Jane Genova

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• Staples: Get More Radical

  By Jane Genova - September 10, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, BBY, SPLS, WMT

  Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS)  has joined companies like Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft which started a category and now have to transition to something else.  Along the way to that new Promised Land, it's too easy to get on wrong paths. That's where Staples seems to have been.  The question investors should have is if can find the right one and quickly enough. The contiuned low stock price, following Jim Cramer more »

• Fall of House of Zuckerberg: Winners

  By Jane Genova - August 27, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, FB, JBLU, KRFT, LNKD

  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) faces four more lockup expirations.  They will be in October, November, December, and May.  After that process is completed the current stock price hovering around $19 could seem high. In a pep talk to employees, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, the company’s chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said there are future developments the media don’t know about. Yet, cagey leaders as well as those in more »

• For-Profit Ed: Forget Cramer's "Bad Neighborhood"

  By Jane Genova - August 13, 2012 | Tickers: APEI, APOL, DV, LOPE, STRA

  Last March, Jim Cramer described the for-profit education sector as a "bad neighborhood" investors shouldn't be in. That aggregate kind of thinking is useful for index investing such as through the Bloomberg U.S. For Profit Education Companies Index. That has been at $297+, with a 52 week range of $272.57 to $571.38.  No, for-profit ed isn't doing so hot.

  But many other investors focus on more »

• U.S. Consumer Economy: The Shift

  By Jane Genova - July 20, 2012 | Tickers: COST, DLTR, FDO, WMT

  The gloomy June figures for the retail sector align with THE ECONOMIST’s contention the U.S. economy is shifting from a consumer to an export one. 

  As the U.S. Commerce Department reports, for June, retail sales fell 0.5%, representing the third consecutive month of decline, which hasn’t happened since the fall of 2008, when the financial crisis peaked.  Meanwhile, the current issue of THE ECONOMIST, with more »

• LinkedIn: Post-Facebook, Groupon, Zynga, Digg

  By Jane Genova - July 16, 2012 | Tickers: FB, LNKD, NWSA, NYT, WPO

  LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), the uncool, has become the company to watch in the social media space.  This is at a time when social media pioneer Digg is rumored to be selling for $500,000 to Betaworks.  Digg was once valued at $140 million, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

  It's ironic that LindedIn is being so closely followed.  That's because it's all about business, not leveraging the social more »

• Change Or Die: Not Everyone Buys That

  By Jane Genova - July 10, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, GOOG, NFLX, WAG

  Change or Die. Obviously, not everyone has been beaten over the head with that meme or the bashing didn't take.  Otherwise, analysts, shareholders, and the media wouldn't react with high angst when a company like Google makes a shift.

  Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) so-called “core competence” had been search.  Thanks to the exploding growth of apps, search may someday become an anachronism.  Also, had Google stuck with its more »

• P&G: Not Hard To Fix

  By Jane Genova - July 5, 2012 | Tickers: AVP, CL, PG

  This could be the beginning of the end.  That mindset always gets attention.

  So, it was predictable that when Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) lowered its financial forecast for a second time in three months, there would be plenty of negative response.  And all that would go high profile. RBC Capital Markets analyst Jason Gere cut his rating to “Sector Perform” from “Outperform.”  Originally that was published in AP.  It has more »

• For-profit Education: Forget Bubble Talk

  By Jane Genova - June 29, 2012 | Tickers: APOL, LOPE, STRA

  The excitement isn't only in hospital stocks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Obamacare constitutional. Analysts and shareholders are again looking at the distressed for-profit education sector.  They're sorting what could make this category bounce back after being so down since 2010. As a result, some of the stocks are up.  Among them are Apollo (NASDAQ: APOL), Grand Canyon Education (NASDAQ: LOPE), and Strayer (NASDAQ: STRA). 

  Reduced more »

• News Corp: Surrender to Win

  By Jane Genova - June 27, 2012 | Tickers: APOL, BRK-A, LOPE, NWSA, WPO

  News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) stock keeps rising.  Part if not all of that likely has been due to the rumors that  the company could be splitting itself into two.  One would be the distressed publishing business which includes media properties such as THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and TIMES OF LONDON.  The other would be the more profitable entertainment business which includes Fox News. 

  Always shrewd chief executive officer Rupert Murdoch more »

• Should This Company Follow in Starbucks' Footsteps?

  By Jane Genova - June 26, 2012 | Tickers: PNRA, SBUX, WAG

  Has Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) overextended itself in buying 45% of Alliance Boots? Will it unravel as Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) did around 2007 when it chased growth at any cost?

  The bulls, such as Forbes healthcare journalist Bruce Japsen, are few.  Recently, at 28.99, the stock was near the 52 week low of 28.53 and far from the high of 44.26. For one thing, the timing is puzzling more »

• Smartphone Retail: Investor Intelligence

  By Jane Genova - June 26, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, T, JCP, SPLS, VZ

  Will the negative publicity about the low wages, no-commission policy, and extreme expectations at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Retail, which sells the iPhone, cool the love affair with the brand? Could it morph from cult identity to social-value liability like Wal-Mart?

  That could happen.  Encounters with the smartphone on the front lines of retail - as consumers, sales representatives, and/or job applicants - have evolved into a kind of universal experience.  That more »

• Retail: The Current Lost Generation

  By Jane Genova - June 20, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, JCP, SPLS, TLB, WMT

  To play with Tolstoy’s famous observation about families, I am convinced that all failing retailers are essentially alike: Two Guys From Harrison is not much different from Circuit City. They were ham-handed with change.  That could have been within their own business, such as through over-expansion or lack of expense control.  Or it could have been in the marketplace, as with new customer preferences and pricing expectations. On the more »

• Inheritance Bust: Bye Baby Bums, Hello Shots for Fido

  By Jane Genova - June 19, 2012 | Tickers: DHI, ETH, FB, PETM, PIR, PG, TGT, WFC

  Bulls and sundry economic optimists keep scanning the horizon for signs of sustained economic recovery. Hark, there is a light in the distance.  They point out, for example, that builder D.R. Horton’s (NYSE: DHI) second fiscal quarter earnings increased 46% from the period a year ago.  The homebuilding part of that was up 28%. However, that light could soon start flickering because of the inheritance bust. Most industries more »

• Grow Up: Successful Investors Hustle

  By Jane Genova - June 18, 2012 | Tickers: BP, FB, GS, JCP, SHW

  Yes, of course, some individual and institutional investors created, preserved and grew their wealth in equities through illegal activities such as insider trading at the former Galleon Hedge Fund. The Department of Justice has been unmasking lots of that. Also, before the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) IPO, certain favored financial groups might have received information that the value of the company was being re-evaluated and downgraded  

  However, simultaneously many ordinary people more »

• Never Underestimate Big Tobacco

  By Jane Genova - June 15, 2012 | Tickers: MO, LO, WAG

  BigTobacco’s present is sweet. 

  Take Altria (NYSE: MO). At 33.43, Altria is essentially at an all-time high.  It just announced a $18 billion stock buy-back. The whole tobacco category represents the dividend elite, with the major players recently raising their dividends.  Altria’s is at $1.52 per share, Reynolds American’s (NYSE: RAI) at $1.55, and Lorillard’s (NYSE: LO) at $1.12.  All have been more »

• "U.S. v Gupta" - Collateral Damage

  By Jane Genova - June 12, 2012 | Tickers: BRK-A, C, GS

  High-profile trials such as “U.S. v Gupta” can cause considerable collateral damage.  Although it wound up being settled out of court, the closely followed libel trial “Westmoreland v CBS” hurt trust in the leadership of the American military and raised questions about the journalistic standards of television network CBS.  That latter’s cash cow was investigative reporting.  One wonders if those institutions have recovered even yet.

  As you see more »

• GM's Transition Makes Investors Wary

  By Jane Genova - June 7, 2012 | Tickers: T, BRK-A, GM, JCP, PEP

  See the USA in Your Chevrolet

  What’s good for General Motors is good for America

  Those memes were embedded in the GM (NYSE: GM) which was as American as Coca-Cola soft drink, Tide detergent, and Colgate toothpaste.  Now GM seems to be pulling up some of those roots. If that's what's going on, then investors ought to be wary.  Transition often has hidden landmines, as we witnessed more »

• Shareholder Activists: Stop Being Naive

  By Jane Genova - June 5, 2012 | Tickers: AOL, BBRY, HPQ, TGT, WMT

  Last Friday, the day the Dow Jones sank 274.88 points, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) stock closed at 65.55, near its 52 week high of 66.66.  After hours it was at 65.62.  On that same Friday, at its annual meeting, activist shareholders had expressed their negative opinion about alleged bribery in Mexico by voting against some members of the board of directors. They also submitted three proposals.  Leading more »

• Facebook @26+: Investor Shift

  By Jane Genova - June 2, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, BRK-A, FB, KRFT, PEP

  Will historians of equities be creating a timeline of Before Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) IPO and After Facebook's IPO?  Part of that tale may or may not be the death of equities.  In its recent cover story, THE ECONOMIST has been among the influentials describing the public company as an endangered species.

  The death of equities is mere speculation. What we do know is that any analysis of equities more »

• Starbucks: Is it Heading Back to 2008?

  By Jane Genova - June 1, 2012 | Tickers: BKS, PNRA, SBUX, WAG, WFM

  Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) could be heading into another downward spiral as in 2008.  Just one of the red flags is that it is tampering with a key part of its experience-economy formula: Being a 3^rd place.  Customers were willing to pay premium prices for a cup of coffee as a tradeoff to be able to hang around to think, work or give the appearance of that, conduct meetings, consult more »

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