It’s time to write the obituary for traditional cell phones. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has changed the game with its iPhone, and there are now a raft of other smartphones on the market as well. My favorite play on this theme is Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA), which was a… Read More

After a furious two-month rally that has pushed the major indices to yearly highs, it seems to be an appropriate time to look at stocks that have been receiving perhaps too much investor affection. When the market takes a breather, these are often the first stocks to be dumped by momentum investors. So, I ran a screen for stocks that have risen at least +40% in the last three months and sport projected 2011 price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples above 40. There are surely some high-growth names here, but there are also… Read More

After a furious two-month rally that has pushed the major indices to yearly highs, it seems to be an appropriate time to look at stocks that have been receiving perhaps too much investor affection. When the market takes a breather, these are often the first stocks to be dumped by momentum investors. So, I ran a screen for stocks that have risen at least +40% in the last three months and sport projected 2011 price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples above 40. There are surely some high-growth names here, but there are also low-growth stocks that, at least at first glance, don’t merit such a strong move. The logical rebounders Some of these stocks are here simply because they were likely too undervalued earlier in the summer. Back in July, I suggested that Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), trading at $120, was due for a rally and predicted that “as investors start to once again embrace the company’s robust long-term outlook, shares should eventually power past the $150 mark seen earlier this spring.” With shares now at $170, it’s hard to… Read More

My colleague David Sterman recently wrote a piece about the challenges investors face when they spot a company they would love to own, but the stock is just too darn expensive. [Read Dave’s article here] The basic takeaway is to keep a close eye on the stock in hopes that an opportunity arises to pick it up at a more appealing valuation. About a decade ago, a specialty apparel retailer had a stock that qualified as a small cap and flew under the radar screen of most investors. Read More

My colleague David Sterman recently wrote a piece about the challenges investors face when they spot a company they would love to own, but the stock is just too darn expensive. [Read Dave’s article here] The basic takeaway is to keep a close eye on the stock in hopes that an opportunity arises to pick it up at a more appealing valuation. About a decade ago, a specialty apparel retailer had a stock that qualified as a small cap and flew under the radar screen of most investors. But between about 2003 and 2006, the market began to take note of its stellar growth prospects, and sent the shares up more than ten-fold. Like Dave describes in his article, I thought I missed the boat, as the stock has risen only slightly and the valuation has remained rich, which means there have been only a few brief opportunities to pick up the shares on the cheap. One of those opportunity exists now, because the stock is bumping along its lows of the past year, which I atribte simply to… Read More

As cliche as the term “stocks on sale” has become, there’s still something exciting about grabbing a great stock for less than five bucks a share. They just seem well equipped to dole out bigger rewards — in terms of percentage gains — than their higher-priced counterparts. Read More

Investing would be so much easier with a time machine. A person could simply go back in time and buy today’s industry behemoths while they were still just up and coming regular companies. Too bad there’s no such thing as a time machine. However,… Read More

Commodity prices are surging. But rather than recommending a pure commodity play for this week’s trade, I’m intrigued by a stock that not only benefits from strong commodity prices, but also more profits for farmers. And with farmers seeing fatter… Read More

By now most investors are aware of the immense impact China has had on global commodity markets. In many cases, prices have exploded upwards as the country’s billion-plus people modernize its economy. But… Read More

Do you know what the National Academy of Engineering named as the world’s greatest engineering feat? It wasn’t the pyramids. It wasn’t Hoover Dam. It wasn’t the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 2,717 feet, either. It was the United States’ electrical grid. Read More

If I had to pick a stock that offered indefinite growth potential, I’d bet big on a fungus. My choice for “The Best Growth Stock to Hold Forever” is a biotech pioneer called Dyadic International (OTC: DYAI). Most people have never heard of this little Florida-based gem, but in the coming years, I think it will rise to prominence as one of the nation’s leading bio-industrial concern, supplying several key sectors of the economy with vital tools to carry out a host of manufacturing tasks. This maker of specialty enzymes has this lock… Read More

If I had to pick a stock that offered indefinite growth potential, I’d bet big on a fungus. My choice for “The Best Growth Stock to Hold Forever” is a biotech pioneer called Dyadic International (OTC: DYAI). Most people have never heard of this little Florida-based gem, but in the coming years, I think it will rise to prominence as one of the nation’s leading bio-industrial concern, supplying several key sectors of the economy with vital tools to carry out a host of manufacturing tasks. This maker of specialty enzymes has this lock on the future because it owns a special fungus called C-1. In the hands of genetic engineers — Dyadic CEO Mark Emalfarb calls them “gene jockeys,” C-1 can be programmed to generate vast quantities of enzymes. One of the key areas that will be effected is the pharmaceutical industry. Many of today’s leading drugs are the result not simply of a certain chemical formula — made by mixing those chemicals together and stamping out pills — but of certain biological processes. That is, the medicine you take, one way or another, is the result of a process… Read More

Four years ago this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an important milestone: 12,000. A year later, in October 2007, the venerable index moved past 14,000. But by October 2008, headlines blared “Dow 8,000” before eventually bottoming at 7,200 in March of 2009. A furious rebound has the Dow back on the rise, surging +54% in the past 19 months to a recent 11,100. A continued march back to 12,000 is no sure thing, as serious headwinds remain, leading some to expect we’ll see “Dow 10,000” before “Dow 12,000.”… Read More

Four years ago this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an important milestone: 12,000. A year later, in October 2007, the venerable index moved past 14,000. But by October 2008, headlines blared “Dow 8,000” before eventually bottoming at 7,200 in March of 2009. A furious rebound has the Dow back on the rise, surging +54% in the past 19 months to a recent 11,100. A continued march back to 12,000 is no sure thing, as serious headwinds remain, leading some to expect we’ll see “Dow 10,000” before “Dow 12,000.” One thing’s for sure: recent history tells us that the Dow is unlikely to stay put where it is right now. Volatility is the name of the game these days, so let’s look at three positive and three negative catalysts that could push or pull the Dow to the next milestone. Any of these factors may play out over the next six months. The positive catalysts: 1. Sustained profit growth. Earnings season is off to a robust start. Thus far, more than 80%… Read More