Something very strange has been happening. Housing, in all regards, is actually turning around. Home prices are up. Housing starts are improving. Granted, this improvement leaves the housing market looking up at the pre-crash peak, but in relative terms and compared to earlier recessionary lows, it's been more than enough for optimism.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Plenty of housing stocks have reaped the rewards of this recovery, such as it is:
XHB Total Return Price data by YCharts.
And this is just a small sample of the stocks you could have bought into during the great post-crash housing recovery. Investors have had no shortage of opportunities, from the materials going toward constructing and improving homes for sale, to homebuilders themselves, to the banks offering loans to prospective homeowners. However, one (well, two) of the most important links in the American housing chain remained locked to the ground, unmoving -- until this spring.
Top 10 Regional Bank Companies To Own In Right Now: Mastercard Incorporated(MA)
MasterCard Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, provides transaction processing and related services to customers principally in support of their credit, deposit access, electronic cash and automated teller machine payment card programs, and travelers? cheque programs. Its payment solutions include payment programs, marketing, product development, technology, processing, and consulting and information services. The company provides transaction processing services comprising transaction switching, which include authorization, clearing, and settlement; connectivity services, such as network access, equipment, and the transmission of authorization and settlement messages; and other payment-related services consisting of products used to prevent or detect fraudulent transactions, cardholder services, professional consulting and research services, compliance and penalty, account and transaction enhancement services, holograms, and publication services. MasterCard Incor porated manages and licenses payment card brands, including MasterCard, MasterCard Electronic, Maestro, and Cirrus. The company?s payment programs, which are facilitated through its brands, include consumer credit, debit and prepaid programs, commercial payment solutions, and contactless payment solutions. It serves approximately 22,000 financial institutions. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jane Edmondson]
Green Dot (GDOT), a Pasadena, CA-based company, is a leading provider of prepaid MasterCard (MA) and Visa (V) debit cards. Green Dot products are sold in more than 60,000 retail locations including drug stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, and discount department stores. The company also has a discounted offering available exclusively through Wal-Mart (WMT).
Hot US Companies To Own For 2014: Transocean Inc.(RIG)
Transocean Ltd. provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells worldwide. It offers deepwater and harsh environment drilling, oil and gas drilling management, and drilling engineering and drilling project management services. The company also offers well and logistics services. In addition, it engages in oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities primarily in the United States offshore Louisiana and Texas, and in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea. As of February 10, 2011, the company owned, had partial ownership interests in, and operated 138 mobile offshore drilling units, including 47 high-specification floaters, 25 midwater floaters, 9 high-specification jackups, 54 standard jackups, and 3 other rigs, as well as 1 ultra-deepwater floater and 3 high-specification jackups under construction. Transocean Ltd. was founded in 1953 and is based in Zug, Switzerland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By David Smith]
On the drillers' side, there's also Transocean (NYSE: RIG ) the biggest of the lot, which trades at a forward P/E below nine times, probably nearing an end to its Deepwater Horizon litigation. The company's board of directors is also in the sights of activist Carl Icahn, a state of affairs that is unlikely to eventuate badly for shareholders. In any event, despite -- or perhaps because of -- that attention, the same board has proposed the initiation of a $2.24 per-share dividend, enough for a yield topping 4%.
- [By Matt DiLallo]
Early warning signs
Transocean LTD (NYSE: RIG ) was the first to warn investors that 2014 could be a rough year for the offshore drilling industry. The company pointed out at an industry conference that it had 14 rigs coming off of contract in 2014 that didn't have new contracts lined up. Industrywide, a total of 39 rigs were expected to come off of contracts in 2014 at a time when a number of newbuild rigs were hitting the open seas. The reason so many rigs were without a contract had to do with the fact that oil companies were struggling to generate a lot of free cash flow even though oil prices were well over $100 per barrel as high costs were cutting deeply into the cash flow of oil companies. Because of this, oil companies were cutting back on deepwater drilling until either oil prices went higher or dayrates for drilling rigs started heading lower.
Hot US Companies To Own For 2014: PACCAR Inc.(PCAR)
PACCAR Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and distributes light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks and related aftermarket parts worldwide. The company offers its trucks for use in the over-the-road and off-highway hauling of freight, petroleum, wood products, construction, and other materials to independent dealers under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, and DAF nameplates. It also provides finance and leasing products and services, such as inventory financing for independent dealers; and retail loan and lease financing for new and used trucks, as well as other transportation equipment; and full service leasing under the PacLease trade name. In addition, it manufactures and sells industrial winches under the Braden, Carco, and Gearmatic nameplates. PACCAR Inc was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
PACCAR (NASDAQ: PCAR) shares rose 4.88% to $66.89. The volume of PACCAR shares traded was 243% higher than normal. PACCAR shares jumped following word of better-than-expected preliminary orders for a certain truck segment..
- [By Sue Chang and Saumya Vaishampayan]
Paccar Inc. (PCAR) �climbed 2.9%. The heavy-duty truck maker, which owns the Peterbilt and Kenworth brands, said last week its fourth-quarter earnings rose to 94 cents a share from 72 cents a share.
- [By Brian Stoffel]
The business from PACCAR (NASDAQ: PCAR ) in particular, is important to Cummins. In 2012, PACCAR accounted for 13% of Cummins' consolidated net sales. If any of these companies were to switch to a different engine maker, or choose to make their own engines in-house, it would likely cause a noticeable decline in revenue.
Hot US Companies To Own For 2014: Valmont Industries Inc.(VMI)
Valmont Industries, Inc. produces and sells fabricated metal products, pole and tower structures, and mechanized irrigation systems in the United States and internationally. The company?s Engineered Infrastructure Products segment offers steel and aluminum poles and structures, to which lighting and traffic control fixtures are attached for applications in streets, highways, parking lots, sports stadiums, and commercial and residential developments; and roadway safety systems, including guard rail barrier systems, wire rope safety barriers, and crash attenuation barriers to redirect vehicles and to prevent collisions between vehicles. This segment also provides structures and components for the wireless communication market, as well as for the erection of infrastructure, industrial, and commercial access systems. Its Utility Support Structures segment offers tapered steel and pre-stressed concrete poles for high-voltage transmission lines, substations, and electrical dist ribution, as well as produces hybrid structures, which are structures with a concrete base section and steel upper sections. The company?s Coatings segment provides metal coating services, such as hot-dipped galvanizing, anodizing, powder coating, and e-coating. Its Irrigation segment offers mechanical irrigation equipment and related service parts under the Valley brand. The company also manufactures forged steel grinding media for the mining industry, tubular products for industrial customers, and electrolytic manganese dioxide for disposable batteries; and distributes industrial fasteners. It serves state and federal governments, contractors, utility and telecommunications companies, commercial lighting fixtures manufacturers, and large farms, as well as the general manufacturing sector. The company sells its products through direct sales force, independent and commissioned sales agents, and independent dealers. Valmont Industries, Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headqua rtered in Omaha, Nebraska.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Industrial conglomerate�Valmont Industries� (NYSE: VMI ) �will pay a�regular quarterly cash dividend�of $0.25 per share, representing an 11.1% increase in the payout to shareholders.
- [By Always Bullish]
A second risk for the company is competition. There is one major company that Lindsay is battling for sales with, and that is Valmont Industries (VMI). Let's compare the two:
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Valmont Industries (NYSE: VMI ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Monica Gerson]
Valmont Industries (NYSE: VMI) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $2.43 per share on revenue of $800.97 million.
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) is estimated to post its Q3 earnings at $0.75 per share on revenue of $3.47 billion.
Hot US Companies To Own For 2014: SuperValu Inc.(SVU)
SUPERVALU INC., together with its subsidiaries, operates retail food stores in the United States. Its stores offer grocery, general merchandise, health and beauty care, pharmacy, and fuel products. The company operates stores under the Acme, Albertsons, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher?s, Jewel-Osco, Lucky, Shaw?s, Shop ?n Save, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, and Star Market banners, as well as in-store pharmacies under the Osco and Sav-on banners. It operates approximately 2,394 traditional and hard-discount retail food stores, including 899 licensed Save-A-Lot stores. The company also offers supply chain services, which include wholesale distribution of products to independent retailers, including single and multiple grocery store independent operators, regional and national chains, mass merchants, and the military customers, as well as provides logistics support services. SUPERVALU was founded in 1871 and is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Vanina Egea] of 700 to 800 small format stores annually adds to an increasing number of dollar stores subscribing to loss-leader strategies. In this context, the firm undertook a fair price plus promotion strategy in fiscal 2013. This initiative has lowered prices to a competitive position at the expense of margins, in the hope for market share gains in the long term.
Cost Cuts
Apart from underperforming stores sellout, Supervalu has undertaken additional cost reduction initiatives which are expected to lower administrative expenses by $250 million through fiscal 2014. The reduction of its store count, I turn, is expected to generate $80 million to $90 million in savings in the next three years.
Moving Forward
In the third quarter of fiscal 2013, the firm reported adjusted earnings of $0.13, a significant improvement compared to the negative $0.07 delivered the year before. Revenues, however, fell by $1.05 in relation to the prior year, due to negative comps in the retail segment, which have been declining for four consecutive years.
Further, the firm does not have any share buyback plans for fiscal 2014 and will not pay dividends to shareholders until March 2018.
Supervalu showcases a negative return on capital of -9.24% compared to the industry average of 20.02%. And its three-year average revenue growth delivered a dismal -25.1% compared to its peers��median of 1.0%.
Investment guru John Keeley (Trades, Portfolio) recently sold out his holding in the company, backing my feeling that despite the company�� efforts, a good position in a highly competitive market will be hard to achieve.
Disclosure: Vanina Egea holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
About the author:Vanina EgeaA fundamental analyst at Lone Tree AnalyticsVisit Vanina Egea's Website
Currently 5.00/512345Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes)
Voters: Subscribe via Email Subscribe RSS Comments Please leave your comment: $(document). - [By Robert Hanley]
Looking ahead, though, future growth seems limited, given management's plans to continue consolidating its network.�Indeed, the company intends to use the proceeds from the pending sale of its Canadian operations to pay down related debt and repurchase a significant portion of its shares.�As such, Safeway seems to be in the same mind-set as fellow regional competitor SUPERVALU (NYSE: SVU ) , which has been going through its own business rightsizing process.
- [By Rich Duprey]
Supermarket chain SUPERVALU (NYSE: SVU ) lost 40% annually between 2007 and 2012 while Safeway (NYSE: SWY ) lost 10% annually. Kroger (NYSE: KR ) , which recognized the value of private-label branding early on, achieved 4% growth.
- [By Bloomberg]
Matthew Staver/Bloomberg via Getty Images Cerberus Capital Management's $9 billion deal to merge Safeway (SWY) with Albertsons is a bet that a larger supermarket chain can better fend off an attack on the grocery business by big-box stores and online retailers. Safeway, the No. 2 grocery-store operator in the U.S., agreed Thursday to be acquired by Cerberus's Albertsons for about $40 a share. The deal will unite two chains with locations across the country -- especially in the West -- and narrow Kroger's (KR) lead as the nation's top supermarket company. Cerberus, a private-equity firm that has spent years investing in the supermarket industry, will use the new company's heft to combat a growing array of threats. Big-box retailers such as Walmart Stores (WMT) and warehouse clubs are increasingly targeting grocery customers, using their size and breadth of products to attract shoppers. Online food sellers and delivery services, including Amazon.com (AMZN), also have made neighborhood supermarkets less essential than before. "This merger will improve our competitive position," Safeway Chief Executive Officer Robert Edwards, who will be in charge of the combined company, said Thursday on a conference call. "Our customers will benefit from significant cost saving synergies and a stronger management team." Safeway shares fell as much as 6.3 percent to $37 in extended trading, reflecting concerns the deal may not close at the current price. The shares had increased 21 percent this year through the close of regular trading Thursday, outpacing the 1.6 percent gain of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Blackhawk Network As part of the agreement, investors will get $32.50 a share in cash, plus stock in Safeway's gift-card unit Blackhawk Network Holdings (HAWK), according to a statement Thursday. Safeway, based in Pleasanton, Calif., had said last month that it was in talks about a sale of the company. Assuming a diluted share count of about 235 million shares,
Hot US Companies To Own For 2014: Heidrick & Struggles International Inc (HSII)
Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (Heidrick & Struggles) is an advisory firm providing executive search and leadership consulting services. As of December 31, 2011, the Company provided its services to a range of clients through the expertise of 347 consultants located in various cities around the world. The Company�� service offerings include executive search, leadership consulting and client base. The Company helps its clients build leadership teams by facilitating the recruitment, management and deployment of senior executives. In addition to executive search, it provides a range of leadership consulting services to clients. These services include succession planning, executive assessment, talent retention management, executive development, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and mergers and acquisitions human capital integration consulting. In November 2013, Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc announced the acquisition of Scambler MacGregor.
The Company�� clients includes clients include Fortune 1000 companies, non-United States companies, middle market and emerging growth companies, governmental, higher education and not-for-profit organizations and other private and public entities. Heidrick & Struggles provides senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services to its clients worldwide through a network of more than 69 offices in 40 countries. The locations are staffed with consultants, research associates, administrative assistants and other support staff. Administrative functions are centralized where possible, although certain support and research functions are situated regionally because of variations in local requirements.
The Company�� worldwide network includes affiliate relationships in Finland, South Africa, Turkey and Portugal. It has no financial investment in these affiliates but receive licensing fees from them for the use of its name and its databases. Licensing fees are less than 1% of its net revenue. As ! of December 31, 2011, the Company had 160 consultants in its Americas segment, which included New York, Chicago and Atlanta. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 104 consultants in its European segment, which included the United Kingdom, Germany and France. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 83 consultants in itsAsia Pacific segment, which included China (including Hong Kong), Australia and Singapore. The Company�� executive search business operates in six broad industry groups: Financial Services, Industrial, Consumer Markets, Global Technology and Services, Life Sciences, and Education and Social Enterprise.
Its executive search consultants also specialize in searches for specific C-level functional positions, which are roles that generally report directly to the chief executive officer. These include chief financial officers, chief information officers, chief legal officers, chief marketing officers and chief human resources officers. The Company�� Global Functional Practices include Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors; Chief Human Resources Officers; Financial Officers; Information Officers; Interim Executives; Legal, Risk, Compliance & Government Affairs; Marketing, Sales & Strategy Officers; Multicultural & Digital Marketing; Sales Officers; Research & Development; and Supply Chain & Transportation.
The Company competes with Egon Zehnder International, Korn/Ferry International, Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc. and Spencer Stuart & Associates.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
Chicago-based Heidrick & Struggles (NASDAQ: HSII ) needs a new CEO.
For weeks, rumors have swirled that Heidrick was on the block for possible sale to a new owner. Those rumors were squashed Monday, however, when the executive-search firm simultaneously announced that (a) it has decided to pursue a "stand-alone strategy," and (b) that Chief Executive Officer L. Kevin Kelly is leaving the company. (The company also had some good news -- revenues for the fiscal second quarter look to be close to the high point of its previously announced $110 million-to-$120 million range.)
Hot US Companies To Own For 2014: Sun Hydraulics Corp (SNHY)
Sun Hydraulics Corporation (Sun) designs, manufactures, and sells screw-in cartridge valves and manifolds used in hydraulic systems. The Company has facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea, France, and China. Sun Hydraulik Holdings Limited (Sun Holdings), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun was formed to provide a holding company for the European market operations; its wholly owned subsidiaries are Sun Hydraulics Limited (Sun Ltd.) and Sun Hydraulik GmbH (Sun GmbH). Sun Ltd. operates a manufacturing and distribution facility located in Coventry, England, and Sun GmbH operates a manufacturing and distribution facility located in Erkelenz, Germany. Sun Hydraulics Korea Corporation (Sun Korea), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun, operates a manufacturing and distribution facility. Sun Hydraulics, SARL (Sun France), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun was dissolved in November 2011. Sun Hydraulics (India) a liaison office in Bangalore, India is used to develop new business opportunities in the Indian market. WhiteOak Controls, Inc. (WhiteOak), a 40% equity method investment, located in Mediapolis, Iowa, designs and produces complementary electronic control products. On September 27, 2011, Sun acquired High Country Tek, Inc. (HCT), which designs and manufactures a range of standard and customizable electronic control modules used to interpret electronic signals.
Screw-in Hydraulic Cartridge Valves
The Company�� screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves are offered in five size ranges and include both electrically actuated and non-electrically actuated products. The floating construction introduced by the Company results in a self alignment characteristic.
Standard Manifolds
A manifold is a solid block of metal, usually aluminum or ductile iron, which is machined to create threaded cavities and channels into which screw-in cartridge valves can be installed and through which the hydraulic fluid flows. The Company�� range of standard mani! folds enables the customers to integrate its screw-in cartridge valves into their machinery and equipment.
Integrated Packages
An integrated package consists of multiple cartridges assembled into a custom designed manifold for a specific customer to provide the specific operating characteristics of a customer�� circuit. The Company�� screw-in cartridge valves translate to integrated packages designed by the Company and result in products that are smaller in size. Due to the self-alignment characteristic, the Company�� integrated packages do not require testing once assembled.
Electronic Controllers
HCT designs and manufactures electronic controllers, which manage the function of electrically actuated valves. HCT�� products range from one valve, manually adjusted controllers to fully integrated hydraulic control systems managing multiple hydraulic valves, as well as other input and output products, such as joysticks and displays.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sally Jones]
Sun Hydraulics Corp. (SNHY): Reduced
Up 25% over 12 months, Sun Hydraulics Corp. has a market cap of $787.4 million; its shares were traded at around $30.00 with a P/E ratio of 21.20.
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