It's Been Too Long, Apple

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) is in something of a dry spell right now. Excluding quarterly earnings releases, there has been a notable lack of official announcements or other events since the October slew of product unveilings that included the iPad Mini, fourth-generation iPad, iMacs, and 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros.

In previous years, Apple would host an iPad event in the spring, typically in either March or April. When the company accelerated its iPad product cycle to October, the prospects of a spring refresh just months later became remote. With April quickly winding down, and no rumblings of a spring iPad event, investors are now looking at one of the longest lulls in recent years between announcements.

Don't just take my word for it; Business Insider put together a handy chart mapping out the days between events. Apple has now set the date for its Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, which will kick off on June 10. The WWDC opening keynote always includes hardware and/or software announcements, and this year will be no different. From the October event to WWDC, investors are looking at 230 days between product announcements -- the biggest gap in years.

Not all of the announcements have been major, such as the education-centric event in January 2012. Still, there used to be a consistent cadence of iPad, WWDC, and iPhone events spread out throughout the year. The lull is a natural consequence of refreshing almost all of Apple's products over the span of six weeks.

The lack of any meaningful product catalyst has only contributed to the negativity plaguing Apple, giving competitors something of an opening with product introductions of their own. Investors have been waiting for signs of new products, and Tim Cook strongly implied that new gadgets wouldn't be due out until "this fall."

The WWDC keynote will undoubtedly feature software announcements, which will notably include details on how design chief Jony Ive is giving iOS 7 a much-needed makeover.

It's also entirely likely that Apple will update its MacBook lineup like it did at WWDC 2012. The timing coincides with the timing of Intel's Haswell chips, which have already begun shipping to OEMs, and are expected to reach consumers' hands this quarter. Apple is rumored to be preparing to ramp up Haswell-equipped MacBooks starting next month, which could pave the way for a WWDC MacBook announcement.

However, Macs are now just 12% of sales, so this may not be the product catalyst that investors are really looking for. By the looks of it, new iPhones and iPads might have to wait. It's been too long, Apple.

Should you buy in before product catalysts give Apple a boost? 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.

5 Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Professional traders running mutual funds and hedge funds don't just look at a stock's price moves; they also track big changes in volume activity. Often when above-average volume moves into an equity, it precedes a large spike in volatility.

Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks




Major moves in volume can signal unusual activity, such as insider buying or selling -- or buying or selling by "superinvestors."



Unusual volume can also be a major signal that hedge funds and momentum traders are piling into a stock ahead of a catalyst. These types of traders like to get in well before a large spike, so it's always a smart move to monitor unusual volume. That said, remember to combine trend and price action with unusual volume. Put them all together to help you decipher the next big trend for any stock.



With that in mind, let's take a look at several stocks rising on unusual volume recently.

Must Read: 10 Stocks Carl Icahn Loves in 2014

comScore

comScore (SCOR) provides a range of digital media analytics solutions in the U.S., Europe, Canada and others. This stock closed up 3% to $39.38 in Monday's trading session.

Monday's Volume: 429,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 195,363

Volume % Change: 142%

From a technical perspective, SCOR jumped higher here right off its 50-day moving average of $37.86 with above-average volume. This spike to the upside on Monday is quickly pushing shares of SCOR within range of triggering a major breakout trade. That trade will hit if SCOR manages to take out some key near-term overhead resistance levels at $39.70 to its 52-week high of $39.78 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in SCOR as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $37.86 or above more near-term support levels at $37 or $36 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 195,363 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then SCOR will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $45 to $50.

Must Read: 10 Stocks George Soros Is Buying

Williams Partners

Williams Partners (WPZ), an energy infrastructure company, focuses on connecting North America's hydrocarbon resource plays to growing markets for natural gas and natural gas liquids. This stock closed up 3.5% at $51.75 in Monday's trading session.

Monday's Volume: 3.42 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 972,045

Volume % Change: 269%

From a technical perspective, WPZ jumped notably higher here back above its 200-day moving average of $50.73 with strong upside volume flows. This trend to the upside on Monday is quickly pushing shares of WPZ within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if WPZ manages to take out its 50-day moving average of $52.26 and then once it clears more key near-term overhead resistance at $52.90 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in WPZ as long as it's trending above Monday's intraday low of $50 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 972,045 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then WPZ will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $55.28 to $56.30, or even its 52-week high at $57.29.

Must Read: 5 Stocks Under $10 Set to Soar

Access Midstream Partners

Access Midstream Partners (ACMP) owns, operates, develops and acquires natural gas, natural gas liquids and oil gathering systems, and other midstream energy assets in the U.S. This stock closed up 3.1% to $62.76 in Monday's trading session.

Monday's Volume: 2.51 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 434,394

Volume % Change: 427%

From a technical perspective, ACMP jumped higher here back above its 50-day moving average of $62.41 with heavy upside volume flows. This move also pushed shares of ACMP into breakout territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance at $62.08 to just under $63. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if ACMP manages to take out Monday's intraday high of $63.64 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ACMP as long as it's trending above Monday's intraday low of $60.98 or above its 200-day at $59.40 and then once it sustains a move or close above $63.64 with volume that hits near or above 434,394 shares. If that move begins soon, then ACMP will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $65.55 to $65.90, or even its 52-week high at $66.71. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give ACMP a chance to make a run at $70.

Must Read: 7 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Selling in 2014

GSI Group

GSI Group (GSIG), together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures and sells precision photonic and motion control components and subsystems to original equipment manufacturers in the medical, industrial, electronics and scientific markets. This stock closed up 3.8% at $12.32 in Monday's trading session.

Monday's Volume: 141,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 69,503

Volume % Change: 110%

From a technical perspective, GSIG spiked notably higher here back above both its 50-day moving average of $12.07 and its 200-day moving average of $12.15 with above-average volume. This trend to the upside on Monday also pushed shares of GSIG into breakout territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $11.91 to $12.05. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if GSIG manages to take out Monday's intraday high of $12.40 to some more near-term overhead resistance just above $12.60 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in GSIG as long as it's trending above Monday's intraday low of $11.80 or above $11.60 and then once it sustains a move or close above $12.40 to around $12.60 with volume that this near or above 69,503 shares. If that move gets set off soon, the GSIG will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $13.19 to its 52-week high at $13.71. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give GSIG a chance to tag $15.

Must Read: 5 Stocks Insiders Love Right Now

Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications (LVLT), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a facilities-based provider of a range of integrated communications services primarily in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This stock closed up 2.9% at $43.46 in Monday's trading session.

Monday's Volume: 3.83 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 2.14 million

Volume % Change: 89%

From a technical perspective, LVLT jumped higher here right above its 200-day moving average of $41.17 with above-average volume. This stock has been uptrending over the last few weeks, with shares moving higher from its low of $37.61 to its intraday high of $43.60. During that uptrend, shares of LVLT have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if LVLT manages to take out its 50-day moving average of $43.56 to some more near-term overhead resistance at $44 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in LVLT as long as it's trending above its 200-day at $41.17 and then once it sustains a move or close above $43.56 to $44 with volume that's near or above 2.14 million shares. If that move materializes soon, then LVLT will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $46.20 to $48.21, or even its 52-week high at $49.22.

Must Read: 10 Stocks Billionaire John Paulson Loves in 2014

To see more stocks rising on unusual volume, check out the Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.

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Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including

CNBC.com and Forbes.com. You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.

General Electric: Expect ‘Busy and Complex’ Earnings Call

Bernstein’s Steven Winoker thinks General Electric (GE) will beat earnings:

Bloomberg

We anticipate at least a 1-cent headline beat in the quarter. Of the 40 cents in our forecast earnings per share, we expect ~20 cents from GE Industrial, 4 cents above 2Q13, and ~20 cents from GE Capital, the same as 2Q13. We anticipate GAAP EPS from continuing ops of 36 cents. We do anticipate gains in the quarter, including from the sale of the Wayne fuel business, and the potential for tax effects in GE Capital from the sale of Nordic GE Money Bank, along with the “normal” real estate gains that show up in GE Capital continuing ops. The company has guided to ~$1-1.5B in restructuring in 2014, and gains from the Wayne and Nordic sales could be used to “cover” some of these costs…

Of course, two major points of interest this quarter will be Alstom and Synchrony, and we look forward to additional progress updates on both fronts. Recall too that General Electric has targeted ~$4B of other divestitures (including the rail signaling business). Between those items, and the potential for one-timers mentioned above, we expect this to be a busy and complex earnings call with General Electric.

Shares of General Electric have gained 1.1% to $26.49 at 2:14 p.m. today. It reports earnings on July 18.

The death of U.S. savings bonds

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) U.S. savings bonds, a graduation gift staple for nearly a century, are on the verge of extinction.

Americans bought over 40 million of the most popular savings bonds in 2000. Last year, the U.S. sold a mere 400,000 of them.

They were often given to students, newly married couples or anyone having a birthday. It was akin to gifting cash, but better. The bond certificate looked extra official, and it encouraged young people to save for the future -- whether for further study, a car or a house.

Savings bonds offer some interest each year -- much like money held in a bank's savings account -- but if you hold the bond to the end of the 10 to 30 year duration, you often make more money due to various adjustment procedures. It's akin to a bonus payment.

But these bonds are going the way of the landline telephone, and there are several reasons why.

For starters, savings bonds, which have been around since the 1930s, are no longer an attractive investment.

"The interest rates are so low these days that people just don't even get involved in them anymore," says Jim Moore, a Wells Fargo financial advisor based in St. Louis.

The fixed-rate "EE" bond offers a mere 0.5% interest rate for the next 20 years, barely better than putting money under a mattress. Bonds issued at the end of last year were yielding an even more lousy 0.1% rate.

Moore recommends buying a good quality, high paying dividend stock or exploring other savings options instead. Many parents and grandparents utilize 529 savings plans for colleges that are run at the state level. Investment growth in a 529 plan is tax deferred, and any money taken from the 529 to pay for college isn't taxed at the federal level.

But it's the Internet that really killed off demand for sa! vings bonds.

You can no longer buy a paper savings bond. On January 1, 2012, the government stopped sales of over-the-counter paper bonds and forced people to buy them online via TreasuryDirect.

That's when the big plummet occurred. The goal was to save money, but in the process, the government made it harder for potential buyers.

Many older Americans were raised on ads to be patriotic and buy these bonds to help the country (and yourself). There were slogans such as "Back Your Future." The savings bonds were sold in many places, including local banks and brokerages.

Now you have to go online and fill out cumbersome forms with your taxpayer ID number, the intended recipient's Social Security number, your bank account and other information. It's even more complex if you try to gift a savings bond to someone under 18.

Kate Warne, investment strategist for Edward Jones, says the only time she hears about savings bonds these days is from clients telling her how hard the website is to navigate.

"The complaint I get is 'I have trouble. What should I do instead?'" Warne says.

Those formal looking certificates that made such lovely accompaniments to graduation degrees are history. The only way to get one now is to ask for your federal tax refund to be returned to you as savings bonds.

Even that is convoluted. The bonds are only issued in $50 increments, so unless your refund is perfectly divisible by 50, you get savings bonds plus a check for the difference. It's a small program according to the Treasury Department.

The government has no plans to revive paper savings bond sales. There is a mock certificate people can print out online to wrap up in a box and give as a gift. But that just doesn't have the same appeal.

Is It Possible to Get a Perfect Credit Score?

Getty ImagesEven if you do reach a perfect score, there's no guarantee you'll stay at the top for long. Some people obsess over perfect grades. Others find fulfillment in bowling a perfect 300. Still others make it their life goal to earn the highly elusive perfect credit score. But while getting A's on all your midterms and even bowling 300s are fairly attainable goals, perfection in the credit world is practically unheard of. Can it really be done? And more importantly, is it a worthy goal to strive toward? Here's why the perfect credit score may not really matter in the end. Is it possible? Yes, it's possible to get a perfect credit score. However, this answer comes with a few caveats. First off, the "yes" assumes you're thinking about the 850 FICO score. While the FICO score is the most common score lenders use to determine your creditworthiness, it's not your only score. There are dozens of scoring models that can be used to determine your score, and each model calculates your score differently. So even if you achieve a perfect score with one model, your other scores may be very different. Secondly, even if someone is able to achieve a perfect score, there's no guarantee that it will stay that number or he or she will be able to reach it again. Credit scores change constantly, and every time someone pulls your score, it's calculated anew. Credit scores are also notoriously mysterious. While most people know they should pay their bills on time and avoid unnecessary hard inquiries, there is no "magic formula" out there that consumers can follow to earn a perfect score. So even the most credit-savvy consumers may not be able to repeat their success or pinpoint what exactly got them to the top. Lastly, a perfect score is extremely rare and almost impossible to attain. In 2010, the Fair Isaac Corp., the creator of FICO scores, estimated that only about 0.5 percent of consumers are able to reach the 850 mark. In fact, it's so uncommon that when people do achieve it, they sometimes get into the news. Is it worth it? Greatness is always a good goal to strive toward. However, is it worth spending ridiculous amounts of time and money stressing over a perfect credit score? In most cases, no. While it doesn't hurt to desire and try to obtain an excellent score, you don't need a perfect score to get the best rates as a consumer. As FICO spokesman Anthony Sprauve told Forbes last year, "It's important to understand that if you have a FICO score above 760, you're going to be getting the best rates and opportunities." In other words, lenders aren't looking for a perfect credit score -- they're simply looking for a score that indicates you're a responsible borrower. Most people want the 850 just so they can say they're at the top.

New Rule of Stocks: Get Used to Grind

The stock market is acting like a tease.

It rises to a record, or near one, and then falls back. Just as investors start to fear a big decline, stocks recover. They get back near a record and, whoops, they fall again, and the yo-yo action resumes.

This marks a big change from last year, when the main indexes rose 25% to 30%, their best in more than a decade. This year, the S&P 500 is up 1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1%.

Money managers and analysts have several explanations centering on the scale of previous gains, the scope of central-bank support for markets and the outlook for corporate profits. Meanwhile, they are beginning to caution clients: This choppy market is more normal than the buoyant one we have seen since 2009, and the erratic action could become more common now.

"It is a slow, grinding process. It is going to take some getting-used-to," said Mark Freeman, chief investment officer at Westwood Holdings Group Inc.(WHG), which oversees $19 billion in Dallas. It is possible that "this is what we will be doing over the next several quarters," he added.

Why has this happened? Several reasons: After doubling or tripling since 2009, stocks aren't cheap any more. Companies, meanwhile, are finding it harder to keep raising earnings in a period of soft economic growth. This makes investors more cautious. But because speculative excess still hasn't reached the extremes of past bubbles, and because the Federal Reserve is determined to sustain the recovery, there is less fear of a big decline.

One thing behind the changed market, Mr. Freeman said, is that the Fed has started slowly rolling back its exceptional support. It is gradually ending the unprecedented bond-buying program that dumped more than $1 trillion into financial markets. Some time next year, economists expect it to start raising its target rate for overnight lending, its main means of tightening monetary policy.

"We view this as a transition period" away from a market fueled by easy money and toward one driven by traditional forces such as economic growth and company profits, Mr. Freeman said.

"In periods of transition you get what we are seeing now. You see a modest uptick in volatility and there is a lack of direction," he said.

Investors are trying to figure out how well corporate earnings will grow with less Fed aid. Analysts project just 3.3% first-quarter earnings gains for companies in the S&P 500, the smallest since mid-2012, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Analysts are hoping for better later this year, but no one knows.

A big complication is that many companies are reaching the limit of their ability to boost profits by cutting costs, said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds, which oversees $237 billion in New York. More companies now need to focus on building revenues, which means higher costs for investment, hiring and wages.

"More paychecks and fatter paychecks will dampen earnings in the short run but improve spending and help in the longer run," Mr. Webman said. "As there is more hiring and investing, we probably see more rapid growth in the second half of the year."

Analysts project that the S&P 500 companies' revenues rose just 2.7% in the first quarter, according to Thomson Reuters, even less than their expected earnings rise.

The days are ending when Wall Street will reward companies for holding down wages and doing little investing, Mr. Webman said.

"There is going to be a need for companies to figure out how they can sustain earnings, having squeezed pretty much what they can squeeze from the existing labor force," Mr. Webman said. "The rest of the year will be better than the first quarter but there will be a greater dispersion of winners and losers."

Given all the uncertainty, why haven't stocks fallen harder?

One reason is that investors still haven't hit the extremes of irrational exuberance they reached before previous bear markets, said Phil Roth, a director of the Market Technicians Association, a professional association for technical analysts.

For years, he said, the market has been driven by hedge funds and other short-term traders, and by corporate stock buybacks. Individuals, pension funds, money managers and financial institutions have been bit players, he said, based on mutual-fund data and the Fed's investment tracking.

"The hedge funds have been trading with one another and that is all that is going on. Some of them have backed off and that gives you this mixed picture," Mr. Roth said. "For every guy who says it is going down 10% there is another guy who says, 'I am going to buy it on that dip because I don't think it is going down that much.' "

The result is a choppy, up-and-down market.

Mr. Roth, who saw the trouble coming in 2007, doesn't see the same frothier market today.

Margin debt, a measure of the use of borrowed money to invest, is at a record high in dollar terms. But as a percentage of market value, it is 2.6%, still between the 2008 low of 2.3% and the 2007 high of 2.8%, Mr. Roth calculates.

Trading volume on the Nasdaq stock market, with its many young, hot companies, can be another indicator of excess. When speculative fever is high Nasdaq volume can equal that of the New York Stock Exchange. Last week it was 68%, Mr. Roth said.

Initial public offerings of stock, which often explode at market highs, also aren't at past extremes.

So speculation is up, stocks are pricey and markets started looking frothy last year, but "the market hasn't shown enough excess to warrant a big correction," Mr. Roth said.

A serious economic reversal could change that and push stocks down, but there aren't any signs of that yet, he added. Instead, "people have been selling at the top and buying when stocks are down," which, he said, is fairly standard market behavior.

Move Inc. is On the Move (MOVE, Z, TRLA)

No, it's not a Trulia Inc. (NYSE:TRLA) or a Zillow Inc. (NASDAQ:Z). In fact, it's not even close to being a Zillow or a Trulia. Yet, for the time being anyway, Move Inc. (NASDAQ:MOVE) may be the best trade within the online real estate group right now.

For those not familiar with it, Move Inc. is.... well, it's a lot of things, all of which are aimed at homebuyers ready to make a purchase or sale of a home. Although it's not a carbon copy of Zillow or a Trulia - which provide information about individual homes for sale to help people find a house and determine if it's a good fit and worth the price - TRLA and Z are still very relevant comparisons.

So the recent buzz surrounding Zillow and Trulia is infecting Move Inc. in a positive way? Maybe, though even that association isn't the core of the reason a newcomer may want to take on a position in MOVE today. No, the reason a traded may want to get into Move Inc. soon (as in today) is much lower-brow than that.... it's because the chart says the selling is over and a bounce has begun.

You can sense the reversal on the daily chart of MOVE, but to do the theory justice, you really have to zoom out to a weekly chart. That's what you'll see below. After a major pullback from a peak of $18.36 in October of last year to a low of $9.98 last week, MOVE was due for a rebound. And, last week's bar - with an open and close near the high for the week but a long-tailed low - suggests the last of the sellers were flushed out , and the first of the buyers are now trickling in... a proverbial changing of the guard from a net-bearish to a net-bullish situation. That fact that the bulls have followed-through this week confirms the rebound effort.

With all of that being said, the underpinnings for the technical move may be more fundamentally-based than it seems on the surface. Yesterday the company announced it would be releasing last quarter's earnings numbers on May 6th. Odds are good that some people knew they were on the way, but more than that, given the pre-earnings action, it seems that "somebody knows something". This strong rebound effort appears to have materialized out of nowhere, but nothing ever happens in the market for no reason. It looks like somebody out there is making a bet that things are going to be encouraging when the company unveils Q1's numbers.

Do we take that hint being dropped by speculators? Ya know, the crowd is right - even if they don't know they're right - a surprising amount of the time. Translation: Yes, the potential reward from that hint is worth the risk.

For more trading ideas and insights like these, be sure to sign up for the free SmallCap Network newsletter. You'll get stock picks, market calls, and more, every day. Here's what you've missed recently.

Top Three Holdings of a Top Investment Advisory Firm

Over the past days hedge funds have been filing their form 13-F, which is a quarterly report of equity holdings filed by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in equity assets under management, as required by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In this article, let´s concentrate in one particular hedge fund and try to see the principal holdings in its portfolio. I will look into Blackhill Capital Inc., a financial investment advisory firm headquartered in Morristown, N.J.

Recently the fund reported its equity portfolio, as at the end of last year. The total value of the portfolio amounted to $657.0 million, up from $621.2 million disclosed at the end of the previous quarter. Consequently, the fund's total return was 5.75% in the last quarter. The filing revealed that at the end of last year, the fund added 38 new positions to its equity portfolio, and sold out of two other companies. The top 10 portfolio holdings as of the end of the quarter represented 69.67%.The largest changes from previous 13-F fillings are in the health care sector (1%) followed by industrials and technological stocks (around 0.2% each).

In this article, we have selected three companies, in which the fund holds the largest stakes, in terms of market value.

The first on the list is Pfizer Inc. (PFE), in which Blackhill disclosed a $23.6 million stake with over 772,140 shares. Pfizer is a biopharmaceutical company which sells health care products worldwide. It operates in a highly competitive industry with Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK), Novartis AG (NVS) and Sanofi (SNY). It has reported fourth quarter EPS and revenues above the Zacks Consensus Estimate. It has a proven commitment to returning cash to investors, with a current dividend yield of 3% which is considered quite good to protect investors' purchasing power. The company returned about $15 billion to shareholders (dividends and share buybacks) in 2012.

Other hedge fund gurus have also been active in the company. Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) has bought in it in fourth quarter 2013.

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) comes in next, the fund owning over 250,860 shares, worth $19.1 million. The company reported earnings per share increased by 33.8% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. As we can see in the next chart, the bank has demonstrated a pattern of positive EPS growth over the last years.

We have to mention, that the net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has outperformed compared to the Media industry average.

In Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Blackhill disclosed ownership of over 206,560 shares, worth $18.9 million. The company reported earnings per share increased by 32.5% compared to the same quarter one year prior, and has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. The company returns cash to investors: Its current dividend yield is 2.83%, which is considered quite enough to protect the purchasing power.

Final Comment

The stocks still have good upside potential despite the fact that they have already risen in the past year. The three stocks are certainly attractive for fundamental investors and make it a worthy investment for Blackhill's portfolio. In future articles we are going to calculate the intrinsic value of these stocks to determine if they are a good buy in terms of valuation.

Disclosure: Vanina Egea holds no position in any stocks mentioned.

About the author:Vanina EgeaA fundamental analyst at Lone Tree Analytics

Visit Vanina Egea's Website

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Tired of Hearing About Gay Future NFL Star Michael Sam?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I'm tired of being nice. I'm tired of beating around the bush. And I'm tired of giving the benefit of the doubt to bigots and homophobes who shamefully hide behind free speech and the safety our society has attached to certain memes to float their hateful positions and discriminatory thoughts.

If you really don't care that Michael Sam, the football player, is gay and, (this is the important part), you want name calling, bullying, beatings and murders against LGBT people to stop then you want to hear more, not less, about the fact that Michael Sam is, indeed, a gay man about to enter the National Football League (NFL) Draft.

That would be the natural reaction. To raise awareness. For goodness sake, the Tea Party of America has turned raising awareness, making noise and saturating the media with the things they care about into an art. You don't hear Tea Party supporters saying we want to hear less about the Tea Party.

Of course not. However, you hear cats like me who think toxic morons, by and large, comprise the Tea Party argue, in one way or the other, that we're tired of hearing about the Tea Party. That's because cats like me don't like the Tea Party. We just want them to go away. They make us uncomfortable. We think if their vision for the world became commonplace society would suffer. But here's the deal -- I can't speak for Michael Sam, but I get the impression he doesn't want to push the way he lives his life on you. He doesn't want you to have gay sex or do any of the other things he might do as a gay man. It's not about that. He's not pushing a political agenda on anybody. I think he simply wants to help create a safer space for gays in sports and elsewhere in our culture. The guy made the ballsiest move since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. And he'll end up doing more for other gay athletes -- at all levels of competition -- than any organized effort south of the National Hockey League's (NHL) fantastic partnership with the You Can Play project. So to argue that I just don't want to hear about it anymore or that Gays are constantly shoving their lifestyle in our face reeks horribly of bigotry and homophobia. Do you realize that lobbyists exist who actually want to ban gay players from participating in the National Football League? Some legislators want to give businesses the "right" to ban gays from their establishments. That type of stuff goes beyond boggling my mind. It makes me want to rip my mind out of my head and heave it into the ocean. I'm all for pervading news coverage with the mind-boggling stories as well. The more we can expose the anti-gay crowd for the hateful and ignorant slugs they are, the better. We're at the precise point in history where we absolutely should want to hear as much as possible about bold acts by LGBT people and the swelling support for these actions. We don't live in a world where shutting up gets anything done, especially with respect to the existence of things that make others uncomfortable. Follow @rocco_thestreet --Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.