Two and a half years ago, Buffett invested $5 billion in Bank of America. In exchange, Berkshire received a corresponding amount of preferred stock that pays a 6% dividend, and warrants to buy 700 million shares of the bank's common stock at an exercise price of $7.14 per share. The warrants expire in September of 2021.
At today's price of roughly $17.90, Berkshire has already more than doubled its initial investment -- and that excludes the preferred stake. The common-stock position has been so lucrative, in fact, that it's become, in effect, Berkshire's fifth largest equity holding.
Top Cheapest Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company(PHI)
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company provides telecommunication services in the Philippines. Its Wireless segment offers cellular mobile services; Internet broadband distribution and services; call center services; mobile applications development and services; software development and sale of maintenance and support services; mobile commerce solutions; mobile commerce platforms; mobile applications development and services; solutions and systems integration services; satellite communications services; and satellite information and messaging services. This segment also involves in the promotion of the sale and/or patronage of debit and/or charge cards; offshore financing and risk management activities for smart; international trade of satellites and global system for mobile communication, or GSM enabled global telecommunications; and delivery of GSM communication capability for the maritime sector, as well as operates as a content provider. The company?s Fixed Line s egment provides fixed line telecommunication services, such as local exchange, international long distance, national long distance, data and other network services, as well as infrastructure and related services. Its Information and Communications Technology segment offers integrated information and communications technology services focusing on infrastructure and solutions for Internet applications, Internet protocol based solutions, and multimedia content delivery. This segment also provides knowledge processing solutions, customer relationship management, Internet and online gaming services, and information technology consulting and professional services; and operates Internet data center under the Vitro brand name. As of December 31, 2010, the company had served approximately 49 million subscribers. It also resells software licenses, server solutions, networking products, storage products, and data security products. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Makati City, the Philippines.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By David Dittman]
Question: What are your thoughts on Exelon Corp�� (NYSE: EXC) buyout of Pepco Holdings Inc (NYSE: PHI)?
Answer: It’s going to expand Exelon’s regulated operations, which is a good thing. And Pepco Holdings has been executing on a turnaround plan, with regulatory relations much improved.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Invest In 2014: WisdomTree SmallCap Earnings Fund (EES)
WisdomTree SmallCap Earnings Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the WisdomTree SmallCap Earnings Index (the Index). The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that measures the performance of earnings-generating companies within the small-capitalization segment of the United States stock market. The Index consists of the companies in the bottom 25% of the market capitalization of the WisdomTree Earnings Index after the 500 largest companies have been removed. Companies must be incorporated and listed in the United States, and must have generated positive cumulative earnings over their most recent four fiscal quarters prior to the Index measurement date. The Index is earnings-weighted in December to reflect the proportionate share of the aggregate earnings each component company has generated. Companies with greater earnings generally have larger weights in the Index. Its investment advisor is WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Philip Springer]
WisdomTree SmallCap Earnings Fund (EES) follows earnings generated by companies in the small-cap universe of the US stock market.
Furthermore, the fund looks to weight by earnings, giving bigger weights to firms that earn more, irrespective of market capitalization.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Invest In 2014: Eagle Materials Inc (EXP)
Eagle Materials Inc., incorporated on January 27, 1994, manufactures and distributes gypsum wallboard and also manufactures and sells cement. Gypsum wallboard is distributed throughout the United States with particular emphasis in the geographic markets nearest to its production facilities. The Company sells cement in six regional markets, including northern Nevada and California, the greater Chicago area, the Rocky Mountain region, the Central Plains region and Texas. Its gypsum wallboard business is supported by its recycled paperboard business, while its cement business is supported by its concrete and aggregates business. The Company operates in Cement and Concrete and Aggregates, and Gypsum Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard segments. As of March 31, 2013, the Company operated six cement plants (one of which belongs to its joint venture company), five gypsum wallboard plants, one recycled paperboard plant, seventeen concrete batching plants and four aggregates facilities. The Company�� products are used in the construction and renovation of houses, roads, bridges, commercial and industrial buildings and other, newer generation structures like wind farms.
Cement, Concrete and Aggregates Operations
The Company�� cement production facilities are located in or near Buda, Texas; LaSalle, Illinois; Laramie, Wyoming; Sugar Creek, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma and Fernley, Nevada. The Company�� cement subsidiaries are wholly-owned except the Buda, Texas plant, which is owned by Texas Lehigh Cement Company LP, a limited partnership joint venture owned 50% by the Company and 50% by Lehigh Cement Company LLC, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement AG. Its LaSalle, Illinois plant operates under the name of Illinois Cement Company; the Laramie, Wyoming plant operates under the name of Mountain Cement Company; the Fernley, Nevada plant operates under the name of Nevada Cement Company and its Sugar Creek, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma plants operate under the name Central Plains Cement Com! pany. The Company produces and distributes ready-mix concrete from Company-owned sites north of Sacramento, California; Austin, Texas and the greater Kansas City area. The Company�� activities in its frac sand business are in the Utica, Illinois area and in south Texas. The Company sells aggregates to building contractors and other customers engaged in a variety of construction activities.
Gypsum Wallboard and Recycled Paperboard Operations
The Company owns five gypsum wallboard manufacturing facilities. As of March 31, 2013, the Company�� gypsum wallboard production totaled 1,950 million square feet. Total gypsum wallboard sales were 1,909 million square feet during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013). The Company also manufactures alternative products, including containerboard grades (such as linerboard and medium) and lightweight packaging grades (such as bag liner). In addition, recycled industrial paperboard grades (tube/core stock and protective angle board stock) are produced to maximize manufacturing efficiencies. The Company�� manufactured recycled paperboard products are sold to gypsum wallboard manufacturers and other industrial users.
The Company competes with USG Corporation, National Gypsum Company and Koch Industries.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Top decliners in the sector included Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM), off 6.3 percent, and Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP), down 4.3 percent.
Top Headline
Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: FURX) for up to $1.46 billion. Forest will pay around $95 per share, or around $1.1 billion in cash. Forest Labs will also pay up to $30 per share, or around $360 million in a contingent value right. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of 2014. - [By Dan Caplinger]
Tomorrow, Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Invest In 2014: Biodel Inc (BIOD)
Biodel Inc. (Biodel), incorporated on December 3, 2003, is a development-stage speciality biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of treatments for diabetes. The Company develops its product candidates by applying its formulation technologies to existing drugs. Its advanced program involves developing formulations of injectable recombinant human insulin (RHI). In addition to its ultra-rapid-acting insulin formulations, the Company has developed prototype formulations of a liquid glucagon, a basal insulin and a glucose responsive insulin, in each case for use by patients with diabetes. RHI-based formulation known as Linjeta was the subject of a New Drug Application (NDA).
The Company has two pivotal Phase III clinical trials with its preferred commercial formulation of Linjeta prior to re-submitting the NDA. In August 2011, it completed patient visits and analyzed top-line data from the first Phase 1 clinical trial of two RHI-based formulations. The trial was a single-center, randomized, double-blind, three-period crossover trial in 18 subjects with Type 1 diabetes. The purpose of the trial was to evaluate the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics and injection site toleration of BIOD-105 and BIOD-107, as compared to the insulin analog marketed as Humalog. The Company conducted Phase I, Phase II and Phase III clinical trials comparing the performance of its Linjeta formulation of RHI to either Humulin, which is a branded formulation of RHI or Humalog. Its pivotal Phase III clinical trials were open-label, parallel group, randomized trials conducted at centers in the United States, Germany and India.
The Company competes with Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. and MannKind Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Biodel (NASDAQ: BIOD) is expected to post a Q1 loss at $0.24 per share.
First Majestic Silver (NYSE: AG) is estimated to post its Q1 earnings at $0.10 per share on revenue of $63.35 million.
- [By Roberto Pedone]
One under-$10 specialty biopharmaceutical player that's starting to trend within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Biodel (BIOD), which is focused on the development and commercialization of innovative treatments for diabetes. This stock has been hit hard by the bears over the last three months, with shares down by 24%.
If you take a look at the chart for Biodel, you'll notice that this stock is ripping higher here right off its 50-day moving average of $2.32 a share with strong upside volume. Volume on Thursday has so far registered over 750,000 shares, which is well above its three-month average action of 445,084 shares. This move is quickly pushing shares of BIOD within range of triggering a big breakout trade.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in BIOD if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $2.52 to $2.60 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 445,084 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then BIOD will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels $3 to its 200-day moving average of $3.39 a share. Any high-volume move above $3.39 will then give BIOD a chance to tag $4 a share.
Traders can look to buy BIOD off weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support at $2.10 a share. One can also buy BIOD off strength once it starts to clear those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Invest In 2014: HHGregg Inc.(HGG)
hhgregg, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, home appliances, and related services. The company offers video products, such as flat panel televisions, blu-rays, and DVD players; appliances, including washers and dryers, refrigerators, cooking ranges, dishwashers, freezers, and air conditioners; and digital camcorders, digital cameras, gaming bundles, home theater receivers, mattresses, MP3 players, computers, personal navigation, tablets, speaker systems, and telephones. It also sells a suite of services, including third-party premium service plans, and third-party in-home service and repair of products, as well as delivery and installation, and in-home repair and maintenance. The company operates its stores under the name of hhgregg. As of February 08, 2012, it operated 208 stores in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
Last year, Consumer Reports polled 22,888 of its subscribers on their impressions across 30,243 appliance purchases. In the just-released July issue of CR, the results came out, scoring nine of America's biggest retailers by sales (including one "retailer" that's actually an aggregation of small, independent stores) across eight separate categories. In reverse order of quality, the contestants in the "major appliances" category were:
P.C. Richard & Sons Best Buy (NYSE: BBY ) Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD ) hhgregg (NYSE: HGG ) Home Depot (NYSE: HD ) Lowe's (NYSE: LOW ) Pacific Sales The aforementioned "independents"... AbtOut of the nine, no single retailer won CR's coveted "red circle with a dot in the middle" in all eight categories. But Abt came darn near close to hitting that bull's-eye. In nearly every category -- haul-away services, installation, shipping, selection, product quality, service, and ease of checkout -- Abt hit the mark with perfect scores.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
Conn's (NASDAQ: CONN ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and the lesser-known retailer of appliances and consumer electronics has quietly put together an impressive long-term investing record. Yet with Best Buy (NYSE: BBY ) having bounced back over the past year from big losses in previous years, the future for Conn's investors hasn't stood out as much. Will smaller companies like Conn's and hhgregg (NYSE: HGG ) keep outpacing Best Buy, or will the larger company end up having the last laugh over its rivals?
- [By Brian Pacampara]
Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, home-appliances and electronics retailer hhgregg (NYSE: HGG ) has received a distressing two-star ranking.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Best Buy had searched far and wide for a new helmsman. The Frenchman had to secure a foreign work visa just to start the job. Saving a struggling bricks-and-mortar chain was never going to be easy. The "showrooming" trend was -- and is -- going strong, with more and more people checking out products at local stores before turning around and buying them for less online. The irony is rich here: Best Buy sells the smartphones that make showrooming possible. And they sell the tablets, e-readers, and portable media players that have spurred the growth of digitally delivered media, and dried up the markets for CDs, video games and DVDs. In short, Best Buy is selling the products that make Best Buy less necessary. Despite the challenge, Joly's attack plan gained traction. His five-point "Renew Blue" strategy sought to make the chain relevant again by reinvigorating the customer experience, attracting dynamic hires, cutting costs so that it could pass savings on to shoppers, and making other improvements. Investors and employees bought into Joly's vision, but customers weren't so quick to play along. Selling the Future It's easy to wonder why the stock more than tripled last year. By the time the fiscal year was through we saw Best Buy's revenue, comparable store sales, adjusted earnings, and operating margins all decline for the year. Best Buy wasn't in better shape than it was a year earlier. It was doing worse in nearly every facet of the game. Even some trends that were working for other consumer electronics retailers -- like the appliance and furniture sales that helped Conn's (CONN) and hhgregg (HGG) as housing began to boom again -- failed to make much of a difference at Best Buy. Best Buy's report on Thursday paints a mixed portrait. It predicts same-store sales will continue to decline through the next two quarters, and that's not what Wall Street wanted to hear. However, Best Buy's strong profitability during the first quarter suggests that the compan
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Invest In 2014: Stifel Financial Corporation(SF)
Stifel Financial Corp., a financial holding company, operates as a retail and institutional brokerage, and investment banking company in the United States and internationally. The company?s Global Wealth Management segment offers securities transaction, brokerage, and investment services, including equity securities; fixed income securities, which comprise municipal, corporate, and government agency securities; preferred stocks; and unit investment trusts. This segment also provides managed fee-based products; and insurance and annuity products, as well as securities-based lending services. In addition, it offers retail and commercial banking services to private and corporate clients, including personal loan programs, such as fixed and variable mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, personal loans, loans secured by certificates of deposit or savings, and securities-based loans; and commercial lending programs, such as small business loans, commercial real estate loa ns, lines of credit, credit cards, term loans, and inventory and receivables financing. As of December 31, 2011, this segment operated a network of 1,833 financial advisors located in 291 branch offices in 44 states and the District of Columbia; and 154 independent contractors. Its Institutional Group segment offers research, equity, and fixed income institutional sales and trading, investment banking, public finance, and syndicate services. This segment distributes equity research products to institutional investors; provides financial advisory services principally with respect to mergers and acquisitions, and the execution of public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities; and coordinates marketing, distribution, pricing, and stabilization of managed equity and debt offerings. It serves individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions. The company was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Maria Armental var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach]
Stifel Financial Corp.(SF) agreed to buy Legg Mason Inc.'s(LM) investment-advisory and trust-services unit, which manages more than $9 billion in assets, the companies said. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Invest In 2014: Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc (TTNP)
Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., incorporated in February 1992, is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics primarily for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The Company is focused primarily on clinical development of products that include Probuphine for the treatment of opioid addiction; Iloperidone: for the treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, and Spheramine for the treatment of advanced Parkinson�� disease. Titan Pharmaceuticals is directly developing its product candidates and also utilizing corporate partnerships, including a collaboration with Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany (Bayer Schering) for the development of Spheramine to treat Parkinson�� disease, and Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Vanda) for the development of iloperidone for the treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.
Probuphine
Probuphine is the first product to utilize the Company�� ProNeura long-term drug delivery technology. Probuphine is designed to provide continuous, long-term therapeutic levels of the drug buprenorphine, an approved agent for the treatment of opioid addiction. In December 2007, the Company completed enrollment in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center Phase III clinical study of Probuphine in the treatment of opioid addiction. This 150 patient study, which is being conducted in the United States, will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of treatment with Probuphine versus placebo in reducing opioid addiction over 24 weeks of treatment. This study is part of a registration directed program intended to obtain marketing approval of Probuphine for the treatment of opioid addiction in Europe and the United States.
Iloperidone
Iloperidone was evaluated in a Phase III program comprising over 3,500 patients at more than 200 sites in 24 countries, administered and funded by Novartis Pharma AG (Novartis). In three completed efficacy studies conducted by Novartis, ilop! eridone statistically reduced the symptoms of schizophrenia compared to placebo. Iloperidone has also been investigated in three 12-month safety studies, which confirm safety and tolerability. A dose dependent increase in the Q-T Corrected (QTc) interval was observed and investigated further in a clinical study, and no clinically significant adverse events were observed. In September 2007, Vanda submitted a new drug application (NDA) with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for iloperidone. The NDA for iloperidone was officially accepted for review by the FDA in November 2007.
Spheramine
Spheramine is a cell-based therapeutic that utilizes the Company�� cell-coated microcarrier (CCM) technology, which enables the development of cell-based therapies for minimally invasive, site-specific delivery to the central nervous system of therapeutic factors precisely where they are needed. Spheramine consists of microcarriers coated with human retinal pigment epithelial cells that are intended to enhance brain levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter deficient in certain brain regions in Parkinson�� disease, leading to movement disorders. Preclinical studies have demonstrated the preliminary efficacy and safety of Spheramine, including blinded studies in a primate model of Parkinson�� disease. In June 2007, enrollment was completed in a current multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of Spheramine in Parkinson�� disease. This Phase IIb clinical study enrolled 71 patients with advanced Parkinson�� disease (Hoehn and Yahr Stages III and IV) to further evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of Spheramine.
Bayer Schering, the Company�� corporate partner for worldwide development and commercialization of Spheramine, is funding the clinical development program for Spheramine. Under an agreement, Bayer Schering has received exclusive, worldwide development, manufacturing and commercialization rights, and, in ad! dition to! the clinical and manufacturing development funding and milestone payments, Bayer Schering will pay Titan Pharmaceuticals a royalty on future product sales.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By CRWE]
Today, TTNP surged (+2.76%) up +0.018 at $.689 with 152,996 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 2:02PM EDT October 1, 2013).
Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. previously reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the request for a meeting to discuss Probuphine庐. The meeting is scheduled for November 19, 2013. The FDA has designated this as a Type C meeting and has requested the submission of briefing materials by October 7, 2013.
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