Public Storage Posts Higher Net Income; Beats Earnings Estimates; Raises Dividend (PSA)

Public Storage (PSA) announced its third quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, posting an increase in net income and revenues.

PSA Earnings in Brief

-Public Storage announced total quarterly revenues of $419 million, which were up from last year’s $397 million, but below the average analyst estimate of $464.58 million.
-The company’s net income came in at $231.4 million, or $1.34 per share, which was up from last year’s Q3 net income of $202.5 million, or $1.18 per share.
-PSA’s core FFO per share was up from last year’s $1.76 to $1.92 for the most recent quarter; this beat analysts’ estimates of $1.89.

Dividend Raise

Public Storage announced that its board has approved to raise its dividend 12% to $1.40 per common share. This is a 15 cent raise from the company’s previous quarterly payout of $1.25 and brings the annualized payout to $5.60. The new dividend is payable on December 30 to all shareholders on record as of December 13.

Share Performance

PSA stock was down 66 cents, or 0.39%, on the day, but was up steeply in after-hours trading. YTD, the company’s stock is up 14.74%.

 

Graham: Block new Fed chief over Benghazi

Several Republican lawmakers said Wednesday they will block new Obama nominations for top positions until the White House stops what they say is muzzling people who may shed light on key questions yet to be answered about the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed a U.S. ambassador.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he will block the nomination of Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve until eyewitnesses and the statements they made to the FBI within 48 hours of the attack are made available to Congress.

"That's the only leverage we have," Graham said. "How can Congress conclude an investigation if we don't have access to the people who were there?"

Graham and others, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Jim Jordan of Ohio, say the Obama administration is pressuring government employees to keep them from testifying to Congress about what they may know.

The Obama administration has said releasing those witnesses and their statements would endanger a criminal investigation, Graham said. But if such a theory were allowed to stand, it would block Congressional from exercising its oversight responsibility, he said.

"For the good of the country you can't hide behind a criminal investigation," Graham said. "If that were allowed to stand, just imagine how it would allow the admin to shield itself behind an ongoing investing."

They senators say they want to know why known security problems before the terrorist attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were not addressed by the State Department, which at the time was headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

They also want to know why the U.S. military did not do more to rescue Americans who were pinned down in the hours-long attack, and why the White House promoted a false narrative about who the attackers were and why they attacked.

President Obama and Clinton insisted for weeks that the at! tack emerged from a spontaneous protest of Libyans upset over an anti-Islam video produced in the United States. But personnel who have testified to Congress say State and the White House were aware that the CIA and others concluded the attack was likely an organized pre-planned assault by al-Qaeda linked terrorists. There was never a protest.

The State Department has said the witnesses are spread around the world at diplomatic postings and that State's internal review and multiple congressional hearings have answered all questions about what happened. The White House has characterized Republican focus on the incident as politically motivated.

On Sunday, the CBS news program 60 Minutes reported that a British security contractor using the alias Morgan Jones said it was clear that security was far too lax at the Benghazi compound.

Jones said he was hired a few months before the attack to train a Libyan guard force at the Benghazi compound. He said he knew when he drove up to the compound and found the guards drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes inside instead of stationed outside that they would not stand and fight in an attack.

Jones said he complained so often that the guards were not adequate and should be replaced that "in the end I got quite tired of hearing my own voice saying it."

Lt. Col. Andy Wood, a top U.S. security official in Libya during the attack, told CBS he warned his superiors weeks before the attack that an attack was imminent but his warnings were ignored.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants based in Benghazi had posted online warnings earlier in the year that they would attack the British, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Americans in the city. By June, there had been an assassination attempt on the British ambassador in Benghazi, and an attack on the Red Cross.

"They carried out the first two and the only ones left were the Americans," Wood said. "I made it known. You're going to get attacked in Benghazi, it's going to happen. M! ove out t! emporarily or set up a new location somewhere else in the city. Do something, they're in the final planning stages."

His warnings resulted in no change in the Benghazi posting's security arrangements, Wood said. Testimony has already been heard that Stevens himself had requested more security from State but none was approved.

When the attack happened, mortar fire on a second U.S. compound attacked that night was so accurate it was clear "they practiced those things," Wood said.

The Administrative Review Board that looked into the security question was chosen by Clinton and placed the blame for the terrorist attack on four midlevel officials, all of whom have remained at State. Clinton was not interviewed by the board though she was ultimately responsible for security at diplomatic missions overseas.

Former Tripoli Regional Officer Eric Nordstrom testified in May that Clinton waived security requirements for the U.S. consulate in Benghazi despite the extremely high risk levels that staff was complaining about. Clinton has said State was relying on the Libyans to provide security despite the risk.

On the question of military rescue during the attack, Greg Hicks, the State Department's top official in Libya after Stevens at the time, said he learned from the defense attaché about an hour into the attack that the U.S. military was not sending help.

"For a moment, I just felt lost," Hicks said.

Hours later, two former U.S. Navy SEALs, Glen Doherty and Tyronne Woods, were killed defending the second compound.

Former Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has said that the U.S. military had determined that a rescue would take too long and be too risky, though the attack dragged on for hours and a drone provided a live video feed of the attack. He said Obama told the Pentagon to decide how to handle the attack when it was first learned of.

What Currently Drives the Market?

Given the way the market has looked, basically, since the shutdown resolution, it's now all about leverage, writes MoneyShow's Jim Jubak.

The market that we have now, the market that we have had, really, since the solution to the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis, is based on a falling dollar, lower US interest rates, a belief that the Fed will not act to tighten anything until March, and so the question is, the general market might be marching up as the S&P did on October 21 and October 22 by, oh, you know, five tenths of a percent or whatever. The question is, where do you get the most leverage? If this is what is going to drive the market, where do you get leverage?

One place to look for it this week has been in the ADRs, the New York traded ADRs, American Depository Receipts of GOL. One of the two big Brazilian airlines is the only one that is not owned by somebody else. The symbol is (GOL). It went up like 9.5% on October 21; it went up about 4.5% on October 22, pulled back a tiny little bit on October 23, but still a major, major move. This is basically on the effect of a weaker dollar versus the Brazilian real, since GOL is basically a domestic airline and almost all their revenue is denominated in real, which means that when the real gets cheap against the dollar, it hurts their revenue, especially because most of their costs, a lot of their costs, probably about 80% of their costs are denominated in dollars. A strong dollar means what they pay for oil, kerosene, jet fuel, what they pay for debt service, what they pay on airplane leases, all denominated in dollars, goes up, so GOL has been getting hammered on this. The reversal of this is a big deal for the stock.

A couple of other incidental things, which is that they have been cutting capacity to try to up their load, and the load factor, and that seems to be working, as well as it looks like they are going to sign big co-sharing agreements with European airlines, probably Air France and maybe Lufthansa, in time for the June 2014 World Cup, so that means they will be feeding more European tourists into the system for the big soccer tournament.

All those things have really been helping GOL. After this rise, this rally, the stock is still about 38% below its 52 week high. I think you could safely assume that if all this continues, if the dollar and real relationship continues, and we continue to get this good news on traffic, you could easily see another 20% in the stock, and that would be a good way to leverage a weak dollar and the current market.

This is Jim Jubak for the Money Show.com Video Network.

What Every Investor Should Worry About Today

Leverage destroys. Just ask Robert Citron.   In 1993, Citron was a hero. He was a public servant who discovered a way to earn high returns in a declining-interest-rate environment. While other municipal treasurers were struggling to earn any sort of return at all, Citron was cleaning up. The gains on his investments made up for any shortfalls in his county budget, kept several county government programs alive, and eliminated any talk of raising taxes.   Citron's strategy wasn't all that complicated. He put county money into Reverse Purchase Agreements (RPAs) and Floating Rate Notes (FRNs) that were designed to increase in yield as interest rates fell. He juiced the yields even more by leveraging up (borrowing money) to invest in these securities. After all, if he could borrow funds at 3% and generate a 6% return, leverage was a good thing.   Citron was so successful that neighboring municipalities entrusted him with their funds in the hopes of receiving equally high returns. And they did... for a while.   But in February 1994, the Federal Reserve Board raised short-term interest rates by 0.25%. Liquidity disappeared from the RPA and FRN markets... And Citron's investment portfolio blew up.   Many of his securities lost 60%-80% of their value.   Citron was convinced that if he could just hold on until conditions returned to normal, everything would work out all right. But he didn't have the luxury of time. You see, he had borrowed money to make those investments. The sudden drop in value made his lenders nervous, and they wanted Citron to either put up more collateral or liquidate enough of the securities to pay off the loans.   His county didn't have any more collateral. So Citron was forced to liquidate for pennies on the dollar. The money he received wasn't even enough to pay off the loans against the portfolio.   A few months later, Citron resigned as Treasurer of Orange County, California. And Orange County became known as the largest municipal bankruptcy ever in the United States.   But here's the thing...   Citron was right. Within a few months of the bankruptcy, interest rates started to fall again, liquidity returned to the RPA and FRN markets, and almost all the securities Orange County sold for pennies on the dollar were trading near par. If he could have held on, everything would have been all right.   It wasn't the investments that destroyed Orange County. It was the leverage.   By borrowing money to buy securities, Citron put Orange County at the mercy of its lenders. Lenders don't care if you make a good or bad investment decision. They only care about getting their money back. When they fear their money is at risk, lenders will call in the loan. If you don't have the money to back it up, you can be forced to sell depressed assets in illiquid conditions. That's the nature of a "margin call."   It's what destroyed Orange County... It's what brought down Lehman Brothers... And it was at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis.   Leverage exacerbated the stock market crash of 1987. It led to the extreme stock valuations in 2000. It accelerated the decline from the market top in 2007.   And leverage is what every investor ought to be worried about today.   You see, NYSE margin debt is at an all-time high. Investors are borrowing money to buy stocks. So as the market rallies to new highs, investors are now more leveraged than at any other time in history.   History tells us this is a bad thing.   In March 2000, margin debt on the New York Stock Exchange climbed to more than $278 million for the first time ever. Then it started falling. Four months later, the S&P 500 peaked above 1,500 and entered a severe bear market. The index lost 45% of its value over the next two years.   In July 2007, margin debt set a new all-time high above $381 million. Then it started to fall. Two months later, the S&P 500 set a new record above 1,550. Eighteen months later, it traded as low as 667.   Last April, margin debt rose above $384 million – another new all-time high, the first since 2007. True to form, the S&P 500 rallied to a new high last month. But margin debt has been declining since hitting its high in April.   If the historic trend persists, that's a bad sign for stock prices.   Best regards and good trading,   Jeff Clark

Q2 Earnings: 3 Answers From iRobot

Last week, I posed three questions for iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT  ) going into its second-quarter earnings report.

But even though the company answered each of my inquiries with its report yesterday after the market close, the stock traded down more than 13% today.

So what happened? Here's what iRobot had to say.

On meeting revenue and earnings expectations
First, I wondered whether iRobot could remain on track to meet its full-year 2013 revenue and earnings guidance, both of which the company raised last quarter, as it called for sales of between $485 million and $495 million, and earnings per share between $0.80 and $1.00.

After all, I noted, shares of iRobot jumped 10% in March, after the company raised its first-quarter guidance on both fronts, and then rose another 15% in a single day in April, when iRobot exceeded even those impressive numbers.

Sure enough, iRobot's revenue and earnings during the second quarter came in at $130.4 million and $0.28 per share, respectively, beating analysts' consensus estimates of earnings of $0.19 per share on $128.9 million in sales.

In addition, thanks largely to a one-time $0.07 tax benefit related to the prior period sale of government robots to the U.S. military, iRobot raised the lower end of its earnings per share guidance to $0.88, while at the same time maintaining the rest of its guidance numbers.

So why the drop?

For one, given iRobot's past streak of outperformance -- this marks the fifth time in as many quarters iRobot has exceeded expectations -- you can bet Mr. Market was hoping for an even bigger beat, with the stock trading before at around 44 times last year's earnings and 37 times next years' estimates. What's more, time will tell whether iRobot is simply being cautious, but shareholders can't help wondering why the company chose to raise only the bottom end of its EPS guidance.

After today's drop, though, it's worth noting that iRobot's valuation has come down to around 38 times last year's earnings and 32 times next year's estimates.

On Home Robot growth
Next, I wanted to know whether the world still loves iRobot's consumer offerings. 

Remember, earlier this year the company said it expected Home Robot segment sales to grow by around 20% by the end of 2013, ultimately accounting for around 90% of all sales.

As it turns out, thanks to 26% growth here in the U.S. and an 18% increase in consumer sales abroad, Q2 Home Robot revenue grew exactly 20% from the same year-ago period. Even so, while that's in line with iRobot's stated goals, the first quarter's 44% year-over-year rise in domestic consumer bot sales was certainly a tough act to follow.

Even so, iRobot CEO Colin Angle provided a nice little nugget for investors on the company's earnings conference call, saying:

We continue to expect overall home robot revenue to grow 20% to 25% from last year, but based on the strength of the domestic home robot market year-to-date and our outlook for the remainder of the year, we now expect that part of the business to grow 25% to 30%, and the international business to grow 15% to 20% for the full year.

On that "other" category
Last but not least, I was hoping for more clarity on some of iRobot's emerging segments, most notably including its newest telepresence robots such as the health care-centric RP-VITA and the enterprise-focused Ava 500, which is being created under a joint partnership with the help of tech giant Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) and its existing telepresence solutions.

While iRobot's earnings press release didn't provide anything new, Angle did provide some color on the platforms during its follow-up earnings conference call.

Specifically, Angle noted they have shipped more than 40 RP-VITA units to InTouch so far, half of which are already installed and in use. For those of you keeping track, that represents healthy progress from the roughly one dozen RP-VITA bots that were in already in use in hospitals by the end of last quarter.

Angle also reminded us that the Ava 500, for its part, still remains in the very early stages and was demonstrated at last month's InfoComm Conference as well as Cisco Live just a few weeks ago. Of course, while this particular partnership may not mean much in the near term for the $136 billion Cisco, iRobot management was also excited that the Cisco Live conference exposed the Ava 500 platform not only to thousands of Cisco's customers, but also the company's vast value-added reseller network.

As a result, and thanks to a positive reception at both events, Cisco and iRobot will be starting a beta program for the Ava 500 by the end of this year, targeting "limited availability through Cicso partners in 2014."

Foolish takeaway
In the end, this was still a solid quarter for iRobot, and nothing has changed the company's significant long-term growth story. As a result, and as I stated just last week, I have no plans to sell my shares of iRobot anytime in the near future. 

Remember, iRobot is still up more than 70% over the past year, so I don't think long-term shareholders should be particularly concerned about today's temporary plunge.

That said, we should also remember iRobot represents just one of many incredible growth stocks our market has to offer.

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Schlumberger Beats Analyst Estimates on EPS

Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB  ) reported earnings on July 19. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended June 30 (Q2), Schlumberger met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue expanded. Non-GAAP earnings per share expanded. GAAP earnings per share expanded significantly.

Margins grew across the board.

Revenue details
Schlumberger chalked up revenue of $11.18 billion. The 24 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ looked for a top line of $11.12 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 17% higher than the prior-year quarter's $10.45 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
EPS came in at $1.15. The 31 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $1.10 per share. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.15 for Q2 were 9.5% higher than the prior-year quarter's $1.05 per share. (The prior-year quarter included $0.02 per share in earnings from discontinued operations.) GAAP EPS of $1.57 for Q2 were 50% higher than the prior-year quarter's $1.05 per share. (The prior-year quarter included $0.02 per share in earnings from discontinued operations.)

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 28.8%, 690 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 25.6%, 750 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 17.1%, 370 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. (Margins calculated in GAAP terms.)

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $11.62 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $1.21.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $45.67 billion. The average EPS estimate is $4.66.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a five-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 2,999 members out of 3,082 rating the stock outperform, and 83 members rating it underperform. Among 546 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 529 give Schlumberger a green thumbs-up, and 17 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Schlumberger is outperform, with an average price target of $89.83.

Is Schlumberger the right energy stock for you? Read about a handful of timely, profit-producing plays on expensive crude in "3 Stocks for $100 Oil." Click here for instant access to this free report.

Add Schlumberger to My Watchlist.

Arrested Reporter in Zoomlion Case Admits To Taking Bribes And Inaccurate Reporting

In a dramatic turn of events, Chen Yongzhou, the arrested reporter from New Express, acknowledged to have taken bribes for publishing 14 articles that accused Zoomlion of fabricating sales, engaging in abnormal marketing activities and trading stocks that resulted in the loss of national assets.

"None of the articles was written by me," said Chen, who appeared in the news channel of Central China Television on Saturday morning. "They provided the original script and I edited it." Chen confessed to have conducted arranged interviews for only "one and a half" of the published pieces. For some of the rest, he did not even take a thorough look before they went to press. It was not made clear for whom Chen was working for, though he revealed to have been contacted by certain "middlemen."

The content of the articles was "absolutely not objective," according to Chen, given their "obvious" intention to tarnish the reputation of Zoomlion, China's second largest manufacturer of construction machinery.

Chen was also paid RMB 500,000 to report Zoomlion's "problems" using his real identity to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Chen said he became afraid after trading of Zoomlion's stocks was suspended for two days in May, following a major piece that alleged the company had fabricated sales. Zoomlion lost RMB 1.4 billion in just one day, according to an executive interviewed in the TV program. "[The impact] was completely beyond my expectation," Chen confessed, though he published four more articles thereafter.

Chen, based in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, was arrested on Oct 19th on charges of "damaging commercial reputation" by police from Changsha, Hubei Province, where Zoomlion is based. His employer New Express has since made public appeals for Chen's release and claimed that review of his articles showed none but one factual mistake. "Based on our investigation and knowledge, Chen Yongzhou has not violated the ethics of news reporting or laws in the coverage of Zoomlion's financial issues." New Express wrote in a public statement on October 23rd.

Chinese media and online commentators have previously questioned the legality of Chen's arrest by police force from a different province and the charges made against him. It was also questioned if New Express, not Chen, should be the one that bears the brunt of legal actions.

Phone calls to New Express' office went unanswered.

Follow me on Twitter @Hengshao90.

Nasdaq nears 4,000: Are tech stocks overvalued?

Investors are going crazy over tech stocks again, pushing the Nasdaq ever closer to 4000, but some wonder if the mania is showing signs of frothiness.

It's almost like 2000 all over again in some ways. Money-losing Internet companies are launching IPOs — this time it's online messaging company Twitter. Amazon.com's shares are soaring even as it posts a quarterly loss. Investors are clamoring to invest in search engines, driving shares of Google to record highs over $1,000 a share.

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But in perhaps the most dramatic sign of the comeback of technology stocks, the Nasdaq composite index has raced to levels not seen since Sept. 8, 2000, and is approaching 4000. Powered by gains in Microsoft and Amazon shares Friday, the Nasdaq added 14.40 points to 3943.36, and has soared 31% this year.

"The animal spirits are back. The pendulum has swung from fear to greed," says Robert Maltbie of Millennium Asset Management. "If you can grow, and Microsoft, Google and Amazon have shown they can, investors will find you and buy."

The move back toward 4000 has been a major trip down memory lane for investors. The last time the index was above 4000 was Sept. 7, 2000, two months before the presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Back then, now fallen companies Enron and Lehman Bros. still existed, and shares of Internet darling Cisco Systems were nearly triple where they are now.

Investors watching tech stocks move up are noticing several key trends, including:

•Search for winners. Investors are trying to trying to locate the winners likely to capitalize on a dramatic shift to mobile devices and cloud computing, where profits could be enormous, says Colin Sebastian, analyst at Robert W. Baird. Microsoft, Amazon and Google are all well positioned to take advantage of this shift that will result in strong growth, he says. "These companies are creating! news businesses and industries," he says.

•Pockets of tech enthusiasm. Few areas of technology are posting the kind of effervescent behavior as social media stocks. The basket of social networking giants Facebook and LinkedIn, online game company Zynga and online review site Angie's List and Yelp have more than doubled, on average, this year. Shares of Yelp are up 257% along this year. "Is tech in a bubble?" Maltbie says. "Some areas are."

•A relative calm when looking at the entire industry. While there are certainly cases of tech stocks that are getting ahead of reality, that's not the case with tech overall, though. It's not like investors universally are bidding up shares of all techs, says Dan Veru of Palisade Capital Management. Qualcomm, a darling for years due to its business of designing chips for mobile devices, is up 10% this year, lagging the Standard & Poor's 500.

And while investors are more interested than they were in tech stocks a year ago, they're not paying "stratospheric valuations," says Doug Sandler of Riverfront Investment Group. Tech stocks are trading for 13.9 times their forecast earnings for the next four quarters, which is tied for the third-lowest valuation of the 10 sectors tracked by S&P Capital IQ. Consumer discretionary stocks are trading for a much richer 18.5 times earnings.

"You might see a bubble in different areas, like social media," Sandler says. "But we're definitely not seeing a tech bubble."

Twitter is worth more than $11 billion

  Twitter IPO's #winners NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Twitter isn't yet making a profit, but analysts think its future is bright -- and that it's worth more than the current $11 billion valuation.

Twitter set the preliminary price range for its initial public offering at $17 to $20 per share late Thursday. At the top of that range, the company would be worth $11 billion.

That's lower than the $15 billion to $20 billion valuation that some experts had predicted.

Even the $11 billion figure might sound high given that Twitter is unprofitable. But investing in a company is about belief in its future potential, not its current situation.

In a note to clients on Friday, SunTrust analyst Robert Peck said Twitter "wisely started the pricing conservatively" -- and he expects the company to raise its range, which isn't binding, over the next few weeks.

"[Twitter] left room to raise the range based on potential investor demand, which we anticipate will be strong," Peck said. He based that demand prediction on discussions with several investors over the past few weeks, which leads him to believe the deal will be "well received."

In fact, Peck set a $50 price target on Twitter.

Related story: Why is Twitter spending so much on R&D?

Morningstar analyst Rick Summer hasn't yet set his price target, but he noted that Twitter's valuation is "rich" when comparing its financial performance with that of Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) and LinkedIn (LNKD). Still, he's extremely positive about the company's offerings and business model.

"Twitter is a very unique medium, and we think that speaks extremely well of the company," Summer said. "It's not just about selling ads on the side of a page and measuring impressions."

Twitter runs ads for corporate accounts, specific tweets and topics, and the sponsored content is tucked right into users' feeds. Advertising accounted 85% of Twitter's revenue in 2012.

"They've done a good job of offering unique advertising and not forcing products that don't work," Summer said. "They dominate their market and really partner with companies, which use Twitter to distribute their content widely. It's attractive."

Twitter has also been quick to offer those ad products on mobile. Three-quarters of Twitter's monthly active users accessed the service on a mobile device la! st quarter, and mobile ads brought in 70% of its total ad revenue.

Mobile was the big area where Facebook suffered -- and, as a result, so did its stock. So it's a big plus that Twitter has figured out this important part of its business.

But Nate Elliott, lead social analyst at Forrester, cautioned against judging Twitter through the lens of Facebook.

Twitter was founded more than seven years ago, while Facebook had eight years under its belt when it went public in 2012. That's not too much of a difference from a timeline perspective, but Elliott pointed out that the two social networks have very different histories.

Related story: Twitter hires NBC's Vivian Schiller as news chief

"The big comparison everyone is making is how Twitter stacks up to Facebook," said Nate Elliott, lead social analyst at Forrester. "But Twitter is at a much earlier stage of business than Facebook was when it went public. Twitter is still figuring out how to best serve its audience."

Twitter may be more green than Facebook, and is certainly less popular -- it has about a fifth of Facebook's user base. But that newness could be to Twitter's advantage.

"We've had advertising partners tell us they're kind of burned out on Facebook, but they haven't gotten to that point on Twitter yet," Elliott said. "That doesn't mean they're necessarily sold on Twitter. But they're listening."

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now

The number of bad China bank loans tripled in just six months of 2013, but bank profits remained mainly unscathed, writes MoneyShow's Jim Jubak, also of Jubak's Picks.

China's biggest banks cleaned house in the first half of 2013, tripling the amount of bad loans written off in the period from the first half of 2012.

That kind of coming clean would be a good thing—analysts have argued that China's banks have dragged their feet on writing off loans that have gone bad and are clearly never going to be repaid—except that it has raised fears that China's banks are cleaning house now in anticipation of a new wave of bad loans to come, as a result of a slowdown in China's economic growth.

In the first six months of 2013, China's five biggest banks wrote off 22.1 billion yuan ($3.65 billion) in debt. That was up from 7.65 billion yuan in the first half of 2012.

The worry is, with growth forecast to slow to 7.6% in 2013, the lowest growth rate since 1999, China's banks are facing a surge in bad loans as a result of the credit boom that began in 2009. The five biggest banks; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, and the China Construction Bank, showed a 22.4 billion yuan ($3.68 billion) increase in nonperforming loans in the first half of 2013. That took the total for nonperforming loans to 350 billion yuan ($57.5 billion), or 1% of total loans, according to Bloomberg. In the first half of the year, the big five banks added 83 billion yuan ($13.6 billion) to their reserves for loan losses.

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Standard Financial Corp.(STND)

Standard Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Standard Bank that provides financial services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include savings, money market, commercial and regular checking, demand and NOW, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company?s loan portfolio comprises commercial real estate, one-to four-family residential mortgage, commercial business, construction, and consumer loans; and home equity loans and lines of credit. It operates 10 branches located in the Pennsylvania counties of Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Bedford; and Allegany County, Maryland. Standard Financial Corp. was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Aehr Test Systems(AEHR)

Aehr Test Systems designs, engineers, and manufactures test and burn-in equipment for use in the semiconductor industry. The company primarily offers the advanced burn-in and test systems for performing tests during burn-in on logic and memory packaged ICs; the FOX full wafer contact parallel test and burn-in systems for making contact with pads of a wafer simultaneously to enable full wafer parallel test and burn-in; the MAX burn-in systems for burn-in and functionally testing of devices, such as digital signal processors, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and systems-on-a-chip; WaferPak cartridges for use in testing wafers in FOX systems; the DiePak carriers, a reusable, temporary package that enables IC manufacturers to perform final test and burn-in of bare die; and test fixtures, which hold the devices undergoing test or burn-in and electrically connect the devices under test to the system electronics. It also offers customer service and support programs, including s ystem installation, system repair, applications engineering support, spare parts inventories, customer training, and documentation. The company markets and sells its products through a network of distributors and sales representatives to semiconductor manufacturers, semiconductor contract assemblers, electronics manufacturers, and burn-in and test service companies. It has operations in the United States, Asia, and Europe. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own Right Now: Mt Dimer Gold Mines(MDG.AX)

Medtech Global Limited engages in the development of healthcare technologies in New Zealand and Australia. It offers Medtech32, a clinical management solution utilized in primary healthcare applications; Medtech Evolution, an enterprise health management system used for medical practices, hospitals, and managed service and corporate health service providers; ManageMyHealth, a clinical and health portal that enables the individuals to manage their healthcare needs; MD Analyze, which creates clinical registries for surgeons and other specialist consultants; Linktech, a data mining and aggregation tool that allows population-based health analysis; and Medtech Clinical Audit Tool, a clinical audit system, which analyzes patient data. The company also provides tools for the management of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes; Specialty Registries; and Clinical Knowledge Management that allows clinicians to customize data collection. In addition, it offer s solutions for depression and geriatric health; prototypes and software solutions for the management of mental health, including Talking Therapy modules for the primary mental health sector and mental health referral pathways; and a solution that provides an electronic record of the sports person?s medical history and injury management. Further, the company offers data services comprising data conversion, data extract/splits/merge, and data repair; digitization services, which converts medical records into an electronic format; medical billing services, such as medical claims processing, billing, and collections and coding; medical transcription services to clinics, hospitals, physician practices, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities, long term care facilities, and other health related organizations; and healthcare consultancy and training services. The company was founded in 1980 and is based in Auckland, New Zealand. Medtech Global Limited is a subsidiary of Cer eus Holdings Ltd.

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Stamford Land Corporation Ltd (H07.SI)

Stamford Land Corporation Ltd, an investment holding company, owns and operates a portfolio of luxury hotels in Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. It operates hotels and resorts under the Stamford Grand North Ryde, Sir Stamford Circular Quay, Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport, Stamford Grand Adelaide, Stamford Plaza Adelaide, Stamford Plaza Melbourne, Stamford Plaza Brisbane, and Stamford Plaza Auckland names. It also engages in the investment, construction, development, and trading of residential apartments, and retail and commercial buildings. In addition, the company is involved in providing travel agency services; importing, exporting, and dealing in wall coverings, interior decorations, and furnishing products; and offering management and consultancy services. Stamford Land Corporation Ltd is based in Singapore.

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Clearbridge Energy MLP Total Return Fund Inc (CTR)

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Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Red Hat Inc.(RHT)

Red Hat, Inc. provides open source software solutions to enterprises worldwide. It also offers enterprise-ready open source operating system platforms. The company provides Red Hat Enterprise Linux, an operating system designed for enterprise computing; JBoss Enterprise Middleware that offers a suite of products for developing, deploying, integrating, and managing distributed, composite, and Web-based applications and services; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor, a hypervisor based on KVM technology that converts the Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel into a virtualization platform; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager, a server virtualization management system, which provide capabilities for host and guest operating systems, such as availability, live migration, power manager, storage manager, and system scheduler. It also offers other Red Hat enterprise technologies, which comprise Red Hat MRG t hat integrates open and scalable messaging; Red Hat Developer, which provides integrated development environments and support for application developers; and Red Hat Directory Server that centralizes application settings, user profiles, group data, policies, and access control information into a network-based registry. In addition, the company offers Red Hat systems management solutions, such as RHN, RHN Satellite, Red Hat Customer Portal, and JBoss ON; and infrastructure enterprise technologies, including software development tools, clustering of systems and services, and directory services. Further, it provides consulting, training, and support services. The company sells its enterprise technologies through subscriptions. It has strategic alliances with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; and Intel Corporation. The company was formerly known as Red Hat Software, Inc. and changed its name to Red Hat, Inc. in June 1999. Red Hat, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Ral eigh, North Carolina.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anders Bylund]

  Red Hat (NYSE: RHT  ) is growing up, and quickly. The Linux vendor passed the billion-dollar annual revenue milestone last year and is expected to grow another 15% in 2013.

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) provides open source software solutions primarily to enterprise customers worldwide. With 15.4% earnings growth reported in its fiscal first quarter, sales are booming as its Jboss middleware business drives revenue. The consensus price target for this fast growing company is $58.

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Redstone Resources Ltd(RDS.AX)

Redstone Resources Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and evaluation of mineral properties in Australia and South America. It primarily explores for copper, gold, nickel, phosphorous, potassium, phosphate, and iron ores. The company holds an exploration portfolio of various properties covering an area of approximately 2,200 square kilometers in the West Musgraves region of Western Australia. It also holds interests in the Aneba potassium project, the Apui phosphate project, the Pontal iron ore project, and the Trombetas potassium project in the Amazon region of Brazil. The company was founded in 1999 and is East Perth, Australia.

Hot Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Theratechnologies Com Npv (TH.TO)

Theratechnologies Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery and development of therapeutic peptide products with a focus on growth-hormone releasing factor (GRF) peptides. Its primary products include EGRIFTA (tesamorelin for injection), an approved therapy for the reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy, which is marketed in the United States, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Montr茅al, Canada.

Dividend Stocks Still Matter

With the Fed still deciding whether or not to slow its quantitative easing problems, investors have been at odds about what to do. If bond's yields rise as many analysts expect them to do, "risk-free" returns begin to look pretty good. That's sent the prices of many income-oriented asset classes downwards over the last few months. That includes standard dividend paying equities and funds like the SPDR S&P Dividend (NYSE:SDY).

However, investors may not want to give up on their dividend stocks just yet. These quarterly pay-outs can provide plenty for benefits for investors and are an important part of a portfolio's total returns. Even more so, dividends continue to look good when compared to bond yields.

A Focus on Payouts

Given the potential for an early 2014 taper of the Fed's bond buying program, investors may not want to throw away their dividend stocks just yet. That's because, these pay-outs have been some of the key elements to total stock market returns.

According to data provided by Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN), the benchmark S&P 500 index has averaged a total return of 9.7% annually over the past 40 years. That's certainly an impressive overall long term return. However, the kicker for that has been dividends paid by the indexes constituents. Over the last 40 years, dividends have made up around one-third of the total return of large U.S. stocks. Removing those payments pushes the S&P 500's return down to just 6.4% per year. Expanding that out further- to 1926- 45% of the S&P's total return came from dividends.

That difference in annual returns amounts to some serious coin- to the tune of about $280,000 more with dividends over the 40 years. Overall, a $10,000 investment grows to well over $400,000 with a total return of 9.7% annually. That same investment is worth around $120,000 if we remove the contribution of dividends from the equation.

While that difference in account value should be enough to make you focus more ! attention to dividends, there are other reasons to like pay-outs from stocks. Dividend payments can help smooth out returns. These payments can help cushion portfolios in falling markets and help reduce risk. Reinvesting those payments can help enhance returns when the market rights itself once again. Meanwhile, dividends can help keep inflation at bay. Many firms will increase dividends at much faster rates than inflationary numbers. This provides investors a higher yield-on-cost, more income and higher overall returns.

Keeping The Dividend Focus

Given the importance that dividend stocks can have on total returns, investors may want up their exposure to the asset class. A prime way could be through the iShares Select Dividend ETF (NYSE:DVY).

The $13 billion behemoth tracks 101 different dividend paying U.S. stocks- including cigarette maker Lorillard (NYSE:LO) and paint/coatings producer PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG). So far, DVY has done pretty well in the total return department. Over the last 5 years, the ETF has racked up 8.51% annual total returns. Expenses run a cheap 0.39% and DVY yields 3.39%. Likewise, the WisdomTree LargeCap Dividend (NYSE:DLN) can be used as a broad play as well.

While most income investors flock to boring utilities or consumer staples firms when looking for equity income, they may want to focus their attention on the high-tech world. The technology sector is quickly becoming a leading dividend machine. Old Tech Titans like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) are flush with cash. More importantly, those firms are retuning that cash to investors via rising dividend payments. According to new agency Bloomberg, technology firms have accounted for more than 54% of the dividend growth of the last five years.

Seeking to capture that growth is the year old First Trust NASDAQ Technology Dividend (NASDAQ:TDIV). The fund includes mid to large cap tech stocks that have paid a regular or common dividend within the past 12 months that yielded at least 0.5%. While that may seem low at first blush, most of its holdings have much larger payouts. TDIV currently yields 2.59% and has managed to outperform many non-dividend focused tech indexes- like the Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLK) -by a wide margin.

The Bottom Line

For those investors looking at the long term, ignore the taper talk and focus on dividends. The pay-outs from equities have been some of the leading contributors to total returns and can have powerful effects on a portfolio. T! he preceding ideas make ideal selections.

Disclosure - At the time of writing, the author did not own shares of any company mentioned in this article.

BART Workers Won: Will Your City's Employees Strike Next?

Getty Images Following almost four days of closures, Bay Area Rapid Transit trains started operating again Tuesday morning, after representatives for striking BART union workers reached a tentative deal with BART management on Monday night. And although both sides still must formally approve the agreement, workers appear to have won a 15.38 percent raise over their four-year contract, in exchange for concessions that include an increase in their monthly medical insurance premiums of about $50, and agreeing to start contributing a portion of their pension costs. The BART strike is just the latest example of clashes between state and local government employees and the cash-strapped cities, counties, and states that employ them. Newly energized by what many will see as a win, government workers around the country might well follow suit in efforts to defend themselves against a rising tide of municipal bankruptcies and other financial threats to their security. Cities Under Siege Just 90 minutes east of San Francisco, the city of Stockton, Calif., is just one of many local governments dealing with huge financial problems. Last year, Stockton became the largest city in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy, holding that dubious honor until July 2013, when Detroit took the crown. In Stockton, current and retired city workers have found themselves at the forefront of controversy over the rights of government employees. The city has trimmed its workforce by about 30 percent, with dramatic reductions even to essential services such as its police department. However, Stockton's proposed bankruptcy plan last month included full payments to the California Public Employees' Retirement System, thus pitting pension recipients against municipal bond investors and insurance companies, as well as other creditors of the city. Not so say those retirees will get off unscathed: Health benefits promised to former city employees will be affected by the bankruptcy. But some say that even with that concession, the plan unfairly favors former workers at the expense of both current workers and other interested parties. Showdown in Motown Meanwhile, in Detroit, officials have laid even more of the blame for the city's financial troubles at the feet of former government employees. A report last month from The New York Times showed that retired city workers actually received billions of dollars in extra pension payments. Even some current employees received supplemental income, and families of deceased workers sometimes received cash payments according to the report. Outside analysis by actuarial experts found that these excess payments to workers, retirees, and their families cost Detroit almost $2 billion between 1985 and 2008. More broadly, state and local governments clearly benefited from the strong economies of the 1990s and mid-2000s, with investment gains bolstering pension plans and rising property values bringing in more tax revenue. Yet home prices and the stock market both plunged in the late 2000s, and that eliminated any financial cushion that state and local governments enjoyed prior to the Great Recession. More Struggles to Come As governments and government workers draw battle lines in their respective states, cities, and towns, many are waiting for the next shoe to drop. Harrisburg, Pa., tried to file for bankruptcy protection, but its request was denied. Pennsylvania's insolvent capital city continues to work on its finances through a receivership proceeding; the latest proposal to lift it out of the hole involves leasing out its parking system and selling a power plant that converts waste to energy. In California, Fresno has faced credit-rating downgrades that cite its weak finances after expansion plans that didn't pan out as well as local officials had hoped. The Philadelphia School District had to borrow $50 million just to open its schools on time this year, and with a deficit of more than $300 million in its $2.35 billion budget, the district hopes to get workers to agree to cuts in pay and benefits under their labor contracts in order to close the gap. Still, the pressure on governments to find ways to keep essential services running is immense. As a result, it's easier for government officials to make decisions that are geared more toward short-term patches rather than long-term solutions. In the wake of the BART strike, more state and local government employees might recognize the leverage they have, only increasing the difficulty that government entities face in balancing the needs of their constituents against the limited financial resources of their taxpayers. Your city might well be the next to see government employees take action to defend themselves against the next swing of the budget ax.

VW has funniest 2013 ad, but not most effective

A Volkswagen TV commercial featuring a woman whose utterly obnoxious laugh just keeps going and going has been tapped as 2013's funniest ad.

But the joke may be on VW.

Ace Metrix, the Mountain View, Calif. research firm whose consumer survey has pegged the ad as the year's funniest, says the ad is little better than average in the most critical category of all: effectiveness.

"As many people said that the ad was annoying as said that it was funny," says Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix. "That means they're not going to watch it a second time."

Ouch.

In the spot that first aired in February, a guy is at a gas station filling up his car, while chatting with an attractive, female friend-of-a-friend he's just met who's about to ride with him cross-country. She jokes about wanting to listen to polka music on the long drive, and her obnoxious laugh begins — and doesn't stop. The driver gets a look of horror on his face. Even as the car drives off, her laugh can still be heard.

"While someone laughing like that might be pushing the boundaries of the VW voice, we didn't think it was so annoying that it was off-putting," says Michael Kadin, executive creative director at Deutsch LA, which created the spot.

On one hand, the consumer survey ranked the commercial as nine times funnier than an average commercial — making it the funniest commercial so far in 2013. That measure is based on the Ace Metrix "Funny Index" — which tabulates consumer responses collected for every ad. They average ad receives a score of 100. The VW spot received an off-the-chart "Funny Index" score of 963.

But the ad's overall score for effectiveness, which factors-in likability, watchability and persuasiveness, barely ranks above the average non-luxury car television commercial, says Daboll. The index's average effectiveness score of non-luxury automotive ad is 518. The VW spot scored a 530, just 2.2% above that norm.

The staring role — of the laughing woman — wasn't ea! sy to fill. The agency cast more than 50 women before selecting Molly Schreiber, a 28-year-old actress from Los Angeles, who candidly calls it "the worst laugh in my repertoire."

"We wanted a laugh that was funny but not too annoying," says Kadin. "We didn't want a spot where the laugh was so annoying that you'd turn it off the minute it came on again."

But that may be what VW got, says Daboll.

"You're not going to watch it a second time," says Daboll. "You'll throw something at the TV if it comes on again."

Even then, the ad earned a 91% positive rating on YouTube, points out Deutsch LA spokesman Jeff Sweat.

Schreiber, the actress who also works part-time teaching a cycling class, swears her real laugh is actually quite normal. And, she says, she's totally OK with the fact that the commercial drives some people crazy. "At least it's memorable."

Starbucks debuts Teavana bar, and it’s a doozy

You can get a cup of tea at a Starbucks, but you can't get a cup of coffee at the chain's first teahouse, Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bar that opens on Thursday in Manhattan.

That's how serious Starbucks is about selling lots of fancy tea at the chichi teahouse strategically located on the city's Upper East Side. It's very appropriately near a Lululemon and Dean & DeLuca.

The difference between a Starbucks coffee shop and a Teavana teahouse "is like night and day," says Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, in a phone interview. "It's much more zen-like than anything you'll find in a Starbucks store."

The store, with fashionably-gray walls, light wood and museum-esque lighting, looks very different from Starbucks, and it has no Starbucks branding. The most striking visual feature in the store is the Teavana "Wall of Tea" with a range of loose-leaf teas and tea blends.

For Starbucks, it's a high-profile baby step into the $90 billion global tea market. The only thing that people globally drink more of than tea is water. Even as Starbucks puts the brakes on new, domestic coffee shops, it can accelerate on teahouses. Starbucks hopes to open at least 1,000 more of its own Teavana bars (different than the retail shops currently open in many shopping malls) in North America and many more outside the U.S. Over the next five to 10 years, projects Schultz, "We'll do for tea what we've done for coffee."

It won't be easy. And it's a bit pricier than Starbucks. The priciest salad sells for $14.95 and a 16-ounce specialty tea latte fetches $5.95. A raspberry and apricot cream scone goes for $3.75.

"It's doable, but it will be a hard slog," says Allen Adamson, managing director at Landor Associates. "But the idea of starting fresh is smart. It's hard to find a quiet place to hang out in a Starbucks. This feels softer and less bustling."

Unlike Starbucks, where the culture is more about drinks-on-the-go, at Teavana, the aura, design and mood is all about lingering. The contempo! rary-designed chairs are padded and comfy. The lighting is low. And the sheer variety of teas and munchies seems to require time to sit and savor.

"When you walk in, you see a shrine to tea," says Schultz. "The store demonstrates our knowledge of tea and romances the theater of tea with a visual experience."

Starbucks is no stranger to tea. Starbucks was founded as Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices. But coffee became dominant and tea accounted for less than 1% of sales for years, says Schultz. That's changing. Ultimately, he expects Teavana to be sold in some Starbucks locations.

A second Teavana is scheduled to open in Seattle around Thanksgiving.

What does Schultz sip? He says he drinks Moroccan Mint Teavana tea at night, "but nothing will replace my (Starbucks) French press Aged Sumatra in the morning."

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014

You may not have heard of NeuStar (NYSE: NSR  ) , but the services it provides can affect you greatly. This $3 billion company is also handily beating the market as it shifts its focus to move deeper into the information and analytics industry.

NeuStar started its life as an operating unit within Lockheed Martin, and won its original contract to provide local telephone number portability services in 1996. It's kept that job and performed other services along the way, including administering the registry for the .biz and .us Internet domain names.

After spinning off from Lockheed and racking up years of success, NeuStar began to shift its focus to information and data analytics services under CEO Lisa Hook. That led to the acquisition of TARGUSinfo in 2011.

Our roving reporter Rex Moore attended last week's big Cable Show in Washington, D.C., and asked NeuStar's Gary Zimmerman about the opportunities in this new segment.

It's incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?" in The Motley Fool's latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged by the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Hewlett-Packard Co (HWP)

Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), incorporated on February 11, 1947, is a provider of products, technologies, software, solutions and services to individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, including customers in the Government, health and education sectors. Its operations are organized into seven segments: the Personal Systems Group (PSG), Services, the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG), Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN), HP Software, HP Financial Services (HPFS) and Corporate Investments. The Company�� offerings include personal computing and other access devices; multi-vendor customer services, including infrastructure technology and business process outsourcing, technology support and maintenance, application development and support services and consulting and integration services, and imaging and printing-related products and services. It also provides enterprise information technology infrastructure, including enterprise storage and server technology, networking products and solutions, information technology (IT) management software, information management solutions and security intelligence/risk management solutions. As of October 31, 2011, HP owned an approximately 99% equity interest in Autonomy Corporation plc. In December 2011, the Company acquired Hiflex Software GmbH.

In March 2012, HP had consolidated PSG and IPG into a Printing and Personal Systems Group. HP continues to report the results of IPG and PSG separately. Subsequent o the fiscal year ended October 31, 2011, the Company completed five others realignments, which included the transfer of Indigo and Scitex support and the LaserJet and enterprise solutions trade support business from the technology services (TS) business unit within Services to the Commercial Hardware business unit within IPG; the transfer of the TippingPoint business from the Networking business unit within ESSN to Software; the transfer of the business intelligence services business from Corpor! ate Investments to a Application and Business Services (ABS) business unit within Services; the consolidation of the Application Services, Business Process Outsourcing and Other Services business units within Services into the ABS business unit, and the transfer of the information management services business from Software to the ABS business unit within Services.

Personal Systems Group

PSG provides commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, calculators and other related accessories, software and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The Company groups commercial notebooks, commercial desktops and workstations into commercial clients and consumer notebooks and consumer desktops into consumer clients. Commercial PCs include the HP ProBook and the HP EliteBook lines of notebooks and the Compaq Pro, Compaq Elite, HP Pro and HP Elite lines of business desktops, as well as the TouchSmart and Omni PCs, HP Mini-Note PCs, retail POS systems, HP Thin Clients and HP Slate Tablet PCs. Consumer PCs include the HP and Compaq series of multi-media consumer notebooks, desktops and mini notebooks, including the TouchSmart line of touch-enabled all-in-one notebooks and desktops. PSG provides workstations that run on both Windows and Linux-based operating systems.

Services

Services provide consulting, outsourcing and technology services across infrastructure, applications and business process domains. Services delivers to its clients by leveraging investments in consulting and support professionals, infrastructure technology, applications, standardized methodologies, and global supply and delivery. Services are divided into four main business units: infrastructure technology outsourcing, technology services, applications services and business process outsourcing. Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing services encompass the data center and the workplace (desktop); network and communications; and security, compliance and business contin! uity. It ! also offers a set of managed services. Technology Services provides support and consulting services, as well as warranty support across HP's product lines. HP's technology services offerings are available in the form of service contracts, pre-packaged offerings (HP Care Pack services) or on an individual basis. The Company�� Applications Services encompass application development, testing, modernization, system integration, maintenance and management. Applications Services also provides technology consulting and systems integration solutions and services that use cloud computing, hybrid delivery, enterprise mobility, information management and real-time analytics. Business Process Outsourcing services includes both industry-specific and cross-industry solutions. Its cross-industry solutions include a range of enterprise-shared services, customer relationship management services, financial process management services and administrative services.

Imaging and Printing Group

IPG provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media and scanning devices. IPG is also focused on imaging solutions in the commercial markets. These solutions range from managed print services to capturing high-value pages in areas, such as industrial applications, outdoor signage, and the graphic arts business. Inkjet and Web Solutions delivers HP's consumer and SMB inkjet solutions (hardware, supplies, media, web-connected hardware and services) and develops HP's retail publishing and Web businesses. It includes single function and all-in-one inkjet printers targeted toward consumers and SMBs, as well as retail publishing solutions, Snapfish and ePrintCenter. LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions delivers products, services and solutions to the medium-sized business and enterprise segments, including LaserJet printers and supplies, multi-function devices, scanners, Web-connected hardware and services and enterprise software solutions, such as Exstream Software and Web Jetadmin. Managed Enterp! rise Solu! tions provides managed print services products and solutions delivered to enterprise customers partnering with third-party software providers to offer workflow solutions in the enterprise environment. Graphics Solutions provides large format printing (Designjet and Scitex), large format supplies, WebPress supplies, Indigo printing, specialty printing systems and inkjet high-speed production solutions. Graphic Solutions targets print service providers, architects, engineers, designers and industrial solution providers. Its printer supplies offerings include LaserJet toner and inkjet printer cartridges, graphic solutions ink products and other printing-related media.

Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking

ESSN provides server, storage and networking products in a number of categories. The Company�� Converged Infrastructure portfolio of servers, storage and networking combined with HP Software's Cloud Service Automation software suite creates HP's CloudSystem. This integrated solution enables enterprise and service provider clients to deliver infrastructure, platform and software as a service in a private, public or hybrid cloud environment. Industry Standard Servers offers primarily entry-level and mid-range ProLiant servers, which run primarily Windows, Linux and Novell operating systems and Intel Corporation (Intel) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors. The business spans a range of product lines that include pedestal-tower servers, density-optimized rack servers and HP's BladeSystem family of server blades.

The Company�� Business Critical Systems delivers Converged Infrastructure with a portfolio of HP Integrity servers based on the Intel Itanium processor that run the HP-UX and OpenVMS operating systems, as well as HP Integrity NonStop solutions. Business Critical Systems also offers HP's scale-up x86 ProLiant servers for scalability of systems. In addition, HP continues to support the HP9000 servers and HP AlphaServers by offering customers. Th! e Company! �� storage offerings include storage platforms for high-end, mid-range and small business environments. Its flagship product is the HP 3PAR Utility Storage Platform, which is designed for virtualization, cloud and IT-as-a-service. The Storage business has a range of products, including storage area networks, network attached storage, storage management software and virtualization technologies, StoreOnce data deduplication solutions, tape drives and tape libraries. Its switch, router, wireless local area network (LAN) and TippingPoint network security products deliver solutions for the data center, campus and branch networks. Its networking solutions are based on HP's FlexNetwork architecture.

HP Software

HP Software provides enterprise IT management software, information management solutions and security intelligence/risk management solutions. Solutions are delivered in the form of software licenses or as software-as-a-service. HP Software solutions enables IT organizations to manage infrastructure, operations, application life cycles, application quality and security, IT services, business processes, and structured and unstructured data.

HP Financial Services

HPFS supports HP's global product and service solutions, providing a range of financial life cycle management services. HPFS enables its worldwide customers to acquire IT solutions, including hardware, software and services. The Company offers leasing, financing, utility programs and asset recovery services, as well as financial asset management services for global and enterprise customers. HPFS also provides an array of specialized financial services to SMBs and educational and Governmental entities.

Corporate Investments

Corporate Investments includes business intelligence solutions, HP Labs, webOS software and certain business incubation projects. Business intelligence solutions enable businesses connect and share data across the enterprise and apply analytics.! This seg! ment also derives revenue from licensing specific HP technology to third parties.

The Company competes with Dell, Inc., Acer Inc., ASUSTeK Computer Inc., Apple Inc., Lenovo Group Limited, Toshiba Corporation, IBM Global Services, Computer Sciences Corporation, Accenture Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, Wipro Limited, Infosys Technologies Limited, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, SAP, AG, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Lexmark International, Inc., Xerox Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Brother Industries, Ltd., International Business Machines Corporation, EMC Corporation, NetApp, Inc., CA, Inc., BMC Software, Inc., Cisco, McAfee and IBM Global Financing.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Manhattan Associates Inc.(MANH)

Manhattan Associates, Inc. develops, sells, deploys, services, and maintains supply chain software solutions for the planning and execution of supply chain activities. It offers Manhattan SCOPE and Manhattan SCALE, which are platform-based supply chain software solutions. The company?s Manhattan SCOPE is a portfolio of supply chain solution suites that include event and schedule tracking; alerts and notifications; inventory, order, and shipment visibility; cost monitoring and tracking; leading-edge analytics; and reporting with graphical depictions of critical supply chain performance metrics. Manhattan SCOPE also includes X-Suite solutions comprising flow management and extended enterprise management. The company?s Manhattan SCALE is a portfolio of logistics execution solutions that offer trading partner management, yard management, optimization, warehouse management, and transportation execution services. Manhattan Associates, Inc. also offers professional services, in cluding planning and implementation services; and customer support, software enhancement, and training services. In addition, it sells computer hardware, radio frequency terminal networks, radio frequency identification chip readers, bar code printers and scanners, and other peripherals. The company serves retailers, distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers, grocery stores, life sciences companies, government, and other organizations. It operates in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Manhattan Associates, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Manhattan Associates (Nasdaq: MANH  ) reported earnings on April 23. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Manhattan Associates met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Top Insurance Companies To Own For 2014: Rovi Corporation(ROVI)

Rovi Corporation provides digital entertainment technology solutions for the discovery and management of entertainment content. It offers interactive program guides; embedded licensing technologies, such as recommendations and search capability; media recognition technologies; licensing of the company?s database of descriptive information about television, movie, music, books, and game content; and analog content protection technologies and services. The company?s interactive program guides technology is an interactive listing of television or video program information that enables viewers to navigate through, sort, select, and schedule video programming for viewing and recording. The company also provides video delivery solutions, such as compression-decompression technology (codec) to enable distribution of content across the Internet and through recordable media in physical or streamed forms; and media manager, a personal computer application enabling consumers to man age personal media files, including music, photos, and video files. In addition, it offers digital copy solution for consumer electronics devices and PC software applications; the Rovi Entertainment Store video delivery solutions; content authoring solutions; and advertising solutions. Rovi Corporation primarily serves companies in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment, and online distribution markets. The company was formerly known as Macrovision Solutions Corporation and changed its name to Rovi Corporation in July 2009. Rovi Corporation was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Rovi (Nasdaq: ROVI  ) is expected to report Q1 earnings on May 1. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Rovi's revenues will decrease -12.8% and EPS will wither -17.9%.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc.(RSTI)

Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing of laser-based products worldwide. The company offers laser macro products to machine tool and automotive markets for cutting and welding of metals. It also provides laser marking products to semiconductor and electronics markets for the marking of integrated circuits, wafers, solar cells, electronic components, and smart cards, as well as to automotive markets for the marking of labels and car components. In addition, the company offers laser micro products for fine welding, fine cutting, micro structuring, and drilling applications in medical devices, semiconductor and electronics, photovoltaic, dental, and jewelry markets; and for perforating and scribing of paper and foils in packaging and paper industries. Further, it provides components to laser industry. The company sells its products in approximately 65 countries to original e quipment manufacturers, systems integrators, and industrial end-users. Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. was founded in 1975 and is based in Plymouth, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  For decades, the standard technology in the laser industry has been the carbon-based laser. In reality, these lasers are still commonly used, and sold in bulk by the likes of Rofin-Sinar (NASDAQ: RSTI  ) and Coherent (NASDAQ: COHR  ) . They are used largely for precision cutting of large pieces of metal.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Omnicell Inc.(OMCL)

Omnicell Inc. provides automated solutions for hospital medication and supply management primarily in the United States and Canada. The company offers medication use products, which include OmniRx that automates the management and dispensing of medications at the point of use; SinglePointe, a software product that controls medications on a patient-specific basis; AnywhereRN, a software that allows nurses to remotely operate automated dispensing cabinets; Pandora Analytics, a reporting and data analytics tool; and Savvy Mobile Medication System, a mobile platform for hospital information systems. Its medication use products also include OmniLinkRx, a software product that automates communication between nurses and the pharmacy; WorkflowRx, an automated storage, retrieval, inventory management, and repackaging solution; controlled substance barcode inventory management system; and Anesthesia Workstation, a secure dispensing system for the management of anesthesia supplies an d medications. In addition, the company provides medical and surgical supply products, which comprise Omnicell Supply Solution that automates the management and dispensing of medical and surgical supplies at the point of use; Supply/Rx Combination Solution, which manages medications and supplies in one versatile cabinet; Omnicell Tissue Center that manages the chain of custody for bone and tissue specimens; OptiFlex SS, which supplies modules for the perioperative areas; OptiFlex CL that supplies modules for the cardiac catheterization lab and other procedure areas; and OptiFlex MS, a system for the management of medical and surgical supplies. Further, it provides customer education and training, and maintenance and support services. The company was formerly known as Omnicell Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to Omnicell, Inc. in 2001. Omnicell, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Omnicell (Nasdaq: OMCL  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Las Vegas From Home.Com Enterta (LVH.V)

Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc. engages in the development and marketing of software for online multi-player interactive card games. The company provides LVFH Gaming Platform that offers an array of real-money and play-for-fun games, including poker, Asian, and casino games with a library of tournament formats in download and in-browser versions. Its poker games include Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and Guts; Asian games comprise Mahjong & Mahjong 1-on-1, 13 Card Poker (Chinese Poker), Big 2 & Super Big 2, Fight the Landlord, and Si Ki Pi (Bao Bao); and casino games consist of multiplayer blackjack, card games, table games, and video pokers. Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Trina Solar Limited(TSL)

Trina Solar Limited, through its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells photovoltaic (PV) modules worldwide. The company offers monocrystalline PV modules ranging from 165 watts to 185 watts in power output; and multicrystalline PV modules ranging from 215 watts to 240 watts in power output that provide electric power for residential, commercial, industrial, and other applications. It also involves in the design and production of various PV modules, such as colored modules for architectural applications and larger sized modules for utility grid applications based on customers? and end-users? specifications. Trina Solar Limited sells and markets its products primarily to distributors, wholesalers, power plant developers and operators, and PV system integrators. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Changzhou, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Wall Street Strategies]

  Naturally the news is a big positive for the industry, with Chinese solar names like Yingli (YGE), Trina (TSL), Canadian Solar (CSIQ) -- which is actually Chinese despite its name -- JinkoSolar (JKS), JA Solar (JASO), and LDK Solar (LDK) each up more than 10% at midday. The Guggenheim Solar ETF (TAN), which tracks several global solar companies, was up 8%, breaking to a new 52-week high.

• [By Michael Lewis]

  To be fair, the industry is showing signs of improvement. Another China-based manufacturer, Trina�Solar (NYSE: TSL  ) , announced that it is targeting a return to profitability in the back half of this year. American firm First�Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR  ) soared this week on similar news. But does any of this suggest that Buffett would want to own one of these businesses?

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Wednesday
  Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL  ) hopes to shine on Wednesday, but that's no easy feat in solar these days. China's slowing economy and slammed European economies have been forced into scaling back solar energy investments, and that has hurt the industry. Wall Street's braced for a widening deficit at Trina Solar. It's probably not a good sign that Trina Solar has reported an even larger loss than Wall Street was projecting every single quarter over the past year.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: DAQQ New Energy Corp.(DQ)

Daqo New Energy Corp., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells polysilicon in China. The company sells its polysilicon to photovoltaic product manufacturers for use in the processing of ingots, wafers, cells and modules for solar power solutions. It also produces and sells mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline modules to photovoltaic system integrators and distributors in China and internationally under its Daqo brand. The company was formerly known as Mega Stand International Limited and changed its name to Daqo New Energy Corp. in August 2009. Daqo New Energy Corp. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered Wanzhou, the People?s Republic of China.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.(CBST)

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the research, development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products that address unmet medical needs in the acute care environment. The company markets CUBICIN (daptomycin for injection), a once-daily, bactericidal, intravenous, antibiotic with activity against gram-positive organisms, including methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. Its clinical development product pipeline consists of CXA-201, which is in the phase III clinical trial for patients with complicated urinary tract infections; and in phase II clinical trial for patients with complicated abdominal infections. The company is also developing CXA-201 for the treatment of hospital acquired pneumonia. In addition, its product under development comprises CB-183,315, an oral, bactericidal lipopeptide with in vitro bactericidal activity against C. difficile, for the treatment of clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). Further , the company?s pre-clinical programs include therapies to treat various bacterial infections and agents to treat acute pain. Additionally, it promotes MERREM I.V. (meropenem for injection), a carbapenem class intravenous antibiotic, in the United States under a commercial services agreement with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP; and DIFICID as the treatment for CDAD in adults under the co-promotion agreement with Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The company also has collaborations with Forma Therapeutics, Inc. to discover and develop antibacterial compounds; an agreement with the Broad Institute to transform natural products discovery; a collaboration with Hydra Biosciences, Inc., to develop ion channel drugs; and a collaboration agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., for the development and commercialization of Alnylam's RNAi therapeutics as a therapy for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Lexington, Mas sachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Leerink Swann.

  Diamondback Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FANG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity.

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CBST) share price is the beneficiary of an upgrade yesterday. Leerink Swann analyst Marko Kozul believes the biotech is headed to $76.

• [By Alyssa Oursler]

  Another company with a megatrend in its corner is Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST) — the midcap stock that will replace Smithfield Foods in the S&P 400.

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) is another top stock to buy making acquisitions. It recently received antitrust clearance for its�purchase of Trius Pharmaceutical. The acquisition strengthens its already strong antibiotic franchise. UBS has a $70 price target, and the consensus is placed at $65.

Top 10 Tech Companies To Invest In 2014: Kopin Corporation(KOPN)

Kopin Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets III-V products and miniature flat panel displays. It offers gallium arsenide-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) wafers, and other commercial semiconductor products that use gallium nitride and gallium arsenide-based substrates. The company also offers pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (pHEMT) and BiHEMTs, which combines the HBT and pHEMTs into a single structure. Its HBT wafers help in developing gallium arsenide power amplifiers for wireless handsets. These wafers are also used in code division multiple access, global system mobile and time division multiple access power amplifiers, and third and fourth generation wireless handset standards; high-speed fiber optic switching; and the fabrication of power amplifiers for devices that communicate using wireless fidelity or WiFi integrated circuits. In addition, the company provides CyberDisplay products, which are used in military devices , such as thermal weapon sights and consumer devices, including camcorders, digital cameras, and devices that are capable of browsing the Internet using digital wireless devices and viewing video from other consumer electronics devices. Kopin Corporation sells its III-V products directly to integrated circuit manufacturers in the United States and Asia. The company sells its products directly, as well as through distributors to original equipment manufacturers, and prime contractors of the U.S. government or foreign governments. Kopin Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered Taunton, Massachusetts.

Can Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Beat These Numbers?

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (NYSE: ASX  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings around July 7. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Advanced Semiconductor Engineering's revenues will grow 10.9% and EPS will grow 28.6%.

The average estimate for revenue is $1.70 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.09.

Revenue details
Last quarter, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering notched revenue of $1.61 billion. GAAP reported sales were 11% higher than the prior-year quarter's $1.46 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Last quarter, non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.05. GAAP EPS of $0.01 were the same as the prior-year quarter.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Recent performance
For the preceding quarter, gross margin was 17.2%, 50 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 7.5%, 90 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 4.6%, 20 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead

The full year's average estimate for revenue is $7.01 billion. The average EPS estimate is $0.34.

Investor sentiment

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Advanced Semiconductor Engineering is outperform, with an average price target of $4.59.

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Can McDonald’s Find Support Post-Earnings?

With shares of McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) trading around $94, is MCD an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework.

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

McDonald''s franchises and operates McDonald's restaurants in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Canada, and Latin America — so just about every part of the world. Its restaurants offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages as well as breakfast menus. The products provided by McDonald's fulfill cravings at competitive prices in convenient locations worldwide. The McDonald's craze shows no signs of slowing, so the company has continued its expansion to just about every nation on the globe. As consumers continue to enjoy McDonald's products, look for it to see rising profits.

McDonald's reported earnings on Monday morning that showed the fast food chain has performed better this quarter than many of its peers, according to Reuters. McDonald's reported a 4 percent rise in profit for the quarter with a net income of $1.52 billion, or $1.52 per share. In the third quarter of last year, McDonald's posted $1.46 billion, or $1.43 per share. Analysts from Consensus Metrix only expected an increase of 1 percent.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Mixed

McDonald's stock has traded sideways in the last couple of years. The stock is currently trending lower and is getting closer to lows for the year. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, McDonald's is trading below its key averages, which signals neutral to bearish price action in the near term.

Source: Thinkorswim

Taking a look at the implied volatility and implied volatility skew levels of McDonald's options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
McDonald's Options	15.84%	46%	45%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a significant amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
November Options	Flat	Average
December Options	Flat	Average

As of Monday, there is average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

E = Earnings Are Rising Quarter Over Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on McDonald's’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for McDonald's look like and, more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	6.29%	4.55%	2.44%	3.83%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	2.39%	2.43%	0.9%	1.9%
Earnings Reaction	-0.64%*	-2.68%	-1.95%	0.57%

McDonald's has seen rising earnings and revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have not been happy with McDonald's’s recent earnings announcements.

*As of this writing.

P = Weak Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has McDonald's stock done relative to its peers – Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM), Burger King (NYSE:BKW), and Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) — and sector?

	McDonald's	Yum Brands	Burger King	Wendy’s	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	6.92%	0.36%	16.91%	83.72%	9.43%

McDonald's has been a poor relative performer, year to date.

Conclusion

McDonald's is a well-recognized company that fulfills cravings and demand for quick and delicious food choices that many consumers across the globe enjoy. A recent earnings release has not pleased the markets. The stock has been trading sideways in the last couple of years and looks be headed lower. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been rising. However, investors have not been happy with recent earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, McDonald’s has been a weak year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what McDonald’s does this quarter.