S&P500 Index

Although ETF (VTV) ownership increased substantially during the last 20 years, it still isn’t high enough to meaningfully impact stock prices.

Frac sand producers Emerge Energy Services (EMES) and Hi-Crush Partners (HCLP) rose nearly 44% and 16%, respectively, over the last 12-month period.

Disney stated at the conference that it will keep investing in its businesses not just for growth but also to give superior returns to shareholders.

An ACSI survey revealed that in the US, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone SE and iPhone 7 are the highest-rated smartphones in terms of customer satisfaction over the last year. The iPhone SE gained the top spot with 87 points.

Disney (DIS) has been looking more and more at the distribution of its content in digital format—specifically for ESPN.

Valero’s crack indicators have fallen in all of these areas in May 2017 (as of May 23) as compared to April 2017.

In 1Q17, Devon Energy’s (DVN) reported operating netback was ~$16.68 per boe (barrel of oil equivalent), which is ~178% higher than in 1Q16.

Refiners’ cash flows have turned volatile over the past few quarters due to volatile refining earnings.

MPC’s valuations are above the peer averages likely because it’s now in the process of restructuring its organization to unlock value.

VanEck  How fallen angels may complement high yield portfolios Income investors may want to consider fallen angels as a complement to their high yield bond allocations given their higher credit quality. Fallen angels’ higher average credit quality than original-issue high yield bonds may help absorb more of the potential broader market volatility that may occur […]

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) announced its fiscal 2Q17 results on May 9. The company’s stock price closed at $109.58 on May 11, 2017.

The majority of analysts covering Target (TGT) are neutral on the stock. Analysts’ consensus rating on TGT was 2.9 on a scale of 1.0 (strong buy) to 5.0 (strong sell).

EV-to-EBITDA multiples in 1Q17 for ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), and BP (BP) were above their historical averages.

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil (FXN) (SCO) (FENY) futures contracts for June delivery are near a five-month low as of May 9, 2017.

Things are heating up in the GPU space as AMD looks to enter the high-end market with its Vega GPU. Vega will be priced competitively, likely creating a price war between AMD and NVIDIA.

Disney said in an earnings call that the US corporate tax policy needs to be changed because American companies are no longer competitive.

Despite a rough retail environment, off-price retailers TJX Companies (TJX), Ross Stores (ROST), and Burlington Stores (BURL) have been delivering strong sales growth. In this series, we’ll compare their margins, stock price movements, and analyst recommendations.

CL’s organic sales in its North American segment remained flat in 4Q16. Volume gains in toothpaste were offset by a fall in toothbrushes and liquid hand soap.

Analysts expect Colgate-Palmolive (CL) to post revenue of $3.8 billion in 1Q17, which would represent a YoY (year-over-year) growth of 0.8%.

Investors generally invest in high-yield bonds (BND) when there are expectations for higher growth in the economy.

Cypress has combined its four business segments into two: MCD (Microcontroller and Connectivity Division) and MPD (Memory Products Division).

Despite the stellar run that financials (FAS) have had since the US elections in November 2016, financials are trading at very reasonable levels.

Short interest in Nabors Industries (NBR), as a percentage of its float, rose to 11.5% as of March 31, 2017—compared to 6.5% as of December 30, 2016.

The Markit Germany manufacturing PMI stood at 58.3 in March 2017 compared to 56.8 in February.

Comcast stated that the key to getting ahead of the competition has been the company’s strategy to offer products based on market segmentation.

Patterson-UTI Energy’s (PTEN) operated average US rig count is expected to rise 21.0% in 1Q17 compared to 4Q16.

Intel (INTC) is acquiring Mobileye (MBLY) for a hefty premium compared to MBLY’s earnings.

Analyst ratings for Chevron Chevron (CVX) has been rated by 25 analysts. Of the total, 17 analysts have given “buy” or “strong buy” ratings, eight have given “hold” ratings, and none have given “sell” or “strong sell” ratings on the stock. These ratings have improved from March 2016, when Chevron had fewer “buy” ratings, more […]

In this series, we’ll provide updates on Chevron’s market performance. We’ll examine CVX’s latest stock performance, analyst ratings, dividend yield, PEG (price-to-earnings-to-growth) ratio, beta, short interest position, institutional ownership status, and implied volatility movement.

In the last two weeks, the stock of ConocoPhillips (COP), a crude oil (USO) and natural gas (UNG) producer, has outperformed crude oil prices.

Revenue from EA’s international markets fell 5.0% YoY (year-over-year) from $622.0 million in fiscal 3Q16 to $588.0 million in fiscal 3Q17.

National Oilwell Varco’s (NOV) management expects upstream activity in North America’s shale plays to improve in 2017.

Apple’s (AAPL) revenues from Europe rose 3.0% to $10.5 billion, and its revenues from the Asia-Pacific region rose 8.0% to $5.9 billion.

In its latest analyst meeting, ExxonMobil (XOM) announced that it had plans to concentrate on an integrated earnings model, capturing value at every stage of the energy chain.

The US dollar and crude oil (ERY) (ERX) (DIG) (XES) are usually inversely related. A weaker US dollar makes crude oil more affordable for oil importers.

Core Laboratories (CLB) is the largest company by market capitalization among our set of select oilfield services and equipment (or OFS) companies…

In this article, we’ll analyze how Flotek Industries’ (FTK) operating cash flows trended over the past few quarters.

While the Dodd-Frank Act was passed to avoid another financial crisis, it has crippled banks’ profitabilities over the years due to higher capital requirements.

OppenheimerFunds Leading indicators of the global economy are climbing and that generally bodes well for equities. Previously, we highlight the tight fit between the JP Morgan Global Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (black line, left axis)—a leading indicator of worldwide business activity—and the year-over-year returns of the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) returns since 2000. […]

The Power Solutions Group’s revenues rose 34.3% sequentially to $620.3 million in 4Q16. More than $200 million in revenues came from the Fairchild Semiconductor integration.

OppenheimerFunds The U.S. economy was weaker than expected in 2016, the lagged effect of the Fed’s policy mistake in 2015. In our opinion, the worst is now over for the United States, and economic growth should improve in 2017 and could even surprise to the upside with an appropriate fiscal policy mix from the new […]

OppenheimerFunds In response to accusations of flip-flopping, John Maynard Keynes purportedly quipped, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” With 2017 in full swing, the facts have changed. Since the financial crisis, the global economy has been mired in a slow growth, disinflationary world. We argued that the weak […]

ON Semiconductor (ON) expects the Fairchild Semiconductor merger to bring in annual cost synergies of $225 million by 2019 compared with just $160 million in 2017.

Inflation is expected to reduce the value of assets if the price rise of the asset doesn’t catch up with inflation. Core inflation in the United States is growing at a rate of ~2%.

According to NPD Group’s retail tracking service, GoPro (GPRO) accounted for three out of the top five products—including the top two positions—on a unit basis in the US Digital Imaging Product segment for 4Q16.