Best Low Price Stocks To Watch Right Now

tags:EXK,AGU,LPT,

Retirement investors want sure things. There isn't enough time to make up for stocks that just fall into the ground, never to return. So considering how awful energy has been for the past couple of years, it's probably surprising to see "energy stocks" and "retirement" mentioned in the same vicinity.

Sustained low oil and natural gas prices have negatively impacted energy stocks. OK, that's putting it mildly. Low prices have outright strangled some companies right out of business, and has made life miserable for the vast majority of the sector.

See Also: Earn 5% to 11% With Master Limited Partnerships

And considering many retirement investors were sucked in by the plentiful dividends in the energy sector, they know the pain. And they're probably not too forgiving.

Best Low Price Stocks To Watch Right Now: Endeavour Silver Corporation(EXK)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Endeavour Silver (NYSE: EXK) and Tahoe Resources (NYSE:TAHO) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) and McEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX) are both small-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) and Kirkland Lake Gold (NYSE:KL) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Best Low Price Stocks To Watch Right Now: Agrium Inc.(AGU)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Here are some of the news headlines that may have impacted Accern’s rankings:

  Get Agrium alerts: Addenda Capital Has Increased Agrium (AGU) Stake By $513880; Guidewire Software (GWRE) Shorts Lowered By … (mtastar.com) Toron Capital Markets Increased By $13.63 Million Its Agrium (AGU) Holding; Isoray (ISR) Has 9 Sentiment (mtastar.com) Global Liquid Potassium Thiosulfate Market 2018 – Agrium, RW Griffin, Plant Food, Hydrite Chemical (satprnews.com) Global NPK Market Analysis 2018 – K+S, Rossosh, Euro Chem, Agrium and Acron (theexpertconsulting.com) Global Controlled-release Fertilizers Market Study 2018-2025 Harrell’s, Agrium, Koch, Knox (assessmentofmarkets.com)

  Agrium traded up $0.41, hitting $115.00, on Friday, according to MarketBeat.com. 833,843 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 407,078. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.29. Agrium has a 52 week low of $87.82 and a 52 week high of $117.28.

Best Low Price Stocks To Watch Right Now: Liberty Property Trust(LPT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Liberty Property Trust (LPT)

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

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Liberty Property Trust (LPT)

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

• [By Stephan Byrd]

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

  Get Liberty Property Trust alerts: Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Receives “Buy” Rating from SunTrust Banks (americanbankingnews.com) FY2019 Earnings Estimate for Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Issued By KeyCorp (americanbankingnews.com) $163.17 Million in Sales Expected for Liberty Property Trust (LPT) This Quarter (americanbankingnews.com) Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages (americanbankingnews.com)

  Several research firms have recently issued reports on LPT. Sandler O’Neill set a $44.00 target price on shares of Liberty Property Trust and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 25th. ValuEngine lowered shares of Liberty Property Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Liberty Property Trust from $44.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Liberty Property Trust from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 25th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Liberty Property Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in Liberty Property Trust (NYSE:LPT) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 387,171 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,658 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Liberty Property Trust were worth $17,163,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Liberty Property Trust (LPT)

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

7 A-Rated Stocks to Buy in the Second Quarter

The Federal Reserve came out of its most recent meeting about as dovish as it could get. This is marked change from where it was in the fourth quarter of last year. As it unwound its portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and kept a keen eye on inflation, many market sectors were wondering how they were going to keep growth going after the steroid shot of a tax cut.

But December changed all that.

The Fed backed off its intent to raise rates as planned in 2019. And it would hold on to its portfolio. And the markets have been feeling good ever since. However, it recent announcement that it has no plans to raise rates or sell anything in its portfolio has actually frightened the markets.

Now, investors are worried that the economy may be weaker than we expected and that 2% growth may not be as easy to get as anticipated. And today’s manufacturing PMI sliding to 21-month lows reinforces that.

But the 7 A-rated stocks for Q2 that follow will be top performers because they’re best in class stocks in well-performing sectors.

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CyberArk Software (CYBR)

Source: Shutterstock

CyberArk Software (NASDAQ:CYBR) is a cybersecurity company that’s based out of Israel but has clients all over the globe. Its claim to fame is its privileged-access security software.

Privileged accounts are the most secure properties that exist in most organizations. And when those organizations are storing very critical data like financial institutions, healthcare companies, utilities and other enterprise organizations that have significant amounts of these types of accounts, it’s crucial that they’re secure internally and externally.

And this is CYBR does. It also offers other products, but this is the hub of its cybersecurity wheel.

As we see bigger and more sophisticated hacks of major databases and the information inside those databases, more and more companies are doing their best to avoid being the next embarrassing headline.

The A-rated stock is up 138% in the past 12 months, which is testament to the growing global demand for CYBR’s platform.

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Lululemon (LULU)

Source: Shutterstock

Lululemon athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) is an upscale sportswear company that pretty much coined the term ‘athleisure’.

What LULU has done very well is know its customers and maintain control of its brand. Its products are not cheap. But that’s the point. They’re well made, and by not distributing them outside of its own retail shops and e-commerce site, it has been able to keep prices where it needs them to be.

Bigger brands in the market have massive distribution networks, which means pricing premiums are harder to maintain and that makes it tough to control margins.

LULU has built a great and growing customer base and has patiently expanded its market in to menswear.

LULU stock is up more than 80% in the past 12 months, yet it still trades a trailing P/E of 51. That’s amazing given the growth potential out there and how well run this company is.

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First BanCorp (FBP)

Source: Shutterstock

 First BanCorp (NYSE: FBP) is a Puerto Rican bank that has been in business since 1948. It also has operations in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

While the recent devastating hurricane is still fresh in our minds and the Caribbean — in particular Puerto Rico — is still recovering, the fact is that redeveloping the island is underway. And that redevelopment means money has to start flowing in.

That’s why being one of the top local banks is a great position to be in right now. Also remember that other islands were affected by the hurricane and Puerto Rico is a big financial hub for other Caribbean islands.

This increase in rebuilding and redevelopment has certainly been reflected in FBP’s stock price. The stock is up more than 80% in the past 12 months. That’s pretty spectacular for a financial stock.

And there’s plenty more to come, given the fact that this A-rated stock is still trading at a trailing P/E of 12.

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Intuit (INTU)

Source: Mike Mozart via Wikimedia (Modified)

 Intuit Inc (NASDAQ: INTU) is a software development company that is best known to consumers — especially this time of year — for TurboTax.

It also owns QuickBooks which is a suite of financial and business tools geared toward small businesses. It allows small business owners a place to do payroll, sort out taxes, integrate all the accounting inputs and even market and hire.

INTU’s other division sells similar products that are focused on professional accountants and larger businesses.

But the real growth potential is in the products focused on small businesses and consumers. In this gig economy both tools are increasingly popular and their brands have a commanding presence in the market.

As the economy grows, so will INTU’s fortunes. It’s up 51% in the past 12 months but only trades at a trailing P/E of 46.

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Costco (COST)

Source: Shutterstock

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) is the Land of Giant Portions and a great favorite for small businesses and consumers alike.

Last year, Costco was doing well. It tends to reflect the broader economy, so when the economy is chugging along, so is COST. But in December, it hit the same wall most consumer stocks did.

Worries about growth moving forward and all the feel-good valuations up to that point disintegrated.

However, COST came roaring back like it was a beaten down semiconductor stock.

At this point, its 12-month return is 32% and its trailing P/E is 31. COST should have a strong year, with decent growth ahead and wages improving. That means more people shopping and spending.

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Mastercard (MA)

Source: Håkan Dahlström via Flickr (Modified)

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) is one of the leading and oldest payment processing companies out there. Now, a decade ago, I would have likely called it a credit card company. My how the world has changed.

Granted, MA got started as Interbank in 1966 and landed on its current incarnation in 1979. Remember, back then, if you were traveling, you couldn’t just whip out a card and buy things. Banks and their merchants needed to be interconnected so that your card could charge a dinner at a California restaurant even though your bank was in Kansas.

The credit card was a revolution at the time. Just as electronic payments are today. And now that national transaction has given way to international transactions that are all done without cards at all.

This history and brand recognition is what has propelled MA in this new financial services transformation. It’s up 35% in the past 12 months, but this new financial digital world has only just begun.

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Texas Pacific Land Trust (TPL)

Source: Nicolas Henderson via Flickr

 Texas Pacific Land Trust (NYSE: TPL) has been around since 1888, when the Texas and Pacific Railway went belly up.

Obviously, at the time, railroads owned huge amounts of land so they could develop their lines. And the Texas and Pacific was no different. Also, given its name, most of this land was in west Texas on the way to the Pacific.

At the time of its demise, the railway owned 3.5 million acres that was transferred to TPL. Today, TPL still holds about 900,000 acres of this land, which still makes it one of the largest landholders in Texas today.

Fundamentally, TPL leases the land to companies that are either energy firms (not just oil and natural gas but wind and solar farms as well) or water companies and it takes those rents as its revenues.

This is a solid business in slow times. But in good times — like now — it promises some big gains. TPL is up 47% in the past year and 71% in just the past 3 months, so momentum is growing significantly in 2019.

Louis Navellier is a renowned growth investor. He is the editor of four investing newsletters: Growth Investor, Breakthrough Stocks, Accelerated Profits and Platinum Growth. His most popular service, Growth Investor, has a track record of beating the market 3:1 over the last 14 years. He uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental analysis to identify market-beating stocks. Mr. Navellier has made his proven formula accessible to investors via his free, online stock rating tool, PortfolioGrader.com. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more o

Hot Value Stocks To Buy For 2019

tags:SRCE,IEP,AUPH,

Unit Co. (NYSE:UNT) – Equities research analysts at SunTrust Banks lowered their Q3 2018 earnings estimates for shares of Unit in a report issued on Thursday, August 9th. SunTrust Banks analyst N. Dingmann now anticipates that the oil and gas company will post earnings per share of $0.17 for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $0.18. SunTrust Banks currently has a “Hold” rating and a $26.00 price target on the stock. SunTrust Banks also issued estimates for Unit’s Q4 2018 earnings at $0.21 EPS.

Get Unit alerts:

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Unit from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 20th. ValuEngine lowered shares of Unit from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 3rd. Finally, Cowen set a $30.00 target price on shares of Unit and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Unit currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.00.

Hot Value Stocks To Buy For 2019: 1st Source Corporation(SRCE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on 1st Source (SRCE)

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

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on 1st Source (SRCE)

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

• [By Max Byerly]

  1st Source Co. (NASDAQ:SRCE) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $55.00.

• [By ]

  Currently, I like People's Utah Bancorp (Nasdaq: PUB), 1st Source Corporation (Nasdaq: SRCE), and East West Bancorp (Nasdaq: EWBC) as stocks likely to benefit in the small/regional sector.

• [By Max Byerly]

  1st Source (NASDAQ:SRCE)’s share price hit a new 52-week high and low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $56.13 and last traded at $55.94, with a volume of 100 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $55.94.

Hot Value Stocks To Buy For 2019: Icahn Enterprises L.P.(IEP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Feroldi]

  While not every growth fund manager is worth following there are several that I greatly respect and can be a wonderful source of stock ideas. Here are a few of my favorite growth investors to follow:

  Pat Dorsey of Dorsey Asset Management: Dorsey was the director of equity research at Morningstar for more than a decade an authored two must-read books for growth investors: The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing and The Little Book that Builds Wealth. Dorsey now runs his own asset management business and he makes concentrated bets in growth stocks that he believes will be able to compound shareholder wealth for years. Chuck Akre of Akre Capital Management: Akre ran the FBR Focus Fund from 1997 to 2009 and produced annualized returns of more than 12% during his tenure, which was far ahead of the 4.4% return of the S&P 500 over the same time frame. Akre launched his own mutual funds in 2009. His style is to buy growth stocks that are trading for value prices and he rarely sells. He also runs a concentrated portfolio. Carl Icahn of Icahn Capital Management: Long-term investors in Icahn's publicly traded investment vehicle Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ:IEP) has enjoyed market-beating returns. Icahn's net worth has ballooned to more than $18 billion because of his knack for finding mispriced stocks. In recent years, he has become an activist investor who buys a meaningful position in a company and then shakes up its Board of Directors and management team in an effort to improve the business. While his fast-paced style isn't for everybody, I always enjoy looking at his portfolio to see what he has been buying or selling recently.

  There are also a plethora of websites out there that make easy to track and rank what notable growth investors are doing, including Whale Wisdom, TipRanks, and Guru Focus. Growth investors can visit any of these sites and quickly learn what many big-time money managers have been buying and selling in recent months to come up

• [By ]

  That being said, Icahn Enterprises (NYSE: IEP) has made the cut on at least three of four of these screens. And since we're always looking for positive attributes, that bodes well.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ:IEP) bought Tropicana in 2008 during the collapse of the financial markets. In 2010, Tropicana emerged from bankruptcy protection under a $200 million deal brokered by Icahn, which gave him control of eight casinos in Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Missouri, New Jersey, and Aruba. The Aruba resort is not included in the current deal, but will be sold at a later date.

• [By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]

  For the details of Carl Icahn's stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Carl+Icahn

  These are the top 5 holdings of Carl IcahnIcahn Enterprises LP (IEP) - 166,393,350 shares, 48.97% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 5.38%CVR Energy Inc (CVI) - 71,198,718 shares, 10.91% of the total portfolio. Herbalife Nutrition Ltd (HLF) - 35,227,904 shares, 7.84% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 22.99%Cheniere Energy Inc (LNG) - 23,680,490 shares, 6.39% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 27.54%Freeport-McMoRan

Hot Value Stocks To Buy For 2019: Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc(AUPH)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Orelli]

  Shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) jumped 11% in May, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, after the biotech said it plans to test voclosporin, its only drug candidate, for additional diseases.

• [By Cory Renauer]

  Shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AUPH), a biotechnology company developing an experimental new lupus therapy, rose 16.8% in September, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Analyst attention following an important step forward for the company's lead candidate pushed the stock higher.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (AUPH)

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

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Isotechnika Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:AUPH) (TSE:AUP) shares rose 6.7% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $5.68 and last traded at $5.59. Approximately 54,590 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 429,596 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.24.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (TSE:AUP) (NASDAQ:AUPH) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported C($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C($0.21) by C($0.04), reports. The firm had revenue of C$0.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$0.07 million. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 30.41% and a negative net margin of 45,241.38%.

Best Growth Stocks For 2019

tags:CRI,FCPT,JKHY,

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) has gained 21% so far this year. Can the stock keep climbing? Morgan Stanley’s Simeon Gutman and team don’t think so:

AP

We believe Wal-Mart's recent rally likely pauses. The shares are up 20% YTD and have outperformed the market by 13% over the past two months. Its P/E multiple now stands at 17.5x FTM estimates, inline with the market. We attribute this outperformance to Wal-Mart meeting numbers against low expectations (Q1 reported mid-May) and to a safe haven trade given heightened market/macro volatility.

In a less macro-driven tape, Wal-Mart should be trading at a discount to the market given its lackluster earnings growth. But the global macro backdrop is unstable and it appears Wal-Mart is being treated as a "safe haven.” Wal-Mart has historically traded at a 14-15x P/E multiple over the last 10 years, which seems more appropriate given its growth prospects…

Best Growth Stocks For 2019: Carter's, Inc.(CRI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  One of the things I've always tried to do with this podcast is save the best for last. It's fun to go back in time and see how things have done, especially when you have a lot of time. Let's talk about Five Stocks to Feed the Bear. Emily, here they are, alphabetically: Carter's (NYSE:CRI), Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI), IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP), MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI), and Planet Fitness. 

• [By Max Byerly]

  Wall Street analysts predict that Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) will announce sales of $684.12 million for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks Investment Research reports. Four analysts have issued estimates for Carter’s’ earnings, with the lowest sales estimate coming in at $680.20 million and the highest estimate coming in at $689.50 million. Carter’s posted sales of $692.12 million during the same quarter last year, which would indicate a negative year-over-year growth rate of 1.2%. The firm is scheduled to report its next earnings results on Thursday, July 26th.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Shares of Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) have been given an average rating of “Buy” by the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $119.75.

Best Growth Stocks For 2019: Four Corners Property Trust, Inc.(FCPT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

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

  Get Four Corners Property Trust alerts: FCPT Closes 46 Chili's Restaurant Properties for $149.8 million as part of Previously Announced Brinker Sale-Leaseback Transaction (finance.yahoo.com) FCPT Announces Acquisition of a Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurant Property for $1.7 million (finance.yahoo.com) Four Corners Property Trust (FCPT) vs. Sutherland Asset Management (SLD) Head to Head Analysis (americanbankingnews.com) FCPT Announces Acquisition of an Arby's Restaurant Property for $1.6 million (finance.yahoo.com) Four Corners Property Trust Inc (FCPT) Expected to Post Quarterly Sales of $35.62 Million (americanbankingnews.com)

  Shares of Four Corners Property Trust traded down $0.16, hitting $26.01, during trading hours on Friday, according to MarketBeat Ratings. The stock had a trading volume of 360,648 shares, compared to its average volume of 479,703. The company has a current ratio of 6.59, a quick ratio of 6.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.13 and a beta of -0.04. Four Corners Property Trust has a 12-month low of $21.28 and a 12-month high of $26.96.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Boenning Scattergood set a $30.00 target price on Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT) in a research report released on Friday morning. The firm currently has a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Neuberger Berman Group LLC trimmed its position in Four Corners Property (NYSE:FCPT) by 12.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 61,299 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,843 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC owned 0.10% of Four Corners Property worth $1,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Four Corners Property Trust (FCPT)

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

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Four Corners Property (FCPT)

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

Best Growth Stocks For 2019: Jack Henry & Associates Inc.(JKHY)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Great Lakes Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ:JKHY) by 7.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,342 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 524 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Jack Henry & Associates were worth $767,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY)

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

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Royce & Associates LP lessened its holdings in shares of Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY) by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 408,799 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 21,500 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned approximately 0.53% of Jack Henry & Associates worth $53,291,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY) by 12.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 37,261 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,244 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Jack Henry & Associates were worth $4,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Top Penny Stocks To Watch Right Now

tags:SSBI,YRCW,CPHI,AAWW,

Shares of Yelp (NASDAQ:YELP) are screaming higher Thursday, up more than 15% after the company reported second-quarter earnings results. Now trading near $44, is it possible for Yelp stock to rally to its former 52-week high at $48.40?

If it can, that’s another 10% higher from current levels and well worth investors’ time. Let’s take a closer look.

Yelp Earnings

Yelp reported earnings of 12 cents per share, smashing estimates calling for a penny per share in profit. Sales of $235 million grew 12.5% year-over-year (YoY) and beat out estimates by about 1%. Of that, its biggest segment, advertising growth, outpaced overall growth as sales jumped 21% YoY.

While net income of $11 million is low, it’s up almost 40% from the $8 million Yelp had in the same period a year ago. EBITDA also topped estimates handedly, coming it at $47 million vs. expectations for $41.2 million.

Management also gave a bump to its full-year outlook. Previously, the team was expecting sales to fall between $943 million and $967 million (midpoint of $955 million). Management raised that outlook to $952 million to $967 million (midpoint of $959.5 million). Analysts expect about $960 million in full-year revenue.

Top Penny Stocks To Watch Right Now: Summit State Bank(SSBI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  ValuEngine upgraded shares of Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday.

  Separately, TheStreet raised Summit State Bank from a c+ rating to a b rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th.

Top Penny Stocks To Watch Right Now: YRC Worldwide Inc.(YRCW)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Here are some of the headlines that may have impacted Accern’s analysis:

  Get YRC Worldwide alerts: Volatility Levels in Focus For YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW) — Beta Runs to 3.67 (cantoncaller.com) Momentum Technology Stocks- YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW), Hallador Energy Company (NASDAQ:HNRG … (journalfinance.net) Check it now Active Stock list: Apollo Investment Corporation (AINV), YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) (newsregistrar.com) Rounding up the figures: YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW), Genesis Healthcare, Inc. (GEN) (finbulletin.com)

  Several brokerages recently issued reports on YRCW. ValuEngine downgraded YRC Worldwide from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on YRC Worldwide from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 3rd. BidaskClub raised YRC Worldwide from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank raised YRC Worldwide from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $13.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. YRC Worldwide currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.20.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Press coverage about YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ:YRCW) has trended somewhat positive on Thursday, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern identifies negative and positive media coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. YRC Worldwide earned a daily sentiment score of 0.16 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news articles about the transportation company an impact score of 46.7261330682883 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near term.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  YRC Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:YRCW) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders bought 1,318 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 791% compared to the typical daily volume of 148 put options.

Top Penny Stocks To Watch Right Now: China Pharma Holdings Inc.(CPHI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

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

  Get Scynexis alerts: Steady Activities: SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCYX), LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) (oracleexaminer.com) Do Analysts Think You Should Buy – SCYNEXIS Inc (NASDAQ: SCYX) (stockspen.com) Notable Runner: SCYNEXIS, Inc. (SCYX) (nasdaqplace.com) Most Active Stocks Now: SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCYX), China Pharma Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CPHI), Kala … (journalfinance.net) Overview on price to free cash flow: SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCYX), InfuSystem Holdings Inc. (NYSE:INFU) (stocksnewspoint.com)

  Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Roth Capital assumed coverage on Scynexis in a research note on Tuesday, May 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. Seaport Global Securities assumed coverage on Scynexis in a research note on Tuesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $4.00 price target for the company. Zacks Investment Research raised Scynexis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1.25 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 8th. HC Wainwright assumed coverage on Scynexis in a research note on Monday, May 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $5.00 price target for the company. Finally, ValuEngine raised Scynexis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Scynexis currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $4.45.

Top Penny Stocks To Watch Right Now: Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings(AAWW)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Atlas Air Worldwide (AAWW)

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

• [By Logan Wallace]

  BidaskClub upgraded shares of Atlas Air Worldwide (NASDAQ:AAWW) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

• [By Motley Fool Transcribing]

  Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (NASDAQ:AAWW) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 19, 2019 11:00 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Max Byerly]

  Atlas Air Worldwide (NASDAQ:AAWW) was downgraded by stock analysts at BidaskClub from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Triangles (TRI) Reaches 24 Hour Volume of $0.00

Triangles (CURRENCY:TRI) traded flat against the US dollar during the 1-day period ending at 20:00 PM Eastern on March 14th. Triangles has a market cap of $68,409.00 and $0.00 worth of Triangles was traded on exchanges in the last day. In the last week, Triangles has traded flat against the US dollar. One Triangles coin can currently be purchased for about $0.53 or 0.00014299 BTC on exchanges.

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

Get Triangles alerts: Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) traded 13.2% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.86 or 0.00021946 BTC. Stratis (STRAT) traded 2.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.94 or 0.00023965 BTC. Elite (1337) traded 2,406.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0007 or 0.00000017 BTC. NavCoin (NAV) traded 2.8% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.18 or 0.00004703 BTC. DeepOnion (ONION) traded 0.3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.20 or 0.00005130 BTC. CloakCoin (CLOAK) traded 4.4% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.60 or 0.00015397 BTC. Stealth (XST) traded 0.9% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0995 or 0.00002541 BTC. Kore (KORE) traded up 4.6% against the dollar and now trades at $0.54 or 0.00013866 BTC. Bitcoin Plus (XBC) traded 8.3% higher against the dollar and now trades at $5.04 or 0.00128624 BTC. BlitzPredict (XBP) traded 5.1% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0006 or 0.00000015 BTC.

About Triangles

Triangles is a PoW/PoS coin that uses the X13 hashing algorithm. It was first traded on October 11th, 2014. Triangles’ total supply is 129,579 coins. The official website for Triangles is info.triangles.technology. Triangles’ official Twitter account is @trianglestri.

Buying and Selling Triangles

Triangles can be purchased on these cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia. It is usually not currently possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as Triangles directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade Triangles should first buy Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Changelly, Gemini or GDAX. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to buy Triangles using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

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Citi Trends Inc (CTRN) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Citi Trends Inc  (NASDAQ:CTRN)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallMarch 15, 2019, 9:00 a.m. ET

Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Citi Trends Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.

(Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Friday, March 15th, 2019.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Filandro, Managing Director, ICR. Please go ahead.

Tom Filandro -- Managing Director

Thank you, Alisha. Our earnings release was sent out this morning at 6:45 AM Eastern Time. If you have not received a copy of the release, it is available on the Company's website under the Investor Relations section at www.cititrends.com.

You should be aware that prepared remarks made during this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions.

These statements do not guarantee future performance. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these statements. We refer you to the Company's most recent report on Form 10-K and other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

I will now turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Smith. Bruce?

Bruce D. Smith -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Tom. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. Also on the call is our Chief Financial Officer Stuart Clifford and our two merchandising Senior Vice Presidents, Christina Short and Brian Lattman.

In the fourth quarter, comparable store sales increased 0.2% on top of a 5.6% increase in last year's fourth quarter. Continued strength in home and accessories was almost completely offset by declines in the ladies business, and to a much lesser extent, children's and men's. The comparisons to 2017 were challenging for all three major apparel areas as each of them was up 6% to 7% in comparable store sales in last year's fourth quarter.

Ladies was impacted more so than the other areas as there continue to be fashion misses in the fourth quarter that we first started to see in the third quarter. We did a very good job of managing expenses during the fourth quarter, actually achieving 30 basis points of expense leverage on sales that were below our plan.

From an earnings standpoint, diluted earnings per share increased 55% in this year's fourth quarter or 18% on an adjusted basis, driven by a much lower tax rate this year and fewer outstanding shares as a result of our stock repurchase program.

Now, I'll turn the call over to Stuart to provide additional details on the results before I discuss future expectations.

Stuart C. Clifford -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Bruce. Comparable store sales increase 0.2% in the fourth quarter and 1.6% for the full year. In looking at total sales, fiscal 2017 had 53 weeks, so fourth quarter and full year comparisons of total sales are impacted by having one fewer week this year. In the fourth quarter, total sales decreased 5.2% to $201 million with more than all of the decrease coming from the loss of the extra week sales of $14.8 million in 2017.

Total sales for fiscal 2018 increased 1.9% to $770 million. The full year comp sales improvement reflected an increase in the average unit retail of less than 2%, a 1% increase in the number of items per transaction, and a 1% decrease in the number of customer transactions.

In looking at comp store sales for the various merchandise categories during the fourth quarter, the Home area increased 10% on top of an 11% increase in 2017 fourth quarter. This was the 22nd consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in our Home business.

Accessories, including footwear, were up 6% on top of a 3% increase in last year's fourth quarter. The men's area was down 1% following a 6% increase in last year's fourth quarter. Children sales were down 2% in the fourth quarter of 2018 after being up 6% last year. And the ladies business was down 7% in this year's fourth quarter after increasing 7% in the same quarter last year.

For the full year, Home led the way with a 13% comparable store sales increase, followed by accessories at 4% and men's at 1%, while children's remained flat and ladies saw a 2% decrease.

Gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2018 decreased 80 basis points from the same quarter last year, due primarily to a 60 basis points increase in markdowns associated with the slowdown in comparable store sales increases. For the full year, gross margin decreased 20 basis points, as improvements in shrinkage were more than offset by higher freight costs caused by pressures in the trucking industry and higher fuel surcharges.

During the fourth quarter, we continued to produce leverage of SG&A expenses, lowering our expenses as a percent of sales to 30.6% from 30.9% in last year's fourth quarter. This leverage for the quarter was similar to what we experienced for the full year, where we had a 20 basis points improvement in the year-over-year expense rate comparison, after adjusting for proxy contest expenses incurred in 2017.

Continuing down the P&L, income tax expense for the year decreased $3.9 million from last year to $5.0 million, due primarily to the decrease in the federal tax rate from 35% to 21% that was included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that went into effect on January 1, 2018. In addition, 2017 tax expense included a $1.6 million, one-time non-cash write down of deferred tax assets on our balance sheet due to this change in the federal tax rate.

Fourth quarter net income was $7.3 million compared with $5.2 million last year. Net income in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 was $6.9 million, when adjusted for the effect of the income tax charge. Earnings per diluted share in 2018's fourth quarter were $0.59 compared with $0.38 last year or $0.50 per share when adjusting last year for the impact of the Tax Act.

For the full year, net income was $21.4 million or a $1.64 per share compared to $14.6 million or $1.03 a share in 2017. 2018's earnings per share increased 30 % over last year's EPS of $1.26, adjusted for the proxy contest expenses and the effect of the Tax Act.

Now, I will turn the call back over to Bruce.

Bruce D. Smith -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Stuart. In other fourth quarter developments, we successfully opened seven new stores and relocated or expanded two stores, while closing two stores. For the full year, we opened 19 new stores, relocated or expanded eight stores and closed six stores. Also, in connection with our expanded capital return program, we returned $45 million to our shareholders in 2018 in the form of share repurchases and dividends. Since the initiation of the program in 2015, we've returned $94 million to our shareholders.

In looking forward, as we have entered 2019, sales are off to a slow start, decreasing 8% in comparable stores thus far during the quarter. Through mid-February, comp store sales were up 1% similar to third and fourth quarter trends, before significant volatility started to occur with a delay in IRS tax refunds relative to last year.

As we went through the remainder of February, we had a nearly two week period where comp store sales declined every day, ranging from approximately 20% to 60% before sales turned positive again in early March. Unfortunately, the largest distribution of refunds by the IRS occurred at almost the same time that first of the month checks were received by some of our customers. It would appear that last year, our core customers made two shopping trips, one in February when they received their tax refund and one in early March when they received their first of the month check.

This year, it appears that a portion of those customers made only one shopping trip because we did not fully recover lost sales from the delay in tax refunds as we would have expected. In addition, total season-to-date, IRS refunds are lower than last year by more than 3%.

In our guidance included in this morning's earnings release, we stated that we believe we will make up some of the loss in comparable store sales incurred thus far in the first quarter. However, we still expect to have a comp decline of approximately 3% for the full quarter. This assumption is expected to result in EPS ranging from $0.83 to $0.87 in the first quarter, compared with $0.83 in last year's first quarter.

For the full year, we are projecting earnings per diluted share to be in a range of a $1.85 to $1.95 compared with $1.64 in 2018. This guidance is based on an expected increase in comparable store sales in a range of 1% to 2%. We have a number of projects that we're excited about as we move further into 2019, including expected benefits from our efforts to better allocate merchandise on a store by store basis, initiatives to reduce freight cost in certain expense line items, and enhanced warehouse packing system, which should improve our DC throughput efficiencies and the implementation later this year of a markdown optimization system.

Looking longer-term, we continue to focus on a goal of reaching $4 of earnings per share within the next five years through a combination of merchandising, planning and allocation enhancements, cost reduction initiatives and the return of excess capital to our shareholders.

Alisha, now we'll take questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Luke Hatton with B. Riley FBR. Please proceed with your question.

Luke Hatton -- B. Riley FBR, Inc. -- Analyst

Good morning and thank you for taking my question. So you did a nice job managing expenses in 2018. Looking forward, does your annual guidance assume expense leverage or deleverage for 2019? And then, can you sort of quantify any of that or walk through the puts and takes that are going into that?

Bruce D. Smith -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I'll give you a little bit of high level guidance. Generally, we need a comp store sales increase around 2% to 2.5% to breakeven on leverage, although the past two years, we've actually beaten that historical norm. However, while we provide earnings and sales guidance, we don't break out the other lines, such as gross margin and expenses. However, there are some assumptions built into both areas regarding incremental improvement from the projects that we have going on that I mentioned earlier, such as the efforts to reduce freight cost, efforts to reduce certain SG&A line items and the efficiencies in the distribution center from the enhancements to the packing system. So you should expect to see maybe a little bit of leverage in expenses within our guidance, but not a lot.

Luke Hatton -- B. Riley FBR, Inc. -- Analyst

Got it, thank you. And then, expanding on the freight cost savings initiative, what exactly is that project? And then sort of can you frame the potential annualized savings that you expect to get once that is completed?

Bruce D. Smith -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Thanks, Luke. It's a multi-prong approach. It includes everything from rebidding our inbound contracts and also likely expanding the base of our inbound suppliers, while at the same time, implementing a transportation management system that is designed to more efficiently allow us to select the lowest cost routes each time. Then on the outbound side, we will also likely be rebidding the work and ultimately using the transportation management system to improve our efficiency on the outbound also. As far as quantifying that, we have not given guidance on that component yet of cost of sales.

Luke Hatton -- B. Riley FBR, Inc. -- Analyst

Understood, thank you. That's it for me. Good luck next quarter.

Bruce D. Smith -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Alright, thanks Luke.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. So, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

Duration: 16 minutes

Call participants:

Tom Filandro -- Managing Director

Bruce D. Smith -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Stuart C. Clifford -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Luke Hatton -- B. Riley FBR, Inc. -- Analyst

More CTRN analysis

Transcript powered by AlphaStreet

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

Spotify Makes Antitrust Complaint Against Apple -- Again

Swedish music-streaming leader Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) is tired of paying the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) tax. Spotify has now officially filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging anticompetitive behavior stemming from Apple's dual role in operating one of the largest mobile platforms on Earth while also competing with third-party developers within the same platform. The news comes over a year after Spotify was reportedly seeking assistance from European regulators back in December 2017, and nearly four years after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission started to look at the situation (the FTC has yet to take any action).

This isn't the first time that Spotify has made its case, and it likely won't be the last.

Daniel Ek. Image source: Spotify.

What Spotify is asking for

In a blog post, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek explained why his company has taken formal action against Apple after "careful consideration." Ek argues that the Mac maker has implemented rules in recent years that "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation." Spotify has unsuccessfully attempted to address its conflict with Apple to no avail, so it's now taking its case to regulators.

"Apple is both the owner of the iOS platform and the App Store -- and a competitor to services like Spotify," Ek writes. "In theory, this is fine. But in Apple's case, they continue to give themselves an unfair advantage at every turn."

In order to cope with paying Apple's 30% tax, Spotify has to either absorb the hit to its already-thin margins or pass along the tax to consumers in the form of higher prices. The latter scenario makes Spotify Premium less competitive with Apple Music's pricing. Neither is ideal. If Spotify chooses not to offer in-app subscriptions at all, then Apple "applies a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions on Spotify," according to Ek. For example, Spotify can't even email customers outside of the app, since Apple owns and tightly controls the customer relationship.

Ek lays out three things Spotify is seeking: All apps should be subject to the same rules and restrictions, including Apple Music; consumers should be free to use any payment system they wish; and platform operators should not be able to restrict communications between third-party developers and users.

Spotify has a sympathetic ally

This all comes as U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has recently proposed breaking up numerous tech giants, including Apple. Warren has specifically argued that Apple should not be allowed to compete on the platform that it owns and operates due to anticompetitive effects. In a recent interview with The Verge, she said:

Apple, you've got to break it apart from their App Store. It's got to be one or the other. Either they run the platform or they play in the store. They don't get to do both at the same time.

The lawmaker's specific proposal would designate any tech companies with annual global revenue of $25 billion or more as "platform utilities," and such companies would be barred from owning the platform while simultaneously participating on said platform. With revenue of over $260 billion in 2018, Apple is far above that threshold.

Torchmark Co. (TMK) EVP Sells $980,040.00 in Stock

Torchmark Co. (NYSE:TMK) EVP Robert Brian Mitchell sold 12,000 shares of Torchmark stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.67, for a total value of $980,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,231,159.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Shares of TMK opened at $82.32 on Wednesday. Torchmark Co. has a 52-week low of $69.68 and a 52-week high of $89.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.09 and a current ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.05 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.01.

Get Torchmark alerts:

Torchmark (NYSE:TMK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.56. Torchmark had a return on equity of 12.54% and a net margin of 16.32%. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Torchmark Co. will post 6.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Several brokerages have weighed in on TMK. Zacks Investment Research raised Torchmark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $86.00 price objective for the company in a report on Saturday, January 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Torchmark from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Torchmark from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 2nd. Finally, ValuEngine cut Torchmark from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Torchmark has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.60.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Torchmark in the 4th quarter valued at $642,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its stake in shares of Torchmark by 55.1% in the 4th quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 59,087 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,404,000 after purchasing an additional 21,000 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Torchmark by 2,043.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 67,991 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,895,000 after purchasing an additional 64,819 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new position in shares of Torchmark in the 4th quarter valued at $1,143,000. Finally, Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. increased its stake in shares of Torchmark by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 17,269 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.10% of the company’s stock.

TRADEMARK VIOLATION WARNING: “Torchmark Co. (TMK) EVP Sells $980,040.00 in Stock” was first posted by Ticker Report and is owned by of Ticker Report. If you are reading this piece on another domain, it was stolen and reposted in violation of U.S. and international trademark and copyright law. The original version of this piece can be read at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4217531/torchmark-co-tmk-evp-sells-980040-00-in-stock.html.

Torchmark Company Profile

Torchmark Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various life and health insurance products, and annuities in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. It operates through four segments: Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Annuity, and Investment. The company offers traditional and interest-sensitive whole life insurance, as well as term life insurance.

Recommended Story: Why does a company issue an IPO?

D-Street Buzz: Nifty Energy outperforms led by RIL; ICICI Bank gains, Titan hits new 52-week high

The Indian stock market has once again opened on a strong note with Nifty50 jumping 82 points, trading at 11250 while the Sensex spiked 274 points and was trading at 37,328 mark.

Nifty Energy was the outperforming sector, up over 1 percent led by Reliance Industries, NTPC, Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL India, ONGC and Reliance Infra.

Nifty PSE was also trading on a handsome note led by General Insurance, New India Assurance, PFC, REC, Power Grid, Bharat Heavy Electricals and NALCO.

From the infra space, the top gainers were Adani Ports, Engineers India, L&T, NBCC, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Idea.

related news Piramal Enterprises gains after launching injection in US market PSP Projects gains nearly 6% on orders win worth Rs 602cr NSE launches weekly options on NIFTY IT index

Selective banking names were trading in the green led by ICICI Bank, YES Bank, HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank.

From the midcap space, the top gainers were Apollo Tyres, Balkrishna Industries, Cholamandalam Investment, Dish TV, Divis Labs, NBCC, Muthoot Finance and Union Bank of India.

The top gainers from NSE included NTPC, Titan Company, Power Grid, Hindalco Industries and Vedanta while the top losers included Bharti Infratel, BPCL, Bharti Airtel, UPL and TCS.

The most active stocks were Reliance Industries, HDFC Life, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

Stocks to have hit new 52-week high on NSE included Titan Company, UPL, Refex Industries, PI Industries, Muthoot Finance, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Godfrey Phillips and Adani Gas.

The breadth of the market favoured the advances with 1285 stocks advancing and 273 declining while 488 remained unchanged. On the BSE, 1195 stocks advanced, 243 declined and 61 remained unchanged.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. First Published on Mar 12, 2019 09:37 am

What Are Refundable Tax Credits?

You probably know that tax credits help you save money on your taxes, but you may not understand how this works or who qualifies for them. All tax credits have unique eligibility requirements, and some are worth more than others. Tax credits also come in two types: refundable and nonrefundable. While both are nice, refundable tax credits offer the better deal because they can reduce your tax liability below zero, so you could get a refund even if you don't owe any taxes. You'll learn more about refundable tax credits in detail below, along with some common ones you may qualify for.

What's a tax credit?

Tax credits are not to be confused with tax deductions, which also help to reduce your tax liability. A deduction reduces your taxable income -- that is, the amount of money subject to income tax. So if you earned $50,000 last year and qualified for $15,000 in deductions, you'd only pay taxes on the remaining $35,000.

Image source: Getty Images.

Tax credits, on the other hand, directly reduce your tax bill. So if you owe $5,000 in taxes for the year, but you receive $2,000 in credits, you'll only pay $3,000 in taxes. The government will refund you any excess it took from your paychecks throughout the year.

What's a refundable tax credit?

Most tax credits are nonrefundable. This means that they can reduce your tax bill to zero, but the government won't credit you for any extra credits. Refundable tax credits can reduce your tax bill below zero. If your total refundable tax credits exceed your tax liability, the government will pay you the difference. Say your tax bill is $5,000 for the year and you qualify for $6,000 in refundable tax credits. The government will now give you back all the income tax it took from your paychecks, plus an extra $1,000.

This means that you can get a tax refund even if you don't owe any taxes or aren't required to file a tax return for the year. But you must file a return in order to claim any refundable tax credits you qualify for. Refundable tax credits are calculated after your tax deductions and nonrefundable credits to ensure you get the largest return possible.

Common refundable tax credits

Below are three of the best-known refundable tax credits that you may qualify for.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)Perhaps the best-known refundable tax credit is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). It's aimed at low-income families, especially those with dependent children. In order to qualify, you must have earned income for the year and have no more than $3,500 in investment income. You must also file taxes as single, head of household, qualifying widow(er), or married filing jointly. Married couples filing separately cannot claim this credit. Your earned income and your adjusted gross income (AGI) -- your income minus tax deductions -- must be below the following thresholds for the 2018 tax year:

Filing Status

No Qualifying Children

1 Qualifying Child

2 Qualifying Children

3+ Qualifying Children

Single, head of household, or qualifying widow(er)	$15,270	$40,320	$45,802	$49,194
Married filing jointly	$20,950	$46,010	$51,492	$54,884

Data source: Internal Revenue Service.

The value of the EITC depends on the number of qualifying children you have. A qualifying child is your biological, adopted, step, or foster child; a full, half, or step sibling; or the direct descendant of any of these individuals. The child must have a Social Security number and live with you at least half the year. They must be under 19 at the end of the filing year or under 24 if still a full-time student. Disabled children of any age also qualify. If you meet all the following requirements, you'll receive a tax credit worth up to:

$519 if you don't have qualifying children $3,461 for one qualifying child $5,716 for two qualifying children $6,431 for three or more qualifying children

Child Tax CreditThe Child Tax Credit is worth up to $2,000 per qualifying child, but only $1,400 of this is refundable. A qualifying child is considered a biological, step, adopted, or foster child; a full, half, or step sibling; or the direct descendant of one of these people under 17 with a valid Social Security number. He or she must live with you at least half the year, and you must claim him or her as a dependent on your taxes. The child cannot provide more than half of his or her own support.

You must have at least $2,500 in earned income during the year to qualify, but if your AGI is over certain thresholds, the government will reduce your credit. For single adults, heads of household, qualifying widow(er)s, and married couples filing separately, the limit is $200,000. It's $400,000 for married couples filing jointly. For every $1,000 your AGI exceeds this limit, your Child Tax Credit will decrease by $50, until it finally disappears if you earn more than $40,000 over the limit for your filing status.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC)The American Opportunity Tax Credit is worth up to $2,500 for qualifying students pursuing higher education. You must be enrolled at least half time for at least one academic period during the calendar year you're claiming the tax credit for, and you cannot have any felony drug convictions. This credit is only available for your first four years of higher education.

The credit covers 100% of your first $2,000 in education expenses and 25% of the next $2,000. These include tuition, books, and other costs directly related to education. It doesn't pay for things like transportation to and from school or housing. If the credit reduces your taxes below zero, the government will refund you up to 40%, or $1,000.

Apart from these three, there are other, lesson common refundable tax credits available. Your tax filing software should ask you questions to help determine which credits you qualify for, or you can ask a tax professional if you're unsure. The eligibility requirements and value of these tax credits may change from year to year, so it's important to stay abreast of these changes if you plan to claim these same credits next year.

Tower International Inc (TOWR) Expected to Announce Earnings of $0.21 Per Share

Equities research analysts expect Tower International Inc (NYSE:TOWR) to announce $0.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal quarter, according to Zacks. Five analysts have provided estimates for Tower International’s earnings. The highest EPS estimate is $0.36 and the lowest is $0.16. Tower International posted earnings of $0.82 per share during the same quarter last year, which would suggest a negative year-over-year growth rate of 74.4%. The company is expected to announce its next quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that Tower International will report full year earnings of $2.50 per share for the current fiscal year, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.40 to $2.55. For the next financial year, analysts expect that the company will post earnings of $3.43 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $3.30 to $3.63. Zacks’ earnings per share calculations are an average based on a survey of sell-side analysts that cover Tower International.

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Tower International (NYSE:TOWR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 12th. The auto parts company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.40). Tower International had a return on equity of 25.31% and a net margin of 2.42%. The business had revenue of $377.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $524.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.96 EPS. Tower International’s revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on TOWR shares. Zacks Investment Research lowered Tower International from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 28th. ValuEngine lowered Tower International from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 30th. Seaport Global Securities started coverage on Tower International in a research report on Wednesday, February 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Roth Capital set a $32.00 target price on Tower International and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.00.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TOWR. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in Tower International by 100.5% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 395,085 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $11,951,000 after buying an additional 198,069 shares during the last quarter. Matarin Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Tower International in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,785,000. Seizert Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Tower International in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,620,000. Piermont Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Tower International in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,559,000. Finally, Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan acquired a new position in Tower International in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $687,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.56% of the company’s stock.

Shares of TOWR stock traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $23.50. 124,668 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 159,596. Tower International has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $36.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $484.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.71, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 2.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.08.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 7th were given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 6th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. Tower International’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.86%.

About Tower International

Tower International, Inc manufactures and sells engineered automotive structural metal components and assemblies primarily for original equipment manufacturers. It operates in two segments, North America and Europe. The company provides body structures and assemblies, including structural metal components, which comprise body pillars, roof rails, and side sills; and Class A surfaces and assemblies that consist of body sides, hoods, doors, fenders, and pickup truck boxes.

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Analysts Expect Caesars Entertainment Co. (CZR) Will Announce Quarterly Sales of $2.10 Billion

Equities analysts expect Caesars Entertainment Co. (NASDAQ:CZR) to post $2.10 billion in sales for the current quarter, according to Zacks. Four analysts have provided estimates for Caesars Entertainment’s earnings, with the lowest sales estimate coming in at $2.03 billion and the highest estimate coming in at $2.15 billion. Caesars Entertainment posted sales of $1.97 billion in the same quarter last year, which suggests a positive year over year growth rate of 6.6%. The company is scheduled to report its next quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, May 1st.

On average, analysts expect that Caesars Entertainment will report full year sales of $8.72 billion for the current financial year, with estimates ranging from $8.51 billion to $8.89 billion. For the next fiscal year, analysts expect that the firm will report sales of $8.89 billion, with estimates ranging from $8.69 billion to $9.06 billion. Zacks’ sales averages are a mean average based on a survey of research analysts that follow Caesars Entertainment.

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Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 21st. The company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.08). Caesars Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 4.15% and a net margin of 3.61%. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.48 EPS. Caesars Entertainment’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis.

CZR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BidaskClub raised Caesars Entertainment from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 11th. UBS Group raised Caesars Entertainment from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $7.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 2nd. Bank of America cut Caesars Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $8.75 to $9.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 16th. Deutsche Bank lowered their price target on Caesars Entertainment from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Caesars Entertainment in a report on Thursday, November 15th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Three investment 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.00.

Shares of Caesars Entertainment stock traded down $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $8.45. 22,267,200 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,155,959. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.93, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.16. Caesars Entertainment has a 1-year low of $5.84 and a 1-year high of $13.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -45.11 and a beta of 1.31.

In other news, Director Don R. Kornstein bought 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 21st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $6.29 per share, with a total value of $125,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 88,552 shares in the company, valued at $556,992.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.92% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Gabelli Funds LLC acquired a new position in Caesars Entertainment in the 4th quarter worth about $762,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Caesars Entertainment in the third quarter valued at about $416,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its stake in shares of Caesars Entertainment by 3.5% in the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 8,542,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,564,000 after buying an additional 285,428 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Caesars Entertainment by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 39,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,000 after buying an additional 3,087 shares during the period. Finally, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Caesars Entertainment by 130.0% in the third quarter. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. now owns 460,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,715,000 after buying an additional 260,000 shares during the period.

About Caesars Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides casino-entertainment and hospitality services in the United States and internationally. The company operates 36,000 slot machines and 2,700 table games, as well as other games comprising keno, poker, and race and sports books; and buffets, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and lounges located throughout its casinos, as well as banquets and room service.

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IMI’s (IMI) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank reissued their buy rating on shares of IMI (LON:IMI) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning. They currently have a GBX 1,185 ($15.48) price target on the stock.

IMI has been the topic of several other reports. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of IMI from GBX 1,100 ($14.37) to GBX 1,000 ($13.07) and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating on shares of IMI in a research note on Monday, January 14th. Credit Suisse Group cut their target price on shares of IMI from GBX 850 ($11.11) to GBX 830 ($10.85) and set an underperform rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 22nd. UBS Group reissued a neutral rating and set a GBX 1,050 ($13.72) target price (down from GBX 1,150 ($15.03)) on shares of IMI in a research note on Friday, November 9th. Finally, Peel Hunt cut their target price on shares of IMI from GBX 1,250 ($16.33) to GBX 1,100 ($14.37) and set an add rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. IMI has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of GBX 1,127.50 ($14.73).

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Shares of LON:IMI opened at GBX 982 ($12.83) on Monday. IMI has a 12-month low of GBX 1,093 ($14.28) and a 12-month high of GBX 1,453 ($18.99).

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a GBX 26 ($0.34) dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This is an increase from IMI’s previous dividend of $14.60. This represents a dividend yield of 2.76%.

IMI Company Profile

IMI plc designs, manufactures, and services engineered products that control the precise movement of fluids worldwide. The company's IMI Critical Engineering division offers critical flow control solutions. It provides anti-surge valve and actuator systems to liquefied natural gas compression facilities; integrated flow control systems for critical applications in fluid catalytic cracking; valves into the ethylene and polypropylene production processes, as well as delayed coking; actuation systems to operate industrial valves; and turbine by-pass valves for conventional and nuclear power plants.

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Why Amazon's New Grocery Ambitions Could Be a Mistake

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been angling for a piece of the $660 billion grocery industry for more than a decade.

In 2007, the company launched Amazon Fresh, an e-commerce grocery delivery service, in its hometown of Seattle. But Fresh's slow growth only gave it a sliver of the massive supermarket industry, so Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion in 2017, immediately making it a major player in the industry.

Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon's ambitions in the industry extend beyond Whole Foods as the e-commerce giant is planning to open its own supermarkets, targeting lower prices and products, like Coca-Cola, that can't be sold at Whole Foods. 

Image source: Whole Foods.

Amazon stock rose 2% that day while supermarket stocks such as Kroger (NYSE:KR) briefly tumbled, in a move reminiscent of the sector's plunge when Amazon said it would acquire Whole Foods.  

While it's clear that the e-commerce giant, with its reputation for aggressive pricing and history of favoring market share gains over profits, poses a threat to its new supermarket rivals, it's less evident why Amazon is so focused on the industry. After all, supermarkets are a slow-growth, low-margin industry. Amazon, on the other hand is primarily seen a tech giant, and it's valued as such, with a P/E ratio of 84. 

The market takes for granted that Amazon wants to sell all things to all consumers, but it may not be in investors' best interest for the company to launch its own grocery business or pursue a significant share in the industry to begin with. Such a move deserves a closer examination.

Mixed results from Whole Foods 

Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods was seen as a declaration of war on the supermarket industry, so it wasn't surprising to see stocks plunge, some by double digits, on the news. However, 18 months after Amazon took over the natural-grocery chain, its results have been mixed, and it hasn't decimated its rivals the way some expected back then. 

Though the company has made some changes, including offering benefits to Prime members including delivery, and selling gadgets like Echo devices, Whole Foods is largely the same, and it doesn't seem to have gained significant market share. Amazon doesn't break out Whole Foods results, but it does provide sales for physical stores, which are made up almost entirely of Whole Foods locations but also include a handful of Amazon Books stores, four-star stores, and Amazon Go locations. 

Though sales at Amazon's physical stores fell 3% in the fourth quarter, CFO Brian Olsavsky said on the recent earnings call that adjusting for a calendar shift and for orders that have moved from in-store to online, "apples-to-apples" growth was up about 6%.  Six percent growth from Whole Foods is solid, but for a company used to posting quarterly revenue growth of 20%, 30%, or even 40%, it's hardly what investors are used to.

Meanwhile, something else unexpected happened. Amazon's new competition didn't stand still; it responded aggressively. Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the nation's leading grocer, has rapidly expanded its grocery pickup and delivery programs and says it's gained market share in groceries. In its fourth quarter, its comparable sales rose 4.2%, and it's surpassed Amazon as the leading online grocer.  Kroger has also expanded a similar program, called ClickList, and even Costco (NASDAQ:COST) launched an e-commerce delivery program, partnering with Instacart to offer same-day delivery of perishables.

Supermarkets aren't scalable 

Part of what makes tech stocks so appealing is their scalability. An e-commerce business, for instance, can easily ramp up sales, as it's exposed to customers around the country, or even the world. Physical stores, on the other hand, can only reach customers within a certain geographic radius. The total addressable market for an individual store is much smaller than for a website.

The supermarket industry suffers from this lack of scalability. Building a national supermarket business requires finding real estate, negotiating contracts, building it out, and hiring hundreds of staff members, which takes time, effort, and money. Therefore, unseating a national grocer like Walmart or Kroger from their leadership position is not going to be easy.

The Wall Street Journal said Amazon was considering acquiring regional supermarket chains to jump-start growth of its homegrown chain, but doing so too aggressively could catch the eye of antitrust regulators, and even if it takes the acquisition approach, national chains dominate the market in much of the country. 

Even in the e-commerce era, groceries have been one of the few segments that have been relatively protected from online disruption. Even as more companies move toward delivery, it's become clear that these businesses need an actual store to serve as a base for deliveries and pickups. Just having warehouses, as Amazon Fresh does, isn't enough.

Therefore, it seems Amazon may be at a competitive disadvantage in supermarkets, since its only assets appear to be its customer reputation and its ability to entice customers through benefits in its Prime loyalty program. However, even if the value proposition pays off for customers, the potential return on investment is still likely to be slim.

One caveat 

The one thing that could change the equation here is the "Just Walk Out" technology behind its cashierless Amazon Go stores. Through a network of cameras and sensors, the technology automatically charges customers for what they take off shelves.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon has been testing the technology to use in larger stores, though if it were able to do so, it would make the most sense to apply it to Whole Foods locations as that chain is already built on a premium experience and customers are more likely to be time-sensitive. 

Amazon is one of the most inventive companies in the modern world, and it has the potential to disrupt the supermarket industry with "Just Walk Out" technology or something similar. However, if the company was currently capable of doing that, we would probably have seen evidence of it in its Whole Foods stores.

Without such a breakthrough innovation, Amazon's push further into groceries, an industry with slim profits, little growth, and no scalability, looks like a mistake.

Unseating Walmart or Kroger from their grocery leadership is not going to be easy, as the two companies have nationwide footprints.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In Right Now

tags:ECT,FSV,GLRE,AON,HBI,

Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Tau Equity Research as a new contributor. It's easy to become a Seeking Alpha contributor and earn money for your best investment ideas. Active contributors also get free access to the SA PRO archive. Click here to find out more »

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When It Comes to Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Follow the Warrants

Whatever may be said about Ampio Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:AMPE), this company has been a survivor. Ampio has made it through a shareholder lawsuit alleging deception, a recent near miss with delisting, an embarrassing claim that freezers were to blame for Ampion's clinical failure, and innumerable short theses – including one back in 2012 by Martin Shkreli. AMPE has traded as high as $7.92 and as low as $0.38 while generating no revenue. Despite all the chaos, burned cash, and the lack of any licensed drug, Ampio enjoys a market cap of over $200 million today while trading around $2.50.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In Right Now: ECA Marcellus Trust I(ECT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  SuperEdge (CURRENCY:ECT) traded 1.3% higher against the dollar during the 1 day period ending at 21:00 PM Eastern on October 4th. One SuperEdge token can currently be purchased for $0.0001 or 0.00000002 BTC on major exchanges. Over the last week, SuperEdge has traded 13.3% higher against the dollar. SuperEdge has a market cap of $0.00 and $91.00 worth of SuperEdge was traded on exchanges in the last day.

• [By Max Byerly]

  SuperEdge (CURRENCY:ECT) traded 17.2% higher against the dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 14:00 PM ET on September 22nd. One SuperEdge token can now be purchased for about $0.0001 or 0.00000001 BTC on cryptocurrency exchanges. In the last seven days, SuperEdge has traded 52.1% lower against the dollar. SuperEdge has a total market capitalization of $0.00 and approximately $623.00 worth of SuperEdge was traded on exchanges in the last day.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  SuperEdge (CURRENCY:ECT) traded 19.2% lower against the US dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 19:00 PM E.T. on September 1st. SuperEdge has a market capitalization of $0.00 and approximately $947.00 worth of SuperEdge was traded on exchanges in the last day. Over the last seven days, SuperEdge has traded up 2.2% against the US dollar. One SuperEdge token can now be purchased for approximately $0.0002 or 0.00000002 BTC on popular exchanges.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Media coverage about Eca Marcellus Trust I (NYSE:ECT) has been trending somewhat positive this week, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research group rates the sentiment of media coverage by reviewing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Eca Marcellus Trust I earned a coverage optimism score of 0.24 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media coverage about the oil and gas company an impact score of 47.7651927822973 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next few days.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In Right Now: FirstService Corporation(FSV)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  FirstService Corp (TSE:FSV) (NASDAQ:FSV) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 12th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 28th will be given a dividend of 0.176 per share on Friday, October 5th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 27th. This is a positive change from FirstService’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Gazit Globe (NYSE:GZT) and FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  PNC Financial Services Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of FirstService Corp (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 634,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 28,902 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. owned 1.83% of FirstService worth $48,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: “BB&T Securities LLC Acquires 1,782 Shares of FirstService Corp (FSV)” was originally published by Ticker Report and is the property of of Ticker Report. If you are viewing this piece on another publication, it was copied illegally and republished in violation of US and international trademark & copyright legislation. The original version of this piece can be read at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4158310/bbt-securities-llc-acquires-1782-shares-of-firstservice-corp-fsv.html.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: “FirstService (FSV) Set to Announce Quarterly Earnings on Wednesday” was first published by Ticker Report and is the sole property of of Ticker Report. If you are reading this news story on another website, it was stolen and reposted in violation of US and international copyright & trademark laws. The correct version of this news story can be accessed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4123840/firstservice-fsv-set-to-announce-quarterly-earnings-on-wednesday.html.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Greenlight Capital Re Ltd.(GLRE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE)

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

• [By Max Byerly]

  Shares of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE) hit a new 52-week low on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $14.05 and last traded at $14.15, with a volume of 249308 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $14.65.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Greenlight Capital Re (NASDAQ:GLRE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported ($3.85) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($4.43) by $0.58. Greenlight Capital Re had a negative return on equity of 23.81% and a negative net margin of 40.65%. The firm had revenue of $0.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.20 million. sell-side analysts forecast that Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. will post -4.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Greenlight Capital Re (NASDAQ:GLRE) was upgraded by analysts at ValuEngine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Aon Corporation(AON)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin] Companies Reporting Before The Bell Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.96 per share on revenue of $3.46 billion. Aon plc (NYSE: AON) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $2.8 per share on revenue of $2.93 billion. American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AXL) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $0.81 per share on revenue of $1.75 billion. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.88 per share on revenue of $9.27 billion. LifePoint Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPNT) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.13 per share on revenue of $1.62 billion. V.F. Corporation (NYSE: VFC) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $0.65 per share on revenue of $2.90 billion. Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE: NWL) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.26 per share on revenue of $3.05 billion. Titan International, Inc. (NYSE: TWI) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $0.04 per share on revenue of $407.27 million. Boise Cascade Company (NYSE: BCC) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.45 per share on revenue of $1.09 billion. Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE: LNG) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $0.39 per share on revenue of $1.59 billion. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.24 per share on revenue of $308.05 million. ITT Inc. (NYSE: ITT) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $0.73 per share on revenue of $683.96 million. Fred's, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRED) is expected to report quarterly loss at $0.19 per share on revenue of $551.00 million. Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: VIRT) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $0.52 per share on revenue of $288.31 million. Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: CQP) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.57 per share on revenue of $1.38 billion. Genesis Energy, L.P
• [By Shane Hupp]

  Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,301 shares during the quarter. Fiera Capital Corp’s holdings in AON were worth $694,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  AON (NYSE:AON) had its price target hoisted by Citigroup from $160.00 to $165.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning. They currently have a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Hanesbrands Inc.(HBI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Hanesbrands (HBI)

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

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Raymond James & Associates lessened its holdings in Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI) by 54.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,006,232 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 1,186,803 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Hanesbrands were worth $22,157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Keith Noonan]

  The strategy might not produce huge gains overnight, but patient investors can see strong returns with a value-focused, buy-to-hold approach to dividend stocks. Within that mold, investors seeking solid, income-generating stocks should consider establishing or adding to positions in Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI) and AT&T (NYSE:T) -- two companies that are consistently profitable, trade at non-prohibitive valuations, and pay sizable dividends. 

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI) by 13.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,095,675 shares of the textile maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 362,960 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley owned about 0.86% of Hanesbrands worth $68,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Yet along with those gains has come continued volatility, and even among the biggest companies in the market, some have faced substantial setbacks that have caused their shares to fall 15% or more in August. As of today, Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI), Dentsply Sirona (NASDAQ:XRAY), and Noble Energy (NYSE:NBL) have been the worst-performing members of the S&P 500 so far this month, and below, you'll learn more about how they got there and what's ahead for their respective businesses.