of truly… Read More

How many ways are there to value a stock? Too many, which is why the market’s participants rarely agree on which stock truly is “the most undervalued” name. That one-dimensional approach, though — where a measure like a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio or earnings growth is used as the yardstick — is the very reason the hunt for value doesn’t always find a winner. A truly undervalued stock looks good by all the relevant measures. Such an approach certainly whittles down the number of truly great candidates, but that’s the whole point. And which stock in the S&P 500 is the most undervalued right now? It’s (drum roll please…) railroad company Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP). To be clear, Union Pacific isn’t more attractive than any other S&P 500 constituent based on any one single criterion. It is, however, near the top of the leader board for the greatest number of criteria, making the sum of those numbers the compelling aspect that makes it worth considering for your portfolio. Take its P/E ratio for instance. Union Pacific’s trailing-twelve-month P/E is… Read More

The stock market always looks ahead. That old axiom has never been more true as investors seek out companies that are slumping now but poised for better days ahead. Just look at the stock charts of Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) and Sandridge Energy… Read More