The Bright Spot in Target's Dark Earnings Report

There wasn't much to like in Target's (NYSE: TGT  ) latest earnings results. Profits were down. Sales were lower than expected. And the company even ratcheted back its expectations for the rest of the year.

So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that investors ignored the good news that Target tried to play up, including a successful launch in Canada, much higher digital sales, and strong results from its city-sized store experiments. Wall Street sold the stock off anyway, sending shares down 4%.

But there was one piece of news buried in the retailer's conference call that I think could trump all of that: Target's customers are getting more loyal.

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Management said that the company's Red Card, its rewards program that offers shoppers 5% off, rose to a 17% penetration rate among its customer base. That's up from just 12% a year before.

If Target can keep converting shoppers to members, loyalty card growth should lay the foundation for big sales gains down the road.

Consider just how much of an impact these cards have had on some other businesses:

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX  ) : The coffee king is also the king of rewards cards. Starbucks counts over 6 million members in its loyalty program, who account for more than 30% of the company's U.S. transactions. Last quarter, those members added 32% more dollars onto their cards than in the year-ago period. We're talking billions of dollars. Starbucks' management credits that success with helping the company keep sales growth humming along, and coming in much less choppy than at other retailers.
  Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) : We know that Amazon customers spend more at the company's site after they make a switch to becoming members of its Prime shipping service. A lot more. By some estimates, we're talking $1,224 in annual spending at the site, or double what non-Prime customers spend. Amazon can thank its Prime service for helping deliver huge sales growth, which is why boosting the number of products it offers through the service remains such a big priority for the company.

Hitting the target
Target has seen equally encouraging early results on its customers' spending patterns. Households tend to boost their spending in stores by 50% after they start using the Red Card. Sure, those sales put pressure on profits, as more of them qualify for the 5% discount. But that's a good trade-off if it makes Target the first choice for more consumers' shopping needs.

The best news for Target here is that its oldest market, Kansas City, has a 20% penetration rate for its card, and that figure is still growing. So, the retailer has a big opportunity ahead to keep adding to its member base, increasing customer loyalty in the process.

The retail space is in the midst of the biggest paradigm shift since mail order took off at the turn of last century. Only those most forward-looking and capable companies will survive, and they'll handsomely reward those investors who understand the landscape. You can read about the 3 Companies Ready to Rule Retail in The Motley Fool's special report. Uncovering these top picks is free today; just click here to read more.

Is It Time To Sell The Rips Instead Of Buying The Dips?

Related BAC Wells Fargo Continues to Show Earnings Strength - Analyst Blog Benzinga Weekly Preview: Short, But Action Packed Week Ahead Week Ahead: Loads of Bank Earnings (Fox Business)

During major sell-offs over the last few years, the mainstream media will feature guests or analysts that preach "buy the dip."

It is hard to argue that this strategy has not been profitable, as the market has continued with its impressive run. These are many of same analysts, however, that said the same thing from mid-2007 and all of 2008.

Eventually they were correct, but how many investors threw in the towel during that time period and never came back to the market? Of course, it is nearly impossible to time the market, but there are times to adjust your trading strategies and take a different approach.

Now just be may be the time to sell the rips, instead of buying the dips.

Keep in mind that the nature of all bull markets, whether it be tulips, commodities or stocks, all end the same way. Months and years of slow incremental gains can be wiped out in a matter of days or months. The old saying "up like an escalator, down like an elevator" is applicable to almost any bull market over the course of time.

Related: When It Comes To Drug Stocks, Do Not Always Buy The News

Do not take the commonplace approach to the markets.

In other words, most investors who bought a stock at $20, watch it go to $80 and then pull back at $60, will not view their investment as a potential $40 gain.

Instead, investors will view exiting at $60 as taking a $20 loss (since that was its high) as opposed being content with a $40 gain. Taking on the mentality, when that stock gets back to $80, that will be the time to exit.

That is fine and dandy if and when the stock returns to that level. However, they do not make a contingency plan if the issue continues to decline. Perhaps if the issue drops to $50.00, they will lower their target to $70.00. But if the same catalysts are not in place that were present during its initial run, the issue may never return to its previous levels.

Case in point: Bank of America.

Another important factor that investors may ignore, is that during an issues decline, there are other investors or shorter-term traders that will pile into the issue. Following the "buy the dip" mentality, these investors will have much lower price targets for the issue and may be quicker to exit the issue on any further declines.

This further exacerbates the downward momentum as the process repeats itself time and time again. For example, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), which made an all-time high of $55.08 in February 2006 before declining to $2.53 in February 2009, has so much overhead supply than no matter what the company does, it will never recover to its all-time high.

The huge overhead supply in this issue, coupled with high-frequency traders that identify any huge sell orders and trade ahead of it, creates a wall resistance that may never allow the issue to return to $30 or $40, let alone $55.08.

So what does "sell the rips" really mean?

It means if an issue in your portfolio has retreated from its high, pick a few levels for an exit. One level on the upside -- before its all-time high -- where you would be content with the profit, and another one on the downside, where you can secure some gain instead of allowing the investment to turn into a loss.

If not willing or able to implement this strategy, one may want to consider a variety of options strategies that may lock-in gains and or prevent any further losses. Just have a plan, because there is only one prediction that always rings true: the markets are unpredictable.

Posted-In: Bank of America financial crisis Great RecessionEducation Long Ideas Short Ideas Technicals Psychology Economics Markets Trading Ideas General Best of Benzinga

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  Most Popular SEC Halts Trading Of GrowLife, Here's Why Five Star Stock Watch: Gilead Sciences IPO Outlook for Friday, April 11: City Office, Paycom Software, Farmland Partners & More UPDATE: GrowLife Issues Response to SEC Notice Goldman Sachs Visits With Tesla Management, Updates Each Business Category Short Interest in Groupon, Twitter On The Rise (GRPN, TWTR, ZNGA) Related Articles (BAC) Wells Fargo Continues to Show Earnings Strength - Analyst Blog Benzinga Weekly Preview: Short, But Action Packed Week Ahead Top 40 Upcoming Earnings Releases A Make or Break Week for Q1 Earnings Season - Earnings Preview Huge Earnings Miss: Is JPMorgan (JPM) Keeping Well? - Analyst Blog Is It Time To Sell The Rips Instead Of Buying The Dips? Around the Web, We're Loving... Yahoo Reportedly Searching for the Next 'House of Cards' Lightspeed Trading Presents: Effective Scalping with Rifle Charts on the Lightspeed Trader Platform Virgin America Scores Top Spot in US Airline Quality Create an Account With Options House and Get 150 Free Trades!

Why Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras (PBR) Stock Is Up Today

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras (PBR) was gaining 1.8% to $13.95 on news that it expects to receive the first or eight new pipe laying support vessels (PLSVs) this month.

The ships should help Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras boost crude oil production by allowing it to connect new wells to existing platforms more quickly. The company expects crude oil output to increase by 7.5% in 2014, up from 1.93 million bbl/day in 2013.

Must read: Warren Buffett's 10 Favorite Growth Stocks

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. TheStreet Ratings team rates PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER (PBR) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed ? some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its attractive valuation levels, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including poor profit margins, weak operating cash flow and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 7.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 0.2%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share. PBR's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 0.98 is weak. Net operating cash flow has decreased to $4,734.00 million or 16.58% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite a decrease in cash flow of 16.58%, PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER is in line with the industry average cash flow growth rate of -23.34%. The gross profit margin for PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 28.99%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the weak results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 7.75% is above that of the industry average. You can view the full analysis from the report here: PBR Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

Stock quotes in this article: PBR 

Vectren: Compounding Gains

Compounding never goes out of style; indeed, so far this year, stocks have sold off several times, only to bounce back to match or exceed all-time highs achieved at the end of 2013, observes Vita Nelson, editor of Direct Investing.

This is just the kind of action that leads many to wonder if the market is headed for a more substantial and prolonged decline. But there is also that nagging feeling that things could go the other way, and nobody wants to miss out on the next boom.

So investors become psychologically vulnerable if they don't follow a good system, such as dollar-cost averaging and dividend reinvestment. Those who stick with such a plan tend be able to weather any storm that sidetracks less logical traders and speculators.

Our strategy is to continue to invest on an ongoing basis through dividend reinvestment plans, such as those offered by our latest featured stock, Vectren (VVC).

The company was formed when Indiana Energy, which was founded in 1912, merged with SIGCORP in March 2000.

It operates in about two-thirds of Indiana, as well as west central Ohio, serving almost one million natural gas and 142,100 electricity customers, and logs about $2.5 billion in annual revenues.

Its Non-utility Group operates in three segments: Energy Marketing and Services, Coal Mining, and Energy Infrastructure Services.

Consensus estimates call for the company to earn about $2.23 per share this year, up from $2.12 in 2013, and to go on to net about $2.38 per share in 2015.

In October, the board of directors approved a boost in the quarterly dividend, from 35.5 to 36 cents per share, marking the 54th consecutive annual increase and providing a 3.8% yield.

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Medicare doctors: Who gets the big bucks & for what

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) The numbers are eye popping.

Medicare paid doctors $77 billion in 2012 to care for the nation's elderly and disabled, according to an unprecedented trove of data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Thousands of those providers, however, pulled in millions of dollars from the government program, which is funded by taxpayer dollars and premiums from its 50 million beneficiaries.

The data release marks the first time the government has made public detailed information on the services and procedures provided to Medicare patients by individual doctors. It also shows what health care professionals billed the government and what they were paid.

CNNMoney breaks down the numbers for you.

A tiny sliver of doctors at the top of the payment scale collect a sizable chunk of the payments. Granted, these providers don't always keep all of the money. They may have to reimburse drug companies or other providers for part of the service. And they have to pay for their office space, staff and other expenses.

Not surprisingly, Florida doctors are at the top of the list of high-chargers, which are the top 2%. There are a lot of senior citizens in the Sunshine State, after all. But it's not the only place where Medicare millionaires can be found.

One might think a cardiac procedure would be the most expensive Medicare charge ... but it's actually treatments for prostate cancer and hemophilia. Medicare payment rates are set by law, but vary by geography. Some of the differences are notable. For instance, Medicare pays nearly $11,000 for implanting a cochlear hearing device in Arizona, but only $800 in Wisconsin.

Medicare pays for an incredibly wide range of medical services. There are about 6,000 procedure codes, with the most commonly billed being office visits and blood tests.

Want to know how much your doctor collected from Medicare or what the government pays for a certain procedure? Check out the database.

Earnings On The Way: Which Big Bank Will Shine This Time?

The nation's banks are ready to report first quarter earnings as JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo Wells Fargo lead the way on Friday.

The story around big banks has been similar over the last several quarters as they all face revenue growth problems, loan demand struggles, expenses, legal troubles, regulatory and capital issues.

JPMorgan will report early Friday morning and many are expecting the New York bank to report a drop in earnings compared to last year. Analysts estimate JPM will report earnings per share of $1.41 compared to last year's quarter when the bank reported $1.59 per share.

Investors might remember back in February, head of JPM's corporate and investment bank, David Pinto told investors that capital markets revenue would likely be down 15% from last year.

JPM is just off a big year in 2013 after paying a record $13 billion in a settlement with the Department of Justice over its mortgage securities. Revenue for 2013 hit $96.6 billion, a slight drop from the prior year, while net income dropped 16% to $17.9 billion. It's trying to recover from the big legal and regulatory hits it took last year. In the fourth quarter, JPM recorded an $800 million legal expense and investors are hoping to see that come down.

The other big news many will be paying attention to during the earnings call with CEO Jamie Dimon is the bank's so-called brain drain. In the last few weeks, investment bank co-chief Mike Cavanagh and senior investment-bank manager Blythe Masters announced their departures from the bank. Cavanagh was seen as contender for CEO once Dimon's time came to an end.

JPM has been faced with a number of executive exits over the last several quarters including that of Jes Staley, the man who ran the investment bank before Cavanagh.

Then of course, there was Ina Drew's departure. Drew was in charge of the department that was responsible for the London Whale mess.

Wells Fargo, which reports shortly after JPM Friday morning, is also fresh off executive moves at the top–albeit not as dire as JPM's.

The nation's fourth largest bank will likely discuss CFO Tim Sloan's move to head Wholesale Banking. The CFO role will be filled by John Shrewsberry who currently heads Wells Fargo Securities. Wells chief John Stumpf is known to round out his team's experience by actively rotates them among the bank's crucial departments.

Top 5 US Stocks To Buy For 2015

On Wednesday, Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV  ) will release its latest quarterly results. With the housing market finally looking like it has hit bottom and is recovering at an accelerating pace, the entire homebuilding industry has been one of the most lucrative investment areas in the entire stock market over the past year.

For Hovnanian, the gains have been especially large, given how much the company got beaten down during the housing bust and the financial crisis. Still, shareholders have gotten burned before from false starts in the housing market, so some investors are still nervous about whether the company could end up giving back some of its gains. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Hovnanian over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Hovnanian

Analyst EPS Estimate

($0.05)

Top 5 US Stocks To Buy For 2015: First Trust Global Wind Energy (FAN)

First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund is an exchange-traded fund. The investment objective of the Fund is to seek investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield, of an equity index called the ISE Global Wind Energy Index. The Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in common stocks that comprise the Index or in depositary receipts that may include American depositary receipts (ADRs), global depositary receipts (GDRs), European depositary receipts (EDRs) or other depositary receipts (collectively, Depositary Receipts) representing securities in the Index. The Fund invests in sectors, which include Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Industrials, Materials and Utilities. First Trust Advisors L.P. (First Trust) is the Investment Advisor of the Fund. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap wind stock Broadwind Energy Inc (NASDAQ: BWEN) is up 203.7% since the start of the year, but investors might want to contain their excitement when they look closer at the�stock and�consider its�long term performance along with the performance of other wind investments like First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (NYSEARCA: FAN) and wind energy stocks Vestas Wind Systems (OTCMKTS: VWDRY) and China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Ltd (NYSE: MY) to see whether BWEN is just blowing more hot air.

Top 5 US Stocks To Buy For 2015: iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF (IHF)

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Providers Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Health Care Providers Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the healthcare providers sector of the United States equity market. The Index includes companies that are healthcare providers, such as owners and operators of health maintenance organizations, hospitals, clinics, dentists, opticians, nursing homes, rehabilitation and retirement centers.

The Fund will concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent as the Index is so concentrated. Since all of the securities included in the Index are issued by companies in the healthcare providers sector, the Fund will be concentrated in the healthcare providers industry. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.INVESTMENTNEWS.COM]

  Most advisers are quick to spell out uncorrelated returns as the primary benefit of alternatives but few understand how to conduct comparative analysis. The tendency is to look at the funds' return and volatility; which starts one off on the wrong path. With alternatives, it's a two part process in which the first is simply qualification and then the second is measuring the material benefit for your portfolio. The necessary condition is uncorrelated, or non-systemic, returns. Without this, the investor is better off simply selecting a traditional long-only fund with the highest risk-adjusted prospects. Once you have identified a group of uncorrelated funds, the second step involves the tradeoff between return and correlatio

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Own Right Now: Madison Covered Call & Equity Strategy Fund (MCN)

Madison/Claymore Covered Call & Equity Strategy Fund (the Fund), formerly Madison/Claymore Covered Call Fund, is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund�� primary investment objective is to provide current income and current gains, with a secondary objective of long-term capital appreciation. The Fund invests in a portfolio consisting primarily of large capitalization common stocks. The Fund will sell covered call options to seek to generate a reasonably steady production of option premiums.

Madison Asset Management, LLC is the Fund�� investment manager. Madison Asset Management, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Madison Investment Advisors, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Hsu]
  Name Type of Security� Recommendation� Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: KMP) � MLP August 15, 2013� TeeKay LNG Partners L.P.� (NYSE: TGP) � MLP September 16, 2013� PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite Portfol ETF� (NYSE Arca: PBP)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� Madison Covered Call Equity Strtgy Fd (NYSE: MCN)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� Nuveen Equity Premium Opportunity Fund (NYSE: JSN)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� BlackRockEnhanced Dividend Achievers Tr (NYSE: BDJ)� Buy-Write ETF September 30, 2013� Vornado Realty Trust � (NYSE: VNO)� Real Estate
  Investment
  Trust September 26, 2013�
  
  

  Robert Hsu is the editor of Permanent Wealth Investor and a former hedge fund portfolio manager at Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs. He retired from Goldman at age 31. He since has come out of retirement to establish and preside over his money management firm, Absolute Return Capital Advisors. His retirement experience has given him his current mission: helping investors like you achieve their goal of comfortable retirement through profitable income strategies.

Top 5 US Stocks To Buy For 2015: Capstone Turbine Corporation(CPST)

Capstone Turbine Corporation develops, manufactures, markets, and services turbine generator sets and related parts for use in stationary distributed power generation applications. Its stationary distributed power generation applications include cogeneration combined heat and power (CHP), integrated (CHP), resource recovery, and secure power, as well as combined cooling, heat, and power; and its products are used as battery charging generators for hybrid electric vehicle applications. The company primarily offers microturbine units, subassemblies, and components. It also provides various accessories, including rotary gas compressors with digital controls, heat recovery modules for CHP applications, dual mode controllers that allow automatic transition between grid connect and stand-alone modes, batteries with digital controls for stand-alone/dual-mode operations, power servers for multipacked installations, and protocol converters for Internet access, as well as frames, ex haust ducting, and installation hardware. Further, it remanufactures microturbine engines; and provides after-market parts and services, scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, and factory and on-site training services. The company?s microturbines can be fueled by various sources, including natural gas, propane, sour gas, landfill or digester gas, kerosene, diesel, and biodiesel. It primarily sells its products directly to end users, as well as through distributors in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Russian Federation, and South America. Capstone Turbine Corporation was founded in 1988 and is based in Chatsworth, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Fisher reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST  ) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK  ) . Capstone is a smallish company, making low-emission microturbines used in power generation. Its top line has been growing by double digits over the past few years, and it's poised to profit from huge interest in shale oil, but it remains in the red. Still, it has recently announced a bunch of promising deals and some think the many folks short the stock will end up burned.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  But to focus simply on renewables for distributed power would do some other parts of the industry a disservice, because companies such as Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST  ) are proving that localized generation of natural gas can be just as efficient as a big centralized utility plant. This one-two punch of renewable power as the primary energy source with localized natural gas generation as a backup for when solar or wind can't generate power could be a big threat to the utilities sector.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST) soared 14.29% to $2.24 in the pre-market trading after surging 7.10% on Monday.

  Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP) shares jumped 10.17% to $7.58 in pre-market trading after jumping 30.30% on Monday.

Top 5 US Stocks To Buy For 2015: Von Roll Holding AG (ROH)

Von Roll Holding AG is a Switzerland-based holding company that focuses on products and systems for power generation, transmission and distribution, as well as high-tech materials. The Company diversifies its activities into three business segments: Von Roll Insulation; Von Roll Composites, and Von Roll Transformers. The Von Roll Insulation business segment covers the Company's products, systems and services related to insulation with focus on large generators, high-voltage motors, traction motors and transformers. The Von Roll Composites business segment covers the Company's heat and fire resistant cable insulations, composite materials, compression-molded tiles and solutions for ballistic protection. The Von Roll Transformers business segment covers the Company's complete solutions for power transmission and distribution, power transformers and special transformers. In June 2013, it acquired Albesiano Sisa vernici Srl. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By The Part-time Investor]

  The following stocks met the criteria in January of 2008 and were put into the initial portfolio:

  Abbot Labs (ABT)Advanced data processing (ADP)Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC)Bank of America (BAC)BB&T Corp. (BBT)Bemis Company (BMS)Anheuser Busch (BUD)The Chubb Corporation (CB)Clorox (CLX)Comerica Inc. (CMA)Diebold Inc. (DBD)Emerson Electronics (EMR)First Dollar Corp. (FDO)First Third BanCorp. (FITB)Gannett Co, Inc. (GCI)General Electric (GE)Hershey (HSY)Illinois Tools Works (ITW)Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)Leggett and Platt (LEG)Eli Lilly (LLY)La-Z-Boy (LZB)McDonald's (MCD)Marsh and Ilsley (MI)M&T Bancorp (MTB)PepsiCo (PEP)Pfizer (PFE)Procter & Gamble (PG)Pentair Ltd. (PNR)Regions Financial Corp. (RF)Rohm and Haas (ROH)RPM International (RPM)Sherwin Williams (SHW)Sysco Corp. (SYY)UDR Inc. (UDR)

  Historical quotes were taken from Yahoo Finance. $10,000 was put into each position, to the nearest whole share, so a total of $349,262.89 was invested. From 1/15/08 through 5/16/13 all dividends were reinvested back into the stock that paid them. If a dividend cut was announced, that stock was sold on the ex-div date of the new, lower dividend.

Finally gave a damn 'bout a bad reputation

(Fortune) Microsoft and Yahoo veteran Blake Irving didn't see much to phone home about when he first considered running GoDaddy, the web domain-name provider. At best he saw a mixed bag of opportunities at a well-known, if poorly understood, company. GoDaddy had quirky marketing and attentive customer service but weak product development. It boasted an impressive footprint in the U.S. yet had made virtually no effort to do business beyond its native shores.

However, the biggest opportunity by far was in changing how the Scottsdale-based company addressed its customers. Irving says women run 58% of small businesses in the U.S. Yet GoDaddy had built its reputation on a series of Super Bowl TV ads beginning in 2005 that were overtly sexist. The attention-grabbing spots were blatant attempts to generate chatter about a product that its founding CEO, Bob Parsons, thought was boring. And while the strategy worked gloriously in making GoDaddy the subject of water-cooler conversation everywhere, "never has a company had as big a gap between what the ads say and what the company is," Irving says.

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This Apparel Stock Is Stuck in Neutral

Perry Ellis International (NASDAQ: PERY  ) is an apparel company that designs, markets, and licenses its brand-name products. The stock has dropped by nearly half this year, and it has sparked the interest of many value investors. Last Thursday, fourth-quarter earnings results beat lowered expectations and gave the stock a small bump. 

Yet with strong competitors like PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH  ) and Ralph Lauren  (NYSE: RL  ) for its signature menswear lines, this stock may be stuck in neutral for a bit. Let's take a closer look at both the quarter and the competitive landscape for Perry Ellis International.

Earnings results clear a low hurdle
While the market may have viewed Perry Ellis' quarterly earnings beat (of only $0.06 per share) favorably, it's important to note that the company pre-released lower guidance for the quarter a few weeks back. To give some context, this result compares to EPS of $0.50 per share in the same quarter last year. Full-year results of $0.38 per share also beat the lowered expectations of $0.34-$0.37.

Revenues for Perry Ellis actually declined 16% for the quarter. The apparel sector is tough, but competitors Ralph Lauren and PVH both expanded revenues, 9% and 25%, respectively, in their most recent quarter. 

Is it fair to blame the weather?
The explanation for Perry Ellis' rough quarter, as given by President and COO Oscar Feldenkreis, struck a familiar chord for retailers this season --he blamed it on the weather.

Feldenkreis stated: "We were disappointed with the results of fiscal 2014. The year saw significant challenges, with unseasonal weather, consumer indifference to apparel, and declines in mall and outlet-center traffic all negatively impacting our business."

Turning to a positive note, Feldenkreis mentioned the favorable results in licensing agreements, before he laid out more positive guidance for fiscal 2015. For the year to come, Perry Ellis management expects adjusted earnings per share in a range of $0.75 to $0.90, which would represent roughly double last year's output. 

Examining the bull case for Perry Ellis International
The bull case for Perry Ellis typically centers around two key factors.

1. Licensing business
One of the exciting things about Perry Ellis is its licensing business. It's the largest profit driver for the company, it's expanding, and it's not capital-intensive. The bullish case for the licensing business, and the value case for Perry Ellis, is explained in further detail in this Foolish article by Mark Lin. 

The problem I have with this argument is that Perry Ellis' gross profit margin is below the industry average (mid-40% range) and well below that of apparel leaders PVH and Ralph Lauren. 

PVH Gross Profit Margin (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

The licensing business is a boost to profit margins, but Perry Ellis still lags the industry as a whole. I think this discrepancy exists because of brand strength (or lack thereof). Ralph Lauren is one of the world's most valuable brands; PVH Corp, through Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, has pricing power as well. And while Perry Ellis may have a wide brand portfolio, through its original namesake, Original Penguin, Jantzen, and others, it doesn't have brands that customers will pay extra for. The proof is in the profit (margins). 

I compare Perry Ellis to PVH Corp and Ralph Lauren for a reason. They are two of the few apparel companies that have grown in this environment, they have great brands, but they still trade at reasonable valuations. 

PVH P/E Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

2. Positive guidance
The other bullish argument for Perry Ellis is the aforementioned guidance for fiscal 2015. With a current stock price around $14, if Perry Ellis were to meet its goal of $0.90 EPS, a P/E of just 20 would give the stock upside of 30%-40% from here. 

The problem with that argument is that it's hard to take management's "bad weather" excuse seriously, because it posted a loss in the third quarter on weak demand. The full-year results of $0.38 per share drastically trailed last year's earnings of $1.45.

Furthermore, management blamed weak mall traffic, thanks to the weather, as a primary reason for a weak fourth quarter. Even if we're to believe the weather excuse, it only highlights the reliance that this company has on shopping malls. With the rapid growth in e-commerce, that's not a good thing. 

More questions than answers
Stocks go up for two reasons: Either the underlying business is growing or it's about to turn things around. I can't say, with any certainty, that Perry Ellis is doing either of those things. While management expects better results to come, they haven't given us concrete reasons to believe them.

If you own shares, considering the recent drop, you may want to hold. But I can't think of a good reason to commit new money to shares; this stock may be stuck in neutral for a bit. 

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Surprise! Newspapers Going Way of Buggy Whip, Says FBR

FBR & Co.‘s William Bird, who follows the shares of old media dinosaurs Gannett (GCI),  Meredith (MDP), News (NWSA), and The New York Times (NYT), today offers the findings of a survey of 2,041 adults in the U.S. from March 12th to March 17th.

Bird has an Outperform rating on shares of Gannett, and Market Perform ratings on the other three names.

The upshot of the survey is that a third of young readers don’t read print papers, and are more and more flocking to online news outlets.

The survey, conducted with the help of Clear Voice Research LLC, suggests to Bird a “steady structural pressure on print, a tip of the spear demographic problem for print circulation, and slow magazine tablet adoption—a negative as tablets offer a better business model for magazines.”

More specifically, there is “value destruction” as more and more people trade from print to digital editioins of publications:

The survey suggests that structural pressure on consumer newspaper readership is a touch above that of magazines. Over the next year, print newspaper usage is expected to decline a net 5% (i.e., 6% expect to use more versus 11% who expect to use less). A total of 11% of respondents said they plan to use print newspapers less and 10% said they plan to  use print magazines less. This was exactly offset by the percentage of respondents who said they plan to consume online newspapers more (11%) and those who plan to consume online magazines more (10%). With $1 of print ad spend translating to $0.25 in digital, these results are supportive of  continued print-to-digital value destruction.

Younger readers tend to be more inclined to dump print, says FBR:

According to our survey, intended print newspaper subscription cancellations total 9.8% over the next 12 months. Notable is that plans to cancel skew heavily toward the below 35 year old demographic. The 18 to 34 demographic reflects the future in many respects, because it shares the distinction of having grown up with the Internet. At the low end of this demographic, a consumer was born coincident with the birth of the commercial Internet and at the older end of this demographic, the consumer was a teenager.

That 10% cancellation intention is slightly better than the 13% number that came up in a prior survey he did. But then, “given the 2% margin of error in the survey and 3% more people undecided compared to the year-ago survey, the results were not definitive.”

Bird found that the intent to use less and less of both print newspapers and magazines is most prevalent among the youngest group of people surveyed, which he displays in the following two charts:

Sadly, few of those dumping print seem to be taking up versions of magazines on tablet computers:

A modest 6% of survey respondents prefer to read a magazine on a tablet. This compares to 8% in a year-ago survey. This is important because tablet readership offers magazines the potential to enjoy a better business model, a function of the elimination of costs related to paper, printing, and postage. For example, MDP spends $300 million per year on paper, postage, and distribution, so even a 10% shift in readership to tablets could enable $30 million in potential cost saves. Meredith's 20% investment in Next Issue Media, the Netflix of magazines, has been a good defensive move in our opinion, but it has not yet delivered a substantial increase in tablet usage.

 

Radio Buyback: Sirius-ly

Our Buyback Premium Portfolio is beating the S&P 500 by more than 98% since its inception in 2000; here's a look at one of the latest additions to the portfolio, says David Fried, editor of The Buyback Letter.

Satellite radio giant Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (SIRI) is the world's largest pay-radio service (a market leader in car radio service), with a market share of about 70% of new cars in the US and 25.6 million subscribers at the end of 2013.

In the last year, Sirius has made deals with Toyota and Honda, and extended its deal with Nissan. Its forecast is for 11 million cars to be fitted with satellite radio this year, compared to 10.7 million last year.

Some 60 million cars are currently fitted with factory-installed radio satellite services—a figure expected to rise to 100 million cars in the next five years.

More than new cars, though, the company is broadening its customer base and targeting less-affluent consumers in the used car market, and expects sales in this niche to eventually exceed the new car market. It has also been diversifying out of the music streaming service into what is called "connected vehicles services."

In late 2013, the company acquired a unit of Agero, and it will be renamed Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services, to offer compelling services including vehicle maintenance information, location-based traffic information, help with navigation, and voice texting, for example.

Sirius has many relationships with various automakers, and the company can leverage these to grow the Agero business.

There are some 60 million cars with Sirius's satellite receivers installed, and although most of these cars do not have Sirius XM subscriptions, the proposed security and safety solutions are additional ways to monetize these cars using their Sirius receivers.

In 2013, SIRI had a 12% year-over-year increase in revenues to $3.8 billion. Operating income was a record $1.04 billion; net income was $377 million, with an EPS of $0.06 per share.

Share buybacks were $1.76 billion during 2013, with an authorization for $2.2 billion that's still to be executed. SIRI has reduced shares outstanding by 6.45% in the past 12 months.

Subscribe to The Buyback Letter here…

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Tech Trio: Music, Tweets, Reviews

Apple Unveils CarPlay

Scripps: New Life for Old Media

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014

Beer Man is a weekly profile of beers from across the country and around the world.

This week: Bricks & Barley Irish-Style Dry Stout

Stevens Point Brewing Co., Stevens Point, Wis.

www.copps.com/bricksandbarley.aspx

Bricks and Barley is the name Roundy's Supermarkets uses for its house-brand beers to supply its Wisconsin-based Copps and Pick 'n Save grocery stores. It contracts with the Stevens Point brewery to produce the beers. Roundy's also operates Rainbow Foods in Minnesota and Mariano's Fresh Market in Illinois.

The B&B stout started out as a passable attempt at the style. It had the flavor profile consisting of chocolate, coffee and roasted barley notes. It drank and finished very dry, with the dryness lingering for several minutes after tasting.

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: RPM International Inc.(RPM)

RPM International Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and sells various specialty chemical products to industrial and consumer markets worldwide. The company?s Industrial segment offers waterproofing and institutional roofing systems used in building protection, maintenance, and weatherproofing applications; sealants, tapes, and foams; residential basement waterproofing systems; specialized roofing and building maintenance and related services; specialty industrial adhesives and sealants; and concrete and masonry additives, and related construction chemicals. It also offers polymer flooring systems, and offshore and marine structures; industrial and commercial tile systems; fiberglass reinforced plastic gratings and shapes; heavy-duty corrosion-control coatings, fireproofing products, and containment linings; specialty construction products, including bridge expansion joints, bridge deck and parking deck membranes, curb and channel drains, highway markings, protective coatings, and concrete repairs; and fluorescent colorants and pigments, waterproofing and flooring products, exterior insulating finishing systems, and shellac-based-specialty coatings for industrial and pharmaceutical uses, edible glazes, and food coatings. The company?s Consumer segment provides professional use and do-it-yourself products for a range of consumer applications, including home improvement and personal leisure activities. Its products include coating products; specialty products; deck and fence restoration products; metallic and faux finish coatings; hobby paints and cements; and caulks, sealants, adhesives, insulating foam, spackling, glazing, and other general patch and repair products. The company offers its products under the Carboline, DAP, EUCO, Fibergrate, Flecto, Flowcrete, Hummervoll, Universal Sealants, illbruck, Rust-Oleum, Stonhard, Tremco, Watco, and Zinsser brand names. RPM International was founded in 1947 and is headquarte red in Medina, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Wednesday

  Earnings Expected From: Uniferst (NYSE: UNF), Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), RPM International (NYSE: RPM), Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) Economic Releases Expected: German trade balance, German factory orders, Australian retail sales

  Thursday

• [By The Part-time Investor]

  The following stocks met the criteria in January of 2008 and were put into the initial portfolio:

  Abbot Labs (ABT)Advanced data processing (ADP)Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC)Bank of America (BAC)BB&T Corp. (BBT)Bemis Company (BMS)Anheuser Busch (BUD)The Chubb Corporation (CB)Clorox (CLX)Comerica Inc. (CMA)Diebold Inc. (DBD)Emerson Electronics (EMR)First Dollar Corp. (FDO)First Third BanCorp. (FITB)Gannett Co, Inc. (GCI)General Electric (GE)Hershey (HSY)Illinois Tools Works (ITW)Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)Leggett and Platt (LEG)Eli Lilly (LLY)La-Z-Boy (LZB)McDonald's (MCD)Marsh and Ilsley (MI)M&T Bancorp (MTB)PepsiCo (PEP)Pfizer (PFE)Procter & Gamble (PG)Pentair Ltd. (PNR)Regions Financial Corp. (RF)Rohm and Haas (ROH)RPM International (RPM)Sherwin Williams (SHW)Sysco Corp. (SYY)UDR Inc. (UDR)

  Historical quotes were taken from Yahoo Finance. $10,000 was put into each position, to the nearest whole share, so a total of $349,262.89 was invested. From 1/15/08 through 5/16/13 all dividends were reinvested back into the stock that paid them. If a dividend cut was announced, that stock was sold on the ex-div date of the new, lower dividend.

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: WisdomTree Investments Inc (WETF)

WisdomTree Investments, Inc. is an asset management company that focuses on exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The Company�� family of ETF includes both fundamentally weighted funds that track its own indexes, and actively managed funds. It distributes its ETFs through all channels within the asset management industry, including brokerage firms, registered investment advisors, institutional investors, private wealth managers and discount brokers. As of December 31, 2011, the Company offered a family of 48 ETFs, which included 34 international and domestic equity ETFs, seven currency ETFs, five international fixed income ETFs and two alternative strategy ETFs.

Equity ETFs

The Company offers equity ETFs covering the United States, international developed and emerging markets. These ETFs offer access to the securities of large, mid and small-cap companies, companies located in the United States, developed markets and emerging markets, as well as companies in particular market sectors, including basic materials, energy, utilities and real estate. Its equity ETFs track its own fundamentally weighted indexes.

Currency ETFs

The Company offers currency ETFs that provide investors with exposure to developed and emerging market currencies, including the Chinese Yuan, the Brazilian Real and the Japanese Yen. Currency ETFs invest in the United States money market securities, forward currency contracts and swaps and seek to achieve the total returns reflective of both money market rates in selected countries available to foreign investors and changes to the value of these currencies relative to the United States dollar.

International Fixed Income ETFs

In August 2010, the Company launched an ETF that invests in a range of local debt denominated in the currencies of emerging market countries and in March 2011, it launched an ETF that invests in local debt denominated in the currencies of Asia Pacific ex-Japan countries. In March 2012, the! Company launched an emerging markets corporate bond ETF.

Alternative Strategy ETFs

In January 2011, the Company launched the managed futures strategy ETF. This fund seeks to achieve positive returns in rising or falling markets that are not directly correlated to broad market equity or fixed income returns. In July 2011, it launched a global real return ETF. This fund seeks total returns (capital appreciation plus income) that exceed the rate of inflation over long-term investment horizons. This fund combines domestic and global inflation-linked bonds with commodity strategies and gold exposure.

Index Based ETFs

Its equity ETFs seek to track the Company�� own fundamentally weighted indexes. Most of today�� ETFs track market capitalization weighted indexes and most of these indexes are licensed from third parties by ETF sponsors. The Company has developed fundamentally weighted indexes that weight companies by a measure of fundamental value. The Company benchmarks its fundamentally weighted indexes against traditional market capitalization-weighted indexes designed to track similar companies, sectors, regions or exposure.

Actively Managed ETFs

The Company�� actively managed ETFs include its currency, international fixed income and alternative strategy ETFs. The securities purchased and sold by its ETFs include the United States and foreign equities, forward currency contracts and the United States and foreign debt instruments. In addition, the Company enters into derivative transactions, in particular the United States-listed futures contracts, non-deliverable currency forward contracts, and total return swap agreements in order to gain exposure to commodities, foreign currencies, and interest rates. The exchanges these securities trade on include all the exchanges worldwide.

The Company competes with Vanguard, Charles Schwab, iShares and FocusShares (through Scottrade Inc.).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Newman]

  WisdomTree� (NASDAQ: WETF  ) , the fifth-largest ETF provider, has grown its average assets under management from less than $1 billion in 2006 to more than $23 billion this year, with an average ETF fee of 0.53%. The low-cost leader, Vanguard, keeps putting the pressure on competitors with extremely low expense ratios. For the�Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF� (NYSEMKT: VTI  ) , the annual fee amounts to a paltry 0.05%.

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  
  

  2013 has been a stellar year for asset manager WisdomTree Investments (WETF); shares have nearly doubled since the calendar flipped over to January. That's not a huge surprise considering the fact that investment firms are effectively leveraged plays on this equity rally. But now, the technical setup forming in shares of WisdomTree points to even higher ground for the rest of the year.

  Right now, WETF is forming an ascending triangle pattern, a bullish setup that's formed by a horizontal resistance level above shares at $14 and uptrending support to the downside. Basically, as WETF bounces in between those two technical levels, it's getting squeezed closer and closer to a breakout above that $14 level. When that happens, investors have a buy signal.

  WisdomTree isn't exactly cheap right now. From a fundamental standpoint, this stock looks downright pricey -- but that has little to do with shares' price action right now. Until the technicals change, the high probability returns remain on the long-side of WETF.

Top Semiconductor Stocks To Buy Right Now: Strategem Capital Corp (SGE)

Strategem Capital Corporation (Strategem) is a Canada-based company. It is a publicly-traded merchant bank involved in acquiring interests in and developing companies. The Company takes early debt and/or equity positions in such emerging growth companies. As of December 31, 2009, the Company is focused on companies that explore or develop precious or base metals. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Corinne Gretler]

  ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA) slumped 9.3 percent after Germany�� largest steelmaker raised 882.3 million euros ($1.21 billion) through a share sale. Standard Chartered Plc lost 8.1 percent. Sage Group (SGE) Plc, the U.K.�� biggest software maker, rose 6.8 percent after reporting revenue growth that exceeded analysts��estimates. AZ Electronic Materials SA surged 43 percent after Merck KGaA (MRK) agreed to buy it for about 1.6 billion pounds ($2.6 billion).

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: Helvetia Holding AG (HELN)

Helvetia Holding AG is a Switzerland-based holding company of the Helvetia Group, an internationally active, all-lines insurance service group. The Company divides its activities into country markets Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Other insurance units, which include Austria, France and the global reinsurance business, as well as the Corporate segment, which includes all the Helvetia Group activities, as well as financing companies and the Company. Helvetia Holding AG classifies its activities as life business, non-life business and other activities. The life business offers life insurance, pension plans and annuities, among others. The non-life business includes property, motor vehicle, liability and transport policies, as well as health and accidental insurance coverage. The reinsurance business, among others, is included in Other activities business. The Company operates through its branch offices and subsidiaries. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Stoukas]

  Helvetia Holding AG (HELN) added 3.3 percent to 412 Swiss francs. Switzerland�� fourth-biggest insurer said first-half profit rose because of increased life-insurance sales and an acquisition in France. Net income climbed to 179.5 million Swiss francs ($192 million) in the six months through June, beating the average analyst estimate of 164.4 million francs.

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: Hospitality Properites Trust (HPT)

Hospitality Properties Trust, a real estate investment trust (REIT), engages in buying, owning, and leasing hotels. The company�s hotels are operated as Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn by Marriott, Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, AmeriSuites, Prime Hotels and Resorts, Homestead Studio Suites, TownePlace Suites by Marriott, and SpringHill Suites by Marriott or Marriott Hotels and Resorts. As of June 30, 2005, it owned 298 hotels located in 38 states in the United States; Puerto Rico; and Ontario, Canada. The company�s hotels are primarily designed for business, governmental, and family travelers. As a REIT, the company would not be subject to federal income tax provided it distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. Hospitality Properties was formed in 1995 and is based in Newton, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Markus Aarnio]

  American Hotel Income Properties' competitors include Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT), RLJ Lodging Trust (RLJ), and Hersha Hospitality Trust (HT).

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Hotel and travel center operator Hospitality Properties Trust� (NYSE: HPT  ) �announced today�its second-quarter dividend of $0.4453125 per�share on its 7.125% Series D�preferred stock that trades on the NYSE under the symbol HPT-PD.

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap TravelCenters of America LLC is the largest full-service travel center company in the United States, serving professional drivers and motorists traveling on highways with the finest full-service facilities on the road. More specifically, TravelCenters of America LLC offers�diesel fuel and gasoline plus�full-service restaurants, branded lodging and nationally known fast food restaurants at�165 sites with 145�sites owned by Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE: HPT) and operated by TA; 10 sites owned by HPT and franchise operated; and 10 franchisee-owned and operated.

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: SolarCity Corp (SCTY)

SolarCity Corporation (SolarCity), incorporated on June 21, 2006, is engaged in the design, installation and sale or lease of solar energy systems to residential and commercial customers, or sale of electricity generated by solar energy systems to customers. The Company sells renewable energy to its customers. As of December 12, 2012, the Company served customers in 14 states. The Company�� residential customers are individual homeowners and homeowners. The Company�� commercial customers represent several business sectors, including technology, retail, manufacturing, agriculture, nonprofit and houses of worship. The Company has installed solar energy systems for several government entities, including the the United States Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy, and the Department of Homeland Security. The Company purchases major components, such as solar panels and inverters directly from multiple manufacturers. As of September 30, 2012, its primary solar panel suppliers were Trina Solar Limited, Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited and Kyocera Solar, Inc., among others, and its primary inverter suppliers were Power-One, Inc., SMA Solar Technology, AG, Schneider Electric SA, Fronius International GmbH and SolarEdge Technologies, among others.

Solar Energy Products

The Company�� solar energy products include Solar Energy Systems, and SolarLease and power purchase agreement finance products. The major components of its solar energy systems include solar panels that convert sunlight into electrical current. Most of its solar energy customers choose to purchase energy from the Company pursuant to one of two payment structures: a SolarLease or a power purchase agreement. In both structures, the Company charges customers a monthly fee for the power produced by its solar energy systems. In the lease structure, this monthly payment is pre-determined and includes a production guarantee. In the power purchase agreement structure, the Company charges customers a fee per kilowatt! hour based on the amount of electricity actually produced by the solar energy system.

Energy Efficiency Products and Services

The Company�� energy efficiency products and services include home energy evaluation and energy efficiency upgrades. The Company sells home energy efficiency evaluations to new solar energy system customers and existing customers. The Company�� energy efficiency upgrade products and services address heating and cooling, air sealing, duct sealing, water heating, insulation, furnaces, weatherization, pool pumps and lighting. As of December 12, 2012, the Company had completed over 13,000 home energy evaluations and performed more than 2,000 energy efficiency upgrades.

Other Energy Products and Services

The Company�� other energy products and services include electric vehicle charging and energy storage. The Company installs electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment that it sources from third parties. SolarCity markets EV equipment to residential and commercial customers through retail partnerships with companies, such as The Home Depot, and through EV manufacturers and dealerships, such as its partnership with Tesla Motors, Inc. The Company is developing a battery management system built on its solar energy monitoring communications backbone. As of December 12, 2012, the Company had over 100 energy storage pilot projects under contract. As of December 12, 2012, the Company had sold over 750 charging stations.

Enabling Technologies

The Company�� enabling technologies include SolarBid Sales Management Platform, SolarWorks Customer Management Software, Energy Designer, Home Performance Pro and SolarGuard and PowerGuide Proactive Monitoring Solutions. SolarBid is a sales management platform, which incorporates a database of rate information by utility, sun exposure, roof orientation and a range of other factors to enable a detailed analysis and customized graphical presentation of each customer� �s savin! gs.

SolarWorks is the software platform the Company uses to track and manage project. Energy Designer is a software application its field engineering auditors use to collect pertinent site-specific design details on a tablet computer. Home Performance Pro is its energy efficiency evaluation platform that incorporates the United States Department of Energy�� Energy Plus simulation engine. Home Performance Pro collects and stores details of a building�� construction and energy use. SolarGuard and PowerGuide provide its customers a view of their home�� or business�� energy generation and consumption.

The Company competes with American Solar Electric, Inc., Astrum Solar, Inc., Petersen Dean, Inc., Real Goods Solar, Inc., REC Solar, Inc., Sungevity, Inc., Trinity Solar, Inc., Verengo, Inc., SunRun Inc. and Ameresco, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  How did the solar industry respond to the cut in subsidies? U.S. installations rose 76% last year on the back of a 27% drop in installation costs, according to GTM Research. Growth was driven by utility-scale installation, but even the less volatile residential market grew 62% as leasing programs from companies such as SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR  ) and SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY  ) spread like wildfire.

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  SolarCity Corporation (SCTY) has a lot more to add to today's advance of more than 4% according to Baird. The broker upgraded SolarCity to an "Outperform" from a "Neutral" rating. Analyst Ben Kallo upped his price-target to $70 from $50, which is potential upside of 24.4% to target as we type.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  SolarCity (SCTY) leases solar panels. Tesla Motors (TSLA) manufactures and sells electric cars. And as we all know, they’re both the brainchild of one man: Elon Musk.

  Reuters

  Which got me thinking: Does that link impact how Tesla and Solar City trade? On first glance, it sure appears that way. Today, for instance, SolarCity has dropped 4.7% after it beat fourth-quarter earnings forecasts but guided below Street expectations for the current quarter. Tesla, with little meaningful news of its own unless you count this, has fallen 1.5%.

  To see if there was more than anecdotal evidence, I ran the 24-day correlation (essentially one month of trading) between SolarCity and Tesla. A correlation of 100% means two stocks move in lockstep, while a correlation of -100% means they move in complete opposition. Right now, the correlation between the two stocks is 61.1%, well above the 12-month average of 37.7%. During the past 12 months, the correlation between the two stocks has been as low as -39.8%, which means they were generally heading in opposite directions during that period–and as high as 77.9%, meaning they were pretty much marching to the beat of the same drummer.

  This chart, too, shows how the relationship between Tesla and Solar City waxes and wanes. (Please note that the scales are different. Tesla is on the right, Solar City on the left.)

  Of course, correlation is not causation. And it also tells us little about the magnitude of the moves. Tesla Motors has gained 572% during the past 12 months, while SolarCity is up “just” 330%. Clearly, though, both stocks are benefiting from living in the glow of Elon Musk, even if he’s not the next Steve Jobs.

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: Amira Nature Foods Ltd (ANFI)

Amira Nature Foods Ltd., incorporated on February 20, 2012, is a provider of packaged Indian specialty rice, with sales in over 40 countries. It generates the majority of its revenue through the sale of Basmati rice, a long-grain rice grown only in certain regions of the Indian sub-continent. The Company sells its products, primarily in emerging markets, through a distribution network. It sells its Amira brand in more than 25 countries. The Company sells its Amira branded products to Indian retailers such as Bharti Wal-Mart, Big Bazaar, Metro Cash & Carry, Spar, Spencer's Retail, Star Bazaar (Tesco in India) and Total and retailers, such as Carrefour, Costco, Jetro Restaurant Depot, Lulu's and Smart & Final, and through the foodservice channel. It participates across the entire rice supply chain from the procurement of paddy to its storage, aging, processing into rice, packaging, distribution and marketing. In June 2013, the Company announced that it has launched Amira branded products in the United Kingdom. In January 2014, Amira Nature Foods Ltd acquired Basmati Rice GmbH.

The Company operates an automated and integrated processing and milling facility that is located in the vicinity of the key Basmati rice paddy producing regions of northern India. The facility spans a covered area of 310,221 square feet, with a processing capacity of 24 metric tons of paddy per hour. During the year ended March 31, 2012, 34% of its revenue was derived from sales in India, and 50.3% was derived from sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, or EMEA, 14.3% was derived from sales in the Asia Pacific region, and 1.4% was derived from sales in North America.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  What: Shares of Amira Nature Foods (NYSE: ANFI  ) were looking rotten today, falling as much as 12% after reporting earnings this morning.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  A consumer goods player that's starting to trend within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Amira Nature Foods (ANFI), a global provider of packaged Indian specialty rice, with sales in over 40 countries. This stock has been in play with the bulls over the last three months, with shares up 25%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Amira Nature Foods, you'll notice that this stock has been uptrending strong for the last five months, with shares soaring higher from its low of $7.44 to its recent high of $17.41 a share. During that uptrend, shares of ANFI have been making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. Shares of ANFI have started to break out above some key near-term overhead resistance levels today at $15.92 to $16.25 a share. That move is quickly pushing shares of ANFI within range of triggering another big breakout trade.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ANFI if it manages to break out above its all-time high of $17.41 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 226,387 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then ANFI will set up to enter new all-time-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $25 to $27 a share.

  Traders can look to buy ANFI off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its 50-day at $15.03 a share or around more key near-term support at $14.72 a share. One could also buy ANFI off strength once it starts to clear $17.41 a share with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

• [By Tom Bishop]

  Steve Halpern: One of your recent recommendations is a company that, really, was probably unknown to most investors. It's called Amira Nature Foods (ANFI) , which is a maker of premium rice. Can you tell us briefly about that?

Hot Supermarket Companies For 2014: China Sunergy Co. Ltd.(CSUN)

China Sunergy Co., Ltd. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells solar cells and solar modules. It offers monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon solar cells; and standard P-type solar cells and HP solar cells, as well as emitter cells. The company sells its products to module manufacturers, system integrators, and distributors. It sells solar cells and modules under CSUN and CEEG brand names primarily in Europe, the People?s Republic of China, India, South Korea, Australia, and the Untied States. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Nanjing, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN  ) results for the company's fiscal Q4 and 2012 have been released. For the quarter, total sales were $54.4 million, less than half the $110.8 million the firm posted in the same period the previous year. Net loss, meanwhile, was steeper at $70.5 million ($5.27 per diluted American Depositary Share), compared to Q4 2011's red figure of $49.6 million ($3.71).

Warnings underline stock market’s earnings conundrum

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Earnings season kicks off this week with results from Alcoa and J.P. Morgan Chase, once again putting the disconnect between slow profit growth and a record-setting stock market in the spotlight.

Obviously, sluggish earnings growth over the past three years hasn't held back stocks. In fact, the period has been characterized by companies guiding estimates lower ahead of earnings season, then topping those lowered expectations when it's time to report.

Breaking that chain will require a couple of things: organic growth accompanied, and led by, sales growth, said Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, in a phone interview. Organic growth is an increase in output resulting from core business activities and excludes gains from takeovers, acquisitions or mergers.

"We continue to believe that's the next phase of the bull market – meaning sales growth and organic growth," Belski said.

Enlarge Image

The S&P 500 (SPX)  and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)  both notched all-time highs Friday in the aftermath of the March jobs report, but later turned south as a tech-led rout sent the Nasdaq Composite (COMP)  to its lowest close in eight weeks.

The S&P 500 ended Friday with a 0.4% weekly gain, while the Dow saw a 0.6% weekly rise. The Nasdaq was left in negative territory with a 0.7% weekly decline.

Earnings kickoff

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM)  on Friday morning will be the first Dow component to report earnings for the calendar first quarter. Wall Street analysts expect earnings of $1.42 a share on revenues of $24.4 billion, according to FactSet. Former Dow component Alcoa Inc. (AA)  will report Tuesday, an event still viewed by some traders as the unofficial kickoff for earnings season.

/quotes/zigman/272085/delayed/quotes/nls/jpm JPM 59.81, -0.85, -1.40% /quotes/zigman/246222/delayed/quotes/nls/xlf XLF 22.17, -0.22, -0.98% JP Morgan vs. S&P 500 financials

Meanwhile, a near-record 93 companies in the S&P 500 have issued negative guidance on earnings per share while 18 have offered positive guidance, according to FactSet. That's the second-highest number of profit warnings since FactSet started tracking guidance data in 2006. The record was set in the fourth quarter of last year, when 95 companies issued negative warnings.

Earnings for the S&P 500 are forecast to decline 1.2% in the first quarter, which would mark the first year-over-year decline since the third quarter of 2012, according to FactSet. As of Dec. 31, analysts were estimating first-quarter earnings would grow 4.3%.

While that sounds disconcerting, the S&P 500 is up around 72% since September 2011 despite S&P 500 earnings growth over the same period remaining below 10% every quarter, noted strategists at Pavilion in Montreal, in a note. Gains have been driven by multiple expansion — in other words, investors' willingness to pay more for a dollar of earnings.

History and past market bubbles indicate multiple expansion can continue from current levels, they said, but observed that price/earnings multiples are above the firm's measure of fair value.

Time to deliver

While hope has moved markets in the past, "if company managers want their share price to continue to rise, they should not rely on multiple expansion. It's time for them to start delivering on earnings," the Pavilion strategists said.

MannKind's Countdown to Liftoff?

Perennial underdog MannKind (NASDAQ: MNKD  ) could be on its countdown to liftoff. The company announced its first-quarter results after the market closed on Thursday. Here is the countdown of the highlights -- from least to most important.

3. Financial
At this stage in the game, investors know that the company is still incurring losses. They know there will be little, if any, revenue. There weren't any surprises on those fronts.

MannKind reported a net loss of $41 million, or $0.15 per share. That's only slightly worse in absolute terms than the $38.2 million, or $0.27 per share, loss reported in the same quarter last year. The difference stemmed largely from an increase in operational expenses related to clinical studies.

No revenue was reported for first quarter. However, MannKind does conveniently toss in the cumulative amount of revenue that the company has made since its founding in 1991. That total is just shy of $3.2 million. In case you're wondering, this calculates to an average of around $143,000 per year. My hunch is CEO Alfred Mann made more than that in interest payments from his savings accounts.

The most important financial figure for the company is its cash balance. MannKind announced cash and cash equivalents of $28 million as of the end of the first quarter. That's down from $61.8 million at the end of 2012 as cash burn rates increase with two clinical studies under way. The company also still has $125.4 million available for future borrowing. 

MannKind expects that its current cash reserves will take it into the fourth quarter. However, this doesn't factor in another $90 million of warrants that the company will almost certainly exercise. This added amount should tide MannKind over well into next year.

2. Afrezza clinical studies
Status of the two ongoing clinical studies of Afrezza easily trumps financial results in terms of importance. The news from MannKind is: So far, so good.

Both studies appear to be on track to complete as scheduled, with the first wrapping up in May and the other in June. The company still expects to share data from the studies in mid-August and resubmit the New Drug Application for Afrezza by early October.

While MannKind's Senior Vice President of Clinical Sciences, Robert Baughman, said that the dropout rate in the studies is slightly higher than that of the original protocol in the type 1 diabetes study, there are no real concerns. Baughman noted that the dropout rate is tracking along well with projections and that the company overenrolled patients included in the studies. When asked about how well physicians are adhering to protocols in the studies, Baughman responded that the company is "comfortable" that all is in order.

1. Potential partners
The most important information that was announced related to potential partners for commercializing Afrezza. MannKind is currently in discussions with multiple potential partners. Alfred Mann also stated that several others indicated they would resume discussions and due diligence in August when the clinical results are announced.

The company is talking with global and regional organizations. MannKind might even contemplate tackling the endocrine market on its own, but hasn't made a final decision yet.

At this point, no names have been mentioned. There has been plenty of speculation for a long time about who might be a good fit. My Foolish colleague Max Macaluso suggested last year that Pfizer (NYSE: PFE  ) should get over its Exubera failure from years ago and snatch up MannKind. Max also pointed out that Pfizer needs a new blockbuster drug and offered up the idea that the inhalation technology used for Afrezza could potentially be used for other products -- including Viagra.

I would put Lilly (NYSE: LLY  ) in the same category for the reasons that Max listed for Pfizer. Lilly also gave up on its attempt to market an inhalable insulin product. It also needs a new blockbuster drug. And I don't doubt the company could find some other uses for MannKind's inhalation technology.

However, I think that Sanofi (NYSE: SNY  ) could be an even better fit. The company is a leader in the insulin market and has the sales heft to launch Afrezza globally. It also doesn't carry the baggage of a past failure with inhalable insulin. 

Liftoff?
No one knows which company or companies will ultimately partner with MannKind or when they will do so. A partner might not be signed up until Afrezza gains approval.

I do expect that Afrezza will gain regulatory approval, though. And I think MannKind will find one or more partners rather than attempt to market the drug itself. Will this countdown ultimately result in liftoff after all these years? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The future of MannKind?
Will MannKind's disruptive technology revolutionize the way diabetes is treated around the world -- or will the Food and Drug Administration put the kibosh on this product before it even hits the market? In a new premium research report on MannKind, these complex issues are made crystal clear, in addition to showing you why to buy or sell the stock today. To find out more click here to grab your copy today.