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  • Fines and Warnings: Do They Matter?

    By Greg Bartlett - December 11, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, HBC, NFLX

    On July 3, the Facebook page for Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) featured a post announcing that the online video service streamed over 1 billion hours of content in the month of June, a meaningful milestone. Five months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission notified the CEO of Netflix that it is considering official action against the company over the post. According to the allegations, Netflix violated rules about the public disclosure more »

  • Post-Mortem Analysis: Your Worst Stocks Can Make You Money!

    By Adem Tahiri - December 10, 2012 | Tickers: FNFG, HBC

    Why is it so darned hard for us to admit when we’re wrong? It’s true of work, relationships; in investing, you can multiply it by a thousand. Perhaps that’s why CNBC host Jim Cramer, who actually know a ton, feels obligated to change positions on a stock six times a year (approximately, depending on performance).

    I don’t blame him. In finance, the “experts” are expected to more »

  • Why is Citigroup Hedge Funds’ Favorite Bank?

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - November 30, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, HBC, JPM, WFC

    Citigroup (NYSE: C) isn’t the most popular financial stock among hedge funds anymore (heavy buying activity at AIG gave that company the #1 slot), but our database of 13F filings still showed more hedge funds and other notable investors owning it than any of the other big banks. Billionaire David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management, a fund with $16 billion under management, had Citigroup as its second largest stock holding more »

  • Four High-Yield Dividend Stocks the Top Investors Are Buying

    By Karin Hernandez - November 29, 2012 | Tickers: CA, EXC, HRB, HBC

    I like to see what the gurus and the successful investors are buying. I like companies with high dividend yields. And, to combine the two, I like to see dividend stocks that are being purchased by experts.

    I found four companies with juicy dividends that have been purchased at a far greater rate this last quarter than they have been sold. My criteria is that the company has to be more »

  • What Investors Should Know And Do To Make Sure The Short Interest In Arena's Stock Is Playing By The Rules.

    By Joseph Dedvukaj - November 26, 2012 | Tickers: ARNA, BAC, BCS, SCHW, C, CS, DB, ETFC, GS, HBC, JPM, MFG, NES.DL, PJC, RBS, BA, TST, UBS, WFC

    1. Arena (NASDAQ: ARNA) short-sellers using illegal short and distort-

    As of November 15, 2012, Arena short interest is 61,748,793 shares. This is the highest it has ever been. How much of the short interest is illegal naked shorting? We believe its substantial. It is no secret Arena investors know illegal naked short selling and stock manipulation are being used to manipulate Arena's stock to some extent more »

  • Is it Too Late to Buy Citigroup?

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - November 13, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, HBC, JPM, WFC

    Citigroup (NYSE: C) investors don’t seem concerned by the departure of Vikram Pandit, with the stock up 10% since the beginning of October and up 27% for the year. Citigroup’s 10-Q for the third quarter of 2012 showed a decline in non-interest revenue compared to the same period in 2011; with net interest revenue and operating expenses slightly down, earnings fell to under $500 million (in Q3 2011 more »

  • Will Buying Pink Slips In Bulk Help UBS?

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - November 2, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, CS, HBC, UBS

    Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is planning to cut 10% of its workforce, but UBS (NYSE: UBS) thinks it can do better. The Switzerland-based investment bank, which may be best known for its wealth management unit but also includes standard i-bank functions such as trading, has announced that it will cut costs by reducing its headcount by one-sixth, or 10,000 jobs. This comes after a quarter in which the more »

  • Is Citigroup a Good Investment Right Now?

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - October 26, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, HBC, JPM, WFC

    Citigroup (NYSE: C) recently made news twice; first by releasing the comapny's results for the third quarter of the year, followed shortly by the announcement that CEO Vikram Pandit would be stepping down and would be replaced by Michael Corbat. Corbat had previously been head of the bank’s operations in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region and has worked in many of Citi’s divisions, including more »

  • The Future of Outsourcing is in the Philippines

    By stefanie soriano - October 26, 2012 | Tickers: ACN, HBC

    It is now 2 am and call center agents in the Philippines are sipping their lattes from Starbucks during a break. Some are smoking their packs of Marlboros and talking about the latest outburst from an irate customer. Welcome to the world of outsourced voice services that are predominant in the Philippines.  The Philippines has overtaken India in 2011 in terms of call center business that has proliferated in the more »

  • Is Citigroup a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - October 14, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, HBC, JPM, PNC

    Citigroup (NYSE: C) is up 27% year to date. While many investors are becoming more concerned about a slowdown in growth, they are simultaneously becoming less concerned about problems in the financial sector (and, in particular, less concerned about financial institutions’ exposure to Europe). Even with this rise in prices, however, Citi is still low priced according to conventional measurements of valuation. The market value of its equity has edged more »

  • Banking Sector Job Cuts: How to Profit

    By Bill Edson - September 25, 2012 | Tickers: C, DB, HBC

    In a recent Bloomberg interview, analyst Meredith Whitney said that, “Wall Street is just going to have an extremely challenged revenue environment for the foreseeable future.” She anticipates 50,000 to 100,000 layoffs in the financial sector as a response to the sales drought.

    Many financial service companies are struggling in a deleveraging, slower-growing world. To cope with this “New Normal” world, many financial service companies around the world more »

  • Risk Management in Financial Institutions Part 2

    By Yasir Idrees - September 17, 2012 | Tickers: BCS, CS, HBC

    Recently, there have been several major losses to some of the biggest financial institutions and banks due to several reasons such as interest rates and credit exposure. Risk management is a type of strategy which every financial institution needs to have at its core and there are several parts involved in this including monitoring the risks, measuring these risks and controlling risks.

    One of the basic risks, which many financial more »

  • Big Banks and Money Laundering

    By Peter Pham - August 28, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, BCS, GE, GS, HBC

    Having weathered the first part of the storm surrounding the manipulation of LIBOR, a number of London-based banks are facing charges in the U.S. for other issues as well.  HSBC (NYSE: HBC) has had troubles over laundering drug and terrorist money and now Standard Chartered’s problems with the State of New York, which ended quickly with a $340 million fine to fill the coffers of cash-strapped New York more »

  • Pre-Election Money Machinations

    By Peter Pham - August 26, 2012 | Tickers: C, HBC, JPM, LVS, WYNN

    Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) is currently under investigation from the U.S. Justice Department for its alleged involvement in money laundering. The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles is investigating two instances of laundered money transferred to its casinos by high-rolling Las Vegas gamblers: one by a Mexican pharmaceutical businessman in the mid-2000s, who in 2007 was indicted on drug trafficking and another by a California executive more »

  • The Move Toward Greater Profitability

    By Karen Rogers - August 13, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, GS, HBC, NES.DL

    Sometimes you have to prune the branches to save the tree.  This recent Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) announcement regarding the Merrill Lynch sale demonstrates that CEO Brian Moynihan is committed to restoring the banks stature and profitability.

    Bank of America bought Merrill at the height of the financial crisis for $50 billion and prevented the brokerage firm from following in Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers footsteps.  Since then, Merrill more »

  • Billionaire Ken Fisher’s New Stock Picks

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - August 3, 2012 | Tickers: AXP, HBC, LVS, PCLN, CRM

    Ken Fisher is one of the 400 richest people in the United States, drawing his wealth from his books on money management and from his work at Fisher Asset Management. According to his recently filed 13F for the second quarter of 2012, none of the top holdings in Fisher Asset Management’s portfolio had large changes in position from last quarter. Looking a little deeper in the filings, we picked more »

  • The Futility of Taming the Shadow Economy

    By Peter Pham - August 2, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, HBC, JPM, WFC

    Black money is that which is unaccounted for on balance sheets, tax returns, or income statements.  Put differently it is the shadow economy that is not counted in official statistics, definitely has not been taxed at the point of sale, or criminal in nature, be it drugs or arms running, ransom to kidnappers, bribes taken by politicians and officers, etc.  All of this will fall under the official term money more »

  • Transparency and Berkshire

    By Stephen Benz - July 30, 2012 | Tickers: BRK-B, GS, HBC, STO

    Transparency International, a non-governmental organization that promotes corporate transparency and accountability, recently released a report assessing the largest worldwide 105 public companies.  The companies were measured on three metrics: public reporting on anti-corruption programs, organizational transparency, and country-by-country reporting.  I was genuinely shocked to find that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) was ranked #101 on this list, just above China Construction Bank.  The study is not a critique of the practices more »

  • The Best Way to Invest in JPMorgan

    By Bill Edson - July 26, 2012 | Tickers: BCS, HBC, JPM, WFC | Editor's Choice

    In 2012 investors in financial companies should know that they are investing in black boxes that generate huge, sporadic losses. Firms like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS) will seem stable for years only to report catastrophic losses or scandalous, regulation-challenging news. Investors have no chance of forecasting such events from financial statements. Though unpredictable in timing, severity, or details, such events should not come as a surprise more »

  • Handicapping Malaysia's Growth

    By Peter Pham - July 20, 2012 | Tickers: C, HBC, EWM

    We are a few months in front of potentially important elections in Malaysia, where the ruling UNMO party is facing a serious threat to its 50+ year dominance.  The pressure from this is not lost on sitting Prime Minister NajibRazak who has made a number of moves to undercut many of the rallying issues of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.  The most recent announcement was the repeal of a colonial-era law more »