Buy ICICI Bank; target of Rs 360: Centrum Research

Centrum Research's research report on ICICI Bank

We retain BUY on ICICI Bank with SOTP based TP unchanged at Rs360. Q1��19 results were broadly in-line with our estimates on operational / asset quality front. Core operating profit remains healthy (+13% YoY); new NPA addition moderates (slippages at 3.1% of loans) and loan growth (+11% YoY) gathers pace. Drill-down list (<1% of loans) coupled with BB and below-rated portfolio (5% of loans) remain the new watch-list. We see provisions remain elevated in the near term (FY19E); however draw comfort in pace of resolution and ~69% coverage ratio (combined) against list-1 and list-2 IBC accounts. Capital position remains healthy; subsidiaries remain profitable. Valuations continue to remain undemanding.

Outlook

We have tweaked our FY19E/FY20E estimates on other income / credit cost front. Our SOTP-based TP, however remains unchanged at Rs360 (valued core business at 2x FY20E ABV and other business accordingly).

For all recommendations report,�click here

Disclaimer:�The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More First Published on Aug 3, 2018 03:45 pm

Caesar's stock plunges on worries about Vegas hotel bookings

Las Vegas casinos have some bargains on hotel rooms right now. That sent the stocks of casino operators on a wild ride Wednesday.

Shares of Caesar's Entertainment fell as much as 24% Wednesday and trading was halted several times.

The company posted generally strong results early Wednesday. It recovered from a large loss last year to report a narrow profit.

But during a midday call with analysts, CFO Eric Hession mentioned that the company was seeing "rate pressure" on rooms because of weak bookings along the Las Vegas strip, and warned that revenue per room would be essentially flat in the third quarter. That sent shares of Caesars (CZR) and other casino stocks like MGM Resorts (MGM), Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Penn National Gaming (PENN) tumbling

Caesar's CEO Mark Frissora had to assure investors that the company sees things returning to normal at the end of the year, and that it was sticking with its full-year guidance.

"We know what the bookings look like through the end of the year. And so we don't have concern in our forecast," he said. "We said that we saw some weakness in July and August, but then strengthening in September."

"It's not like you look at one month or two months, and you say, 'Oh, that's it for Vegas,' right? That's not the way it works," he added.

The assurances helped bring shares of Caesar's back from session lows, recapturing roughly half the losses. The other stocks also moved off their lows.

In an interview later in the day on CNBC, Frissora tried to assure investors again that the company doesn't see any long-term weakness in Vegas or other locations, calling the drop in bookings a "short-term blip."

"In terms of the stock reaction today, it has to do with the fact that we're eight months out of bankruptcy and you get a lot of volatility on a stock that is eight months out of bankruptcy," he said. "We're still very bullish on the fourth quarter. This is more of a temporary lull."

Kinder Morgan Inc. Takes Another Big Step Forward

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) continued its forward progress in the second quarter. The natural gas pipeline giant reported $1.1 billion ($0.50 per share) in distributable cash flow (DCF), which was 9% ahead of the year-ago quarter. That result was also slightly ahead of the company's guidance that it would haul in about $1.05 billion, or $0.48 per share of DCF during the quarter, which, when combined with its forecast-beating results to start the year, has it on pace to meet or exceed its full-year guidance.

Kinder Morgan Inc. results: The raw numbers

Data source: Kinder Morgan Inc. Chart by author.

What happened with Kinder Morgan this quarter?�

Natural gas pipelines led the charge.

Kinder Morgan's natural gas pipeline segment delivered an "outstanding quarter," according to President Kim Dang. Earnings improved 11% year over year because of increased activity across nearly all its large pipeline systems, with transportation volumes up 12% versus the year-ago quarter. Earnings in its carbon dioxide segment rose slightly, helped by a 4% increase in oil production and higher commodity prices. Product pipeline earnings jumped 10% thanks to increased performance across nearly all its segments, with a 10% uptick in ethanol volumes and a 5% improvement in oil volumes helping lead the way. Earnings in the terminals segment rose 3%, mainly because of contributions from its liquids business. Not only did the company benefit from a 3% increase in storage at its key hubs in Houston and Edmonton, but earnings also got a boost from new tankers delivered in 2017. Contributions from Kinder Morgan Canada Limited's (TSX:KML) Trans Mountain Pipeline rose 7% year over year, mainly because of how the company capitalized costs for that pipeline's expansion project. However, the company did agree to sell that pipeline and the associated expansion project to the Government of Canada during the quarter, which will affect future results.

Image source: Getty Images.

What management had to say�

Founder and Executive Chairman Richard Kinder commented on the quarter:

The board is very pleased with the company's progress during the quarter. We continue to aggressively de-lever even while maintaining our planned substantial dividend increase. We ended the quarter with a net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of 4.9 times and expect to end the year below our 2018 budgeted leverage metric of approximately 5.1 times, excluding any impact from the use of Trans Mountain sale net proceeds. We also continue to develop very attractive growth projects that build on our extensive North American energy infrastructure network. During the second quarter, we announced the joint development of the Permian Highway Project, which will provide a greatly needed associated-gas takeaway solution for producers.

Aside from posting solid results, Kinder highlighted two key points. First, Kinder Morgan continued to improve its financial profile by de-levering its balance sheet, which is ahead of plan. As he pointed out, the company's leverage ratio was below its forecast during the quarter, which puts the company on pace to exceed its objective for the year. In fact, it could push leverage down to 4.5, according to analysts, if it uses the proceeds from its Trans Mountain sale to pay off debt.

In addition, the company continues to find needle-moving expansion projects, having recently unveiled the development of the Permian Highway Pipeline Project. Kinder Morgan is developing the $2 billion natural gas pipeline with private equity-backed EagleClaw Midstream and Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA). It's a follow-up to the Gulf Coast Express Pipeline (CGX), which is a $1.75 billion gas pipeline it's building with two other midstream companies and Apache. Kinder Morgan has already started work on GCX, which should be in service by October 2019, while PHP could follow a year later if the company gives it the green light. These projects will help offset some of the growth it will lose by selling Trans Mountain.

Looking forward�

After a solid showing in the second quarter, Kinder Morgan is on pace to produce at least $4.57 billion, or $2.05 per share, in DCF this year, and push its leverage ratio below 5.1. However, there is a major unknown lurking over the horizon because of the pending sale of Kinder Morgan Canada's Trans Mountain Pipeline, which should close by the early part of the fourth quarter at the latest. Kinder Morgan has a variety of options for the cash it will receive, including using it to take Kinder Morgan Canada private, make acquisitions, pay down debt, or buy back stock.

Why Twilio Inc. Stock Has Soared 159.1% So Far in 2018

What happened

Shares of Twilio Inc.�(NYSE:TWLO) have climbed 159.1% so far in 2018, according to data from�S&P Global Market Intelligence, thanks largely to a pair of exceptional quarterly reports from the digital communications specialist.

More specifically, Twilio soared more than 20% the day after its stellar fourth-quarter 2017 report in mid-February, then continued to drift higher over the next few months before enjoying a�similar pop following its first-quarter 2018 announcement in May.

Image source: Getty Images.�

So what

Twilio stock has continued to rise on the heels of the latter report, in which the company revealed its quarterly revenue had climbed 48% year over year to $129 million, translating to an adjusted net loss of $0.04 per share. For perspective, most investors were modeling a much wider net loss on sales of $116 million.

But apart from simply outpacing expectations, what is making investors so crazy about this yet-to-be-profitable business? For one, revenue growth is handily outpacing Twilio's actual customer growth -- with the latter most recently increasing 33% year over year to just under 54,000. This indicates that not only are new customers realizing the utility of its core cloud-communications products, but existing customers are also proving a lucrative source of incremental growth as they buy into Twilio's other offerings.

Now what

Perhaps most exciting, Twilio stock still trades modestly below its post-IPO highs set in late 2016 -- only now, investors are buying a significantly stronger business with incredible momentum. That's not to say Twilio will continue to skyrocket indefinitely (for better or worse, we'll likely see another big move when it posts second-quarter results next month). But as Twilio works to effectively disrupt the enormous IT communications industry, I think its gains are only the beginning in a much longer story.

Cheapcoin (CHEAP) Market Capitalization Tops $0.00

Cheapcoin (CURRENCY:CHEAP) traded flat against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 0:00 AM Eastern on July 11th. Cheapcoin has a market cap of $0.00 and $0.00 worth of Cheapcoin was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Cheapcoin coin can currently be bought for $0.0003 or 0.00000004 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges. In the last week, Cheapcoin has traded flat against the US dollar.

Here’s how similar cryptocurrencies have performed in the last 24 hours:

Get Cheapcoin alerts: XRP (XRP) traded 0.3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.45 or 0.00007034 BTC. Stellar (XLM) traded 1.8% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.19 or 0.00002953 BTC. IOTA (MIOTA) traded 1.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.98 or 0.00015506 BTC. Tether (USDT) traded down 0.1% against the dollar and now trades at $1.00 or 0.00015791 BTC. TRON (TRX) traded 1.7% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0332 or 0.00000524 BTC. NEO (NEO) traded down 0.7% against the dollar and now trades at $33.07 or 0.00521047 BTC. Binance Coin (BNB) traded 0.5% higher against the dollar and now trades at $12.54 or 0.00197668 BTC. VeChain (VET) traded 1.2% lower against the dollar and now trades at $2.19 or 0.00034476 BTC. Ontology (ONT) traded down 2% against the dollar and now trades at $3.40 or 0.00053555 BTC. Zilliqa (ZIL) traded 0.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0671 or 0.00001058 BTC.

About Cheapcoin

Cheapcoin’s official Twitter account is @cheapcrypto.

Cheapcoin Coin Trading

Cheapcoin can be traded on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: CoinExchange. It is usually not currently possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as Cheapcoin directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to acquire Cheapcoin should first purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Gemini, Changelly or Coinbase. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to purchase Cheapcoin using one of the exchanges listed above.

Microsoft Corporation Earnings: 2 Key Areas to Watch

Microsoft�(NASDAQ:MSFT) has been firing on all cylinders. In its third quarter of fiscal 2018, revenue and earnings per share soared 16% and 36%, respectively.�In addition, the company was able to return $6.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the period. Then there's Microsoft's impressive strength in its commercial cloud revenue, which mainly consists of Office 365 commercial, Azure, and Dynamics 365. Commercial cloud revenue in the third quarter soared 58% year over year to $6 billion,�accounting for 22% of Microsoft's total revenue.

With recent performance like this, the bar is high going into Microsoft's fourth quarter of fiscal 2018. Ahead of the earnings release next week, here are two key areas investors will want to watch.

Image source: Microsoft.

Azure revenue growth

Of the three main contributors to Microsoft's commercial cloud revenue categorization, Azure is the fastest-growing product. The enterprise cloud services platform has shown impressive resilience in a market dominated by Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services (AWS). Indeed, Azure is growing much faster than AWS. In Microsoft's most recent quarter, Azure revenue soared 93% year over year. In the same period, AWS revenue climbed 49%.

"We have made the right investment decisions and they are having an impact, increasing our overall share in an expanding market," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in the company's third-quarter conference call when discussing Azure's rapid growth.

Highlighting the strength in the broader enterprise cloud services segment, not only has Azure managed to consistently grow at 90%-plus rates recently, but AWS has seen accelerating year-over-year growth rates for two quarters in the row.

For Azure, this is the tip of this iceberg. Investors should look for strong revenue growth to persist in Q4.

Office 365

Despite rapid growth across a range of Microsoft products, Office remains the company's bread and butter. Accounted for in Microsoft's largest business segment -- productivity and business processes -- office commercial products and cloud services rose 14% year over year in Q3 and Office consumer products and cloud services increased 12% year over year.

But it's Office 365 -- the cloud-based subscription version of Microsoft Office -- that investors should be watching closely. As part of the company's transition to a cloud-centered business model, Microsoft has been executing on its Office 365 expansion exceptionally well.

Investors should look for Office 365 revenue and users to continue growing rapidly in Q4. In Q3, Office 365 commercial revenue rose 42% year over year and Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 30.6 million -- up from 26.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Office 365 commercial monthly active users increased to over 135 million,�up from about 100 million monthly active users in the year-ago quarter.�

While these metrics will undoubtedly help give investors some useful insight into the company's performance, they should take the time to look over Microsoft's overall financial results. Other metrics beyond these three that investors may want to check on are revenue and earnings per share, commercial cloud revenue growth, and Surface revenue.

Microsoft reports its fiscal fourth-quarter results after market close on Thursday, July 19. The company will host a conference call to discuss the results on the same day at 5:30 p.m. EDT.�

15,368 Shares in Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C (LILAK) Acquired by YHB Investment Advisors Inc.

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C (NASDAQ:LILAK) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 15,368 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of LILAK. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 221,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,411,000 after buying an additional 7,500 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,193,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,631,000 after purchasing an additional 26,392 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C in the 4th quarter valued at $232,000. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C in the 4th quarter valued at $1,960,000. Finally, Jefferies Group LLC purchased a new stake in Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C in the 4th quarter valued at $476,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 48.01% of the company’s stock.

Get Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C alerts:

LILAK stock opened at $20.64 on Tuesday. Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C has a 12 month low of $17.90 and a 12 month high of $27.53.

Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C (NASDAQ:LILAK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $909.90 million for the quarter.

Several analysts recently commented on LILAK shares. Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C in a research report on Tuesday, April 3rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $23.00 price target for the company. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 7th. Finally, ValuEngine upgraded shares of Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.00.

Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C Profile

Liberty Latin America Ltd. provides various telecommunications services. Its services primarily include video, broadband Internet, fixed-line telephony, and mobile services. The company offers communications and entertainment services to residential and business customers; and business products and services that include enterprise-grade connectivity, data center, hosting, and managed solutions, as well as information technology solutions for small and medium enterprises, international companies, and governmental agencies.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding LILAK? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Liberty Latin America Ltd Class C (NASDAQ:LILAK).

Surprisingly, Wells Fargo Has Been Good To Investors This Month Amid A Financials Meltdown

Wells Fargo (WFC) is still in the middle of its long-journey amid government-supervised restructuring and has seen little interesting activity as of late. However for investors, as the financial services sector (XLF) this past month has seen a significant downturn, Wells Fargo surprisingly has been at the topic of the pack in terms of return.

I believe Wells Fargo still has major risks involved as it moves to cleaning up its company to government expectations, particularly given how long it took for them to just evade and deflect for years after initial scandal revelations. Furthermore, real growth remains restricted by direct federal regulatory law.

Nonetheless, their lack of upside also shows that in certain situations their downside is limited as well, as they did not experience the growth in expectations and valuation multiples that, when it turned around amid economic and tariff worries, hurt a lot of its peer bulge brackets.

With massive shareholder buybacks and a dividend increase on the horizon too, amid its strong valuation multiple, it actually may serve some purpose in the portfolio as a very unusual-behavior financial stock that provides a slightly less volatile, but more dividend-paying, block.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Though Still Leaving Investors Burned In The Medium And Long Run, Wells Fargo Has Sheltered This Month's Financials Downturn

Wells Fargo has had a strange month. Though still in the middle of the pack among bulge bracket banks YTD and year-on-year, let alone significantly lagging behind on broader timelines, it is actually in fact well above the herd compared to other financials these past few weeks.

WFC data by YCharts WFC data by YCharts

For a bank that has been subject to historic and unprecedented sanctioning over the course of the past few months, the question undoubtedly is in a lot of investors minds over why this unexpected divergence seemingly has taken place.

I believe it is because other banks have recently taken a downturn due to changed growth expectations, as their P/E multiples have shrunk over time separate from earnings report price adjustments.

In contrast, Wells Fargo's sanctioning has placed a firm upper limit on its profitability, which means it never made, or held on to, the massive rally in the winter and spring of this year that many other financial institutions did and therefore had little to room to fall.

WFC data by YCharts

As shown below, Wells Fargo has remained at a relatively steady P/E over the past few months since its initial Federal Reserve sanctioning in late January and early February while the P/Es of other peer bulge brackets have gone down significantly.

Wells Fargo is still among the most lowest P/E multiples right now, as growth expectations remain dim due to the Federal Reserve's sanctions and various other regulatory concerns precisely limiting, sometimes explicitly, the amount of growth possible.

WFC PE Ratio (NYSE:TTM) data by YCharts

There nonetheless are actually some positive signs for Wells Fargo, or more particularly Wells Fargo shareholders, in the upcoming months. Wells Fargo has gained no-objection approval from the Federal Reserve for a historic $32.8 billion capital return plan to shareholders over the upcoming year. The capital return plan is split between a quarterly dividend increase of 4 cents a share to 43 cents compared to the current 39 cents, as well as $22 billion in shareholder buybacks.

The buyback plan is so large amidst Wells Fargo's highly-restricted situation because the consent orders in place do not permit Wells Fargo to use its still high-earning capabilities to re-invest in growth in the business, thereby making shareholder capital return the only viable avenue for the money.

At a currently $269.1 billion in market capitalization, the shareholder buyback authorization would amount to almost 8.2% of current outstanding market capitalization. At $55.24 a share, the increase to 43 cents a quarter raises its forward dividend yield to 3.11% from its current 2.82%.

Compared to other financial institutions, the dividend yield actually looks decent even before its increase.

WFC Dividend Yield (TTM) data by YCharts

I've previously discussed how, depending on the way Wells Fargo's restructuring goes, it could be in for a long period of uncertainty and potential downturns as its business is reorganized. Nonetheless, it still has a lot of capital to work with as still the third-largest bank in the United States, whether in terms of market capitalization or total assets.

Based on its current unusual financial regulatory situation it seems to have to pay a lot of that out to shareholders, turning it less from having growth characteristics to rather having, ironically, mature dividend-paying characteristics.

WFC Market Cap data by YCharts

Conclusion

Wells Fargo still has real downside risk amid a broad market downturn, which would also hurt its real earnings on every segment from trading to corporate and consumer services, in addition to its restructuring risks.

But it still offers a perhaps less volatile option beyond those situations, as it is required to shell out capital back to shareholders amid its restructuring. It is also at such a low-valuation multiple, amid seemingly stable business and profit lines, that it likely would have difficulty dropping further in price unless those actual financials were affected.

Wells Fargo's valuation behavior is unlike that of many stocks out there either presently or in recent years due to the unusual regulatory factors controlling it, but that doesn't mean its completely of no use as an investment. As a relatively potentially non-volatile, but high-dividend, company it seems like it still has some chance at worth, return, and portfolio design while it goes through its restructuring.

WFC data by YCharts

At Tech Investment Insights I discuss specific companies and investment products that I believe are especially poised to gain in the market, as well as the one to avoid.

Focusing on technology in particular, I provide you updated risk-reward ratings of dozens of companies, price targets on potential worthwhile investments, portfolio strategies, and alluring risks to avoid. I hope you will give it a look.

Disclosure: I am/we are long KBE.

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

Top Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019

tags:SBGL,NSP,VGT,

Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) fights the sell-off

This CEO performance shows that CELG has my sort of management team. That's in contrast to the CEO of a different biotech company with a similar long-term stock chart who closed the Q4 conference call by responding to a question about when growth would resume beyond 2017 this way:

But at this point, I'm not going to give you a point in time when that's going to happen.

That inspired no confidence amongst investors.

Whereas, CELG has sold off from the high $120s to the $114 range on some issues, and it has responded with some new news. No guarantees - it's biotech! - but in my humble opinion, the parrying of the bears was well done, appropriate, and very well-timed.

Here's the background of what I see having weighed on CELG the past couple of months, followed by CEO Mark Alles taking the sellers on with facts and informed projections. As you know, CELG is a strong cash flow company, iconic to many investors, and it's a very large cap name. It could take the passive approach to its stock price, but I think that it wants to nip in the bud the image that the nattering nabobs of negativism have been painting on the company.

Top Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: Sibanye Gold Limited(SBGL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Tuesday saw a quieter session on Wall Street than Monday, with most major benchmarks modestly increasing to recover some of the ground lost in yesterday's sell-off. Bullish investors are focusing on the likelihood of continued sharp gains when companies report their second-quarter earning in the next month, believing that those results could spur another push higher for stocks. Yet some companies had bad news that sent their shares lower. Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE:HTZ), Sibanye-Stillwater�(NYSE:SBGL), and Achaogen (NASDAQ:AKAO) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Shares of Sibanye-Stillwater (NYSE:SBGL), formerly Sibanye Gold Limited, fell over 11% today after news that a worker died at its Driefontein mining operation in South Africa. As reported by News24, over 20 workers have died at mines owned by the company this year, which is nearly half of all mining industry deaths in the country.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Sibanye Gold Ltd. (NYSE: SBGL) traded down about 1.6% Thursday and posted a new 52-week low of $3.75 after closing Wednesday at $3.81. The stock’s 52-week high is $10.60. Volume totaled around 3 million, about 15% below the daily average. The company had no specific news. Another stock that has turned it around today and looks to close about 1% higher.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

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

  Get Just Energy Group alerts: Zacks: Analysts Anticipate Just Energy Group Inc (JE) Will Post Quarterly Sales of $708.65 Million (americanbankingnews.com) Brokerages Expect Just Energy Group Inc (JE) Will Post Earnings of $0.08 Per Share (americanbankingnews.com) 200 days simple moving average (SMA200) Indicator under Review: TrovaGene, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROV), Just Energy … (stocksnewspoint.com) Now Are The Time To Reconsider Sibanye Gold Limited (NYSE:SBGL), Histogenics Corporation (NASDAQ:HSGX … (journalfinance.net)

  JE traded down $0.04 on Tuesday, hitting $3.65. The company had a trading volume of 188,786 shares, compared to its average volume of 274,492. Just Energy Group has a 1-year low of $3.53 and a 1-year high of $5.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $549.06 million, a P/E ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.75.

• [By Neha Chamaria]

  Gold prices have been all over the place in the past one year, but some gold stocks have moved in only one direction: south. As of this writing, Canada-based gold miner Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) is down a whopping 66% in one year. South African miner Sibanye-Stillwater�(NYSE:SBGL) is swiftly closing in, having shed as much as half its value with the bulk of the decline coming in just the past couple of months. Among the larger gold miners, Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) is down about 11% in one year, or 15% year to date.

Top Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: Insperity, Inc.(NSP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Insperity (NSP)

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

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd (CVE:NSP) insider Sead Hamzagic sold 141,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$0.21, for a total value of C$29,715.00.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Atlantic Trust Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP) by 16.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,491 shares during the period. Atlantic Trust Group LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Insperity worth $1,958,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Shares of Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP) have been given a consensus rating of “Buy” by the six analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $86.75.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Insperity (NYSE: NSP) and ASGN (NYSE:ASGN) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Top Biotech Stocks To Own For 2019: Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Timothy Green, Nicholas Rossolillo, and Todd Campbell]

  Luckily, three of our Motley Fool investors are here to help cut through the noise. If you're looking to beat the market, the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (NYSEMKT:VGT) and Vanguard Healthcare ETF (NYSEMKT:VHT) give you the potential to do just that. If instead you just want to match the market's performance, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT:VTI) is your best bet. Here's what you need to know about these three options.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Dubuque Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its stake in shares of Vanguard Information Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:VGT) by 4.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,740 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock after selling 1,045 shares during the quarter. Dubuque Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Vanguard Information Technology ETF were worth $3,718,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

• [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos, George Budwell, and Dan Caplinger]

  With those attractive characteristics in mind, we asked Motley Fool investors to highlight a few of the most attractive index funds. Read on to find out why Vanguard Information Technology (NYSEMKT:VGT), Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (NYSEMKT:VTI), and Vanguard Health Care Fund (NASDAQMUTFUND:VGHCX)�all made the list.

Why Your Voice Could Keep You From Getting Promoted

&l;p&g;In the past, we&a;rsquo;ve been told to be careful what you say at work, but now it seems some think we need to be cautious with how we say it. A &l;a href=&q;http://outburo.com/study-finds-lgbt-people-less-likely-to-be-hired-paid-less-and-not-promoted/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;study out of the University of Surrey in the U.K.&l;/a&g; showed that men and women were less likely to be employed in leadership positions due to the sound of their voice.

&l;img class=&q;dam-image shutterstock wp-image-1065515711 size-large&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/1065515711/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;829&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; Why Your Voice Could Keep You from Getting Promoted - Photo by Shutterstock

&l;strong&g;Stereotypes being heard loud and clear&l;/strong&g;

Who would have thought that the sound of someone&a;rsquo;s voice would be a determining factor in people being hired and promoted or not being hired and promoted? It&a;rsquo;s evidently true per a 2017 study out of the U.K.

In the study, participants who acted as hiring managers were asked to rate potential candidates for a fake CEO position. The hiring managers were asked to provide, on a scale of 1 to 5, the employability of candidates and to provide salaries the hiring manager thought were commensurate for the position and the candidates&a;rsquo; qualifications. The potential candidates were assessed and selected using voice and image samples from a pool of candidates who were both heterosexual and homosexual.

The results were quite surprising.

For candidates in the group who were men, the sound of the voices played a critical role in the outcome. It turns out that men who, &q;sound gay&q; were perceived as being less suitable for the position. In addition, those perceived to be gay were less likely to receive higher paying salaries than those with &q;masculine sounding&q; voices. The results for women were similar. When a woman was perceived as being gender non-conforming, or less feminine, she received lower marks for employability and salary.&l;/p&g;

We might ask, what if the non-conforming seeming candidate isn&a;rsquo;t gay or lesbian? Is it fair that they would be punished for their natural traits? Does this even matter?

&l;strong&g;Setting the stage for discrimination in the workplace&l;/strong&g;

It&a;rsquo;s redundant but necessary to reiterate that in 30 states in the United States, it&a;rsquo;s still not against the law to fire or not hire someone because they are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The same goes for providing equal compensation.

With this stereotyping, it&a;rsquo;s highly likely in these states and others, those worthy candidates with the right credentials and experience to help a business succeed are being passed by or under-employed. What does that do for a company&a;rsquo;s bottom line? Why would a company want to miss an opportunity to have the best candidate?

According to Dr. Fasoli, who conducted the above study, &a;ldquo;It is revealing, that despite all the work to lessen discrimination against the LGBT community, people subconsciously typecast an individual before getting to know them. This study highlights that it can be a real problem in the workplace and for peoples&a;rsquo; career prospects.&a;rdquo;

&l;strong&g;Solving the unconscious bias problem&l;/strong&g;

As &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/debtfreeguys/2018/06/07/a-top-ceos-bold-wake-up-call-to-his-american-peers/&q;&g;Dominic Barton of McKinsey &a;amp; Company&l;/a&g;, a global leader in management consulting, stated, &a;ldquo;We have a mission statement with two equal parts. The first is to have a lasting impact on our clients and the second is to attract and retain the best talent. We can&a;rsquo;t do either if we aren&a;rsquo;t attracting a broad set of the best available talent. Therefore, we need LGBTQ people to feel comfortable that McKinsey &a;amp; Company is a good place to work.&a;rdquo;

How do companies make sure all employees feel supported to bring their full and true selves to work and give 100%? The key is to help all employees overcome unconscious bias.

&l;!--nextpage--&g;

Today, though, we&a;rsquo;ve learned to rely on our minds unconscious ability we don&a;rsquo;t have the same environmental dangers we once had, which can then lead to negative unconscious bias.

To be true, there are good unconscious biases. These protect us from today&a;rsquo;s real threats, such as seeing a &a;nbsp;figure at the end of a dark alley heightening our senses to possible danger. The negative aspect of that unconscious bias would be to assume that someone of a particular gender or ethnic background is more dangerous than another.

&l;strong&g;Where bias exists and correcting it&l;/strong&g;

According to &l;span&g;&l;a href=&q;http://www.businessinsider.com/google-unconscious-bias-training-presentation-2015-12#everyone-has-biases-its-part-of-being-human-its-important-not-to-be-ashamed-of-this-basic-fact-6&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Google&a;rsquo;s Unconscious Bias training&l;/a&g;&l;/span&g;, there are four primary areas where this bias can exist. This is telling as to why we encounter bias in voice and facial features. These are taken directly from Google&a;rsquo;s employee training;

There are four things in the workplace that commonly trigger unconscious biases. &l;strong&g;Task:&l;/strong&g; We associate certain jobs with a certain type of person. &l;strong&g;Numbers:&l;/strong&g; When looking at a group, like job applicants, we&s;re more likely to use biases to analyze people in the outlying demographics. &l;strong&g;Clarity:&l;/strong&g; When information is lacking, our brains fill in the gaps with what we&s;re expecting. &l;strong&g;Perceiver:&l;/strong&g; A heightened emotional state can keep the conscious mind distracted.

As the first two items point out, we can form a bias around the type of person we feel is suited for a job or make assumptions about certain outlying demographics when it comes to applicants. It appears this may have played a role in Surrey&a;rsquo;s study.

So, how can this be fixed?

As with most problems, the first step is recognizing that there is an issue. The second is taking steps to understand the issue and, third, putting practices in place to help employees at all levels be aware of the issue. In the case of the Surrey study, it seems fitting that hiring managers and recruiters are prime candidates to receive such bias training first. If there is a culture of unconscious bias of not promoting or hiring because of someone&a;rsquo;s differences, then removing that barrier and hiring a diverse workforce would show others that these unconscious biases are unwarranted or not desirable in the workplace.

In addition, as Google&a;rsquo;s training points out, there are added benefits. &l;span&g;&l;a href=&q;http://www.businessinsider.com/google-unconscious-bias-training-presentation-2015-12#the-goal-is-to-leave-the-presentation-ready-to-make-a-change-at-google-13&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;&q;Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers.&q;&l;/a&g;&l;/span&g; Todd Sears of OutLeadership calls this Return on Equality when referring to LGBTQ inclusion in the workplace. He and his organization have reiterated the &l;span&g;&l;a href=&q;https://prideandprejudice.economist.com/return-on-equality-why-multinationals-are-leading-the-way-on-lgbt-inclusion/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;billions of dollars being lost by corporations&l;/a&g;&l;/span&g; worldwide due to discrimination, whether blatant or unconscious.

&l;p class=&q;tweet_line&q;&g;The obvious question then is, are you and your company willing to eliminate unconscious bias to start hiring the best candidates and allowing all employees to thrive?&l;/p&g;

Contrasting Commscope (COMM) & Airgain (AIRG)

Commscope (NASDAQ: COMM) and Airgain (NASDAQ:AIRG) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

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Commscope has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Airgain has a beta of 2.06, suggesting that its stock price is 106% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Commscope and Airgain’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Commscope	$4.56 billion	1.25	$193.76 million	$2.02	14.73
Airgain	$49.52 million	1.78	$1.14 million	$0.11	82.91

Commscope has higher revenue and earnings than Airgain. Commscope is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Airgain, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Commscope and Airgain, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commscope	0	4	6	0	2.60
Airgain	0	1	2	0	2.67

Commscope currently has a consensus price target of $37.75, suggesting a potential upside of 26.85%. Airgain has a consensus price target of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 53.51%. Given Airgain’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Airgain is more favorable than Commscope.

Profitability

This table compares Commscope and Airgain’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commscope	4.27%	24.08%	5.45%
Airgain	-0.68%	1.58%	1.31%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.3% of Airgain shares are held by institutional investors. 3.4% of Commscope shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.4% of Airgain shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Commscope Company Profile

CommScope Holding Company, Inc. provides infrastructure solutions for communications networks worldwide. The company's CommScope Connectivity Solutions segment offers optical fiber and twisted pair structured cable solutions, intelligent infrastructure software, and network rack and cabinet enclosures under the SYSTIMAX, NETCONNECT, and Uniprise brands; and fiber management systems, patch cords and panels, pre-terminated fiber connectivity, complete cabling systems, and cable assemblies for use in offices and data centers. This segment also provides fiber optic connectivity solutions, including hardened connector systems, fiber distribution hubs and management systems, couplers and splitters, plug and play multiport service terminals, hardened optical terminating enclosures, high density cable assemblies, splices, and splice closures that supports video, voice, and high-speed data services provided by telecommunications operators and multi-system operators. Its CommScope Mobility Solutions segment offers macro cell site solutions for wireless tower sites and on rooftops, such as base station antennas, microwave antennas, hybrid fiber-feeder and power cables, coaxial cables, connectors, and filters; metro cell solutions for street poles and other urban structures comprising radio frequency delivery and connectivity solutions, equipment housing, and concealment; and small cell and distributed antenna system (DAS) solutions consisting of DAS and distributed cell solutions that allow wireless operators to enhance efficiency, and cellular coverage and capacity in network conditions. This segment provides its solutions under the Andrew brand. CommScope Holding Company, Inc. sells its products through a network of distributors, system integrators, and resellers. The company was formerly known as Cedar I Holding Company, Inc. CommScope Holding Company, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Hickory, North Carolina.

Airgain Company Profile

Airgain, Inc. designs, develops, and engineers antenna products for original equipment and design manufacturers, chipset vendors, and service providers worldwide. Its products include MaxBeam embedded antennas; profile embedded antennas; profile contour embedded antennas; ultra-embedded antennas; omnimax high performance external antennas; MaxBeam carrier class antennas; and SmartMax embedded antennas, as well as automotive, fleet, public safety, and M2M antennas. The company provides embedded antenna technologies to enable high performance wireless networking across a range of home, enterprise, automotive, and Internet of Things. As of December 31, 2017, it had 131 issued patents in the United States, 23 companion patents outside the United States, and 81 patent applications on file. The company was formerly known as AM Group and changed its name to Airgain, Inc. in 2004. Airgain, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Rubicon Technology (RBCN) Getting Somewhat Favorable Press Coverage, Analysis Shows

News coverage about Rubicon Technology (NASDAQ:RBCN) has been trending somewhat positive on Monday, according to Accern Sentiment. The research group identifies positive and negative media coverage by reviewing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Rubicon Technology earned a coverage optimism score of 0.22 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the semiconductor company an impact score of 43.6568126847622 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the next few days.

Separately, ValuEngine upgraded Rubicon Technology from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 4th.

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Rubicon Technology traded down $0.23, reaching $7.66, during trading hours on Monday, according to Marketbeat.com. 3,100 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,627. Rubicon Technology has a 1 year low of $6.71 and a 1 year high of $9.75.

Rubicon Technology (NASDAQ:RBCN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 14th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter. Rubicon Technology had a negative net margin of 265.92% and a negative return on equity of 35.10%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 million for the quarter.

About Rubicon Technology

Rubicon Technology, Inc provides monocrystalline sapphire for applications in optical and industrial systems. It offers optical and industrial sapphire products in various shapes and sizes, including round and rectangular windows and blanks, domes, tubes, and rods for a range of end markets comprising defense and aerospace, specialty lighting, instrumentation, sensors and detectors, semiconductor process equipment, electronic substrates, medical, and laser applications.

William M. Clancy Sells 10,000 Shares of Vishay Precision Group (VPG) Stock

Vishay Precision Group (NYSE:VPG) CFO William M. Clancy sold 10,000 shares of Vishay Precision Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.45, for a total value of $354,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,575 shares in the company, valued at $1,048,433.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

VPG stock opened at $35.10 on Monday. Vishay Precision Group has a twelve month low of $16.55 and a twelve month high of $36.85. The stock has a market cap of $472.20 million, a P/E ratio of 30.79, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.65 and a current ratio of 3.82.

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Vishay Precision Group (NYSE:VPG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 8th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $73.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.69 million. Vishay Precision Group had a net margin of 6.48% and a return on equity of 9.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. sell-side analysts predict that Vishay Precision Group will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VPG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. B. Riley lifted their target price on Vishay Precision Group from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Sidoti downgraded Vishay Precision Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 9th. Finally, ValuEngine raised Vishay Precision Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 1st.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Vishay Precision Group by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 876,345 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 19,135 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Vishay Precision Group by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 611,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $15,389,000 after purchasing an additional 60,100 shares during the period. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in Vishay Precision Group by 0.8% during the first quarter. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 334,462 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $10,418,000 after purchasing an additional 2,733 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Vishay Precision Group by 91.6% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 322,942 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $8,122,000 after purchasing an additional 154,400 shares during the period. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its stake in Vishay Precision Group by 34.0% during the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 294,906 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,186,000 after purchasing an additional 74,893 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.45% of the company’s stock.

About Vishay Precision Group

Vishay Precision Group, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets sensors, sensor-based measurement systems, specialty resistors, and strain gages in Asia, the United States, Israel, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Foil Technology Products, Force Sensors, and Weighing and Control Systems.

Italy's clash with the euro may just be getting started

Relief among investors that two Italian populist parties failed to form a government has quickly given way to concerns that they could turn new elections later this year into a vote on the future of the euro.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Sunday refused to accept the nomination of a euroskeptic finance minister, prompting the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and far-right League party to give up trying to form an administration.

"Mattarella has made it clear that he will not allow any policy that could put Italy on a slippery slope towards a major confrontation with the [European Union] that could potentially jeopardize Italy's euro membership," wrote Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank, in a research note on Monday.

The euro edged higher early Monday along with Italian stocks and government bonds. They had come under heavy pressure in recent weeks because of fears that the populist parties' program of ��100 billion ($118 billion) in tax cuts and spending pledges could trigger a financial crisis in the heavily indebted nation and the wider eurozone.

But those gains evaporated quickly as markets focused on an uncertain future for Italy, a founding member of the euro currency and its third largest economy.

The main Italian stock market index was down by about 2% in early afternoon trading.

"The electoral process is back to square one with a lot of ill will," said Kit Juckes, a currency strategist at Societe Generale. "New elections are now more likely ... and the election itself is in danger of turning into a de facto referendum on euro membership."

Years of stagnation and a lack of reform have pushed Italy's government debt above ��2 trillion euros ($2.3 trillion), equivalent to more than 130% of annual economic output. That's the third highest level of indebtedness in the world after Japan and Greece.

Protecting the 'savings of Italians'

Mattarella said it was his duty to block the finance minister's appointment to protect the "savings of Italians."

"The uncertainty in our position in the euro has alarmed international and Italian investors and savers, who have invested in our government bonds and in our industries," Mattarella said Sunday.

"The surge of the [bond] spread, day after day, increases our public debt and it reduces government spending on social programs. The losses in the the stock market, day after day, burn the resources and savings of our industries and of those who have invested. And they amount to concrete risks for our fellow citizens and for Italian families," he added.

Italy has been without a government since elections in March. Mattarella's plan for a caretaker administration under former International Monetary Fund official Carlo Cottarelli may last only until a new vote can be held in October.

As a country that uses the euro, Italy has agreed to abide by EU budget rules designed to keep the currency stable. During the March election campaign, the populist parties called for those rules to be scrapped and talked about holding a referendum on the euro or leaving the European Union.

Analysts say the future of the euro could take center stage if Italy holds new elections later this year.

Those explosive pledges were missing from their draft government program, but analysts say they could now be revived as the populist parties blame Italy's political establishment for denying them the right to govern.

"It is also likely that the next election campaign will feature significantly stronger anti euro and euroskeptic tones," wrote Wolfango Piccoli, co-founder of Teneo Intelligence, in a research note Sunday.

"The League leader Matteo Salvini has already said that the next vote will be a 'referendum' to free Italy from the 'slavery regime' imposed by the [eurozone], Berlin, the markets and the [bond] spread," he added.

Too big to fail?

There's a huge amount at stake for Italy, and Europe.

Ratings agency Moody's warned Friday it could cut Italy's credit rating -- already just two notches above "junk" status -- because the populists' plans risked weakening its fiscal position and stalling efforts to reform the economy.

A rating downgrade would make it more costly for the Italian government to service its debts and raise the cost of new borrowing. Italy plans to issue about 250 billion euros ($292 billion) in bonds this year, according to Reuters.

Unlike Greece, which is just beginning to emerge from eight years of international bailouts, the Italian economy is big enough to throw the entire eurozone into disarray if it suffers a debt crisis. It accounts for about 15% of eurozone GDP and 23% of the region's government debt. Greece has just over 3% of eurozone public debt.

A louder campaign in Italy against Europe will keep investors on edge.

"Even if the immediate risk of having a euroskeptic finance minister in Italy has now been at least postponed, Italian uncertainties will continue to weigh heavily on sentiment in Italy and -- to a lesser extent -- its eurozone neighbors in coming months," wrote Berenberg's Schmieding.

Israel Discount Bank of New York Has $726,000 Position in The Home Depot (HD)

Israel Discount Bank of New York reduced its holdings in shares of The Home Depot (NYSE:HD) by 24.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,833 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 1,210 shares during the period. Israel Discount Bank of New York’s holdings in The Home Depot were worth $726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ford Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in The Home Depot during the 4th quarter worth about $108,000. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. acquired a new stake in The Home Depot during the 4th quarter worth about $112,000. Denali Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in The Home Depot during the 4th quarter worth about $133,000. Keeler Thomas Management LLC acquired a new stake in The Home Depot during the 4th quarter worth about $150,000. Finally, Delpha Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in The Home Depot during the 4th quarter worth about $153,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.42% of the company’s stock.

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In other The Home Depot news, EVP Edward P. Decker sold 17,660 shares of The Home Depot stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.32, for a total transaction of $3,308,071.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 73,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,827,025.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Armando M. Codina bought 6,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $178.66 per share, for a total transaction of $1,188,089.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 42,300 shares in the company, valued at $7,557,318. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

The Home Depot opened at $186.85 on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The stock has a market cap of $215.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.37, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The Home Depot has a 52-week low of $144.25 and a 52-week high of $207.60.

The Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 15th. The home improvement retailer reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.03. The Home Depot had a return on equity of 399.15% and a net margin of 8.85%. The business had revenue of $24.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.67 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. analysts forecast that The Home Depot will post 9.45 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 31st will be given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 30th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.23%.

HD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $190.60 price target (down from $219.00) on shares of The Home Depot in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $210.00 price target on The Home Depot and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 21st. Wedbush reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of The Home Depot in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Zacks Investment Research upgraded The Home Depot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $205.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 target price (down from $230.00) on shares of The Home Depot in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The Home Depot has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $195.95.

The Home Depot Profile

Home Depot, Inc is a home improvement retailer which engages in the sale of building materials and home improvement products. Its producst include building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and decor products. It offers home improvement installation services and tool and equipment rental.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding HD? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Home Depot (NYSE:HD).

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019

tags:GOGO,AIM,ASND,LNG,DVN,TSBK,ORIT,NTGR,WRE,SIFI, &l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty size-large wp-image-508336438&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/508336438/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;637&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; An aerial view of the solar mirrors at the Noor 1 Concentrated Solar Power plant in Morocco. The North African country has approved a new $2.4bn 800MW scheme. (FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

Emerging markets dominated investment in clean energy in the first quarter of 2018, with more than 40% of funding going to projects in China, while there were notable developments in Mexico, Morocco, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Total investment for the first three months of the year was $61.1 billion, 10% lower than the same period in 2017, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Using slightly different criteria, Clean Energy Pipeline said that the figure was $62.1 billion.

One reason for the fall in investment was a 19% drop in solar funding, partly as a result of a 7% fall in the price of photovoltaic equipment over the past year, and partly because of weaker activity in some markets.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Gogo Inc.(GOGO)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Gogo Inflight Internet (GOGO)

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

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers

  Losers Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) fell 13.4 percent to $51.10 in pre-market trading after the company reported downbeat earnings for its first quarter and lowered its profit outlook for the year. Integrated Media Technology Limited (NASDAQ: IMTE) fell 9.8 percent to $28.97 in pre-market trading after surging 46.29 percent on Thursday. Gogo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO) shares fell 8.2 percent to $8.81 in pre-market trading after the company reported Q1 results and disclosed that it is withdrawing its FY18 outlook for adjusted EBITDA, airborne cash capex, airborne equipment inventory purchases and free cash flow. Sharing Economy International Inc. (NASDAQ: SEII) shares fell 7.5 percent to $3.98 in pre-market trading after climbing 22.16 percent on Thursday. Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE: ANET) fell 7.4 percent to $248.00 in pre-market trading following first-quarter earnings. Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WEB) fell 6.7 percent to $18.00 in pre-market trading after reporting Q1 results. Varex Imaging Corporation (NASDAQ: VREX) fell 5.2 percent to $34 in pre-market trading after reporting Q2 results. Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (NYSE: TKC) shares fell 5.2 percent to $7.60 in pre-market trading after dropping 3.02 percent on Thursday. AMN Healthcare Services, Inc (NYSE: AMN) shares fell 4.7 percent to $61.70 in pre-market trading following Q1 earnings. HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSEA) fell 4.6 percent to $25.15 in pre-market trading after reporting Q1 results. Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) shares fell 4 percent to $16.66 in pre-market trading after dropping 2.86 percent on Thursday. Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ: MLCO) fell 4 percent to $30.65 in pre-market trading. Century Aluminum Co (NASDAQ: CENX) fell 4 percent to $15.76 in pre-market trading following Q1 results. HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC) shares fell 3.5 percent to $48.10 in pre-market tr
• [By Lisa Levin]

  Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers

  Losers Check-Cap Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHEK) shares dipped 47.8 percent to $4.60. Check-Cap priced its upsized underwritten offering of public units at $5.50 per unit. VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ: VVPR) shares fell 41.5 percent to $2.57. Universal Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: UEIC) dropped 35.1 percent to $29.50 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results. Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) dropped 34.8 percent to $3.75 after climbing 155.56 percent on Thursday. Integrated Media Technology Limited (NASDAQ: IMTE) fell 25.2 percent to $24.01 after surging 46.29 percent on Thursday. Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) dropped 22.5 percent to $45.73 after the company reported downbeat earnings for its first quarter and lowered its profit outlook for the year. AMN Healthcare Services, Inc (NYSE: AMN) shares fell 19.6 percent to $52.075 following Q1 earnings. Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVM) shares declined 18.1 percent to $5.20. Adverum Biotech disclosed that its CEO Amber Salzman is stepping down. Newater Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: NEWA) dropped 17.2 percent to $12.83. Basic Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: BAS) fell 17.2 percent to $13.65 following Q1 results. Xperi Corporation (NASDAQ: XPER) declined 15.8 percent to $19.40 after announcing Q1 results. Sharing Economy International Inc. (NASDAQ: SEII) shares fell 15.1 percent to $3.649 after climbing 22.16 percent on Thursday. Performant Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: PFMT) dropped 14.2 percent to $2.65. Gogo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO) shares fell 13.2 percent to $8.32 after the company reported Q1 results and disclosed that it is withdrawing its FY18 outlook for adjusted EBITDA, airborne cash capex, airborne equipment inventory purchases and free cash flow. Technical Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: TCCO) dropped 12.2 percent to $5.05. Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WEB) fell 9.7 percent
• [By ]

  Gogo Inc (Nasdaq: GOGO) reported record quarterly results in February with revenue up 18% over last year's fourth quarter. The company missed high expectations for earnings, sending shares tumbling towards a 52-week low. Short sellers have piled on selling 53% of shares available and pushing the cover ratio up to 16 days.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The stock market dealt with continued volatility on Tuesday, with investors uncertain how to react to a mix of earnings and geopolitical news. Throughout most of the day, market participants were trying to predict whether the Trump administration would move forward with its plans to withdraw the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran, and major benchmarks stayed in a relatively tight range with a downward bias during the morning and early afternoon. After the expected announcement, the Dow fell to a triple-digit loss late in the afternoon, but it recovered by the end of the session. Adding to the gloominess was bad news regarding some key individual stocks. DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH), Gogo (NASDAQ:GOGO), and Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE:HTZ) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Aerosonic Corporation(AIM)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Aimia (TSE:AIM) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$2.67.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Ascendis Pharma A/S(ASND)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Ascendis Pharma (ASND)

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

• [By ]

  There was also a mixed bag of other suggestions -- Rashmi Kwatra, the founder of Sixteenth Street Capital, liked Brac Bank, which is listed on the Dhaka stock market in Bangladesh. It is the 12th largest bank in Bangladesh, but the most profitable with the highest credit rating. John Khoury of Long Point Capital LP sees a 50% upside at homebuilder D.R. Horton (DHI)  and Oleg Nodelman likes U.S. biotech firm Ascendis Pharma. (ASND)

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Ascendis Pharma (NASDAQ:ASND) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 1,979 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,377% compared to the typical volume of 134 call options.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Cheniere Energy, Inc.(LNG)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Cheniere Energy, Inc, an energy company, engages in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) related businesses in the United States. The company operates in two segments, LNG Terminal Business, and LNG and Natural Gas Marketing. It owns and operates Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana; and Corpus Christi LNG terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEARCA: LNG) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $69 from $63 (versus a $62.49 close) at Merrill Lynch. After a strong LNG marketing aspect, the firm ramped up expectations on excess volumes through 2020.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Each liquefaction train is expected to have a nominal production capacity, before adjustments for planned maintenance, production reliability and potential overdesign, of approximately 4.5 million tons annually of liquefied natural gas�(LNG) and an adjusted nominal production capacity of approximately 4.3 million to 4.6 million tons per year of LNG. Cheniere Partners also owns and operates regasification facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal and the Creole Trail Pipeline, which connects the Sabine Pass LNG terminal with a number of large interstate pipelines.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Devon Energy Corporation(DVN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  As things stand right now, analysts anticipate that at least some Iranian oil will come off the market as a result of the sanctions. That lost output would further tighten an oil market that suddenly has little margin for error thanks to red-hot demand and tame supply growth. That's the recipe for higher oil prices and could make top-tier U.S. oil stocks Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC), Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) big winners in the coming years.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) was one of those. While that company's CEO did note on Devon's quarterly conference call that capital expenditures would trend toward the high end of its guidance range, that's because Devon was "completing our plan 2018 program quicker than anticipated." As a result, the company would "most likely accelerate some 2019 program into 2018," even as it stays within its initial budget guidelines. Doing so will enable Devon to grow faster while still generating excess cash at current oil prices, which it's returning to shareholders through a $1 billion stock buyback and 33% dividend increase.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  As things stand right now, analysts anticipate that at least some Iranian oil will come off the market as a result of the sanctions. That lost output would further tighten an oil market that suddenly has little margin for error thanks to red-hot demand and tame supply growth. That's the recipe for higher oil prices and could make top-tier U.S. oil stocks Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC), Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) big winners in the coming years.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Timberland Bancorp Inc.(TSBK)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Timberland Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSBK) declared a None dividend on Tuesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.23 per share by the savings and loans company on Friday, May 25th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 10th.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Oritani Financial Corp.(ORIT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Oritani Financial (ORIT)

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

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: NETGEAR, Inc.(NTGR)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Steve Symington]

  Shares of Netgear Inc. (NASDAQ:NTGR) fell 10.6% today after the networking hardware specialist delivered strong first-quarter 2018 results�but followed with underwhelming guidance.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  ValuEngine upgraded shares of Netgear (NASDAQ:NTGR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

  A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Netgear from a strong-buy rating to a strong sell rating in a research report on Wednesday. Guggenheim reiterated a buy rating and issued a $76.00 price target on shares of Netgear in a research report on Friday, April 27th. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Netgear from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, January 13th. Finally, BWS Financial set a $75.00 price target on shares of Netgear and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, January 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $73.20.

• [By Steve Symington]

  Netgear�(NASDAQ:NTGR)�announced stronger-than-expected first-quarter 2018 results on Wednesday after the market closed, highlighting robust demand for its network security cameras and stronger profitability from its Connected Home segment, as well as continued progress toward the�impending separation of Arlo into its own publicly traded company.

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Washington Real Estate Investment Trust(WRE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE)

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

Top 10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: SI Financial Group Inc.(SIFI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  News articles about SI Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIFI) have been trending somewhat positive recently, Accern reports. Accern identifies positive and negative press coverage by monitoring more than 20 million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. SI Financial Group earned a media sentiment score of 0.03 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news stories about the savings and loans company an impact score of 47.0536892575283 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the next few days.

Buy JK Cement; target of Rs 1209: Edelweiss

Edelweiss' research report on JK Cement

JK Cement��s (JKCE) Q4FY18 volumes jumped 27% YoY for grey cement (20% estimate), while those for white segment rose 11% (7% estimate). Despite impressive volumes, EBITDA at INR1.82bn dipped 5% YoY (5% below estimate) owing to weak prices and cost pressure in grey cement business. With grey cement realisation/t rising 6% versus a cost hike of 13% YoY, EBITDA/t stood at a tepid INR271 (INR456 for FY18).

Outlook

JKCE remains one of our preferred picks as it is likely to be a major beneficiary of expected surge in industry clinker utilisations in North. Robust white cement business has potential to mitigate volatility in grey segment. Factoring in superior RoE, we value JKCE at 10x FY20E EV/EBITDA and maintain ��BUY/SO�� with revised TP of INR1,209.

For all recommendations report,�click here

Disclaimer:�The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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How Strong Is the Current Economy? These Companies Provide Some Hints

The world economy is a vast and amorphous entity that can be hard to read and even more difficult to predict. However, you can get something of a checkup on the global economy by taking a look at industrial giants like General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Siemens (NASDAQOTH:SIEGY), Eaton Corporation plc (NYSE:ETN), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON), and ABB Ltd (NYSE:ABB). Here's what recent results at these industrial giants are telling us about the global economy.

The bright spots

When you take a look at the most recent quarterly results from these five industrial companies, the immediate takeaway is that things are going generally well. This is a global picture, too, since the operations of all of these companies span the world. Here are some key highlights.

Image source: Getty Images

Big equipment is back. One of Eaton's most troubled divisions in recent years was its hydraulic group. After the housing downturn following the 2007 to 2009 recession and commodity crash in 2011, orders for earth-moving and construction equipment dried up. However, in 2017 orders in Eaton's hydraulic division, which counts both sectors as key end customers, began to rebound. In the first quarter of 2018, organic sales advanced 16%. Big equipment and the industries that rely on it appear to be doing quite well right now.�

Renewable power is holding up well. General Electric's first-quarter results, meanwhile, included robust 21% order growth in renewable energy equipment. The company noted pricing pressures, but clearly demand is still strong. And while a 10% drop in services orders in this division is notable, scale is an important issue to consider. Equipment orders were $3.1 billion in the quarter, while service orders were $300 million. Renewable power is clearly still doing pretty well.�

Emerging markets are showing strength. ABB's first-quarter results indicated notable strength in its Asia, Middle East, and Africa division, where orders were up 12%. That compares to order growth of 1% in the Americas (North, Central, and South America combined) and 2% in Europe. Although it didn't break any numbers out, Honeywell made specific note of order strength in Asia and Africa within its safety and productivity solutions division. And General Electric highlighted emerging market strength within its healthcare division. All told, it looks like emerging markets are doing well and investing for the future.� �

ABB's regional results in the first quarter showed notable strength in emerging markets. Image source: ABB.�

Aerospace advances. Orders for General Electric's jet engines and other aerospace products soared 18% in the first quarter. More important, the larger aviation services segment saw orders increase 10%. Honeywell saw sales in its aerospace group jump 12% in the quarter. And Eaton's Aerospace division witnessed 7% sales growth. Clearly, aerospace is also holding up quite well.� �

Vehicles riding high. Both General Electric and Eaton noted strong results in their vehicle divisions. GE's transportation group orders were up 34% on the equipment side and 58% on the services end. Eaton's vehicle segment sales were up 14%. This can be a pretty volatile area, but right now it appears that vehicles are doing pretty well.�

A couple of notable downers

Results at these industrial giants, however, were not strong across every company and division. Indeed, there were a couple of notable drags.

Power plants are wilting. General Electric's power division, which makes things like turbines, saw orders tumble a huge 40% year over year. Service orders in this segment fell 19%. This wasn't unique to GE, either. Siemens saw orders drop 7% during the fiscal second quarter in its power and gas division. This weakness isn't too surprising, however, based on the strength of the renewable power segment noted above. In fact, GE highlighted a mixture of energy efficiency and renewables growth as a notable headwind for the turbines it sells, which are generally powered by fossil fuels.� �

Siemens' power struggles, broken down. Image source: Siemens.�

Turning the lights off. Another area that was under pressure in the first quarter was lighting. GE's tiny lighting business saw orders drop 7%. Service orders in this division were down 71%. And while Eaton doesn't break its lighting operations out as a separate division, weakness in this segment was a notable topic during the company's conference call. CEO Craig Arnold explained that sales were down 10% in lighting and that Eaton had chosen not to participate in some large projects because of weak pricing. Eaton is expecting lighting sales to fall mid-single digits in 2018.� �

Looking good, overall

All told, the results of some of the largest industrial companies in the world suggest that the global economy is doing OK, with the positives easily outweighing the negatives. That said, GE's and Siemens' results were notably weighed down by the weakness in the power turbine market, which is a significant contributor to each company's business. Overall, however, it was still a good start to the year for industrials and the vast majority of the end markets they serve. If you have been looking at the industrial space for investment ideas, first-quarter results provide ample support for an investment in the sector.

7 Surprising Stocks to Buy Now for Peak Earnings

The first-quarter earnings reports for S&P 500 companies are pretty much in the books as I write this. The results, for the most part, were overwhelmingly positive, which leaves investors with the difficult task of picking stocks to buy.

Fact A: According to Factset Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS), with 91% of the S&P 500 companies reporting earnings in Q1 2018, 78% delivered a positive earnings surprise while 77% reported a positive revenue surprise. If this holds up, Q1 2018 will be the most surprising quarter of earnings results since Factset started keeping track in 2008.

Fact B: The blended earnings growth rate (actual plus estimates) for S&P 500 companies in the first quarter is 24.9%, the highest rate since Q3 2010. Add to this the fact ten sectors have a higher earnings growth rate today than at the end of March thanks to Fact A, and you have the makings of an earnings tsunami.

To save you the work of digging through all of the data, I’m going to do it for you. By the end, you’ll have seven surprising stocks to buy from seven different sectors. But before you run out and buy the stocks on my list, remember that some experts are suggesting we’re currently experiencing peak earnings; the future’s not going to be nearly as rosy.

A crystal ball, I don’t have.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Amazon.com (AMZN)

Hey, I’m as big a fan of Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) as anyone, but how on earth did the world’s biggest e-commerce company beat analyst estimates by 157%?

I’ll admit I love using analysts for sound bites in my coverage of public companies but there’s something definitely wrong when a business on as big a roll as AMZN gets a Q1 2018 estimate of $1.27, 21 cents lower (!?!) than the year before.

Are these men and women not reading Amazon’s financial reports?

If you are an Amazon shareholder, the one thought you should have after examining its first-quarter results is: Please keep losing money internationally — the unit had a $622 million operating loss in the quarter, 29% higher than a year earlier — because we know what happened with its North American e-commerce business after losing lots of money; it’s now making lots of money.

Throw in its AWS business which grew operating margins by 140 basis points year-over-year while pulling down $1.4 billion in operating profits and I’m not sure there’s an argument against owning its stock for the next 10-30 years.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

How do you know that oil prices are rising? Oil and gas producers are handily beating earnings estimates and share prices are hitting 52-week highs. Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) reported earnings per share May 9 of 92 cents, 30% higher than analyst estimates. On the top line, Occidental had revenue of $3.83 billion, 3.5% higher than analyst expectations and 29% higher than a year earlier.

That’s what happens when a barrel of oil goes from $40 to over $70 in less than a year. Even better, if you’re an OXY shareholder, the company upped its production guidance for 2018 to as high as 665 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d).

Making money at less than $70 a barrel — much less if oil prices move even higher, which many expect to happen this summer — Occidental will be rolling in the dough.

“Once we achieve our remaining milestones we will be well-positioned in the future with the cash flow necessary for our $40 oil price business sustainability and $50 oil price business growth scenarios,” CFO Cedric Burgher said. “But we will continue to operate our business to reduce those breakevens even further.”

Bring on $80 oil.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Tripadvisor (TRIP)

If you bought $1,000 of Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) stock a year ago, today you’d have a $68 gain for your troubles. However, if you bought $1,000 of TRIP stock in November, you would have a $610 gain, or almost 10 times the paper profit. Needless to say, the past 12 months have been a bit of rollercoaster ride for TRIP … but if its latest earnings are any indication, the next 12 months might be a little smoother.

The travel site — it actually has a bunch of different sites in addition to TripAdvisor — was expected to earn 16 cents a share in the first quarter but reported $0.30, 88% higher than the estimate.

“In February we outlined our expectation of approximately flat consolidated adjusted Ebitda in 2018 compared to 2017,” stated its Q1 2018 press release. “Our solid start to the year makes us more positive, and we now expect to deliver year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth in 2018.”

That right there is the big driver of TRIP stock since February. While its hotel segment is continuing to see lower revenue, its non-hotel business, which includes restaurant reviews and vacation rentals, is experiencing significant growth.

I’d continue to follow the non-hotel segment’s progress. That’s what will drive TRIP stock in the future.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Newell Brands (NWL)

As we’ve seen from Q1 2018 earnings reports, companies that beat estimates are given very little love and those that barely miss are pummeled. That’s exactly what’s happened to Newell Brands Inc (NYSE:NWL) when it reported earnings May 4. Analysts were expecting earnings per share of 26 cents; Newell came in at 34 cents, 31% higher than the estimate. Yet NWL barely moved.

The likely culprit? Analysts were expecting revenue of $3.039 billion, Newell was short by $22 million. Factor in the company is in the middle of rightsizing its business in terms of the number of brands it owns and investors see a lukewarm growth story.

However, Newell’s accelerated transformation plan is far from finished. In its Q1 2018 press release, it announced that it would also potentially sell its Jostens and Pure Fishing businesses if the right offers came along.

“The divestiture process is well underway and the company expects to complete all transactions by the end of 2019,” stated Newell’s Q1 2018 press release. “In 2020, the Company expects net sales of approximately $9.5 billion and normalized operating margin greater than 15 percent.”

Trading at a P/S and P/B that’s lower than it’s been in recent years, I’d consider a small position with an eye to adding to it once it’s clear the fine-tuning of its portfolio is working.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Cigna (CI)

Health insurer Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) beat Q1 2018 earnings by 21% — its EPS excluding one-time items was $4.11 compared to the $3.39 consensus — prompting the company to up its EPS outlook for 2018 to $13.05 a share at the midpoint from its previous guidance of $12.65.

On the horizon, Cigna’s working on acquiring pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co (NASDAQ:ESRX) for $52 billion; investors are concerned the deal won’t get approval from anti-trust regulators.

Cigna CEO David Cordani believes the acquisition will help it cut medical costs for its customers. In 2017, medical costs rose by 3%. It expects those costs could rise by as much as 5% in 2018. It would like to get medical cost increases down to CPI inflation.

In the first quarter, membership in its health care plans increased by 3%. It now has 16.2 million members. With revenues rising almost double digits with healthy increases in earnings, with or without Express Scripts, I see Cigna doing just fine.

Buy on current weakness.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Boeing (BA)

I was one of many in the business media writing about Boeing Co’s (NYSE:BA) stellar first-quarter earnings April 25. Boeing delivered adjusted earnings per share of $3.64, 41% higher than the consensus estimate. While we’re on the subject of beats, its free cash flow was $2.74 billion, 84% higher than analyst expectations.

“Well it’s not every day that a mega-cap company beats consensus by 40 percent,” Robert Stallard, an analyst with Vertical Research Partners said in a note to clients. “The wall of cash that the company is generating makes it hard to be absent from the stock.”

Indeed.

Based on an enterprise value of $196.4 billion and a trailing 12-month free cash flow of $12.6 billion, Boeing has an FCF yield of 6.4%, a perfectly decent yield for a company that’s firing on all cylinders at the moment. Here’s what I had to say about Boeing in April a couple of weeks before earnings:

“Now that I’m back on Boeing wagon, I do believe that Boeing stock could deliver 20%-25% compound annual growth over the next five years,” I wrote April 10. “If it does, a $1,000 stock price is not out of the realm of possibility.”

After its strong first quarter, I have no doubt it’s possible by 2023.

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Surprising Stocks to Buy Now: Zions Bancorp (ZION)

Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ:ZION), the Salt Lake City-based regional bank with operations in 11 states and $66 billion in assets, announced first-quarter results April 24 that saw it beat on both the top and bottom line. In terms of earnings, analysts were expecting 83 cents a share; Zion delivered $1.09, 31% higher than the consensus. On the top-line, Zion’s Q1 2018 revenue was $684 million, 9.6% higher than a year earlier and $18 million above what analysts were expecting.

Heading into the second quarter, Zion, like most U.S. companies, is paying less tax. Typically, the bank has an effective tax rate in the mid-to-low 30% range; in 2018 it should be around 23%, adding a bit more oomph to future earnings reports. Zions, which services the western portion of the U.S., is benefiting from a strong economy. It expects this to continue for the remainder of the year.

A quick look at most of its major metrics in Q1 2018 compared to a year earlier paints a very pretty picture. Its return on average assets in the first quarter was 1.45%, 57 basis points higher than a year earlier and almost double what it was in the fourth quarter. In terms of its tangible return on average tangible common equity, it was 15.5%, well above the 8.8% return it generated in Q1 2017.

Virtually everywhere I look I see a business that’s prospering. As a shareholder, that’s all you can ask for.

As of this writing, Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned