Top Stocks

By Tim Parker 

Information provided by Theflyonthewall.com 

By Matt Egan

 

Major Smithfield Foods (SFD) investor Starboard Fund pushed the meat producer on Monday to explore a breakup in favor of the $4.7 billion buyout offer reached with China's Shuanghui International Holdings.

 

The push by Starboard, which owns 5.7% of Smithfield's outstanding stock, is based on the belief that a sum-of-the-parts valuation of the world's largest meat producer would exceed the $34-a-share bid price from Shuanghui by as much as 62%.

 

According to a new report by MarketsandMarkets, the alternative sweetener market is due to grow into a $13.7 billion industry by 2018 -- a compound annual growth rate of 4.5% over the $10.5 billion in revenue booked in 2012. 

With the growing epidemic of diabetes and other diseases caused by a high-sugar diet, consumers are more than ever looking for sugar substitutes without the stigma associated with aspartame or saccharin.  

Since the approval for stevia's use by the European Union in 201, the market has grown considerably and will continue to do so at a rapid rate. 

Coca-Cola (KO) just introduced a reformulated Sprite in the U.K. after test-marketing it in Australia for a few years. 

 

By Bret Kenwell

 

Last Monday after the close, shares of Lululemon (LULU) fell off a cliff as management took investors by complete surprise during its first-quarter earnings report.

 

While investors were anxiously waiting to see how the company fared from the effects of the see-through pants issue, CEO Christine Day dropped a bomb on them by announcing her resignation.

 

Yes, Day has decided to step down, but will remain at the helm until a replacement is found. Shareholders were not happy, flushing the stock down approximately 20% over the next two trading sessions.

 

Information provided by Theflyonthewall.com

Monday's noteworthy upgrades include:

• Philips (PHG) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
• Public Storage (PSA) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James
• Blue Nile (NILE) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair
• BCE Inc (BCE) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Canaccord
• Petrobras (PBR) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies

 

By Steve Mauzy, Daily Profit

Thanks to baby boomers hitting their golden years en masse, annual deaths in the United States are expected to rise to 3.2 million in 2030 from 2.6 million in 2010. For income-and-yield investors, there's really only one choice in the cemetery sector -- StoneMor Partners (STON), which yields over 9%.

StoneMor is unique in that it's formed as a partnership. As such, it enjoys a favorable tax structure in exchange for paying out the majority of its profits as distributions to its unitholders.

That distribution amounts to $2.40 annually and is the principal reason StoneMor is a long-standing recommendation of ours.

 

For the rest of 2013 and into 2014, three global trends will drive increases in foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia: currency debasement from the major developed nations, the Chinese Yuan's (CYB) appreciation and economic stagnation in the West. But with the rapid and drastic changes in policy in the U.S., the EU and Japan with respect to their various forms of quantitative easing, the potential for Southeast Asia's policy makers to make major errors with regards to handling their fast-growing economies has risen as well.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Philippines received $11.5 billion in foreign direct investment in 2012, a 15.5% increase over 2011, while other Southeast Asia nations reported similar FDI inflow growth: Vietnam -- 12.5%, Thailand -- 3.9%, and Cambodia -- 104%. These risks will keep some investors to the sidelines, depressing or delaying further investment.

 

Let's start with a fair premise. I hate coal. I have supported anti-coal causes from when I was a teenager and saw the destruction in the Adirondacks from acid rain caused by Ohio power plants. I think that coal is a scourge that causes tremendous health damage and, according to the Sierra Club, which I belong to, kills about 20,000 people a year.

 

As most of you know, I favor aggressive expansion into natural gas plants as a bridge fuel that can reduce harmful emissions until we develop more economical sources of safe power.

 

But I watch aghast as the powerful environmental lobby, not content with the huge wins it has had in closing old coal plants here, is now attempting to shut down our own exports to countries still tied to coal-burning power plants, in some cases more than ever, because of the rapid shutdown of nuclear plants everywhere because of the Fukushima tragedy.

 

News Corp. (NWS), the media empire that tycoon Rupert Murdoch has spent decades building, has been making headlines of its own lately -- for all the wrong reasons.

On Thursday, Murdoch, 82, announced he had filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng, after 14 years of marriage, which may set the stage for a nasty family battle over money and power. 

By Geoffrey Seiler, BullMarket.com

We hated it when it went public at $38 a year ago, but a year later trading near $24, we're going to friend Facebook (FB), and we have added it to our Recommended List.

After a good quarter, Facebook has been under pressure due to concerns over user engagement, especially among teens and 20 somethings. Despite chatter about Facebook losing it's popularity, statistics provided by the company and third-party data providers show that Facebook engagement remains high and is growing in many markets.

ComScore published that 23% of all time spent on apps in the U.S. is on Facebook, and another 3% on Instagram (owned by Facebook), which equals 25%+ market share. Further, mobile users spend 80% more time on Facebook via mobile than the desktop.

 

By Matthew Kanterman

U.S. equity futures advanced in early premarket trade ahead of the much anticipated Federal Reserve two-day policy meeting Tuesday. Despite recent fears of tapering, the Fed is expected to downgrade its economic forecasts near consensus economist forecasts, which could increase dovish rhetoric in the policy statement.

In other news, the Spanish government blocked AT&T's (T) bid for Telefonica (TEF), Europe's most indebted telecommunications company, citing its strategic position to the Spanish economy.

Bloomberg reported that Boeing (BA) is expected to announce a new order of 10 787 Dreamliners from General Electric's (GE) aircraft leasing unit.

 

Updated: 5:58 p.m. Saturday

Can't we just get past the Federal Reserve?

Nope. The Fed was a big reason for this past week's market turmoil turmoil, and the central bank will probably be the biggest influence on markets next week.

The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee meets starting Tuesday. On Wednesday, the committee and, later, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will try to explain that it really doesn't plan to raise rates any time soon.

Maybe that will calm financial markets around the world, which have pulled back since Bernanke's May 22 testimony to Congress about the economy.

The Japanese have suffered maybe the most: The Nikkei 225 Index ($JP:N225) is off about 20% since May 22, while the effects have been far more modest in the United States.  

By David Goodboy

Everything was looking great with my new investment.

The stock had been steadily climbing higher since my purchase in early January. This company was among the original members of the S&P 500 and once ranked among the Dividend Aristocrats. Members of this exclusive list have raised their dividends annually for 25 consecutive years. Talk about a vote of confidence!

However, the company was dropped from that list recently. Not because of an issue with its dividends, but because it no longer had the minimum $3 billion market capitalization to remain a member.  

By Louis Bedigian

When video game developer THQ (THQIQ) filed for bankruptcy and sold off all of its assets, investors knew it was the end. Though many had already abandoned the stock, there was always hope that the firm could make a comeback.

That did not happen, but THQ's demise started long before it was delisted. By relying on perennial wrestling games and licensed software (such as SpongeBob and Cars), it became very difficult for the company to take risks. When THQ finally took a risk and decided to launch an original shooter (one that was supposed to start a new franchise), it failed.

Thus, it wasn't the act of being delisted that told investors THQ was sinking faster than the Titanic -- they already knew.