Timothy Green

Editor's Choice

• Don't Ignore the Boring Stocks

  By Timothy Green - June 19, 2013 | Tickers: CSCO, SPLS, WU |

  It's easy to get a little too excited about the next big thing. Investors throw their money into stocks like Tesla, 3D printing companies, or new cloud-based tech IPOs, expecting far more than these companies can realistically deliver. At the same time these investors ignore the stocks of mature companies operating in boring industries, often missing fantastic opportunities in the process. Three stocks that fall into this category, all more »

• Cover All The Bases When Valuing Stocks

  By Timothy Green - June 13, 2013 | Tickers: CSCO, EMC, NTAP |

  Sometimes a stock appears to be cheap when in reality it's expensive, and sometimes a stock appears to be expensive when in reality it's cheap. The numbers which you choose to look at can have a significant impact on a stock’s valuation, and it's important to cover all the bases in order to get a clear picture of the company's financials.

  Consider enterprise storage company more »

• These Buybacks Are Terrible

  By Timothy Green - June 11, 2013 | Tickers: CMG, SIRI, ZNGA |

  When companies announce share buyback programs, investors and analysts often applaud. But all buybacks aren't created equal, and many actually destroy shareholder value rather than create it.

  Buybacks are a sign that a company believes that investing in its own stock is the best possible use of capital, and investors like to see this kind of confidence. But more often than not companies overpay for their own shares, sometimes more »

• Mixed Earnings And A Higher Stock Price

  By Timothy Green - May 24, 2013 | Tickers: ODP, OMX, SPLS |

  Of the three big office supply chains, soon to be two with the merger of Office Max (NYSE: OMX) and Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) looming, the clear leader is Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS). Staples has struggled to grow sales as of late, with 2012 seeing a slight decline, but this is at least partially due to weakness in Europe. Staples reported its Q1 earnings a few days ago, and while the more »

• This Company Is Doomed

  By Timothy Green - May 20, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, P |

  The number of companies which offer a music subscription or internet radio service seems to be growing larger every day. There's Pandora (NYSE: P), which has proven to be exceptionally popular with its free ad-supported model and an ad-free subscription service. Then there's Spotify, which has a much larger library than Pandora and also offers a free ad-supported version. Pandora has about three times as many active users more »

• How to Tell If a Stock Is Overpriced

  By Timothy Green - May 11, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, MSFT, RAX |

  How do you tell if a stock is overpriced? How about when an earnings miss of a penny causes the stock to plummet by 25%. That's exactly what happened with Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) after reporting its Q1 results a few days ago. Even with revenue increasing by 20% and net income increasing by 16.4% year-over-year, a slight miss of analyst expectations led to a gargantuan decline in the more »

• Companies Admitting Mistakes: Does It Work?

  By Timothy Green - May 9, 2013 | Tickers: DPZ, JCP, MSFT |

  A company publicly admitting a mistake is a rare thing. But two companies, J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), have recently done just that. J.C. Penney, after a failed turnaround attempt and a fired CEO, released a TV spot basically begging customers to come back to the store. And Microsoft, after a slower than expected launch of Windows 8 and complaints about a steep learning curve more »

• China Causing Problems For This Company

  By Timothy Green - May 6, 2013 | Tickers: CMG, MCD, YUM |

  Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) reported its Q1 earnings in April, beating expectations as the stock jumped. But the results were mixed, with terrible performance in China overpowering good results in other markets. Total revenue dropped 7.6% year-over-year as EPS plunged 24%, or 8% adjusted for special items. Yum has bet heavily on China, with nearly 5,500 stores in the country, and the company expects to build 700 additional more »

• Getting Real About Apple

  By Timothy Green - February 14, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, MSFT |

  Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is almost certainly the most written about company on the planet. As the stock ascended to $700 per share last year, making Apple the most valuable company in the world, predictions of a run to $1,000 and beyond seemed to be published every day. The party soon ended, with the stock price crashing over the past few months down to around $450 a share. This, of more »

• Amazon: When Will The Madness End?

  By Timothy Green - February 1, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, TGT, WMT |

  Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported its fourth quarter results earlier this week, with revenue growing by 22% and gross margins higher than expected. Net income for the quarter was $97 million, or $0.21 per share. These results put the full year revenue at just over $61 billion, 27% growth from $48 billion in 2011.

  Of the three quantities mentioned above - revenue, gross margin, and net income - analysts seem to only more »

• A High-Yield Opportunity

  By Timothy Green - January 24, 2013 | Tickers: AMD, INTC |

  Companies that are going through periods of financial turmoil and, consequently, a declining stock price are often shunned by investors. The risk of buying the stock only to see it decline even further is deemed too great by many. But often this drop in stock price is accompanied by a drop in the market price of the company's outstanding bonds. This sometimes opens up an opportunity to lock in more »

• 5 Cash-rich Tech Bargains

  By Timothy Green - January 22, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, CSCO, DELL, MSFT, NVDA |

  When a company has either a large amount of net debt or net cash on the balance sheet the P/E ratio, a very common metric used to gauge value, becomes skewed. This is because the P/E ratio does not adjust the price for the net debt or the net cash. This leads to companies which have a lot of cash appearing to be more expensive than they really more »

• Why Growth Is Overrated

  By Timothy Green - January 17, 2013 | Tickers: CMG, CSCO, NFLX |

  Investors have a tendency to flock to companies which grow at extremely high rates. The logic goes that if the company grows by x% per year than so too will the stock. Using that same logic, many investors avoid companies which grow slowly. Again, the logic is that if the company can only grow by, say, 5% per year, then surely the stock won't grow any faster.

  Two examples more »

• Destroying Your Waistline Along With Shareholder Value

  By Timothy Green - January 11, 2013 | Tickers: HLF, NTRI, WTW |

  When it comes to weight loss programs, most are gimmicky and show mixed results. They are popular for a while and then fade into irrelevance as the next fad becomes mainstream. Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW), however, is different. They don't offer some "miracle pill" that guarantees results. They don't claim that you can magically see results without exercise. Weight Watchers offers a proven eat-less exercise more system that more »

• A Century of Innovation at a Bargain Price

  By Timothy Green - October 4, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AAPL, GLW, NOK |

  Not too many companies have been around for over 100 years. Even fewer companies have been at the forefront of innovation year after year, decade after decade. Corning (NYSE: GLW) falls under both of these categories.

  Corning is the leading designer and manufacturer of glass and ceramic substrates, with its products finding their way into displays, smart phones, tablets, automobiles, and telecommunications products to name a few. The company has more »