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George Liu

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  • A Sweet Tooth for Success

    By George Liu - March 21, 2013 | Tickers: K, MDLZ, HSY

    Milk chocolate bars. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Kisses chocolates. Payday bars. Milk Duds. Jolly Ranchers. The only thing sweeter than these goods is the stock of the company that produces them: Hershey’s (NYSE: HSY) is up 18.3% year-t-date and still has significant upside potential.

    One of the main reasons Hershey's stands out from its competition is the extent to which it is determined to aggressively expand more »

  • The One Brick-And-Mortar Retailer To Invest In

    By George Liu - February 14, 2013 | Tickers: FRAN, JCP, M

    In today's cutthroat retail environment, shops have to be extremely flexible in order to survive. Francesca's Holdings (NASDAQ: FRAN) epitomizes this flexibility in the retail industry, operating a chain of retail boutiques under the Francesca’s collections brand in the United States. A huge part of Francesca's Holdings' business model is affordability, which is definitely smart considering the weakness of the U.S. economy and the strong more »

  • The One Bank to Buy

    By George Liu - August 30, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, JPM, TD

    On August 16, Global Finance released the results of its 21st Annual Ranking of the World's 50 Safest Banks. The ranking, which "has been a recognized and trusted standard of creditworthiness for the entire financial world," is evaluated along the lines of long-term credit ratings and total assets. U.S. financial heavyweights such as JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) were missing from the list more »

  • Amazon's Smartphone a Smart Move?

    By George Liu - July 10, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT

    It seems as if the continuing trend these days in the technology sector is to simply try and catch up to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Take, for example, Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) attempt to enter the iPad-dominated tablet industry with its newly unveiled Microsoft Surface; although the tablet has some very useful features such as a snap-on keyboard, many analysts wonder if it can significantly boost Microsoft's bottom line and more »

  • Painting a Successful Investment

    By George Liu - July 10, 2012 | Tickers: HD, LOW, VAL

    Recently, the depressed housing market has shown some positive signs of strength. On Monday, new home sales figures came out: 369K homes were sold versus 350K expected, the fastest annualized pace of sales in more than 2 years. Also, on Tuesday, the April S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index increased 0.7% M/M, an increase which comes after 7 consecutive months of declines. 

    Accompanying these encouraging signs was more »

  • Finally! An Amazing Airline Stock

    By George Liu - June 25, 2012 | Tickers: ALGT, DAL, SAVE, LCC

    The airline industry has been notoriously tricky investing terrain. For one, airlines are victims to volatile jet fuel costs, which have constantly plagued major airlines as United Airlines and Southwest Airlines until recently, when jet fuel prices have started to decline.

    Moreover, low customer satisfaction due to problems such as flight delay, lost baggage, and additional costs has been a thorn in the side for several companies such as US more »

  • The Lion of the Recreational Vehicle Industry

    By George Liu - June 23, 2012 | Tickers: ACAT, HOG, MPX, PII, WGO | Editor's Choice

    The recreational vehicle industry has seen significant growth over the past few years. Off-road vehicle sales have increased 35% YOY in 2010, 32% YOY in 2011, and are expected to grow 18% YOY this year. Moreover, the recreational vehicle index, as compiled by Tickerspy, is up 49.6% versus the S&P 500 since January 2008.

    However, the industry has not been without its share of negative factors. Last winter more »

  • Profiting From Retail Sector Strength

    By George Liu - June 21, 2012 | Tickers: ROST, TJX, ZUMZ

    One sector is showing surprising resilience in the face of the slowing domestic economic recovery, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, and fears of a slowdown in China. The retail sector has blossomed in these uncertain economic times. Zumiez (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) recently increased 2012 Q1 earnings by 150% YOY. Ross Stores (NASDAQ: ROST) recently posted a 26% YOY gain in Q1 and grew its earnings an average of 24% the more »

  • Cloud Computing: Raining Down Profits

    By George Liu - June 20, 2012 | Tickers: FIO, N, ORCL, CRM, SAP

    Cloud-computing is a type of technology that has become increasingly prevalent in businesses everywhere. It allows businesses to use applications without actually installing them, which helps companies reduce operating costs.  Recently, a study sponsored by enterprise software giant SAP (NYSE: SAP) showed that cloud-computing could save U.S. businesses as much as $625 billion over five years. Moreover, this study also showed that existing cloud-computing companies such as Salesforce (NYSE: CRMmore »)

  • The Pharmaceutical Company With Huge Growth

    By George Liu - June 19, 2012 | Tickers: AMGN, CELG, QCOR, TEVA

    Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG), and Teva (NYSE: TEVA) are some of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the industry. All of them have individual market caps in upwards of $29B and have a huge variety of products. Amgen has such products as Aranesp and ESPOGEN for human therapeutics. Celgene relies on a pipeline of drugs such as REVLIMID and VIDAZA to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory related diseases. Teva focuses more »

  • The Company Dominating the Semiconductor Business

    By George Liu - June 14, 2012 | Tickers: HPQ, INTC, IBM, MLNX, ORCL

    Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX) is fabless semiconductor company that supplies interconnect products for computing, storage, and communication applications in the computing, Web 2.0, storage, financial services, database, and cloud markets. Although it is relatively young (formed in 1999), this company has huge potential and has seen its stock soar 97.7% YTD, all the more interesting considering Mellanox, with a $2.6B market cap is by no means more »

  • Is Priceline a Deal?

    By George Liu - June 11, 2012 | Tickers: EXPE, GOOG, MSFT, OWW, PCLN

    Priceline ) is an online travel company that provides hotel reservation services, retail airline tickets and rental car reservation services on a worldwide basis. It also offers vacation packages and optional travel insurance packages as well as its  Name Your Own Price demand-collection system. Priceline's stock has recently taken a tumble but is still up 37.8% YTD. Despite the pullback, Priceline continues to be a good investment and is more »

  • Cashing In on Coinstar

    By George Liu - June 8, 2012 | Tickers: CSTR, NFLX, SBUX, VZ, DIS

    Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) is a $1.91B services company that provides automated retail solutions primarily in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Ireland, and the United Kingdom through such products as self-service Redbox kiosks and self-service coin-counting kiosks. 

    Positives

    Coinstar's signature product is the Redbox kiosk, which enables consumers to conveniently rent or purchase movies and video games. These Redbox kiosks have become increasingly profitable for Coinstar ever more »

  • Is Monster Beverage a Monster Stock?

    By George Liu - June 6, 2012 | Tickers: KO, DPS, MNST, PEP

    Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST), previously called Hansen Natural Corporation, develops, markets, sells, and distributes alternative beverage category beverages in the United States and across the world. The company's Monster Energy brand (after which the company is named) is its flagship product line and accounts for approximately 91 percent of total sales. Monster Beverage's stock has been soaring recently: it is up 58.7% YTD and 100 more »

  • Should You Invest in TransDigm Group?

    By George Liu - June 5, 2012 | Tickers: DAL, JBLU, LUV, BA, TDG

    Overview

    On Tuesday, May 8, TransDigm reported positive 2012 second quarter results: its EPS of $1.65 beat estimates by $0.19 and the company generated revenues of $423M, which beat estimates by $33M. Overall, TransDigm has seen its stock increase 27.2% YTD and 51.5% from a year ago. There continues to be significant upside potential in the stock due not only to major industry catalysts, but also more »

  • Potential in Alexion Pharmaceuticals

    By George Liu - May 30, 2012 | Tickers: ALXN

    The Overview

    On May 24, 2012, Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALXN) became the latest company to be included in the S&P 500 index, replacing Motorola Mobility (which has been acquired by Google). Upon news of this selection, Alexion's stock gained 5.2%, an increase which follows a long string of successes for the company and its stock. In fact, Alexion Pharmaceuticals has seen its stock price rise 29.3 more »

  • What Facebook Can Learn From Vale

    By George Liu - May 30, 2012 | Tickers: VALE, FB

    By now there is no doubt that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) is focusing most of its efforts on expanding its presence and profitability in the mobile sector. So far, the only sources of significant revenue generated by Facebook on its mobile platform are from advertisements placed directly inside the newsfeed of its mobile Facebook apps. With its struggle to fully capitalize on the potential of its mobile platform, Facebook has had more »

  • GNC: Health Products, Healthy Stock

    By George Liu - May 29, 2012 | Tickers: GNC, RAD, VSI

    The Overview

    GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNC) has seen its stock soar 37.3% YTD, significantly buoyed by its positive earnings for the first quarter of 2012. On April 25, GNC reported EPS of $0.60, beating estimates by $0.08; it also reported revenue of $624M, which beat analyst estimates by $38M and constituted a 23% increase YOY. Moreover, same store sales increased 15.8% in domestic company-owned stores more »

  • Profiting from the Yuan

    By George Liu - May 21, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, RMB, DSUM, WMT, CYB

    As China's hegemony grows, it is faced with an interesting dilemma concerning its currency manipulation policies. The Chinese government has long kept the value of the yuan at artificially low levels to give its exports a significant competitive advantage in their host countries, a development which has helped catalyze the rise of China as the world's top exporter.

    However, the hubris and increasing confidence with which the Chinese more »

  • Facebook's Deal: 48 Hours and 1 Billion Dollars

    By George Liu - April 16, 2012 | Tickers: GOOG | Editor's Choice

    The acquisition of Instagram by Facebook, one which has stunned the world, was masterminded by Mark Zuckerberg over a span of 48 hours. Interestingly enough, before the offer, Instagram had received a fresh financing infusion that had valued the company at $500 million. Basically, Instagram doubled its worth in 48 hours while Facebook now faces the challenge of turning the acquisition from a liability into an asset.   

    Instagram is a more »

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