The technology industry saw a nice uptick in mergers and acquisitions activity in 2010. The total transaction amount doubled from the previous year to $107.1 billion, while the number of deals increased by 73% to 165, according to a recent report from PwC’s Transaction… Read More

In investing, assets that have performed well in the past have a good chance of continuing to do well in the future. This is especially true when the factors that have driven the outperformance remain in place to drive the future performance. Investment research firm Lipper recently released data detailing the best investments of the past decade. Below is an overview of the top five performers of the past 10 years. As you will see, a couple of recurring factors have driven the stellar results, so I expect them to continue to do so for many more years for a… Read More

In investing, assets that have performed well in the past have a good chance of continuing to do well in the future. This is especially true when the factors that have driven the outperformance remain in place to drive the future performance. Investment research firm Lipper recently released data detailing the best investments of the past decade. Below is an overview of the top five performers of the past 10 years. As you will see, a couple of recurring factors have driven the stellar results, so I expect them to continue to do so for many more years for a number of these top performers. 1. Precious metals Annual gains in the past decade: 25.4% Precious metals such as gold and silver were used in the past as currencies, but these days they qualify primarily as an alternative asset under the commodity asset class. In addition to gold and silver, this category also consists of metals such as platinum, palladium and diamonds. This investment class collectively had its best decade in more than 30 years, as demand for metals increased for… Read More

It can pay to keep an eye on companies that have been public for only a few quarters. Many of them stumble out of the gate and get lost in the crowd. By the time these companies start to get back on track, you may be one of the few… Read More

Income investing has an unfair stigma attached to it. The conventional wisdom says invest in dividend payers — also known as “widow and orphan” stocks — if you’re just trying to stash your money somewhere. If you actually want to earn a decent return, then… Read More

For much of the past 18 months, it’s been fair to question whether the economy is truly on the mend. Not anymore. The recent employment trends have started cement a new reality: companies are starting to rebuild their workforces and consumer spending may finally turn up to a higher… Read More

The price of oil is around $110 a barrel. This with nearly 9% unemployment, anemic consumer spending and less-than-robust growth in the United States and European Union. Even China and India’s economic juggernauts are beginning to decelerate. It’s time to think about the inevitable future. And I think things are going to get better. We’re in the early stages — leaders are starting to put forth serious, detailed plans to significantly reduce federal outlays, including a complete overhaul of Medicare and Social Security. I think… Read More

The price of oil is around $110 a barrel. This with nearly 9% unemployment, anemic consumer spending and less-than-robust growth in the United States and European Union. Even China and India’s economic juggernauts are beginning to decelerate. It’s time to think about the inevitable future. And I think things are going to get better. We’re in the early stages — leaders are starting to put forth serious, detailed plans to significantly reduce federal outlays, including a complete overhaul of Medicare and Social Security. I think we’ll see a balanced budget before the end of the decade, as well as an honest-to-goodness budget surplus. I predict that Washington’s spending, currently around 25% of GDP, will fall dramatically in the coming years as these events unfold. When that occurs — notice I’m not hedging my bets here with conditional language like “if” — two things will result: 1. Businesses will be created as the nation’s entrepreneurs begin to feel more optimistic about the long-term future and more comfortable taking risks. We’ll see this in… Read More

Score one for the bulls. When I recommended shares of Couer D’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE) back in late January, there was a raging debate about whether silver prices would rally to new highs or finally come back to earth. I thought the bulls had a stronger case,… Read More

It’s fun to be right about a stock and I picked a real winner. Since I wrote about it on Nov. 11, 2010, this stock’s value has soared more than 35%, from around $39 a share to $53, compared with barely a 10% gain for the S&P 500. Read More

How does a $500 million company become a $1 billion company? The same way a $10 billion company turns into a $20 billion company: One dollar at a time. Investors have a lot of ways to count those dollars, or, more specifically, they have… Read More

When seeking out new investment ideas, I like to run stock screens to find companies that are inexpensive and relatively “safe.” Of course, one of the safest kinds of companies is one that is profitable, yet also has lots of cash on the books. In fact, some companies are so cash-rich that even after accounting for any borrowings, their cash can equate to 20%, 30% or even 40% of the entire company’s market value.  If you think about it, that also means these companies are fairly loathed by investors. Read More

When seeking out new investment ideas, I like to run stock screens to find companies that are inexpensive and relatively “safe.” Of course, one of the safest kinds of companies is one that is profitable, yet also has lots of cash on the books. In fact, some companies are so cash-rich that even after accounting for any borrowings, their cash can equate to 20%, 30% or even 40% of the entire company’s market value.  If you think about it, that also means these companies are fairly loathed by investors. It’s not just that they have so much cash, it also means their market value has slumped so low that the company isn’t really worth much more than that cash. All of the companies on the list above have real problems. Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), for example, has seen its shares fall back to levels seen in 1998, as sales growth has slowed. And all of that cash can’t always buy happiness. Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) has made a half-dozen key acquisitions in the past two years, yet analysts still think sales will only grow 4% to… Read More