Why the Reiteration?
On Apr 25, Unilever reported strong first quarter 2013 sales and recorded organic (excluding the impact of acquisitions and disposals) sales growth of 4.9%. The increase was driven by volume and pricing gains of 2.2% and 2.6%, respectively. Increased investment in innovation, improved product quality and introduction of brands in new markets contributed to the growth. Underlying sales expanded 10.9% in the emerging markets while sales in the developed markets declined in the quarter due to global macroeconomic headwinds.
Unilever witnessed strong growth in Home Care and Personal Care categories and modest growth in the Refreshment category, despite weak ice cream sales in Europe. The Foods category was sluggish due to weak performance of spreads, which offset improved performance in savory and dressings.
5 Best Railroad Stocks To Invest In 2015: Exide Technologies (XIDEQ)
Exide Technologies, incorporated on November 23, 1966, is engaged in stored electrical energy solutions, and is a manufacturer and supplier of lead-acid batteries for transportation and industrial applications in the worldwide. Exide operates in four business segments: Transportation Americas, Transportation Europe and ROW, Industrial Energy Americas, and Industrial Energy Europe and ROW. The Company�� operations in the Americas as well as Europe and Rest of World (ROW) represented approximately 42% and 58%, respectively, during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013 (fiscal 2013), net sales.
Transportation
The Company�� transportation batteries include starting lighting and ignition (SLI) batteries for cars, trucks, off-road vehicles, agricultural and construction vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, marine, and other applications including Micro-hybrids. The Company�� principal batteries sold in the transportation markets are represented by brands: Exide, Exide Extreme, Exide NASCAR Select, Centra, DETA, Orbital, Fulmen, and Tudor, as well as other brands under various private labels. The market for transportation batteries is divided between sales to aftermarket customers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Transportation segments represented approximately 61% of the Company�� net sales in fiscal 2013. Within the transportation segments, aftermarket and OEM net sales, including original equipment service (OES) represented approximately 72.1% and 27.9% of fiscal 2013 net sales, respectively.
Some of the Company�� aftermarket customers include Pep Boys, Bosch, Tractor Supply, Canadian Tire, ADI, ATR International, and GroupAuto International. In addition, the Company is also a supplier of authorized replacement batteries for OEMs including the BMW Group, Fiat Group, Honda, Iveco, John Deere, PSA Group, Scania, Volvo Trucks, Toyota, Volkswagen Group, Renault-Nissan, PACCAR, and many others. Some of the Company�� OEM customers include t! he BMW Group, Fiat Group, International Truck & Engine, the PSA group (Peugeot S.A./Citroen), Case/New Holland, John Deere, Renault, Nissan, Scania, Volvo Trucks, Volkswagen Group, Chrysler, Toyota, Jaguar, Land Rover, among others.
In the Americas, the Company sells aftermarket transportation products through various distribution channels, including mass merchandisers, auto parts outlets, wholesale distributors, and battery specialists. The Company sells its OEM transportation replacement products principally through dealer networks. The Company�� Americas operations include a network of 74 branches which sell and distribute batteries and other products to the Company�� distributor channel customers, battery specialists, national account customers, retail stores, and OEM dealers. In addition, these branches collect spent batteries for the Company�� recycling facilities. These operations supply recycled lead for approximately 75 to 80% of Exide�� Transportation and Industrial Energy products manufactured in North America. The recycling facilities also recover and recycle battery acid as well as plastic materials that are used to produce new battery covers and cases.
In Europe and ROW, the Company sells OEM batteries to the light vehicle, light commercial vehicle and commercial vehicle industries. The commercial vehicle industry includes truck manufacturers as well as construction and agriculture vehicle manufacturers. Exide supplies its OEM batteries directly to the assembly plants of its customers. The Company also delivers service and replacement batteries into this segment. Those are either distributed by the OEM customers themselves or delivered directly to the service points through the Exide logistics network. The Company also supplies advanced lead-acid batteries for microhybrid vehicles equipped with carbon dioxide reducing technologies such as Start & Stop with and without regenerative braking systems. It sells Europe and ROW aftermarket batteries primarily th! rough aut! omotive parts and battery wholesalers, mass-merchandisers, auto centers, service installers, and oil companies. Battery specialists sell and distribute batteries to a network of automotive parts retailers, service stations, independent retailers, and garages throughout Europe.
The Company competes with Johnson Controls, Inc. and East Penn Manufacturing.
Industrial Energy
The Company�� Industrial Energy segments supply both motive power and network power applications. Motive power batteries are used in the material handling industry for electric forklift trucks, and in other industries, including floor cleaning machinery, powered wheelchairs, railroad locomotives, mining, and the electric road vehicles market. The battery technologies for the motive power markets include flooded flat plate products, tubular plate products, absorbed glass mat (AGM) products, and gel electrolyte products. The Company also offers a complete range of battery chargers and related equipment for the operation and maintenance of battery-powered vehicles. Network power batteries are used to provide back-up power for use with telecommunications systems, computer installations or data centers, hospitals, air traffic control systems, security systems, utilities, railway and military applications. Telecommunications applications include central and local switching systems, satellite stations, wireless base stations and mobile switches, optical fiber repeating boxes, cable television transmission boxes, and radio transmission stations. The Company�� strongest network power battery brands, Absolyte and Sonnenschein, offer customers the choice of AGM or gel electrolyte valve regulated battery technologies and deliver among the highest energy and power densities in their class.
In the Americas, the Company distributes motive power products and services through multiple channels. These include sales and service locations owned by the Company that are augmented by a network of indep! endent ma! nufacturers��representatives. The Company serves a wide range of customers including OEM suppliers of lift trucks, industrial companies, retail distributors, warehousing companies, and manufacturers. Motive power customers in the Americas include Toyota, MCFA, NACCO, Sears, Toyota, Walmart, and Target. The Company distributes network power products and services through sales and service locations owned by the Company augmented by a network of independent manufacturers��representatives. The Company�� primary network power customers in the Americas include AT&T, APC, Emerson Electric, and Verizon Wireless.
The Company distributes motive power products and services in Europe through in-house sales and service organizations and utilizes distributors and agents for the export of products from Europe to ROW countries. Motive power products in Europe are also sold to a wide range of customers in the aftermarket, ranging from industrial companies and retail distributors to small warehousing and manufacturing operations. Motive power batteries are also sold in complete packages, including batteries, chargers, and increasingly through on-site service. The Company�� OEM motive power customers include Toyota Material Handling, the KION Group, and Jungheinrich. The Company distributes network power products and services in Europe and batteries and chargers in Australia and New Zealand through in-house sales and service organizations. In Asia, products are distributed through independent distributors. The Company utilizes distributors, agents, and direct sales to export products from Europe and North America to ROW. The Company�� primary Network Power customers in Europe and ROW include Deutsche Telecom, Alcatel, Emerson Electric, Ericsson and Siemens Nokia Networks.
The Company competes with EnerSys Inc., East Penn Manufacturing, Hoppecke, MIDAC, GS/Yuasa, Shinkobe and C&D Technologies.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
A real car wreck on the horizon
Already crashing and burning was lead-acid battery maker Exide Technologies (NASDAQOTH: XIDEQ ) , which confirmed it had hired a restructuring specialist to help it cope with is financial situation ahead of some of its debt maturing this fall. It's shares fell almost 48% on the news.
Hot Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY)
iShares Lehman 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the short-term sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Index (the Index). The Index includes all publicly issued United States Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of between 1 and 3 years, are non-convertible, are denominated in United States dollars, are rated investment grade (Baa3 or better) by Moody�� Investors Service, are fixed rate, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. Excluded from the Index are certain special issues, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes (TINs), and state and local government bonds (SLGs), and coupon issues that have been stripped from assets already included in the Index.
The Index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The Fund invests in a representative sample of the securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisor.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Donald van Deventer]
Shorter-duration Treasury Exchange-Traded Funds: (SHY), (SHV), (IEI), (BIL), (TUZ), (FIVZ), (DTUL), (VGSH), (DTUS), (DFVS), (DFVL), (SST), (ISTB), (TBZ).
Hot Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: HHGregg Inc.(HGG)
hhgregg, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, home appliances, and related services. The company offers video products, such as flat panel televisions, blu-rays, and DVD players; appliances, including washers and dryers, refrigerators, cooking ranges, dishwashers, freezers, and air conditioners; and digital camcorders, digital cameras, gaming bundles, home theater receivers, mattresses, MP3 players, computers, personal navigation, tablets, speaker systems, and telephones. It also sells a suite of services, including third-party premium service plans, and third-party in-home service and repair of products, as well as delivery and installation, and in-home repair and maintenance. The company operates its stores under the name of hhgregg. As of February 08, 2012, it operated 208 stores in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
What's 4K? Well, they've got a gazillion pixels in them (almost 8.3 million, to be more exact), four times as many as today's 1080p sets, with large-screen formats of 55 inches and up. They also carry an equally large price tag. Although the sets Sony (NYSE: SNE ) unveiled at CES sported price tags around $25,000, Best Buy will carry sets from the manufacturer with bargain-basement pricing starting below $5,000. While�they'll also be available at small chains like hhgregg (NYSE: HGG ) and regional shops such as P.C. Richards & Sons, Best Buy is the only national chain carrying its sets.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Best Buy had searched far and wide for a new helmsman. The Frenchman had to secure a foreign work visa just to start the job. Saving a struggling bricks-and-mortar chain was never going to be easy. The "showrooming" trend was -- and is -- going strong, with more and more people checking out products at local stores before turning around and buying them for less online. The irony is rich here: Best Buy sells the smartphones that make showrooming possible. And they sell the tablets, e-readers, and portable media players that have spurred the growth of digitally delivered media, and dried up the markets for CDs, video games and DVDs. In short, Best Buy is selling the products that make Best Buy less necessary. Despite the challenge, Joly's attack plan gained traction. His five-point "Renew Blue" strategy sought to make the chain relevant again by reinvigorating the customer experience, attracting dynamic hires, cutting costs so that it could pass savings on to shoppers, and making other improvements. Investors and employees bought into Joly's vision, but customers weren't so quick to play along. Selling the Future It's easy to wonder why the stock more than tripled last year. By the time the fiscal year was through we saw Best Buy's revenue, comparable store sales, adjusted earnings, and operating margins all decline for the year. Best Buy wasn't in better shape than it was a year earlier. It was doing worse in nearly every facet of the game. Even some trends that were working for other consumer electronics retailers -- like the appliance and furniture sales that helped Conn's (CONN) and hhgregg (HGG) as housing began to boom again -- failed to make much of a difference at Best Buy. Best Buy's report on Thursday paints a mixed portrait. It predicts same-store sales will continue to decline through the next two quarters, and that's not what Wall Street wanted to hear. However, Best Buy's strong profitability during the first quarter suggests that the compan
- [By Dan Burrows]
True, there’s probably room for one national chain, such as Best Buy or maybe even HHGregg (HGG). After all, brick-and-mortar retail is hardly dead. But outside of a merger or roll-up, but it’s hard to see how RadioShack — a company that’s been behind the curve for a decade or more — could be the one left standing.
- [By Rich Smith]
Last year, Consumer Reports polled 22,888 of its subscribers on their impressions across 30,243 appliance purchases. In the just-released July issue of CR, the results came out, scoring nine of America's biggest retailers by sales (including one "retailer" that's actually an aggregation of small, independent stores) across eight separate categories. In reverse order of quality, the contestants in the "major appliances" category were:
P.C. Richard & Sons Best Buy (NYSE: BBY ) Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD ) hhgregg (NYSE: HGG ) Home Depot (NYSE: HD ) Lowe's (NYSE: LOW ) Pacific Sales The aforementioned "independents"... AbtOut of the nine, no single retailer won CR's coveted "red circle with a dot in the middle" in all eight categories. But Abt came darn near close to hitting that bull's-eye. In nearly every category -- haul-away services, installation, shipping, selection, product quality, service, and ease of checkout -- Abt hit the mark with perfect scores.
Hot Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: AWG International Water Corp (AWGI)
AWG International Water Corporation, formerly MIPSolutions, Inc., incorporated on December 19, 2005, is a development-stage company. The principal business of the Company is the development of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for various commercial applications, including the removal of targeted molecules from water.
The Company had a license agreement with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). As of December 31, 2009, the Company was developing applications for the removal of arsenic from drinking water and for the extraction of precious metals from various mining operations.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Small cap OTC drinking water stocks Glacier Water Services, Inc (OTCMKTS: GWSV), AWG International Water Corp (OTCBB: AWGI) and Alkaline Water Company Inc (OTCBB: WTER) all offer a product that many consumer, investors and traders alike might take for granted, but everyone needs to have. However, you can build a better mouse trap when it comes to drinking water or at least that what these three small caps are attempting to do with their own unique strategies:
Hot Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: Idacorp Inc (IDA)
IDACORP, Inc. (IDACORP), incorporated on February 2, 1998, is a holding company. The Company's operating subsidiary is Idaho Power Company (Idaho Power). Idaho Power is an electric utility engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution, sale, and purchase of electric energy. Idaho Power is the parent of Idaho Energy Resources Co. (IERCo), a joint venturer in Bridger Coal Company (BCC), which mines and supplies coal to the Jim Bridger generating plant owned in part by Idaho Power. IDACORP's other notable subsidiaries include IDACORP Financial Services, Inc. (IFS), an investor in housing and other real estate investments and Ida-West Energy Company (Ida-West), an operator of small hydroelectric generation projects.
Idaho Power is a combination hydro-thermal utility with 17 hydroelectric projects, three natural gas-fired plants, one diesel-powered generator and part ownership in three coal-fired generating plants. Idaho Power serves approximately 506,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon.
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 IdaCorp (NYSE: IDA ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Marc Bastow]
Boise, Idaho-based energy company IdaCorp (IDA) raised its quarterly dividend 13.2% to 43 cents per share, payable Dec. 2 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 6.
IDA Dividend Yield: 3.37% - [By Dividends4Life]
IDACORP Inc. (IDA) Idaho Power Company, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, sale, and purchase of electric energy in the United States. Sept. 19, the company increased its quarterly dividend 13.2% to $0.43 per share. The dividend is payable Dec. 2, 2013 to IDACORP shareholders of record on Nov. 6, 2013. The yield based on the new payout is 3.6%.
Hot Quality Stocks To Invest In 2014: Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC)
Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited is financing by way of loans for the purchase or construction of residential houses, commercial real estate and certain other purposes in India. The Company has a network of approximately 330 offices (which includes 83 offices of its wholly owned distribution company HDFC Sales Private Limited) catering to over 2,400 towns & cities spread across the country. It also has offices in Dubai, London and Singapore and service associates in the Middle East region, to provide housing loans and property advisory services to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs). Its product range includes loans for purchase and construction of a residential unit, purchase of plot, home improvement loans, home extension loans, non-residential premises loans for professionals and loan against property, while its flexible repayment options include Step Up Repayment Facility (SURF) and Flexible Loan Installment Plan (FLIP). Advisors' Opinion:- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
Vanguard favors India with investments in Infosys Ltd. (NSE: INFY), Reliance Industries Ltd. (NSE: RELIANCE), and Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd. (NSE: HDFC) ranking among its top 20.
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