Back in the mid-1980s, I was a bit of a computer nerd. I was not only fluent in basic (a programming language now deader than Latin), but also probably the only kid in school who new what DOS stood for. That would be “disk operating system” for… Read More

Investors breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday morning when Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) delivered a fairly impressive quarter. Shares, which had been close to a 52-week low, are up more than +6%. Were it not for the large group of investors that see real danger in the consumer economy, shares would have posted even stronger gains. Six months from now, when Best Buy is discussing holiday season sales, those concerns should be officially put to bed. Meanwhile, shares are awfully cheap, which sets the stage for… Read More

Investors breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday morning when Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) delivered a fairly impressive quarter. Shares, which had been close to a 52-week low, are up more than +6%. Were it not for the large group of investors that see real danger in the consumer economy, shares would have posted even stronger gains. Six months from now, when Best Buy is discussing holiday season sales, those concerns should be officially put to bed. Meanwhile, shares are awfully cheap, which sets the stage for one of the best retail plays ahead of the holiday season. Before we look ahead, it’s important to see what is driving profits in the near-term. To be sure, consumer spending remains cautious: same-store sales fell -0.1% in the quarter, which is actually below the +2% growth rate in consumer incomes seen in recent periods. There is also a dearth of hot new items that consumers must own right now. #-ad_banner-#But that’s about to change. In the next few months, expect to hear about a wave of new consumer electronics devices, especially those that… Read More

Every Monday, I like to look at all the stocks that saw fresh rounds of insider buying in the previous week. Such so-called insider buying can alert you to undervalued stocks before most investors take note. That’s because insiders (defined as any officer or director of a company, or any… Read More

One of the reasons Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was such a great stock for so many years was that it was essentially a monopoly. And even the most inexperienced investor should know that a monopoly is one of the best investments one can make. Read More

With economic growth potentially stagnating, large firms are resorting to buying market share by acquiring rivals or know-how that will help them grow fast and stay one step ahead of the competition. M&A activity in the cash-rich technology industry has grown especially rampant… Read More

Back in the 1970s, with interest rates hovering above 10%, investors could earn a lot more money by simply owning bonds instead of stocks. Now, with interest rates at all-time lows in the modern era, the bonds vs. stocks debate is getting turned on its head. With bond yields stuck at low levels, stocks are comparatively much more attractive. That point has been noted by the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) at a wide range of blue-chip companies. These companies are increasingly realizing that they can alter their balance sheets to… Read More

Back in the 1970s, with interest rates hovering above 10%, investors could earn a lot more money by simply owning bonds instead of stocks. Now, with interest rates at all-time lows in the modern era, the bonds vs. stocks debate is getting turned on its head. With bond yields stuck at low levels, stocks are comparatively much more attractive. That point has been noted by the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) at a wide range of blue-chip companies. These companies are increasingly realizing that they can alter their balance sheets to provide some much-needed support to their flagging stock prices. And that’s a buy signal you shouldn’t ignore. When leverage is appropriate For a long time, many companies (especially in the field of high-tech) preferred to hold lots of cash and carry no debt. High cash balances were seen as a sign of strength in case any major economic slowdowns forced companies to burn cash to keep afloat. (Memories of the imploding dot-com bubble of a decade ago die hard.) Yet as we saw in the recent economic crisis, most large tech companies such as Microsoft… Read More

Investors often look for stocks that are “selling below book value.” That’s a fancy way of saying that the company’s stock market value is even lower than the assets (minus debts) it has sitting on its… Read More

Carl Icahn just can’t help himself. Rather than sit patiently and wait for his large investment in Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to ripen, he keeps pulling out his check book to buy another large block of the telecom giant’s stock. In late August, he bought another $111 million… Read More

To pull off a successful initial public offering (IPO), bankers need to drum up lots of interest. That’s bad news for companies that went public last month. Many investors and traders tend to take time off in August, and demand for… Read More

Rapid hardware and software innovation are working to shift the world from a PC-centric focus to servers, smart phones and a stunning number of related technology devices. However, the demise of the computer is greatly exaggerated, and though growth isn’t as robust at it used to be, recent trends are… Read More