Are We Going to See a New iPhone in June?

In the following video, Fool tech/telecom analyst Andrew Tonner talks about the prospects of a new iPhone from Apple this summer.

By analysts' reports, the next iPhone launch may well occur well ahead of the usual September smartphone launches from Apple. One questionable source, China's DigiTimes, suggests a release as early as May, Andrew says.

That makes sense, though, since one of the main tech stories recently has been the launch of Samsung's Galaxy S4. Apple's never had as much pressure on it to introduce products, and introduce products very, very soon, Andrew says.

He adds that because the biggest growth areas for smartphones are in emerging markets, introducing a cheaper iPhone would allow Apple to address needs in those markets, where income is much lower than developed markets, while still keeping up gross margins.

So Apple may well introduce a new phone earlier than it traditionally would, and earlier than investors and consumers had expected. See more in the following video.

Regardless of when its next iPhone is released, there's no doubt that Apple is at the center of technology's largest revolution ever and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded, with more than 1,000% gains. However, after the company's major backslide recently, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool's senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.

2-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: GameStop?

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, video game retailer GameStop (NYSE: GME  ) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at GameStop's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

GameStop facts

Headquarters (founded)	Grapevine, Texas (1994)
Market Cap	$3.21 billion
Industry	Electronics stores
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$9.66 billion
Management	CEO J. Paul Raines (since 2010) CFO Robert Lloyd (since 2010)
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)	15%
Cash/Debt	$442.6 million / $124.7 million
Competitors	Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN  ) Target (NYSE: TGT  ) Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  )

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 8% of the 3,182 members who have rated GameStop believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include All-Star starz188, who is ranked in the top 10% of our community, and MajorBob04.

About a month ago, starz188 touched on the tailwinds working against GameStop: "Digital downloads and/or purchases from online vendors like Amazon make this the next version of [Borders Group]."

Over the next five years, in fact, GameStop is expected to grow its bottom line at a rate of just 8% annually. That's slower than main online threat Amazon (22%), as well as big-box retailers Target (11%) and Wal-Mart (10%).

CAPS member MajorBob04 elaborates on the bear case:

GameStop is doing all the right things to keep the stock price up, but the longer term projections show that sales are slowing, earnings are slowing, and ultimately the business model is deteriorating. Until they can get into a business with a growth, or at least profitable, forecast, the long-term projection is that ultimately the stock will suffer.

What do you think about GameStop, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to protect your portfolio from any undue risk. Staying away from dangerous stocks is crucial to securing your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to flag them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!

Can the Government Manipulate the VIX?

Follow Adam Warner on Twitter @agwarner.

I saw someone pose a question on StockTwits this morning asking if there is any way the U.S. government can manipulate the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) to artificially lift the market.

Forget about whether you think the government manipulates securities prices in general. To answer this question, I will put on my Zero Hedge commenter hat (I’m not actually a commenter for that blog, or a reader, for that matter) and say they do.

The answer is, of course they could. In fact, anyone could.

Want to know how you can “manipulate” the VIX?

You would have to do something radical like � buy some near-term puts on the S&P 500. Yes, believe it or not, that’s basically all the VIX measures. It’s an index of volatility on SPX options normalized to 30 days duration.

The government, or an average-size hedge fund, could spend a few million dollars and pay up for some puts. It would lift implied volatility across the board for a short time, with the chance of the elevated volatility persisting if it caused a chain reaction.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal ran a piece on May 10, speculating whether a large put purchase by a hedge fund connected to (gasp) Nassim Taleb helped bring on the “flash crash.” The allegation was baseless on the surface, but the basic gist is actually different from the above. The put buy itself caused the chain reaction, not whatever it might have done to a volatility index.

And that brings me to my point: The VIX is a statistical measure, and it reflects (and quantifies) market sentiment; it does not cause market sentiment.

For example, saying “The VIX breaking above 30 reflects apprehension in the market,” makes sense. Saying “The VIX breaking above 30 caused apprehension in the market,” does not.

Of course, some people see a rising VIX and get nervous, but it’s quite a stretch to believe they were idling along as if nothing was happening, and then all of a sudden got terrified at some magical VIX level.

Which brings up another point: It’s overwhelmingly likely that VIX broke above 30 thanks to a weak market. So what did the VIX tell you that you couldn’t infer anyway? The answer in this narrow case is nothing.

So, to answer the original question, there are a lot of things to worry about out there. The government buying or selling some SPX �puts to influence a volatility index is hardly one of them.

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Investors Did a Run on These 3 Stocks

With the terms it placed on Cyprus, the eurozone has its template for future bailouts in place, and depositors in countries with their own shaky finances will be wary about bearing the brunt of the next crisis.

Some stocks had shaky weeks of their own, even though they're unrelated to the global financial problems. Don't to running over the cliff with them like a bunch of lemmings, as this could just be a temporary situation. So let's first see whether they had good reason to fall, as panic-fueled routs can sometimes lead to excellent buying opportunities.

Falling off a cliff
Shares of iron ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF  ) fell 14% earlier this week to levels it hasn't seen since the recession, as analysts at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse drastically cut their price targets. Following the�miner's just-as-dramatic slashing of its dividend by 76%, the analysts at both investment houses cut the stock by more than 60% from their previous price target. Morgan Stanley dropped Cliffs' shares to $14 a stub, and Credit Suisse took it down to $10.

On the bright side, Goldman Sachs raised its outlook from "sell" to "neutral," but that was hardly enough to outweigh the pall hanging over the miner. In general, analysts expect its iron ore business to be cut in half in 2013 and its pricing power to come under tremendous pressure. Earlier this month, Cliffs announced that it was idling its Quebec iron ore pellet plant to meet the market's lower demand.

With the global steel industry wobbling despite expectations that Chinese production will increase 4% this year, Cliffs' largest customer, ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT  ) , is melting down as well. The world's largest steelmaker accounts for 17% of Cliffs' total revenues and a third of its U.S. business and has seen its stock lose a quarter of its value in 2013.

Last fall, I believed that most of the risk had been priced into Cliffs' own stock, but shares are down 58% since then and don't seem to have reached bottom yet. While it amounts to a bit of closing the barn door after the cows have escaped, I'll be closing out my outperform rating on Motley Fool CAPS.

Big pay day
Easy come, easy go, or so say investors in American Apparel (NYSEMKT: APP  ) , which saw their stock jump more than 12% the other day on no company-specific news and then give a good portion of it back for pretty much the same reason. There was, however, an article that appeared in the trade rag WWD that the retailer's chairman and CEO was being richly rewarded this year with a pay increase from $800,000 to $2 million cash. While sales rose 6% in the most recent quarter, company losses narrowed only slightly.

The stock, however, has more than doubled since the start of the year and has nearly tripled from its 52-week low. After the stock wallowed in penny-stock status because of difficult sales that only seem to just be turning around, investors may not appreciate seeing American Apparel's top guy taking so much out of the company just yet.

Packing it in
Shares of luxury luggage maker Tumi (NYSE: TUMI  ) took a vacation this week, falling nearly 6% after it priced a secondary offering almost 9% below where the stock was trading the day before. The selling shareholders include the company's chairman and CEO, Jerome Griffith, as well as the CFO and several senior VPs. The largest seller, though, will be the private-equity firm Doughty Hanson, which even after the offering will remain Tumi's largest shareholder, with more than a quarter of the company's stock.�

The luggage maker reported earnings last week that disappointed Wall Street, despite profits that jumped 30% from the year-ago period. It was its guidance for 2013, however, that sent the stock down, as it expected to earn $0.82 to $0.86 per share compared with analyst consensus forecasts of $0.87 a share. Revenues are forecast to come in at the low end of the analysts' predicted range.

The stock has traded in a fairly consistent band over the past six months, moving between $20 and $24 a share, and the action we saw yesterday suggests that it will continue doing so. With Europe's finances still in disarray, those wanting luxury suitcases may be few and far between.

Ready for a resurrection
Cliffs Natural Resources has grown from a domestic iron ore producer into an international player in both the iron ore and metallurgical coal markets. It has also underwhelmed investors lately, especially after its dramatic 76% dividend cut in February. However, it could now be looked at as a possible value play because of several factors that are likely to remain advantageous for Cliffs' management. For details on these advantages and more, click here now to check out The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company.

Euro, European Stocks Fall

The euro slid and European stocks weakened as disappointing economic statistics overshadowed more upbeat corporate news.

The Stoxx 600 index closed down 0.2% at 287.79. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 0.5% at 6327.36, France's CAC-40 ended 0.8% lower at 3669.60 and Germany's DAX slid 1% to 7631.19.

Outside Europe's core, Spain's IBEX closed 0.7% lower at 8247.40, and Italy's FTSE Mib fell 1% to 16544.95, but Greece's ASE Composite ended up 0.5% at 1032.43.

Gross domestic product figures for Germany, France and the euro zone as a whole disappointed investors on Thursday. German's GDP shrank 0.6% in the fourth quarter from the third, following three consecutive quarters of growth. The country's statistics office had forecast a 0.5% quarterly contraction.

Economic activity in France shrank 0.3% in the quarter, and GDP for the euro zone as a whole shrank 0.6%. marking the fifth straight quarter in which the currency bloc's economy failed to grow. It was the deepest rate of contraction in nearly four years.

"There was a mentality where people were going along with optimism, which happens when sentiment runs ahead of fundamentals. And then it suddenly hits people that things are not fine in the euro zone and the GDP was a trigger for that today. It's a reality check," said Alastair Winter, chief economist at Daniel Stewart Securities.

The euro fell as the news reignited fears about the health of the currency bloc. As European markets closed, the euro was trading at $1.3329, from $1.3453 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar was at �93.07, from �Y93.83.

The picture was rosier on the corporate front.

Electricite de France shares gained 2.2% after the company announced plans to cut as much as �1 billion ($1.35 billion) in costs this year, with more to come in the next two years, in an attempt to lower its debt.

Pernod Ricard SA gained 2.1% after confirming its full-year profit target despite a challenging environment in Europe.

French car marker Renault surged 7.7% after saying its global vehicle sales would continue to grow this year despite a further contraction in the European market.

On the downside, Nestle shares slipped 2.3% despite reporting better-than-expected full-year earnings.

Shares of Spanish lender Bankia sank 12%. Spain's bank bailout fund said Bankia's shareholders face considerable losses, as restructuring efforts could end in a "significant reduction" in the nominal value of the shares.

Barclays fell 2.2% after Investec Securities cut the bank to "hold" from "buy."

Among commodities, light, sweet crude for March delivery was up $0.39 at $97.40 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for April delivery on Nymex's Comex division was down $3.70 at $1641.40.

Write to Michele Maatouk at michele.maatouk@dowjones.com

Hewlett Packard: Beware This Blue Chip Value Stock

Reuters reported that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) recently held unsuccessful talks to acquire software company Tibco Software Inc (TIBX). While both companies are well known technology brands, they are on opposite ends of the valuation spectrum. Hewlett-Packard is developing a following among value oriented investors because the stock trades with a forward P/E of 7.21 and a price/sales of 0.70. TIbco on the other hand has rich valuations. TIBX trades at a forward P/E of 26.46 and a price/sales of 5.74.

This doesn't surprise us considering we wrote about the technology industry's recent aggressive acquisitions in our article, "Merger Mania: The Hidden Risks in Cheap Blue Chip Technology Stocks." But what we find scary is that Hewlett-Packard is looking for another aggressively priced deal so soon after its $2 billion acquisition of 3Par. To make matters worse, a Tibco acquisition would have been at least 3 times the size of the 3Par acquisition, illustrating that Hewlett-Packard's hunger for pricey acquisitions may actually be growing. This is not an indictment of Tibco, which happens to have a strong niche and interesting growth opportunities in cloud computing, it is merely a question of value.

With Hewlett-Packard looking to increase sales in the software division, a segment that contributes around 3% of sales, the potential destruction to shareholder value is substantial. Shareholders may find some solace that the Tibco deal fell through, but even without a premium, HP continues to show that they are willing spenders of shareholder capital.

There is no doubt about it. HP is a cheap company, but for passive minority investors, this stock could be a risky bet if the management continues their 'growth at any price' philosophy.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Buy, Sell, or Hold: Zagg

When considering any stock for your portfolio, don't be swayed by just the positives. Examine its pros and cons, and decide whether its possible upside outweighs its risks. Let's take a look at ZAGG (NASDAQ: ZAGG  ) today, and see why you might want to buy, sell, or hold it.

Launched in 2005�and based�in Salt Lake City, ZAGG is a technology-focused company, known for its accessories for mobile devices. These include keyboards, ear buds, mobile power devices, headphones, cleaning tools, and protective coverings. Its brands include invisibleSHIELD, ZAGGskins, ZAGGbuds, ZAGGkeys, iFrogz, Aminatone, Caliber, Earpollution, and more.

ZAGG sports a market capitalization near $233 million. Its stock is down about 31% over the past year and over the past five years, it has averaged an impressive annual gain of roughly 59%.

Buy
A key reason that ZAGG might pique your interest is its connection to the mobile-device market, which is growing at really, really rapid rates. Already, there are nearly 7�billion mobile subscriptions. (That's on a planet that's home to about 7 billion people. Of course, billions are still mired in poverty, but other billions apparently have multiple accounts.) Meanwhile, smartphones are growing in popularity, and recently made up just one-quarter�of all mobile phones. If a company serves such a market, it clearly has much potential.

Check out some of ZAGG's numbers, too. Its revenue, for example, has been growing explosively, at double-digit rates. (That rate has been slowing in recent years, though.) Its free cash flow has turned positive, and recently jumped significantly, too. ZAGG has more long-term debt than cash, but its debt has been falling. In its fourth-quarter report, its revenue grew 30%, and backing out a charge, it was profitable beyond expectations, as well. Management also offered rosy projections for 2013.

Given the company's growth rates, ZAGG's rough valuation seems compelling, too, with a recent P/E ratio of 16.5, and a forward P/E of just 6.5. The valuation seems low enough that company plans to buy back shares seem sound.

Meanwhile, the company is not standing still. It's expanding with recently introduced gaming accessories�-- though the gaming industry is going through a transformation, with mobile gaming growing at the expense of physical game content. It has also been on the lookout for smart acquisitions, buying fellow accessory maker iFrogz in 2011. It's good that the company is diversifying away from what was its main offering, its screen protector. But that item delivered the richest profit margins, so diversification hurts some.

Sell
ZAGG's financial statements offer a few red flags. While its revenue has been growing, for example, its net income recently moved in the other direction.

One problem for ZAGG is that it doesn't have a strong competitive moat to protect it. Its customers are generally not locked in to it in any way. They can buy their next ear buds from someone else. Some view its offerings as becoming commoditized, too, as they face more competition. Corning�is likely to hurt ZAGG's protective-screen business, with its ever stronger glasses for mobile-device screens. (Its Gorilla Glass has been a huge success and up next is flexible glass for a variety of applications.) Apple, too, can cause big headaches simply by including some of the accessories that ZAGG supplies with its products. The iPad 2, for example, came with a cover. (The market for Apple accessories was recently estimated at more than $2 billion -- and growing.)

Share dilution is another worry, with the company's share count having risen about 50%�over the past few years. That's often not good for shareholders, though if the money raised by new shares is deployed very productively, it can be worthwhile. ZAGG is keeping its dilution in check to some degree via share buybacks.

If you find yourself with doubts about ZAGG, you're not alone, as it's heavily shorted, with more than 30%�of its shares outstanding recently shorted.

Hold (off)
Given the reasons to buy or sell ZAGG, it's not unreasonable to decide to just hold off on it. You might want to wait for the company's earnings to grow at a good clip for a few quarters, or for it to reduce its debt more.

You might also check out some other interesting mobile-device-related companies, to see if they seem like better bargains than ZAGG. Perhaps take a look at Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM  ) , with a dominant position in mobile chips and also holding a valuable patent library. In a show of confidence, Qualcomm recently hiked its dividend by 40% (it will now yield around 2.1%) and is introducing compelling and innovative new chips.

Or consider NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA  ) , once known as a graphics company and now shifting much attention to the mobile realm, where it's competing ably with Qualcomm and others. The company's impressive high-performance Tegra 4 processor seems well positioned to serve both smartphones and tablets, due to NVIDIA splitting it into two lines. The company is also working on cloud-based gaming products, among other things. It, too, pays a dividend, recently yielding 2.4%.

The verdict
I'm holding off on ZAGG for now. Everyone's investment calculations are different, though. Do your own digging and see what you think. The company may perform spectacularly in the coming years, but remember that there are plenty of compelling stocks�out there.

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Why LogMeIn Shares Got Crushed

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM  ) have gotten crushed today by as much as 13%, as the company is giving back gains from yesterday's patent victory.

So what: The company had announced that it was found not guilty of infringement, which 01 Communique had claimed. Shares had promptly jumped as much as 22% yesterday following the news, but it seems like shares were getting a little ahead of themselves.

Now what: Wunderlich analyst Richard Baldry said yesterday's jump was a little excessive, noting that while it's a positive development, it's not a game-changing verdict. Baldry characterized the victory as a "minor positive," and that it was merely a "distraction" that's good to get out of the way so the company can refocus on the actual business. The verdict is unlikely to have a meaningful impact on the long-term fundamentals.

Interested in more info on LogMeIn? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

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Is Natural Gas Finally Changing the Fuel Industry?

Business is so good at EQT's (NYSE: EQT  ) natural gas fueling station that the company is adding a second fueling island at the station. That's really good news for the Pittsburgh-based exploration and production company -- it's a validation that natural gas is beginning to catch on as a transaction fuel in the region. The company, which is one of the lowest-cost producers of natural gas in the Marcellus, is just one of many companies investing to increase demand for natural gas.

The EQT station, which incidentally is just down the road from my home, is a steady reminder of how cheap natural gas is as a transportation fuel. Every time I pass the station it's at least a dollar and a half cheaper than regular gas. Apparently, that difference was not lost on its growing customer count, who have deemed the difference being worth the cost of conversion.

The station has seen its monthly transaction count spike from just 200 last January to more than 1,000 by December. While the company had anticipated that customer growth would come, it never had anticipated that it would need to expand the station after just 18 months in operation.

EQT, of course, is not the first producer to make an investment in natural gas fueling infrastructure. The nation's No. 2 natural gas producer, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) , invested $160 million for a stake in Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE  ) . That deal provided Clean Energy with big cash infusion to help fuel the build-out of America's Natural Gas Highway (pictured below).

Source: Clean Energy Fuels

While Chesapeake is looking to divest of its stake in Clean Energy, that has nothing to do with the future of the natural gas fuel business. Clean Energy is growing rapidly; its gallons delivered jumped 25% year over year to 194.9 million gallons. The company believes it's well-positioned for an exciting year in 2013 as its sees the beginnings of a transition to natural gas by the heavy-duty trucking industry.

That means a bright future for natural gas engine partners Cummins (NYSE: CMI  ) and Westport Innovation (NASDAQ: WPRT  ) . While there are currently 16 million natural gas vehicles in use around the world, just 126,000 of them are in North America. The industry believes this number will explode over the coming decade with more than 50 million natural gas vehicles in use across the world. That could�yield�explosive growth for the Cummins Westport joint venture given its technical leadership in the industry.�

While lack of refueling infrastructure had been holding back the growth of natural gas vehicles in the U.S., that burden is quickly being lifted thanks to companies like EQT and Clean Energy. This is a really exciting time in the energy industry -- each passing day we take one step closer to a natural-gas-powered future.�

This movement toward a natural gas future is really gaining momentum. That means Clean Energy Fuels, which focuses its natural gas efforts primarily on trucking and fleets, is poised to make a big impact as this future becomes a reality. Learn everything you need to know about Clean Energy Fuels in The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company. Just click here now to claim your copy today.

Top Stocks To Buy For 3/28/2013-2

Holly Corporation (NYSE:HOC) achieved its new 52 week high price of $69.87 where it was opened at $69.06 UP 1.22 points or +1.79% by closing at $69.40. HOC transacted shares during the day were over 11.87 million shares however it has an average volume of 1.73 million shares.

HOC has a market capitalization $3.68 billion and an enterprise value at $4.19 billion. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.41while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 4.68. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 2.47% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 5.07%.

The company made a return on asset of 7.54% in past twelve months and return on equity of 19.54% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $8.78 billion gaining $164.73 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 24.10%.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $273.06 million cash in hand making cash per share at 5.15. The total of $842.96 million debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 61.62. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 1.22 and book value per share was 14.58.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 28.55% where the stock current price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average price of $61.06 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average price of $54.52.

HOC holds 53.06 million outstanding shares with 51.86 million floating shares where insider possessed 2.64% and institutions kept 95.60%.

Slovenian Housing Market Struggles

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia reports that the fourth quarter of 2012 was the worst period for the country’s housing prices since 2009, and experts are blaming the plunge on political strife and protracted economic woes. Prices dipped more than 11% in the last quarter of 2012 when adjusted for inflation, with newly built dwellings of all types taking the hardest tumble. The European Commission reports that domestic consumption is down and unemployment is high, while both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Slovenia’s banking sector. Although interest rates are improving, analysts are certain it’s not enough to pull plummeting prices out of the tailspin. For more on this continue reading the following article from Global Property Guide. 

Slovenia’s property market remains in deep trouble, as recession looms and political uncertainty continues. House prices are falling. Transactions are low. Construction activity remains down.

During the year to end-Q4 2012, the nationwide house price index plunged by 8.83% (-11.12% inflation-adjusted), the deepest year-on-year decline since Q3 2009, based on figures from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. During the latest quarter, house prices dropped 3.54% (-4.42% inflation-adjusted).

The average price of newly built dwellings fell by 13.5% (-15.67% inflation-adjusted) in 2012 from a year earlier while the average price of existing dwellings fell by 6.07% (-8.43% inflation-adjusted) over the same period.

• In Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, the average price of existing flats dropped 6.35% (-8.7% inflation-adjusted) in 2012 from the previous year.
• In the rest of Slovenia, the average price of existing flats fell by 8.34% (-10.64% inflation-adjusted) y-o-y in 2012.

Slovenia’s property market is expected to remain depressed in 2013, as economic conditions worsen. GDP declined by 2.3% in 2012, amidst weakening investment, rising unemployment and faltering domestic consumption. The economy is projected to contract by another 2% in 2013, according to the European Commission.

After booming in early-2000s, Slovenia’s property market weakened in 2008 due to the global economic crisis. The following years were difficult, with house prices falling by 0.17% in 2008 (-3.4% inflation-adjusted), by 8.12% in 2009 (-9.15% inflation-adjusted) and by another 0.15% in 2010 (-1.85% inflation-adjusted). In 2011, house prices increased by 1.37% (-1.07% inflation-adjusted).

HOUSE PRICE CHANGE, 2012
	y-o-y change (%)		change from peak (%)
	Nominal	Real
Dwellings, Total	-8.83	-11.12	-17.92
Newly built dwellings	-13.50	-15.67	-23.01
Newly built flats	-16.46	-18.56	-23.70
Newly built family houses	-0.13	-2.63	-20.64
Existing dwellings	-6.07	-8.43	-15.23
Existing flats	-7.53	-9.85	-14.37
Existing flats, Ljubljana	-6.35	-8.70	-17.48
Existing flats, rest of Slovenia	-8.34	-10.64	-13.45
Existing family houses	-2.77	-5.21	-17.88
Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

 

Property demand is stagnating. Dwelling transactions dropped 7.9% to 6,336 units in 2012. Dwelling permits issued fell 13.4%. Likewise, the floor space of dwellings authorized dropped 12.9% to 435,719 square metres (sq. m.).

In December 2012, outstanding loans for house purchase increased by just 1.8% to €5.26 billion from the same period last year, according to the Bank of Slovenia.

A vulnerable banking sector

The banking sector is weak and vulnerable. Slovenia’s credit ratings reflect the financial difficulties:

• Moody´s has recently downgraded for the second time in three months Slovenia´s local­ and foreign­currency government bond ratings by one notch to A1 from Aa3, and placed the ratings on review for possible further downgrade.
• Standard & Poor´s has placed its ´AA­´ long­term and ´A­1+´ short­term sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Slovenia on review for possible further downgrade.

Slovenia´s banking sector is dominated by state-owned banks which control more than 40 percent of the market, while France´s Societe Generale, Italy´s Unicredit and a number of Austrian banks are also present. The Bank of Slovenia has said that the Slovenian banks´ financial results in 2012 are expected to be poor and that they will need further injection of capital. The growing risk that a new Slovenian government intervention to rescue the banking sector may be necessary, is one of the main reasons motivating the downgrades.

Recovery fading fast

Uncertainty seems to have spread to the Slovenian housing markets: though the house price index rose 2.13% during the year to the third quarter, according to the Statistical Office of Slovenia (SORS), dwelling prices in Slovenia moved on average 2.4% lower q­-o­-q during the third quarter. Newly built flat prices fell sharply, and newbuild sales went down significantly.

Rents are already going down. The credit rating cuts by Moodys last year pushed up the price of mortgage loans, while the difficulties of the banking sector reduced the banks’ willingness to make loans for house-purchases.

Newly-built house prices are falling:

• The newly built dwellings price index rose 3.16% during the year to the third quarter, but during the third quarter dwelling prices fell by 4.22%.
• The price index of newly built flats rose 5.28% during the year to the third quarter, again with momentum falling fast. In Q3 prices fell 5.23% q­-o­-q.
• The price index of newly built family houses fell 3.24% during the year to the third quarter, also with momentum weakening (prices were 6.37% up y-o­-y to Q1, but 6.48% down y­-o­-y to Q2).

Existing dwellings have been less affected:

• The price index of existing dwellings rose 1.17% during the year to the third quarter of 2011. In the second and third quarter, prices fell by 0.91% and 0.94% q-­o­-q respectively.
• The price index of existing flats rose 1.38% during the year to the third quarter of 2011. In Q2 existing flats prices rose 0.54% q­-o­-q, but fell in Q3 by 0.91% q­-o­-q.
• The price index of existing family houses rose 0.86% during the year to the third quarter. In Q2 and Q3 existing family house prices fell 4.29% and 0.98% q­-o­-q respectively.

Fresh data from the Office of Slovenia (SORS) shows a supply side slowdown. "In comparison with October 2010, the value of construction put in place in October 2011 decreased by more than 25%".

Sales of real estate to foreigners have been limited. From January 2004 to August 2011, foreigners bought only 3775 properties according to the Slovenia Tax Administration (DURS). Most buyers were from United Kingdom (32,8%), Italy (28.9%), Austria (10.9%) and Germany (6%).

Mortgage market is sharply slowing down

Lending for house purchase is rapidly slowing down, as both demand and supply of financing are weak and vulnerable. Monthly data from the EBC show that lending for house purchase was up only 0.2% y-o-y to October 2011, whereas it was up 4% to October 2010. Lending is falling because of worsening conditions on the financial markets and the economic slowdown. Coherently with other economic and financial aggregates, the mortgage market is indicating a likely "double-dip" of the Slovenian economy.

Interest rate movements

The recent dynamic of the interest rates clearly reflects the euro zone turbulence, as the ECB struggle to provide liquidity to the financial system and to restore market confidence. The 8th December the head of the ECB Mario Draghi announced the second cut in the policy rate in three weeks as well as a package of non-conventional monetary measures aimed at injecting liquidity into the troubled European banking system. Now the policy rate is at the historic low of 1%.

The floating interest rate (up to one year initial rate fixation) rose again to 3.88% in October 2011, the highest since August 2009, after the European Central Bank (ECB) increased the euro repo rate by 25 basis points to 1.25% in April. The ten year fixed rate-mortgage rate in October 2011 rose to 6.08% compared with 5.52% in October 2010. However it is unclear interest whether in fact mortgage rates for housing loans in Slovenia will decrease, despite the latest cuts by the ECB.

Struggling economy

Slovenia has been deeply affected by the ongoing eurozone debt crisis, as it is a small open economy dependent on exports. The economy shrank by 2.3% in 2012, after meagre growth of 0.6% in 2011, 1.2% in 2010, and a contraction of 7.8% in 2009.  Slovenia, with a population of about 2 million people, joined the EU in 2004 and the euro in 2007.

The Slovenian economy is projected to decline by another 2% in 2013, as domestic consumption and exports continue to decline, according to the European Commission.

The budget deficit is expected to be 5.1% in 2013, above the EU’s limit of 3%. Public debt is expected to rise to 63.4% in 2014, from 53.7% in 2012, according to the European Commission.

Wages are falling, and unemployment reached 9.6% in Q4 2012. Inflation was 2.7% in February 2013,down from 2.9% during the same period last year.

Political uncertainty

Slovenia’s economic situation has been aggravated by political uncertainty. Prime Minister JanezJansa was ousted by a no-confidence vote on February 28, 2013, amidst economic gloom and banking crisis compounded by allegations of corruption. He was replaced by centre-left opposition leader AlenkaBratusek, the first female premier of Slovenia.

The new government’s priorities will be to “kick-start growth, balance public finances without hampering growth, protecting and developing the public sector and restoring people’s trust in the institutions of the state,” said Bratusek.

Red Flag 2: Are Stock Options Making the Cash Flow Fake?

As an investor, it's essential to sort out the good companies from the bad, and the clues you'll need are in the financials. Join author Tom Jacobs as he raises the red flags of financial chicanery. Avoid and even profit from companies committing scandalous accounting.

Check out the rest of the videos in this series:

What's Behind the Numbers: Learn Red Flags, Avoid Blowups
Red Flag 1: Too Much Inventory, Writedown Ahead?Red Flag 3: Serial Acquisitions: Apples to OrangesSlay Your Fear of Shorting: Use Put Options to Know Your RiskRed Flag 4: Collecting the Revenue: Too Many Days' Sales Outstanding?All Red Flags Waving!

With so much of the financial industry getting bad press these days, it may be a "be greedy when others are fearful" moment. Not surprisingly, some of Warren Buffett's biggest investments are in the space. In the Motley Fool's free report, "The Stocks Only the Smartest Investors Are Buying," you can learn about a small, under-the-radar bank that's too tiny for Buffett's billions. Too bad, because it has better operating metrics than his favorites. Just click here to keep reading.

Top Stocks For 3/29/2013-4

Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (OTCBB: CRWE)

CRWE is a consulting organization which provides and assists small business owners with the knowledge required in taking their company public, and has re-focused its primary vision with its aligned group of independent website divisions to providing media advertising services, as a worldwide online media advertising publisher, dedicated to the distribution of quality branding information, as well as search engine optimization for its clients.

CRWE�s proprietary network technology allows their publishing department to get their content to millions of readers daily across the world. CRWE publishes financial content to all the major countries and covers all the accredited stock exchanges.

CRWE recently reported that its sales this year have already surpassed $1,000,000. This compares to $232,510 for the three quarters ending September 30, 2009 and $ 659,907 total sales for the year 2009.

CRWE has increased its workforce to an amount of 35, compared to this time last year�s head count of 6, which is a 580% personnel increase. This is in addition to the 10 contractors the company recently hired in Pakistan.

CRWE has also expanded its Internet footprint internationally to include the following 20 countries; Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and the UK.

CRWE�s 5 Year Chart!

Crown Equity Holdings Inc. is a company utilizing today�s technology to advertise, promote and market public companies globally. CRWE�s proprietary network technology allows their publishing department to get their content to millions of readers daily across the world. CRWE publishes financial content to all the major countries and covers all the accredited stock exchanges.

Crown Equity Holdings Inc. is currently in the process of expanding its in-house IT infrastructure. Although their current web page load time is better than 75% of other internet websites, when completed, the modifications will raise this load time to better then 90% of other internet websites while increasing website visitor capacity by 400%.

http://www.crownequityholdings.com

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MutualFirstFinancial, Inc. (Nasdaq: MFSF), the holding company of MutualBank (the “Bank”), announced recently that net income available for common shareholders for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010 was $1.3 million, or $.19 for basic and diluted earnings per common share.

This compared to net income available for common shareholders for the same period in 2009 of $864,000, or $.13 for basic and diluted earnings per common share. Annualized return on assets was .48% and return on average tangible common equity was 5.66% for the second quarter of 2010 compared to .25% and 3.82% respectively, for the same period of last year.

Net income available for common shareholders for the six months ended June 30, 2010 was $2.2 million, or $.32 for basic and diluted earnings per common share, consistent with the results from the same period in 2009. Annualized return on assets was .42% and return on average tangible common equity was 4.77% for the first half of 2010 compared to .44% and 4.85% respectively, for the same period of last year.

__

MV Oil Trust (NYSE: MVO) announced the Trust distribution of Net Profits for the second quarterly payment period ended June 30, 2010.

Unitholders of record on July 15, 2010 will receive a distribution amounting to $11,097,500 or $0.965 per unit payable July 23, 2010.

Volumes, price and Net Profits for the payment period were:

Volume (BOE)		241,873
Proceeds (BOE)		$85.67
Gross Proceeds		$20,721,027
Costs		$6,577,664
Net Profits		$14,143,363
Percentage applicable to Trust�s 80%
Net Profits Interest		$11,314,690
Gross Hedge Proceeds		$0
Percentage applicable to Trust 80%
Net Hedge Proceeds		$0
Total cash proceeds available for the Trust		$11,314,690
Provision for estimated Trust expenses		($217,190)
Net cash proceeds available for distribution		$11,097,500

This distribution includes amounts from collection of the SemCrude, L.P. / Eaglwing, L.P. payment for the twenty-day period prior to their bankruptcy in July, 2008 (�Twenty-Day Claims�) as MV Partners, LLC received payment of $5.6 million for such Twenty-Day Claims during the month of April 2010. The proceeds from the sale of oil volumes of MV Partners during June 2008 are still pending the outcome of the SemCrude bankruptcy proceedings.

__

MVC Capital, Inc. (NYSE: MVC), a publicly traded business development company that makes private equity and debt investments, recently announced its financial results for the third fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2010.

As of July 31, 2010, the Company’s net assets were approximately $417.2 million, or $17.35 per share, compared with net assets of approximately $434.7 million, or $17.89 per share, at the beginning of the quarter and $399.9 million, or $16.46 per share, at the end of the same period last year. During the quarter, the Valuation Committee, which is comprised of three independent directors, adjusted the fair values of six portfolio companies, resulting in a net decrease of approximately $18.0 million or $0.75 per share.

In arriving at these determinations and consistent with the Company’s valuation procedures and ASC 820, the Valuation Committee took into account a variety of factors, including the performance of the portfolio companies, the impact of changes in market multiples within certain sectors and fluctuations in currency valuations.

MVC is a business development company traded on the New York Stock Exchange that provides long-term debt and equity investment capital to fund growth, acquisitions and recapitalizations of companies in a variety of industries. For additional information about MVC, please visit the MVC’s website at www.mvccapital.com. For MVC’s investor relations, please call 914-510-9400. All media inquiries should be directed to Nathaniel Garnick at 212-687-8080.

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RightScale says its free price-tracking service can wring the most out of cloud deployments - 09:38 AM

(gigaom.com) -- The only thing that might be tougher than monitoring all the cloud service and price changes coming out of Amazon Web Services and other providers is keeping track of all the services that track all those cloud services and price changes.

RightScale maintains that its long history of monitoring AWS and other cloud activities for customers gives it an advantage here. It tracks price changes across the major clouds —  Google Compute Engine, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace and offers a free service to folks wanting to tap into that knowledge.

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“We track 11,000 or so cloud prices across six clouds. People can use that data to help forecast their cloud costs into the future and tweak the deployments they already have,” said Kim Weins, VP of marketing for RightScale.

RightScale says there have been 29 price changes across AWS, GCE, Azure and Rackspace Cloud over the past 14 months, and, frankly, that number seems low to me. In November alone, there were something like six cloud storage price cuts between AWS, Google and Microsoft.

And that’s what RightScale will continue to do, pressing into a service technology it acquired last year with its acquisition of ShopForCloud, which it renamedPlanForCloud.

In one respect, RightScale is in a good spot because it can claim expertise across the major clouds. Last year it said two-thirds of its customers ran multiple clouds and newer data is tracking the same way, Weins said.  As more business-capable cloud services come out of the OpenStack crowd — Rackspace, HP, IBM, Cloudscaling and others, being able to tap into multiple cloud data and aggregate it on one dashboard could be a draw.

On the other hand, AWS remains by far the largest cloud provider and as we have seen over the past year, Amazon is rolling out more Rightscale-like services of its own, notably OpsWorks.

In other words, hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Understanding and managing the cost of the cloud
• Amazon’s DynamoDB: rattling the cloud market
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Show Me the Money, New York & Company

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

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 New York & Company (NYSE: NWY  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, New York & Company generated $9.2 million cash while it booked net income of $2.1 million. That means it turned 1.0% of its revenue into FCF. That doesn't sound so great.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at New York & Company look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With 16.2% of operating cash flow coming from questionable sources, New York & Company investors should take a closer look at the underlying numbers. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, stock-based compensation and related tax benefits provided the biggest boost, at 14.1% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures, which consumed 66.3% of cash from operations.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home-run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

Is New York & Company the right retailer for your portfolio? Learn how to maximize your investment income and "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks," including one above-average retailing powerhouse. Click here for instant access to this free report.

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

• Add New York & Company to My Watchlist.

Is Numerex a Fast Cash Machine?

It takes money to make money. Most investors know that, but with business media so focused on the "how much," very few investors bother to ask, "How fast?"

When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Numerex (Nasdaq: NMRX  ) .

Let's break this down
In this series, we measure how swiftly a company turns cash into goods or services and back into cash. We'll use a quick, relatively foolproof tool known as the cash conversion cycle, or CCC for short.

Why does the CCC matter? The less time it takes a firm to convert outgoing cash into incoming cash, the more powerful and flexible its profit engine is. The less money tied up in inventory and accounts receivable, the more available to grow the company, pay investors, or both.

To calculate the cash conversion cycle, add days inventory outstanding to days sales outstanding, then subtract days payable outstanding. Like golf, the lower your score here, the better. The CCC figure for Numerex for the trailing 12 months is 38.8.

For younger, fast-growth companies, the CCC can give you valuable insight into the sustainability of that growth. A company that's taking longer to make cash may need to tap financing to keep its momentum. For older, mature companies, the CCC can tell you how well the company is managed. Firms that begin to lose control of the CCC may be losing their clout with their suppliers (who might be demanding stricter payment terms) and customers (who might be demanding more generous terms). This can sometimes be an important signal of future distress -- one most investors are likely to miss.

In this series, I'm most interested in comparing a company's CCC to its prior performance. Here's where I believe all investors need to become trend-watchers. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for an increase in the CCC, but all things being equal, I want to see this number stay steady or move downward over time.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of the seasonality in some businesses, the CCC for the TTM period may not be strictly comparable to the fiscal-year periods shown in the chart. Even the steadiest-looking businesses on an annual basis will experience some quarterly fluctuations in the CCC. To get an understanding of the usual ebb and flow at Numerex, consult the quarterly-period chart below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

On a 12-month basis, the trend at Numerex looks very good. At 38.8 days, it is 9.1 days better than the five-year average of 47.9 days. The biggest contributor to that improvement was DSO, which improved 11.1 days compared to the five-year average. That was partially offset by a 1.7-day increase in DPO.

Considering the numbers on a quarterly basis, the CCC trend at Numerex looks OK. At 43.8 days, it is 5.8 days worse than the average of the past eight quarters. Investors will want to keep an eye on this for the future to make sure it doesn't stray too far in the wrong direction. With quarterly CCC doing worse than average and the latest 12-month CCC coming in better, Numerex gets a mixed review in this cash-conversion checkup.

Though the CCC can take a little work to calculate, it's definitely worth watching every quarter. You'll be better informed about potential problems, and you'll improve your odds of finding underappreciated home run stocks.

Internet software and services are being consumed in radically different ways, on increasingly mobile devices. Does Numerex fit in anymore? Check out the company that Motley Fool analysts expect to lead the pack in "The Next Trillion-dollar Revolution." Click here for instant access to this free report.

• Add Numerex to My Watchlist.

Battle of the Oil Giants

When it comes to looking for oil exposure in your portfolio, many investors new to the energy space immediately turn to the biggest names, such as ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , to make a safe, stable foray into the energy sector. In the following video, Motley Fool energy analyst Joel South breaks down the numbers and tells investors which of these two giants has performed the best historically and which might be the better play today.

There are many different ways to play the energy sector, and The Motley Fool's analysts have uncovered an under-the-radar company that's dominating its industry. This company is a leading provider of equipment and components used in drilling and production operations and is poised to profit in a big way from it. To get the name and detailed analysis of this company that will prosper for years to come, check out the special free report: "The Only Energy Stock You'll Ever Need." Don't miss out on this limited-time offer and your opportunity to discover this company before the market does. Click here to access your report -- it's totally free.

Dow May Rise as Cyprus Banks Open Peacefully

LONDON -- Stock index futures at 7 a.m. EDT indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) may open 0.19% higher this morning, while the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) may open up by 0.1%.

Markets edged higher in Europe this morning as investors were reassured by the news that banks in Cyprus have reopened this morning without problems after being closed for 12 days. Concerns remain over the potential for a bank run in the small Mediterranean country, but early signs suggest that most savers intend to leave their savings in place. Strict capital controls have been approved to reduce the risk of a bank run, limiting cash withdrawals to 300 euros ($380) per day and heavily restricting money transfers abroad, including to other EU countries. Elsewhere in Europe, German retail sales rose by 0.4% in February, beating analysts' expectations of a 0.6% drop.

Investors in the U.S. may be more focused on domestic news, with a batch of economic reports due this morning before the holiday weekend. At 8:30 a.m. EDT, the latest weekly jobless-claim figures are expected to show that jobless claims edged higher to 339,000 last week from 336,000 the previous week. Also at 8:30 a.m. EDT, revised Q4 GDP figures are expected to show that GDP rose by 0.6% in the final quarter of 2012, ahead of the initial reading of 0.1%. Yesterday's comments from Chicago Fed President Charles Evans may provide some support: He said the Fed should allow time to "let our policies work" before considering any reduction in the current monetary-easing program.

Companies due to report earnings before markets open this morning include BlackBerry, which is expected to report a fourth-quarter loss of $0.31 per share. Investors will be watching carefully to see if the company releases any data relating to the launch of its Z10 smartphone and BlackBerry 10 operating system. BlackBerry's share price has fallen by 9% over the last five days after markets reacted poorly to the U.S. launch of the Z10. Other companies due to report before the bell this morning include Accenture, Commercial Metals Company, GameStop, The Mosaic Company, and Finish Line.

PVH may be actively traded when markets open this morning after the clothing company beat expectations last night with fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.60 per share, ahead of analysts' forecasts of $1.50 per share. However, PVH said earnings for the 2013 fiscal year may fall below expectations, causing the company's shares to drop 4.5% in premarket trading this morning.

Finally, let's not forget that the Dow's daily movements can add up to some serious long-term gains. Indeed, Warren Buffett recently wrote, "The Dow advanced from 66 to 11,497 in the 20th�Century, a staggering 17,320% increase that materialized despite four costly wars, a Great Depression and many recessions." If you, like Buffett, are convinced of the long-term power of the Dow, you should read�"5 Stocks To Retire On." Your long-term wealth could be transformed, even in this uncertain economy. Simply�click here now�to download this free, no-obligation report.

Wynn Takes Another Swing at Boston Gaming

Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN  ) is taking another swing at the Boston gaming market, proposing a $1.5 billion resort in Everett, Mass. The lot is an old Monsanto Chemical site on the river just north of downtown Boston. What we know right now is that the resort would be called Wynn Everett, it would have about 550 hotel rooms, water taxis to the airport and downtown, and according to Steve Wynn it will be family-friendly.��

This isn't the first attempt at gaming in greater Boston for Steve Wynn. A plan to build near Foxboro Stadium was shot down by residents and he had to quickly regroup to submit an application for this new resort by the Jan. 15 deadline.

The other big competing bid is coming from Suffolk Downs and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR  ) . The group wants to build a casino at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, a similar distance to downtown as Wynn's proposal. Like Wynn, this is partly a revitalization project to bring more traffic and excitement to Suffolk Downs. �

A third bid for Boston gaming will come from the owners of Foxwoods Resort & Casino and David Nunes. The project would be located in Milford, but little else is known publicly at this point.

A big market waiting to be tapped?
The expansion of gaming in the U.S. has piqued the attention of Las Vegas' normal residents. Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS  ) built a casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that has helped drive the state into the No. 2 position nationally, making a tidy profit in the process. Boston may be even more lucrative the proposed sites so close to the city.

The state gambling commission isn't expected to award the casino license until February, so it'll be a long wait for those who applied. For Wynn, the resort would be an incremental positive, but the big prize is in Macau. At Caesars, this would be a highlight in the company's expansive non-Las Vegas properties, but I'm not sure how the company will fund another billion-dollar project with its current debt load.

Macau has grown to five-and-a-half times the size of the Las Vegas Strip, with $33.6 billion of gaming revenue in 2011, and Wynn Resorts is perfectly positioned to capture the opportunity in the region. Is that reason enough for investors to consider investing in Wynn right now? The Motley Fool answers this question and more in our most in-depth Wynn Resorts research available for smart investors like you. Thousands have already claimed their own premium ticker coverage, and you can gain instant access to your own by clicking here now.

Can Micron Hold On to Its Momentum?

Shares of memory maker Micron (NASDAQ: MU  ) have been on a tear. Upon reaching $10.27 last week, the stock has essentially doubled after bottoming out at $5.16 on Oct. 24. With the stock now only percentage points away from a 52-week high, investors want assurances that Micron has enough ammo to support the recent optimism. I don't blame them.

Micron is known for its volatility. And it certainly doesn't help that the commodity memory industry, which has posted weak margins due to low average selling prices, or ASPs, has been shaky at best. But with names like SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK  ) , Samsung and Applied Materials, there's also been a lot of value in this sector. And Micron certainly fits in that category. So, heading into the company's earnings results, there was a lot to prove. And Micron delivered.

Who and what is Micron today?
Unlike previous reports, Micron's second-quarter results left very little for investors to complain about. Revenue arrived at $2.1 billion, up 3% year over year. While not exactly a strong number, when compared to the first-quarter results, it represents a 13% sequential jump. Plus it was enough to beat Street estimates of $1.92 billion.

The company's flash memory business consists of NOR and NAND, non-volatile storage technologies that requires no power to retain data. Both work the same way, but are different in functionality. NAND, which is used in devices like MP3 players, is able to retain more storage, whereas NOR, which is used in mobile phones, is faster. Micron arguably perfected this market. But there have been plenty of struggles.

Not only has Micron lost market share to SanDisk and Samsung, but the declining PC industry and soft ASPs left investors no choice but to bail on the stock. So, the Street rejoiced that the strong performance was largely due to its flagship chips, NAND and DRAM (dynamic random access memory, the type often found in personal computers).

Is this the same management team?
Though I've followed this company for several years, I can't say that I recognize this management team anymore, which is a good thing. The deficits that once aggravated investors are slowly being addressed. For instance, in the quarter, DRAM revenue surged 24% sequentially due to a 38% increase in sales volume. This is despite a 10% drop in ASPs.

Ordinarily, the soft ASP situation, while not new, would be cause for concern. But the Street didn't expect much price movement. Plus, it seems that Micron focused more this quarter on moving PC-related DRAM, which has much lower margin. In other words, this is where the higher sales volume, while typically good, might have actually hurt.

Impressively, however, NAND revenue shot up 8%, which was offset by continued struggles in the NOR segment, which fell 14% year over year. Management, however, made up for this weakness in profitability. Gross margin arrived at 18%, a 6% improvement sequentially and 5% better year over year. This resulted to a 76% sequential improvement in operating loss, which arrived at $23 million.

Ordinarily, investors would take issue with a company like Micron that still operating at a loss. But signs of improvement are everywhere. The Street loved the improved inventory position, which Micron was able to reduce by $360 million year over year. This, along with the growing margins, indicates that profitability could be just around the corner. While management has been beaten up in the past, today, the team deserves credit for a solid second-quarter performance.

You've got our attention, now what?
For this momentum to continue, Micron can't let its foot off the throttle. Management has done a great job diversifying the memory business, but it needs to continue. To that end, the completed acquisition for bankrupt chip maker Elpida�should help. This should position Micron for stronger growth in other end markets, such as servers and mobile devices.

Plus, Elpida should help propel Micron to the second-largest player in the DRAM market. Micron will be ahead of names like Hynix, a South Korean chip maker, but will remain behind Samsung. But the good news, though, is that Elpida will help Micron build leverage with Apple.

Needless to say, Apple would have an interest in helping Micron improve its memory business against Samsung. In the meantime, with new device launches from Apple and Samsung spurring the growth in mobile, Micron's NAND business should grow commensurately. But that can also be said about SanDisk, and other names like RF Micro Devices and (of course) Qualcomm.

What of the stock?
With continued margin and cash flow improvements, as well as better diversification, there's still a lot of value here. However, the negative earnings stand out like a sore thumb. That said, based on fiscal 2014 estimates, which is when the company is expected turn profitable, these shares are only trading at 14 times forward earnings, which is not too demanding in this sector.

A fresh idea for 2013
The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

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Tumi Tumbles on Secondary Offering

The wheels came off of luggage maker Tumi Holdings (TUMI) Thursday after the company announced a secondary offering of 10.14 million shares at $21.10 a pop on Wednesday.

In a statement on its website posted Wednesday, Tumi said the shares in the offering will be sold by funds and affiliates of Doughty Hanson & Co. as well as other stockholders — including two of the company�s executives. Tumi also said it will not receive proceeds from the shares sold by stockholders.

Investors reacted badly to the news and sent Tumi packing, with the stock down 4.4% in afternoon trading.

Last week, Tumi took a similar beating after it reported an upbeat fourth quarter but its full-year outlook failed to match Street expectations as it forecast profit of 82 cents to 86 cents a share, missing the 87 cents a share forecast according to analysts polled by FactSet. The stock is now down 12% in the past week.

Top Stocks To Buy For 3/28/2013-3

Wynn Resorts, Limited NASDAQ:WYNN opened at $101.58 and with a gain of 2.09% closed at $103.84. Company’s fifty days average price is $105.42 whereas it has a market capitalization $12.87 billion.
The total of 1.39 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Adobe Systems Incorporated NASDAQ:ADBE opened at $30.52 and with a gain of 0.69% closed at $30.78. Company’s fifty days average price is $28.89 whereas it has a market capitalization $15.57 billion.
The total of 2.84 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. NASDAQ:CHKP opened at $45.99 and with a gain of 0.52% closed at $46.26. Company’s fifty days average price is $43.57 whereas it has a market capitalization $9.60 billion.
The total of 1.00 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. NASDAQ:TROW opened at $64.16 and with a gain of 0.50% closed at $64.54. Company’s fifty days average price is $59.06 whereas it has a market capitalization $16.55 billion.
The total of 1.18 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) NASDAQ:TEVA opened at $51.78 and with a gain of 0.44% closed at $52.13. Company’s fifty days average price is $51.36 whereas it has a market capitalization $48.79 billion.
The total of 2.73 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Why Markel Is Poised to Outperform

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, specialty insurer Markel (NYSE: MKL  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Markel and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Markel facts

Headquarters (founded)	Glen Allen, Va. (1930)
Market Cap	$4.8 billion
Industry	Property and casualty insurance
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$3.0 billion
Management	Chairman / CEO Alan Kirshner President / CIO Thomas Gayner
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)	6.8%
Cash / Debt	$2.0 billion / $1.5 billion
Competitors	CNA Financial� Meadowbrook Insurance Group Travelers Companies�

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 98% of the 2,830 members who have rated Markel believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last month, one of those Fools, TMFTypeoh, succinctly summed up the Markel bull case for our community: "Tremendous company. Great management, niche markets, lots of reinvestment opportunities. Should be able to grow book value above market rates. Outperform."

If you want market-thumping returns, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Of course, despite a strong five-star rating, Markel may not be your top choice.

We've found another stock we are incredibly excited about -- excited enough to dub it "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." We have compiled a special free report for investors to uncover this stock today. The report is 100% free, but it won't be here forever, so click here to access it now.

Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.

Servotronics Inc. (SVT) Surges on Q1 Results

Shares of Servotronics, Inc. (AMEX: SVT) climbed more than 20% in today�s trading. The small cap stock closed 19.54% higher at $10.04, after reaching a high of $10.94 in trading. Volume was up from daily average of 2,000 to 43,435. Elma, New York-based Servotronics is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of advanced technology products. The company is organized in two groups, the ATG, which serves commercial, and government applications in aircraft, jet engines and missiles, and the CPG, which designs and manufactures cutlery, bayonets, machetes and combat, survival, agricultural and other edged products for commercial and government applications.

Servotronics today announced its first-quarter results, reporting first-quarter net income of $622,000 on revenue of $7.88 million. In the same period, last year, the company reported net income of $125,000 on revenue of $7.54 million. Following the fivefold increase in net income, the small-cap stock surged in today�s trading. The company said that the increase in net income was mainly due to cost containment activities.

The company previously reported that some of the major manufacturers of commercial aircraft have initiated plans to raise production to support projected increases in aircraft deliveries over the next two years. As a result, aircraft component suppliers have been asked to raise their manufacturing capabilities to support aircraft production. The company expects government procurements to be volatile.

Servotronics� first-quarter results are definitely encouraging. However, it remains to be seen whether it can be sustained as a lot depends on factors beyond company�s control. The small cap stock has a 52-week range of $5.50-$11.30, which shows that there has a lot of price fluctuation in the past one year. The stock has a beta of 1.17, which implies that it is volatile. Currently, the small cap stock is trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

About BeaconEquity.com

BeaconEquity.com is committed to producing the highest-quality insight and analysis of small cap stocks, emerging technology stocks,hot penny stocks and helping investors make informed decisions. Our focus is primarily on the underserved OTC stocks market, or �penny stock� market, which has traditionally been shunned by Wall Street. We have particular expertise with renewable energy stocks, biotech stocks, oil stocks, green energy stocks and internet stocks. There are many hot penny stock opportunities present in the OTC market everyday and we seek to exploit these hot stock gains for our members before the average daytrader is aware of them.

Diversified Investing – Keeping Your Eggs in Different Baskets

“Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket!” You’ve no doubt heard this over and over again when it comes to investing. All successful investors build portfolios using diversified investing strategies, and you should too!

By diversifying it is true that you won’t be investing in winners all of the time but it’s better than being solely invested in a particular investment! No matter how attractive or safe your basket looks, diversifying is important. This means spreading your money in various shares in different industries, or different properties, different bonds, and in money markets and this includes investing in international markets.

By investing in several different markets, you will actually reduce your risk.

Let’s take shares for example. And to keep things simple we’ll say that the average return on shares is 10% (please note simplification for illustrative purposes). While a single company may be a brilliant operator it may also experience trouble and down times. The annual return may fluctuate between minus 40% and plus 60% but averages 10% over time. If you were to invest in that share alone you’d be experiencing the volatile ride of the company’s ups and downs. And you’re probably more likely to want to sell – at the wrong time.

Investing in many different shares means that when one company performs poorly others in different industries may be doing quite well or even very well. Rather than losing all your money in the one share the volatility of the combined portfolio is likely to be much smaller. The fluctuations of shares moving in opposite directions means the poor performers are cancelled out by the better performers and your risk reduced. And you still get the same average 10% return.

If you invest in property, once again it’s best to buy in different areas and different types of building. It tends to be more difficult to diversify in property because of the cost involved so for many this means using managed funds that invest in property.

You can also include different investment styles. Managed funds make it possible for smaller investors to spread their portfolio so diversification is possible at all levels of investment.

Over time, research has shown that investors who have diversified portfolios usually see more consistent and stable returns on their investments than those who only invest in one area.

With diversified investing you will find that you have a lower risk of losing your money, and over time, you will see better returns by keeping all your eggs in different baskets.

Lyn Bell has been in the finance industry for more than 30 years and is a Certified Financial Planner. She has helped many clients achieve their financial goals. Sign up to get Lyn’s free newsletter SoundFinance.

Please note this article does not contain specific advice and is for information/education purposes.

A disclosure statement is available free on request.

Regarding Marijuana

The world today seems to make a lot of issues about Medical Marijuana. Marijuana also has federal laws. Marijuana is illegal according to the federal government, and it does not recognize any medical uses of it. A lot of studies have been done though regarding this subject. It appears that using marijuana can help people who have certain diseases in certain circumstances.

And now, Medical Marijuana is permitted by some states which may be familiar to you. But these states still have to be careful about it since the possession of marijuana for medical purposes is still possession of marijuana according to the federal laws. The medical marijuana laws of most of these states are basically strictly regulating who can and who cannot have it and how they can get it. Clearly, no matter where state you belong the person needs to have a prescription form a doctor for it. Also, they must have a confirmed diagnosis of one of the recognized ailments which might be helped by medicinal use of marijuana.

However, take note that when people have earn already a prescription for Medical Marijuana, that does not mean they can already go out and buy it on the street, or in most cases grow their own. The medicinal marijuana has to be gotten from a dispensary, according to the law of most states. This is however similar to a pharmacy. The dispensary will be in charge of growing and distributing the product. The dispensaries are basically having very tight regulation. In order for a person to run a dispensary, it needs to have a criminal background run, and they may not have any drug charges in their history. Also, each state has unique and further regulations about the use of marijuana for medical use in the workplace.

Therefore each patient has to know about the regulations in their state. They also must have documentation about their use of marijuana for medical purposes with them at all times.

Now, there is an essential new economic growth which is appearing in these states that are having the new regulations. A new market, which was once suppressed underground by legislation, is being benefitted and contributed by the Doctors, Lawyers, supply houses and education centers like dispensary. But however, a lot of people are still weary of these changes since the legislation only protects them as far as state law will stand in court.

The users in those states where Medical Marijuana is legal are still at risk of arrest by the DEA because it is still against federal law. These states who legalized its use take bills each year to further regulate marijuana for medical use or to make it illegal again. Those at the federal level and other states are still battling for the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana.

Type in medical marijuana into Ask.com; do you find what you need? Next time you type in medical marijuana dispensary, you’ll observe that these url links are what you really preferred!

Autodesk: Citi Launches With Coverage Buy Rating, $41 Target

Citigroup analyst Walter Pritchard this morning launched coverage of Autodesk (ADSK) with a Buy rating and a $41 price target.

“We believe numbers over the next several quarters are moving higher, which should alleviate skepticism around company�s ability to drive revenue [compound annual growth] of 12%- 14% through 2015,” he writes in a research note. “Near-term drivers include a return to normal revenue and expense seasonality, drivers that could boost volumes and price, and a recovery in emerging markets.”

ADSK this morning is up 33 cents, or 1%, to $32.19.

5 Stocks Going Ex-Dividend During the Third Week of March

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks.

WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

• NYSE Euronext (NYX) market cap: $9.7B ex div date: 3/14/2011 yield: 3.3%
• Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI) market cap: $19.3B ex div date: 3/16/2011 yield: 4.2%
• Sempra Energy (SRE) market cap: $12.7B ex div date: 3/16/2011 yield: 3.6%
• DTE Energy Company (DTE) market cap: $7.9B ex div date: 3/17/2011 yield: 4.8%
• Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NM) market cap: $573.1M ex div date: 3/18/2011 yield: 4.4%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time article was written.

Unilever CEO Expects to Catch P&G in Five Years

In a recent interview, Unilever's CEO Paul Polman admitted that his company had grown "too little" over the past 10 to 15 years, but said he expects it to catch up with rivals such as Procter & Gamble (PG) within the next four or five years.

We value Unilever (UL) stock with a $35 Trefis price estimate --roughly a 10% premium over its current market price -- and discuss below why stock analysis firm Trefis believes Polman's goals may be a little too ambitious.

What catching up with P&G requires

Unilever closed 2010 with over $58 billion in sales while P&G's revenues were a little under $80 billion. Even with a conservative growth rate of 4%, P&G's revenues by 2015 can be expected to be over $97 billion. So "catching up with P&G" by 2015 translates into Unilever growing at almost 11% year-on-year over the next five years.

Why this seems too optimistic for now:

Out of line with past performance

Unilever grew from near $48 billion in 2005 at a compounded annual growth rate of 4%. The recently published earnings guidance for the first quarter of the current fiscal year wasn't very promising either.

While sales grew by just over 4% in Q1 2011 compared to the same period last year, the underlying volumes grew by only 2.5% with price increases contributing the remaining 1.8%. (See Unilever's Results Show Challenges to Growth.) This sluggish volume growth would need to pick up considerably to meet the CEO's stated goals.

Inorganic growth potential limited

Unilever has been on an acquisition spree lately with the recent acquisition of Alberto Culver (See Unilever's Alberto Culver Acquisition Adds Shine to Stock) and Sara Lee's European laundry and personal care portfolio (See Unilever's European Expansion Lifts Stock).

While acquisitions could help Unilever realize its other goal of doubling sales within the decade, inorganic growth would hit a ceiling at some point on account of potential antitrust issues and would necessitate selling off a part of Unilever's portfolio.

As required on antitrust grounds, Unilever recently sold off Sanex brand of personal care products to Colgate-Palmolive for $954 million for EU's clearance of the $1.82 billion purchase of Sara Lee's personal care business. See Unilever Sells Sanex to Colgate to Shed Weight Post Sara Lee Deal. In addition, Unilever will have to sell off its Alberto VO5 brand in the U.S. and its own Rave hair care products brand to fully wrap up the $3.7 billion purchase of Alberto Culver.

Increasing competition in the emerging markets with high growth prospects

Unilever aims to generate 70% of its sales from emerging markets like India and China. While this is an admirable goal, successful growth pushes into emerging markets are difficult to achieve -- and often not very profitable.

In its attempt to acquire a billion additional consumers by 2015, P&G too has assumed an aggressive stance in the two most populous nations - China and India. See What P&G Could Look Like in 5 Years, India is Key to P&G's Additional Billion Consumer Goal. Stiff competition in emerging markets can dampen Unilever's growth prospects and might even warrant heavy investments in low-cost manufacturing along with higher advertising and promotional spending. So while volumes might come, Unilever will have to settle with lower margins.

See our full analysis of Unilever

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