Top Stocks

By Jenny Cosgrove

 

One year after a catastrophic IPO that saw $10 billion wiped off Facebook's (FB) value and after its shares shed 40% in just three months, the company is making a comeback.

 

After its dramatic fall from grace, fund managers and analysts CNBC spoke to say it's time for investors to take another look at Facebook's stock.

 

"We didn't participate in the IPO as the management team were an unknown quantity, having run the business as a social project rather than commercial venture previously, and they had not demonstrated how they would monetize mobile traffic via their advertisement-led business model," said Jeremy Gleeson, technology fund manager at AXA Framlington.

 

Information provided by Theflyonthewall.com

Friday's noteworthy upgrades include:

• Ctrip.com (CTRP) upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup
• General Motors (GM) upgraded to Buy from Underperform at CLSA
• Standard Pacific (SPF) upgraded to Buy from Fair Value at CRT Capital

Friday's noteworthy downgrades include:

• Actuant (ATU) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at SunTrust

 

By Richard Suttmeier 

 

The major equity averages continued to set new all time highs this week, with the Nasdaq ($COMPX) setting a new multi-year high. Stock market strength is causing higher overbought technical momentum readings on weekly charts.

 

Higher stock prices and a higher 30-year Treasury bond yield intensified the ValuEngine valuation warning as 70.8% of all stocks were overvalued on Wednesday. Friday morning this reading slipped to 69.9% as the bond yield moved slightly lower. The bottom line is that stocks are more overvalued and more overbought than they were a week ago, but still without confirming a market top.

 

Bruce Berkowitz, manager of Fairholme Capital Management, had a good year in 2012. That was after a miserable 2011. It seems that the redemption of funds have stopped and he could buy some more stocks.

He hasn't done much buying over the past year due to redemption. But he did buy back some past holdings in his fund in the recent quarter. He bought into Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) and Genworth Financial (GNW). All of them were the past holdings in his portfolio.

He added to positions in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Sears Holdings (SHLD) and Leucadia National (LUK), reduced positions in MBIA (MBI) and Wells Fargo (WFC), and sold out of CIT Group (CIT) during the three-months ended  31 March, 2013, according to the most recent filings of his investment company, Fairholme Capital Management.

 

By James Brumley

Although few seem to appreciate it, the past few weeks have been nothing less than amazing for stocks.

Yes, the S&P 500 ($INX) as well as the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) have both hit new all-time highs. But the move into uncharted territory is even more impressive in that it materialized on top of an already-frothy 17% rally. All told, stocks have advanced 22% since the November low, with hardly even a blip along the way.

Most amazing of all, however, is that the market has rallied to new highs without the help of technology bellwethers Apple (AAPL), International Business Machines (IBM) and Amazon (AMZN).

 

 

Kohl's (KSS) is competing against Wal-Mart (WMT) for the cost-conscious consumer, and it appears to be besting its much larger rival.

 

Although both companies were hurt by unusually cool spring weather, Wal-Mart's latest quarterly earnings report disappointed Wall Street while Kohl's beat analysts' expectations, despite having what CEO Kevin Mansell described as a "slow start."

 

By Jeff Reeves

We all know about the current dividend investing trend. With CDs and Treasuries yielding less than 2%, your best shot at income is to seek out stable dividend payers.

The best income stocks offer big dividends, decent share appreciation and rock-solid stability. And one of the best places to look for that triple-treat of a dividend stock is in the master limited partnership arena.

Master limited partnerships, or MLPs, are quirky investments. They have special tax rules, offering "distributions" instead of dividends to its "partners" or "unitholders." But don't let the jargon fool you. MLPs essentially are the same as dividend stocks, only their special corporate structure ensures that the vast majority of any profits are delivered right back to shareholders. Er, I mean "unitholders." You get the idea.

 

Hard-to-value stocks are such bummers. How do you value a car company that makes only 21,000 cars, even as it makes money on them? How do you value an online company that dominates Internet commerce?

 

The answer is simple: You don't. You can't. You can't, because there's a confluence, an actual formula, for what's going on here. You take a service or product that is much loved, you verify constantly that it is loved, whether it be because of the rapid adoption of the online service or a terrific rating in Consumer Reports, and you add in sudden profitability and a chance for long-term dominance and then sprinkle on nonbelievers who short the stock because the usual valuation works are defied, and they can't be defied forever. The result? You get Tesla Motors (TSLA) at $10 billion, and you get Amazon (AMZN) at 220 times earnings.

 

By Matthew Kanterman

U.S. equity futures rose slightly in early premarket trade heading into the weekend after a week marked by small moves in equities in both directions. Stocks look set to test all-time highs again in Friday's session if futures can hold gains into the open.

In other news, the European Union reported EU auto sales rose 1.8% in April, the first monthly gain in over 18 months.

Japanese Machine Orders rose a whopping 14.2% in March, much better than the 3.2% expected gain. However, the data is extremely volatile and may not be a clear sign that stimulus policies are working just yet.

 

The stock market pulled back on Thursday. Jobless claims bumped up a little, as a weaker-than-expected​ report on housing starts suggested worries about the health of the economy.

What few people talked about was if there were any great worries about inflation -- or if interest-rate cuts by central banks around the world, and moves to flood their banking system with cash to promote growth, were causing enormous inflationary pressures.

This was a change from the near-constant television chatter about how those big, bad central banks were going to destroy the economy as we know it. But the big fears are just fears so far. There isn't much inflation in the developed countries, certainly not the United States. Not yet, anyway.  

By Zacks Equity Research

 

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) recently presented encouraging data on its pipeline candidate, the leukemia drug idelalisib (formerly GS-1101), from a phase II study. That study is evaluating idelalisib, combined with Roche Holding AG’s (RHHBY) Rituxan/MabThera (rituximab), in treatment-naïve patients (ages 65 and older) suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The second most common leukemia form in the US, CCL refers to a slow-growing cancer. It stimulates the production of multiple mature white blood cells.

The results stated the regimen achieved an overall response rate of 97%, with estimated progression-free survival of 93% at 24 months. Encouraged by the results of the phase II study, Gilead intends to evaluate idelalisib for the indication in phase III studies.

 

By Todd Woody

 

Elon Musk's electric car and rocket ship ventures may score the headlines, but SolarCity (SCTY), his rooftop photovoltaic company, is proving the market leader of a booming business.

On Thursday, the Silicon Valley firm further consolidated its position as the nation's largest residential solar installer -- with the announcement that Goldman Sachs (GS) will finance $500 million in leases for SolarCity's customers.

 

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) and the S&P 500 Index ($INX) regularly setting new highs, it's enough to make anyone want to jump into the market. But it can be hard to get a foothold in stocks when single shares of popular companies like Google (GOOG) -- which just topped $900 a share -- cost as much as a new refrigerator.

However, as Michael Brush notes, "If you look beyond the household names, you'll find a lot of stocks from solid companies that go for much more modest prices -- say, less than $5 a share. Given that so many of these small companies get overlooked by the experts, here's where you can find bargains ready to jump higher."

Brush reviewed his own holdings and picks from his Brush up on Stocks portfolio to find seven budget-priced stocks with solid potential, like Sirius XM (SIRI) -- with one crucial caveat: "Do not overpay!"  

By Alex Daley, Casey Daily Dispatch

Compared to most other fledgling automakers, which rely on shared assembly plants or rented space from the big players, Tesla (TSLA) is much better off.

In 2008, founder Elon Musk took advantage of the financial crisis to purchase and retool a state of the art GM/Toyota manufacturing facility called "NUMMI." In theory, NUMMI is capable of producing 500,000 cars per year.

But if Tesla is going to grow into a sales behemoth, it's going to have to prove it can shatter the ceiling imposed on most other electric cars: They have failed to consistently break above 5,000 units per quarter.