Nike's stock dips after Avenatti tweets of 'scandal,' recovers after he's arrested

Shares of Nike fell more than 1 percent on Monday following a tweet from California-based lawyer Michael Avenatti alleging Nike's involvement in a "major high school/college basketball scandal."

Nike's stock reacted negatively to the following tweet from Avenatti:

tweet

Following the tweet, law enforcement officials put out a statement that Avenatti was arrested and faces charged of wire fraud and bank fraud in the Central District of California.

The federal officials said there will be a press conference today at 2 p.m. EST.

Nike officials weren't immediately available for comment.

Trump Hates This Company... But You Should Love It

In 1851, Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones founded the New-York Daily Times. The paper sold for a penny. By 1857, the company changed its name to The New-York Times. It wasn't until 1896 that it dropped the hyphen. Finally, in 1969, The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) became a publicly traded company.

Contrary to what you may have heard a certain U.S. President claim, the New York Times is hardly failing. In fact, I think it may be one of the next big winners we have over at my premium service, Maximum Profit. 

Here's why...

The Case For NYT
The news organization is the third most widely-distributed circulated paper in the United States, behind USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. It's been awarded 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization.

The New York Times has thrived in a world where it's seen many of its peers fail. 

For example, The Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune and, until recently, the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy in 2008. And it's not alone: Newsroom employment has dropped by more than 20,000 in the past 15 years, and newspaper circulation is at its lowest level since 1940.

The problem is that as the digital age came into its own, many of these news organizations clung to the old ways of doing business, namely printing newspapers and physically distributing them. The New York Times weekday circulation peaked in 1993 at just shy of 1.2 million papers per day. Today, circulation is down by 50%, to fewer than 600,000.

Instead of ignoring the digital trend, The New York Times started focusing on selling electronic subscriptions. The company began experimenting with its "subscription-first" strategy in 2005. It took some time for the company to get it figured out, but it seems to have found the right recipe.

In 2018, the company had 4.3 million paid subscriptions across 217 countries and territories -- the highest subscription count in company history. This includes both print and online subscriptions. But it is the paid digital-only subscriptions that are leading the charge. Last year, this figure grew 27% year-over-year to approximately 3.4 million subscribers -- a growth spurt that began, ironically enough, after the 2016 elections. 

By 2025, the company's goal is to have 10 million subscribers.

Its website, NYTimes.com, which it launched in 1996, had 94 million unique monthly visitors on average in the United States during 2018. Globally, that figure increases to 134 million unique visitors. 

Last year, the Times posted revenue of more than $1.7 billion, a 4% increase over 2017. But its digital-only revenue climbed by more than 14% to roughly $709 million. Net income jumped to $125.7 million in 2018, from just $4.3 million in 2017. Meanwhile, cash flow jumped from $86.7 million in 2017 to more than $157 million last year, an 81% year-over-year increase.

Action To Take
With 134 million unique monthly visitors to its website and only 3.4 million paid subscribers, this tells me that the company has plenty of room to grow its subscription count.

It's already proven capable of converting free readers into paid subscribers. As the world continues to grow ever more complex, I think more and more people will look for quality reporting from reputable sources -- and be willing to pay for it. When they do, then The New York Times will be one of the first places they turn, thanks to its storied history and early-mover advantage. 

The company is looking to build out its subscription-first strategy with different brands and even a TV show called The Weekly that will launch this year. Should any of these initiatives flop, or it fails to attract new subscribers, shares will likely be impacted.

With that said, I think investors shouldn't overlook this stock just because it's a "newspaper." The company is much more than that, and it could very well prove to be an under-the-radar outperforming stock in the coming years.

(This article originally appeared on StreetAuthority.com.)

We're Up BIG On This High-Yielder. And It's Still A Buy...

Despite choppy oil prices, master limited partnership (MLP) Magellan Midstream (NYSE: MMP) has managed to produce record distributable cash flows (DCFs) over the past year. 

But that's not altogether surprising, considering 90% of the firm's income is fee-based, leaving just 10% sensitive to commodity prices. It's also why we've held it in our portfolio over at The Daily Paycheck since 2010.

Magellan At A Glance
For those who are unfamiliar, Magellan owns 9,700 miles of refined products pipelines that connect with roughly half of the nation's refineries. It also operates 53 terminals that have 45 million barrels of gas and diesel fuel storage capacity. That's in addition to 2,200 miles of crude oil pipelines that feed storage systems from the Gulf Coast to the nation's main hub in Cushing, Oklahoma.

Magellan doesn't take possession of any oil or other liquids -- it just gets paid for storage and transportation services. That compensation comes in the form of tariffs and fees (often under long-term contracts) based on the volume of oil and refined products flowing through its networks.

What's New With MMP
Thanks in part to a 4.4% tariff increase at mid-year, the company delivered record DCF of $1.1 billion in 2018 -- more than enough to cover dividend distributions (for a dividend coverage ratio of 126%).

Cash flows dipped about 2% in the fourth quarter, but that was strictly due to charges from discontinued projects and operations. One of those was a low-margin ammonia pipeline. Personally, I like to see management walk away from marginally profitable business lines and show disciplined spending restraint.

But that's not to say that Magellan isn't expanding in other areas. In fact, the company intends to deploy another $1.3 billion in growth projects this year, including a 600-mile conduit to increase sorely-needed oil takeaway capacity in the Permian Basin of west Texas.

Action to Take 
After investing $1.3 billion this year, Magellan's capital expenditure (CapEx) spending is expected to taper off to just $0.4 billion next year. That will leave more cash on the table for distributions. As it stands, this cash machine has already raised dividends 67 times (almost every 90 days) since the 2001 initial public offering (IPO). Along the way, yearly dividends have marched ahead at a 12% annual pace, rising $0.56 per unit to the current $4.00. 

That equates to a lofty yield of nearly 7%. What's more, during the time we've held MMP in our portfolio over at The Daily Paycheck, the stock has not only rewarded our readers with steadily rising dividends (which we reinvest as a part of our long-term wealth-building strategy), but subscribers are we're now sitting on a total return of nearly 360% at last count. 

As with all MLPs, there are tax considerations that come along with owning MMP. But with strong spot shipping rates on several pipelines and upbeat 2019 DCF forecasts, I recently upped my rating on this dividend monster to "Buy" from "Hold."

Triangles (TRI) Reaches 24 Hour Volume of $0.00

Triangles (CURRENCY:TRI) traded flat against the US dollar during the 1-day period ending at 20:00 PM Eastern on March 14th. Triangles has a market cap of $68,409.00 and $0.00 worth of Triangles was traded on exchanges in the last day. In the last week, Triangles has traded flat against the US dollar. One Triangles coin can currently be purchased for about $0.53 or 0.00014299 BTC on exchanges.

Here is how other cryptocurrencies have performed in the last day:

Get Triangles alerts: Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) traded 13.2% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.86 or 0.00021946 BTC. Stratis (STRAT) traded 2.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.94 or 0.00023965 BTC. Elite (1337) traded 2,406.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0007 or 0.00000017 BTC. NavCoin (NAV) traded 2.8% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.18 or 0.00004703 BTC. DeepOnion (ONION) traded 0.3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.20 or 0.00005130 BTC. CloakCoin (CLOAK) traded 4.4% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.60 or 0.00015397 BTC. Stealth (XST) traded 0.9% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0995 or 0.00002541 BTC. Kore (KORE) traded up 4.6% against the dollar and now trades at $0.54 or 0.00013866 BTC. Bitcoin Plus (XBC) traded 8.3% higher against the dollar and now trades at $5.04 or 0.00128624 BTC. BlitzPredict (XBP) traded 5.1% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0006 or 0.00000015 BTC.

About Triangles

Triangles is a PoW/PoS coin that uses the X13 hashing algorithm. It was first traded on October 11th, 2014. Triangles’ total supply is 129,579 coins. The official website for Triangles is info.triangles.technology. Triangles’ official Twitter account is @trianglestri.

Buying and Selling Triangles

Triangles can be purchased on these cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia. It is usually not currently possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as Triangles directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade Triangles should first buy Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Changelly, Gemini or GDAX. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to buy Triangles using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

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Did Gap Just Commit a Fashion Faux Pas After Spinning Off Old Navy?

On the heels of the announcement by Gap Stores (NYSE:GPS) that it was spinning itself off from its Old Navy brand, the jeans and khakis retailer said it was spending $35 million to buy Janie and Jack, a chain of high-end kids' clothing stores that is a vestige of the bankrupt Gymboree chain.

Although Old Navy has been the growth engine for Gap, generating 47% of annual revenue with its discount shopping experience, the acquisition indicates Gap believes its Athleta chain offers a better high-growth model, meaning it will continue chasing the wallets of upscale millennials.

Yet the athleisure-wear trend that's lifted Athleta may not transfer as easily to kids' clothing, particularly because Gap will still operate its own, more affordable Gap Kids chain, and the two concepts may end up cannibalizing sales from each other.

Image source: Gap.

Bridging a big divide

Gap shocked everyone last month by saying it would split in two, with Old Navy remaining the continuing business, and keeping the Old Navy name. The other entity, still unnamed, will own the Gap brands, Athleta, Banana Republic, luxe fashion retailer Intermix, and Hill City, a recently launched Athleta-style premium athleisure chain for men. It's clear the trendy Janie and Jack fits in with this group, but what's not so evident is how the new Gap will make it all work.

Although Athleta and Intermix put up some impressive numbers in 2018 -- growing sales 22% year over year versus Old Navy's 8.5%, and Gap's 2.4% decline -- Athleta and Intermix are operating from a very small base. There are fewer than 200 Athleta and Intermix stores combined out of about 3,200 company-operated stores globally.

Without Old Navy, there will be over 2,000 stores remaining in the spun-off company, more than half of which are Gap-branded. While Gap said it planned to close around 230 of those locations, it will still have over 1,000 stores worldwide, a substantial presence. Janie and Jack has over 100 stores.

Certainly, the new chain could be a complementary addition to the Gap Kids and babyGap chains, but Gap's existing business is in turmoil and it has a lot of plates it is already spinning. Not only does it need to right-size and correct its troubled namesake brand, but it is also undergoing a business split, and now will be bringing a new business into the fold. A distracted management team could be one of its biggest problems.

Competing against itself

Gap CEO Art Peck will be moving with the battery of brands to the new company. Although a respected retail leader, he's also been the individual at the helm of Gap as it has spun down. He's thrown a lot of ideas at the problem (like adopting Old Navy's fast-fashion sense) without much success. Banana Republic has similarly been through its ups and downs, but appears to be on a downward swing again.

Peck does have the benefit of now having several growth brands to play with, while Old Navy may be stuck as a moderate grower. But he'll be operating competing children's clothing brands that may not be able to coexist.

Fashion outlets like Coach and Michael Kors, as well as department store chains, have found that having an upscale retail brand and competing discount factory stores did not work out well. The ability to get the same cachet at a lower price drained away sales from the premium outlets, and Gap could face a similar outcome.

There are a lot of moving parts in this story, and none of them make for a very compelling argument to buy Gap stock yet. Perhaps the story will become clearer after the current company is split into two publicly traded entities and management of the new Gap -- whatever it will be called -- shares more information about its plans.

These 10 cities have the most aggressive drivers

It's a fact of life: Nobody ever says the drivers in their hometown are talented and responsible.

No. They're erratic and irresponsible.

But who's got it worst? A new study by fuel-savings app GasBuddy settles the debate over which city has the most aggressive drivers in America.

GasBuddy, whose app has about 70 million downloads, analyzed data from an optional feature that helps users keep track of their driving habits and gives them suggestions on how to preserve fuel.

The analysts assessed the frequency of speeding, hard braking and swift acceleration to gauge aggressiveness.

The study, which examined the 30 largest metropolitan areas by population, concluded these 10 cities have the most aggressive drivers:

1. Los Angeles

2. Philadelphia

3. Sacramento, Calif.

4. Atlanta

5. San Francisco

6. San Diego

7. Orlando, Fla.

8. Detroit

9. Austin, Texas

10. Las Vegas

It's no wonder that the City of Angels is No. 1, since LA's drivers are far from angelic.

Los Angeles drivers spend an average of 90 hours a year stuck in traffic delays, according to a study. (Photo: Reed Saxon, AP)

Other interesting findings:

Friday is the most aggressive driving day of the week.Wednesday is the least aggressive driving day of the week.LA and Philadelphia were the leaders in hard braking and rapid acceleration.San Diego, Orlando and Detroit had the most speeding incidents.Minneapolis is the least aggressive driving big city in the nation, ranking No. 30 of 30.

Here's the rest of the GasBuddy list:

11. Charlotte

12. Pittsburgh

13. Phoenix

14. Boston

15. Dallas-Fort Worth

16. Chicago

17. Miami-Fort Lauderdale

18. Baltimore

19. Tampa-St. Petersburg

20. Washington, D.C.

21. San Antonio

22. Houston

23. New York

24. Kansas City

25. St. Louis

26. Denver

27. Portland, Ore.

28. Cincinnati

29. Seattle

30. Minneapolis-St. Paul

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

Store Capital Corp Forecasted to Earn FY2020 Earnings of $2.01 Per Share (STOR)

Store Capital Corp (NYSE:STOR) – Stock analysts at Capital One Financial issued their FY2020 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Store Capital in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, March 6th. Capital One Financial analyst C. Lucas anticipates that the real estate investment trust will post earnings of $2.01 per share for the year.

Get Store Capital alerts:

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on STOR. BMO Capital Markets set a $32.00 target price on Store Capital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 14th. Raymond James set a $34.00 target price on Store Capital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 28th. Mizuho set a $34.00 target price on Store Capital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 23rd. Finally, Zacks Investment Research raised Store Capital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, November 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $30.75.

STOR opened at $32.54 on Monday. Store Capital has a fifty-two week low of $24.04 and a fifty-two week high of $32.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of 17.68, a PEG ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.31.

Store Capital (NYSE:STOR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.18). Store Capital had a return on equity of 6.44% and a net margin of 40.12%. The firm had revenue of $146.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.83 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STOR. Albion Financial Group UT grew its position in Store Capital by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 22,575 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $627,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its stake in shares of Store Capital by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 11,964 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $339,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Suntrust Banks Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Store Capital by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Suntrust Banks Inc. now owns 58,961 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Store Capital by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 15,251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the period. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Store Capital by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 35,276 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $999,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.46% of the company’s stock.

Store Capital Company Profile

STORE Capital Corp. operates as an internally managed net-lease real estate investment trust. The firm engages in the acquisition, investment, management, and ownership of single tenant operational real estate properties. STORE Capital was founded by Mary Fedewa, Morton H. Fleischer, Christopher H. Volk, Catherine Long, Michael J.

Featured Article: Is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) still relevant?

A Foolish Take: Pinterest Beats Facebook and Instagram in This Key Metric

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), its subsidiary Instagram, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), and Snap's (NYSE:SNAP) Snapchat often dominate conversations about social networks. However, Cowen & Co. recently found that Pinterest, a platform that allows its users to pin content to virtual pinboards, is the leader among social media companies when it comes to U.S. product searches and shopping.

Data source: Cowen & Co. Chart by author.

Pinterest's lead is impressive, since it reaches a smaller audience than Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with 250 million monthly active users. The platform encourages users to share photos of products they're interested in, instead of personal photos or comments on the latest news events.

Many Pinterest users build boards based on personal lists like dream weddings, birthday gifts, or clothing styles. This makes it an ideal platform for retailers to launch shopping lists.

That's why Pinterest recently let retailers upload their entire catalogs to the platform, and why e-commerce sites have added Pinterest-like feeds to their own homepages over the past few years.

eMarketer estimates that Pinterest's ad revenue rose more than 50% last year, and will likely grow another 45% to over $1 billion in 2019. That growth, along with its dominance of product searches, could spark a lot of interest in its upcoming IPO.

PCHAIN (PAI) Reaches 24-Hour Volume of $273,141.00

PCHAIN (CURRENCY:PAI) traded up 1.6% against the dollar during the one day period ending at 20:00 PM E.T. on March 8th. During the last seven days, PCHAIN has traded 2.2% lower against the dollar. PCHAIN has a total market capitalization of $6.08 million and approximately $273,141.00 worth of PCHAIN was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One PCHAIN token can now be purchased for $0.0082 or 0.00000210 BTC on major exchanges including Switcheo Network, Bibox, DEx.top and IDEX.

Here’s how similar cryptocurrencies have performed during the last 24 hours:

Get PCHAIN alerts: Maker (MKR) traded down 2.8% against the dollar and now trades at $662.44 or 0.16972011 BTC. IOStoken (IOST) traded down 0.3% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0396 or 0.00000526 BTC. THETA (THETA) traded down 2.8% against the dollar and now trades at $0.13 or 0.00003297 BTC. Aurora (AOA) traded up 28.2% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0164 or 0.00000420 BTC. Pundi X (NPXS) traded down 3.5% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0006 or 0.00000016 BTC. IOST (IOST) traded down 3.4% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0078 or 0.00000200 BTC. Huobi Token (HT) traded 6.2% lower against the dollar and now trades at $1.79 or 0.00045840 BTC. Project Pai (PAI) traded up 69.2% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0608 or 0.00001557 BTC. MCO (MCO) traded 2.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $4.39 or 0.00068464 BTC. Oyster (PRL) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.51 or 0.00008001 BTC.

PCHAIN Token Profile

PAI is a token. It was first traded on May 24th, 2018. PCHAIN’s total supply is 2,100,000,000 tokens and its circulating supply is 741,790,114 tokens. PCHAIN’s official website is pchain.org. The official message board for PCHAIN is medium.com/@PCHAIN. PCHAIN’s official Twitter account is @pchain_org.

PCHAIN Token Trading

PCHAIN can be bought or sold on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: DDEX, Bilaxy, Bibox, DEx.top, IDEX, Switcheo Network and Hotbit. It is usually not currently possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as PCHAIN directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to acquire PCHAIN should first buy Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Coinbase, GDAX or Changelly. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to buy PCHAIN using one of the exchanges listed above.

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Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now

tags:LYV,TLT,STFC,CVEO,AVLIF,TAL, Investment Thesis

Just because the "Netflix of China," iQiyi (NASDAQ:IQ) has more than doubled from its IPO price, that doesn't mean it is overvalued. Compared to Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), the company is undervalued for two reasons. The first is an underestimation of its two-source revenue model and the second is a discrepancy in its value-per-subscriber ratio.

IQ data by YCharts

A Thought

Often, we see companies described as the "next-(fill in the blank)." For instance, Baozun (NASDAQ:BZUN) is the "next Shopify (NYSE:SHOP)" or MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) is the "Next Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)." Granted, these companies have done extremely well, but investors love to play this game. It makes sense though, since a lot of investing is pattern recognition. Therefore, for the sake of simplicity, we use the symbols and patterns that are familiar to us.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.(LYV)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Chicago Equity Partners LLC reduced its stake in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) by 11.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 201,530 shares of the company’s stock after selling 25,915 shares during the quarter. Chicago Equity Partners LLC owned 0.10% of Live Nation Entertainment worth $9,788,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  Stock No. 5: That leads us to our "L" stock, and L is Live Nation (NYSE:LYV). This is the company that was formed by a merger of Live Nation, the concert venue and rock-star-promoting business that it is. So many musicians, today, of course, make most of their money on tours, since the sale of CDs, you might have noticed, has dropped off a cliff in recent years. Live Nation, then, bought a merger with Ticketmaster, so this is the company that sells you the tickets to come into its venues to watch the entertainment that it's promoting. It's a tremendously powerful model.

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  Right now, it's time for that yearly review of the ones he picked to honor the month, and also the briefly famous pregnant giraffe: five companies, and the first letters of their tickers spelled out A-P-R-I-L. They were Axon Enterprise (NASDAQ:AAXN), Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacific (NYSE:PAC), ResMed (NYSE:RMD), Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG), and Live Nation (NYSE:LYV).

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  NEXT Financial Group Inc raised its position in Ishares Lehman 20 Year (NASDAQ:TLT) by 30.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,785 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,489 shares during the period. NEXT Financial Group Inc’s holdings in Ishares Lehman 20 Year were worth $1,315,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond (NASDAQ:TLT) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, July 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.2749 per share by the exchange traded fund on Monday, July 9th. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 2nd.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  In general, the longer a bond has until maturity, the more sensitive it is to interest rate movements. That has generally held true for Treasuries in 2018. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT), which holds Treasury bonds with the longest maturities available, has seen its price fall 8% so far this year. Even when you take into account the income that bond ETFs provide, the iShares fund's total return is still -7%.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  News stories about iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond (NASDAQ:TLT) have been trending positive recently, Accern Sentiment reports. The research firm identifies negative and positive news coverage by analyzing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond earned a news sentiment score of 0.30 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news stories about the exchange traded fund an impact score of 46.3455679399619 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the immediate future.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: State Auto Financial Corporation(STFC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on State Auto Financial (STFC)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  Third Point Reinsurance (NASDAQ: STFC) and State Auto Financial (NASDAQ:STFC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

• [By Max Byerly]

  State Auto Financial (NASDAQ: STFC) and Atlas Financial (NASDAQ:AFH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  W. R. Berkley (NYSE: WRB) and State Auto Financial (NASDAQ:STFC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: Civeo Corporation(CVEO)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO)’s share price was up 5.8% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $3.53 and last traded at $3.48. Approximately 766,001 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 1% from the average daily volume of 754,849 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.29.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Civeo (NYSE:CVEO) was downgraded by research analysts at ValuEngine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers

  Losers World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE: INT) tumbled 18 percent to $22.90 following Q1 results. Biglari Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BH) fell 17.4 percent to $349.52. Washington Prime Group will replace Biglari Holdings in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Tuesday, May 1. Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ: FLEX) dipped 15.7 percent to $14.03 after a mixed fourth quarter report. FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM) fell 15.3 percent to $11.65. FormFactor is expected to release Q1 results on May 2. Data I/O Corporation (NASDAQ: DAIO) dropped 14.3 percent to $6.24 following Q1 results. National Instruments Corporation (NASDAQ: NATI) fell 14.3 percent to $ 42.34 after reporting Q1 results. United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) dipped 14.2 percent to $32.37 following Q1 results. Civeo Corporation (NYSE: CVEO) dropped 13.5 percent to $3.33. Civeo posted a Q1 loss of $0.42 per share on sales of $101.504 million. athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) fell 12.4 percent to $125.310 after reporting Q1 results. Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) shares tumbled 12.1 percent to $262.06 as the company posted Q1 results. Value Line, Inc. (NASDAQ: VALU) fell 11.3 percent to $19.10. Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) shares dropped 11.2 percent to $27.605 after the company posted downbeat quarterly earnings. AV Homes, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVHI) declined 10.7 percent to $17.20 following Q1 results. CalAmp Corp. (NASDAQ: CAMP) dropped 9.4 percent to $21.01 after reporting Q4 results. Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNDM) shares fell 8.9 percent to $7.280 following mixed Q1 results. Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) shares fell 8.4 percent to $45.97 after reporting Q4 results. LogMeIn Inc (NASDAQ: LOGM) fell 8.2 percent to $109.825. LogMeIn reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter, but issued weak second quarter and FY18 earning guidance. Eleven Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIO
• [By Steve Symington]

  Still, several individual companies easily outran the broader market. Read on to learn why shares of ManTech International (NASDAQ:MANT), Civeo (NYSE:CVEO), and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) each climbed higher today.

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: Advantage Lithium Corp. (AVLIF)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  Advantage Lithium (OTCQX:AVLIF) is a strategic advanced junior lithium exploration company that operates between Lithium Americas and Orocobre in the Cauchari-Olaroz basin. Orocobre is the largest shareholder in the company with a 30% equity stake, coupled with a 25% interest in the project. Over the past few months, the company has been moving towards completing the second stage of its drilling campaign, which will be completed in May 2018 and will then be followed on with an updated Natural Resource Estimate Study. This will allow the company to move into phase three of its drilling efforts, which will utilize larger drills to further define the resource, with a Feasibility Study expected to be completed in the first part of 2019.

• [By ]

  The following 6 companies are on the bench for the index:

  Advantage Lithium (OTCQX:AVLIF) Argosy Minerals (OTCPK:ARYMF) Bacanora Minerals (OTC:BCRMF) Critical Elements (OTCQX:CRECF) NEO Lithium (OTCQX:NTTHF) Wealth Minerals (OTCQX:WMLLF)

  "Bench" is a sports analogy meaning that one or more of them could be added in the future if one of the above companies becomes a producer, is acquired, or the market capitalization ("cap") of one or more of the index holdings falls significantly below that of one or more companies on the bench.

• [By ]

  Other juniors include: Advantage Lithium (OTCQB:AVLIF) [TSXV:AAL], AIS Resources [TSXV:AIS] (OTCQB:AISSF), American Lithium Corp. [TSX-V: LI] (OTCQB:LIACF), Argentina Lithium and Energy Corp. [TSXV:LIT] (OTCQB:PNXLF), Argosy Minerals [ASX:AGY] (OTC:ARYMF), AVZ Minerals [ASX:AVZ] (OTC:AZZVF), Bacanora Minerals [TSXV:BCN] [AIM:BCN] [GR:1BQ] (OTC:BCRMF), Birimian Ltd [ASX:BGS] (OTC:EEYMF), Critical Elements [TSXV:CRE] [GR:F12] (OTCQX:CRECF), Dajin Resources [TSXV:DJI] (OTCPK:DJIFF), Enigri (private), Eramet (EN Paris:ERA) (OTCPK:ERMAY), European Metals Holdings [ASX:EMH] [AIM:EMH] [GR:E861] (OTC:ERPNF), Far Resources [CSE:FAT] (OTCPK:FRRSF), Force Commodities [ASX:4CE], Kidman Resources [ASX:KDR] [GR:6KR], Latin Resources Ltd [ASX: LRS] (OTC:LAXXF), Lithium Australia [ASX:LIT] (OTC:LMMFF), Lithium Power International [ASX:LPI] (OTC:LTHHF), LSC Lithium [TSXV:LSC] (OTC:LSSCF), MetalsTech [ASX:MTC], MGX Minerals [CSE:XMG] (OTC:MGXMF), Millennial Lithium Corp. [TSXV:ML] (OTCQB:MLNLF), Neo Lithium [TSXV:NLC] (OTC:NTTHF), NRG Metals Inc. [TSXV:NGZ] (OTCQB:NRGMF), Nemaska Lithium [TSX:NMX] [GR:NOT] (OTCQX:NMKEF), North American Lithium (private), Piedmont Lithium [ASX:PLL] (OTC:PLLLY), Prospect Resources [ASX:PSC], Sayona Mining [ASX:SYA] (OTCPK:DMNXF), Savannah Resources [LSE:SAV], Standard Lithium [TSXV:SLL] (OTC:STLHF), and Wealth Minerals [TSXV:WML] (OTCQB:WMLLF).

Hot Undervalued Stocks To Buy Right Now: TAL International Group Inc.(TAL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL) was upgraded by equities research analysts at ValuEngine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

• [By Max Byerly]

  News articles about TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL) have trended positive on Tuesday, according to Accern Sentiment. The research group rates the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. TAL Education Group earned a coverage optimism score of 0.33 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media coverage about the company an impact score of 46.9172533861743 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next few days.

• [By Money Morning Staff Reports]

  We've tested our system going back five years, and it's shown the power to unlock opportunities like TAL Education Group (NYSE: TAL), which has returned gains of 2,573% over the last five years.

Brokerages Expect Meridian Bancorp Inc (EBSB) to Announce $0.28 EPS

Meridian Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:EBSB) has been given a consensus broker rating score of 3.00 (Hold) from the one analysts that cover the company, Zacks Investment Research reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating.

Analysts have set a 12-month consensus price target of $18.00 for the company and are expecting that the company will post $0.28 EPS for the current quarter, according to Zacks. Zacks has also given Meridian Bancorp an industry rank of 64 out of 255 based on the ratings given to related companies.

Get Meridian Bancorp alerts:

EBSB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Meridian Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 11th. BidaskClub upgraded Meridian Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 25th. Finally, Hovde Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Meridian Bancorp in a report on Monday, January 28th.

In other Meridian Bancorp news, EVP Edward J. Merritt sold 2,800 shares of Meridian Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.80, for a total value of $44,240.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Gregory F. Natalucci sold 7,000 shares of Meridian Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.76, for a total value of $110,320.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meridian Bancorp by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 605,146 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $8,665,000 after purchasing an additional 41,783 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Meridian Bancorp by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,957,866 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $42,357,000 after purchasing an additional 194,621 shares during the period. Context BH Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Meridian Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $244,000. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Meridian Bancorp by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,597 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 806 shares during the period. Finally, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY raised its stake in shares of Meridian Bancorp by 346.1% in the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY now owns 16,496 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 12,798 shares during the period. 64.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EBSB traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.66. The stock had a trading volume of 88,772 shares, compared to its average volume of 148,543. Meridian Bancorp has a 52 week low of $13.67 and a 52 week high of $20.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $896.84 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.77 and a beta of 0.50.

Meridian Bancorp (NASDAQ:EBSB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 22nd. The savings and loans company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.05). Meridian Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.37% and a net margin of 23.56%. The company had revenue of $42.31 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.20 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meridian Bancorp will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Meridian Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.42%.

About Meridian Bancorp

Meridian Bancorp, Inc operates as the holding company for East Boston Savings Bank that provides various financial products and services for individuals and businesses primarily in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk Counties, Massachusetts. The company accepts various deposit products, including non-interest-bearing demand deposits, such as checking accounts; interest-bearing demand accounts comprising NOW and money market accounts; savings accounts; and certificates of deposits, as well as commercial checking accounts.

Further Reading: How Buying a Call Option Works

Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Meridian Bancorp (EBSB)

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Renewable Energy Group Inc (REGI) Files 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended on December 31, 2018

Renewable Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:REGI) files its latest 10-K with SEC for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2018. Renewable Energy Group Inc (REG) is a producer of biofuels. It is engaged in providing cleaner, lower carbon intensity products, and services. REG generates most of its revenue from the United States of America. Renewable Energy Group Inc has a market cap of $876.190 million; its shares were traded at around $23.49 with a P/E ratio of 3.40 and P/S ratio of 0.41.

For the last quarter Renewable Energy Group Inc reported a revenue of $515.8 million, compared with the revenue of $577.3 million during the same period a year ago. For the latest fiscal year the company reported a revenue of $2.4 billion, an increase of 10.4% from last year. For the last five years Renewable Energy Group Inc had an average revenue growth rate of 13% a year.

The reported diluted earnings per share was $6.48 for the year, an increase of -417.6% from previous year. The Renewable Energy Group Inc had a decent operating margin of 13.15%, compared with the operating margin of -1.11% a year before. The 10-year historical median operating margin of Renewable Energy Group Inc is 1.52%. The profitability rank of the company is 7 (out of 10).

At the end of the fiscal year, Renewable Energy Group Inc has the cash and cash equivalents of $123.6 million, compared with $77.6 million in the previous year. The long term debt was $35.7 million, compared with $208.5 million in the previous year. Renewable Energy Group Inc has a financial strength rank of 8 (out of 10).

At the current stock price of $23.49, Renewable Energy Group Inc is traded at 46.9% premium to its historical median P/S valuation band of $15.99. The P/S ratio of the stock is 0.41, while the historical median P/S ratio is 0.27. The stock gained 120.18% during the past 12 months.

For the complete 20-year historical financial data of REGI, click here.

Have a Workaholic on Your Team? Here's Why You Need to Address It.

Some employees are more driven than others by nature. And while it's nice to have folks on your team who strive for results and constantly push themselves to do the best job possible, there's a danger in having a true workaholic in the mix. If you have an employee who never seems to manage to unplug, it pays to address the issue -- before it hurts your team's morale.

The problem with workaholism

You might think that having a workaholic on your team would be a positive thing. After all, if your other employees see how much of an effort that person is putting in, they might aim to follow suit, thereby improving your team's productivity and making you look good.

But it's not so simple. When you have one person on your team who never seems to call it quits, your other employees might feel pressured to work more for the sake of keeping up -- not necessarily because there's an actual need for it. And the last thing you want is for your team on a whole to start working long hours for the sake of face time. Doing so can quickly destroy any semblance of work-life balance they might've otherwise had, thereby creating a situation where they're all at risk of burning out.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

A better solution, therefore, is to encourage your workaholic employee to take things down a notch. Sit that person down and explain that while you appreciate his or her effort, you don't want a burnout situation on your hands. You can also emphasize the fact that you value actual output more than time spent in a chair, and that you're not the kind of manager who expects workers to always be on.

Having that same conversation with your remaining employees is important, too. You don't want them to think that workaholism is the gold standard in your book. Rather, let them know that the effort they've historically made is not only appropriate, but much appreciated.

Finally, make a point of leading by example. Make an effort to leave the office on time several evenings a week, and when your employees email you after-hours about non-urgent matters, respond in the morning during regular work hours. This way, they'll hopefully get the message that logging on late at night isn't necessary as a matter of course, but rather, is a habit that should be reserved for emergencies only.

Your job as a manager is to do everything in your power to keep your team's morale at a healthy level, so don't let a lone employee with workaholic tendencies bring other people down or place undue pressure on them to work harder than necessary. If you make it clear that that behavior does not, in any way, align with your expectations, then you'll lower your chances of having your team fall victim to burnout. And who knows? You might even change your resident workaholic's life for the better.

Here's Why Boeing (BA) Stock Looks Like a Strong Buy Right Now

Shares of Boeing (BA ) have soared over 33% in 2019 to crush the S&P 500’s 11% climb. The aerospace powerhouse’s stock has even outpaced huge comebacks from the likes of Facebook (FB ) . So, let’s see why Boeing looks like a strong buy at the moment.

Recent News

Boeing announced near the end of February that Brazil-based Embraer SA shareholders approved their joint venture. The proposed deal, which has been in the works for some time now, will see Boeing pay roughly $4.2 billion for an 80% stake in Embraer’s commercial jetliner business. The Chicago-based firm will also take a 49% stake in a new joint venture on KC-390 military aircraft.

The move is projected to help Boeing better compete against European rival Airbus in the smaller aircraft market, with less than 150 seats. The Boeing and Embraer deal still faces regulatory approval, but is expected to officially close by the end of the year.

Boeing also recently partnered with Reno, Nevada-based Aerion to help push forward the next-generation of supersonic aircraft. BA is set to offer manufacturing, engineering, flight test resources, among other things, in order to bring Aerion’s AS2 supersonic business jet to market. The supersonic aircraft is designed to fly at speeds up to 1,000 miles per hour, or Mach 1.4—roughly 70% faster than current business jets. The AS2 is slated for its first flight in 2023 and is expected to save roughly three hours on transatlantic flights.

Price Movement

As we mentioned at the top, BA stock has soared to start the year, along with fellow Dow components like United Technologies Corp (UTX ) , Caterpillar (CAT ) , Cisco (CSCO ) , and others. The recent climb has seen shares of Boeing hit multiple new highs in 2019. BA stock closed regular trading Tuesday at $430 a share, which marked a roughly 3% downturn from its 52-week high of $446 a share.

Meanwhile, the chart shows investors that Boeing has been able to stand out from its peer group, which includes General Dynamics (GD ) , Lockheed Martin (LMT ) , and Northrop Grumman (NOC ) , in recent years.

Outlook & Earnings Trends

Looking ahead, Boeing projects that it will set a new commercial jet delivery record in 2019. The firm provided guidance between 895 to 905, which would blow past 2018’s previous record of 806. Boeing also said that its Dreamliner jets have remained in high demand from the likes of American Airlines (AAL ) and United Airlines (UAL ) .

Our current Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for Boeing’s Q1 2019 revenues to pop 8.3% to reach $25.32 billion. This would fall short of Q4’s 14% expansion, but investors should remember that Boeing soared well above our fourth-quarter estimate. Plus, BA’s second-quarter revenues are projected to jump 12.3% above the year-ago period. And Boeing’s full-year 2019 revenues are projected to surge roughly 10% to reach $111.16 billion.

Along with the company’s strong top-line projection, Boeing’s adjusted Q1 earnings are expected to surge 16.6% to reach $4.25 a share. The firm’s Q2 EPS figure is projected to skyrocket roughly 45%, with the full-year earnings expected to climb nearly 26%. Investors will also see that the company’s earnings estimate revisions picture has turned far more positive recently.

 

 

Bottom Line

Boeing’s positive earnings revision activity helps the company earn a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at the moment. BA is also a dividend payer that raised its Q1 2019 per share payout by 20% from last year’s $1.71 to $2.055.

Lastly, Boeing stock is trading at 20.9X forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimates. This represents a discount compared to its two-high of 30.6X and its two-year median of 21.9X, which helps us see that BA stock is hardly stretched, despite its recent climb.

Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential

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Top 5 Financial Stocks For 2019

tags:STC,ACFC,DB,PMT,GLAD,

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN), a drug maker focused on rare diseases, ended Thursday at the top of the list of the best performing stocks in the S&P 500 index.

The shares climbed almost 3.3%, or $3.78, to close at $118.35, compared to the S&P 500, which fell almost 16 points, or 0.7% to end at 2,328.95.

It's been a rough two years for Alexion. Since mid-2015, when the stock traded above $200, shares have tumbled on worries about the durability of its main drug Soliris, political furor over high drug prices, and the abrupt departure of two top executives amid an investigation into sales practices.

The shares are down more than 3% since the start of 2017.

Solaris sales will be a focus next week when Alexion reports first quarter financial results. Earlier today, Barclays reiterated an overweight rating on the stock and a $115 price target, but raised its 2018 and 2019 earnings estimates, arguing that rivals are unlikely to "significantly challenge" either Solaris or the experimental drug ALXN1210.

Top 5 Financial Stocks For 2019: Stewart Information Services Corporation(STC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  StarChain (CURRENCY:STC) traded 8.7% lower against the US dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 20:00 PM E.T. on May 14th. StarChain has a market cap of $0.00 and approximately $5.27 million worth of StarChain was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One StarChain token can now be purchased for about $0.0925 or 0.00001062 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges. During the last seven days, StarChain has traded down 16.3% against the US dollar.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Sangoma Technologies (CVE:STC) has been assigned a C$2.00 price objective by investment analysts at Acumen Capital in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Acumen Capital’s target price suggests a potential upside of 70.94% from the stock’s current price.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a hold rating to a sell rating. According to Zacks, “Stewart Information Services Corporation’s primary business is title insurance. Stewart issues policies through issuing locations on homes and other real property located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several foreign countries. Stewart also sells computer-related services and information, as well as mapping products and geographic information systems, to domestic and foreign governments and private entities. “

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Bailard Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Stewart Information Services Corp (NYSE:STC) by 14.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,100 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,400 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Stewart Information Services were worth $335,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  StarChain (CURRENCY:STC) traded down 2.8% against the dollar during the one day period ending at 21:00 PM Eastern on May 31st. One StarChain token can now be bought for about $0.0729 or 0.00000971 BTC on exchanges. StarChain has a market cap of $0.00 and approximately $2.12 million worth of StarChain was traded on exchanges in the last day. In the last seven days, StarChain has traded down 18.5% against the dollar.

Top 5 Financial Stocks For 2019: Atlantic Coast Federal Corporation(ACFC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Atlantic Coast Financial (NASDAQ: ACFC) and People’s United Financial (NASDAQ:PBCT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and dividends.

Top 5 Financial Stocks For 2019: Deutsche Bank AG(DB)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Wayne Duggan]

  The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the U.S. Federal Reserve assigned a secret “troubled condition” designation to Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE: DB) roughly a year ago.

• [By ]

  As Deutsche Bank AG (DB) , Germany's largest lender, retreats from its global ambitions in investment-banking and trading, Wall Street heavyweights JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) , Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) are poised to pick up the business that's left behind.

• [By Elizabeth Balboa]

  Creditanstalt was saved when the First Austrian Republic, the National Bank of Austria and the Rothschild family took up the costs. The firm eventually became state-owned following a forced merger with Wiener Bankverein, and the resulting entity was later subsumed by Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE: DB).

• [By Garrett Baldwin]
  Merger mania has been hitting Wall Street all month. Today, 21st Century Fox Inc. (Nasdaq: FOXA) has been urged by activist investor Chris Hohn to make a deal with Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) if that company's offer is better than the deal they could receive from The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS). Hohn's firm disclosed in an SEC filing that it has a 7.4% stake in FOXA. Four Stocks to Watch Today: BBY, DB, KR, APRN Best Buy Corp. (NYSE: BBY) leads a busy day of earnings reports in New York. The Big Box retailer easily topped Wall Street expectations, with earnings per share of $0.82 on $9.11 billion in revenue. The average analyst expectation came in at $0.75 on $8.78 billion. The largest bank in Europe is facing problems again. This morning, Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) announced plans to slash 7,000 jobs as the firm attempts to restore profitability to its balance sheet. The announcement comes as the company's chair faces a vote of no confidence at an annual general meeting taking place today. In other deal news, Kroger Inc. (NYSE: KR) has purchased Home Chef, the biggest privately owned meal kit delivery firm in the United States. The deal includes $200 million upfront and could be worth $700 million should Home Chef hit certain targets over its next five years. It is an interesting acquisition, given that rival Blue Apron Holdings Inc. (NYSE: APRN) has struggled since its IPO. Though APRN stock was up 3.8% this morning on news of the Home Chef deal, the stock is trading at just $3.07. It hit the market at $11.00 in June 2017. Look for additional earnings reports from Splunk Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLK), Deckers Outdoor Corp. (Nasdaq: DECK), Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), Ross Stores Inc. (Nasdaq: ROST), Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), and Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL).

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Top 5 Financial Stocks For 2019: PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust(PMT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Pennymac Mortgage Investment (NYSE:PMT) – Equities researchers at Wedbush lifted their Q1 2019 earnings per share estimates for shares of Pennymac Mortgage Investment in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, May 10th. Wedbush analyst J. Weaver now anticipates that the real estate investment trust will post earnings per share of $0.36 for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $0.34. Wedbush also issued estimates for Pennymac Mortgage Investment’s Q2 2019 earnings at $0.43 EPS, Q3 2019 earnings at $0.43 EPS, Q4 2019 earnings at $0.52 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $1.74 EPS.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Pennymac Mortgage Investment (NYSE:PMT) shares reached a new 52-week high and low on Monday . The company traded as low as $18.60 and last traded at $18.62, with a volume of 19306 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $18.50.

Top 5 Financial Stocks For 2019: Gladstone Capital Corporation(GLAD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Gladstone Capital (GLAD)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Gladstone Capital Co. (NASDAQ:GLAD) by 2.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 202,100 shares of the investment management company’s stock after buying an additional 5,304 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.73% of Gladstone Capital worth $1,819,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Gladstone Capital (GLAD)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Motley Fool Transcribers]

  Gladstone Capital Corp  (NASDAQ:GLAD)Q1 2019 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 07, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  BidaskClub lowered shares of Gladstone Capital (NASDAQ:GLAD) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Friday morning.

  A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on GLAD. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Gladstone Capital from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $11.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 2nd. National Securities reiterated a neutral rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Gladstone Capital in a research report on Monday, August 6th. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Gladstone Capital from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, July 16th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Gladstone Capital from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Gladstone Capital has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $9.47.

• [By Taylor Cox]

  Investor Events

  Gladstone Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: GLAD) and Gladstone Investment Corporation (NASDAQ: GAIN) each holding an analyst/investor day Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ: MU) holding analyst/investor day Baxter International Inc (NYSE: BAX) investor conference

  Tuesday
  Notable Earnings

Cardtronics PLC (CATM) Files 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended on December 31, 2018

Cardtronics PLC (NASDAQ:CATM) files its latest 10-K with SEC for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2018. Cardtronics PLC provides convenient automated consumer financial services through its network of automated teller machines (ATMs) and multi-function financial services kiosks. The Company operates in the U.S., Europe and rest of the world. Cardtronics PLC has a market cap of $1.36 billion; its shares were traded at around $29.51 with a P/E ratio of 52.71 and P/S ratio of 1.01. Cardtronics PLC had annual average EBITDA growth of 7.50% over the past ten years.

For the last quarter Cardtronics PLC reported a revenue of $327.9 million, compared with the revenue of $363.0 million during the same period a year ago. For the latest fiscal year the company reported a revenue of $1.3 billion, a decrease of 10.8% from the previous year. For the last five years Cardtronics PLC had an average revenue growth rate of 9.8% a year.

The reported diluted earnings per share was 8 cents for the year, an increase of -102.5% from previous year. The Cardtronics PLC had an operating margin of 7.27%, compared with the operating margin of 10.24% a year before. The 10-year historical median operating margin of Cardtronics PLC is 12.10%. The profitability rank of the company is 8 (out of 10).

At the end of the fiscal year, Cardtronics PLC has the cash and cash equivalents of $39.9 million, compared with $51.4 million in the previous year. The long term debt was $818.5 million, compared with $917.7 million in the previous year. The interest coverage to the debt is 2.8, which is not a favorable level. Cardtronics PLC has a financial strength rank of 4 (out of 10).

At the current stock price of $29.51, Cardtronics PLC is traded at 28.1% discount to its historical median P/S valuation band of $41.03. The P/S ratio of the stock is 1.01, while the historical median P/S ratio is 1.37. The stock gained 31.37% during the past 12 months.

For the complete 20-year historical financial data of CATM, click here.

5 Ways to Stop Wasting Time at Work

We all have days, or even weeks, on the job when our productivity declines. But if your output has been steadily diminishing, it could be because you're wasting time rather than focusing on key tasks at hand. If that's the case, the sooner you curb that behavior, the less likely it'll be to compromise your job. Here are a few steps you can take to stop wasting time at work -- and start doing your job more efficiently.

1. Lock yourself in quiet spaces

It's easy to get distracted at the office when you're surrounded by chatty colleagues and side conversations that are far more interesting than the work you're supposed to be doing. But if you let yourself get sucked into those discussions, you're likely to fall behind and incur your boss's wrath as a result. If you can't tear yourself away from the folks around you long enough to stop wasting time, remove the temptation by regularly setting up shop in a quieter spot in the office, like the corner conference room most folks forget about. You might even ask your manager for permission to use his or her office if your boss doesn't use it all that much.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

2. Turn off your cellphone

A quick text message here and there during the workday might seem innocent enough, but a brief back-and-forth can quickly turn into a full-fledged conversation -- one that takes you away from more important tasks. If you're eager to stop wasting time at the office, silence your cellphone. Give family members and close friends a way to reach you in an emergency (such as by calling your office's landline), and turn on that phone only during designated breaks.

3. Organize your calendar

It's easy to inadvertently waste time when you don't have a preset schedule outlining your days at work. But if you're guilty of not maximizing your time at the office, it'll help to create a daily calendar with blocks of time for various tasks. For example, if you give yourself from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to write up your weekly data analysis report, you'll be less likely to waste time during that period knowing that you only have an hour allocated to that task.

4. Organize your space

A messy workspace can make you downright inefficient even when you're trying to do better. If your desk is full of clutter, carve out some time to get it organized. Shred papers you don't need, file essential documents in some sort of order, and make your supplies more accessible. The less time you spend navigating the disaster zone that is your workspace, the more time you'll free up to actually do your job.

5. Build in breaks

Sometimes we waste time at work by talking to colleagues, checking text messages, or surfing the internet because our minds need a break from the constant grind. If that sounds like you, then you're better off scheduling some breaks during the day but powering through otherwise. For example, you might carve out 20 minutes in the morning or afternoon to chat with coworkers or look at your favorite websites. This way, you'll get that need out of your system so you can then go back to concentrating.

The more time you waste at work, the more your manager and peers are apt to take notice -- and that's a good way to hurt your reputation and put your job at risk. Instead, clean up your act and keep searching for ways to be more efficient. Doing so might also spare you the misery of having to burn the midnight oil when deadlines loom and your work just hasn't gotten done.