Here's how much money you could be losing by avoiding the stock market

Having too much money in the bank is a problem that millions of Americans would love to have. But those fortunate enough to be in that position may be making a big financial mistake with their cash.

A new survey from Nerdwallet shows that while many Americans have little to no savings, the average American keeps $32,000 in cash. Keeping so much money in the bank could mean missing out on the potential rewards that come with investing that money.

For long-term goals like retirement, interest rates on savings may not even be keeping up with inflation.

"People keep money in cash because they want something that's guaranteed," says Erik Davidson, Chief Investment Officer at Wells Fargo. "They don't want to lose money. But after taxes and inflation, you're actually losing money."

Plus, you're missing out on some serious upside potential. The Nerdwallet analysis found that keeping that money in the bank rather than investing it could mean cost you $140,000 worth of returns over 30 years (assuming a 6% return from stocks vs. a 1% return on savings).

For long-term growth, most financial professionals agree that you need a diversified portfolio that includes stocks and bonds. Here's how to get started:

Open a retirement account

If you have access to an employer-sponsored retirement account, that's the easiest way to begin investing in the stock market. Of employers who offer a retirement plan, 76% will match some of your savings. If that's the case with your company, you should be investing at least enough to get the match.

"If you're not saving enough to get the employer match, you're leaving money on the table," says Jim Benedict, a certified financial planner and senior wealth strategist at PNC Wealth Management.

If you don't have access to a retirement plan at work, you can still get the tax benefits of putting money into a retirement account by opening an IRA or a Roth IRA on your own.

Keep it simple

Choosing investments can feel overwhelming, but there are lots of tools that can help. Your plan likely offers an online asset allocation calculator, which can help you determine how much of your portfolio you should put into stocks and how much should go into bonds or other investments, based on your time horizon and tolerance for risk. If that feels like too much, look for a target-date fund, which will automatically put your money into a mix of investments tied to your retirement date and take care of rebalancing for you as that date approaches.

Stay the course

While the stock market has been marching steadily upward for nearly a decade, it's going to fluctuate. At some point you will have periods of major losses. As long as you don't need your money immediately, there's no reason to stress over such movement. Check on your portfolio once or twice a year to make sure your allocations still fit with your long-term plan, but resist the urge to buy or sell based on recent market movements. And remember that such ups and downs are a normal part of investing.

"Don't panic and liquidate if you're down in a year, because you've got several years to recoup that back," says Derek Green, wealth advisor at Titus Wealth Management. "The best thing to do is to keep dollar-cost averaging and buying. Then when the rebound comes you'll be even better off."

Hot Biotech Stocks For 2019

tags:PLUG,FDP,VNCE,

Utility companies aren't usually fan favorites among investors, but these protected and counter-cyclical companies are my favorites for a long-term portfolio. Consistent cash flow means high dividend yields and sales don't fluctuate like in other industries.

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But rising rates are weighing on utilities and inflation could start to eat into profits for regulated producers. The Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLU) is up just 0.6% over the last year, lagging the broader market by nearly 13% over the 12 months.

Hot Biotech Stocks For 2019: Plug Power Inc.(PLUG)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) saw short interest dip by 0.2% to 34.41 million shares. Days to cover remained unchanged at 10, and about 15.2% of the company’s shares were short. In the two weeks to April 30, the share price fell by about 3.2%. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.53 to $3.21, and shares closed Wednesday at $2.00, up about 8.7% for the day.

• [By Peter Graham]

  A long term performance chart shows shares of FuelCell Energy severely underperforming while�small cap alternative energy or fuel cell stocks like Ballard Power Systems Inc (NASDAQ: BLDP), Hydrogenics Corporation (NASDAQ: HYGS) and Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ: PLUG) all peaked in 2014 with some of them showing signs of stabilization and�some�positive growth last year:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) saw short interest rise by 3.1% to 37.61 million shares. Days to cover rose from eight to 12. In the two weeks to June 15, the share price rose by nearly 3%. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.53 to $3.21, and shares closed most recently at $2.03, up about 4.6% for the day.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) saw short interest dip by 7.5% to 34.81 million shares. Days to cover remained unchanged at 12, and about 16.5% of the company’s shares were short. In the final two weeks of June, the share price rose by 2.5%. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.53 to $3.21, and shares closed Wednesday at $2.06, flat for the day.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Shares of Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG) certainly acted that way following the release of the company's first-quarter 2018 operating results. Year-over-year revenue growth of 91% is pretty difficult to argue with, and management thinks second-quarter 2018 sales will grow by at least 60% from the prior-year period. All in all, it's shaping up to be a great year for top-line growth.

Hot Biotech Stocks For 2019: Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc.(FDP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Dean Investment Associates LLC raised its stake in Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE:FDP) by 17.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 94,185 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,270 shares during the quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC’s holdings in Fresh Del Monte Produce were worth $4,261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE: FDP) and Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and analyst recommendations.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Alico (NASDAQ: ALCO) and Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE:FDP) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Hot Biotech Stocks For 2019: Vince Holding Corp.(VNCE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Francesca’s (NASDAQ: FRAN) and Vince (NYSE:VNCE) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Oragenics, Inc. (NYSE: OGEN) shares surged 66.67 percent to close at $2.00 on Wednesday after the company’s AG013 for oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients showed favorable safety profile in mid-stage OM study. Sigma Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGLB) shares jumped 49.24 percent to close at $1.97 on Wednesday. Sigma Labs demonstrated proof of concept for closed loop quality control during metal additive manufacturing. ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited (NASDAQ: ASLN) rose 34.45 percent to close at $9.21. BTIG Research initiated coverage on ASLAN Pharmaceuticals with a Buy rating. Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE: DKS) shares rose 25.82 percent to close at $38.35 after the company reported upbeat Q1 earnings and raised FY18 earnings outlook. TapImmune, Inc. (NASDAQ: TPIV) rose 24.15 percent to close at $5.09. WBB Securities upgraded TapImmune from Speculative Buy to Buy. Legacy Reserves LP (NASDAQ: LGCY) jumped 23.3 percent to close at $5.98 on Wednesday. Summer Infant, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUMR) gained 22.92 percent to close at $1.18 after announcing commitment for $60 million credit facility from Bank of America and $17.5 million term loan from Pathlight Capital. Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE: CLD) rose 21.95 percent to close at $4.00. SpartanNash Co (NASDAQ: SPTN) gained 21.4 percent to close at $22.92 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter on Tuesday. Motus GI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOTS) rose 17.14 percent to close at $5.40. Movado Group, Inc. (NYSE: MOV) gained 16.59 percent to close at $49.20 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised its guidance. Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ORMP) climbed 15.61 percent to close at $8.22. Oramed Pharma disclosed that its patent has been allowed in the US for oral administration of proteins. Dorian LPG Ltd. (NYSE: LPG) rose 14.89 percent to close at $8.41. Dorian LPG confirmed receipt of unsolicited proposal fr

Should You Pay Off Debt or Build Your Emergency Fund?

When it comes to managing their finances, Americans clearly have some work to do. Not only has U.S. credit card debt reached an all-time high, but most adults are also ill-equipped to handle a financial emergency. In fact, 40% of Americans claim they don't have the cash on hand to cover a mere $400 expense that pops up out of the blue. Rather, they'd need to borrow the money or sell something to tackle that sort of bill.

If you're sorely lacking in the savings department, but saddled with debt at the same time, you may be wondering whether it pays to work on your emergency fund first, or tackle your ridiculous balance instead. The truth is that both moves are essential for getting a handle on your finances. But if you want to know which should take priority, it's none other than boosting your cash reserves.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

You need emergency savings

Why put building savings over paying off debt? It's simple: If you don't have that safety net, the next time an unplanned bill lands in your lap, you'll be put in a position where you're forced to -- you guessed it -- rack up even more debt. In fact, a big reason people wind up in debt in the first place is that they don't have enough money in the bank to buy themselves some wiggle room in the face of life's surprises. So rather than continue running that risk, your best bet is to focus your efforts on building some cash reserves and then work on tackling whatever balance you're carrying.

The good news, however, is that you can apply the same strategies for both goals. First, create a budget if you don't have one already, see where your money is going, and start slashing expenses immediately. It doesn't matter if you choose to downsize your living space, get rid of a car, or forgo leisure activities and restaurant meals until your savings balance is looking better. The point is to spend more judiciously, and spend less.

Next, look at getting a side hustle to boost your earnings. Currently, 44 million Americans hold down a second gig on top of their regular jobs, and if you manage to eke out an extra $300 a month from yours, you'll be $3,600 richer by the end of the year.

Finally, take inventory at home and start selling the things you don't need. Even if you don't earn a ton of money from those efforts, you're better off taking in $500 than getting nothing for items that are sitting around collecting dust.

How much is enough?

So how do you know when you've saved enough and can move on to start tackling your debt? As a general rule, your emergency fund should contain enough money to cover three months' worth of living expenses. For better protection, however, you'll want closer to six months' worth. Once you reach that three-month threshold, you might decide to hit pause on your emergency savings and focus on chipping away at your debt instead, and that's perfectly fine. Or, you might decide to split your efforts so that you're contributing to your savings while also paying down debt. Just make sure you have that three months' worth of living expenses in the bank before you divert your efforts elsewhere.

Though getting out of debt is a responsible financial goal, building an emergency fund should trump all other efforts you're inclined to make. So focus on establishing a healthy level of savings, and with any luck, it'll be the first step on the road to a much healthier financial outlook for you.

Vodafone Group Yields More Than 7%, But It Isn't The Only Dividend Share You Should Snap Up Today

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty size-large wp-image-992930836&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/992930836/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;639&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; Photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images.

&l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/roystonwild/2018/05/15/should-you-buy-ftse-100-giant-vodafone-after-this-news/#62d4de7c6586&q;&g;I have previously spoken at length&l;/a&g; about the ambitious strategy, achieved through both organic investment and acquisition activity, that Vodafone Group&a;nbsp;has undertaken to create mammoth revenues growth in the years ahead.

As I mentioned last time out, it is true that latest City forecasters suggest&a;nbsp;some profits pain in the near term, however, a 6% earnings duck in the year to February 2019 currently being anticipated. And this leads to the number crunchers also expecting Vodafone to can its progressive dividend policy. Not even Vodafone&a;rsquo;s gigantic cash flows are viewed as enough to keep shareholder rewards growing.

Still, looking on the bright side, the projected payout of 15.07 euro cents per share through to the close of&a;nbsp;fiscal 2020 still yields a formidable 7.3%. And with profits expected to resume a northwards path from&a;nbsp;next year -- a 15% improvement is currently estimated&a;nbsp;for the next fiscal period&a;nbsp;-- I am confident that dividends should start moving higher again shortly afterwards, too.

Right now Vodafone carries a forward P/E ratio of 18.8 times. Slightly expensive on paper, sure.&a;nbsp;But in my opinion this still represents pretty attractive value given the exceptional sales opportunities&a;nbsp;the communications giant&a;nbsp;has across all of its main markets, and particularly those emerging&a;nbsp;regions of Asia.

&l;strong&g;The marketing giant&l;/strong&g;

But as I said, Vodafone isn&a;rsquo;t the only exceptional dividend share I would buy today. Marketing services specialist Communisis is another hot income pick thanks to the impressive rate at which it is adding blue-chip clients to its already-excellent portfolio.

The business provides a broad range of services to multinationals the world over and major clients include Samsung, Lloyds Bank, Coca-Cola and American Express. And the business has recently set up new offices in New York and Hong Kong to help it continue building its geographic footprint.

In the medium term City analysts are expecting Communisis to deliver annual earnings growth of 7% in both 2018 and 2019, projections that fuel expectations of further dividend expansion too. Payouts of 2.8p and 2.9p per share are forecast for this year and next respectively, creating chunky yields of 5% and 5.1%.

Add in an ultra-low forward P/E ratio of 8.3 times and Communisis becomes too good to miss, in my opinion.

&l;strong&g;Flying high&l;/strong&g;

Recent trading details from Stobart affirming its ambitious growth strategy&a;nbsp;have solidified my admiration for the FTSE 250 stock.

First off, the business said last week that it remains on track to meet the five-million-passenger-per-year milestone at London Southend Airport which it operates. News that that low-cost airline Ryanair intends to set up a base there for at least five years affirms the airport&a;rsquo;s growing importance as the south east of England&a;rsquo;s existing bases become jammed with overcapacity, and Stobart is in the box seat to capitalise on this.

Secondly, Stobart confirmed in recent days that its goal of supplying more than three million tonnes of renewable energy fuel each year by 2022 also remains in play. Its Energy division has shifted 54% more tonnes of biomass in the year to date versus the same period in 2017 as supply contracts have come online.

Earnings at the firm are expected to fall 84% in the year to February 2019 before bouncing 97% higher next year. Regardless of this turbulence, the City expects Stobart&a;rsquo;s balance sheet to still support heavy annual dividends of 18.5p per share this year, up from 18p last year, and 19.1p in fiscal 2020. Thus yields for these years stand at 7.9% and 8.1% respectively.

Stobart is expensive, the firm sporting a forward P/E multiple of&a;nbsp;44.3 times. This is an appropriate reading for its bright growth strategy, though. And those massive yields go a long way to taking the edge off as well.

&l;/p&g;

Hot China Stocks To Watch For 2019

tags:BIDU,SOL,NTES,FMCN,CDTI,

In my 2011 book, Currency Wars, I gave a detailed description of the first-ever financial war game sponsored by the Department of Defense.

This financial war game took place in 2009 at the top-secret Applied Physics Laboratory located about twenty miles north of Washington, D.C. in the Maryland countryside.

Unlike typical war games, the ��rules of engagement�� for this financial exercise did not permit the use of any kinetic weapons such as bombs, missiles or drones.

The only weapons allowed were financial instrument including stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and derivatives.

The contestants included about 40 players on the six teams and another 60 participants including uniformed military, civilian defense officials and observers from the Treasury, Federal Reserve, CIA and other government agencies as well as think tanks, universities and financial industry professionals.

In that original financial war game, a scenario involving Russia, China, gold and the destruction of the U.S. dollar was played out against a backdrop of geopolitical events including the collapse of North Korea and a threatened Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Hot China Stocks To Watch For 2019: Baidu Inc.(BIDU)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  In this segment from the Motley Fool Money podcast, host Chris Hill is joined by Jason Moser of Million Dollar Portfolio, David Kretzmann of Hidden Gems Canada, and Aaron Bush of Motley Fool Rule Breakers to address a listener's question: What's the best Chinese stock for long-term investors? The team likes Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), commonly referred to as "the Google of China," as well as Tencent (NASDAQOTH:TCEHY), the company behind the extremely popular messaging and social media app WeChat.

• [By ]

  Alibaba began quietly testing autonomous driving technologies last year, led by Wang Gang, the chief scientist of Alibaba's A.I. Labs. Despite its late start, Alibaba appears to be moving quickly. Although it will be playing catch up to Baidu (BIDU) and Tencent (TCEHY) , which already have approval from Chinese regulators for open-road testing.

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  Vena: Right. iQiyi, when they started developing this original content, keep in mind that they were still owned by Baidu�(NASDAQ:BIDU), which spun them off earlier this year. Now, Baidu has a lot of similarities to Google. They are the major search engine in China. They have a lot of data. They've been at the forefront of artificial intelligence. So, one of the things that iQiyi said in their IPO filing with the SEC is that they view that data and their ability to analyze that data using artificial intelligence as one of their competitive advantages. So, they have used that to generate shows that Chinese consumers just really love.

• [By Leo Sun]

  Shares of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) tumbled 10% on May 18, after the�company announced the upcoming departure of COO Qi Lu in July. Prior to joining Baidu in early 2017, Lu served as�Microsoft's executive VP of its Applications and Services Group. As one of the industry's leading AI experts, Lu played a key role in Baidu's transition from an online search company to a cloud and AI services provider.

Hot China Stocks To Watch For 2019: Renesola Ltd.(SOL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  These are some of the media headlines that may have impacted Accern’s scoring:

  Get ReneSola alerts: ReneSola Sells North Carolina Solar Project To Greenbacker (solarindustrymag.com) ReneSola (SOL) Rating Increased to Neutral at Roth Capital (americanbankingnews.com) ReneSola (SOL) Q1 Earnings in Line, Revenues Top Estimates (zacks.com) ReneSola’s (SOL) CEO Xianshou Li on Q1 2018 Results – Earnings Call Transcript (seekingalpha.com) ReneSola (SOL) Releases Earnings Results (americanbankingnews.com)

  Shares of ReneSola traded up $0.08, hitting $2.76, during trading on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The stock had a trading volume of 124,969 shares, compared to its average volume of 108,565. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.11 million, a PE ratio of 21.23 and a beta of 2.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. ReneSola has a 12 month low of $2.12 and a 12 month high of $3.79.

Hot China Stocks To Watch For 2019: Netease.com Inc.(NTES)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Harsh Chauhan]

  China's booming video gaming industry has turned out to be a big moneymaker for NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) in recent years. From operating�Activision's popular games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo to building a solid portfolio of self-developed mobile games, NetEase has kept its finger on the pulse of the video gaming market to clock terrific�growth.

• [By Harsh Chauhan]

  Over the years, NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) has made the most of the opportunities presented by China's mobile and online gaming market, and has also diversified into fast-growing verticals like ecommerce to supercharge its prospects. Not surprisingly, NetEase investors have been a happy lot, as their investment in the Chinese internet specialist has experienced five�straight years of double-digit percentage gains.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Investors in NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) have generally seen their company benefit from a strong environment in the Chinese video game industry. Impressive growth in revenue and profits in past years helped fuel impressive gains for NetEase shares, and the appetite for more from consumers in China and elsewhere has seemed insatiable. Yet in every growth stock's experience, a company eventually starts to face challenges in sustaining growth, and the key question becomes what that company does to restart its growth engines.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Many Chinese growth stocks have started bouncing back, but the same can't be said about�NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES). The Chinese online gaming pioneer hit another 52-week low earlier this month, and it's trading nearly 30% below the all-time highs it hit late last year.�

• [By Lisa Levin]

  NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) is expected to post quarterly earnings at $2.19 per share on revenue of $2.18 billion.

  China Distance Education Holdings Limited (NYSE: DL) is estimated to post earnings for its second quarter.

Hot China Stocks To Watch For 2019: Focus Media Holding Limited(FMCN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  An issue of Focus Media Holding Limited (NASDAQ:FMCN) bonds fell 0.9% against their face value during trading on Monday. The high-yield debt issue has a 7.25% coupon and will mature on April 1, 2023. The bonds in the issue are now trading at $99.13 and were trading at $98.13 last week. Price moves in a company’s bonds in credit markets sometimes anticipate parallel moves in its share price.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  An issue of Focus Media Holding Limited (NASDAQ:FMCN) debt fell 1.1% against its face value during trading on Tuesday. The debt issue has a 7.5% coupon and is set to mature on April 1, 2025. The debt is now trading at $97.63 and was trading at $98.50 last week. Price changes in a company’s debt in credit markets sometimes anticipate parallel changes in its stock price.

Hot China Stocks To Watch For 2019: Clean Diesel Technologies Inc.(CDTI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Here are some of the media stories that may have impacted Accern Sentiment’s analysis:

  Get Molecular Templates alerts: Trading Center: Watching the Levels for Molecular Templates, Inc. (:MTEM): Move of 0.02 Since the Open (stocknewscaller.com) Molecular Templates (MTEM) Announces Clinical Data at 2018 ASCO Meeting (streetinsider.com) Gallbladder Cancer Treatment Sales Market Size by Players, Regions, Type, Application and Forecast to 2025 (exclusivereportage.com) ATR in spotlight EnSync, Inc. (NYSE:ESNC), CDTi Advanced Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTI), Molecular Templates, Inc … (stocksnewspoint.com)

  MTEM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. ValuEngine lowered shares of Molecular Templates from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 1st. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Molecular Templates from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.20.

Meet Xiaomi's billionaire executives

Xiaomi's stock market debut has made a few men very, very rich.

The Chinese tech company's shares started trading in Hong Kong on Monday. They closed about 1% down from the issue price, but that didn't stop some of Xiaomi's top executives from racking up big gains in their wealth.

Xiaomi is one of the world's biggest smartphone makers and the initial public offering valued it at about $54 billion.

CEO Lei Jun, who founded Xiaomi in 2010, is reaping the biggest reward. His stake of roughly 29% was worth about $14 billion at Monday's closing price, according to a CNNMoney analysis of company data.

Lei, 48, was already a billionaire before the IPO thanks to his huge stake in Xiaomi and other investments. He was recently awarded Xiaomi stock worth about $1.5 billion for his contributions to the company.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun at the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday.

The serial tech entrepreneur also owns part of Kingsoft, a Chinese software company he started and led to an IPO in 2007. He also set up an online shopping company that he sold to Amazon (AMZN) for $75 million in 2004.

Three other Xiaomi co-founders have also enjoyed a huge jump in their wealth from the IPO.

President Lin Bin's 12.5% stake is now worth about $6 billion. Like many young tech graduates at the time, Lin started his tech career in the early 1990s as an engineer at Microsoft (MSFT). Before starting Xiaomi, he worked for Google (GOOGL) in China, helping the company build and manage its China mobile search and Android app teams.

Li Wangqiang, a former colleague of Lei's at Kingsoft, has a 2.9% stake in Xiaomi that is now worth just under $1.5 billion. Li is one of several vice presidents at Xiaomi, where he heads up the e-commerce team, an area the company is counting on for big growth in the coming years.

Wong Kong Kat, known to friends and colleagues as KK, also has a stake worth nearly $1.5 billion. Wong is another Microsoft alumnus, where he worked on multimedia and instant messaging for the Windows smartphone. At Xiaomi, Wong leads the company's WiFi and cloud storage teams.

Better Marijuana Stock: Aurora Cannabis vs. Village Farms

There are plenty of famous battles between small and big combatants. David versus Goliath. The 300 Spartans versus the massive Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. Spud Webb, all five feet and three inches of him, versus Dominique Wilkins in the 1986�NBA Slam Dunk Contest.�The common denominator in all of these matchups is that the smaller side won.�

But would the underdog prevail in a one-on-one contest between large Canadian marijuana stock Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQOTH:ACBFF) and tiny Village Farms (NASDAQOTH:VFFIF)? Here's how Aurora and Village Farms stack up against each other -- and which stock is the better pick for investors.

Image source: Getty Images.

The case for Aurora Cannabis

Although Aurora Cannabis is now one of the two biggest marijuana growers in Canada, the company has viewed itself as something of an underdog. The company's�Chief Corporate Officer Cam Battley recently stated that Aurora is "a come-from-behind story" due to it being late to the party in securing a license to grow medical cannabis in Canada. Battley thinks, though, that his company now has "an insurmountable lead" over its rivals.

His perspective stems from Aurora's frantic pace of acquisitions. The company acquired CanniMed Therapeutics earlier this year. In May, Aurora announced its biggest deal of all with the buyout of MedReleaf (NASDAQOTH:MEDFF). Thanks to these acquisitions and its own expansion efforts, Aurora is on track to be able to produce around 570,000 kilograms of cannabis annually by early 2019.�

This capacity is one reason why Aurora is poised to become one of the biggest winners from Canada's legalization of recreational marijuana. Another is that the company is in great shape for the retail market thanks to its stake in and partnership with��Alcanna�(formerly Liquor Stores NA), which operates 229 retail liquor stores in western Canada.

Aurora Cannabis also should have good opportunities in the global medical marijuana market. The company's capacity helps on this front, but its access to capital is also important. Aurora already has a good start in its international efforts, with its German subsidiary Pedanios and joint venture in Australia.

The biggest market of all, though, is in the U.S. Although Aurora could face delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange right now if it moved into the U.S. market, there's a possibility that federal laws could change in the U.S. that would remove that obstacle. If that happens, Cam Battley said that Aurora is "poised and ready to enter the U.S. market in a big way very fast."�

The case for Village Farms

Village Farms focused exclusively on the produce business, growing�greenhouse tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers, until last year. But the company formed a joint venture in 2017 with Emerald Health Therapeutics (NASDAQOTH:EMHTF) that got Village Farms into the cannabis business.�

That joint venture, Pure Sunfarms, leases a 1.1-million-square-foot facility from Village Farms. Last week, Pure Sunfarms obtained permission from Health Canada to expand cannabis production to 225,000 square feet of the facility.�

Village Farms believes that Pure Sunfarms is positioned to be one of the lowest-cost producers of cannabis in Canada. That could make the company an attractive supply partner for larger marijuana growers needing additional capacity to meet the flood of demand anticipated in the country after the recreational cannabis market opens in October.

The next big step for the company is to secure a selling license. Village Farms expects this will occur sometime this summer. Pure Sunfarms also plans to convert more of the large facility to produce cannabis. Village Farms projects that the joint venture could grow up to 52,000 kilograms of cannabis by 2019 and 75,000 kilograms annually by 2020.

Buying Village Farms stock could give investors one of the best values in the Canadian cannabis industry in one way. Village Farms' market cap is less than $220 million. With the company laying claim to half of Pure Sunfarms, there aren't many marijuana growers trading at a lower price-to-capacity level.

Better marijuana stock

Does little beat big in this contest? I don't think so.�

It's likely that Village Farms will enjoy strong sales growth in the first year or two after legalization of recreational cannabis goes into effect in Canada. However, it could be a different story when supply catches up with and surpasses demand. I look for smaller marijuana growers like Village Farms to hit a brick wall at that point.

Aurora Cannabis could be headed for tougher times as well down the road. It's the better pick between these two. However, Aurora will need the global cannabis market to ramp up quickly to avoid a letdown once the supply glut in Canada arrives. I think Aurora could generate good returns for a while, but the long run is still murky in my view.

Eastgroup Properties (EGP) Upgraded by Zacks Investment Research to Buy

Eastgroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday. The brokerage currently has a $107.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Zacks Investment Research‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 9.62% from the company’s current price.

According to Zacks, “EastGroup Properties is a self-administered real estate investment trust focused on ownership, acquisition and selective development of industrial properties. The company pursues a three-pronged investment strategy that includes: the acquisition of industrial properties at favorable initial yields, with opportunities to improve cash flow performance through management; selective development of industrial properties in markets where they already has a presence and where market conditions justify such investments; and the acquisition of existing public & private companies. “

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Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. ValuEngine raised Eastgroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Eastgroup Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $93.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Eastgroup Properties presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.60.

EGP stock opened at $97.61 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.91. Eastgroup Properties has a 12-month low of $77.74 and a 12-month high of $97.61.

Eastgroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $72.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.62 million. Eastgroup Properties had a return on equity of 13.33% and a net margin of 35.36%. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.99 EPS. research analysts predict that Eastgroup Properties will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

In other news, insider John F. Coleman sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.42, for a total transaction of $512,520.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director H C. Bailey, Jr. sold 265 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.44, for a total value of $25,556.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,759 shares in the company, valued at $362,517.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,297 shares of company stock worth $634,445 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EGP. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Eastgroup Properties by 8.1% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,830,140 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $481,921,000 after purchasing an additional 436,478 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastgroup Properties by 74.2% during the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 812,624 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $71,820,000 after purchasing an additional 346,140 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastgroup Properties by 2,585.8% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 304,143 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,140,000 after purchasing an additional 292,819 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Eastgroup Properties during the first quarter valued at about $8,313,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Eastgroup Properties by 319.9% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 130,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,542,000 after buying an additional 99,500 shares in the last quarter. 93.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Eastgroup Properties Company Profile

EastGroup Properties, Inc is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina.

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Pillar 24 Hour Trading Volume Tops $42,674.00 (PLR)

Pillar (CURRENCY:PLR) traded 4.8% higher against the US dollar during the one day period ending at 22:00 PM ET on July 4th. In the last week, Pillar has traded 0.1% higher against the US dollar. Pillar has a total market capitalization of $39.03 million and approximately $42,674.00 worth of Pillar was traded on exchanges in the last day. One Pillar token can currently be purchased for about $0.15 or 0.00002279 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including Cryptopia, Bancor Network, EtherDelta (ForkDelta) and HitBTC.

Here is how other cryptocurrencies have performed in the last day:

Get Pillar alerts: XRP (XRP) traded up 2.7% against the dollar and now trades at $0.49 or 0.00007441 BTC. Ripple (XRP) traded 4.6% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.45 or 0.00007633 BTC. Stellar (XLM) traded 4% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.21 or 0.00003219 BTC. IOTA (MIOTA) traded up 6.4% against the dollar and now trades at $1.19 or 0.00018059 BTC. NEO (NEO) traded up 18.1% against the dollar and now trades at $42.40 or 0.00641897 BTC. Tether (USDT) traded 0.4% higher against the dollar and now trades at $1.00 or 0.00015174 BTC. TRON (TRX) traded 3.3% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0393 or 0.00000594 BTC. Binance Coin (BNB) traded 0.8% lower against the dollar and now trades at $13.94 or 0.00211010 BTC. VeChain (VET) traded up 4.2% against the dollar and now trades at $2.72 or 0.00041250 BTC. Ontology (ONT) traded 2.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $5.14 or 0.00077834 BTC.

Pillar Profile

Pillar launched on July 14th, 2017. Pillar’s total supply is 800,000,000 tokens and its circulating supply is 259,348,201 tokens. The Reddit community for Pillar is /r/PillarProject and the currency’s Github account can be viewed here. Pillar’s official Twitter account is @PillarWallet and its Facebook page is accessible here. Pillar’s official website is pillarproject.io.

Buying and Selling Pillar

Pillar can be bought or sold on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia, Bancor Network, HitBTC and EtherDelta (ForkDelta). It is usually not currently possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as Pillar directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade Pillar should first purchase Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as GDAX, Changelly or Gemini. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to purchase Pillar using one of the exchanges listed above.

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10,421 Shares in DXP Enterprises Inc (DXPE) Purchased by Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd

Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in DXP Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:DXPE) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 10,421 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $406,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of DXP Enterprises in the 1st quarter valued at about $111,000. MetLife Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of DXP Enterprises in the 4th quarter valued at about $206,000. Element Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of DXP Enterprises in the 1st quarter valued at about $206,000. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of DXP Enterprises in the 1st quarter valued at about $215,000. Finally, Wedbush Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of DXP Enterprises in the 1st quarter valued at about $249,000. 76.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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In related news, Director Cletus Davis sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $40,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $662,336.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Christopher T. Gregory sold 674 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.51, for a total value of $26,629.74. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,768.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

DXP Enterprises opened at $39.46 on Wednesday, according to MarketBeat Ratings. DXP Enterprises Inc has a 52-week low of $24.86 and a 52-week high of $43.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 2.44 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $663.67 million, a P/E ratio of 45.88 and a beta of 2.44.

DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ:DXPE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 8th. The industrial products company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.02. DXP Enterprises had a return on equity of 6.40% and a net margin of 1.74%. The business had revenue of $285.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $276.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.17 EPS. DXP Enterprises’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.9% compared to the same quarter last year. sell-side analysts expect that DXP Enterprises Inc will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DXPE. ValuEngine raised DXP Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BidaskClub raised DXP Enterprises from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 21st. Zacks Investment Research raised DXP Enterprises from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 6th. Finally, Stephens set a $48.00 target price on DXP Enterprises and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 21st.

DXP Enterprises Profile

DXP Enterprises, Inc engages in distributing maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) products, equipment, and services to energy and industrial customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Service Centers, Supply Chain Services, and Innovative Pumping Solutions. The Service Centers segment offers MRO products, equipment, and integrated services, including technical expertise and logistics services.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding DXPE? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for DXP Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:DXPE).

AT&T Just Bought HBO, and Now It Wants to Spend More Money

AT&T (NYSE:T) closed its acquisition of Time Warner last week, after winning a court decision against the Department of Justice. That puts HBO in the hands of the wireless carrier and television distributor.

The first order of business: increasing the content budget. "I fully expect we're going to be investing heavier in content development at HBO," John Stankey, the incoming head of AT&T's entertainment division, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

HBO was once the premium destination for original television programming, but that mantle has since been overtaken by internet-delivered Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). And with its $8 billion content budget for 2018, that lead continues to grow wider every year. A recent survey found 39% of consumers thought the best original series were on Netflix, compared to just 14% for HBO, which came in second place.�

A still from the HBO original series Westworld. Image source: HBO.

Can HBO become Netflix?

Five years ago, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said, "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us." It certainly seems like Netflix has achieved that goal, winning the favor of television watchers all over the world and gaining increased recognition from critics and awards academies.

HBO, on the other hand, hasn't quite kept up. It launched HBO Now -- an over-the-top streaming-only version of its network -- in 2015, and it's since amassed about 5 million subscribers. The streaming service has propelled HBO's subscriber growth over the past year, accounting for the majority of new subscribers. Still, Netflix added nearly 24 million subscribers in 2017.

Stankey says he wants to focus on creating more on-demand content, catering to HBO's streaming audience. He also sees an opportunity to expand HBO's international direct-to-consumer business.

HBO reaches over 88 million households internationally, but most of those households aren't paying a premium for HBO like they do for Netflix. HBO is instead bundled as part of basic-tier television service or otherwise licenses its brand and content to affiliates. That makes HBO's 88 million international "subscribers" much less valuable than Netflix's 68 million.

Focusing on HBO Now -- creating more content and marketing it more abroad -- may enable HBO to catch back up to Netflix.

These things can get expensive

As mentioned above, Netflix is planning to spend about $8 billion on content this year. And it's spending even more on a cash basis, as it produces more content in-house instead of licensing. Ultimately, producing content itself saves money, but it's very capital-intensive as it ramps up.

By comparison, HBO had a content budget of about $2.5 billion last year. Around half of that went to licensing films, so just about $1.3 billion went toward producing original series and movies. Meanwhile, Netflix says about 85% of its incremental content budget this year will go toward originals, which comes out to be about the same amount as HBO's total original content budget for last year.

AT&T just spent $85 billion acquiring Time Warner. It also spent $49 billion on DIRECTV in 2015. While it mostly used stock for those purchases, the company's balance sheet is looking worse and worse. It now has $163 billion in debt plus the $22 billion in debt it just acquired from Time Warner. While producing original television content and marketing a streaming service don't cost as much as building a wireless network, every little bit adds up for AT&T. Investors should keep an eye on its debt levels, and ensure the company is generating increased cash flow to cover its increasing debt load.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Active Confluences Restrict Motion On Bitcoin

BTC/USD does not have the support that we might imagine following the price action Up to 14 Technical Events on the road to upper levels could derail any severe upside attempt BTC/USD 1D

The Bitcoin is sitting on a weak floor, and the weight of the top roof could make it collapse, with enough components in the confluence who act as resistance to avoid any severe temptation to go higher.

Below the $6,500 level, Bitcoin finds a few, but long-term supports, as the Monthly S1 Pivot Point Support at the $6,450 level. Below this, there is nothing to bring ground until the $6,100. Where it to arrive, panic could move across the market.

Looking up, the BTC/USD has a substantial barrier to surpass, at $6550, where 14 technical stoppers flow together, making the task epic. However, the Bitcoin could win this battle, and if this happens, seven technical components await $50 above.

BTC/USD would find free space if reaching the $6700 level.

XP Dreams: Intel And Micron Diverge

The 2018 Analyst Conference presentation was very informative in a number of areas. By the end of the day last Monday, investors had many reasons to feel good about Micron��s (NASDAQ:MU) future direction and relative priorities. One area that continued to be rather opaque, however, was information pertaining to the company��s plans for exploiting 3D XPoint technology (hereafter, XP). There were subtle clues, though, and this article will discuss what these clues portend for this potentially game-changing technology.

The information we did get from Micron��s presentation revealed a widening divergence with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), and that is pretty much a continuation of a trend that began back in 2015 with their joint introduction of XP. Since that introduction, XP has been delayed by more than two years from its original timeline and beset with ongoing dire rumors regarding its technical and financial feasibility. Despite that, Intel has never ceased aggressively hyping the technology and its potential impact on the company's bottom line. Micron, on the other hand, has been almost completely silent, revealing little other than its branding - QuantX�� - and its confidence that the new memory has great potential.

As of today, the two companies' positions could not be more starkly different. In its 2017 Investor Meeting, Intel projected up to $8 billion in XP DIMM revenue in 2021. I have attached the pertinent slide below:

Since then, Intel has announced that it will be shipping XP DIMMs in the second half of this year (CY 2018) and has doubled down on its XP manufacturing footprint in Lehi with the announcement in November 2017 of the completion of a large expansion of Building 60. What��s more, Micron announced in its Q2 earnings call that Intel loaned Micron the $500 million investment required of each of the partners in the buildout of XP production at Lehi. Pursuant to their IMFT agreement, this gives Intel to the right to more of the total share of XP production at Lehi unless/until Micron reimburses Intel at some point in the future.

Micron, on the other hand, has been almost completely silent on any projections for XP beyond the February 2016 Analysts Conference which forecasts the following:

And now, as of last week��s Analyst Conference update, here is Sanjay Mehrotra setting expectations for the commercialization of XP:

��we will be having products in 3D XPoint in 2019, launching those products in the latter part of 2019 timeframe.��

And here is Sumit Sandana in his briefing positioning the new Micron XP products:

��[...] our customers are looking forward to using 3D XPoint to expand the foot print of memory inside their servers.��

And here is Scott DeBoer giving us the latest technology update:

��Right now, the 3D XPoint technology that we��re focused on is second generation technology and that��s now moved over into manufacturing. Again, [it] combined the performance and the density that we��ve talked about several times before and improves the cost structure with the second generation of technology.��

And the final bit of information we can glean about XP was depicted in three cryptic DeBoer slides that show Micron��s expectations regarding process advances in the technology in the future. The first slide shows the current relative position of the three technologies on the performance versus cost axis.

The second slide in the series shows the relative movement on the cost axis over time:

And the final slide shows the current perspective on the end points of the current technology road map and the emergence of a ��New Memory�� technology with DRAM-like performance and cost.

So, with the combination of the companies�� actions above, we see the two partners moving in opposite directions in regard to the technology. Intel is plunging in and doubling down, while Micron hangs back and, while positive about the future potential, downplays the technology in the short run. As it stands now, Intel, while not publicly forecasting material XP revenues in 2019, is obviously expecting that the launch of XP DIMMs will ignite the business and start the company on the ramp that will take it to that $8 billion number in CY 2021.

Micron, on the other hand, because of its August fiscal year end, will not see the first revenues from XP until its FY ��20, and has yet to provide an update to its 2016 slide projections. To further dampen short-term expectations, it has even speculated that the company would be selling its share of Lehi XP production to Intel in the near term. Here��s Dave Zinsner from the Q&A session of the Q2 earnings con call:

��So 3D crosspoint products are expected to come out in - sometime in calendar year 2019. We will have - sometimes we'll have underloading charges. It's possible that our partner might take some of the - of those wafers so that would obviously help on the underutilization.��

Is there a way to explain these seemingly opposite viewpoints about a technology that both partners agree is potentially revolutionary in its impact? I believe there is, and this explanation is congruent with the expectation that XP technology will be successful. Let��s get to it.

First off, let��s be clear as we can be about what Micron is telling us about XP. The three DeBoer slides above provide a lot of information about how Micron sees XP technology advancing. The first slide shows the relative positioning of the three technologies, NAND, XP, and DRAM on a log scale graph comparing speed versus cost per bit. We��re going to talk in more detail about Micron��s DRAM roadmap in a moment, but for now, all we need to focus on is the relative positioning. Basically, XP is shown to be slightly more expensive than NAND, but is significantly faster.

Before we go further, we must remember that in the semiconductor world, the terms density and cost are interchangeable. So does Micron think that XP will increase in density over the next few years? Slide 2 answers that question in the affirmative. Note how the XP cost/bit band moves to a position almost directly over today��s NAND. That is a remarkable statement and very bullish for the future of the technology. With today��s current generation of NAND costing roughly $.10/GB, the opportunity for Micron and Intel to be extremely profitable with XP is obvious - if the density of XP can achieve the gains DeBoer is depicting, either by adding layers or by shrinking the die lithography from its current 20nm level to possibly as low as 7nm over time.

To be clear, the timing of these denser (and thus, less costly) XP technology generations is very fuzzy. If we use the DRAM generation, 1尾, as our guideline, that��s four shrinks out from this year��s 1X - 1Y, 1Z, 1伪, and finally, 1尾. So, 1尾 could be anywhere from four to six years out. The point is that these slides demonstrate that Micron clearly thinks that XP will be economic at some point, and it may give us a clue as to why Intel and Micron decided to end their NAND partnership at IM.

We know now what Micron��s NAND plans are. The company is going to charge trap technology for the Gen 4 node that will follow the last IM node, the 96-layer die. Given that the 64L technology just got to bit crossover in the last two months, that means it will be the dominant node all through 2019, leaving Gen 3 to fiscal years 2020 through 2021 in which it will be fully productive and cost-effective. Given that cadence, Micron will probably be introducing CT Gen 4 sometime in 2021 in anticipation of full production sometime in FY 2022.

Is it possible that Intel feels it doesn��t need another NAND node because it can increase XP densities enough to be an attractive alternative to NAND? We don��t know for sure, because Intel has not announced its post Gen 3 roadmap. We do have clarity on Micron��s position, though. The company is confident that the CT-based 3D NAND technology has the potential to advance to 200+ layers, and that means NAND will remain the economic choice for storage architectures well into the mid-20��s, if not longer.

Let��s pause for a moment here to recap. Here��s what we know or can infer:

Intel and Micron are parting ways on NAND. The last IM node, the Gen 3 96L die, will be highly competitive, if not market-leading, in cost through FY 2020 and much of FY 2021. Intel is planning for $8 billion of XP revenue in CY 2021. Micron won��t see any revenue from XP until its FY ��20. Micron has ceded much of its XP output from Lehi to Intel, at least until it pays back the $500 million loan from Intel used to fund the Building 60 expansion at Lehi. Micron has announced a DRAM technology roadmap that has four generations beyond the current ��1X�� node. Intel has not announced its post-Gen 3 3D NAND technology roadmap. Micron��s recent analyst meeting technology futures slides indicate that the company thinks that XP will get significantly more dense over the course of the next four to six years.

So what can Micron investors take away from all this? Here��s my take on it, for what it��s worth:

Micron has concluded that DRAM has at least a four to six-year runway, whether XP is successful or not. The company feels it has a viable business in 3D NAND over the foreseeable future (well into the mid-2020��s). The company thinks that it can have a viable XP business in FY ��20 and beyond, but has not characterized the size or potential scope of that business. Micron thinks that XP has a serious potential to impact the growth of the DRAM business by the mid-2020��s.

Of the above, point #1 is the key to Micron��s business results through FY 2021. Micron will remain a DRAM company and will rise (or fall) depending on the health of the DRAM market. If I had to speculate about Micron��s current strategic outlook, my view is that the company sees the DRAM business at this point as a reliably growing cash cow that can be depended on for the foreseeable future. The company does feel that XP will be viable, and at some point XP will potentially impact DRAM demand - but that time is four to five years away at the earliest.

A skeptic could challenge my position by asking - if Micron is so bullish on DRAM, why has it not announced a new DRAM fab? To which I would answer:

That would be the wrong signal to send to the Koreans regarding industry capacity management. Micron probably feels that such a fab - which, if it were to be announced at the upcoming Q3 earnings call, would not be in full production until 2020 - would have some or all of its capacity stranded by 2025, when it is still not fully through its 7-year depreciation cycle. The company is going to need its CapEx dollars to either build its own or contribute to another IM XP fab in the 2020 time frame.

In closing, my take on this is that Micron��s opacity on XP becomes much less opaque when we understand the implications of the company's announcement that it sees at least four more DRAM generations in its development plans. Whatever happens with XP in the short term, the DRAM market will remain robust and highly profitable, driving Micron��s profits and cash flow into record-setting territory over the course of the next few years. Intel may or may not succeed in the short term, but its success or lack thereof will have no material effect on Micron. Over the longer term, post 2020, Micron is poised to win big with XP once Intel has done all the pioneering work establishing the market. Heads (XP fails or is slow in market development) Micron wins, tails (XP is a big success) it wins bigger.

Remember, I say Micron, you say DRAM - for the next few years, at any rate.

Long MU.

Disclosure: I am/we are long MU, NVDA, WDC, PSTG.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Consumer Discretionary SPDR (XLY) is Cavalier Investments LLC’s 5th Largest Position

Cavalier Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Consumer Discretionary SPDR (NYSEARCA:XLY) by 67.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 184,419 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock after buying an additional 74,598 shares during the quarter. Consumer Discretionary SPDR makes up approximately 6.6% of Cavalier Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Cavalier Investments LLC owned 0.15% of Consumer Discretionary SPDR worth $18,680,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dow Chemical Co. DE lifted its stake in Consumer Discretionary SPDR by 111.9% in the fourth quarter. Dow Chemical Co. DE now owns 90,451 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $8,927,000 after buying an additional 47,757 shares during the last quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its stake in Consumer Discretionary SPDR by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 266,677 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $26,318,000 after buying an additional 14,421 shares during the last quarter. Advisor Partners LLC lifted its stake in Consumer Discretionary SPDR by 59.3% in the fourth quarter. Advisor Partners LLC now owns 4,092 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $432,000 after buying an additional 1,523 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Consumer Discretionary SPDR by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 550,954 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $54,374,000 after buying an additional 43,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Consumer Discretionary SPDR by 114.8% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 78,755 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $7,772,000 after buying an additional 42,086 shares during the last quarter.

Get Consumer Discretionary SPDR alerts:

Consumer Discretionary SPDR traded up $0.16, hitting $106.13, during trading hours on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The stock had a trading volume of 3,840,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,318,200. Consumer Discretionary SPDR has a 1-year low of $87.89 and a 1-year high of $109.34.

Consumer Discretionary SPDR Company Profile

Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index (the Index). The Index includes companies from the following industries, media; retail (specialty, multiline, Internet and catalog); hotels, restaurants and leisure; textiles, apparel and luxury goods; household durables; automobiles; auto components; distributors; leisure equipment and products; and diversified consumer services.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now

tags:LB,GSK,EPIX,INOD,EEFT,RM,

Primecap Management Company is an under-the-radar adviser that doesn’t talk to the media. But it did something no other tracked fund did: it bought Tesla for less than $30 a share in 2011 and hung on to it through the stock’s explosion this year. That’s an estimated gain of 469%.

Primecap advises the Odyssey Funds, which consist of a stock fund, growth fund and aggressive growth fund. Its investment profile reads like that of most typical value advisers, looking to uncover undervalued stocks whose fundamentals will develop beyond Wall Street’s expectations. With a long-term approach, the managers identify changes in a company that could increase value in three-to-five years, such as new products or management, and then wait.

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 04: A Tesla car is displayed in a showroom at a Brooklyn Tesla dealership on April 4, 2017 in New York City. As of Monday, the start-up car maker founded by Elon Musk had passed iconic car manufacture Ford in market value, riding a 7 percent share-value surge to a market capitalization of about $48.7 billion. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: L Brands, Inc.(LB)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  L Brands (NYSE:LB) had its target price decreased by MKM Partners to $38.00 in a research note published on Friday. MKM Partners currently has a neutral rating on the specialty retailer’s stock.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) traded down about 10% Thursday and posted a new 52-week low of $30.70 after closing Wednesday at $34.12. The stock’s 52-week high is $63.10. Volume totaled around 14 million, about three times the daily average of around 4.5 million. The company warned that profits would we lower than expected when it reports quarterly results on May 23.

• [By Chris Lange]

  L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) will report its most recent quarterly results on Wednesday. The consensus estimates are $2.04 in EPS and $4.73 billion in revenue. Shares were last seen trading at $48.71, in a 52-week range of $35.00 to $63.10. The consensus price target is $54.04.

• [By Chris Lange]

  L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) will report its most recent quarterly results on Wednesday. The consensus estimates call for $0.18 in EPS and $2.59 billion in revenue. Shares were last seen trading at $33.74, in a 52-week range of $30.70 to $63.10. The consensus price target is $44.83.

• [By ]

  1. L Brands (NYSE: LB)
  This female-focused retailer is leading the retail apocalypse. Shares have been crushed this year by plunging over 40% in the last four months.� Already suffering from the overall retail malaise, L Brands exasperated the downside by issuing weak guidance at the end of 2017. Combined with analyst downgrades, the stock only collapsed under the pressure. �

• [By Taylor Cox]

  Notable Earnings

  Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) Q1 premarket Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) Q4 premarket Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) Q1 premarket Lowe’s Companies, Inc (NYSE: LOW) Q1 premarket L Brands, Inc (NYSE: LB) Q1 after hours NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) Q4 after hours

  IPOs

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: GlaxoSmithKline PLC(GSK)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) , Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) , Dominion Energy (D) , Idexx Laboratories (IDXX) , GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) , Baidu.com (BIDU) , Baozun (BZUN) and Alibaba (BABA) .

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  FDx Advisors Inc. cut its position in shares of GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) by 24.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 92,124 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 30,211 shares during the period. FDx Advisors Inc.’s holdings in GlaxoSmithKline were worth $3,599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By ]

  GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) : "I like Glaxo. I think they're doing a fantastic job."

  LexinFintech Holdings Ltd.  (LX) : "The only ones I'm recommending from China are Baidu.com (BIDU) , Alibaba (BABA) and Baozun (BZUN) ."

• [By Jason Hall, George Budwell, and Chuck Saletta]

  Whether ExxonMobil can rebound or not isn't a question we will try to answer in this space today. Instead, here are three dividend stocks with higher yields -- and what these Motley Fool investors think are better prospects -- than ExxonMobil:�Bladex�(NYSE:BLX),�Enbridge Inc. (USA) (NYSE:ENB), and�GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR)�(NYSE:GSK).�

• [By Cory Renauer]

  Around a year ago, the partners launched an eczema drug that's already surpassed Praluent on the sales charts, and a possible expansion to asthma could send Dupixent sales through the roof.�In studies supporting an application under review at the moment, Dupixent reduced severe attacks by up to 67% for some patients with uncontrolled asthma. It also led to lung function measurements that suggest it can compete with GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE:GSK)�Nucula for a slice of a global market for asthma treatments expected to reach $56.5 billion by 2025.

• [By Cory Renauer]

  GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE:GSK) launch of Shingrix,�a new shingles vaccine that contains a proprietary booster licensed from Agenus, is progressing well, with first-quarter sales topping $150 million.�A second vaccine aimed at malaria could be on the way, as well.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: ESSA Pharma Inc.(EPIX)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on ESSA Pharma (EPIX)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Lisa Levin]

   

  Losers Heat Biologics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HTBX) shares tumbled 48.59 percent to close at $1.275 on Thursday after the company priced its $18,000,000 public offering. InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: NVIV) fell 38.77 percent to close at $8.26 on Thursday. Check-Cap Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHEK) shares tumbled 27.43 percent to close at $8.81. Achaogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAO) dropped 24.76 percent to close at $11.06 in reaction to a disappointing update from an FDA AdCom panel. The FDA panel voted favorably for the company's Plazcomicin for treatment of adults with complicated urinary tract infections, but also voted against the therapy to be used as a treatment for bloodstream infections. Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIK) shares declined 24.68 percent to close at $34.80 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results. LSC Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LKSD) shares fell 24.22 percent to close at $12.64 following wider-than-expected Q1 loss. Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) fell 21.42 percent to close at $50.80 following downbeat quarterly profit. Horizon Global Corporation (NYSE: HZN) dropped 20.42 percent to close at $6.00 following downbeat quarterly earnings. Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE: HOS) slipped 20.11 percent to close at $2.90 following wider-than-expected Q1 loss. Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ESPR) fell 19.28 percent to close at $36.93. Esperion Therapeutics stock lost roughly a third of its value Wednesday after the company reported mixed Phase III results for its leading drug candidate, bempedoic acid. JP Morgan downgraded Esperion Therapeutics from Neutral to Underweight. Laredo Petroleum, Inc. (NYSE: LPI) declined 17.77 percent to close at $8.98 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 earnings. The Habit Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: HABT) dipped 16.1 percent to close at $8.60 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results. Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (N

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: Innodata Inc.(INOD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Innodata (NASDAQ:INOD) will be releasing its Q1 2018 earnings data before the market opens on Tuesday, May 8th.

  Innodata (NASDAQ:INOD) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 8th. The technology company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $15.66 million for the quarter. Innodata had a negative return on equity of 10.94% and a negative net margin of 8.30%.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Media coverage about Innodata (NASDAQ:INOD) has trended somewhat positive this week, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm scores the sentiment of press coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Innodata earned a media sentiment score of 0.10 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news articles about the technology company an impact score of 47.3485759085159 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the near future.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: Euronet Worldwide Inc.(EEFT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Asit Sharma]

  Electronic payments and remittances giant�Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT)�displayed crisp revenue growth in its earnings report issued April 25, which covered the first three months of the current year. Below, we'll outline summary numbers, delve into pertinent details underlying the results, and review management's perspective on the quarter:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT) and Payment Data Systems (NASDAQ:PYDS) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Euronet Worldwide (EEFT)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: Regional Management Corp.(RM)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Regional Management (RM)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  Provident Financial (OTCMKTS: FPLPY) and Regional Management (NYSE:RM) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and earnings.

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Downgraded by Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Tuesday morning.

According to Zacks, “Shares of Goldman underperformed the industry over the past six months. However, the company boasts an impressive earnings surprise history. It surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in all the trailing four quarters. The company’s first-quarter 2018 results witnessed top-line strength. Strong trading activities on high volatility supported the bottom-line numbers. Though regulatory issues are concerns, we believe the company’s well-diversified business and focus to capitalize on growth opportunities through strategic moves will continue to strengthen the overall business. Further, its cost-control measures are commendable. Additionally, the company’s steady capital-deployment activities have boosted investors' confidence. Notably, longtime CEO of Goldman is likely to retire by the end of 2018.”

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GS has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Co reissued an outperform rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Goldman Sachs Group from $294.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Vetr raised Goldman Sachs Group from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $246.36 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Bank of America reissued a buy rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $249.30) on shares of Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a buy rating and issued a $280.00 target price on shares of Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Thursday, March 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Goldman Sachs Group presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $266.78.

GS stock opened at $236.10 on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs Group has a 1-year low of $209.62 and a 1-year high of $275.31. The company has a market capitalization of $89.83 billion, a PE ratio of 11.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 17th. The investment management company reported $6.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.58 by $1.37. Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 14.27%. The company had revenue of $10.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.15 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.0% compared to the same quarter last year. analysts forecast that Goldman Sachs Group will post 23.27 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This is an increase from Goldman Sachs Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 30th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. Goldman Sachs Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.18%.

In other news, insider David M. Solomon sold 3,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.40, for a total value of $854,666.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GS. Icon Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter valued at $113,000. Cerebellum GP LLC acquired a new position in shares of Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter valued at $122,000. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter valued at $127,000. We Are One Seven LLC bought a new stake in shares of Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter valued at $137,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Goldman Sachs Group by 65.5% in the 1st quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 581 shares of the investment management company’s stock valued at $146,000 after buying an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Goldman Sachs Group Company Profile

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc operates as an investment banking, securities, and investment management company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Investment Banking, Institutional Client Services, Investing & Lending, and Investment Management. The Investment Banking segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, spin-offs, and risk management; and underwriting services, such as debt and equity underwriting of public offerings and private placements of various securities and other financial instruments, as well as derivative transactions with public and private sector clients.

Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Goldman Sachs Group (GS)

For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Somewhat Favorable Media Coverage Somewhat Unlikely to Impact Cemex (CX) Share Price

Media headlines about Cemex (NYSE:CX) have been trending somewhat positive on Tuesday, Accern Sentiment reports. The research group scores the sentiment of press coverage by monitoring more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Cemex earned a news sentiment score of 0.10 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news coverage about the construction company an impact score of 44.7310435870588 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near term.

Here are some of the news articles that may have effected Accern Sentiment Analysis’s analysis:

Get Cemex alerts: Global White Cement Market 2018 Evaluation- Cemex, JKCL, Lafarge, Cementir Holding, Cimsa and Sotacib (exclusivereportage.com) CEMEX, SAB de CV (CX) Stock Price trades -22.96% off from 200- SMA (nasdaqchronicle.com) Tottering Stocks: CEMEX, SAB de CV (NYSE:CX), My Size, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYSZ), Emerge Energy Services LP (NYSE … (thestreetpoint.com) Investor Radar CEMEX, SAB de CV (CX) moves -43.39% away from 52-Week High (nasdaqchronicle.com) These Stocks: Will Rock You: CEMEX, SAB de CV (NYSE:CX), Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBII … (thestreetpoint.com)

Shares of Cemex traded up $0.02, reaching $6.03, during trading on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. 5,467,715 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,993,179. The firm has a market cap of $8.57 billion, a PE ratio of 14.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.39. Cemex has a 12-month low of $5.72 and a 12-month high of $10.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.73.

Cemex (NYSE:CX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 26th. The construction company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter. Cemex had a return on equity of 4.33% and a net margin of 3.58%. equities research analysts predict that Cemex will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CX shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Cemex from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 16th. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Cemex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, May 4th. Bank of America raised shares of Cemex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $8.00 to $8.50 in a research report on Monday, April 9th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. ValuEngine lowered shares of Cemex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 6th. Finally, UBS lowered shares of Cemex from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $7.62 to $6.50 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $9.34.

Cemex Company Profile

CEMEX, SAB. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, distributes, and sells cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, clinker, and other construction materials. The company also offers various complementary construction products, including asphalt products; concrete blocks and roof tiles; architectural products; concrete pipes for storm and sanitary sewers applications; and other precast products comprising rail products, concrete floors, box culverts, bridges, drainage basins, barriers, and parking curbs.

Apple Hospitality REIT (APLE) Shares Bought by Riverhead Capital Management LLC

Riverhead Capital Management LLC grew its position in Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) by 607.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 134,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 115,150 shares during the quarter. Riverhead Capital Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Apple Hospitality REIT worth $2,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Hospitality REIT by 132.3% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,479 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $107,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Hospitality REIT by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 18,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $364,000 after acquiring an additional 3,147 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Hospitality REIT by 10.9% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 33,366 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $586,000 after acquiring an additional 3,286 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Hospitality REIT by 14.6% in the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 26,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $469,000 after acquiring an additional 3,400 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Hospitality REIT by 67.7% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 11,071 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $217,000 after acquiring an additional 4,468 shares during the period. 56.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on APLE shares. Barclays started coverage on Apple Hospitality REIT in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $21.00 price target for the company. TheStreet downgraded Apple Hospitality REIT from a “b” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. B. Riley set a $20.00 price target on Apple Hospitality REIT and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Robert W. Baird set a $20.00 price target on Apple Hospitality REIT and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research downgraded Apple Hospitality REIT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Apple Hospitality REIT currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.00.

Shares of Apple Hospitality REIT opened at $18.39 on Friday, according to MarketBeat.com. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.06 and a quick ratio of 0.06. Apple Hospitality REIT has a 1-year low of $16.72 and a 1-year high of $20.19. The firm has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.64.

Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.21). Apple Hospitality REIT had a return on equity of 5.38% and a net margin of 15.30%. The company had revenue of $298.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.89 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. Apple Hospitality REIT’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. sell-side analysts predict that Apple Hospitality REIT will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.53%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 1st. Apple Hospitality REIT’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.97%.

In other Apple Hospitality REIT news, insider Glade M. Knight acquired 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.16 per share, for a total transaction of $171,600.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Chairman Glade M. Knight acquired 5,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $17.10 per share, with a total value of $99,180.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 10,052,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $171,891,884.70. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 38,504 shares of company stock valued at $665,862 in the last quarter. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Apple Hospitality REIT

Apple Hospitality REIT, Inc (NYSE: APLE) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns one of the largest portfolios of upscale, select-service hotels in the United States. The Company's highly diversified portfolio consists of 241 hotels with more than 30,500 guest rooms located in 88 markets throughout 34 states.