After three consecutive closes below the psychologically important $400 level, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) managed to climb higher during Tuesday's session to close at $406.13. Apple's stock has been falling since it crossed $700 last fall, and recent operating results are not helping matters. While the company announced that it will speed up the clip at which it returns cash to investors, it is not doing so at the rate many had hoped to see from Cupertino. The question now becomes whether Apple has put the bad news behind it and can grow from here or if things are really beginning to look grim. While news of a slower-than-expected release schedule is not good news for shareholders, at current levels the stock is attractive.
Earnings results
CEO Tim Cook was unusually candid about the tepid nature of Apple's latest operating results: "Though we've achieved a credible scale and financial success, we acknowledge that our growth rate has slowed and our margins have decreased from the exceptionally high level we experienced in 2012." For the second fiscal quarter, Apple saw profits fall by 18% even with an 11% rise in revenue. Reduced analyst expectations had the company earning $10 per share; Apple reported EPS of $10.09 relative to $12.30 a year earlier.
Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Buy For 2014: Euro/Swiss(RF)
Regions Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for Regions Bank that provides a range of commercial, retail, and mortgage banking services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including savings and transaction accounts; demand deposit accounts; money market accounts; and time deposits, such as certificate of deposits and individual retirement accounts. The company?s loan portfolio comprises commercial loans, such as commercial and industrial, and owner occupied commercial real estate mortgage and construction loans; investor real estate loans, including commercial real estate mortgage and construction loans; and consumer loans, which consist of residential first mortgage, home equity, indirect, consumer credit card, and other consumer loans. Regions Financial Corporation, through other subsidiaries, also provides regional brokerage and investment banking products and services, such as securities brokerage, trust, asset management, finan cial planning, mutual funds, securities underwriting, sales and trading, and investment banking services for individual and institutional investors; and insurance brokerage services for various lines of personal and commercial insurance comprising property, casualty, life, health, and accident. In addition, the company offers credit-related insurance, including title, term life, credit life, environmental, crop, and mortgage insurance; debt cancellation products; and equipment financing products primary for commercial clients. As of December 31, 2011, it operated approximately 2,100 ATMs and 1,726 banking offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Chuck Carlson]
Regions Financial is a bit too highly leveraged for my tastes at 10X leverage, but the shares are reasonable at 1X tangible book and 12X forward earnings. Berkowitz clearly feels these leveraged companies can rebound, so the stock may be a good value if the company can right the ship in the coming years.
- [By John Grgurich]
Some surprise, as we move far away from Wall Street for our No. 2 performer: This Alabama-based regional star closed up 63.91% for the year, moving from its low of $4.35 per share to $7.13. Again, except for a dip into the summer doldrums, which saw Regions share price hit $5.50, the stock was a steady climber throughout 2012; it hit its high of $7.62 on September 19.
Some bad news for Regions surfaced just last month, with Reuters reporting that the bank is currently, or has been, investigated by no less than five federal and state entities for the possibility it misclassified loans that went south during the financial crisis. No charges have yet been filed, but this development for Regions might mean regulators and prosecutors are shifting their legal gaze from financial-crash shenanigans at the big banks to financial-crash shenanigans at the regional banks.
- [By Bret Jensen]
Regions Financial (RF) operates as the holding company for the Regions Bank that provides a range of commercial, retail, and mortgage banking services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including savings accounts, transaction accounts, and money market accounts, as well as time deposits, such as certificate of deposits and individual retirement accounts."
4 reasons Regions Financial is a buy at just under $5 a share:
1. Insiders bought over 100,000 shares in August which is good vote of confidence.
2. The technicals are improving rapidly .
3. After losing $.79 a share in FY2010, RF is expected to book $.19 a share of profit in FY2011 and analysts project $.48 a share in FY2012.
4. The company has taken solid steps to improve its credit quality and capital levels since 2009. In addition, Regions is selling at less than 2 times the $2.67 a share it made in FY2006.
Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Buy For 2014: Computer Sciences Corporation(CSC)
Computer Sciences Corporation provides information technology (IT) and professional services to governments and commercial enterprises. The company?s IT outsourcing services comprise operating customer?s technology infrastructure, including systems analysis, applications development, network operations, desktop computing, and data center management services; business process outsourcing; managing transactional business functions for clients, such as procurement and supply chain, call centers and customer relationship management, credit services, claims processing and logistics. It also offers cloud computing and cyber security protection services. In addition, the company provides range of services in the areas of infrastructure as a service, software as a service (SaaS), business process as a service, platform as a service, and other technologies. Further, its IT and professional services consist of systems integration, including designing, developing, implementing, and i ntegrating information systems; and management consulting, technology consulting, and other professional services, consist of advising clients on the strategic acquisition and utilization of IT and on business strategy, security, modeling, simulation, engineering, operations, change management, and business process reengineering. Additionally, the company licenses software systems, including SaaS offerings for the financial services and other industry-specific markets; and provides a range of end-to-end business solutions. It has its operations primarily in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in Falls Church, Virginia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Vatalyst]
Shares are trading at $30 against their 52-week trading range of $25.60 to $56.61. At the current market price, the company is capitalized at $4.65 billion. The company earned $4.299 per share last year, trades on a price to earnings ratio of 6.01 and paid a dividend of $0.80 (a yield of 2.70%), which is covered more than six times by its earnings.
Computer Sciences clients for its service based business are mostly governmental and corporate. Quarterly revenue growth of 3% may come under further pressure if spending is capped further as governments’ attempt to control budget deficits. Its operating margin of 5.96% would suffer under such a scenario. However, it may be able to continue with its well-covered dividend in the short to medium term, even if earnings are eroded. A buy for the longer term and ahead of economic recovery, but in the shorter term investors may prefer Accenture (ACN) that benefits from a more diversified client portfolio, operating margins of 13%, and a dividend yield of 2,40% that is 2.5 times covered by its earnings.
Hot Undervalued Stocks To Own Right Now: Ames National Corporation(ATLO)
Ames National Corporation, a multibank holding company, provides commercial banking services primarily within the central Iowa counties of Boone, Marshall, Polk, and Story. The company offers a range of deposit services, including checking accounts, savings accounts, and time deposits of various types ranging from money market accounts to longer-term certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio comprises short and medium-term commercial and residential real estate loans, agricultural and business operating loans and lines of credit, equipment loans, vehicle loans, personal loans and lines of credit, home improvement loans, and mortgage loans for sale into the secondary market. The company also offers cash management services, merchant credit card processing, safe deposit boxes, wire transfers, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, and automated teller machine access. In addition, it offers trust, Internet banking, and investment brokerage services. The compa ny was founded in 1903 and is based in Ames, Iowa.
Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Buy For 2014: Calfrac Well Servi Com Npv (CFW.TO)
Calfrac Well Services Ltd. provides specialized oilfield services to the oil and natural gas industries in Canada, the United States, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia. It offers hydraulic fracturing, coiled tubing, cementing, and other well stimulation services. The company also provides pressure transient analysis and production decline analysis; acidizing; commodities and logistics; and well performance analysis and forward planning services. Calfrac Well Services Ltd. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Buy For 2014: Methanex Corporation (MEOH)
Methanex Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production, marketing, and sale of methanol. The company also purchases and re-sells methanol produced by others. Its methanol is a clear liquid commodity chemical that is used to produce traditional chemical derivatives, including formaldehyde, acetic acid, and various other chemicals. The company�s methanol is also used in energy-related applications; for blending into gasoline, as a feedstock in the production of dimethyl ether, which can be blended with liquefied petroleum gas for use in household cooking and heating, and in the production of biodiesel; and used to produce methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a gasoline component, as well as used into olefins applications. The company supplies its methanol to petrochemical producers and distributors in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America. Methanex Corporation was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
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