Best Stocks Broker Blog For 2013, Top Stocks For 2013: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Top Stocks For 3/28/2013-9

Delivery Technology Solutions, Inc. (PINK SHEETS:DTSL), the leader in delivery management technology, has completed participation at one of the largest restaurant franchisee conventions, held July 22-25, 2010. Its UDS division attended the convention by invitation of the leading franchisor, and was able to showcase its large corporate catering and event management delivery technology platform to many of the thousands of convention attendees, and a range of other potential partners in the industry and associated industries.

“This was our first opportunity to interact face-to-face on a large scale with franchisees from all across American, Canadian, European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets,” said Ryan Coblin, CEO. “We could shake their hands, explain the opportunities our solutions offer, answer their questions and sign them up for follow-up contacts.”

Over the three-day event the company was successful in signing up franchisees that own thousands of locations, and multiple-territory development agents who represent thousands more. These signed prospects will be contacted by the franchisor and UDS to offer them optional programs to expand their customer base, increase sales and build new profits for their restaurants. Qualified franchisees are enrolled in the optional programs, and then UDS proprietary software is implemented at their unit, so orders may be received from the UDS Call Center and Online Ordering technology.

Life Partners Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPHI), parent company of Life Partners, Inc., reports its preliminary financial results for its second fiscal quarter and first half ended August 31, 2010. Life Partners expects to report second quarter earnings of $0.54 per share, a 5.9% increase compared with earnings of $0.51 per share last year. Income from operations is expected to increase 13% to $12.7 million, up from $11.2 million for the same period last year. For the six months ended August 31, 2010, the company expects to report earnings of $1.05 per share, a 4.0% increase compared with $1.01 per share for the six months ended August 31, 2009.

For the quarter ended August 31, 2010, Life Partners expects to report $30.3 million in revenues, a 4.1% increase over the $29.1 million reported for the same period last year. For the six months ended August 31, 2010, the company expects to report revenues of $57.0 million, a 0.8% increase over the $56.5 million reported for the same period last year.

Life Partners is the world’s oldest and one of the most active companies in the United States engaged in the secondary market for life insurance, commonly called “life settlements.” Since its incorporation in 1991, Life Partners has completed over 120,000 transactions for its worldwide client base of over 26,000 high net worth individuals and institutions in connection with the purchase of over 6,300 policies totaling over $2.6 billion in face value.

Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:LIFE) has finalized cell line license agreements with a number of companies to provide rights to Life Technologies� proprietary CHO (Chinese hamster ovary) cell lines for the production of recombinant proteins used as therapeutic agents and vaccines.

New licensees include Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc., CNA Development L.L.C., Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corporation and DiNonA Inc. of Korea, RecipharmCobra Biologics, Ltd. of the United Kingdom, evitria SA of Switzerland, Fusion Antibodies of Northern Ireland, Indian Immunologicals Limited of Hyderabad, India and others. Commercial use rights have additionally been offered to many of the hundreds of institutions already using Life Technologies� proprietary cell lines for research and development.

Life Technologies Corporation is a global biotechnology tools company dedicated to improving the human condition. Our systems, consumables and services enable researchers to accelerate scientific exploration, driving to discoveries and developments that make life even better. Life Technologies customers do their work across the biological spectrum, working to advance personalized medicine, regenerative science, molecular diagnostics, agricultural and environmental research, and 21st century forensics. Life Technologies had sales of $3.3 billion in 2009, employs approximately 9,000 people, has a presence in approximately 160 countries, and possesses a rapidly growing intellectual property estate of approximately 3,900 patents and exclusive licenses. Life Technologies was created by the combination of Invitrogen Corporation and Applied Biosystems Inc., and manufactures both in-vitro diagnostic products and research use only-labeled products.

Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: LTM):

WHAT:
Toyota U.S. Open Triathlon�the championship event in the 2010 Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series Race to the Toyota Cup.

WHEN:
Sunday, October 10, 2010�7:30 a.m. CST

WHO:
Defending 2009 Race to the Toyota Cup Champions, Lisa Norden (SWE) and Matt Reed (USA), join more than 25 other female and male professionals.

WHERE:
Swim start�The Harbor at Lake Ray Hubbard, Rockwall, Tex.

For 2010, the Toyota U.S. Open Triathlon features a new course, changing the event from its original point-to-point format to a circular course. It offers a 1.5-kilometer swim at Lake Ray Hubbard, with a 40-kilometer bike ride through the community of Rockwall, and a 10-kilometer run, that starts and ends at The Harbor in Rockwall.

WHY:
The pro field will be battling for the event�s $92,000 purse, with the winner in both the female and male divisions taking home $20,000 each. In addition to the cash prizes, the winners will also earn 20,000 points in the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series Race to the Toyota Cup.

Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: LTM) is a healthy way of life company based in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The Company is dedicated to providing programs and services that help its members connect and engage with their areas of interest, and achieve success with their health and fitness goals. Life Time Fitness designs and operates distinctive, multi-use sports, professional fitness, family recreation and spa/resort centers that help members lead healthy and active lives. As of September 30, 2010, the Company operated 89 centers in 19 states and 24 markets.

Exclusive: Silver Lake eyes digital media, makes Ex-NDS CEO Dave Habiger senior advisor - 03:00 PM

(gigaom.com) -- Private equity firm Silver Lake has tapped Dave Habiger to expand its work in the digital media space. Habiger, who until last year served as the CEO of U.K.-based pay TV set-top box maker NDS, is joining the firm as senior advisor to the value creation team.

Silver Lake is known for its investments in high-profile technology companies like Skype and Groupon as well as for a growing interest in the clean energy sector. But the firm has also been stepping up its presence in the media space. Last year, Silver Lake bought a reported 31 percent stake in Ari Emanuel’s William Morris Endeavour agency, with a specific focus on digital initiatives.

The Only Investing Strategy That Always Works

I firmly believe if you are selling out of stocks right now you shouldn't be an investor. It's that simple. If you can't handle volatility, the stock market won't be gentle on your investment account.

There are a lot of other things to do in life, and with money, than get stressed out about the stock market. Go for a walk with your spouse, call a friend and get a cup of coffee, or just go work in the yard. Buy low risk securities only, like Treasuries, and don't worry about the ups and downs in stocks.

All of these activities can be enjoyed regardless of what the stock market is doing.

If you can enjoy these activities despite a volatile market, then you are in the right place. If your investment horizon is years and not months, you justify the decision to be in control of your own money. If you can use your head and buy stocks even when your heart is telling you to sell, you will be successful.

The market had a very poor third quarter. There's no denying that. In fact it was the 4th worst quarter for small caps on record with a decrease of 22 percent. But it will get better, and you should be buying some stocks right now if you are an investor.

I'm not saying go 'all in'. The market could fall further. But stay the course. Buy in tranches, and above all, don't lock in losses that you don't have to take.

If speculators, hedge funds, levered ETFs or any other short-term catalyst is driving your stocks lower despite solid fundamentals, reserve the right to think twice before selling. Indiscriminate selling is the opposite of using your head, and it's hard to step back into the market when you feel like you've been played.

Remember that a long-term strategy for success means buying stocks when they are cheap and selling when they are expensive, or when you have gains. I urge you to stick by this strategy - it works.

We can all think of at least two times in the last decade when buying stocks seemed like the wrong thing to do, but turned out to be the right call. I'm sure you remember how you felt during both periods.

In late 2001 I called my broker at Morgan Stanley and asked him to invest ten grand in high growth companies. I don't remember which companies, just that this was savings that wasn't needed for at least 5 years. My broker said it wasn't a good idea. He admired my patriotic attitude, but said it would be best to wait - that he'd call when it was time to start buying.

He never called, and the first best investment opportunity of my adult life vanished.

Fast forward to late 2008 and early 2009; nobody in their right mind was buying. Brokers were recommending clients hold - if they had any stocks left. Yet, it turned out to be the single best buying opportunity of the last two decades, better even than 2001.

Those that sold were crushed. Those that held are just fine right now. Those that bought in tranches through the crash, and on weakness during the subsequent recovery, have done very well, even doubling and tripling their money - sometimes in very safe investments.

They haven't had to try and pick tops and bottoms. Their methodical approach has yielded significant returns, with low stress levels. This is the group you want to be in.

Right now it's clearly not as bad as 2001, or 2008. Those were extreme periods that I hope we don't see again. But it is still a time when buying stocks feels like the wrong thing to do.

Despite this pervasive attitude, I think there is tremendous upside potential in stocks right now.

The simple fact is that nobody knows for sure which way the market will go at any particular time, even those who have been in the business forever. A person who tells you otherwise is one you should run from, and fast.

Buying stocks when everybody is selling has always proven to be successful, if your time horizon is years and not months. Right now the market is weak. Many stocks are down 20, 40, even 60 percent over the last quarter. It could get worse.

But if you are an investor you need to be buying some stock right now. It doesn't have to be a growth stock, a small cap stock, a gold stock or a technology stock - although I think there are many examples of each that are good buys. Depending on your risk tolerance you may prefer to buy stable dividend growers like McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) or Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB). Those are wise investments.

That said, when stocks do recover it will be the smaller companies that will offer up the biggest gains. These will be in the double and triple digits, and it will be hard to not make money if you own shares of solid small companies. But you can't wait until the market gives the 'all clear' sign - because it will never come.

A long-term perspective means this volatile market is offering up opportunities, not removing them. It's counter-intuitive, but when good stocks fall they become less risky, not more risky.

The market could still drop further. If it does, I expect to buy more stocks, including both small caps and large cap dividend payers. Over the long-term, buying on extreme weakness is the only strategy that's guaranteed to work.

And history suggests that the fourth quarter will bring nice gains for small cap stocks. I'll go into more detail on this later in the week - the numbers are pretty convincing.

Could Turning Natural Gas Into Liquids Be the Next Big Thing?

The past decade has seen a renaissance in U.S. natural gas production, as the application of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has allowed energy companies to tap the nation's vast reserves of shale gas, leading to a massive glut of the commodity.

One way of taking advantage of America's cheap and plentiful natural gas is by exporting it to foreign markets, where it commands higher prices. But so far, only one company, Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT: LNG ) , has received approval to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to countries that don't have a free trade agreement with the United States. And in any case, even if more companies win approval to export LNG, it will probably be at least another few years before these exports start to gain traction.

But there's another way to capitalize on America's natural gas glut: by turning gas into higher-value liquids such as diesel and jet fuel. Let's take a closer look at this so-called gas-to-liquids, or GTL, technology, its potential, the hurdles it faces, and some of the companies investing in it.

All about GTL
The GTL process entails converting natural gas to higher-value petroleum distillates, including diesel, naphtha, and lubricant base oils. Central to the process is a chemical reaction known as the Fischer-Tropsch process, which uses a catalyst to synthesize carbon monoxide and hydrogen into synthetic fuels.

German scientists developed the technology to convert natural gas into liquid fuels back in the 1920s, though it failed to gain widespread popularity because of exorbitantly high costs. Even today, despite the major incentive that America's vast reserves of cheap and plentiful natural gas provide, investment in GTL technology remains minor.

Just a handful of plants around the world operate commercially, mainly in Qatar, South Africa, and Malaysia. Combined, they produce a relatively insignificant 200,000 barrels of fuels and lubricants a day -- less than 1% of worldwide diesel demand.

Major hurdles for GTL ventures
High capital costs are still the largest barrier for most potential entrants. Though several major companies showed interest in GTL technology in the late 1990s after Syntroleum, an Oklahoma-based company focused on developing renewable synthetic fuels, reported progress in bringing expenses down, costs have instead escalated substantially since then.

According to some estimates, capital costs are now as much as 10 times as high as they were a decade ago. Royal Dutch Shell's (NYSE: RDS-A ) Pearl project in Qatar, currently the world's largest GTL facility, serves as the most powerful reminder of this trend.

Pearl, located in the industrial city of Ras Laffan, is the result of a joint effort by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The facility was designed to produce various products via the GTL process, including diesel, naphtha, kerosene, and lubricant oils, as well as condensates and liquefied petroleum gas. �

Through the third quarter of last year, Pearl had produced nearly 6 tons of natural gas liquids and other products using the GTL process. Initially, the economics of the facility appeared highly attractive because of high oil prices and the fact that Qatar, like the U.S., possesses cheap and plentiful natural gas.

But the project has encountered several unanticipated hurdles along the way, the most serious of which has been a massive escalation in costs. Shell initially estimated Pearl to cost around $5 billion. But toward the completion of the facility, that estimate soared to $19 billion. In addition, the plant has been plagued with a host of maintenance issues, which have kept it from operating at full capacity.

As Pearl's example illustrates, GTL facilities are still prone to massive cost overruns and unexpected delays, which can seriously threaten the economics of such projects. Despite these challenges, however, a few companies remain undeterred and are investing billions in GTL technology.

Sasol enters the GTL arena
In December, South African energy company Sasol (NYSE: SSL ) announced that it will construct the first commercial facility in the U.S. to convert natural gas to liquids such as diesel and jet fuel. When completed, Sasol's plant will be the second-largest GTL facility in the world, after Shell's Pearl plant.

The Johannesburg-based company has extensive experience in GTL technology and has already completed GTL facilities in Qatar and South Africa. Its newest plant, expected to cost between $11 billion and $14 billion, will be located in Louisiana, a state with ample shale gas fields.

Sasol's Louisiana facility will consist of the three main units necessary to convert natural gas into liquids -- a chemical plant, a gas processing plant, and a refinery. The company has said it hopes to produce nearly 100,000 barrels of fuel daily and expects production to commence in 2018.

Profitability constraints and final thoughts
For GTL ventures like Sasol's proposed plant to be profitable, natural gas prices must remain low relative to diesel and jet fuel prices for an extended period of time -- an unlikely proposition.

When natural gas prices were under $3 per Mcf, financing GTL projects was relatively attractive. But prices have already started to rise and are unlikely to dip below $2 or $3 per Mcf anytime soon, which raises serious questions about the economics of even the most efficient GTL facilities.

At current gas prices of around $4 per Mcf, GTL plants need diesel prices to be well above $4 a gallon to make the conversion process economical. If prices rise above $5 and $6 per Mcf over the next few years, it's difficult to envision a scenario where diesel and jet fuel prices see commensurate increases.

Furthermore, there are some important differences between the U.S. natural gas market and foregin markets. In Qatar, for instance, natural gas prices are subsidized and regulated, whereas the U.S. gas market is entirely unregulated.

With some commentators suggesting that at least a 25-year period of sustained low gas prices is required for GTL facilities to be economical, I suspect that U.S. investment in GTL is likely to remain minimal for the foreseeable future.

While higher natural gas prices would be bad news for companies investing in GTL technology in the US, they'd be a lifesaver for Chesapeake Energy, the nation's second-largest natural gas producer. Will higher natural gas prices be enough to propel the company's stock higher? Or will it languish under the weight of its heavy debt load? To answer that question and to learn more about Chesapeake and its enormous potential, you're invited to check out The Motley Fool's brand-new premium report on the company. Simply click here now to access your copy, and as an added bonus, you'll receive a full year of key updates and expert guidance as news continues to develop.

The Fastest-Growing Chemicals Stocks

Why are investors willing to pay only 10 times earnings for some stocks, but 20, 50, even 100 times earnings for others?

The short answer: growth. Companies that can grow their earnings meaningfully could make lofty current P/E ratios look cheap in hindsight.

Of course, any company can promise a rosy, growth-rich future. Figuring out which companies can actually deliver is far trickier. In this series, I take the first step by identifying companies that have put up the best growth track records in their respective sectors.

Below, I've listed the top sales growers in chemicals over the last five years. Here's how to interpret each data column.

Five-year sales growth: I rank each company's sales growth, to capture its pure trailing expansion without regard to the vagaries of earnings.
Five-year EPS growth: Since sales growth means nothing if it doesn't ultimately fall to the bottom line, I've also included each company's five-year trailing EPS growth rate.
Five-year analyst estimates: This column shows us how much EPS growth analysts expect over the next five years. Just keep in mind that analysts tend to grossly overestimate a company's prospects.
Five-year ROIC range: Return on invested capital basically shows you how efficiently a company is converting its debt and equity into profits. We want companies that can do a lot with a little. By looking at the five-year range, we can start to gauge both the power and the consistency of a company's profit engine.

Company	5-Year Sales Growth	5-Year EPS Growth	5-Year Analyst Estimates	5-Year ROIC Range
OM Group (NYSE: OMG )	36.0%	NM	N/A	0.1% / 15.6%
Agrium (NYSE: AGU )	27.0%	33.5%	N/A	6.9% / 22.4%
Balchem (Nasdaq: BCPC )	24.5%	23.3%	16.0%	14.0% / 17.7%
Flotek Industries (NYSE: FTK )	23.8%	NM	N/A	(4.6%) / 20.5%
CF Industries Holdings (NYSE: CF )	21.6%	NM	11.6%	10.1% / 49.1%
Braskem S.A. (NYSE: BAK )	19.3%	65%	N/A	4.1% / 6.9%
PotashCorp (NYSE: POT )	17.5%	37%	10.0%	10.9% / 23.2%

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. NM = not meaningful; EPS growth that is NM results from losses during the period. N/A = not applicable; analyst estimates that are N/A result from lack of analyst coverage.

Use the table above as a first step to help you generate ideas for your own further research. Once you identify stocks worth a closer look, the following three steps will help you further assess their growth prospects:

Carefully study the table for possible danger signs, such as high sales growth but low EPS growth, analyst growth expectations significantly trailing past growth, and low ROIC figures. Then follow the trail.
Find out how the company achieved its prior growth: organically or via acquisition? Can it sustain that previous growth?
Pay attention to how management plans to implement its growth plans. Does its strategy seem prudent and plausible to you?

Remember: The more profitable, efficient, and predictable growth a company can achieve, the more we investors should be willing to pay.

Learn more about any of the stocks that interest you by adding them to our My Watchlist tool. You'll get access to all the latest Motley Fool analysis, organized by company.

The Difference Between Gold and Gold Stocks

The price of gold has roughly doubled since 2007, yet the price of the companies that mine the stuff is the same as it was back then. Why? Maybe this explains it:

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

As the analysts at BCA Research write:

Gold stocks have been cannibalized by the surge in ETF volumes, with P/E multiples moving inversely with ETF flows. Part of the reason is that during times of extreme risk aversion and safe haven demand, investors prefer physical gold.

As I’ve said before, gold miners have unique difficulties — uneven cash flow, working in dangerous regions, extraction costs — which mean they’re not an accurate proxy for the metal’s price. And, thanks to ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), you don’t have to play the proxy if you want gold.

Nevertheless, BCA believes that this year could be the breakout for gold companies — they don’t give names, but think Barrick Gold (ABX), Newmont Mining (NEM) or AngloGold Ashanti (AU):

Investor disappointment over the past three years has left gold equities cheap, unloved and under owned. The final catalyst for gold shares may well be intense investor pressure to contain cost overruns and focus on efficiency. Six gold mining CEOs lost their jobs in 2012.

Such shakeups usually herald a major shift in corporate strategy, and gold equities could do well, even if gold prices go nowhere.

Bottom Line: Remain tactically long gold shares/short gold and strategically long gold equities.

As I’ve said before, I’m not convinced that 2013 will see the bucking of the trend we’ve witnessed in recent years, and that gold miners will start popping. Then again, the influx of new CEOs does suggest the industry may start performing better, and if the market remains bullish these typically volatile stocks may become increasingly attractive as the appetite for�risk grows.

Vodafone to Settle Indian Tax Dispute?

LONDON -- In some long-awaited news for shareholders of Vodafone (LSE: VOD ) (NASDAQ: VOD ) , officials from the Indian government have suggested that its ongoing tax dispute with the telecommunications company may be settled as soon as next week.

India's finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has stated that the government will seek advice from the Cabinet, which will take a final view on the 1.3 billion pound Vodafone tax case and consider its offer for settlement.

This dates back to early last year, when the country amended its income tax law to enable reimposition of taxes on overseas deals involving local assets, retrospectively affecting Vodafone's stake in Indian telecommunications company Hutchinson Essar that it took in 2007.

The declaration comes after prime minister David Cameron ended his visit to India, in which he voiced his support for Vodafone and other companies currently embroiled in tax disputes, such as Royal Dutch Shell. The country's television channel NDTV quoted Cameron as saying:

The tax system has to be fair to all. Every company needs to know about the tax implications of any deal. If the tax system becomes completely unpredictable, it becomes totally damaging for the business.

With this dispute hanging around Vodafone's metaphorical neck for almost a year now, some analysts have suggested that it has depressed the company's shares and that they might see a boost in price should a favorable outcome occur. Watch this space...

If you invest for income but already own Vodafone shares, you may wish to read this exclusive free in-depth report. The FTSE 100 company in question offers a 5.7% income, and might be worth 850 pence�versus around 700 pence currently. Just click here to download the report -- it's absolutely free.

link

Ultra-Light Laptops: Are They Worth the Compromise?

After a few weeks of laptop window shopping I’m discovering a major hang-up—the Intel ultra-low voltage chips that scrimp on horsepower.

This hang-up of mine began to emerge as I was scoping out a Dell Vostro v13. The laptop is light, stylish and would be a nice non-work device to carry around. Enter the hang-up: An Intel ULV processor. Now I know PC buyers are supposed to have evolved past the Ghz line, but I’m a bit old school. Simply put, 1.3 GHz feels too much like a four-cylinder engine to me.

The lighter laptops at Lenovo had more of the same. Even my test drive of a Dell Latitude Z had an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.4 Ghz. The casing said Ferrari, but the chip said Ford Fiesta.

How widespread is this reticence over ULV chips? I have no idea, but I do know the latest wave of laptops from Dell (DELL) and HP (HPQ) targeted at SMBs focused on Intel’s more powerful processors, notably the i3, i5 and i7. The processor horsepower matters to me and I’m willing to sacrifice some battery time for it. I’m not willing to sacrifice more than a pound though.

Dell’s Vostro 3300 line along with HP’s ProBook S-Series went with the more powerful Intel chips.

The subtle pitch: Folks want more processing power in a lightweight package. Meanwhile, it’s increasingly clear that I can’t quite get to my laptop nirvana. All I want is everything. Specifically, that laptop will include:

Something around 3 pounds.
An i3, i5, i7 Intel processor.
Lots of battery life.
A neat color or aluminum casing.
4GB to 6GB of memory.
A price of $1,000 or so.

As far as the drive goes, solid state is nice but I can go traditional to save money. Frankly, the drive size matters most, the type is an afterthought.

Thus far, compromise is the word of the day. The big question I’m struggling with: Should I compromise on the processor?

Original post

Saturday, March 30, 2013

This Single Mistake Could Cost You $76,901

Many investors seek professional advice to help them pick suitable investments. But few of them completely understand just how costly that advice can be. Let's look at how, with just one common mistake, you could end up costing yourself thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, even if you make relatively modest investments.

One of the ways many brokers get paid is by selling mutual funds that carry front-end sales loads. In funds with sales loads, a percentage of your investment goes not to the mutual fund to invest on your behalf but rather to your broker or the company your broker works for.

Regulators provide only limited protection to investors with regard to sales loads. The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't limit sales loads at all, instead leaving that job to the independent non-profit Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA imposes an 8.5% maximum on sales loads, with lower limits applying if funds charge other types of fees as well.

The impact of sales loads
At first glance, a sales load may not seem like all that big a deal. Paying your broker $85 on a $1,000 investment may seem like a reasonable amount of compensation, especially if your broker helped you put together a broader strategic plan for your investments both now and in the future.

But the long-term impact of sales loads is much greater. Because your sales load gets taken off the top of your initial investment, it never has a chance to earn a return on your behalf. So not only do you end up losing $85; you also lose the potential gains and income that your lost $85 would have produced.

Moreover, if you're like most investors, you'll continue making additional investments over time. A sales load can apply not just to your initial investment but to subsequent purchases as well, so you'll pay that $85 over and over again.

OK, but where do you get $76,901?!
When you combine the impact of repeated sales loads and lost earnings, the final cost of investing in a fund with a sales load can be truly shocking. If you invest $1,000 annually for 40 years in a fund that charges an 8.5% sales load and produces an average 10% annual return, you'll end up with $445,469. That doesn't sound bad, until you find out that a fund with similar returns but that doesn't charge a sales load will leave you with $486,582 -- more than $41,000 in your final nest egg.

Most people aren't able to start saving early enough to go 40 years before retiring. If you get a late start but make up for it by making a greater contribution, the consequences of a sales load are even larger. Invest $5,000 per year for 30 years, and the difference in total return between a fund with a load and one without a load comes to that $76,901 figure.

Even with the costs of sales loads, millions of people pay them. American Funds are one of the biggest and most popular providers of mutual funds that routinely charge sales loads, but you'll find big companies such as Eaton Vance, Franklin Templeton, Janus Capital, and Legg Mason among the many other fund managers charging them.

How to handle this common problem
The simple solution to expensive sales loads is not to pay them. Plenty of no-load mutual fund and exchange-traded-fund options are available, with many discount brokerage companies even waiving the usual commissions to buy and sell ETFs.

Even better, many of the annual expenses of no-load funds and ETFs are cheaper than funds with sales loads. For instance, to get broad-based exposure to stocks, the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: SPY ) , Vanguard Total Stock Market (NYSEMKT: VTI ) , and Schwab US Broad-Market ETF (NYSEMKT: SCHB ) all offer similar cross-sections of the U.S. stock market. Other low-cost alternatives cover other markets, with the Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEMKT: VWO ) and similar offerings from other providers covering high-growth foreign stock markets. It's easy to put together your own portfolio of no-load funds and ETFs, and it costs you a lot less to boot.

Don't let an easy-to-avoid mistake cost you $76,901. By steering clear of sales loads, you'll keep more money in your pocket where it belongs.

To learn more about a few ETFs that have great promise for delivering profits to shareholders in a recovering global economy, check out The Motley Fool's special free report "3 ETFs Set to Soar During the Recovery." Just click here to access it now.

Would You Be Comfortable Investing in Herman Miller?

Office ergonomics are something we think little about but are greatly affected by, if subconsciously. Office furniture design house Herman Miler (NASDAQ: MLHR ) is one of the best in the business, combining amazing functionality with style and comfort. Items as simple as desk chairs (we know how important this can be) can sell for more than $1,000, and full office systems many times that. The company�s price point and production methods have helped create better-than-expected gross margins, most recently yielding a 23% increase in adjusted earnings per share. At 15 times forward earnings, and with strong prospects ahead, this furniture design company is trading at a discount to peers and may be the best-in-class. Here�s what you need to know about Herman Miller.

Comfortable earnings
The most recent quarter marks a turnaround point for Herman Miller. In the four quarters preceding, the company had year-over-year declines in sales figures. For the past couple of years, the North American market has been particularly hard for the company because of soft government demand. However, the company has recently seen a 5% uptick in sales along with a 10-point pickup in orders for the region -- certainly encouraging, and going along with analyst expectations for the industry.

Outside North America, things look much better. Sales during the third quarter grew by an impressive 17%, and future orders were up 3% from the prior year. As is typical of many high-priced design businesses, high-margin items selling well in Asia were largely responsible for the growth.

The company�s seating line is its classic offering -- attractive sitting solutions (yes, that�s a term) that are incredibly comfortable and made for some serious, long-term sitting. The current product cycle appears to be at its end, with a major overhaul coming this spring. As the cycle renews, this should help boost sales in subsequent quarters.

As far as numbers go, the company beat the Street on the bottom line but missed on revenues. Sales came in at a 6% premium to the prior year�s quarter, with $424 million. The majority of the company�s sales comes from North America. In the third quarter, the region was responsible for $285 million, and non-North American sales were at $91 million. The company�s Specialty and Consumer segment continues to outperform, up 13% to $47 million. The aforementioned gross margin, at 34.2% (excluding legacy pension expenses), was higher than the company expected and drove bottom-line earnings to their double-digit gains.

Herman Miller made $30 million in free cash flow for the quarter.

Looking forward, the company expects another $430 million to $450 million in sales to cap off the year, representing a 2% to 7% increase over the prior year�s numbers. Gross margins are expected to remain at their elevated level, and EPS are targeted to come in at $0.34 to $0.38, adjusted.

What it all means
So Herman Miller is clearly navigating the tepid economic recovery in the United States quite well, with the exception of its government orders. Asia looks to be a double-digit growth driver going forward, and the company has a new product cycle ready to launch. How does it all compare with other players in the field?

HNI (NYSE: HNI ) is in a similar line of business, though operating through many more subsidiaries and at different price points. HNI has a forward P/E of 19.32 and an EV/EBITDA of 12.28. Herman Miller has a forward P/E at 15.14 and an EV/EBITDA of 10.74. Once the company rids itself of the legacy pension expense charges, the market may value the company closer to its peers, as it is otherwise a healthy, growing business. The company has $198 million in cash, compared with HNI�s $48 million. If you take the cash out of the scenario and just value the business, Herman Miller looks even more attractive.

Risks and the call
The company needs to win big on its new product initiatives, to justify its spending over the past year. Investors can hope that the new products will trend well in North America, where the bulk of sales take place. I'm not worried about the growth of the non-North American business.

The industry is expected to grow along with the economic recovery. More businesses, and expanding businesses, mean more chairs, conference tables, storage solutions, and the like. I know firsthand that Herman Miller makes a top-quality product, and I expect that it will continue to gain market share here and abroad. Trading at a discount to its peers, and with quality long-term prospects, Herman Miller is a compelling story for the risk-averse investor.

More from The Motley Fool
Are you part of the 99%? The Motley Fool's new free report highlights three less-than-luxurious stocks the 1% may be overlooking. Just click here to read it now.

Top Stocks For 12/17/2012-20

CHENGDU, China, Aug. 6 /CRWENewswire-Asia/ — China SHESAYS Medical Cosmetology Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board:CSAY.ob) (the “Company” or “SHESAYS”), a leading Chinese medical cosmetology service provider, becomes the first and also the only one US listed Chinese company in cosmetology industry through a reverse merger transaction dated June 7, 2010.

Substantially all of the Company’s operations are now conducted through its indirectly wholly-owned operating subsidiaries in China, namely Sichuan SHESAYS Cosmetology Hospital Co., ltd. On June 7, 2010, through a share issuance and share purchase, Sichuan SHESAYS Cosmetology Hospital Co., ltd. acquired 95% of the shell company SN Strategies Corp. and merged into the shell company.

On July 23, 2010, the combined company SN Strategies Corp. changed its name to China SHESAYS Medical Cosmetology Inc. In connection with the name change, the Company received a new CUSIP and a new ticker symbol from FINRA. The ticker symbol was changed from SNGI to CSAY.

“We are very excited to have completed our merger transaction towards US capital market,” said Mr. Yixiang Zhang, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of China SHESAYS Medical Cosmetology Inc. “As a leading cosmetology hospital chain in China, we are well positioned in the medical cosmetology industry, one of the fastest growing industries in China. I believe we can realize our expansion strategy of opening chain cosmetology hospitals and clinics as well as potential mergers and acquisitions of similar hospitals in China with the support from US capital market.”

About China SHESAYS Medical Cosmetology Inc.

Founded in 2005, China SHESAYS Medical Cosmetology Inc. provides medical cosmetology service in China. Over the past five years, SHESAYS has become one of the fastest growing cosmetology hospitals in China and the most well-known cosmetology hospital chain in Sichuan province, P.R. China. SHESAYS now ranks top five in the medical cosmetology industry in China. With the support of the public capital markets and access to capital, the Company believes that it will execute its expansion strategy to open chain hospitals and clinics as well as potential merger and acquisition in China, which will result in improved long-term growth and increased market share

About Mr. Yixiang Zhang

Yixiang Zhang, Chairman of the Board & CEO, graduated from Huaxi Medical School of Sichuan University with a bachelor’s degree majoring in public health and is a member of Chengdu Youth Federation and tutor of Youth Business China (YBC). Mr. Zhang has ten years’ working experience in the field of pharmaceutics and medical care. Mr. Zhang is also an expert in enterprise chain operation and brand management. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Zhang was the sales manager and investment manager of the chain drugstores in 999 Group, the leading enterprise in the field of pharmaceutics in China. In 2001, Mr. Zhang established his own pharmaceutical and medical devices company. In 2005, he established Sichuan SHESAYS Cosmetology Hospital Co., ltd. and has been the CEO and chairman of the board since then.

5 Aerospace And Defense Stocks To Watch Ahead Of Earnings

The next four weeks are a busy earnings season, with many quarterly earnings releases scheduled and a bunch of stocks to watch. In this article, I will focus on Aerospace and Defense stocks that have earnings due in upcoming weeks. These stocks were selected based on popularity, volume and, more importantly, significant price changes expected due to earnings results and forecasts.

This article provides earnings previews on several stocks to consider in anticipation of their earnings reports. Use this list as a potential starting point for your analysis.

The Boeing Company (BA): April 25, 2012

The Boeing Company is an aerospace company. The company operates in five segments: Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA), Network & Space Systems (N&SS), Global Services & Support (GS&S) and Boeing Capital Corporation (BCC).

Boeing has a market cap of $54.53 billion and will report its first-quarter earnings results on April 25, 2012, before the market open. First-quarter revenue is expected to be $18.39 billion compared with $14.91 billion for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be 93 cents from 78 cents in the year-ago period. Boeing is currently trading around $72.92 with a 52-week range of $56.01 to $80.65.

General Dynamics Corporation (GD): April 25, 2012

General Dynamics Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that offers a portfolio of products and services in business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; military and commercial shipbuilding, and communications and information technology. Its business groups include Aerospace, Combat Systems, Marine Systems and Information Systems and Technology. Recently, General Dynamics acquired the Enterprise Jet Center FBO (February 2012) at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas.

General Dynamics has a market cap of $24.77 billion and will report its first-quarter earnings results on April 25, 2012, before the market open. The first-quarter revenue is expected to be $7.91 billion compared with $7.80 billion for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be $1.7 from $1.64 in the year-ago period. General Dynamics is currently trading around $68.88 with a 52-week range of $53.95 to $75.93.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC): April 25, 2012

Northrop Grumman Corporation provides products, services, and integrated solutions in aerospace, electronics, information and services to its global customers. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated in four segments: Aerospace Systems, Electronic Systems, Information Systems and Technical Services.

Northrop Grumman has a market cap of $15.39 billion and will report its first-quarter earnings results on April 25, 2012, before the market open. First-quarter revenue is expected to be $6.27 billion compared with $6.73 billion for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be $1.59 from $1.67 in the year-ago period. Northrop Grumman is currently trading around $60.81 with a 52-week range of $49.20 to $70.61.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT): April 26, 2012

Lockheed Martin Corporation is a global security and aerospace company principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems and products. It also provides a range of management, engineering, technical, scientific, logistic, and information services.

Lockheed Martin has a market cap of $28.99 billion and will report its first-quarter earnings results on April 26, 2012, after the market close. First-quarter revenue is expected to be $10.56 billion, compared with $10.63 billion for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be $1.7 from $1.55 in the year-ago period. Lockheed Martin is currently trading around $89.3 with a 52-week range of $66.36 to $91.61.

Barnes Group Inc. (B): April 27, 2012

Barnes Group Inc. is an international aerospace and industrial components manufacturer and logistics services company serving a range of end markets and customers. The products and services provided by Barnes Group are critical components for applications, which provide transportation, communication, manufacturing and technology. Barnes Group operates under two global business segments: Logistics & Manufacturing Services, and Precision Components.

Barnes Group has a market cap of $1.46 billion and will report its first-quarter earnings results on April 27, 2012, before the market open. First-quarter revenue is expected to be $310.56 million, compared with $318.75 million for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be 44 cents from 34 cents in the year-ago period. Barnes Group is currently trading around $26.72 with a 52-week range of $17.47 to $28.35.

Sources: Some of the data is sourced from Google Finance, Yahoo Finance and investors site.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in BA, B, NOC, GD, LMT over the next 72 hours.

Disclaimer: I am not a registered investment advisor and do not provide specific investment advice. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this article should be taken as a solicitation to purchase or sell securities. Before buying or selling any stock you should do your own research and reach your own conclusion. It is up to the investors to make the correct decision after necessary research.

ETF Pullback Choices: A Portfolio for Hard Times

Finally, after an adventurous (and painful) romp through the commodities arena and a bit of contrarianism last week involving Healthcare and China, my ETF Pullback strategy (see Appendix below for details and performance information) has taken cover in areas traditionally known for relative safety. Here’s the current list:

WisdomTree Dividend ex-Financials (DTN)
First Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders (FDL)
First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX (FTA)
PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ)
Consumer Staples Select (XLP)

This was last week’s selections:

iShares MSCI South Korea (EWY)
First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX (FXH)
iShares Dow Jones US Healthcare Provider (IHF)
PowerShares FTSE RAFI Asia Pacific ex Japan (PAF)
Rydex S&P Equal Weight Health Care (RYH)

In a way, the current list is a bit nostalgic for me. My first investment-related job was as an analyst at Value Line and I began in 1980. Hence the steep recession that followed was an important part of my formative experience, with the themes now spotlighted by the model – yield, consumer staples, and large value plays – having been huge.

“Defensive” was the label used to describe such areas. It was never suggested that any of these would be counter-cyclical; i.e. that they would actually go up in tough times.

That was a disappointing but necessary introduction to the real world, after having just completed a standard MBA finance program that was typically heavy in quant modeling wherein it was an article of faith that an investor could easily blast through hard times simply by having a bunch of uncorrelated investments. Judging by what quants delivered to us in the late 2000s, it seems, sadly, that academicians continue to propagate such ideas, only this time around, it seemed that the market lacked a sufficient number of experienced veterans to teach them that the real world doesn’t actually work that way. (Either that, or the old pros were deemed too quaint to be worthy of continuing attention.)

Actually, the fantasy of counter-cyclicality wasn’t confined to Wall Street. Back in the 1960s, conglomerates were constructed based on the notion that during recessions, some businesses would rise thereby offsetting the cyclical units and producing a nice, steady, profit stream year in and year out. That, too, turned out to be baloney, and by the time I became an analyst, the business world had figured that out, leading to some interesting special-situation opportunities that came from the dismantling of old conglomerates.

The upshot of all this is that when times are hard, there really is no place in the stock market to completely hide. Defensive investing does not mean we pick stocks likely to go up in a recession. Instead, it means we pick stocks likely to fall, but to lesser degrees than the market as a whole.

Consumer Staples is a classic example, based on the tendencies of these companies to make small-ticket everyday necessities. Consumers may not purchase as much during hard times, or they may price-shop more aggressively. But they aren’t likely to go without, as might be the case, say, with a new car or high-definition TV.

Income investing is another classic defensive area. Yields tend to cushion the impact of falling stock prices. And besides, companies that pay generous dividends tend to be those that have more stable profit streams.

As to large-cap value, “large” is seen to benefit from “flight to quality” (whether such quality is real or imagined). But “value” is definitely much easier to embrace when times are tough.

But is that really all there is to hard-times investing? What about different asset classes?

It’s been almost reflexive lately to think “commodities” as soon as one hears the phrase “asset class.” Whatever the case may have been in the past, however, we’ve been seeing lately, that commodities tend to be tied to global economic activity and that different parts of the world are increasingly economically linked. Anybody touting commodities as a low-correlation asset class should have an easy time producing a ton of data showing low correlations. But that’s the past. Even if you really hate to listen to legalese, take seriously the phrase “past performance does not assure future outcomes.” Although there will be odd opportunities here and there, assume a lot more overall correlation between commodities and equities than we’ve seen in the past.

Back in 1980, fixed income was a great alternative to stocks. Recessions cut into demand for money resulting in lower interest rates which helped bonds. But back then, interest rates were a heck of a lot higher than they are today. So here again, don’t believe in past performance. With interest rates close to zero, as opposed to the mid- to high-teens of the early ‘80s, we could easily see stocks and bonds decline in tandem.

Bottom line: Probably the only true shelter from hard times is cash (even precious metals have risen so high as to raise the scepter or continued correction), although unfolding debt-limit-increase debates in Washington may even raise blood pressure among those who pursue this classic safest-possible strategy. Beyond cash, assuming one does want to maintain exposure to at-risk assets (as many do since few among us are so great at economic forecasting as to be confident we can know when to get back in), the kind of defensive ETF list produced by the model still seem like pretty good choices when hard times seem likely.

By the way, you may have noticed that the ETFs listed this week embrace some newer themes over and above consumer, large value, and income.

The PowerShares Dynamic and First Trust AlphaDEX ETFs are both designed to rely on proprietary models to outperform more passive versions of their respective strategies. The First Trust Morningstar ETF seeks not just yield but also attempts to model dividend consistency. And the Wisdom Tree fund is fundamentally weighted, meaning a stock’s proportion of the portfolio is based not on the size of its market capitalization but instead on the relative size of some other combination of factors, in this case, net income and cash dividends.

As one who works with models based on screening and ranking, the PowerShares and Frist Trust approaches definitely intrigue me. Naturally, I like the idea. So far, though, these so-called alpha-seeking ETFs have yet to consistently show better performance than their more passive peers. But it’s too early to fully judge the merits of these particular models, since many came out at the worst possible time, just before the late-decade crash. For what it’s worth, though, we have seen that during the worst of times, they did not cause any special damage (beyond that caused by the market as a whole).

I frankly still don’t know what to make of fundamental weighting. It’s definitely backed by aggressive public-relations, to some extent by Wisdom Tree, and especially by Robert Arnott, who has produced such indexes for a competing ETF family (RAFI). Any fundamental scheme will have more of a value tilt since one avoids the impact of surging stock prices by weighting on the basis of factors that don’t include share price. Simply put, fundamental weighting is a different, less market-sensitive, way to purse a bigger-is-better strategy. Like the alpha-seeking funds, however, many of these came out just before the crash, so we haven’t yet had a chance to fully evaluate them in a normal context.

APPENDIX

To create this model, I started with a very broad-based ETF screen I created in StockScreen123.com.

Eliminate ETFs for which volume averaged less than 10,000 shares over the past five trading days
Eliminate HOLDRs (I don't want to be bothered with the need to trade in multiples of 100 shares)
Eliminate leveraged and short ETFs (I think of these as hedging tools rather than standard ETF investments of even trading vehicles)

Then I sorted the results and select the top 5 ETFs based on the StockScreen123 ETF Rotation - Basic ranking system, which is based on the following factors:

120-day share price percent change - higher is better (15%)
1-Year Sharpe Ratio - higher is better (15%)
5-day share price percent change - lower is better (70%)

The idea of using weakness as a bullish indicator is certainly not new. But often, it's an add-on to other factors that, on the whole, emphasize strength. Here, the weakness factor is dominant, with a 70 percent weighting.

This model is designed to be re-run every week with the list being refreshed accordingly. I trade through FolioInvesting.com, where I pay a flat annual fee rather than a per-trade commission, so I don't care about the fact that turnover form week to week is often 80%-100%. If you want to follow an approach like this but do have to worry about commissions, the strategy tests reasonably well with three ETFs, or even with one. (Cutting the number of ETFs is far preferable to extending the holding period.)

Figure 1 shows the result of a StockScreen123 backtest of the strategy from 3/31/01 through 12/30/10.

Figure 1

click to enlarge

Figure 2 covers the past five years, a very challenging market environment that witnessed the fizzling of many strategies that had succeeded for a long time.

Figure 2

Figure 3, a screen shot from the FolioInvesting.com account I use to trade the strategy.

As noted in recent weeks, the model has been on a cold streak as trends have come and gone with unusual rapidity. Volatility, noteworthy for being low early on, has really picked up of late as the model wrestled with commodity-related gyrations, the most recent of which has had an especially deleterious impact on performance.

It may be hard to see in this graph, but when I zero in on the last three weeks, the model has actually been modestly ahead of the market. But that last big slide was a whopper, and at some point, the model will need something comparable on the upside, at last on a relative, if not absolute basis. It’ll be interesting to see if this week’s decidedly defensive stance delivers at least some of that. This will depend on whether we experience more bad days such as what we saw as we entered June.

Disclosure: I am long DTN, FDL, FTA, PBJ, XLP.

Top Stocks To Buy For 3/30/2013-5

Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE:RGC) achieved its new price of $14.74 where it was opened at $14.52 UP 0.02 points or +0.14% by closing at $14.49. RGC transacted shares during the day were over 1.17 million shares however it has an average volume of 1.98 million shares.

RGC has a market capitalization $2.23 billion and an enterprise value at $4.09 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.81. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 1.83% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 9.55%.

The company made a return on asset of 6.61% in past twelve months. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $2.73 billion gaining $17.77 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 6.80% holding -41.30% quarterly earnings growth.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $195.50 million cash in hand making cash per share at 1.17. The total debt was $2.04 billion. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 0.91 and book value per share was -3.61.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 2.07% where the stock current price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average price $12.88 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average price $12.80.

RGC holds 153.57 million outstanding shares with 85.08 million floating shares where insider possessed 39.06% and institutions kept 56.10%.

Top Stocks For 3/30/2013-8

Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTC.BB:PWRM), a leading proteomics company focused on the development of innovative diagnostic tests in the fields of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, delivered four poster presentations at the 2010 International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD) in Honolulu, Hawaii. These presentations discussed NuroPro, Power3′s diagnostic test, and focused on Power3′s Alzheimer’s disease blood serum biomarkers, test and clinical validation trials.

“In preparation for commercialization, our objective at this meeting was to show how Power3′s protein biomarkers and blood tests provide superior solutions for diagnosis and drug response to improve the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Ira L. Goldknopf, Power3′s President and Chief Scientific Officer. “It was gratifying to receive substantial attention to our posters from representatives of major pharma and clinical research institutions from around the world. They expressed surprise and enthusiasm for our findings, especially those relating to the methods by which Power3′s protein biomarkers indicate how patients respond to treatment with the three major anti-dementia drugs.”

“We are pleased that our blood tests specifically diagnose Alzheimer’s in patients, both pre- and post-treatment,” said Helen R. Park, MS, Chief Executive Officer of Power3, “and that our scientific collaborators, Dr. Marwan Sabbagh, Medical and Scientific Director of the Banner Sun Health Medical Research Institute, and Dr. Lourdes R. Bosquez, President of the Woodlands Behavioral Institute, Inc., presented along with us at the meeting in Hawaii.”

Saba (NASDAQ:SABA), the premier people systems provider, reports that Saba customers are using Saba People Systems to manage the performance, strategic objectives, career and individual development of more than 1.25 million employees worldwide. In the past year, Saba has seen both the addition of new Performance Management Suite customers, including Baker Hughes, Cisco, Liverpool Direct, and Media-Saturn, as well as expansion into existing Saba Learning Suite and Saba Collaboration Suite customers, demonstrating the broad appeal that these solutions have to cultivate an environment where pivotal talent can deliver exceptional results.

Saba provides a new class of people systems that combine enterprise learning, people management, and collaboration technologies. Today’s people-driven enterprises are using Saba’s solutions to mobilize and engage people around new strategies and initiatives; align and connect people to accelerate the flow of business; and cultivate, capture, and share individual and collective knowhow to effectively compete and succeed.

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE: SB) Chairman and CEO, Polys Hajioannou, was interviewed by Capital Link Shipping. The video interview focused on the development of Safe Bulkers and the drybulk market in general.

The interview is featured on www.CapitalLinkShipping.com under “Interviews.”

Safe Bulkers, Inc. is an international provider of marine drybulk transportation services, transporting bulk cargoes, particularly coal, grain and iron ore, along worldwide shipping routes for some of the world’s largest users of marine drybulk transportation services. The Company’s current fleet consists of 15 drybulk vessels, all built post-2003, and the Company has contracted to acquire seven additional drybulk newbuild vessels to be delivered at various times through 2013.

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE), a holding company that builds value in growth-stage life sciences and technology companies, today announced that it will be hosting Investor Day 2010 at The Yale Club of New York City on Tuesday, October 5, 2010.

Investor Day 2010 will offer the investor community an opportunity to hear from key members of Safeguard�s leadership team, and from select partner companies, about their respective growth strategies, financial performance and value creation models.

Founded in 1953 and based in Wayne, PA, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. provides growth capital for entrepreneurial and innovative life sciences and technology companies. Safeguard targets life sciences companies in Molecular and Point-of-Care Diagnostics, Medical Devices, Regenerative Medicine and Specialty Pharmaceuticals, and technology companies in Internet / New Media, Financial Services IT and Healthcare IT with capital requirements of up to $25 million. Safeguard participates in expansion financings, corporate spin-outs, management buyouts, recapitalizations, industry consolidations and early-stage financings.

Battle of the Oil Giants

When it comes to looking for oil exposure in your portfolio, many investors new to the energy space immediately turn to the biggest names, such as ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) , to make a safe, stable foray into the energy sector. In the following video, Motley Fool energy analyst Joel South breaks down the numbers and tells investors which of these two giants has performed the best historically and which might be the better play today.

There are many different ways to play the energy sector, and The Motley Fool's analysts have uncovered an under-the-radar company that's dominating its industry. This company is a leading provider of equipment and components used in drilling and production operations and is poised to profit in a big way from it. To get the name and detailed analysis of this company that will prosper for years to come, check out the special free report: "The Only Energy Stock You'll Ever Need." Don't miss out on this limited-time offer and your opportunity to discover this company before the market does. Click here to access your report -- it's totally free.

Ignore Market Trepidation, the Blackberry Redux Is Working

The artist formerly known as Research In Motion was able to provide a positive fourth-quarter earnings report, but investors maintained their healthy skepticism regardless. In most investors' and analysts' opinions, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY ) has indeed improved over the past year, but its greatest challenge still remains.

The launch of two new phones in recent weeks has yet to show conclusive evidence that this company can navigate a major overhaul and again become a leading smartphone and software provider. If it can calm investors and remove some of its extreme volatility, BlackBerry may become a more appealing stock to the general market. Let's take a look at the recent earnings release to see if we can find signs of a stronger, more stable smartphone phoenix.

Solid, if unconvincing, earnings
When a company as polarizing as BlackBerry makes any kind of announcement, it has to be such a tremendous out-of-the-water, non-negotiable blowout headline that people can't argue with it. While the last quarter's earnings release showed strong evidence that �CEO Thorsten Heins is making progress in his restructuring effort, it was not enough to create an overwhelming sense of redemption. Still, for BlackBerry permabulls (such as this author), there was plenty to celebrate.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, the company hauled in $2.7 billion. This was down about 2% sequentially and 36% under the prior year's $4.2 billion. The U.S. business dropped, likely awaiting the launch of BB10 devices, while Canadian revenue bumped up 62%, sequentially. What I found most compelling, in terms of regional sales figures, was EMEA. Emerging markets are at the core of BlackBerry's growth strategy, and it looks to be playing out well. EMEA constituted 46% of revenue, up from 43% in the previous quarter. The company's Z10 device was rolled out in these regions a few months ahead of U.S. sales, which began in the last month.

On the bottom line, the company generated a GAAP net income of $0.18 per share, compared to a net loss in the year-ago quarter and up from $0.03 per share in quarter three.

One of the most encouraging reports was, despite tremendous restructuring costs, the company still generated substantial cash flow in the quarter -- $219 million in CFFO, with free cash flow at $131 million. BlackBerry's initial $1 billion cost-saving initiative was completed a quarter ahead of schedule, again aiding the income statement and balance sheet. The company ended the quarter and year with nearly $3 billion in cash and equivalents.

Overall, the results were encouraging to those who were looking for signs of a turnaround, but not convincing to others who believe BlackBerry remains the Bismarck of smartphone companies.

What lies ahead
There are a few important elements to BlackBerry's near-term performance that investors must pay attention to.

The obvious indicator will be the performance of the Z10 device here in the U.S. and abroad. This is BlackBerry's first formidable entry into the mainstream smartphone market, and its what many analysts and investors have decided is the "it" factor for the company's recovery. We heard earlier this year of a 1 million phone purchase, later determined to be from a Verizon distributor. While this is incredibly encouraging, given that it was the single largest order in company history, it is not enough to guarantee that the Z10 is a runaway success.

There is another phone on deck for release in the next couple of months, and I believe this is just as important, if not more so than the Z10. The QWERTY-keyboard equipped Q10 is a combination of the company's latest software efforts with its core, loyal user base preference. Even though the majority of smartphone makers are touchscreen-only, there are still consumers who need the tactile response of a physical keyboard. These users have been BlackBerry fans since the beginning, and are an incredibly important group to satisfy. The Q10 has the potential to be the market leader in the keyboard-lover demographic. This would be a major victory for BlackBerry -- regardless of how small that demographic is compared to the entire market.

The second metric to keep an eye on is marketing spend. Management expects a 50% increase for this quarter, directly from the launch of these new phones and the 100,000-strong app market. BlackBerry needs heavy marketing to give the phone a fighting chance against Apple�and Samsung. But investors need to make sure this effort yields attractive returns. In the next earnings release, compare the increased marketing spend to sales figures. Even though net earnings will likely come in at breakeven, given the marketing expense, it will be a major success if this push yields big-time sales gains.

Valuation and the call
At nearly $14.50 per share, BlackBerry is twice what it was a year ago, when I first publicly expressed my bull call. That gives today's market cap of $7.55 billion. With nearly $3 billion in cash and equivalents (and zero long-term debt), that gives a value to the operating business of $4.5 billion --only 1.67 times�fourth-quarter sales. Last quarter was a mix of new product cycles in some regions and the end in others. This coming quarter will show the first full result of the new products across all regions, which I believe will show big gains in subscribers and hardware sales.

The company isn't as cheap as it was 12 months ago, but there is plenty of upside potential here. The comeback is yet to be guaranteed, and there is a reasonable amount of downside risk, but this may be one of the last chances to buy at fundamentally cheap prices before the market at large determines BlackBerry to have returned to growth.

Heinz Shareholders to Vote April 30 on Berkshire, 3G Acquisition

H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ ) has called a special meeting of its shareholders to vote on the $28 billion merger agreement tendered by a consortium headed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A ) (NYSE: BRK-B ) .

The meeting is set for April 30 at 8 a.m., Eastern Time, at the offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP at 450 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. Shareholders can also vote by proxy. This SEC filing lays out more detail.

Heinz also announced yesterday that it had received an early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act.

The offer from Berkshire and 3G Capital is effectively an acquisition. If it is approved, Heinz shareholders will be paid $72.50 in cash for each share of the company's common stock. All told, the value of the transaction is pegged at approximately $28 billion, including the assumption of the condiments maker's outstanding debt.

Heinz shareholders of record as of March 18 are eligible to vote on the merger agreement.

link

Neither Party Has Cash for Student Loan Rate Fix

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Incoming college freshmen could end up paying $5,000 more for the same student loans their older siblings have if Congress doesn't stop interest rates from doubling.

Sound familiar? The same warnings came last year. But now the presidential election is over and mandatory budget cuts are taking place, making a deal to avert a doubling of interest rates much more elusive before a July 1 deadline.

"What is definitely clear, this time around, there doesn't seem to be as much outcry," said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. "We're advising our members to tell students that the interest rates are going to double on new student loans, to 6.8 percent."

That rate hike only hits students taking out new subsidized loans. Students with outstanding subsidized loans are not expected to see their loan rates increase unless they take out a new subsidized Stafford loan. Students' non-subsidized loans are not expected to change, nor are loans taken from commercial lenders.

The difference between 3.4 percent and 6.8 percent interest rates is a $6 billion tab for taxpayers -- set against a backdrop of budget negotiations that have pitted the two parties in a standoff. President Barack Obama is expected to release his budget proposal in the coming weeks, adding another perspective to the debate.

Last year, with the presidential and congressional elections looming, students got a one-year reprieve on the doubling of interest rates. That expires July 1.

Neither party's budget proposal in Congress has money specifically set aside to keep student loans at their current rate. House Republicans' budget would double the interest rates on newly issued subsidized loans to help balance the federal budget in a decade. Senate Democrats say they want to keep the interest rates at their current levels but the budget they passed last week does not set aside money to keep the rates low.

In any event, neither side is likely to get what it wants. And that could lead to confusion for students as they receive their college admission letters and financial aid packages.

House Republicans, led by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, have outlined a spending plan that would shift the interest rates back to their pre-2008 levels. Congress in 2007 lowered the rate to 6 percent for new loans started during the 2008 academic year, then down to 5.6 percent in 2009, down to 4.5 percent in 2010 and then to the current 3.4 percent a year later.

Some two-thirds of students are graduating with loans exceeding $25,000; one in 10 borrowers owes more than $54,000 in loans. And student loan debt now tops $1 trillion. For those students, the rates make significant differences in how much they have to pay back each month.

For some, the rates seem arbitrary and have little to do with interest rates available for other purchases such as homes or cars.

"Burdening students with 6.8 percent loans when interest rates in the economy are at historic lows makes no sense," said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit organization.

Both House Education Committee Chairman John Kline of Minnesota and his Democratic counterpart, Rep. George Miller of California, prefer to keep rates at their current levels but have not outlined how they might accomplish that goal.

Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat, last week introduced a proposal that would permanently cap the interest rate at 3.4 percent.

Senate Democrats say their budget proposal would permanently keep the student rates low. But their budget document doesn't explicitly cover the $6 billion annual cost. Instead, its committee report included a window for the Senate Health Education and Pension Committee to pass a student loan rate fix down the road.

But so far, the money isn't there. And if the committee wants to keep the rates where they are, they will have to find a way to pay for them, either through cuts to programs in the budget or by adding new taxes.

"Spending is measured in numbers, not words," said Jason Delisle, a former Republican staffer on the Senate Budget Committee and now director of the New America Foundation's Federal Budget Project. "The Murray budget does not include funding for any changes to student loans."

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that of the almost $113 billion in new student loans the government made this year, more than $38 billion will be lost to defaults, even after Washington collects what it can through wage garnishments.

The net cost to taxpayers after most students pay back their loans with interest is $5.7 billion. If the rate increases, Washington will be collecting more interest from new students' loans.

But those who lobbied lawmakers a year ago said they were pessimistic before Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney both came out in support of keeping the rates low.

"We were at this point and we knew this issue was looming. But it wasn't anything we had any real traction with," said Tobin Van Ostern, deputy director of Campus Progress at the liberal Center for American Progress. "At this point, I didn't think we'd prevent them from doubling."

This time, he's looking at the July 1 deadline with the same concern.

"Having a deadline does help. It's much easier to deal with one specific date," Van Ostern said. "But if Congress can't come together ... interest rates are going to double. There tends to be a tendency for inaction."

Friday, March 29, 2013

Genworth Sells Wealth Management Unit for $412.5M

Genworth Financial (GNW) announced Thursday that it is selling its Genworth Financial Wealth Management unit to a partnership of two private equity firms—Genstar Capital and Aquiline Capital—for $412.5 million.

According to the parent company, the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2013, and it will take a $40 million after-tax loss, with $35 million recorded in the first quarter. Genworth Financial said proceeds of the deal would be used to “address” its debt coming due in 2014 or before.

What will the deal mean for advisors who use Genworth Financial Wealth Management’s platform? According to Gurinder Ahluwalia (left), president and CEO, there will be no short-term changes for those RIAs and independent BD reps who form the core of GFWM’s advisor clients.

Longer term, he said, the acquisition will be positive for advisors, leading to “more enhancements and more investment in the business,” which includes its TAMP investment platform and technology and practice management tools, including Altegris’ liquid alternative investing products.

“Genworth decided we weren’t core to their business,” Ahluwalia said in a Thursday interview, while with its new owners, “we have a couple of firms who love our business.” Not only will Ahluwalia and his management team stay in place, so will GFWM’s “mission and organization,” he said. “You want to be in a place where your vision is shared by your corporate parents,” Ahluwalia said, and as for his management team, “We’re pretty jazzed.”

When asked whether the two private equity firms were interested in a shorter-term return on their investment, Ahluwalia said that while he couldn’t speak for Genstar and Aquiline, he knew that a short turnaround of their investment was not the plan. “We’re going to invest in the business for a longer-term outcome. For me that means new solutions—investing or technology,” he said, mentioning that he and his top managers were engaged in the presale discussions: “We’ve engaged with them our vision of a multiyear plan; they’re absolutely aligned with our growth objectives.”

Those words were echoed in Genstar and Aquiline’s announcement of the acquisition, stating that “Aquiline and Genstar will bring their operational expertise and industry experience to help GFWM and Altegris increase their scale and capabilities,” specifically “to enhance product development and technology offerings at GFWM, and expand distribution channels and launch new alternative products at Altegris."

Jeff Greenberg, CEO of New York-based Aquiline, called GFWM and Altegris “market-leading businesses with strong brands, experienced management teams and high growth potential,” while San Francisco-based Genstar principal Tony Salewski said in the same statement that GFWM and Altegris were “each well-positioned to meet the growing needs of independent financial advisors and increased demand from retail investors for access to alternative products.”

Ahluwalia has guided GFWM from its beginnings as Genworth Financial Asset Management to an integration with AssetMark Investment Services and then acquisitions of Quantuvis Consulting and Altegris, making GWFM one of the fastest-growing investment outsource providers to advisors. While the name of the company will change—“that’s something we’ll be working on from now until closing” of the deal—he argues that what won’t change is the firm's focus on risk management. “It’s such an important principle for advisors,” he said, “around their practice but also for their investment clients.”

-----

Read LTCI Benefits Exceed $6B in 2012 on AdvisorOne.

The Internet Is More Vulnerable Than You Think

Most of the time, the Internet flows like water or electricity. But disruptions do happen, and last week brought a big one when an as-yet unidentified group attempted to take down the servers of European anti-spam group Spamhaus by slamming them with as much as 300 gbps of bogus traffic.

According to multiple reports, the digital onslaught -- known in tech parlance as a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack -- is the largest on record, and affected performance across the continent. Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM ) , whose Kona security service is built to deflect Internet threats, was among the first �to report the dramatic rise in Web traffic in Europe.

Other reports said that worldwide sabotage of some undersea cables may be playing a bigger role in the European slowdown. Either way, the Internet is more vulnerable than any of us would like to admit, and we need to be investing accordingly, says Tim Beyers, of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova, in the following video.

Do you believe cloud computing providers have done enough to account for the known frailties of the Internet? Let us know where you stand �in the comments box below.

Too skittish to bet on airy Internet stocks? The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has taken from a classic, earthy industry for his No. 1 stock for this year. Find out which it is in the brand-new free report, "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

3 Opportunities in Booming South Texas

Earlier this week, the Texas Railroad Commission announced that its preliminary numbers for oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale are outstanding. Production climbed 50% from 2011 to 2012, averaging 373,303 barrels per day. That growth is significant, and provides investors with some pretty compelling opportunities, so let's take a closer look at what's going on in southeastern Texas.

Eagle eye
The Eagle Ford shale seems to have come out of nowhere. In 2008, oil production in the region was a scant 358 barrels per day -- but take a look at what's happened since then:

Source: Texas Railroad Commission

You can see that the biggest production increase in the short four year history of the play came last year. Keep in mind that the slight uptick at the end of the graph is a mere month's worth of production -- and even that increased by more than 12,000 bpd.

What's the story here?
The Eagle Ford Shale is a geologic wonder that stretches from the southern border of Texas up through to around Austin.

Source: Energy Information Association

The shale's pay zone is thicker than most U.S. plays, with a higher percentage of carbonate material. On top of that, the distinct banding pattern of the Eagle Ford allows producers to target specific commodities for production. In the picture above, the green band is the oil region, the yellow band is for natural gas liquids, and the pink band is for dry gas.

Three winners
This sort of production growth is hard to ignore. The companies behind these staggering numbers are making a killing ... so who are they?

The top producer in the play is EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG ) . In fact, EOG cranks so much oil out of the Eagle Ford -- 109,776 barrels per day in 2012 -- that it's actually the second largest oil producer in all of Texas.

Another winner here is ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP ) . The company drills the cheapest wells in the industry, and is the second-biggest producer in the shale.

Finally, we have Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP ) . All of the oil and NGLs produced in the Eagle Ford are worthless without transportation and processing infrastructure. Kinder Morgan had the pipeline asset base in the Eagle Ford, and its buyout of Copano Energy will give it a processing footprint, as well, when the deal closes in the third quarter of this year.

More to come?
Producers are increasingly targeting the region, which includes both the Eagle Ford and the Woodbine sandstone formations. This area, cleverly titled "Eaglebine," is northeast of where the bulk of the oil activity is in the Eagle Ford right now. Halcon Resources (NYSE: HK ) is one company that plans to make the most of the new sweet spot. The company has nine wells there, and plans to spend $490 million on drilling and completing many more this year.

All this oil still needs a way to get to market, and that's where Enterprise Products Partners comes in.�EPD, with its superior integrated asset base, can profit from the massive bottlenecks in takeaway capacity by taking on large-scale projects. To help investors decide whether Enterprise Products Partners is a buy or a sell today, click here now to check out The Motley Fool's brand new premium research report on the company.

Legg: S&P Ups to Hold, $32 Target

Shares of Legg Mason (LM) are off 64 cents, or 2.2%, at $28.94, falling with the general downdraft in financials on worries of rising rates (the Select Sector SPDR Financial exchange traded fund (XLF) is off 4 cents, or 0.3%, at $14.29). and after the company said yesterday it planned to purchase $300 million of its stock as an acceleration of a $1 billion purchase authorization annuonced May 10.

In a note to clients today, Standard & Poor’s analyst Matthew Albrecht raised the firm’s rating on the shares to “Hold” from “Sell,” while raising his target price by $3 to $32.

“While redemptions continue to outpace sales, we think trends are improving, and the discount at which LM shares trade relative to peers will narrow,” writes Albrecht, noting that the stock’s 18.4 times forward earnings per share estimates is “in line” with peers.

Best and Worst States for Savings Accounts

Good economic news for Rhode Island? Is it possible?

After suffering a credit union collapse in the early 1990s, the “biggest little state in the Union” takes the top spot for savings account interest rates in the nation, according to the interest rate information in the GoBankingRates database. Little Rhodey has an average annual percentage yield of 0.32%. Runners-up include North Carolina and Vermont, both with averages of 0.30% APY.

The study, released on Friday, finds that savers’ ability to find high-yield savings rates can depend on where they live.

“Hearing their state is 'good' or 'bad' for saving money may not mean much to depositors, but seeing the hard numbers laid out on a U.S. map really puts things in perspective,” GoBankingRates managing editor Casey Bond said in a statement. “Savers can use this graphic to guide where and how they save their money in the future.”

GoBankingRates surveyed its database of 4,000 local banks and credit unions to find the average savings account interest rate in each state and in Washington, D.C. The states were then ranked according to the average interest rate on savings, to find which states offered the best (and worst) dividends in the nation.

While Rhode Island is No. 1, on the other end of the spectrum falls Montana, with an average 0.11% APY on savings. Arizona offers the second-worst rates with a 0.12% APY average, and Connecticut has the third-worst average of 0.13% APY.

According to GoBankingRates, the savings and CD rates used in this study are current as of Feb. 28, 2013, based on institutions' online published rates and a deposit amount of $10,000.

See where your state ranks on GoBankingRates.

-----------

2 Shale Plays and 1 Mining Ironman

The boom in U.S. energy resulting from the explosion in shale oil and gas is nothing short of remarkable. Not only has this new technology shifted America's dependence on foreign energy sources, but it has also effectively kept inflation in check and given the Federal Reserve room to maneuver. While the role of the majors tends to get the most ink, there are two blossoming companies that will give you great upside exposure to the industry. The first, Halcon Resources (NYSE: HK ) , has asset plays in a variety of areas in the U.S., including the Bakken formation. The second, Heckmann (NYSE: HEK ) , is a less direct play, as the company is in the business of helping companies manage the waste their mining operations create.

Not far from the bustle of North Dakota's Bakken shale activity, the Mesabi Trust (NYSE: MSB ) , near Babbitt, Minn., is quietly churning out iron ore and an 8.5% dividend yield. In addition to having solid trust characteristics, the company has solid analyst support. Let's look at each of these companies and why they might deserve a slot in your portfolio.

Halcon Resources: This up-and-coming shale oil company's Bakken asset accounts for 45% of proven reserves and 50% of the company's pro forma production. As a part of its most recent earnings release, the company reported a 417% increase in proven reserves and a 128% increase in net daily production. As of Dec. 31, proven reserves stood at roughly 109 million oil equivalent barrels from both oil and natural gas holdings. In addition to its presence in the Bakken region, the company has significant resources in both the Woodbine/Eagle Ford and Uttica.

In the fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Floyd Wilson talked about the positive outlook for the company, stating: "[O]ur focus is on developing our resource base and growing production reserves and cash flow. The balance sheet is healthy, and we are well positioned to execute our business plan." The company is functioning in line with its own projections and gives investors solid exposure to shale gas and oil on a more pure-play basis. Given the growth nature of both the sector and this company, Halcon is a good bet.

Heckmann: This company operates in the service sector, but it represents one of the most critical elements of shale operations outside the actual drilling. Drilling, and, to an even greater extent, hydraulic fracturing require huge amounts of water. Estimates show that there are approximately 11,400 new wells drilled in the U.S. every year, each requiring a projected 6.1 million gallons of water to operate. That totals about 70 billion gallons of water per year. Heckmann is in the business of not only getting fresh water to these mines, but also in treating and processing the wastewater that each mine creates.

Environmental concerns have become a significant financial element of mining as regulations continue to get more stringent. Deploying capital in a company that profits from helping miners and drillers to meet these regulations has huge potential. To accomplish this task, the company has amassed a fleet of 200 rail cars, 1,200 trucks, 46 waste-disposal wells and 4,200 frack tanks. With a market capitalization over $1 billion, the company is a significant operation. Given current trends, it's hard to imagine how you might not profit by betting on a company that relies on increasing oversight and regulation.

Mesabi Trust: This entity, which is a subsidiary of Cliff Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF ) , has three characteristics for anyone thinking about investing in a trust. First, the underlying cash flow Mesabi generates is sustainable and relatively stable. The company announced its February distribution in January, seeing the number fall from $0.76 to $0.49 on a year-over-year basis. This decrease was primarily the result of a 19% decline in the average price per ton that the trust received for the iron it sold during the quarter. While this seems like a significant drop, relative to many other commodities, it is manageable.

The next attractive feature of Mesabi is that the trust has integrity and longevity as a legal entity. You must pay attention to how long the trust will continue to operate when you make an investment -- Mesabi has a minimum of 21 years ahead of it, so this feature is well covered. Lastly, the trust pays a significant dividend, currently 8.5%. Given the available yield in the market, and the other attractive features of the trust, this is a hugely compelling reason to have an allocation to this iron machine.

Cliffs Natural Resources has grown from a domestic iron ore producer into an international player in both the iron ore and metallurgical coal markets. It has also underwhelmed investors lately, especially after its dramatic 76% dividend cut in February. However, it could now be looked at as a possible value play because of several factors that are likely to remain advantageous for Cliffs' management. For details on these advantages and more, click here now to check out The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company.