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Bitcoin Price Recovers 20% to Break $11,000; Pullback Done, Huge Rally Next? Within a week, from June 26 to July 2, thebitcoin pricefell from $13,868 to $9,651, recording a 30 percent pullback against the U.S. dollar. Technical analysts have expressed optimism towards the swift recovery of bitcoin from a large pullback as the dominant crypto asset hasshowna change in trend within a short time frame. According to Josh Rager, a cryptocurrency technical analyst, when the bitcoin price experiences a steep correction, it is often followed by a major rally. Ragersaid: BTC has just hit over 20% gain in less than 24 hours Looking extremely bullish and could be heading towards $11,760 (1 day resistance) Wanting to go to sleep but it’s hard to rest when Bitcoin crushes resistance after resistance on lower time frames.
Why You Shouldn't Look At Empiric Student Property plc's (LON:ESP) Bottom Line Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Empiric Student Property plc is a UK£546m small-cap, real estate investment trust (REIT) based in London, United Kingdom. REIT shares give you ownership of the company than owns and manages various income-producing property, whether it be commercial, industrial or residential. The structure of ESP is unique and it has to adhere to different requirements compared to other non-REIT stocks. Below, I'll look at a few important metrics to keep in mind as part of your research on ESP. See our latest analysis for Empiric Student Property A common financial term REIT investors should know is Funds from Operations, or FFO for short, which is a REIT's main source of income from its portfolio of property, such as rent. FFO is a cleaner and more representative figure of how much ESP actually makes from its day-to-day operations, compared to net income, which can be affected by one-off activities or non-cash items such as depreciation. For ESP, its FFO of UK£52m makes up 132% of its gross profit, which means the majority of its earnings are high-quality and recurring. In order to understand whether ESP has a healthy balance sheet, we have to look at a metric called FFO-to-total debt. This tells us how long it will take ESP to pay off its debt using its income from its main business activities, and gives us an insight into ESP’s ability to service its borrowings. With a ratio of 16%, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor would consider this as significantly high risk. This would take ESP 6.22 years to pay off using operating income alone. Given that long-term debt is a multi-year commitment this is not unusual, however, the longer it takes for a company to pay back debt, the higher the risk associated with that company. Next, interest coverage ratio shows how many times ESP’s earnings can cover its annual interest payments. Usually the ratio is calculated using EBIT, but for REITs, it’s better to use FFO divided by net interest. This is similar to the above concept, but looks at the nearer-term obligations. With an interest coverage ratio of 4.09x, it’s safe to say ESP is generating an appropriate amount of cash from its borrowings. I also use FFO to look at ESP's valuation relative to other REITs in United Kingdom by using the price-to-FFO metric. This is conceptually the same as the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, but as previously mentioned, FFO is more suitable. ESP's price-to-FFO is 10.46x, compared to the long-term industry average of 16.5x, meaning that it is undervalued. As a REIT, Empiric Student Property offers some unique characteristics which could help diversify your portfolio. However, before you decide on whether or not to invest in ESP, I highly recommend taking a look at other aspects of the stock to consider: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for ESP’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor ESP’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is ESP worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether ESP is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Does Husys Consulting Limited's (NSE:HUSYSLTD) 39% Earnings Growth Make It An Outperformer? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today I will examine Husys Consulting Limited's (NSE:HUSYSLTD) latest earnings update (31 March 2019) and compare these figures against its performance over the past couple of years, in addition to how the rest of HUSYSLTD's industry performed. As a long-term investor, I find it useful to analyze the company's trend over time in order to estimate whether or not the company is able to meet its goals, and eventually grow sustainably over time. View our latest analysis for Husys Consulting HUSYSLTD's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2019) of ₹15m has jumped 39% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of 36%, indicating the rate at which HUSYSLTD is growing has accelerated. How has it been able to do this? Let's take a look at if it is solely owing to industry tailwinds, or if Husys Consulting has seen some company-specific growth. In terms of returns from investment, Husys Consulting has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 17% instead. However, its return on assets (ROA) of 14% exceeds the IN Professional Services industry of 7.4%, indicating Husys Consulting has used its assets more efficiently. Though, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Husys Consulting’s debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 27% to 21%. Husys Consulting's track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. While Husys Consulting has a good historical track record with positive growth and profitability, there's no certainty that this will extrapolate into the future. I recommend you continue to research Husys Consulting to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HUSYSLTD’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor HUSYSLTD’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are HUSYSLTD’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 March 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
UK services PMI: Economic contraction flagged after 'worst month in decade' The Shard is seen as workers use umbrellas to shelter themselves from the rain while crossing London Bridge in London. Photo: Eddie Keogh/Reuters New figures suggest the UK economy may have shrunk in the second quarter, the first quarterly contraction in three years. Data provider IHS Markit published its closely-watched service sector PMI on Wednesday, which is a survey measuring business activity and future intentions. The data pointed to a significant slowdown in the engine room of economic growth. Service sector PMI for June came in at 50.2, versus a forecast of 51. (Anything above 50 signals growth, anything below means contraction.) IHS Markit said the figure showed “business activity was close to stagnation in June, which contrasted with the modest recovery seen during the previous month.” The findings add to a bleak picture painted by data from other sectors. Earlier this week, an IHS Market survey of the construction sector found it suffered its worst month since the financial crisis in June. IHS Markit’s data for the manufacturing sector also hit a six-year low. ‘The economy has slipped into contraction’ “The near-stagnation of the services sector in June is one of the worst performances seen over the past decade and comes on the heels of steep declines in both manufacturing and construction,” Chris Williamson, IHS’s chief business economist, said in a statement. “Collectively, the PMI surveys indicate that the economy has slipped into contraction for the first time since July 2016, suffering the second-steepest fall in output since the global financial crisis in April 2009.” Williamson said IHS Markit’s data suggests the UK economy contracted by 0.1% in the second quarter. READ MORE: Pound slides as UK manufacturing hits six-year low Samuel Tombs, the chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the growth forecast was “plausible, given the drag from the unwind of Q1’s stockpiling boost,” but noted PMI data has recently been too pessimistic and underestimated GDP growth. James Smith, an economist at ING, warned that “the fact that new orders have ground to a halt in the service sector suggests that underlying economic momentum is unlikely to increase imminently.” Story continues Shortly after the IHS Markit data was published, the pound was down by 0.1% against the euro ( GBPEUR=X ) and down by 0.1% against the dollar ( GBPUSD=X ). Sterling was under pressure against both currencies prior to the announcement. ‘Ongoing Brexit uncertainty’ The slowdown in the service sector was blamed on “sluggish domestic economic conditions and greater risk aversion among clients in response to ongoing Brexit uncertainty.” “The latest downturn has followed a gradual deterioration in demand over the past year as Brexit-related uncertainty has increasingly exacerbated the impact of a broader global economic slowdown,” Williamson said. READ MORE: Pound falls on UK construction's worst month since crisis as Brexit bites The service sector, which covers everything from banking to waiting tables, accounts for around 80% of economic growth in the UK. One of the few bright spots from IHS Markit’s survey was an increase in service sector hiring. Employee numbers grew at their fastest rate since August 2017. IHS Markit said some companies were “anticipating a rebound in demand following greater clarity about the path to Brexit.” However, other survey respondents expected continued tough conditions to continue due to “domestic political uncertainty and subdued global economic conditions.” Pressure on the Bank of England Williamson said the data would “put further pressure on the Bank of England to add stimulus.” “For policymakers to not loosen policy with the all sector PMI at its current level would be unprecedented in the survey’s two-decade history,” he said. The Bank of England has said publicly it wants to raise interest rates but has been hamstrung by weak economic growth. Investors now judge a rate cut to be more likely than a rise. READ MORE: Bank of England holds interest rate at 0.75% as 'downside risks' increase The Bank of England last month cut its growth forecast for the UK to zero in the second quarter of 2019 . The MPC said UK economic growth appears to have “weakened slightly in the first half of the year” and said “downside risks to growth have increased.” Governor Mark Carney also struck a downbeat tone in a speech on Tuesday, warning that US-China trade tensions could “shipwreck the global economy.” ING’s Smith said the Bank of England was “unlikely to hike interest rates this year” due to ongoing Brexit uncertainty and “the potential for an escalation in global trade tensions.” However, Pantheon Macroeconomics’ Tombs said he doubted there was “a greater than 50% chance of the MPC cutting Bank Rate before Governor Carney steps down at the end of January.” ———— Oscar Williams-Grut covers banking, fintech, and finance for Yahoo Finance UK. Follow him on Twitter at @OscarWGrut . Read more: Facebook warned against ‘move fast and break things’ approach to Libra US threatens new EU tariffs on Scotch, pasta, and Italian cheese Bitcoin falls below $10,000 as Facebook rally fades Investors still stranded as Woodford's £3.7bn fund stays frozen LGBT+ pay gap revealed despite corporate embrace of Pride
Brexit 'hitting uptake of foreign language learning in schools' Students are reportedly discouraged from taking up foreign language lessons (Getty/stock photo) One third of secondary schools teachers have suggested that Brexit is causing students to not bother taking up foreign language lessons . According to the British Council's Language Trends Survey 2019, 36% of teachers at state schools, and 30% at independent, said pupils had mixed attitudes towards languages as a result of Britains exit from the EU . And the survey also suggested that parents of disadvantaged pupils are telling teachers that learning a foreign language will be less useful once Brexit has taken place. The survey suggests the most disadvantaged pupils continue to be less likely than their peers to study languages at GCSE (Pixabay) Lead researcher, Teresa Tinsley, said: "The report paints a picture of language learning in England becoming increasingly segregated along both socio-economic and academic lines. "Pupils from poorer backgrounds and those who are less academically inclined are much less likely than their peers to acquire any substantial language skills or access foreign cultures in any significant way, challenges that Brexit looks to exacerbate. "We all know the pressures schools are under, but these inequalities are not good for our society or the future of our country." The survey also found the majority of teachers were concerned about the level of difficulty of language exams, a year on from the introduction of new GCSEs and A-levels. Seventy-one per cent of state secondary school teachers, and 64% of private school teachers said the nature and content of external exams worried them. A large proportion were also concerned about the way tests are marked and graded, with 62% of private school teachers saying it was a challenge to providing high quality language teaching. Read more from Yahoo News UK: Teenager killed herself without knowing she was pregnant Baby of murdered pregnant woman dies Facebook cracks down on bogus health cures after anti-vax purge While 59% of state school teachers said the same. The report also indicates declining levels of international engagement in primary and secondary schools, with half offering pupils no international activity at all. Story continues Vicky Gough, schools adviser at the British Council, said: "We need to give our young people more opportunities to learn about and engage with different cultures. "Languages open up so many doors - not only are they a valuable skill highly sought after by employers, they also allow for a deeper understanding and appreciation of the wider world. While one third of secondary school teachers said pupils had mixed attitudes towards languages as a result of Brexit (Getty) A Department for Education spokesman said: "We want more people to study foreign languages and benefit from the opportunities they provide. The research is based on an online survey completed between January-March by teachers in 776 state primary schools, 715 state secondary schools and 130 independent secondary schools across the country. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
Tesla breaks quarterly record with 95,200 delivered cars Elon Musk hinted at itin May, and he wasn't kidding: In the second quarter of 2019, Tesla delivered a record 95,200 vehicles. This is a significant increase from the company's own milestone of delivering 90,700 cars in a single quarter, which Tesla had achieved in the fourth quarter of 2018. The news is doubly important as it comes after abad first quarterfor Tesla, in which the company's deliveries faltered and the company incurredmassive losses. SEE ALSO:Tesla's federal tax credit dropped, but other EVs still have the full amount Tesla says it produced a total of 87,048 cars and delivered 95,200 cars in Q2. There was also an additional 7,400 vehicles in transit at the end of the quarter, and these deliveries will spill into the third quarter.Read more... TeslaElon MuskElectric VehiclesTechTransportation
Grab VST Industries Limited (NSE:VSTIND) Today With A Solid 2.8% Dividend Yield Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you are an income investor, then VST Industries Limited (NSE:VSTIND) should be on your radar. VST Industries Limited manufactures and sells tobacco and its related products in India and internationally. Over the past 10 years, the ₹53b market cap company has been growing its dividend payments, from ₹30 to ₹95. Currently yielding 2.8%, let's take a closer look at VST Industries's dividend profile. Check out our latest analysis for VST Industries It is a stock that pays a reliable and steady dividend over the past decade, at a rate that is competitive relative to the other dividend-paying companies on the market. More specifically: • Its annual yield is among the top 25% of dividend payers • It has paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past • Its dividend per share amount has increased over the past • It can afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings • It has the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward VST Industries's yield sits at 2.8%, which is on the low-side for Tobacco stocks. But the real reason VST Industries stands out is because it has a proven track record of continuously paying out this level of dividends, from earnings, to shareholders and can be expected to continue paying in the future. This is a highly desirable trait for a stock holding if you're investor who wants a robust cash inflow from your portfolio over a long period of time. If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it's dividend stocks and their constant income stream. In the case of VSTIND it has increased its DPS from ₹30 to ₹95 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. This is an impressive feat, which makes VSTIND a true dividend rockstar. The current trailing twelve-month payout ratio for the stock is 65%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a higher payout ratio of 72% which, assuming the share price stays the same, leads to a dividend yield of 3.6%. Moreover, EPS should increase to ₹162.95. The higher payout forecasted, along with higher earnings, should lead to greater dividend income for investors moving forward. When thinking about whether a dividend is sustainable,another factor to consider is the cash flow. Companies with strong cash flow can sustain a higher payout ratio, while companies with weaker cash flow generally cannot. Investors of VST Industries can continue to expect strong dividends from the stock. With its favorable dividend characteristics, if high income generation is still the goal for your portfolio, then VST Industries is one worth keeping around. However, given this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. I've put together three pertinent aspects you should further examine: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for VSTIND’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor VSTIND’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is VSTIND worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it's not worth an infinite price. Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether VSTIND is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there strong dividend payers with better fundamentals out there? Check out ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Financially Strong Is ERG S.p.A. (BIT:ERG)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Small-cap and large-cap companies receive a lot of attention from investors, but mid-cap stocks like ERG S.p.A. (BIT:ERG), with a market cap of €2.7b, are often out of the spotlight. While they are less talked about as an investment category, mid-cap risk-adjusted returns have generally been better than more commonly focused stocks that fall into the small- or large-cap categories. This article will examine ERG’s financial liquidity and debt levels to get an idea of whether the company can deal with cyclical downturns and maintain funds to accommodate strategic spending for future growth. Remember this is a very top-level look that focuses exclusively on financial health, so I recommend a deeper analysisinto ERG here. See our latest analysis for ERG ERG's debt level has been constant at around €2.2b over the previous year which accounts for long term debt. At this constant level of debt, the current cash and short-term investment levels stands at €673m , ready to be used for running the business. Additionally, ERG has generated €277m in operating cash flow over the same time period, leading to an operating cash to total debt ratio of 13%, meaning that ERG’s operating cash is less than its debt. With current liabilities at €705m, it seems that the business has maintained a safe level of current assets to meet its obligations, with the current ratio last standing at 1.32x. The current ratio is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities. Usually, for Renewable Energy companies, this is a suitable ratio since there is a bit of a cash buffer without leaving too much capital in a low-return environment. Since total debt growth have outpaced equity growth, ERG is a highly leveraged company. This is not uncommon for a mid-cap company given that debt tends to be lower-cost and at times, more accessible. We can test if ERG’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. Ideally, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) should cover net interest by at least three times. For ERG, the ratio of 7.38x suggests that interest is appropriately covered, which means that lenders may be inclined to lend more money to the company, as it is seen as safe in terms of payback. ERG’s high cash coverage means that, although its debt levels are high, the company is able to utilise its borrowings efficiently in order to generate cash flow. This may mean this is an optimal capital structure for the business, given that it is also meeting its short-term commitment. This is only a rough assessment of financial health, and I'm sure ERG has company-specific issues impacting its capital structure decisions. You should continue to research ERG to get a more holistic view of the mid-cap by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for ERG’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor ERG’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is ERG worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether ERG is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Man in his 90s found stabbed to death at house in Leicester Police cordon tape around a crime scene, with a fence in the background. A man in his 90s has died after being stabbed at a house in Leicester. Police were called to the address just before 4pm on Tuesday where they found the body of the elderly man, who was pronounced dead at the scene. An elderly woman who was in the property in Greendale Road, Glen Parva, at the time was not injured, Leicestershire Police said. Greendale Road, Glen Parva, Leicester, where the man's body was found on Tuesday afternoon (Picture: Google Maps) Detective Inspector Jonathan Blockley, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) Major Crime team, said a man was arrested at the scene a short time later but enquiries are ongoing. He said: “Our investigation is currently in its very early stages. READ MORE Baby of murdered pregnant woman dies “A man was arrested at the scene a short time later. He remains in custody and our enquiries are ongoing. “A scene preservation remains in place at this time. We do not believe that there’s anyone else involved in this incident.” Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
Interested In Howden Joinery Group Plc (LON:HWDN)? Here's What Its Recent Performance Looks Like Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! After looking at Howden Joinery Group Plc's (LON:HWDN) latest earnings update (29 December 2018), I found it helpful to revisit the company's performance in the past couple of years and compare this against the latest numbers. As a long-term investor I tend to focus on earnings trend, rather than a single number at one point in time. Also, comparing it against an industry benchmark to understand whether it outperformed, or is simply riding an industry wave, is an important aspect. In this article I briefly touch on my key findings. View our latest analysis for Howden Joinery Group HWDN's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 29 December 2018) of UK£190m has increased by 2.9% compared to the previous year. However, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 10%, indicating the rate at which HWDN is growing has slowed down. To understand what's happening, let’s take a look at what’s going on with margins and whether the rest of the industry is experiencing the hit as well. In terms of returns from investment, Howden Joinery Group has invested its equity funds well leading to a 34% return on equity (ROE), above the sensible minimum of 20%. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 22% exceeds the GB Trade Distributors industry of 8.0%, indicating Howden Joinery Group has used its assets more efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Howden Joinery Group’s debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 45% to 39%. Though Howden Joinery Group's past data is helpful, it is only one aspect of my investment thesis. Companies that have performed well in the past, such as Howden Joinery Group gives investors conviction. However, the next step would be to assess whether the future looks as optimistic. I recommend you continue to research Howden Joinery Group to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HWDN’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor HWDN’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are HWDN’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 29 December 2018. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Good Is Indra Sistemas, S.A. (BME:IDR), When It Comes To ROE? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). We'll use ROE to examine Indra Sistemas, S.A. (BME:IDR), by way of a worked example. Indra Sistemas has a ROE of 19%, based on the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each €1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made €0.19 in profit. View our latest analysis for Indra Sistemas Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Indra Sistemas: 19% = €127m ÷ €703m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets. Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. If you look at the image below, you can see Indra Sistemas has a similar ROE to the average in the IT industry classification (16%). That's neither particularly good, nor bad. ROE doesn't tell us if the share price is low, but it can inform us to the nature of the business. For those looking for a bargain, other factors may be more important. For those who like to findwinning investmentsthisfreelist of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Indra Sistemas clearly uses a significant amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 2.04. Its ROE is quite good but, it would have probably been lower without the use of debt. Debt increases risk and reduces options for the company in the future, so you generally want to see some good returns from using it. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better. But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to take a peek at thisdata-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company. But note:Indra Sistemas may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Crew confusion, engine trouble recorded in final seconds of doomed flight, NTSB says July 3 (Reuters) - A plane that crashed in suburban Dallas and killed 10 passengers and crew had trouble with its left engine, according to the last few seconds of a cockpit voice recording, officials said on Tuesday. Just after the plane took off on Sunday, the crew's comments were "consistent with confusion" about 12 seconds before the recording ends, National Transportation Safety Board officials said at a news briefing. "Crew comment regarding a problem with the left engine occurred about eight seconds before the end of the recording," NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said in the televised news conference. Then three audible alerts were activated before the end of the recording, he said. The Beechcraft 350i Super King Air crashed into a hangar and burst into flames shortly after taking off from Addison Airport, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Dallas, on its way to St. Petersburg, Florida. It carried eight passengers and two crew members. Federal investigators retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage on Monday. The pilots were Howard Cassady and Matthew Palmer, according to the Dallas Morning News. Their passengers were Steve and Gina Thelen, John and Mary Titus, and Alice and Dylan Maritato and their mother Ornella Ellard and stepfather Brian Ellard. Investigators have determined that the plane's landing gear was down when it crashed, but it's unlikely they will be able to analyze other systems because of the extensive destruction and fire, said Jennifer Rodi, a NTSB safety investigator. The crash ripped a large gash in the roof of the hangar and damaged a helicopter and another plane inside, the NTSB said. The NTSB said it may release a preliminary report on the crash within two weeks. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Larry King)
Have Insiders Been Selling Heineken N.V. (AMS:HEIA) Shares? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inHeineken N.V.(AMS:HEIA). Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Harvard Universitystudyfound that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.' View our latest analysis for Heineken In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Chairman of the Executive Board & CEO, Jean-François M. Van Boxmeer, sold €1.8m worth of shares at a price of €90.19 per share. That means that an insider was selling shares at slightly below the current price (€99.26). When an insider sells below the current price, it suggests that they considered that lower price to be fair. That makes us wonder what they think of the (higher) recent valuation. While insider selling is not a positive sign, we can't be sure if it does mean insiders think the shares are fully valued, so it's only a weak sign. This single sale was just 6.8% of Jean-François M. Van Boxmeer's stake. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Jean-François M. Van Boxmeer. Jean-François M. Van Boxmeer sold a total of 40000 shares over the year at an average price of €85.18. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction! If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Heineken insiders own 0.1% of the company, worth about €56m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders. The fact that there have been no Heineken insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Heineken insiders. But it's good to see that insiders own shares in the company. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at thisFREEreport showing analyst forecasts for Heineken. But note:Heineken may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Can Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited's (NSE:MAHLIFE) ROE Continue To Surpass The Industry Average? Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited ( NSE:MAHLIFE ). Our data shows Mahindra Lifespace Developers has a return on equity of 6.0% for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every ₹1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn ₹0.060. View our latest analysis for Mahindra Lifespace Developers How Do You Calculate ROE? The formula for ROE is: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Mahindra Lifespace Developers: 6.0% = ₹1.2b ÷ ₹20b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. What Does Return On Equity Signify? ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, all else being equal, a high ROE is better than a low one . That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. Does Mahindra Lifespace Developers Have A Good Return On Equity? By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, Mahindra Lifespace Developers has a better ROE than the average (3.4%) in the Real Estate industry. Story continues NSEI:MAHLIFE Past Revenue and Net Income, July 3rd 2019 That's clearly a positive. We think a high ROE, alone, is usually enough to justify further research into a company. For example you might check if insiders are buying shares. The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used. Mahindra Lifespace Developers's Debt And Its 6.0% ROE While Mahindra Lifespace Developers does have some debt, with debt to equity of just 0.10, we wouldn't say debt is excessive. Its ROE is quite low, and the company already has some debt, so surely shareholders are hoping for an improvement. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises. The Bottom Line On ROE Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company . Of course Mahindra Lifespace Developers may not be the best stock to buy . So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Japan PM Abe says no need to raise sales tax beyond 10% for decade By Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that he was not considering raising the sales tax beyond 10% under his administration, and that he saw no such need for at least a decade. The premier has repeatedly pledged to raise the sales tax to 10% this October as planned, barring a big economic shock on the scale of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) earlier this year suggested Japan's sales tax needed to rise to as much as 26% to pay for bulging social security costs to support the fast-greying population. Policymakers have steered clear of debating further tax increases despite the industrial world's heaviest public debt burden at twice the size of its $5 trillion economy. Abe has twice delayed the planned tax hike since the last increase to 8% from 5% in April 2014 dealt a blow to consumers and triggered a deep economic slump. Growing pressure on the export-reliant economy this year has fuelled speculation he may postpone it again. "I'm not at all thinking about raising the sales tax any more under the Abe administration," he told a debate with other political party leaders ahead of the upper house elections set for later this month. "I don't think it will be necessary for 10 years," he said, when asked about the possibility of a further hike beyond the one scheduled for October. (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim & Kim Coghill)
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Can a freshman lawmaker stop Trump’s support for the Saudi war in Yemen? Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — During the 1992 presidential campaign, a Republican congressman urged President George H.W. Bush to attack his Democratic rival Bill Clinton for having taken a trip to Moscow in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. The congressman called Clinton a “nerdy little flower child peacenik demonstrating against his country,” a colorful but not inexact distillation of how many on the right saw the Arkansas governor. Nobody is likely to similarly brand Rep. Abigail Spanberger a peacenik, at least not with any success. Having served for eight years in the Central Intelligence Agency, the congresswoman from Virginia has the kind of foreign policy experience that Democrats were once derided for lacking. And several of her first-term Democratic colleagues in the 116th Congress, including Max Rose of New York, Elaine Luria of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, served in the armed forces. Now, Spanberger and her peers — including some Republicans — are seeking to put their foreign policy expertise to use by moving to stop American support for Saudi Arabia’s bloody campaign in Yemen. With a raft of standalone resolutions and amendments , some of which are tied to the defense appropriations and authorization process now underway on Capitol Hill, they want to use what they see as their constitutional authority to halt the sale of $8.1 billion in U.S. weapons systems to the Saudis and other Gulf nations announced in late May . The Trump administration circumvented Congress in making the sale — 22 separate sales — by claiming emergency powers under the Arms Export Control Act. Spanberger’s amendment is intended to stop the sale of offensive weapons known as precision guided munitions; other amendments working their way through Congress seek to stop all sales to the Saudis. One amendment would simply require the Pentagon to report on casualties of Yemeni civilians. “I worked in national security,” Spanberger told Yahoo News, speaking in her office last month. “I am not soft on terrorists, or the Iranians, or the Chinese, or the Russians — or anything,” she said. “I am going to aggressively be in favor of options that keep this country safe." Rubble of houses in Sanaa, Yemen, destroyed in an airstrike in May carried out by warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images) Like many of her colleagues in both parties, the 39-year-old from the Richmond, Va., suburbs is tired of the president using the fear of terrorism to justify military action that should receive congressional authority. She is not alone in that effort, which includes Rep. Ro Khanna, the progressive from Northern California, and Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian from Kentucky. Altogether, there have been 22 resolutions in the Senate , bringing both chambers and both parties into exceptionally rare accord. Story continues “We’re not saying don't sell arms to Saudi Arabia,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a former active duty Air Force officer (and current reservist) who has introduced his own legislation, meant to stop all weapons sales, as opposed to the more limited injunctions against offensive weapons favored by some of his colleagues. “Congress also agrees we should support our allies,” Lieu told Yahoo News. “There's no indication that Congress doesn’t view Saudi Arabia as an ally.” Lieu’s legislation is attached to the Pentagon appropriations bill that will arrive on Trump’s desk this summer (he also has amendments in the National Defense Authorization Act; the two complex bills fuse, in appropriately complex fashion, to form the legislative backbone of the U.S. military). Since Trump is certain to sign the military bills — no president has gone without funding and authorizing the armed forces for six decades — he would in effect be signing into law a measure to which he is opposed. It is not clear whether Trump could, or would, still invoke presidential emergency powers to push the arms sale through. Trump is hardly the first president to use an expansive interpretation of his military authority: If anything, he is following the precedent set by his predecessors, with George W. Bush and Barack Obama having steadily arrogated power to the executive branch, and to the presidency in particular. At the same time, Trump has avidly asserted executive authority in foreign policy matters, including the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. “This is actually one more example where the administration is either circumventing congressional authority or declaring emergencies to be reactive in a way that's out of step with what Congress wants or mandates,” Spanberger said. President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29. (Photo: Bandar Algaloud/Getty Images) Trump previously used his emergency authority in an attempt to build a border barrier with Mexico . During a recent House Foreign Affairs committee hearing provocatively titled “ What Emergency?: Arms Sales and the Administration’s Dubious End-Run around Congress , Spanberger questioned the hearing’s sole speaker — R. Clarke Cooper, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs — about the sale. She brought out a large-format photograph showing the charred remains of a bus that had been hit last year by an American-made missile fired by Saudi forces. More than 40 children on their way back home from a picnic died in the attack. “I just want to make sure we’re clear on the level of lethality we’re discussing,” Spanberger said. Critics of the administration’s policy worry that any involvement on the Arabian Peninsula, no matter how indirect, constitutes preparation for an eventual war with Iran. Those fears of a looming conflict increased last month, after Iran shot down an American drone in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump had prepared for a military response, only to call it off at the last minute. The administration’s critics still fear more bellicose elements within his administration, led by national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will find another pretext for war with Iran. In fact, Democrats and Republicans increasingly agree that Trump should not be supporting a war on the Arabian Peninsula without congressional consent. Both houses last spring passed a measure to end support to the Saudis by invoking the Vietnam-era War Powers Act; seven Republican senators crossed usually forbidding partisan barricades to vote with Democrats on the bill. Trump vetoed that resolution in April . It was his second use of presidential veto powers that spring, the first having come over his emergency declaration on the border with Mexico. Debris from what Iran's Revolutionary Guard described as the U.S. drone that was shot down in June is displayed in Tehran. (Photo: Meghdad Madadi/Tasnim News Agency via AP) Yemen has come to represent the resolve of Congress, as well as a referendum on American foreign policy in the age of globalized terror. Since the passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force , or AUMF, three days after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, the executive branch has been able to exercise military power without any checks. Had it survived Trump’s pen, the War Powers resolution would have been the first significant curb on presidential authority on military matters since George W. Bush declared a global war on terror. “I can clearly distinguish between failed policy and the unbelievable competence and stature of our armed forces,” says Max Rose, who joined the Army after graduating from Wesleyan. He served with an armored division in Afghanistan, where he was injured. Back home, he managed to win a congressional seat in Brooklyn and Staten Island that had been the last Republican redoubt in New York. “I will not cower in fear of someone calling me weak,” says Rose, who has vociferously advocated for an end to American involvement in the Yemeni crisis since joining Congress. Trump, Bolton and Pompeo have all highlighted the fact that Saudi Arabia is an ally, whereas the Houthi rebels are supported by Iran. “Saudi Arabia has the right to defend itself. The United States wants to support our important defense partner in the region,” Pompeo recently argued. But that case has been increasingly difficult to make, with some 7,000 Yemeni civilians killed since the Saudi-led intervention began, according to Human Rights Watch (11,000 more have been wounded). Riyadh further harmed its cause last October, when agents working for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman killed U.S.-based Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi after luring him into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Even though the killing was unrelated to the conflict in Yemen, it reinforced the notion that Riyadh was in the thrall of a cruel, unhinged regime. Houses in Sanaa, Yemen, hit by airstrikes carried out by warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition in May. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images) “You don’t sell arms to support war crimes,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, told Yahoo News. Elected to Congress in 2014, Moulton had previously served in the Marine Corps. “Regardless of how well-intentioned initial American help may have been to the Saudis, their endless war with in Yemen has become defined by the innocents killed and the humanitarian disaster created.” Among the earliest to voice objections to the Saudi arms arrangement was Khanna, who was first elected to Congress in 2016, and who had argued against supporting the Saudi effort even before the slaying of Khashoggi. Khanna is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, along with military veterans Sherrill and Luria, as well as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, an Iraq combat veteran running for president. Khanna’s amendment would keep the United States from providing “logistical support” to the Saudis and from sharing intelligence with them. Since Trump has made support for the military a signature issue, and Congress has for 58 years put aside all other disagreement s for the sake of Pentagon funding, amendments like Khanna’s and Lieu’s to the twin defense bills could force the president’s hand. And the more votes that amendment receives, the harder it will be to argue against the measure. “We plan and expect key Democratic party leaders and the chairs of relevant committees to support it on floor, so we can broaden the support,” said Khanna’s communications director, Heather Purcell. Supporters of those measures worry that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could strip them from the bill in conference before sending the defense bill to Trump. Lieu, for his part, remains undeterred. “We will fight back again,” he said, noting that his push to stop the sale has “some bipartisan support.” Echoing a common Democratic refrain in the age of Trump, he wishes that Republicans acted publicly on their private convictions, which the Southern California congressman believes skew toward his own on the arms sale. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on June 20, after appealing for lawmakers to vote against resolutions aimed at blocking the Trump administration's sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite) Now, he said, Republicans must “stand up and do the right thing.” Fearing a presidential tweet, and a subsequent primary challenge, many members of the GOP have elected not to buck the president, with Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., one of the few to publicly criticize Trump on this issue . He and Lieu are co-sponsors of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act seeking to stop the weapons sale. The luxuries of legislative deliberation are unavailable to the restive precincts of the Gulf. In recent days, Houthis used a drone to attack a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia . Meanwhile, the United Nations has suspended food relief programs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, with officials saying they could not guarantee those relief efforts were reaching the people for whom they are intended . Meanwhile, tensions between Iran and the United States are rising, with little clarity about what the Trump administration’s endgame may be. “What’s the path forward?” asked Spanberger. “What’s the strategy?” Like many other members of Congress, she believes that those are questions Trump can no longer evade. And if the weapons do eventually reach Saudi Arabia, they will make for a Pyrrhic victory, according to Lieu. “The Trump administration is not going to be around forever” to bolster the royal family in Riyadh, he warns. “We will remember the lies from Saudi Arabia.” President Trump speaks to the press on the South Lawn of the White House in October. Trump said the U.S. would be "foolish" to cancel arms deals with Saudi Arabia in response to the death of Jamal Khashoggi. (Photo: Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg/Getty Images) Correction: An earlier version of this story attributed Heather Purcell’s quote to "a staffer for Khanna who would speak only on condition of anonymity." The story has been changed to reflect that Purcell was speaking on the record. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Former top U.S. diplomat deplores policy toward Iran 'untethered to any coherent strategy' Pentagon secretly struck back against Iranian cyberspies targeting U.S. ships Trump admits his Cabinet had 'some clinkers' For Dems, there's no chickening out at Clyburn's fish fry Chore wars: Are men doing enough housework? PHOTOS: Freak hail storm hits Guadalajara, Mexico View comments
What Investors Should Know About Equiniti Group plc's (LON:EQN) Financial Strength Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! While small-cap stocks, such as Equiniti Group plc (LON:EQN) with its market cap of UK£793m, are popular for their explosive growth, investors should also be aware of their balance sheet to judge whether the company can survive a downturn. Understanding the company's financial health becomes crucial, as mismanagement of capital can lead to bankruptcies, which occur at a higher rate for small-caps. The following basic checks can help you get a picture of the company's balance sheet strength. However, these checks don't give you a full picture, so I recommend youdig deeper yourself into EQN here. EQN's debt levels surged from UK£249m to UK£400m over the last 12 months – this includes long-term debt. With this increase in debt, EQN currently has UK£91m remaining in cash and short-term investments to keep the business going. Additionally, EQN has generated cash from operations of UK£92m during the same period of time, leading to an operating cash to total debt ratio of 23%, indicating that EQN’s debt is appropriately covered by operating cash. Looking at EQN’s UK£151m in current liabilities, it seems that the business has been able to meet these commitments with a current assets level of UK£215m, leading to a 1.43x current account ratio. The current ratio is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities. For IT companies, this ratio is within a sensible range since there is a bit of a cash buffer without leaving too much capital in a low-return environment. EQN is a relatively highly levered company with a debt-to-equity of 78%. This is somewhat unusual for small-caps companies, since lenders are often hesitant to provide attractive interest rates to less-established businesses. We can test if EQN’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. Ideally, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) should cover net interest by at least three times. For EQN, the ratio of 4.42x suggests that interest is appropriately covered, which means that lenders may be inclined to lend more money to the company, as it is seen as safe in terms of payback. EQN’s high cash coverage means that, although its debt levels are high, the company is able to utilise its borrowings efficiently in order to generate cash flow. Since there is also no concerns around EQN's liquidity needs, this may be its optimal capital structure for the time being. I admit this is a fairly basic analysis for EQN's financial health. Other important fundamentals need to be considered alongside. I recommend you continue to research Equiniti Group to get a better picture of the small-cap by looking at: 1. Valuation: What is EQN worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether EQN is currently mispriced by the market. 2. Historical Performance: What has EQN's returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of our analysisfor more clarity. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
West Africa’s “Eco” single currency ambition has a slim chance of success ECOWAS, the regional bloc of countries in West Africa, has just revived an old dream: adopting a single currency across member states. After first broaching the idea at the turn of the millennium, the target launch date for the single currency has been postponed several times after initially being slated for 2003. The latest date to be agreed for the launch of the currency is 2020, with member states also agreeing to name it”ECO.” Jeffrey Epstein’s fortune is built on fraud, a former mentor says A commonly held view as to why the policy is being contemplated is that governments in the region are keen on even more integration, in addition to existing visa-free travel. But just as it has been for much of the past two decades, there are currently too many stumbling blocks in the way. For starters, only five (Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal and Togo) of the region’s fifteen countries currently meet the single currency’s criteria of a budget deficit not higher than 4% and inflation rates of not more than 5%, notes Charlie Robertson, chief global economist at Renaissance Capital. And while ECOWAS say the integration will be gradual as countries meet the criteria, it’s unlikely that a 2020 launch date is feasible at all. Even though the date has been set, there is no significant progress as regards the design, production and testing of the currency notes. Given that various economies in the region are at “dramatically different levels of development,” the leadership of ECOWAS is being unrealistic in both its timing for the currency’s launch and expectations of what it might achieve, Robertson says. “You’ve got very different levels of debt, interest rates and budget deficits. Trying to align these countries to operate as one is extremely difficult,” he says. “What currency policy is right for two such divergent countries like say Ghana and Burkina Faso?” Story continues The simplest way to improve your credit score is by using your email Those disparities are also particularly highlighted by Nigeria’s economic size in the region. “Nigeria is 67% of ECOWAS’ GDP, so really this isn’t a single currency for 15 countries, this is the Nigerian naira plus a few countries,” Robertson says. For its part, ECOWAS is keen to play up the hypothetical upside of a single currency possibly reducing the cost of trade across the bloc—but it does so while ignoring existing trade barriers. As SBM Intel, a Lagos-based intelligence firm, notes in a research report on the viability of the ECO, fixing underlying “structural issues” which hobble trade, including “inadequate supply chain infrastructure, arbitrary border tariffs and non-tariff barriers, abysmal corruption and wide-area insecurity” are all more viable solutions for boosting intra-bloc trade. The French connection In trying to create a single currency, ECOWAS will be looking to squash one which already exists: eight of its member states already use the France-backed the West African CFA franc. As part of a long-running monetary agreement, those countries deposit half of their foreign reserves with the French treasury. While the policy remains a subject of criticism in both African and European circles, untangling from such a complex and historic agreement will likely be a long and difficult process, says Cheta Nwanze, lead researcher at SBM Intel. For Robertson, it’s “bizarre” that countries who use the French-backed currency will even consider revising their currency policy at all given the benefits of lower interest rates and currency stability. “What’s been driving growth and investment in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal in the last 10 years has been high investment because of low interest rates which come from a stable currency guaranteed by France,” he tells Quartz . “Why jeopardize that and align with countries with less stable currencies like Nigeria and Ghana and with much higher levels of inflation and interest rates?” Sign up to the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief here for news and analysis on African business, tech and innovation in your inbox Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: The glow of the historic accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea has faded Zimbabwe banned the US dollar from being used so local bitcoin demand is soaring again
Now Japanese Regulators Are Getting Anxious About Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Japan’s central bank has joined the regulators worldwide expressing concerns over the potential risks posed by Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project. Areportfrom Nikkei Asian Review on Wednesday indicates that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has concerns thatLibra– a planned cryptocurrency backed by a basket of fiat currencies and government securities – will be tough to regulate and could bring risk to the financial system. Nikkei cited as unnamed official from the BoJ as recently saying: Related:4 US Lawmakers Join Call to Freeze Facebook’s Libra Project The report suggests that by linking Libra to more than one national currency, Facebook may be trying to avoid undue control from any single nation’s regulators. The Bank of Japan’s governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, has said he intends to “keep careful watch” on whether cryptocurrencies could become generally adopted as a means of payment, and how existing financial and payment systems might be affected. The report further posits that, as Libra users withdraw money to buy the token from regional banks, Facebook would likely place those reserve funds in Japan’s larger banks, resulting in a flow away from more minor institutions. Related:US Watchdog Groups Call for Congress to Put a Freeze on Facebook’s Libra A hike in demand for government securities as a result of Libra could also see interest rates drop, said Nikkei, suggesting that both of those factors could harm Japan’s financial stability. A BoJ official has further suggested that Facebook’s crypto project would be “piggybacking for free on a financial system that takes heavy costs.” Effectively, the firm would be running Libra using financial institutions that must spend large amounts on merely remaining complaint with watchdog rules. Over in the U.S., similar fears have prompted lawmakers to call for Facebook to freeze the project until it can be properly assessed. Democrats from the U.S. House of Representativeswrote an open letterto Facebook on Tuesday, describing concerns with Facebook’s track record, a well as the potential for libra to act as a new global currency system. “It appears that these products may lend themselves to an entirely new global financial system that is based out of Switzerland and intended to rival U.S. monetary policy and the dollar. This raises serious privacy, trading, national security, and monetary policy concerns for not only Facebook’s over 2 billion users, but also for investors, consumers, and the broader global economy,” the lawmakers wrote. Regulators inFrance,the U.K.and other nations includingSingaporehave also raised concerns over the Libra project. Bank of Japanimage via Shutterstock • UK Regulators Want a Long Look at Libra, Admonish Facebook’s Mantra to ‘Move Fast, Break Things’ • BitFlyer to Resume Opening New Accounts After One Year Voluntary Suspension
Nordea CEO Vents Frustrations Days After Announcing His Exit (Bloomberg) -- Within days of announcing he will step down, the chief executive officer of Nordea Bank Abp has revealed his thoughts on an activist investor that repeatedly slammed his firm. Casper von Koskull, who said on June 30 that he plans to retire by late next year when he turns 60, acknowledged that the frequent public criticisms by shareholder Cevian Capital AB were “annoying.” He also said he ultimately agrees with the substance of the attacks. Koskull’s legacy at the biggest Nordic bank will be his determination to push through a dramatic shift in strategy that’s involved cutting about 6,000 jobs and automating as many functions as possible. The goal was to create a more efficient bank that was cheaper to run. But the transformation has coincided with stalling revenue growth and over $10 billion in lost market value since von Koskull became CEO in late 2015. Last year, Cevian Managing Partner Christer Gardell said Nordea’s performance was “not good enough,” after slamming the bank for profits he called “way too low.” Cevian tends, “like any activist, to get attention through the media and that is, of course, sometimes a little bit...let’s call it annoying,” von Koskull said in an interview on Tuesday. “But that’s an annoyance we can take. I can take that because, underlying, we really don’t have a different view.” Referring to the bank’s turnaround von Koskull says, “I am frustrated. I would like this to go faster.” Patience Running Out In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, Gardell continued to pile on the pressure, saying his patience with Nordea “isn’t infinite.” He said replacing von Koskull was “probably good” but also underscored his desire to see an improvement in the bank’s performance before a new CEO is brought in next year. “It’s no secret that Nordea is underperforming rather significantly when compared with its competitors,” Gardell told Svenska Dagbladet. “This gap must be eliminated quickly.” Of the job cuts first announced in 2017, Nordea targeted shedding 4,000 full-time positions and 2,000 consultancy jobs. The program was designed to play out over several years. Von Koskull says Nordea is now “maybe a bit ahead on the consultancy side, otherwise in line. But not behind.” He has long argued that Nordea was ahead of the pack in replacing human bankers with automation and even quipped that, in about a decade, the bank industry will have lost about half its headcount. Humans vs Robots “From here on, in our industry, there will only be one way,” von Koskull said. “We will be less people over time.” Von Koskull’s other main legacy is overseeing Nordea’s head-office move out of Sweden (after a spat with regulators there) to Finland, which is part of the euro and Europe’s banking union. The decision was pushed through to give Nordea a level playing field in which to operate, the bank said. But that move hasn’t automatically resulted in a better operating environment. Von Koskull says that negative interest rates weigh on banks in Europe and a level playing field isn’t yet a reality, penalizing stronger firms by propping up weaker players. The comments come as the Riksbank of Sweden commits to monetary tightening around the turn of the year, while the European Central Bank embraces more stimulus. “You have a very dangerous environment that is actually suffocating the European banking players,” he said. “Of course, rate setting shouldn’t be for the banking industry. Rates should be set for the economy. But you should understand where it leads.” “Think about it. We don’t yet have a European single banking market,” von Koskull said. “The banking union is an attempt to do it, but even within the banking union and the single supervisory mechanism, you don’t yet have the level playing field.” (Adds monetary policy developments.) --With assistance from Niklas Magnusson. To contact the reporter on this story: Rafaela Lindeberg in Stockholm at rlindeberg@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net;Kati Pohjanpalo at kpohjanpalo@bloomberg.net For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Trump team weighs giving China a get-out-of-jail free card on Iran The State Department is seriously considering using an Obama-era loophole to allow China to import oil from Iran, violating the Trump administrations pledge to bring Iranian oil exports to zero. Only last week, the senior State Department official handling Iran said the U.S. would sanction any imports of Iranian crude oil. But according to three U.S. officials, the departments Iran czar, Brian Hook, and his team of negotiators have discussed granting China a waiver to a 2012 law intended to kneecap the Iranian oil industry. The alternative is allowing China, which recently welcomed a shipment of approximately a million barrels of Iranian oil, openly to defy U.S. sanctions. The Trump team has kept the details of its deliberations closely held as news reports of the Chinese oil imports have proliferated in recent days and hawks on Capitol Hill have begun to ask questions. It is the latest in a series of dust-ups between the administration and Congress on an Iran policy that has often appeared inconsistent, careening between threats of military action and offers to talk with Iranian leaders. The 2012 Iran Freedom and Counterproliferation Act targeted the Iranian shipping, shipbuilding and energy sectors, requiring states or companies that wish to import Iranian oil and conduct business with the U.S. to obtain waivers from the U.S. government. A separate law targeted purchases, rather than imports of that oil. Officials say the State Department is discussing an arrangement that would allow China to import Iranian oil as payment in kind for sizable investments of the Chinese oil company Sinopec in an Iranian oil field and administration officials have offered to issue a waiver for the payback oil in official correspondence between the State Department and Sinopec, according to a source familiar with the situation. The workaround would serve dual purposes, allowing cash-strapped Tehran to pay off a debt, and let China continue to import Iranian crude as it continues tense trade negotiations with American officials. Story continues Much of the rhetoric from the State Department has specified that the U.S. is targeting purchases rather than imports of Iranian oil, a distinction that will become important under the law if the department decides to give China a pass. There are right now no oil waivers in place, Hook told reporters on Friday. We will sanction any illicit purchases of Iranian crude oil. A State Department spokesman told POLITICO that the department remains committed to full implementation of our sanctions on purchases of Iranian crude oil. The Chinese imports, first reported by the website TankerTrackers.com, which uses satellite technology to track ships, have caught the attention of lawmakers. The Administration stopped issuing sanctions waivers for Iranian oil exports in May, yet China just received massive oil cargo from Iran, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted last week. The tanker Saline, capable of carrying 1 million barrels, docked in Jianzhou bay on June 20. The State Department declined to comment on the imports, but said the department is in regular contact with Beijing regarding our maximum economic pressure campaign on the Iranian regime. The U.S. declined to renew past waivers allowing China to import Iranian oil this past spring, in line with its drive to starve the Iranian government of hard currency. Were going to zero, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said when he announced the policy in late April. Were going to zero across the board. China protested at the time, arguing that the move would drive up oil prices. The decision from the U.S. will contribute to volatility in the Middle East and in the international energy market. We urge the United States to take a responsible attitude and play a constructive role, not the opposite, Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at an April 23 briefing. China had been importing around 10 million barrels of oil per day, around 500,000 of it from Iran. Those imports spiked briefly in April in anticipation of U.S. sanctions, before falling in May. Imports of cheap energy are vital to sustaining Chinas economic engine, a crucial source of the ruling Communist Partys political legitimacy amid volatile trade relations with the Trump administration. Experts say the State Department may have devised the workaround because it has few options for punishing Beijing for its defiance. It is the furthest thing from surprising if the administration tries to come up with a story to tell to paper over the noncompliance, said Jarrett Blanc, who served as the State Department coordinator for Iran nuclear implementation under President Barack Obama. Theres not that much they can do about it if China says, Screw you. Others say that issuing a waiver to China could help the administration achieve its stated goal of squeezing the Iranian regime and ultimately forcing its leaders back to the negotiating table. If the Trump administration did give permission to allow Iran to repay China in kind for debts owed for past work by Chinese oil companies in Iran, it could actually advance the Trump administrations policy, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security. That is, Irans exports would deprive Iran of valuable assets and further impoverish the struggling state."
Hilary Duff pierces eight month old daughter Banks' ears Hilary Duff has pierced her baby girl's ears. Photo: Instagram/Hilary Duff Hilary Duff has pierced her baby daughter's ears and people are up in arms about it. The 31-year-old actress couldn't resist showing off her eight-month-old little girl Banks' new accessory on her Instagram account after she and her fiance Matthew Koma decided to get her earlobes punctured. Taking to Instagram Stories, the former Disney star shared a photograph of baby Banks sitting on the floor with her hair in a bobble and a gold stud in her ears. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hilary Duff (@hilaryduff) on Jun 30, 2019 at 5:07pm PDT She said: "She has enough hair for a pony! Oh and yes we pierced her ears." “I can't believe someone who seemed so screwed on pierced her babies ears, causing unnecessary pain,” one person said. “That throbbing pain in her ears no matter how happy and looked after your child is just isn't justified in my eyes.” Another person commented saying: “Just won an unfollow after seeing you pierced her ears, poor baby. Bye! The couple's decision to get Banks' ears pierced comes just weeks after the little one was forced to spend a night in hospital with an infected bug bite. Hilary - who also has seven-year-old son Luca Cruz from her relationship with NHL star Mike Comrie - said recently: "She's fine. She just had a little bug bite on her face, and it had a little infection. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hilary Duff (@hilaryduff) on Jun 21, 2019 at 2:49pm PDT "[The staff] took care of us. They were really good. It was a long night in the hospital, but it was fine. She's happy and on the mend, and she looks great." The former Lizzie McGuire star had taken to her Instagram Stories initially to reveal her little girl had been in hospital after a day of vomiting. "I actually have Banks' vomit in my hair and I may or may not have the energy to bathe after a day with a sick baby and a night at the hospital,” she wrote. "All I want is to watch Handmaids [Tale] ughhhhh (sic)" Story continues Meanwhile, Hilary and Matthew, 32, announced their engagement in May. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hilary Duff (@hilaryduff) on Jun 4, 2019 at 12:31pm PDT The Yesterday singer shared pictures of herself showing off her engagement ring on Instagram, and wrote: "He asked me to be his wife." Matthew also posted the same images on his own Instagram account, alongside the caption: "I asked my best friend to marry me... @hilaryduff (sic)" The couple were first romantically linked back in early 2017, and although they broke things off a few months later, Hilary began dropping hints they were back together by September of that year.
Despite Its High P/E Ratio, Is Eurofins Scientific SE (EPA:ERF) Still Undervalued? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll show how you can use Eurofins Scientific SE's (EPA:ERF) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity.Eurofins Scientific has a P/E ratio of 40.34, based on the last twelve months. That means that at current prices, buyers pay €40.34 for every €1 in trailing yearly profits. See our latest analysis for Eurofins Scientific Theformula for P/Eis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Eurofins Scientific: P/E of 40.34 = €399.6 ÷ €9.91 (Based on the year to December 2018.) The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.' Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. When earnings grow, the 'E' increases, over time. That means unless the share price increases, the P/E will reduce in a few years. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up. Eurofins Scientific saw earnings per share decrease by 5.6% last year. But EPS is up 23% over the last 5 years. We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. You can see in the image below that the average P/E (40.3) for companies in the life sciences industry is roughly the same as Eurofins Scientific's P/E. That indicates that the market expects Eurofins Scientific will perform roughly in line with other companies in its industry. So if Eurofins Scientific actually outperforms its peers going forward, that should be a positive for the share price. I would further inform my view by checkinginsider buying and selling., among other things. The 'Price' in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. Eurofins Scientific has net debt equal to 37% of its market cap. You'd want to be aware of this fact, but it doesn't bother us. Eurofins Scientific's P/E is 40.3 which is above average (18) in the FR market. With some debt but no EPS growth last year, the market has high expectations of future profits. When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' So thisfreereport on the analyst consensus forecastscould help you make amaster moveon this stock. You might be able to find a better buy than Eurofins Scientific. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out thisfreelist of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings). We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Did Elecnor, S.A. (BME:ENO) Use Debt To Deliver Its ROE Of 14%? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. We'll use ROE to examine Elecnor, S.A. (BME:ENO), by way of a worked example. Our data showsElecnor has a return on equity of 14%for the last year. That means that for every €1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated €0.14 in profit. Check out our latest analysis for Elecnor Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Elecnor: 14% = €75m ÷ €841m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. If you look at the image below, you can see Elecnor has a similar ROE to the average in the Construction industry classification (14%). That isn't amazing, but it is respectable. ROE doesn't tell us if the share price is low, but it can inform us to the nature of the business. For those looking for a bargain, other factors may be more important. If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. It's worth noting the significant use of debt by Elecnor, leading to its debt to equity ratio of 2.02. Its ROE is quite good but, it would have probably been lower without the use of debt. Debt increases risk and reduces options for the company in the future, so you generally want to see some good returns from using it. Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So I think it may be worth checking thisfreethisdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
MoviePass Is Dead. Long Live...Regal Unlimited? MoviePass is (all but) dead. The company's latest attempt at a "new strategic direction" appears to have flopped, withVarietyreporting that subscriber rolls have plummeted from more than 3 million members to maybe 225,000 as of April (and maybe even fewer since then). That same month, MoviePass lookalike Sinemia also went basically defunct, announcing it wasshutting down U.S. operationsjust in time to avoid taking an enormous hit from subscribers using its service to watch the latestAvengersmovie. So what options does that leave for moviegoers, hoping to gorge on all-you-can eat cinema -- but avoid paying full price to enter the cafeteria? Image source: Getty Images. For the last several weeks,AMC Entertainment(NYSE: AMC)and its "Stubs A-List" subscription service have been pretty much the only game in town. Priced at $20 and up, AMC has picked up nearly a million erstwhile MoviePass subscribers (860,000, to be precise) with its offer to see three movies a week. There's alsoCinemark(NYSE: CNK), still offeringits $9 "subscription"entitling members to one movie per month, but that's hardly a bargain. Still, one name was missing from this list: Regal Entertainment -- and its British parent company,Cineworld Group(LSE: CINE). Last year, I predicted that in order to not lose a significant portion of its audience to its larger rival AMC, industry No. 2Regal would have to institute a U.S. subscription program of its own. And now we learn that Regal is going to do just that. As Deadline reported just yesterday, "sources confirm" that Regal is preparing to unveil its own subscription service as early as the end of this month. Details are apparently still being negotiated between America's Regal and its British overlords, but rumor has it that Regal will be trying to slightly underprice AMC (perhaps hoping to make up for lost time by poaching some of AMC's customers). Price tiers of $18, $21, and $24 per month are being considered, varying from city to city. As an added advantage for the truly movie-famished, Regal is said to be set to offerunlimitedmovies per month, a step up form AMC's three-movies-per-week maximum. Now, of course, there are strings attached. To get the advertised prices, Regal may require members to sign up for an entire year in advance, versus AMC's month-to-month membership. It's also not clear whether "Regal Unlimited" will include access to such enhanced movie experiences as IMAX. Whether these caveats will cause Regal Unlimited to stumble in its rollout remains to be seen. For example, charging an up-front $216 for admission to the program may scare off short-on-cash teenagers. It may also raise uncomfortable memories for folks previously burned by buying into pre-paid annual subscriptions at MoviePass and Sinemia. That being said, I think Regal is playing this smart. As Deadline notes, Regal has taken its time thinking this plan through, hoping to avoid the pitfalls that sank MoviePass and Sinemia. Regal's rumored prices, slightly more attractive than what AMC is offering, are one arrow in the company's marketing quiver. Having the ability to advertise its program as "really" unlimited, in contrast to AMC's being onlyprettyunlimited, are another. And of course, there's a business rationale to getting customers to commit to a year's subscription in advance. Locked into the system, movie fans won't be able to easily switch to an AMC subscription after giving Regal a try -- or more dangerous still, bop back and forth between the two chains, taking advantage of one company's promotions one month and then jumping ship to sign up for another promotion at the competition the next month. Additionally, subscriptions paid a year in advance to Regal will become in essence a big pool of "free float" that Cineworld can use as it wishes -- even if it simply wishes to deposit the cash and earn interest -- a benefit AMC will not have access to from one monthly billing cycle to the next. This could be the advantage Regal is counting upon to permit it to underprice its rival. In this regard, it's important to note that even during its brief period as the only game in town, AMC with its a-List program wasn't able to earn a profit last quarter --S&P Global Market Intelligencereports that it lost $130 million instead. By choosing to go the annual subscription route, Regal and Cineworld may hopefully avoid that fate. If that makes their program more viable, and ensures Regal is able to continue offering all-you-can-eat movie subscriptions where so many of its competitors have already failed, it will be good news for Cineworld shareholders and movie consumers alike. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Rich Smithhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Are Investors Undervaluing Medios AG (ETR:ILM1) By 29%? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Medios AG (ETR:ILM1) as an investment opportunity by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. This is done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward. We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of theSimply Wall St analysis model. See our latest analysis for Medios We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value: [{"": "Levered FCF (\u20ac, Millions)", "2020": "\u20ac9.7m", "2021": "\u20ac12.0m", "2022": "\u20ac12.2m", "2023": "\u20ac14.5m", "2024": "\u20ac15.7m", "2025": "\u20ac16.7m", "2026": "\u20ac17.4m", "2027": "\u20ac18.0m", "2028": "\u20ac18.4m", "2029": "\u20ac18.7m"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x2", "2021": "Analyst x2", "2022": "Analyst x1", "2023": "Analyst x1", "2024": "Est @ 8.56%", "2025": "Est @ 6.06%", "2026": "Est @ 4.31%", "2027": "Est @ 3.09%", "2028": "Est @ 2.23%", "2029": "Est @ 1.63%"}, {"": "Present Value (\u20ac, Millions) Discounted @ 5%", "2020": "\u20ac9.2", "2021": "\u20ac10.8", "2022": "\u20ac10.5", "2023": "\u20ac11.9", "2024": "\u20ac12.3", "2025": "\u20ac12.5", "2026": "\u20ac12.4", "2027": "\u20ac12.2", "2028": "\u20ac11.8", "2029": "\u20ac11.5"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= €115.2m After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 0.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 5%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = €19m × (1 + 0.2%) ÷ (5% – 0.2%) = €392m Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= €€392m ÷ ( 1 + 5%)10= €240.77m The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is €355.94m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of €24.44. Compared to the current share price of €17.3, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 29% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Medios as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 5%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price to differ from the intrinsic value? For Medios, There are three additional aspects you should look at: 1. Financial Health: Does ILM1 have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does ILM1's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of ILM1? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the ETR every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Does Man Industries (India) Limited (NSE:MANINDS) Affect Your Portfolio Volatility? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you own shares in Man Industries (India) Limited (NSE:MANINDS) then it's worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. First, we have company specific volatility, which is the price gyrations of an individual stock. Holding at least 8 stocks can reduce this kind of risk across a portfolio. The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market. Some stocks see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Beta can be a useful tool to understand how much a stock is influenced by market risk (volatility). However, Warren Buffett said 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk' in his 2014 letter to investors. So, while useful, beta is not the only metric to consider. To use beta as an investor, you must first understand that the overall market has a beta of one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one. See our latest analysis for Man Industries (India) As it happens, Man Industries (India) has a five year beta of 0.94. This is fairly close to 1, so the stock has historically shown a somewhat similar level of volatility as the market. While history does not always repeat, this may indicate that the stock price will continue to be exposed to market risk, albeit not overly so. Share price volatility is well worth considering, but most long term investors consider the history of revenue and earnings growth to be more important. Take a look at how Man Industries (India) fares in that regard, below. Man Industries (India) is a rather small company. It has a market capitalisation of ₹3.1b, which means it is probably under the radar of most investors. It doesn't take much money to really move the share price of a company as small as this one. That makes it somewhat unusual that it has a beta value so close to the overall market. It is probable that there is a link between the share price of Man Industries (India) and the broader market, since it has a beta value quite close to one. However, long term investors are generally well served by looking past market volatility and focussing on the underlying development of the business. If that's your game, metrics such as revenue, earnings and cash flow will be more useful. In order to fully understand whether MANINDS is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Man Industries (India)’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: 1. Financial Health: Are MANINDS’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 2. Past Track Record: Has MANINDS been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of MANINDS's historicalsfor more clarity. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Much is Eutelsat Communications S.A.'s (EPA:ETL) CEO Getting Paid? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Rodolphe Belmer became the CEO of Eutelsat Communications S.A. (EPA:ETL) in 2016. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels. Check out our latest analysis for Eutelsat Communications At the time of writing our data says that Eutelsat Communications S.A. has a market cap of €3.9b, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of €2.1m. (This is based on the year to June 2018). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at €650k. We examined companies with market caps from €1.8b to €5.7b, and discovered that the median CEO total compensation of that group was €1.1m. It would therefore appear that Eutelsat Communications S.A. pays Rodolphe Belmer more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Eutelsat Communications, below. On average over the last three years, Eutelsat Communications S.A. has shrunk earnings per share by 10% each year (measured with a line of best fit). Its revenue is down -2.3% over last year. Unfortunately, earnings per share have trended lower over the last three years. This is compounded by the fact revenue is actually down on last year. So given this relatively weak performance, shareholders would probably not want to see high compensation for the CEO. Shareholders might be interested inthisfreevisualization of analyst forecasts. Eutelsat Communications S.A. has served shareholders reasonably well, with a total return of 21% over three years. But they probably don't want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size. We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by Eutelsat Communications S.A., and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group. We think many shareholders would be underwhelmed with the business growth over the last three years. And shareholder returns are decent but not great. So we think more research is needed, but we don't think the CEO underpaid. CEO compensation is one thing, but it is also interesting tocheck if the CEO is buying or selling Eutelsat Communications (free visualization of insider trades). If you want to buy a stock that is better than Eutelsat Communications, thisfreelist of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Thinktank finds 'Leave' areas most at risk from automation job losses Leave supporters gather in Parliament Square to protest against the delay to Brexit. Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images Areas where people voted for Brexit by the largest margins are most likely to face job losses from automation, according to a new report. Thinktank Onward found a strong correlation between the risk of automation an area faces and how an area voted in the EU referendum. The highest local authority for risk of automation is Corby, which had a Leave vote share of 64%. The most resilient local authority to automation is the City of London, which had an approximate Leave vote share of only 25%. Of the 50 local authorities most likely to be affected negatively by automation, 48 voted for Leave in the 2016 Referendum and 43 voted for the Brexit Party in the European Elections in May. Among the 50 local authorities least likely to be negatively affected by automation, 42 voted Remain in the 2016 Referendum. Onward also found the people most at risk from automation were more likely to be women, as well as from an ethnic minority. While four out of 10 men are working in expanding sectors, only two out of 10 women are. Regardless of their level of education, black women are less likely than any other group to be working in a growth industry. In their report Human Capital: Why we need a new approach to tackle Britains long tail of low skills, Onward outlined potential policy changes to protect the UK against the threat of automation. The thinktank proposed a Retraining Tax Credit, mirroring current R&D tax credits that were initially implemented in 2000. The tax credits would offer a financial benefit to employers in order to encourage them to get workers to retrain. They would also include a larger financial benefit for small businesses to do the same. Onward also proposed creating a separate retraining fund similar to the Apprenticeship levy, which forces employers with a wage bill of over £3m to pay an annual 3% Apprenticeship levy minus a £15,000 apprenticeship allowance. Onward propose splitting the existing Apprenticeship levy scheme in two, with 60% of funding restricted to apprenticeships for younger workers entering their chosen profession. The remaining 40% would go toward a Retraining Fund to help fund low-skilled workers at risk of automation and industrial decline to retrain through the National Retraining Scheme. Commenting on Onwards report launch, foreign secretary and Conservative party leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt said, If we are to bring our country back together after Brexit is delivered, we need to seize the opportunity it presents and ensure the benefits are truly spread across the country. Technological change is going to bring huge opportunities but we must equip everyone in our country with the skills they need to benefit. Only by ensuring we leave no communities, regions, or sectors behind will we deliver the economic renewal and higher growth on which our aspirations depend. This report by Onward is hugely impressive and a timely contribution to that challenge.
Some MaxFastigheter i Sverige (STO:MAXF) Shareholders Are Down 19% Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! As an investor its worth striving to ensure your overall portfolio beats the market average. But its virtually certain that sometimes you will buy stocks that fall short of the market average returns. Unfortunately, that's been the case for longer termMaxFastigheter i Sverige AB (publ)(STO:MAXF) shareholders, since the share price is down 19% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return of around 44%. See our latest analysis for MaxFastigheter i Sverige While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. MaxFastigheter i Sverige saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 60% per year, over the last three years. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 6.7% compound annual share price fall. So, despite the prior disappointment, shareholders must have some confidence the situation will improve, longer term. You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image). Thisfreeinteractive report on MaxFastigheter i Sverige'searnings, revenue and cash flowis a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further. As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of MaxFastigheter i Sverige, it has a TSR of -9.7% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments! MaxFastigheter i Sverige produced a TSR of 11% over the last year. While you don't go broke making a profit, this return was actually lower than the average market return of about 13%. The silver lining is that the recent rise is far preferable to the annual loss of 3.3% that shareholders have suffered over the last three years. We hope the turnaround in fortunes continues. Before spending more time on MaxFastigheter i Sverigeit might be wise to click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling shares. If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on SE exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
With Twilio Stock Clearly In A Bubble, Should Investors Sell? It’s been an exceedingly good year for software-as-a-service, or SaaS, stocks. AndTwilio(NYSE:TWLO) has been one of the biggest winners even within that select group. TWLO stock is up 54% so far in 2019, extending its 12 months to more than 140%. While anyone owning TWLO stock so far has enjoyed fantastic results, this will soon end. The company’s valuation is getting out of hand, and the business fundamentals simply aren’t there to justify the euphoria. That said, Twilio stock may have one last push higher before it rolls over. Here’s a closer look. There’s no denying it. Twilio stock is one of the expensive options in the SaaS space let alone the broader stock market. On a GAAP basis, the company continues to lose money, despite hitting a $20 billion market cap. And things aren’t about to get much brighter next year either. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Analysts see earnings rising to 30 cents a share for next year. That’s clearly better than a loss. But it still results in a P/E ratio of almost 500x. When you have a market cap of almost $20 billion, you generally should be able to generate more than just $40 million or so of annual net income. It’s not just a lack of accounting profits either. Twilio shows underwhelming levels of cash flow generation for a company of its valuation. And its price/sales ratio of 12x is rather aggressive, even within the SaaS space. You can justify it on a comparable basis right now considering Twilio’s 30% revenue growth rate. But if and when that revenue growth rate sinks, investors would take Twilio’s stock valuation way down with it. The lack of earnings wouldn’t be a problem if Twilio’s market had years of huge growth ahead of it. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. Let’s face it. Twilio’s core capabilities which generate the lion’s share of its revenues aren’t likely to remain cutting edge for long. Twilio makes so much of its profit off programmable voice and text messaging for marketers. In a world where people are increasinglynot even answering their phones, this is not the sweet spot for SaaS companies. • The 7 Top Small-Cap Stocks Of 2019 It is one thing to pay through-the-nose valuations for something likeZoom Video(NASDAQ:ZM) orAlteryx(NYSE:AYX). Zoom sells cloud video solutions. That’s a great place to be in a world where streaming bandwidth usage is going to the moon. Similarly, Alteryx has a leading platform for deep data analysis. The big data revolution is still in the early innings. But Twilio doesn’t have anything like that sort of runway to its core business. In markets such as China, we see text and especially voice usage already dropping off. U.S. mobile companies tend to keep their numbers close to their vests, but the data is probably similar as well. Twilio’s marketing capabilities will quickly turn into a mature, if not outright declining industry. You can’t support TWLO stock’s current valuation simply on the prospect of blue sky growth for many years to come. If you are a trader — let me emphasize that again — as a trading position, you can make a case for holding TWLO stock. Since March, Twilio stock has consistently found support at the $125 per share level. On various general market pullbacks and specific tech corrections, Twilio stock has defended that level. • 7 F-Rated Stocks to Sell for Summer With Twilio stock around $135 now, this sets up a reasonable trading situation. If you own Twilio stock, you could set a stop loss under $125, and target $150 or higher, just above the all-time high, as your objective. That’s a better than one-to-one risk/reward ratio. The broad stock market as a whole just busted out to new all-time highs. In particular, the tech-heavy NASDAQ is leading the party. And theS&P 500 indexis set to cross 3,000 as well, which may cause a bunch of bears to finally give up and cover their bets. This sort of general upbeat market, combined with Twilio’s strong technical momentum, could easily lead the stock up to $150 or higher in the short term. If you’re a trader, there’s no need to sell Twilio stock tomorrow. The thing is going up quickly, has strong technical support, and the whole market is rallying. Throw in unusually high short interest in TWLO stock — 10% of the float — and the fuel is there for another short-covering run up. Over the long-haul, however, Twilio stock is a terrible investment. People are pricing TWLO stock as though it is comparable to other SaaS companies with far more dynamic technological platforms. Twilio’s services are useful to marketers, but they are far from the hottest growth areas out there. Over time, investors will shift to more promising companies within SaaS leaving Twilio stock to fade. Once the revenue growth rate drops, look out below as far as Twilio stock goes. At the time of this writing, Ian Bezek held no positions in any of the aforementioned securities. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek. • 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid • 10 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever • 10 Small-Cap Stocks That Look Like Bargains • 10 Names That Are Screaming Stocks to Buy The postWith Twilio Stock Clearly In A Bubble, Should Investors Sell?appeared first onInvestorPlace.
UK markets watchdog proposes retail ban on crypto derivatives By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's markets watchdog is proposing banning the sale of derivatives based on crypto-assets to retail consumers from early 2020 due to what it considers the prevalence of market abuses. Prices of crypto-assets - which include currencies like bitcoin as well as tokens representing other tradeable assets - are very volatile, and there is a lack of a clear investment need for products referencing them, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Wednesday. The FCA "considers these products are ill-suited to retail consumers who cannot reliably assess the value and risks of derivatives or exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain crypto-assets," it said in a statement on its public consultation on the proposed ban. Such a blanket ban on crypto derivatives will force customers to use unregulated providers offering less protection, said Jake Green, a financial regulatory partner at law firm Ashurst. "The real question is whether the FCA is shooting itself in the foot," Green said. There was no reliable basis for valuing the assets underpinning the derivatives, and there was a "prevalence of market abuse and financial crime" in the secondary market for crypto-assets, such as cyber theft. This year the FCA has published 13 warnings about unauthorized firms involved in crypto-assets, and up to June it had 10 ongoing investigations into firms involved in the "immature asset class". "We estimate the potential benefit to retail consumers from banning these (derivative) products to be in a range from 75 million pounds ($94 million) to 234.3 million pounds a year," it said. (Graphic: FCA crypto ban - https://tmsnrt.rs/2G1TLI3) BEYOND EU POWERS So-called contract-for-differences (CFDs) are the main derivative product that reference crypto-assets, accounting for about 3.4 billion pounds of retail customer business between August and October 2017, the FCA said. This fell to 77 million pounds in the same period in 2018 after EU regulators imposed temporary restrictions, with big falls in crypto-asset prices also hitting demand. Separately, the FCA made permanent earlier this week a set of temporary curbs on the sale of all types of CFDs to retail customers. Two UK firms offer futures contracts on exchange tokens versus the dollar, with just over 13,000 retail clients trading these products monthly to December last year, the FCA said. Two firms also offer retail customers contracts linked to tokens listed on the Nordic Nasdaq exchange, with 11,000 customers having invested about 97 million pounds up to the end of January, the FCA said. It said it was going beyond the powers in European Union securities rules. Its ban is set to come into force after Oct. 31, the scheduled deadline for Britain's EU departure. "We do not consider that existing regulatory requirements, including product governance, appropriateness and disclosure requirements, can sufficiently address our concerns about the harm posed by these products," the FCA said. (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Kirstin Ridley, John Stonestreet and Peter Graff)
What Kind Of Investor Owns Most Of Iliad SA (EPA:ILD)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you want to know who really controls Iliad SA (EPA:ILD), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.' Iliad has a market capitalization of €6.0b, so it's too big to fly under the radar. We'd expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about ILD. Check out our latest analysis for Iliad Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. Iliad already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 21% of the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Iliad's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Iliad. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily. The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. It seems that insiders own more than half the Iliad SA stock. This gives them a lot of power. Given it has a market cap of €6.0b, that means insiders have a whopping €3.4b worth of shares in their own names. It is good to see this level of investment. You cancheck here to see if those insiders have been selling any of their shares. With a 23% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over ILD. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Iliad better, we need to consider many other factors. Many find it usefulto take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can accessthisdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can checkthis free report showing analyst forecasts for its future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
HP, Dell, other tech firms plan to shift production out of China: Nikkei (Reuters) - Several major U.S.-based technology companies are planning to shift substantial production out of China, spurred by a bitter trade war between Washington and Beijing, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday, citing sources. Personal computer makers HP Inc and Dell Technologies are planning to reallocate up to 30% of their notebook production out of China, according to the Nikkei. Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Sony Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd are also looking at moving some of their game console and smart speaker manufacturing out of the country, the Nikkei added. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a truce at last weekend's Group of 20 summit in Japan, paving the way for a restart in trade talks after months of stalemate. However, the companies are not likely to alter their plans of moving some of their production out of China as they also face higher operating costs in the country. In June, Apple Inc asked its major suppliers to assess the cost implications of moving 15%-30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia as it prepares for a restructuring of its supply chain, Nikkei had reported last month. HP, Dell, Amazon, Microsoft and Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. (Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Anil D'Silva)
A Spotlight On BVZ Holding AG's (VTX:BVZN) Fundamentals Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! BVZ Holding AG (VTX:BVZN) is a stock with outstanding fundamental characteristics. When we build an investment case, we need to look at the stock with a holistic perspective. In the case of BVZN, it is a financially-healthy company with a strong track record of performance, trading at a great value. Below, I've touched on some key aspects you should know on a high level. For those interested in understanding where the figures come from and want to see the analysis, take a look at thereport on BVZ Holding here. Over the past year, BVZN has grown its earnings by 49%, with its most recent figure exceeding its annual average over the past five years. Not only did BVZN outperformed its past performance, its growth also exceeded the Transportation industry expansion, which generated a 16% earnings growth. This is an optimistic signal for the future. BVZN is financially robust, with ample cash on hand and short-term investments to meet upcoming liabilities. This indicates that BVZN has sufficient cash flows and proper cash management in place, which is a crucial insight into the health of the company. BVZN's has produced operating cash levels of 0.21x total debt over the past year, which implies that BVZN's management has put its borrowings into good use by generating enough cash to cover a sufficient portion of borrowings. BVZN's shares are now trading at a price below its true value based on its discounted cash flows, indicating a relatively pessimistic market sentiment. According to my intrinsic value of the stock, which is driven by analyst consensus forecast of BVZN's earnings, investors now have the opportunity to buy into the stock to reap capital gains. Also, relative to the rest of its peers with similar levels of earnings, BVZN's share price is trading below the group's average. This further reaffirms that BVZN is potentially undervalued. For BVZ Holding, I've compiled three relevant factors you should further examine: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for BVZN’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor BVZN’s outlook. 2. Dividend Income vs Capital Gains: Does BVZN return gains to shareholders through reinvesting in itself and growing earnings, or redistribute a decent portion of earnings as dividends? Ourhistorical dividend yield visualizationquickly tells you what your can expect from BVZN as an investment. 3. Other Attractive Alternatives: Are there other well-rounded stocks you could be holding instead of BVZN? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
No-deal Brexit like 'preparing for crisis,' says ex-UK border chief Protesters against any border between Ireland and Northern Ireland because of Brexit hold placards at the Carrickcarnan border. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images A former HMRC border chief said it felt like the government was “preparing for a crisis” in the run-up to a potential no-deal Brexit in March this year. Karen Wheeler, former director general of HMRC’s cross-government border delivery group, also said “technology alone is not going to solve the border problem” on the island of Ireland. The comments cast doubt on Conservative party leadership candidates Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson’s hopes of a technological fix to the row over the Irish backstop. Fears of a return to a hard border have dogged prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations with the European Union. Wheeler, whose resignation last month was a blow to the government, warned it was not enough for the government to be “ready” for a no-deal departure. Firms and other organisations also had to be prepared, she said. READ MORE: Hammond: no-deal Brexit will cost Treasury £90bn She said the government had done a significant amount of work to prepare, but added, “What it doesn’t mean is that everything will be fine. There are consequences if traders and businesses are not ready.” She said Calais, Dover, and Folkestone could be “clogged up” with trucks if drivers could not prove they met new customs checks likely under a no-deal Brexit. Former HMRC border chief Karen Wheeler, second from right, and lawyer Lorand Bartels at an Institute for Government event. Photo: IfG The former civil servant spoke frankly about the challenges of contingency planning at an Institute for Government event on Wednesday morning, admitting the government “couldn’t fully understand how it would play out.” Wheeler said the government could never be fully prepared on maintaining trade across the Channel and the Irish border. Both borders, she said, were areas where “frankly you can’t mitigate those risks away.” She also said it was “almost impossible” for Northern Irish firms to prepare because of the scale of uncertainty over the future of the Irish border. READ MORE: Brexit voting areas most at risk of heavy job losses from automation Wheeler said UK officials had only begun to speak to Northern Irish businesses “relatively late in the day,” giving them “much less time” to get ready for potential border checks and disruption. She said it was not enough that the UK had outlined plans to keep trade flowing smoothly on the Northern Irish side of the border unless similar arrangements could be maintained on the other side. It remained “very unclear” how Ireland planned to deal with its side of the border, she said.
Is Churchill China plc's (LON:CHH) CEO Overpaid Relative To Its Peers? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! David O'Connor has been the CEO of Churchill China plc (LON:CHH) since 2014. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. Then we'll look at a snap shot of the business growth. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO. View our latest analysis for Churchill China At the time of writing our data says that Churchill China plc has a market cap of UK£165m, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of UK£617k. (This number is for the twelve months until December 2018). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at UK£274k. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from UK£79m to UK£316m, we found the median CEO total compensation was UK£507k. So David O'Connor is paid around the average of the companies we looked at. Although this fact alone doesn't tell us a great deal, it becomes more relevant when considered against the business performance. The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Churchill China has changed from year to year. Over the last three years Churchill China plc has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 19% per year (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 7.4% over last year. This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently. A good result. It's good to see a bit of revenue growth, as this suggests the business is able to grow sustainably. Shareholders might be interested inthisfreevisualization of analyst forecasts. Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Churchill China plc for providing a total return of 125% over three years. As a result, some may believe the CEO should be paid more than is normal for companies of similar size. David O'Connor is paid around the same as most CEOs of similar size companies. Shareholders would surely be happy to see that shareholder returns have been great, and the earnings per share are up. So one could argue the CEO compensation is quite modest, if you consider company performance! If you think CEO compensation levels are interesting you will probably really likethis free visualization of insider trading at Churchill China. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
A Look At The Intrinsic Value Of CVS Group plc (LON:CVSG) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Does the July share price for CVS Group plc (LON:CVSG) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. Check out our latest analysis for CVS Group We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: [{"": "Levered FCF (\u00a3, Millions)", "2020": "\u00a333.7m", "2021": "\u00a335.4m", "2022": "\u00a332.5m", "2023": "\u00a330.7m", "2024": "\u00a329.6m", "2025": "\u00a329.0m", "2026": "\u00a328.7m", "2027": "\u00a328.6m", "2028": "\u00a328.6m", "2029": "\u00a328.7m"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x2", "2021": "Analyst x2", "2022": "Analyst x1", "2023": "Est @ -5.52%", "2024": "Est @ -3.49%", "2025": "Est @ -2.08%", "2026": "Est @ -1.09%", "2027": "Est @ -0.39%", "2028": "Est @ 0.09%", "2029": "Est @ 0.43%"}, {"": "Present Value (\u00a3, Millions) Discounted @ 6.83%", "2020": "\u00a331.5", "2021": "\u00a331.0", "2022": "\u00a326.7", "2023": "\u00a323.6", "2024": "\u00a321.3", "2025": "\u00a319.5", "2026": "\u00a318.1", "2027": "\u00a316.9", "2028": "\u00a315.8", "2029": "\u00a314.8"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= £219.1m After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 1.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.8%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = UK£29m × (1 + 1.2%) ÷ (6.8% – 1.2%) = UK£519m Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= £UK£519m ÷ ( 1 + 6.8%)10= £268.09m The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is £487.17m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of £6.92. Compared to the current share price of £7.54, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent. We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at CVS Group as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.843. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For CVS Group, I've put together three further factors you should further examine: 1. Financial Health: Does CVSG have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does CVSG's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of CVSG? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the LON every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Does HEBA Fastighets AB (publ) (STO:HEBA B) Have A Place In Your Dividend Portfolio? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Is HEBA Fastighets AB (publ) (STO:HEBA B) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. A slim 1.3% yield is hard to get excited about, but the long payment history is respectable. At the right price, or with strong growth opportunities, HEBA Fastighets could have potential. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding HEBA Fastighets for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below. Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. Looking at the data, we can see that 14% of HEBA Fastighets's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. With a low payout ratio, it looks like the dividend is comprehensively covered by earnings. We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. HEBA Fastighets paid out 62% of its cash flow as dividends last year, which is within a reasonable range for the average corporation. It's positive to see that HEBA Fastighets's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. As HEBA Fastighets has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A quick check of its financial situation can be done with two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments. Essentially we check that a) the company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. HEBA Fastighets has net debt of 16.00 times its EBITDA, which we think carries substantial risk if earnings aren't sustainable. Net interest cover can be calculated by dividing earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by the company's net interest expense. Net interest cover of 8.71 times its interest expense appears reasonable for HEBA Fastighets, although we're conscious that even high interest cover doesn't make a company bulletproof. Adequate interest cover may make the debt look safe, relative to companies with a lower interest cover ratio. However with such a large mountain of debt overall, we're cautious of what could happen if interest rates rise. We update our data on HEBA Fastighets every 24 hours, so you can always getour latest analysis of its financial health, here. From the perspective of an income investor who wants to earn dividends for many years, there is not much point buying a stock if its dividend is regularly cut or is not reliable. HEBA Fastighets has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was kr0.45 in 2009, compared to kr1.10 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 9.3% per year over this time. Dividends have grown at a reasonable rate over this period, and without any major cuts in the payment over time, we think this is an attractive combination. Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. It's good to see HEBA Fastighets has been growing its earnings per share at 29% a year over the past 5 years. The company is only paying out a fraction of its earnings as dividends, and in the past been able to use the retained earnings to grow its profits rapidly - an ideal combination. Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Above all, we're glad to see that HEBA Fastighets pays out a low fraction of its earnings and, while it paid a higher percentage of cashflow, this also was within a normal range. Next, growing earnings per share and steady dividend payments is a great combination. All things considered, HEBA Fastighets looks like a strong prospect. At the right valuation, it could be something special. You can also discover whether shareholders are aligned with insider interests bychecking our visualisation of insider shareholdings and trades in HEBA Fastighets stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Vietnam trade deficit widens in April as exports to the US fall short of imports from China Vietnam's imports from China are growing at a much faster rate than exports to the US, as manufacturers in the Southeast Asian country rely heavily on final-stage assembly or re-exports, tapping opportunities in the trade war between the world's two largest economies, a study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch showed on Wednesday. "Vietnam's net export position has deteriorated since the US-China trade war escalated. Exports to the US have risen, but these have more than been compensated by imports from China," the report said. The preliminary figures published by Vietnam's General Statistics Office for the first four months of the year showed that exports were valued at US$20.4 billion, while imports stood at US$21 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of around US$600 million. This was in contrast to a US$1.4 billion trade surplus in March. Vietnam's exports to the US resulted in a trade surplus of US$3.2 billion in April. However, the trade deficit with China widened to US$3.7 billion with China. It has climbed from US$1.5 billion in February to US$3.4 billion in March. SCMP Graphic alt=SCMP Graphic "Between April 2018 and April 2019, exports of computers, electronic parts, phones and textiles have grown the most in US dollar terms. Yet, the country has also seen sharp increases in imports of computers, electronic goods and machinery over the same period," said the BofA report, led by Sanjay Mookim. He said there were two explanations to make sense of the numbers. "Firstly, Vietnam has to import large amount of raw materials from China, because you cannot build the entire supply chain in six months, and what Vietnam could do for now is largely final assembly," he said, adding that it hardly amounts to any value addition. The second explanation was that a lot of exports from Vietnam to the US were actually re-exports of imports from China, to bypass tariffs. For such business, there was no value generated in Vietnam. Mookim said that under either situation, it was still China that was benefiting from most of the value created. In US-China trade war, Indonesia looks like a loser. But it could be a winner Still, Vietnam is seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries in the US-China trade war. Foreign direct investment from China jumped 4.6 times to US$1.56 billion during the first five months of the year, as Chinese companies expanded or set up production in Vietnam to avoid additional tariffs levied by the Trump administration. The BofA report also noted that apart from Vietnam, Mexico, Malaysia and Canada's machinery and mechanical sectors stand to gain in case the US diverts orders from China. Story continues The report also pointed out that to replace exports from China, other countries must work on creating manufacturing advantages, besides providing cheap labour. India, Vietnam benefit as trade war drives production out of China "China ignited its export miracle with principally a labour cost advantage. Yet, there was a concerted effort by policymakers in the country in creating and attracting export oriented businesses," the report said. "Various structures relating to land, labour, capital, tax incentives were created to facilitate the export machinery." This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) , the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. View comments
Hong Kong bans former Goldman partner Tim Leissner for life for role in 1MDB scandal Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission said on Wednesday it was banning former Goldman Sachs (Asia) partner Tim Leissner from working as a securities and financial adviser in the city for life, in relation with the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal. Leissner pleaded guilty in August last year to criminal charges brought against him by the US Department of Justice for money laundering and corruption under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to the Department of Justice, US$4.5 billion was siphoned from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014, a period in which Leissner was licensed by the SFC. "The SFC considers that Leissner's conduct demonstrates a serious lack of honesty and integrity, and calls into question his fitness and properness to be a licensed person," the commission said in a statement. Leissner was not immediately available for comment. He was licensed by the SFC between April 1998 and February 2016, covering the period between 2009 and 2014, during which he is said to have conspired with others to get business from 1MDB for Goldman through bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. The SFC said Leissner was responsible for Goldman's relationship with 1MDB and helped arrange three bonds for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013 worth a total of US$6.5 billion. The investment bank was reported to have earned US$600 million for its services. Leissner also embezzled funds from 1MDB for himself and others, and laundered the bribes and kickbacks involved in the case, the SFC said. A Goldman spokesman said: "Tim Leissner deliberately hid certain activities from us and repeatedly violated our policies and procedures. We continue to cooperate with all authorities looking into these matters." 1MDB is a state fund set up to invest in infrastructure projects, and Malaysian authorities have alleged that huge sums of money were stolen from it to buy everything from yachts and artwork to financing the Martin Scorsese filmThe Wolf of Wall Streetstarring Leonardo DiCaprio. The scheme was allegedly overseen by former Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, and his cronies, eventually contributing to his government's election defeat. A criminal case brought against Goldman by Malaysia involving the US$6.5 billion 1MDB bonds will be postponed to September, a court ruled late last month, according to Reuters. The announcement came two days after current Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said the 1 billion ringgit (US$241 million) compensation offered by Goldman to the Malaysian government was "not adequate" and was in fact "peanuts". This article originally appeared in theSouth China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore theSCMP appor visit the SCMP'sFacebookandTwitterpages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Hong Kong's businesses, markets kept calm and carried on even as city streets were choked with biggest protest rallies in history Hong Kong's residents carried on business and their daily lives as usual, even as the local legislature was rendered inoperable for the past month by rallies that clogged the city's streets with the biggest number of protesters in history. The Hang Seng Index actually rose by 7.1 per cent since an estimated 1 million people took to the streets in protest on June 9, while the local currency strengthened by 59 basis points against the US dollar over the same period, bolstered by a truce in the year-long US-China trade war. Compare that with Occupy Central, the previous record holder of public protests, when the stock benchmark fell 2.8 per cent over 79 days in 2014. Dramatic pictures of the rallies made headlines around the world, resulting in an unprecedented apology by the city's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and an indefinite postponement of the controversial extradition bill that sparked the citywide opposition. Even as the legislature delayed several ordinances and bills, commerce was barely dented in Asia's second-largest financial market. "It is business as usual for most Hongkongers, who understand that the markets will always rise soon after a crisis or a protest," said Wader Securities' chief executive Tammy Shu Yee-nar, who had been trading stocks since the 1980s through the post-Tiananmen crackdown protests in 1989, Asia's first financial crisis of 1997, Hong Kong's Sars outbreak of 2003 and the Occupy Central rallies of 2014. "Hongkongers have short memories, and they will soon go back to business after the marches and protests end. It is time to make money." Hong Kong's stock market andproperty sales, proxies of public mood, showed that the city was not about to let street protests get in the way of good deals. The Hang Seng Index rose 1 per cent on June 17, the day after an estimated 2 million people took to the streets, and again advanced 1.7 per cent on July 2 after protesters ransacked the local legislature the night before. Five real estate developers have sold 970 new flats between them since June 9, for a combined haul of HK$7.6 billion (US$975 million), as they attracted buyers with discounts, while prospects of interest rate cuts drew bargain hunters. A handful of deals were affected when some investors had a change of heart amid the political uncertainties, as dramatic photos of traffic being brought to a standstill by hundreds of thousands of white-clad street protesters were beamed around the world. "The damage this time is more psychological than physical," compared with Occupy Central, said Kenneth Leung, the Hong Kong lawmaker who represents the city's accountants. Goldin Financial Holdings, which paid HK$11.1 billion (US$1.42 billion) for a plot of commercial land at the city's former Kai Tak airport in May, was the first to fold,announcing on June 11that it would rather forfeit HK$25 million in deposit, than commit to a long-term project that would require an estimated HK$18 billion in investments. SCMP Graphic alt=SCMP Graphic In a statement, Goldin's director Abraham Razack cited "social contradiction and economic instability" caused by the rallies two days earlier as his motivation for leading a boardroom revolt against the developer's chairman Pan Shutong. A week later, an unidentified buyerwalked away from a HK$251.23 million luxury apartmentin the Deep Water Bay neighbourhood, forfeiting HK$12.5 million in down payment, marking the city's second high-profile property default in nine days. Potential buyers vying for New World Development's Atrium House flats in Tsuen Wan on 22 June 2019, which sold out. Photo: SCMP/Xiaomei Chen alt=Potential buyers vying for New World Development's Atrium House flats in Tsuen Wan on 22 June 2019, which sold out. Photo: SCMP/Xiaomei Chen Timing mattered. Vanke Property, the Hong Kong unit of China's most valuable developer, chose June 16 to sell 251 units of its Grand Le Pont flats in Tuen Mun, the same day as the city's largest-ever public rally by an estimated 2 million protesters. Vankemanaged to eke out sales of 30 of the 251 unitsavailable. Wheelock Properties and Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHK) had better luck with their timing.SHK sold 90 per cent of the 158 unitsof Mount Regency complex on June 22, whileWheelock's 504 flats at Grand Montara were completely sold on June 29. Initial public offerings (IPOs), the lifeblood of Asia's second-largest financial market, were also affected. ESR Cayman, Asia-Pacific's largest warehouse landlord,postponed its US$1.2 billion IPO planon June 13, followed five days later by the US$500 million secondary listing of Hutchison China MediTech. SCMP Graphic alt=SCMP Graphic "Some IPO and M&A clients decided to put their deals on hold after the protests of the past few week because they are worried about the political and social unrest in Hong Kong," said Clement Chan Kam-wing, managing director of accounting firm BDO. A truce in the US-China trade war following talks between the US and Chinese presidents at the G20 meetings in Osaka lifted sentiments. Anheauser-Busch InBev, the Belgian brewer of beers including Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois said this week it isexploring a US$9.8 billion Hong Kong IPOfor its Asia-Pacific business. That would top the scales as the world's largest fundraising this year, giving Hong Kong a much-needed boost to catch up with New York in the annual race for top spot as the global IPO capital. SCMP Graphic alt=SCMP Graphic The biggest physical damage reported appears to be the vandalism of Hong Kong's legislature building, when a small but destructive group of protesters ransacked and laid the offices to waste. The repair bill of the building, which is not covered by insurance, is estimated at HK$50 million (US$6.4 million), which will have to be borne by the city's taxpayers, said the Legislative Council's finance committee chairman Chan Kin-por. With additional reporting by Sandy Li This article originally appeared in theSouth China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore theSCMP appor visit the SCMP'sFacebookandTwitterpages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Fear mounts that Chinese-American scientists are being targeted amid US national security crackdown In the wake of several Chinese-American scientists being dismissed from their research jobs in the US, fear is rising that the group is being unfairly targeted and has become a victim of the competitive feud between Beijing and Washington. In May, the husband-and-wife neuroscience research team of Li Xiaojiang and Li Shihua were fired by Emory University in Georgia after being accused of failing to disclose funding ties to China. In April, MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston ousted three Chinese-American researchers who were allegedly conducting espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. Other Chinese-American scientists say they have experienced FBI calls and visits without being accused of any crime. Visiting scholars and science-major students are confronted with a tightened visa process. The series of events has shocked the community and brought worries about bias and ethnic profiling. "What's happening with MD Anderson and Emory University is very concerning," said Xiaoxing Xi, former chairman of the physics department at Temple University in Philadelphia. "It all started from the FBI gaining access to email accounts of Chinese scientists." Xi, who addressed a China Institute forum in New York on Thursday, was speaking from personal experience: four years ago, he was accused of stealing superconductor secrets for China. Arrested in May 2015 in suburban Philadelphia, he was accused of sharing proprietary American technologies with China. The charges were dropped four months later due to lack of evidence, but Xi said he continued to suffer from the stigma caused by the wrongful accusation and afterward lost most of the US government funding for his research projects. "Singling out the Chinese scientists and engineers for targeting, that's racial profiling," said Xi, a naturalised US citizen who has lived and worked in the country since 1989. "That's contrary to American ideas." Fred Yan, president of the non-government organisation Chinese Association for Science and Technology USA, said at the discussion that "our members have been told by the FBI to report any suspicious cases of the people they know". "This made people in the Chinese-American community very uncomfortable," Yan said. Part of the recent crackdown has been a result of China's rising technological ambitions and US concerns that Beijing is attempting to achieve its goals partly by stealing US technologies. The White House has cited estimates that Chinese theft of American intellectual property costs the US economy up to US$600 billion each year. In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a congressional hearing that he thought China was "exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have, which we all revere, but they're taking advantage of it". Xi, who is now a professor at Temple, said of Wray's comments: "Basic research is open for a reason. Collaboration has made the research advance and made the US the best science research destination in the world." "Any scientist should be very worried because this is hurting US science and technology," Xi told theSouth China Morning Post. On November 1, then-US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new China Initiative to pursue economic espionage cases; at the same time, the US Justice Department said it had charged three individuals and two Chinese-backed companies with theft of trade secrets. The initiative also targeted a Chinese program called the Thousand Talents Plan, which was designed to lure experts from Western universities and companies back to China. In announcing the new US initiative, Sessions said it was meant to "identify priority trade theft cases and ensure that we have enough resources dedicated to them to make sure that we bring them to an appropriate conclusion quickly and effectively". But some are worried that the process, which may be bringing cases "quickly", isn't "effective", panelists said at the discussion last week. "Officials who are doing the work at the FBI deciding who to arrest don't really understand science," said Peter Zeidenberg of the law firm Arent Fox, which represents a number of Chinese-American defendants and was formerly involved in Xi's case. Fred Yan, president of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology USA, speaking at the China Institute in New York on Thursday. Photo: Jodi Xu Klein alt=Fred Yan, president of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology USA, speaking at the China Institute in New York on Thursday. Photo: Jodi Xu Klein The Chinese-American community has begun looking for ways to fight back. The advocacy group United Chinese Americans (UCA) has successfully lobbied to have 13 top US universities " including Yale, Columbia and Stanford " issue statements supporting Chinese-American scientists. The effort "is showing the country's tradition that respects civil rights, that respects due process," said Haipei Shue, president of the UCA. But right now, "the mood on campus is frustration," said Yiguang Ju, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University. "You don't know where to draw the line and when you crossed the line of academia freedom into foreign influence," he said. "It pushed us to pick one side and nothing in between." On Friday, National Public Radio reported that US intelligence agencies were encouraging American research universities to develop protocols for monitoring students and visiting scholars from Chinese state-affiliated research institutions. In 2017, Xi filed suit against the US and federal agents for violating his constitutional rights. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Xi in his lawsuit, said his was one of three espionage-related prosecutions of Chinese-American scientists that, in the span of less than a year, the US government dropped before trial. "It is wrong to cast an entire group of students, professors and scientists as a threat to our country based simply on where they come from," said Patrick Toomey, the ACLU lawyer in Xi's lawsuit. "The FBI's mindset has already led to overzealous investigations of Chinese-Americans, with disastrous consequences for those wrongly tarred with suspicion," he added. Said Arent Fox's Zeidenberg, a former US prosecutor: "Maybe a few more cases like these, the US will be embarrassed." This article originally appeared in theSouth China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore theSCMP appor visit the SCMP'sFacebookandTwitterpages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Beer giant AB InBev kicks off US$9.8 billion IPO of Asian business in Hong Kong with roadshow Belgian brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev) kick-started the mega listing of its Asia business, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, in Hong Kong with an investor roadshow on Wednesday, as it inches closer to completing what will be theworld's biggest initial public offering this year. Budweiser Brewing, the largest beer maker in Asia-Pacific by volume, plans to raise up to US$9.8 billion in capital by selling 1.6 billion primary shares at between HK$40 and HK$47 apiece, according to its prospectus. The Hong Kong public offering tranche of the listing, accounting for 5 per cent of the total shares, will go on the market on July 8 and close on July 11. The shares will debut on July 19. In a rare move, the company did not introduce any cornerstone investors, usually large buyers that pledge to subscribe to a certain amount of shares. Introducing reputable cornerstone investors is a common way for companies and their sponsors to signal market confidence in the deal. The one-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate (Hibor), meanwhile, jumped to 2.7 per cent on Wednesday, its highest level since 2008. This could mean increased costs for retail and institutional investors as they prepare capital for the listing. Investors who attended the roadshow on Wednesday said the deal was appealing because Budweiser has a good brand image and corporate governance, and also because of a strong rally in Hong Kong-listed beer stocks this year. "[Budweiser Brewing] has a strong brand and could expand very fast in the future," said Steven Tse, senior equity research analyst at SBI China Capital, a Hong Kong-based brokerage and asset management firm. Shares of Tsingtao Brewery and China Resources Beer Holdings, the two beer makers currently listed in Hong Kong, have risen by 59 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, this year, riding on expectations that China's demand for premium beer was increasing. This upbeat sentiment could offset Budweiser Brewing's relatively high valuation level, Feng Chen, an analyst at Samsung Asset Management (Hong Kong), said. The company's business spans China, Australia, South Korea, India and Vietnam. It operates more than 50 beer brands, including Corona, Stella Artois, Harbin and Budweiser. Its listing will eclipse Uber's US$8.1 billion deal in May, the world's largest flotation so far this year. It will also be the biggest IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which owns theSouth China Morning Post,listed in 2014. After beating New York and Shanghai to become the world's top listings destination last year, Hong Kong has witnessed a slowdown in IPOs in 2019. The city ranked third globally, with a total of HK$69.5 billion in funds raised through IPOs in the first half this year, trailing the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. This article originally appeared in theSouth China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore theSCMP appor visit the SCMP'sFacebookandTwitterpages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
How Does Grand City Properties S.A. (ETR:GYC) Fare As A Dividend Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Could Grand City Properties S.A. (ETR:GYC) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. Yet sometimes, investors buy a popular dividend stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. With a four-year payment history and a 3.8% yield, many investors probably find Grand City Properties intriguing. We'd agree the yield does look enticing. Some simple analysis can offer a lot of insights when buying a company for its dividend, and we'll go through this below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Grand City Properties! Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Looking at the data, we can see that 27% of Grand City Properties's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. This is a middling range that strikes a nice balance between paying dividends to shareholders, and retaining enough earnings to invest in future growth. One of the risks is that management reinvests the retained capital poorly instead of paying a higher dividend. Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. Grand City Properties paid out a conservative 37% of its free cash flow as dividends last year. It's positive to see that Grand City Properties's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. As Grand City Properties has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A rough way to check this is with these two simple ratios: a) net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and b) net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA measures total debt load relative to company earnings (lower = less debt), while net interest cover measures the ability to pay interest on the debt (higher = greater ability to pay interest costs). With net debt of 9.57 times its EBITDA, Grand City Properties could be described as a highly leveraged company. While some companies can handle this level of leverage, we'd be concerned about the dividend sustainability if there was any risk of an earnings downturn. Net interest cover can be calculated by dividing earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by the company's net interest expense. Net interest cover of 5.99 times its interest expense appears reasonable for Grand City Properties, although we're conscious that even high interest cover doesn't make a company bulletproof. Adequate interest cover may make the debt look safe, relative to companies with a lower interest cover ratio. However with such a large mountain of debt overall, we're cautious of what could happen if interest rates rise. We update our data on Grand City Properties every 24 hours, so you can always getour latest analysis of its financial health, here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the data, we can see that Grand City Properties has been paying a dividend for the past four years. During the past four-year period, the first annual payment was €0.20 in 2015, compared to €0.77 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 40% per year over this time. Grand City Properties has been growing its dividend quite rapidly, which is exciting. However, the short payment history makes us question whether this performance will persist across a full market cycle. The other half of the dividend investing equation is evaluating whether earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. While there may be fluctuations in the past , Grand City Properties's earnings per share have basically not grown from where they were five years ago. Over the long term, steady earnings per share is a risk as the value of the dividends can be reduced by inflation. We'd also point out that Grand City Properties issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Regularly issuing new shares can be detrimental - it's hard to grow dividends per share when new shares are regularly being created. To summarise, shareholders should always check that Grand City Properties's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. First, we like that the company's dividend payments appear well covered, although the retained capital also needs to be effectively reinvested. Second, earnings per share have been in decline, and the dividend history is shorter than we'd like. In sum, we find it hard to get excited about Grand City Properties from a dividend perspective. It's not that we think it's a bad business; just that there are other companies that perform better on these criteria. Without at least some growth in earnings per share over time, the dividend will eventually come under pressure either from costs or inflation. Businesses can change though, and we think it would make sense to see whatanalysts are forecasting for the company. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Are Insiders Selling Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited (NSE:GULFOILLUB) Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inGulf Oil Lubricants India Limited(NSE:GULFOILLUB). It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market. Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.' See our latest analysis for Gulf Oil Lubricants India In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the MD & Director, Ravi Chawla, sold ₹9.0m worth of shares at a price of ₹905 per share. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of ₹870. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. Given that the sale took place at around current prices, it makes us a little cautious but is hardly a major concern. In the last twelve months insiders netted ₹67m for 77109 shares sold. Gulf Oil Lubricants India insiders didn't buy any shares over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below! If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider selling at Gulf Oil Lubricants India. In total, insiders dumped ₹31m worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. In light of this it's hard to argue that all the insiders think that the shares are a bargain. Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Our information indicates that Gulf Oil Lubricants India insiders own about ₹40m worth of shares. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. This level of insider ownership is notably low, and not very encouraging. Insiders sold Gulf Oil Lubricants India shares recently, but they didn't buy any. Looking to the last twelve months, our data doesn't show any insider buying. On the plus side, Gulf Oil Lubricants India makes money, and is growing profits. Insider ownership isn't particularly high, so this analysis makes us cautious about the company. So we'd only buy after careful consideration. Of course,the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in Gulf Oil Lubricants India, you should check out thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
When Should You Buy India Glycols Limited (NSE:INDIAGLYCO)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! India Glycols Limited (NSE:INDIAGLYCO), which is in the chemicals business, and is based in India, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the NSEI over the last few months, increasing to ₹282 at one point, and dropping to the lows of ₹227.05. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether India Glycols's current trading price of ₹231.35 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at India Glycols’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. See our latest analysis for India Glycols Great news for investors – India Glycols is still trading at a fairly cheap price. In this instance, I’ve used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stock’s cash flows. I find that India Glycols’s ratio of 5.42x is below its peer average of 13.57x, which suggests the stock is undervalued compared to the Chemicals industry. However, given that India Glycols’s share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us another chance to buy in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility. Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. In the upcoming year, India Glycols’s earnings are expected to increase by 48%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value. Are you a shareholder?Since INDIAGLYCO is currently undervalued, it may be a great time to increase your holdings in the stock. With an optimistic outlook on the horizon, it seems like this growth has not yet been fully factored into the share price. However, there are also other factors such as financial health to consider, which could explain the current undervaluation. Are you a potential investor?If you’ve been keeping an eye on INDIAGLYCO for a while, now might be the time to enter the stock. Its prosperous future outlook isn’t fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means it’s not too late to buy INDIAGLYCO. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the track record of its management team, in order to make a well-informed investment decision. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on India Glycols. You can find everything you need to know about India Glycols inthe latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in India Glycols, you can use our free platform to see my list of over50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Euro zone June business growth slow as factories still faltering By Jonathan Cable LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone business activity picked up slightly last month but remained weak as a modest but broad-based upturn in the services industry offset a continued deep downturn in factory output, a survey showed. Worryingly for policymakers at the European Central Bank, who are under pressure to support growth, forward-looking indicators did not point to a bounce back and business expectations for the year ahead dropped. By the end of September, the ECB will either cut its deposit rate or ease its forward guidance further by pledging to keep interest rates lower for longer, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll. The European Union's nomination of IMF chief Christine Lagarde to replace Mario Draghi at the helm of the ECB has reinforced expectations for easier monetary policy going forward. Wednesday's release of IHS Markit's Euro Zone Composite Final Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), considered a good measure of overall economic health, will also do nothing to change those views. It only nudged up to 52.2 in June from May's 51.8. That was a touch higher than a preliminary reading of 52.1 but it remained close to the 50 mark separating growth from contraction. The upturn was nevertheless evident throughout much of the euro zone, and earlier figures from three of the bloc's biggest economies -- Germany, France, and Spain -- showed services activity accelerated. "The continued stagnation in Italy is a worry, while the small rebound in the Spanish services sector is encouraging," noted Nicola Nobile at Oxford Economics. "Nonetheless, we continue to see the ECB headed for another dose of monetary policy easing in September as it attempts to reinvigorate the region's economy." IHS Markit said the survey was indicative of GDP rising just over 0.2% in the second quarter, weaker than the 0.3% predicted in last month's Reuters poll. It was a different story in Britain, where the PMI suggested the economy contracted 0.1% last quarter as firms worried about Brexit and the slowing global economy. Story continues The robust German, French and Spanish readings helped a PMI covering the wider euro zone services industry bounce to 53.6 from May's 52.9, a counterweight to a fifth month of contraction in manufacturing. "There is for now fairly little evidence of the protracted manufacturing weakness causing significant adverse spill-overs into the euro zone's domestic economy," wrote Nobile. Monday's factory PMI indicated there will be a slow start to the second half for manufacturers as new orders fell for a ninth month, stocks of raw materials were depleted again, backlogs of work were run down and headcount was reduced for a second month. While most of the forward-looking services indexes were positive they remained weak, and new export business -- which includes trade between member countries -- fell for a tenth month. The sub-index registered 49.4 compared to May's 48.2. Citing trade war worries, rising geopolitical uncertainty and slowing global economic growth, firms were less optimistic. The composite future output index fell to 59.2 from 59.8, one of its lowest readings in over four years. (Editing by Catherine Evans)
Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein 'on run in UK' Princess Haya bint al-Hussein has gone into hiding in the UK (AP) The wife of the ruler of Dubai is reportedly on the run in the UK and in fear of her life. Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein is said to be living in an £85 million town house in Kensington Palace Gardens, central London, after fleeing her husband, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum. The British-educated princess is now preparing for a legal battle in the High Court with her husband, according to the BBC. The wife of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is said to be 'in fear of her life' (Reuters) Princess Haya, 45, married billionaire racehorse owner Sheikh Mohammed in 2004, becoming his sixth and junior wife. She fled to Germany to seek asylum earlier this year before travelling to the UK having allegedly discovered details about the return of one of the rulers daughters, Sheikha Latifa, after she went missing from Dubai last year. Princess Haya defended Dubais reputation after Sheikha Latifas escape was brought to a halt by armed men off the coast of India. Read more from Yahoo News UK: Man in his 90s found stabbed to death at house in Leicester Teenager killed herself without knowing she was pregnant Baby of murdered pregnant woman dies Authorities in Dubai said Sheikha Latifa had been "vulnerable to exploitation" and was "now safe in Dubai. However, human rights advocates said she was forcibly abducted against her will and Princess Haya subsequently learnt new facts about the case, putting her under increasing hostility from her husbands family until she no longer felt safe. Sources say she now fears being abducted and rendered back to Dubai. Princess Haya is now said to be living in a £85m town house in Kensington Palace Gardens (Getty) Sheikh Mohammed, 69, has since posted a poem on Instagram accusing an unidentified woman of "treachery and betrayal". The UAE embassy in London declined to comments as it was a personal matter between two individuals. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
UK economy shrinks as Brexit, global worries mount: PMI By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economy appears to have shrunk for the first time since late 2012 between April and June as worries about Brexit were compounded by global trade tensions, a closely watched survey showed on Wednesday. A day after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned of the growing risks from a no-deal Brexit and protectionist trade policies, a gauge of Britain's huge services industry -- the IHS Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) -- slipped to 50.2 in June, just above the no-growth level of 50. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the PMI to remain at May's level of 51.0. Equivalent surveys for manufacturing and construction published earlier this week showed those sectors contracted in June, meaning Britain's economy overall probably shrank by 0.1 percent in the second quarter, IHS Markit/CIPS said. British gross domestic product last shrank from one quarter to another in the final three months of 2012, according to official data. The last time GDP shrank for two or more quarters in a row -- the widely accepted definition of a recession -- was in 2008-2009, during the global financial crisis. "The latest downturn has followed a gradual deterioration in demand over the past year as Brexit-related uncertainty has increasingly exacerbated the impact of a broader global economic slowdown," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit. "Risks also remain skewed to the downside as sentiment about the year ahead is worryingly subdued, suggesting the third quarter could see businesses continue to struggle." British government bond yields fell further after the survey, with the yield on 10-year gilts hitting its lowest level since the months after the 2016 Brexit referendum. CURVE INVERSION Investors see more chance of a cut to British interest rates after Carney's speech on Tuesday, in which he said the economy might need more support to cope with the shock of a no-deal Brexit or an escalation of global trade tensions. The yield curve between two- and five-year British government bonds inverted for the first time since 2008 on Wednesday, suggesting investors see a risk of recession. The BoE says Britain's economy probably flatlined in the second quarter after strong growth early in the year when companies were rushing to get ready for the original March 29 Brexit date. That deadline has since been pushed back to Oct. 31. Andrew Wishart, an economist with consultancy Capital Economics, said the pre-March 29 rush accounted for some of the second-quarter weakness. "But the fact the surveys have not picked up towards the end of the quarter, and global manufacturing is slowing, means the risk is that the economy fails to bounce back in the third quarter," he added. Many businesses are alarmed by the prospect of a no-deal Brexit, something both candidates to replace Theresa May as prime minister have said they are prepared to do if necessary. Williamson said the weak reading of Britain's economy should put pressure on the Bank of England to add stimulus. "For policymakers to not loosen policy with the all-sector PMI at its current level would be unprecedented in the survey's two-decade history," he said. (Graphic by Sujata Rao; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Catherine Evans)
What Kind Of Shareholder Owns Most Gesco AG (ETR:GSC1) Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! A look at the shareholders of Gesco AG (ETR:GSC1) can tell us which group is most powerful. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.' With a market capitalization of €267m, Gesco is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about GSC1. See our latest analysis for Gesco Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. Gesco already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 31% of the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Gesco's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Gesco. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily. The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Gesco AG. Insiders have a €37m stake in this €267m business. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You canclick here to see if they have been buying or selling. The general public, mostly retail investors, hold a substantial 55% stake in GSC1, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio. I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Many find it usefulto take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can accessthisdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss thisfreereport on analyst forecasts. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
China lashes back over British remarks on Hong Kong protests BEIJING (AP) China's foreign ministry lashed back Wednesday at remarks by Britain's foreign secretary on the causes of recent anti-government protests in Hong Kong, saying the territory's former colonial master had no right to weigh in on the city's affairs. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday that Jeremy Hunt appeared to be "basking in the faded glory of British colonialism and obsessed with lecturing others." Hunt said Hong Kong authorities should not use an outbreak of vandalism in the legislative chambers by protesters Monday night as a "pretext for repression." He said the authorities need to "understand the root causes of what happened, which is a deep-seated concern by people in Hong Kong that their basic freedoms are under attack." Geng said Britain restricted Hong Kong's democracy prior to the 1997 handover to Chinese rule and had no authority to discuss matters in the territory, despite the existence of a 1984 agreement that Hong Kong would retain its Western-style economic, legal and political system for 50 years. Hong Kong was under Britain's rule for 155 years, during which it was run by a series of governors appointed by the British crown. "The U.K. considers itself as a guardian which is nothing but a delusion," Geng told reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday. "It is just shameless to say that Hong Kong's freedoms are negotiated for them by the British side," Geng said. China's central government has voiced strong support for Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the city's police force in dealing with the recent protests, which have highlighted doubts about the validity of its "one country, two systems" formula for governing the semi-autonomous Chinese region. The protests, which roughly coincided with celebrations of the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from British to Chinese rule, were originally sparked by a government attempt to change extradition laws to allow suspects to be sent to China for trial. Lam has shelved the bills but not agreed to scrap them altogether as opponents insist. Many are also calling for Lam's resignation, a demand she has refused to address. The extradition legislation has heightened fears of eroding freedoms in Hong Kong and given fresh momentum to Hong Kong's pro-democracy opposition movement, awakening broader concerns that China is chipping away at the rights it guaranteed to Hong Kong for 50 years. Two marches in June drew more than 1 million people, according to organizer estimates, marking the biggest outpouring of anti-government sentiment in years.
Guatemalan toddler who died after US border detention in inhumane conditions had multiple diseases A Guatemalan toddler who spent several days in US Border Patrol custody this spring died of complications related to multiple intestinal and respiratory infectious diseases, according to medical examiner's report. Wilmer Josue Ramirez Vasquez, who was two-and-a-half years old, died on 14 May after several weeks in a hospital in El Paso , Texas . The medical examiners office in El Paso County said tests detected influenza, parasites, E coli, a food-borne illness that produces severe cramping, diarrhoea and vomiting, and other pathogens in the childs system. The toddler died weeks after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released him and his mother at a hospital. The autopsy report comes a day after congressional Democrats made a tumultuous visit to Border Patrol facilities in El Paso and Clint, Texas and said they differed with Homeland Security and demonstrators over conditions inside. CBP apprehended Wilmer and his mother on 3 April near the Paso del Norte International Bridge in El Paso, days after now-acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan warned that holding facilities in the city and others along the US-Mexico border were at a breaking point. Three days later, US Customs and Border Protection said the childs mother informed agents that he was sick and they took him to a local emergency room. The medical examiners report said Wilmer arrived in respiratory distress. The child was then transferred to Providence Childrens Hospital in El Paso, where he died. Lawyers supporting Wilmers family said the boy and his mother were subjected to inhumane conditions during their three days in Border Patrol custody, including exposure to extreme temperatures, being forced to sleep outside on the ground, and other terrible conditions of confinement. They called for an independent investigation into why the boy was not taken to the hospital earlier. Wilmers family and supporting counsel remain committed to determining whether earlier medical intervention would have saved Wilmers life, said lawyers Taylor Levy and Bridget Cambria. The autopsy report indicates that this baby suffered from numerous intestinal and respiratory infections that, when compounded, led to his death. Story continues Bert Johannsen, an El Paso paediatrician who has treated hundreds of migrant children, said the autopsy report showed that Wilmer had several parasites, spread through fecal-oral contact, that are common in Central America but not in the United States. The parasites are treatable if diagnosed and treated quickly, Dr Johannsen said, but he questions whether the CBPs contract health care workers are looking for them when screening children at the border. If you bring me a kid from El Paso who has diarrhoea, Im thinking viral gastroenteritis. But if I get a kid from Guatemala , I have to start thinking these other bacteria, parasites, cryptosporidium, said Dr Johannsen, who volunteers to care for migrant children at El Pasos Annunciation House shelters. Initially, Guatemalan consular officials reported that Wilmer appeared to have developed a form of pneumonia, but that is not explicitly mentioned in the report. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus toured Border Patrol facilities in Texas earlier this week after lawyers described appalling conditions in the Clint facility , including hundreds of sick and dirty children. Democrats also reported crowding in the El Paso facility, where they said several hundred people are still detained. The Department of Homeland Securitys inspector general issued a new report warning about prolonged detentions and overflowing cells during the week of 10 June in the Rio Grande Valley in southwestern Texas. Several children and adults have died after being apprehended at the border or attempting to cross , including four children last week. The Trump administration has said it is grappling with record numbers of families and unaccompanied minors who are surrendering at the southern border and seeking asylum. Officials say the asylum claims are largely false and that people are travelling with children because they are likely to be released to await a deportation hearing. Donald Trump has urged Congress to pass stricter asylum laws and close legal loopholes that prevent them from detaining families longer to process their cases and deport them. Officials also have pressured Mexico into blocking migrants routes to the border. The Homeland Security Department has said it expects a 30 percent drop in border apprehensions in June, a potential decline it attributed to Mexicos expanded crackdown on Central American migrants and the expansion of an experimental Trump administration programme that requires asylum seekers to wait outside US territory for their immigration court hearings. The White House struck a deal with Mexico last month to increase enforcement after threatening to impose tariffs on that countrys goods. Most people apprehended crossing the border illegally are families or unaccompanied minors from Central America, and advocates say they are fleeing violence and severe poverty in search of a better life. Children, many younger than 12, accounted for about 40 percent of apprehensions in May. Department of Homeland Security officials expanded care for children after two young Guatemalan children died after being taken into custody in December. They require health screenings of all children and have sent medics and equipment to the border to quickly check new arrivals. Border Patrol officials said earlier this week that children receive food and care but said their facilities are not meant to hold anyone for long periods , especially children. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said one woman in a border facility said she was told by Border Patrol officers to drink out of a toilet. A Department of Homeland Security official, who was not authorised to discuss the visit and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said no Border Patrol agent would allow that and there was water available. The Washington Post
Is Indraprastha Medical Corporation Limited's (NSE:INDRAMEDCO) ROE Of 12% Impressive? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Indraprastha Medical Corporation Limited (NSE:INDRAMEDCO). Our data showsIndraprastha Medical has a return on equity of 12%for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every ₹1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn ₹0.12. Check out our latest analysis for Indraprastha Medical Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Indraprastha Medical: 12% = ₹284m ÷ ₹2.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) It's easy to understand the 'net profit' part of that equation, but 'shareholders' equity' requires further explanation. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets. ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, all else equal,investors should like a high ROE. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, Indraprastha Medical has a better ROE than the average (8.5%) in the Healthcare industry. That is a good sign. We think a high ROE, alone, is usually enough to justify further research into a company. One data point to check is ifinsiders have bought shares recently. Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used. Although Indraprastha Medical does use a little debt, its debt to equity ratio of just 0.063 is very low. Although the ROE isn't overly impressive, the debt load is modest, suggesting the business has potential. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises. Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So I think it may be worth checking thisfreethisdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Samsung Completes Folding Phone Redesign After Screen Failures (Bloomberg) -- Samsung Electronics Co. has completed a two-month redesign of the Galaxy Fold to fix embarrassing screen failures that forced its delay, people familiar with the matter say, allowing the Korean giant to debut its marquee smartphone in time for the crucial holiday season. The world’s largest smartphone maker is now in the final stages of producing a commercial version but can’t yet pin down a date to begin sales, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified describing an internal effort. Samsung pulled the device after several publications including Bloomberg News reported problems with test versions, such as screen malfunctions that emerged after a film on the display was peeled off. Korea’s biggest company is trying to move past yet another product faux pas. It has now stretched the protective film to wrap around the entire screen and flow into the outer bezels so it would be impossible to peel off by hand, said the people, who have seen the latest versions. It re-engineered the hinge, pushing it slightly upward from the screen (it’s now flush with the display) to help stretch the film further when the phone opens. That tension makes the film feel harder and more a natural part of the device rather than a detachable accessory, they added. The consequent protrusion, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, may help reduce the chance of a crease developing in the middle of the screen over time, one of the people said. Samsung is keen to salvage its reputation after canceling the April 26 launch of the $1,980 device when folding displays on review models exhibited problems. It had counted on the world’s first mass-produced foldable smartphone to challenge Apple Inc. and widen its lead over Chinese rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. Instead, some models developed issues after mere days of use: Bloomberg’s test unit failed to function properly after a plastic layer covering the screen was removed, and a small tear developed at the top of the hinge where the gadget opened. Samsung will soon start shipping major components for the Galaxy Fold, including the display and battery, to a main plant in Vietnam for assembly while the company debates a launch date, one of the people said. But the company is unlikely to unveil its re-upholstered Galaxy Fold during an Aug. 7 “Unpack” event in New York for the new flagship Note 10 phone, one of the people said. A Samsung representative declined to comment. The Fold’s postponement marked a setback for a company that had bet on its latest innovation to extend its dominance and ignite a stagnating smartphone market. But the Suwon, South Korea-based firm was keen to avoid the kind of fiasco it suffered in 2016 when it recalled the Note 7, which showed a tendency to burst into flames. Samsung also finds itself in no rush to launch the Galaxy Fold after Huawei postponed the roll-out of its own foldable device, the person said. Samsung’s shares slid 1.8% Wednesday while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi fell 1.2%. Read More: Samsung’s Reputation Founders on Rush for Lead in Folding Phones Foldable phones let users double their screen real estate while also keeping devices compact enough to fit into a pocket. But analysts say it’s unclear whether companies can develop apps to take full advantage of the innovative screen. Samsung’s delay underscored the challenges of creating a display that folds like a notebook, something Samsung spent eight years trying to master. Even if the phone is made to perfection, the market may not be ready for it: Samsung shipped more than 290 million phones last year, according to Strategy Analytics, but said earlier this year it would produce about 1 million foldable phones in 2019. Samsung, which supplies the organic light-emitting diode screens used in Apple iPhones, is also developing a clamshell-like foldable phone and has already created dozens of prototypes, one of the people said. Bloomberg News reported in March Samsung was working on a pair of new foldable models to follow the Galaxy Fold, including one that folds vertically and another that folds outward like Huawei’s Mate X. The company also envisions smartphones with rollable and stretchable displays in the future, Samsung Executive Vice President Chung Eui-suk said in February. (Updates with Samsung’s shares in the eighth paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: Sam Kim in Seoul at skim609@bloomberg.net;Sohee Kim in Seoul at skim847@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, ;Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Colum Murphy For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Piers Morgan urges Gary Lineker to 'attack' the BBC over salary increases Charlotte Hawkins, Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain (ITV) Piers Morgan has urged Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker to attack the BBC over its decision to increase the salaries of its highest-paid stars after announcing their plans to cut free TV licenses for over-75s. Morgans comments came on Wednesdays Good Morning Britain , when he and co-host Susanna Reid were discussing the BBCs annual salary list, which has come under fire. It was revealed that Lineker is the broadcasters highest-paid star, earning £1,750,000-£1,754,999 a year, and Morgan has now urged him to call out the BBC for increasing his wages in light of their decision to scrap free TV licences for over-75s. Read more: Piers Morgan defends Amanda Holden as her 'feud' with Phillip Schofield continues 'If I were Gary Lineker I would come out on Twitter this morning and I would attack the decision [by the BBC] to take the TV licences away from pensioners.' - @piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/6SsBE4J1Bw Good Morning Britain (@GMB) July 3, 2019 If I was Gary Lineker, I would come out and whack this, I would, I would call their bluff, began Morgan. He fights for every other underdog on Twitter, hes a good friend of mine, I completely defend him on this, I dont think hes to blame. If I were Gary I would come out on Twitter this morning and attack the decision to take the TV licences away from the pensioners, I would. It would be a very brave thing for him to do. I think he would earn a lot of favours, hes just getting killed, hes just getting killed through no fault of his own. Read more: Piers Morgan and Amanda Knox in furious spat over interview snub 'What they [the BBC] promised to do was to take over the responsibility for it. That was the mistake because unless you're going to continue to provide those free TV licences [for over 75s] they shouldn't have agreed to it.' - @susannareid100 pic.twitter.com/5jvFHPLUep Good Morning Britain (@GMB) July 3, 2019 Morgan went on to say that Lineker could actually be getting paid more by any other network, including ITV. Story continues Its a fact, people may not like it, you can obviously say a nurse gets thirty to forty grand a year, if theyre lucky £20,000. And so you can get X gazillion nurses for a Lineker but thats not how the reality of the market place works in television. Morgan also claimed that this could be the beginning of the end of the BBC, stating that they have some big questions to answer regarding their scrapping of free TV licenses for over-75s. I genuinely think it could be the beginning of the end of the BBC. You watch what happened Im telling you, its the beginning of the end for the BBC because once you lose public trust, then the public desire to help you by giving you money for what you do disappears.
Bank of Japan to keep a close eye on Libra The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is expressing reservations about Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra. An anonymous BOJ official told the Nikkei Asian Review that because financial institutions need to cover the expenses that comes with regulation, Libra will be “be piggybacking for free on a financial system that takes heavy costs." The BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda added he would "keep careful watch" on the project. Officials also seem concerned that Libra will pose risks to the financial system, as noted recently by the Bank of International Settlements. For instance, if millions of Libra users decided to abandon the cryptocurrency at once and to redeem their cash, it could destabilise the system, the Nikkei writes. Indeed, one of the issues is that the funds used to back Libra will be a “collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and short-term government securities,” according to its whitepaper . Libra could also theoretically raise the demand for short-term government securities, which in turn, could lower interest rates.
When Should You Buy Indutrade AB (publ) (STO:INDT)? Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Indutrade AB (publ) ( STO:INDT ), which is in the trade distributors business, and is based in Sweden, saw a double-digit share price rise of over 10% in the past couple of months on the OM. As a well-established company, which tends to be well-covered by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the company’s outlook is already priced into the stock. However, what if the stock is still a bargain? Today I will analyse the most recent data on Indutrade’s outlook and valuation to see if the opportunity still exists. Check out our latest analysis for Indutrade Is Indutrade still cheap? The stock seems fairly valued at the moment according to my valuation model. It’s trading around 7.2% below my intrinsic value, which means if you buy Indutrade today, you’d be paying a reasonable price for it. And if you believe that the stock is really worth SEK327.78, then there’s not much of an upside to gain from mispricing. So, is there another chance to buy low in the future? Given that Indutrade’s share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us an opportunity to buy later on. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility. What kind of growth will Indutrade generate? OM:INDT Past and Future Earnings, July 3rd 2019 Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Although value investors would argue that it’s the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. Indutrade’s earnings over the next few years are expected to increase by 28%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? INDT’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at the stock? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuates below the true value? Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping tabs on INDT, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for the company, which means it’s worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on Indutrade. You can find everything you need to know about Indutrade in the latest infographic research report . If you are no longer interested in Indutrade, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential . We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Australia's big banks get squeezed as cash rate drops to record low By Paulina Duran SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian bank earnings are getting squeezed by the central bank's move to cut the cash rate to a record low 1%, analysts and investors say, as it gets harder to reduce deposit rates to offset the cheaper mortgages they must now offer borrowers. Shares of the so-called Big Four banks fell between 0.73% and 1.2% in the 24 hours following Tuesday's cut, underperforming an otherwise rising market. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the biggest of the four, is seen as one of the most susceptible because it has the largest deposit book and cannot drop rates much lower to its existing customers. "It is bad for their earnings, and that's mostly because they have a very large deposit book paying near zero rates, which doesn't go down any more," said Simon Mawhinney, chief investment officer at fund manager Allan Gray. "So the cost of funds tends to stay more or less fixed, but their interest income falls with the rate cuts." On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lowered the cash rate by 25 basis points, the second easing in two months to support an economy forecast to grow at its slowest pace in a decade. The cut will reduce the bank's margins by about 3 basis points and cut earnings by up to 2.5% for the current financial year, according to Morgan Stanley. Each bank, however, does its best to try and hedge this impact by investing in longer-dated bonds. The lenders' profits took a hit last year from weak credit growth, and charges to cover hefty legal bills and remediation costs linked to widespread wrongdoing in the sector. In an attempt to protect margins, three of Australia's four biggest lenders resisted public pressure to pass on the central bank rate cut in full to mortgage customers, although the strategy risks triggering a public rebuke from the government. At the same time, banks tended not to drop interest rates on savings and deposit accounts by the full quarter of a percent. Following a bank share rally last month driven by relief a change of government would not cut tax incentives for property buyers, investors and analysts are now reining in their earnings expectations. This is particularly so now that the RBA has hinted it is open to a third rate cut this year as it attempts to revive the country's sluggish economy. "Rate cuts typically happen at the point of the cycle when the economy is quite weak and credit growth is low," said Mawhinney. "So rate cuts are bad, all round, for banks." JP Morgan banking analysts told clients on Wednesday in a note that given ANZ had passed on the full benefit of the cut to borrowers, its earnings would now be lowered by about 2%. It warned that any further rate cuts would require the banks to hold back much more because "saver base rates have hit their lower bound". (Reporting by Paulina Duran in SYDNEY; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Some Home Capital Group (TSE:HCG) Shareholders Have Copped A Big 58% Share Price Drop Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see theHome Capital Group Inc.(TSE:HCG) share price up 27% in a single quarter. But don't envy holders -- looking back over 5 years the returns have been really bad. In fact, the share price has declined rather badly, down some 58% in that time. So is the recent increase sufficient to restore confidence in the stock? Not yet. However, in the best case scenario (far fromfait accompli), this improved performance might be sustained. See our latest analysis for Home Capital Group In his essayThe Superinvestors of Graham-and-DoddsvilleWarren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price. During five years of share price growth, Home Capital Group moved from a loss to profitability. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time. It could be that the revenue decline of 11% per year is viewed as evidence that Home Capital Group is shrinking. That could explain the weak share price. The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image). It's probably worth noting we've seen significant insider buying in the last quarter, which we consider a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. If you are thinking of buying or selling Home Capital Group stock, you should check out thisfreereport showing analyst profit forecasts. It's important to keep in mind that we've been talking about the share price returns, which don't include dividends, while the total shareholder return does. Many would argue the TSR gives a more complete picture of the value a stock brings to its holders. Over the last 5 years, Home Capital Group generated a TSR of -54%, which is, of course, better than the share price return. Although the company had to cut dividends, it has paid cash to shareholders in the past. It's good to see that Home Capital Group has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 34% in the last twelve months. That certainly beats the loss of about 15% per year over the last half decade. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. It is all well and good that insiders have been buying shares, but we suggest youcheck here to see what price insiders were buying at. If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is NVE Corporation (NASDAQ:NVEC) A High Quality Stock To Own? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand NVE Corporation (NASDAQ:NVEC). NVE has a ROE of 18%, based on the last twelve months. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated $0.18 in profit. View our latest analysis for NVE Theformula for return on equityis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for NVE: 18% = US$15m ÷ US$83m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. A higher profit will lead to a higher ROE. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, NVE has a superior ROE than the average (14%) company in the Semiconductor industry. That's clearly a positive. In my book, a high ROE almost always warrants a closer look. For example,I often check if insiders have been buying shares. Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. Shareholders will be pleased to learn that NVE has not one iota of net debt! Its respectable ROE suggests it is a business worth watching, but it's even better the company achieved this without leverage. At the end of the day, when a company has zero debt, it is in a better position to take future growth opportunities. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE. But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So I think it may be worth checking thisfreethisdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of courseNVE may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Genoil Signs Advisory Agreement with JSC Tuimadda-Neft and Provides Update with the Velikoye Oil Field Tuimadda-Neft has an Estimated 1.8 Billion Barrels of Recoverable Crude Oil Equivalent within their Five Giant Oil Field License Blocks in Yakutia, Russia NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 3 , 2019 /Genoil Inc. (OTC PINK: GNOLF) has signed an advisory fee agreement with Tuimaada-Neft, which is a leading oil and gas company in Russia with an estimated 850 million tons of oil equivalent. This agreement builds from our previous LOI that was signed in the fourth quarter 2017. Genoil will advise and possibly have a significant role in these development projects, which will include EPC (engineering, procurement and construction), equity and debt financing, oil field services, as well as oil field operations and natural gas development. The first oil block to be developed is the Zapadno Anabarsky block, which is projected to produce roughly 12 million tons per year (240,000 BPD). To achieve these annual production targets there will need to be approximately 207 wells drilled. Projected gas production per year is to be 10 billion m3 (0.35 TCF) and 114 thousand tons of gas condensate. The geological and financial evaluation of the Zapadno-Anabarsky license block indicates low production costs which means high profitability and a high resistance to geological and economic uncertainties. In Astrakhan, Genoil signed a similar agreement with JSC PetroleumGas (AFB) to develop the Velikoye oil field. Genoil called the largest development bank in the world and one of the top two largest banks in the world to provide assistance in sourcing capital and strategic equity investors for this project. With one of the top two largest banks in the world formally engaged in the project, due diligence has begun and is progressing rapidly. It is again worth noting that the Velikoye oilfield block in Astrakahan has a total of 1 billion tons of estimated reserves, with 290 million tons recoverable. Velikoye production could total 500,000 BPD (barrels per day) of oil for 20 years. The combined oil assets controlled by both of these companies could yield in excess of 1 million BPD. President & C.O.O. Bruce Abbott stated, "The excitement generated from our leadership role in securing these deals is immense, especially now that one of the top two banks in the world is involved in the project. We have also hosted joint meetings with the largest banks and one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world which gives us confidence that these projects can be executed quickly. Oil industry experts and leading energy companies have acknowledged the value of our leadership role and have expressed serious interest in working with us on current and future projects." In recent years, Genoil has expanded its role and focus in the oil industry to be more than just a leading technology provider. We have been using our worldwide strategic relationships to organize large energy deals. With recent heightened tensions in the Middle East, Russian oil assets have become much more desirable due to their geographic diversification away from hostile regions. The location of Russia allows the produced oil to flow via pipeline to neighboring countries circumventing waterway travel. About Genoil Inc.: Genoil is an independent exploration, production company which has experience drilling for oil and gas in the Caribbean. The company specializes in heavy oil development and is focused on long term growth. Genoil has developed a proprietary, state of the art patented advanced hydroconversion process technology (heavy to light & sour to sweet). This advanced Hydroconversion Upgrader (GHU), converts heavy crude oils and refinery bottoms into clean crude that is much more valuable. This more valuable crude produces a higher value product slate meaning that this new crude oil refines into clean-burning fuels for transportation. The company is deeply focused on the downstream transportation refining industries especially shipping. Hydroconversion is a common and proven desulfurization process, capable of processing various feedstocks ranging from crude oil to Naptha. The Genoil Hydroconversion Upgrader (GHU®), is an advanced upgrading and desulfurization technology, which converts heavy or sour crude oil into much more valuable light low sulphur oil for a very low cost. The GHU achieves 96% pitch conversion and 95% desulfurization with an operating cost of up to 75% less than the competition. For Conoco Canada Ltd, Genoil converted their bitumen of 6-8.5 API and converted it to 24.5 API. We also removed 92% of the sulphur reducing the amount from 5.14 % to below 0.24%. These results were taken by Conoco Canada Ltd, who had them analysed by Core Laboratories, one of the largest service providers of core and fluid analysis in the petroleum industry. About Tuimadda-Neft: Tuimadda-Neft is a petroleum products supplier with annual sales of more than 140,000 tons of petroleum products for the domestic market in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The company has its own oil storage depot with a capacity of 50,000 tons in Nizhniy Bestyakh. The company also operates 35 gas stations throughout the region. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:Certain information regarding Genoil, including availability of capital and other sources of funds and future plans may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as ''seek,'' ''anticipate,'' ''hope,'' ''plan,'' ''continue,'' ''estimate,'' ''expect,'' ''may,'' ''will,'' ''intend,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''should,'' ''believe'' and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions, expectations and estimates of management as at the date the statements are made and, in some cases, information received from or disseminated by third parties, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or outcomes to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements contained in this release necessarily involve risks and uncertainties associated with an oil and gas technology development and engineering corporation. As a consequence, actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking information contained herein. Although Genoil believes that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are reasonable given current market conditions, and information received or disseminated by third parties is reliable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Genoil does not assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements and such forward-looking statements should not be taken as guarantees of future outcomes. Subject to applicable securities laws, Genoil does not undertake any obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified, in their entirety, by this cautionary statement. Additionally, statements included in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Further information on potential risk factors that could affect Genoil's financial results can be found in Genoil's disclosure materials filed on SEDAR atwww.sedar.comand with the Securities Exchange Commission available atwww.sec.gov. For more information please contact:David LifschultzTel: 212 688 8868Email:dklifschultz@Genoil.com SOURCE:Genoil Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/550667/Genoil-Signs-Advisory-Agreement-with-JSC-Tuimadda-Neft-and-Provides-Update-with-the-Velikoye-Oil-Field
Student Loan Refinancing vs. Consolidation: What's the Difference? Refinancing and consolidation are often used interchangeably, but they actually have rather different meanings. Image source: Getty Images. When it comes to student loans, the termsrefinancingandconsolidationare often used interchangeably, as both generally involve combining several student loans into one. However, it’s important to realize that they actually have significantly different meanings. The short version is that refinancing refers to obtaining an entirely new loan in order to pay off existing loans. When you refinance loans, you’ll need to go through a new loan application process and will likely have to agree to a credit check, income verification, and other assessments of your qualifications. Based on how well-qualified you are, your new loan will be given a new interest rate -- that is, the interest rates on the loans being refinanced play no part in determining your new interest rate. You’ll obtain a new loan and its proceeds will be used to pay off your specified existing loans. When you refinance student loans, the new loan proceeds are typically sent directly to your existing student loan servicers. On the other hand, student loan consolidation means combining your existing student loans into one. The most common form of student loan consolidation is a Direct Consolidation Loan, which is used to combine multiplefederal student loansinto one. While you’re technically obtaining a new loan, you don’t have to go through a new underwriting process -- your consolidation loan’s interest rate will simply be a weighted average of the interest rates on your existing loans. For a simplified example, if you consolidate two $10,000 federal student loans, one with a 5% interest rate and the other with a 7% interest rate, you’ll receive a $20,000 consolidation loan with a 6% interest rate. Consolidation can be a good move for many federal student loan borrowers. The most obviousreason to consolidateis to simplify your repayment. As a personal example, when I obtained my bachelor’s degree, I had a total of six federal student loans. Three of them were subsidized loans and the other three were unsubsidized. Not only did I have six, but they were serviced by two different companies, so I had to send checks (this was before electronic payment was popular) to two different places. By obtaining Direct Consolidation Loans, I combined my federal student loans into one easy-to-understand bill and only had to send one check. It can also be a smart idea to consolidate if you have any federal student loans that aren’t Direct Loans and you work in public service. Federal Stafford Loans, Federal Perkins Loans, and PLUS Loans are some examples. On their own, these loans don’t qualify forPublic Service Loan Forgiveness(PSLF), but after you combine them into a Direct Consolidation Loan, they do. On the other hand, there could be goodreasons not to consolidate. One big reason is if you’ve already been making qualified payments toward PSLF or on an income-driven repayment plan. These loan forgiveness programs require a certain number of payments, and by consolidating, you’ll lose credit for any qualifying payments you’ve already made. It’s important to mention that consolidation isn’t an all-or-none choice. You can choose not to include certain loans in a Direct Consolidation Loan. If you decide that consolidating your federal student loans is the best move for you, the application is available online atStudentLoans.gov. As part of the application, you’ll select a consolidation servicer, who will process your loan consolidation. One important point: Until you’ve received confirmation that your existing federal student loans have been paid off by your new Direct Consolidation Loan, you need to keep making payments on them. As I mentioned, refinancing means obtaining an entirely new loan to pay off your existing student loans. Refinancing is done through private lenders, and while most people who refinance student loans have more than one to pay off, there’s no reason you can’t refinance a single student loan if you want to. There are severalreasons why refinancingyour student loans through a private lender can be a smart idea: • Most obviously, you can potentially lower your interest rate. There are some private lenders who offer highly competitive APRs on refinancing, with bothfixed and variable interest rates, especially for borrowers with strong credit scores. • You may be able to lower your monthly payment. For example, if your existing student loans have a 10-year repayment term and you refinance them into a loan with a 20-year term, even if your interest rate stays the same, your monthly payment will drop significantly. • Just like with consolidation, refinancing can help make your financial life simpler. This is especially true if you’re refinancing loans that you obtained through more than one lender, and you’re currently having to make multiple loan payments each month. • Refinancing can be a good option if you have a cosigner on your existing loans and want to get their name off of them. If you feel that your credit and income qualifications are good enough to justify refinancing a loan in your own name, this could be a way to release your cosigner from the legal obligation. While refinancing student loans is certainly a smart move for many borrowers, it isn’t the best choice for everyone. There are some good reasons why you mightnotwant to refinance your student loans. First and foremost, it’s typically a bad idea to refinance federal student loans through a private lender. Federal loans have some unique advantages, such as the ability to qualify for income-driven repayment plans and loan forgiveness programs, as well as generally having more flexible deferment and forbearance options than private loans. While it isn’t always a bad idea, I’d suggest thinking long and hard before using a private lender to refinance your federal loans. Additionally, it can be a bad idea to refinance if your existing student loans already have a competitive interest rate or have some valuable features you don’t want to lose. There are a growing number of private companies that specialize in student loan refinancing. If you’ve decided that student loan refinancing is the right move for you, the best thing you can do is to compare the interest rates and other features offered by several different lenders. Ourbest student loanspage is a great place to start, and most of the lenders on there will let prospective refinancers check their interest rates without affecting their credit score. The Motley Fool owns and recommends MasterCard and Visa, and recommends American Express. We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule. If we wouldn’t recommend an offer to a close family member, we wouldn’t recommend it on The Ascent either. Our number one goal is helping people find the best offers to improve their finances. That is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.
Bennet raised $2.8 million to start presidential campaign Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet raised $2.8 million for his presidential campaign in the second quarter, his campaign told POLITICO, adding another $700,000 from his Senate committee to bolster his 2020 run. The $3.5 million total puts Bennet far behind two front-runners who have already announced their second-quarter fundraising. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised $24.8 million from April through June, his campaign said, while Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) campaign brought in $18 million, plus a sizable $6 million transfer from Sanders' past campaign committees. But Bennet raised more in his first quarter in the presidential race than a number of other Democrats did in the first quarter of the year. And Bennet lapped John Hickenlooper, his fellow Colorado Democrat and rival in the 2020 race. Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado, raised around $1 million in the second quarter and is running out of cash , POLITICO reported. "Despite Michael entering the race late because of a prostate cancer diagnosis, we raised more in two months than several other campaigns did in the entire first quarter," Bennet for America spokesperson Shannon Beckham said in a statement. "We’re building a sustainable, long-term campaign to defeat Donald Trump, and we’re just getting started.” Bennet's campaign did not say how much money it has in the bank or how many donors contributed to the campaign. It did say that Bennet got a boost last Friday, following the candidate's participation in the first round of Democratic presidential debates. Bennet got the highest number of donors since his launch week on that day, the campaign said, and 54 percent of them were new to the campaign.
Hilary Duff mom-shamed for piercing baby's ears Hilary Duff has fired up her fans after admitting on Instagram that she and fiancé Matthew Koma have had their 8-month-old daughter’s ears pierced. Duff, who gave birth to baby Banks last October, shared a photo of the infant rocking a mini pony and flashing some studs. “Yes we pierced her ears,” the singer and actress wrote in her InstaStories. Duff showed off Banks's pierced ears on InstaStories. (Photo: Instagram via Hilary Duff) But many of Duff’s followers don’t approve of the piercings, an issue that often divides parents and varies according to cultural customs. Pediatricians, some of whom perform the procedure, typically advise waiting until a baby is at least 3 months old, after he or she has been immunized. But some parents oppose piercing a child’s ears until they are old enough to make the choice for themselves, and cite the pain and risks of infection or allergic reaction. As such, Duff’s photo has kicked off some controversy. “Just won an unfollow after seeing you pierced her ears, poor baby. Bye!” one upset follower wrote. Another accused Duff of “causing unnecessary pain” and called it “child abuse.” “The risks are unreal and that throbbing pain in her ears, no matter how happy and looked after your child is, just isn't justified in my eyes,” the commenter continued. “To put a baby through it with no choice but to deal with it isn't right in my opinion,” she added. “If a 'young kid' wants it, then I support the parents’ decision ... they aren't fashion accessories.” “I agree,” added another commenter. “I just don’t get why you would do it. Babies are beautiful, why would they need their ears piercing?” Others objected to the backlash. “It is not abuse,” argued a Duff fan. “My ears were pierced at the hospital, a day or so after I was born in Venezuela,” another wrote. “It’s a very common practice there. I’m glad it happened there and by a nurse, rather than [when I was] older when I can remember the pain. Sure, some may want to wait until the child can make that decision for themselves, but it’s not that big of a deal if parents don’t always wait. Plus the child can always choose not to wear earrings or close the holes if it’s really that big of an issue.” “Piercing the earlobe is just not that painful,” claimed a commenter, adding, “If it hurt then a young child wouldn't sit there for the other side [to be] pierced too, would they?” “I am 51 years old and my sister and I had our ears pierced when we were babies as well and done with a needle,” one follower shared. “I’m OK, I’m not traumatized and I don't remember because I was a baby. People need to stop judging what other people do, and look at what goes on in their own home.” Story continues Duff isn’t alone in being mom-shamed for piercing her baby’s ears. Sisters Kylie Jenner and Khloé Kardashian were also criticized for having their daughters’ ears done . Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Woman with 'disgusting' hairy armpits in Nike Instagram sparks debate: 'STOP DEGRADING HER' People are grossed out by razor company telling women they don't have to shave: 'It's just tacky' Woman ‘horrified’ by gym's body-shaming email: 'Call it what it is ...FAT' Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. View comments
U.K. Finance Watchdog Proposes Retail Crypto Derivatives Ban (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.’s financial services regulator is proposing a ban on retail sales of derivatives tied to some crypto assets, as it seeks to clamp down on risky financial products. The Financial Conduct Authority said cryptocurrencies have no reliable basis for valuation, while market abuse and financial crime are prevalent in the secondary market for digital assets. The watchdog estimates that a ban on retail trading could prevent between 75 million pounds ($94 million) and 234.3 million pounds in losses a year, according to a statement on Wednesday. Retail investors in the U.K. are able to speculate on cryptocurrencies through complex derivatives known as contracts for difference, or CFDs. Largely banned in the U.S. and under increasing scrutiny in Europe, these instruments allow amateur traders to make risky bets on assets without owning them. “Most consumers cannot reliably value derivatives based on unregulated crypto assets,” said Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy & Competition at the FCA. “Prices are extremely volatile and as we have seen globally, financial crime in crypto-asset markets can lead to sudden and unexpected losses.” Scams involving cryptocurrencies and foreign exchange boomed last year, losing British investors more than 27 million pounds, according to the FCA, which told consumers in May to watch out for online trading platforms offering get-rich-quick schemes. Companies that currently offer CFDs tied to cryptocurrencies include CMC Markets Plc, Plus500 Ltd. and IG Group Holdings Plc, according to their websites. The shares of all three companies briefly declined on the news. “This is further mood music that the regulatory environment for these kinds of business continues to be tough,” said Portia Patel, analyst at Canaccord Genuity. “Expect retail CFD companies to lobby hard against this.” (Updates with CFD providers’ share price moves in fifth paragraph.) --With assistance from Viren Vaghela. To contact the reporters on this story: Alastair Marsh in London at amarsh25@bloomberg.net;Donal Griffin in London at dgriffin10@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Marion Dakers, Keith Campbell For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
How Shopping Around for a Mortgage Could Save You Thousands of Dollars Most would-be homebuyers these days have no idea where to start when applying for amortgage. I know I sure didn't. That's because the process has changed so much over the years. At one time, the only option for most homebuyers was to go to their local bank or credit union and take whatever terms they offered. Today, we have myriad mortgage lenders at our fingertips thanks to the internet. On one hand, the wide array of choices can make picking one much more daunting. On the other, the payoff for shopping around for a mortgage can be significant. I know it was in my case. That's why I wanted to share my experience and provide you with three steps that should make the process much easier the next time you're shopping for a mortgage. Image source: Getty Images. About 50% of homebuyers will only consider one lender when applying for a mortgage, according to a study by NerdWallet. Those folks are costing themselves a lot of money. Borrowers who got just one extra quote saved an average of $1,435 over the life of a typical $250,000 mortgage, according to astudy by Freddie Mac. (Note: Freddie calculates the savings in its study using thetime value of money, which discounts future dollar amounts to their present-day values -- the actual dollar savings over 30 years would be about three times as much.) The average savings tended to increase as borrowers got more quotes. Those who made the extra effort to get five quotes would save an average of $2,914 over the course of their loans. The savings comes from two sources: lowerclosing costsand better interest rates. While the title costs will stay the same no matter what lender you pick, theoriginationcharges (loan origination, processing, and underwriting fees as well as the cost of the appraisal) can vary by more than $1,000 in many cases. Likewise, mortgage interest rates do vary between lenders. Freddie Mac found that borrowers who got five quotes were on average able to obtain loans that were a sixth of a percentage point lower than those who only got one offer. While a 0.166 percentage point rate difference might not sound like much, it adds up over a 30-year mortgage. My wife and I found this to be true in our recent home-buying quest. We initially got two mortgage quotes -- one from an online broker and another from our online bank. However, because we live in a particularly competitive housing market, our real estate agent suggested we also get quotes from some local lenders she recommended. That additional effort paid off for us. The lenders' origination charges (including the appraisal fee) ranged from $1,875 to about $540. (To get that lowest offer, we would have had to open a new checking account with the bank, in return for which it would waive its $995 lender fee.) We ended up opting for a lender with slightly higher total fees ($1,550) because its employees fought hard to win our business, found us a fantastic interest rate (which included a $925 rate credit), and guaranteed they would close the loan by our requested date. For a little extra work, we saved a total of $1,250 up front -- a nice payoff. That's less money we'll need to bring to closing, giving us more that we can spend on some updates to our new home. Meanwhile, we were offered interest rates between 4% and 3.625% on similar 30-year fixed mortgages. The difference between the top and the bottom of that range, in our case, works out to almost $60 a month on the mortgage payment, or a bit more than $700 a year. These savings will really add up in the coming years. Over the life of our loan, we'll save a whopping $21,250 on total interest (assuming we stay in this home for the entire 30-year term). Add that to the savings we secured on the closing costs, and we're up to more than $22,500 in total savings (or about $8,000 when calculating the present value of those savings). While shopping around for a mortgage can yield big-time savings, it does require some extra work. That's why I've compiled three simple steps that should make the process much easier: 1. Take an "all of the above" approach when considering where to find a mortgage. Inquire at your local bank or credit union, check out an online mortgage comparison site likeLending Treeor Rocket Mortgage, and ask around for recommendations (Your real estate agent should have some good suggestions, as will friends or family members who have recently purchased homes). Also, be sure to check out our picks for thebest mortgage lenders.(A good rule of thumb is to getpre-qualifiedfor a mortgage with at least one lender just before starting your home search. Then, after a seller accepts an offer from you, apply for mortgages with at least five different lenders. If you make all of those applications within a short period of time, credit rating agencies will treat them as a singlehard inquiryon yourcredit report.) 2. When you're about to make an offer on a home, ask for a closing cost estimate from each mortgage company. Then compare the loan origination costs from each. (I found laying them all out side by side on an Excel spreadsheet to be very helpful.) 3. Leverage those competing offers into an even better one. One mortgage company offered to pay for my appraisal fee, while the bank I went with gave me a lower interest rate and a credit toward closing costs. You'll be surprised by how much money you can save on a mortgage by shopping around. I know I was. 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What Kind Of Share Price Volatility Should You Expect For Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Anyone researching Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) might want to consider the historical volatility of the share price. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. First, we have company specific volatility, which is the price gyrations of an individual stock. Holding at least 8 stocks can reduce this kind of risk across a portfolio. The second type is the broader market volatility, which you cannot diversify away, since it arises from macroeconomic factors which directly affects all the stocks on the market. Some stocks see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Some investors use beta as a measure of how much a certain stock is impacted by market risk (volatility). While we should keep in mind that Warren Buffett has cautioned that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk', beta is still a useful factor to consider. To make good use of it you must first know that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta below one is either less volatile than the market, or more volatile but not corellated with the overall market. In comparison a stock with a beta of over one tends to be move in a similar direction to the market in the long term, but with greater changes in price. See our latest analysis for Kirby Kirby has a five-year beta of 1.05. This is reasonably close to the market beta of 1, so the stock has in the past displayed similar levels of volatility to the overall market. If the future looks like the past, we could therefore consider it likely that the stock price will experience share price volatility that is roughly similar to the overall market. Beta is worth considering, but it's also important to consider whether Kirby is growing earnings and revenue. You can take a look for yourself, below. Kirby is a fairly large company. It has a market capitalisation of US$4.7b, which means it is probably on the radar of most investors. We shouldn't be surprised to see a large company like this with a beta value quite close to the market average. Large companies often move roughly in line with the market. In part, that's because there are fewer individual events that are signficant enough to markedly change the value of the stock (compared to small companies, at least). It is probable that there is a link between the share price of Kirby and the broader market, since it has a beta value quite close to one. However, long term investors are generally well served by looking past market volatility and focussing on the underlying development of the business. If that's your game, metrics such as revenue, earnings and cash flow will be more useful. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it's well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as Kirby’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for KEX’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor KEX’s outlook. 2. Past Track Record: Has KEX been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of KEX's historicalsfor more clarity. 3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how KEX measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with thisfree list of prospective options. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Much Are Hardwoods Distribution Inc. (TSE:HDI) Insiders Taking Off The Table? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inHardwoods Distribution Inc.(TSE:HDI). It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.' View our latest analysis for Hardwoods Distribution The Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, Lance Blanco, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for CA$255k worth of shares at a price of CA$17.00 each. While insider selling is a negative, to us, it is more negative if the shares are sold at a lower price. The silver lining is that this sell-down took place above the latest price (CA$12.65). So it is hard to draw any strong conclusion from it. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Lance Blanco. In the last twelve months insiders purchased 10200 shares for CA$124k. On the other hand they divested 15000 shares, for CA$255k. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction! I will like Hardwoods Distribution better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out thisfreelist of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying. Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Our data indicates that Hardwoods Distribution insiders own about CA$12m worth of shares (which is 4.6% of the company). But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing! There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. We don't take much encouragement from the transactions by Hardwoods Distribution insiders. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. Of course,the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in Hardwoods Distribution, you should check out thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. Of courseHardwoods Distribution may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of high quality companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) A Good Dividend Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Is Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. Yet sometimes, investors buy a stock for its dividend and lose money because the share price falls by more than they earned in dividend payments. While Eli Lilly's 2.3% dividend yield is not the highest, we think its lengthy payment history is quite interesting. The company also bought back stock during the year, equivalent to approximately 4.7% of the company's market capitalisation at the time. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Eli Lilly for its dividend, and we'll go through these below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Eli Lilly! Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Eli Lilly paid out 90% of its profit as dividends, over the trailing twelve month period. It's paying out most of its earnings, which limits the amount that can be reinvested in the business. This may indicate limited need for further capital within the business, or highlight a commitment to paying a dividend. In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. Eli Lilly paid out 107% of its free cash last year. Cash flows can be lumpy, but this dividend was not well covered by cash flow. Eli Lilly paid out less in dividends than it reported in profits, but unfortunately it didn't generate enough free cash flow to cover the dividend. Were it to repeatedly pay dividends that were not well covered by cash flow, this could be a risk to Eli Lilly's ability to maintain its dividend. Consider gettingour latest analysis on Eli Lilly's financial position here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Eli Lilly has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was US$1.88 in 2009, compared to US$2.58 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 3.2% a year over that time. Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend. Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Over the long term, dividends need to grow at or above the rate of inflation, in order to maintain the recipient's purchasing power. In the last five years, Eli Lilly's earnings per share have shrunk at approximately 9.7% per annum. Declining earnings per share over a number of years is not a great sign for the dividend investor. Without some improvement, this does not bode well for the long term value of a company's dividend. Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. First, we think Eli Lilly has an acceptable payout ratio, although its dividend was not well covered by cashflow. It's not great to see earnings per share shrinking. The dividends have been relatively consistent, but we wonder for how much longer this will be true. In summary, Eli Lilly has a number of shortcomings that we'd find it hard to get past. Things could change, but we think there are likely more attractive alternatives out there. Given that earnings are not growing, the dividend does not look nearly so attractive. Businesses can change though, and we think it would make sense to see whatanalysts are forecasting for the company. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Donald Trump's Independence Day parade branded 'obscene' by former general Critics have branded Donald Trump's Independence Day parade an 'obscene' stunt (Picture: Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Donald Trump has been accused of an ‘obscene’ 4th July stunt after it emerged that he will use tanks as part of his Independence Day parade. The Independent Day event, ‘Salute to America’, is set to celebrate the United States’ military might, featuring tanks, armoured vehicles and flyovers by fighter jets. Preparations are underway for the event, with M1 Abrams battle tanks pictured on flat train cars in Washington. But Donald Trump has come under fire from critics , including a former general, for his approach, which some say is a re-election stunt. Retired Army Major General and Vietnam veteran William Nash told Politico: “The president is using the armed forces in a political ploy for his reelection campaign and I think it’s absolutely obscene.” Donald Trump has come under fire for his approach (Picture: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) The New York Times joined in the criticism, saying the parade was: "more than merely indulging his petty narcissism...He is trampling a longstanding tradition of keeping these events nonpartisan." Democrats have also questioned whether the event will effectively become a taxpayer-funded campaign rally for Mr Trump. READ MORE Man in his 90s found stabbed to death at house in Leicester But the White House insisted that the focus of the event was a ‘salute to America’ and Mr Trump would not get political in his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It is not know how much the Independence Day celebrations will cost but a planned parade for November 2018 which was postponed was estimated to have been due to cost around £71million. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
UK Finance Watchdog Takes Step Toward Ban on Crypto Derivatives A U.K. financial regulator is planning to outlaw cryptocurrency-based derivatives in a bid to protect investors from financial harm. In apress releasepublished Wednesday, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it is consulting over an outright ban on the “sale, marketing and distribution to all retail consumers” of derivatives such as CFDs, options and futures, as well as exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to “unregulated transferable cryptoassets” by firms operating or based in the U.K. The FCA said it believes such financial products are “ill-suited” to retail investors “who cannot reliably assess the value and risks of derivatives or ETNs that reference certain cryptoassets.” Related:Now Japanese Regulators Are Getting Anxious About Facebook’s Cryptocurrency The regulator bases that judgment on various factors, including that the underlying crypto assets have “no reliable basis for valuation,” the prevalence of “market abuse and financial crime” in the secondary market for such assets, “extreme” volatility in the crypto markets, and a lack of understanding by retail investors. The FCA further says there is no “clear investment need” for financial products referencing crypto assets. The authority said in the release: “We estimate the potential benefit to retail consumers from banning these products to be in a range from £75 million to £234.3 million a year.” Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy & Competition at the FCA, said: Related:UK Regulators Want a Long Look at Libra, Admonish Facebook’s Mantra to ‘Move Fast, Break Things’ “As with our work on the wider CFD and binary options markets, we will act when we see poor products being sold to retail consumers. These are complex contracts built on top of complex assets.” A plan to consult on a ban of crypto derivatives was previouslyannouncedby the FCA last November. Christopher Woolard, executive board member and director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said at the time that the watchdog has concerns that retail investors are being sold “complex, volatile and often leveraged derivatives products” based on cryptocurrencies with “underlying market integrity issues.” On Monday, the FCA alsoannouncedin a policy document that it has finalized rules restricting the sale of CFDs and CFD-like options to retail clients. The rules include mandated leverage limits of 2:1 on CFDs that reference cryptocurrencies. The FCA said that it also expects to publish its final “Guidance on Cryptoassets” later this summer after a period reviewing which crypto assets fall under its purview. Londonimage via Shuttestock • UK Regulators Approve First Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund • Blockchain Solution for FATF ‘Travel Rule’ to Keep User Data Private
Is Now An Opportune Moment To Examine M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC), which is in the consumer durables business, and is based in United States, saw a double-digit share price rise of over 10% in the past couple of months on the NYSE. As a mid-cap stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the company’s outlook is already priced into the stock. However, what if the stock is still a bargain? Let’s take a look at M.D.C. Holdings’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists. Check out our latest analysis for M.D.C. Holdings According to my relative valuation model, the stock seems to be currently fairly priced. I’ve used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 9.58x is currently trading slightly below its industry peers’ ratio of 14.03x, which means if you buy M.D.C. Holdings today, you’d be paying a fair price for it. And if you believe M.D.C. Holdings should be trading in this range, then there isn’t much room for the share price grow beyond where it’s currently trading. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since M.D.C. Holdings’s share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market. Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. Though in the case of M.D.C. Holdings, it is expected to deliver a negative earnings growth of -4.5%, which doesn’t help build up its investment thesis. It appears that risk of future uncertainty is high, at least in the near term. Are you a shareholder?MDC seems fairly priced right now, but given the uncertainty from negative returns in the future, this could be the right time to reduce the risk in your portfolio. Is your current exposure to the stock optimal for your total portfolio? And is the opportunity cost of holding a negative-outlook stock too high? Before you make a decision on MDC, take a look at whether its fundamentals have changed. Are you a potential investor?If you’ve been keeping an eye on MDC for a while, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. The stock appears to be trading at fair value, which means there’s less benefit from mispricing. In addition to this, the negative growth outlook increases the risk of holding the stock. However, there are also other important factors we haven’t considered today, which can help crystalize your views on MDC should the price fluctuate below its true value. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on M.D.C. Holdings. You can find everything you need to know about M.D.C. Holdings inthe latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in M.D.C. Holdings, you can use our free platform to see my list of over50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Biden's support from black voters cut in half after debate: Reuters/Ipsos poll By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Vice President Joe Biden, the early front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has lost support among African-Americans after taking heat on racial issues during the party's first debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The survey, conducted from Friday to Monday in the days following the debate in Miami, found 22 percent of adults who identify as Democrats or independents said they supported Biden, down 8 percentage points from a similar poll conducted earlier in June. Support for Biden among blacks, a critical Democratic voting bloc, was cut in half, with about two out of 10 saying they backed President Barack Obamas former vice president, compared with four out of 10 in the June poll. African-Americans largely supported Biden when he entered the race for the right to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. But they appeared to be looking elsewhere after Kamala Harris, a U.S. senator from California also seeking the presidency, criticized Biden for opposing mandatory busing to integrate schools in the 1970s and for his cooperation with segregationists while he was a young senator. The dramatic exchange became a defining moment of the debate and has reverberated in the race. Biden has defended his civil rights record and said Harris mischaracterized his positions. Harris, the daughter of a black father from Jamaica and an Indian mother, appears to have benefited from her debate performance. Her support rose 4 percentage points to 10 percent in the poll released on Wednesday - the most of any of the more than 20 candidates seeking the nomination. The poll found Harris now the third most popular candidate for the Democratic nomination, behind Biden and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was backed by about 16 percent of Democrats and independents. Support for Harris, who was fourth in the previous poll, rose with black voters, as well as among women and people who make at least $100,000 a year. 'SOMEONE WHO CAN BEAT TRUMP' Harris' confrontation with Biden showed voters she could throw a figurative punch and effectively run against a revered figure within the Democratic Party, said Christopher Galdieri, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. The main thing Democrats want in a candidate is someone who can beat Trump, he said. Theyre not looking at the debates so much to hear about their positions on healthcare or the environment. Theyre looking for someone who can go head-to-head with Trump. Story continues Several other candidates saw small overall gains since the June poll, including Sanders and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and former Texas congressman Beto ORourke lost support. To see the full poll results, click here: https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ypr9iS Support for candidates is expected to fluctuate before Democrats begin holding their nominating contests early next year. Twenty-one percent of all Democrats and independents said they did not know yet which candidate they would support. Among those who had picked a candidate, only about 35 percent said they were completely certain they had made up their minds. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 2,221 adults, including 1,367 Democrats and independents. It had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points. (Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney) View comments
Premium prices attract small farmers back to coffee growing in Zimbabwe By MacDonald Dzirutwe HONDE VALLEY, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - David Muganyura smells the coffee cherries on the slopes of his plot and breaks into a smile, as he chats to workers who are harvesting a crop he expects to be his biggest to date. A long-time Zimbabwean coffee grower, Muganyura almost gave up on the crop when prices slumped to as low as U.S. 20 cents a pound at the turn of the millennium, and foreign buyers took flight after land seizures drove out more than 120 white commercial coffee farmers under the banner of post-colonial reform. But with companies like Nestle's Nespresso arm now willing to pay a premium for Zimbabwe's beans, small-scale farmers like Muganyura are returning to a sector that was all-but destroyed under former President Robert Mugabe. Coffee output in Zimbabwe was 430 tonnes in 2018, a 10% increase over the previous year. This year production is set at 500 tonnes, according to industry officials. Zimbabwe was never among the world's top producers: output peaked at around 15,000 tonnes in the late 1990s. But its Arabica coffee is prized for its zesty and fruity tones, and the sector once provided a livelihood for more than 20,000 poor farmers. Nespresso, which started buying Zimbabwean coffee last year at a 30%-40% premium above international prices and pays farmers in U.S. dollars, is helping to drive the modest revival. It bought 200 tonnes from 450 small Zimbabwean farmers and two large estates in 2018 and wants to attract more growers, said Daniel Weston, who heads Nespresso's corporate affairs division. Its limited edition "Tamuka muZimbabwe" ("We Have Awakened in Zimbabwe") coffee, launched in 16 countries in May, sold out in three weeks, he said. "What we are hoping to achieve over time is to increase the volume of coffee coming initially from the smallholder farmers we are working with and also to encourage other smallholder farmers to join the programme," Weston told Reuters. Story continues 'HUGE APPETITE' Nespresso has teamed up with international non-profit Technoserve to offer training to small farmers in the growing techniques needed to achieve the high quality it demands. "The market has a huge appetite for Zimbabwean coffee," said Midway Bhunu, Technoserve's farmer trainer. "The world was about to lose one of the world's best coffees." Muganyura, a father of eight, received the training in 2017 and managed to more than triple output from his 2-hectare plot to 700 kg last year. This year, he expects to harvest 1.5 tonnes, a personal best that will earn him more than $10,000. "This is only introductory to a stage where we will get real money," Muganyura told Reuters during a visit to his plot in the eastern Honde Valley, about 360 km from the capital, Harare. The dollar payments have enabled Muganyura to hire labour, install solar power at his homestead, buy farming inputs, pay school fees for some of his grand-children and medicine for his diabetic wife - which he struggled to do in the past. This year, he aims to buy a car, a lifelong dream. Because of his success, he said, neighbours are inquiring about growing coffee. He plans to add another half a hectare of coffee trees. Zimbabwe outlawed the use of dollars and other foreign currencies last month, ending a decade of dollarisation. Nespresso said it was still assessing what that would mean for its dollar payments to farmers. The Honde Valley is one of four districts that together had about 2,000 small coffee farmers at the turn of the millennium. But most quit and started growing bananas. Just two white-owned commercial coffee farms remain in Zimbabwe. Robert Boswell, 50, owns one of them. His family lost two other farms to land seizures in 2000 and cut the area under coffee production by 46%. Boswell said he felt more confident after President Emmerson Mnangagwa replaced Mugabe in 2017, promising to restore property rights and revive the ravaged economy. Boswell, who had been selling coffee to roasters in Germany and Canada, started delivering to Nespresso in 2018. This year he will expand the area under coffee by 25% to 60 hectares, he said during a tour of his Crake Valley estate in the scenic Vumba hills, 140 km south of the Honde Valley. Commercial growers have an average yield of more than 2 tonnes per hectare. Tanganda Tea Company, owned by diversified group Meikles Limited, is Zimbabwe's biggest coffee grower but its 134 hectares are a far cry from the more than 1,000 hectares it used to grow two decades ago. Tanganda had largely abandoned coffee due to poor prices and started to grow avocados and macadamia nuts. But it too started selling to Nespresso in 2018 and plans to add another 40 hectares of coffee this year, according to a statement on its website. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by Alexandra Zavis and Alexandra Hudson)
Trump says immigrants 'unhappy' with detention centers should stay home By Makini Brice WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, facing renewed criticism from Democrats and activists over his handling of a migrant crisis on the U.S.- Mexico border, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday that immigrants unhappy with conditions at detention centers should be told "not to come." Democratic lawmakers and civil rights activists who have visited migrant detention centers along the border in recent days have described nightmarish conditions marked by overcrowding and inadequate access to food, water and other basic needs. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general on Tuesday published photos of migrant-holding centers in Texas' Rio Grande Valley crammed with twice as many people as they were meant to hold. "If Illegal Immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!" Trump said on Twitter. The Republican president has made cracking down on illegal immigration a key part of his first-term agenda after campaigning on the issue ahead of the 2016 election. "Our Border Patrol people are not hospital workers, doctors or nurses," Trump wrote earlier on Twitter. "Great job by Border Patrol, above and beyond. Many of these illegals (sic) aliens are living far better now than where they ... came from, and in far safer conditions." Criticism of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency grew after reports this week that current and former agents had posted offensive anti-immigrant comments and targeted lawmakers on their private Facebook group. Acting Department of Homeland Security chief Kevin McAleenan on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the posts, calling the comments "disturbing." The Facebook posts, first reported by ProPublica, included jokes about immigrants dying and sexually explicit content about U.S. Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who criticized the detention facilities after a tour this week. Story continues Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the acting head of the CBP and other top leaders at the agency to be fired. Democratic U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro said after a visit to the border this week that detainees had been not been allowed to bathe for two weeks, were deprived of medication and locked in areas with broken water faucets. "It's clear that their human rights were being neglected," the Texas lawmaker told reporters in a conference call. COURT BATTLES The White House on Wednesday sharply criticized a ruling by a federal judge in Seattle who blocked its attempt to keep thousands of asylum seekers in custody while they pursued their cases. "The decision only incentivizes smugglers and traffickers, which will lead to the further overwhelming of our immigration system by illegal aliens," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. The American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups sued the government in April after Attorney General William Barr concluded that asylum seekers who entered the country illegally were not eligible for bond. Congress has blocked Trump's efforts to fund construction of a wall on the southern border, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused on Wednesday to lift an injunction barring the administration from using $2.5 billion intended to fight narcotics trafficking to build the barrier. But the record surge of mostly Central American families, fleeing crime and poverty at home, has begun to ease after tougher enforcement efforts in Mexico, according to officials from both countries. Mexico's government, citing unpublished U.S. data, said border arrests fell 30% in June from May after a crackdown as part of a deal with the United States to avoid trade tariffs. The Mexican government said it was busing home Central American migrants from Ciudad Juarez who had been forced to wait in Mexico for their asylum claims to be processed under a U.S. policy known as "Remain in Mexico." BIGGEST POLITICAL ISSUE Since migrant arrests reached a 13-year monthly high in May, immigration has arguably become the biggest issue for Trump and Democratic presidential contenders vying for the right to face him in the November 2020 election. "Mexico is doing a far better job than the Democrats on the Border. Thank you Mexico!" Trump said Wednesday on Twitter. U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker spent much of the day on the Mexican side of the border in Ciudad Juarez, meeting with migrants who had been sent back to Mexico to await their asylum hearings under a new Trump administration policy. Booker escorted five women believed to be fleeing domestic abuse across the bridge over the Rio Grande and to the border port of entry in El Paso, Texas, according to a Facebook video he posted. Booker said they had been unfairly returned back when they should have been accepted by U.S. authorities. "I'm going to fight for these five folks and do everything I can to see that they be fairly evaluated," Booker told reporters. Democratic presidential hopeful Julian Castro, Joaquin Castro's brother, last week proposed decriminalizing border crossings as a step toward freeing up federal resources and eliminating thousands of immigration cases clogging criminal courts. (Reporting by Makini Brice in Washington, Daina Beth Solomon, Diego Ore and David Alire Garcia in Mexico City, Jonathan Allen in New York, David Alexander, Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu and Eric Beech in Washington, Andrew Hay in New Mexico and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Tarrant, Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)
Why Goodfellow Inc.'s (TSE:GDL) High P/E Ratio Isn't Necessarily A Bad Thing Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today, we'll introduce the concept of the P/E ratio for those who are learning about investing. To keep it practical, we'll show how Goodfellow Inc.'s (TSE:GDL) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer.Goodfellow has a P/E ratio of 18.18, based on the last twelve months. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 5.5%. View our latest analysis for Goodfellow Theformula for P/Eis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Goodfellow: P/E of 18.18 = CA$5.24 ÷ CA$0.29 (Based on the trailing twelve months to February 2019.) The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.' When earnings fall, the 'E' decreases, over time. That means even if the current P/E is low, it will increase over time if the share price stays flat. A higher P/E should indicate the stock is expensive relative to others -- and that may encourage shareholders to sell. Notably, Goodfellow grew EPS by a whopping 31% in the last year. But earnings per share are down 19% per year over the last five years. We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. As you can see below, Goodfellow has a higher P/E than the average company (9.5) in the trade distributors industry. That means that the market expects Goodfellow will outperform other companies in its industry. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isn't guaranteed. So further research is always essential. I often monitordirector buying and selling. It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. Net debt totals a substantial 126% of Goodfellow's market cap. This is a relatively high level of debt, so the stock probably deserves a relatively low P/E ratio. Keep that in mind when comparing it to other companies. Goodfellow has a P/E of 18.2. That's higher than the average in the CA market, which is 15. Its meaningful level of debt should warrant a lower P/E ratio, but the fast EPS growth is a positive. So it seems likely the market is overlooking the debt because of the fast earnings growth. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. We don't have analyst forecasts, but shareholders might want to examinethis detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
US housing market 'cooling' when it could be booming: SALT cap to blame? Conditions areprimefor prospective homebuyers, but Americans don’t appear too keen on getting into themarket. Single-family home sales fell for a second consecutive month in May – down 7.8 percent from the year prior. During May, the median price of a new house declined 2.7 percent year over year, to $308,000. Meanwhile, mortgage rates have dropped into the 3 percent range, recently hitting their lowest level since late-2016. The Federal Reserve has signaled it could cut rates as soon as this month. Additionally, the unemployment rate that is hovering near its lowest level in 50 years – and strengthening consumer confidence numbers should also be urging people into the market. So what’s going on? According to a new note from experts at Deutsche Bank Research, a change made via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could be negatively affecting the market – the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. Additionally, via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the mortgage interest deduction was capped. Taxpayers who itemize (fewer individuals after the standard deduction was doubled) can deduct mortgage interest on up to $750,000 worth of debt accrued from a home purchase. Prior to the passage of the tax reform law, taxpayers could deduct interest on up to $1 million. The SALT cap appears to be having an effect on markets in high-tax states. In fact, single-family home sales plummeted in the West, and dropped significantly in the Northeast, during the month of May. As previouslyreported by FOX Business,home prices in Manhattan have been falling at the fastest rate since the financial crisis. In 2019, prices are down about 5 percent year over year. Sales in the first quarter were down 2.7 percent year over year, according to research from Douglas Elliman. Further, despite anexpected rushto close before the onset of those new tax rates in July, overall Manhattan apartment sales still weakened in the second quarter. It’s not just Manhattan feeling the pain, however. Pricey homes in the luxurious Hamptons are also starting to lose their value. According to the report from Douglas Elliman from the first quarter of 2019, the high-end housing market experienced its “slowest conditions” since the financial crisis. The first quarter recorded the lowest number of first-quarter sales since 2012, an uptick in inventory and a larger share of sales below the $1 million mark. Sales were down 19.3 percent from the previous quarter, while the median sale price fell 5.5 percent to $850,000. But there may be an even larger problem lurking, according to St. Louis Federal Reserve economistWilliam R. Emmons. Emmons said “weakening” in all regions of the country appears “similar” to periods preceding the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions. He said that three housing-related indicators point to a possible recessions later this year, or in early 2020. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Emmons noted that, as of May, home-sales momentum indicators were down across all regions of the country and were weaker than those seen in the year before the 2001 recession. Related Articles • Consequences Of The Millennial/Debt Relationship • Tech Wreck - 100+K Jobs Gone and More Cuts Coming • The National Debt is Costing You Big Time
Does Globus Medical, Inc. (NYSE:GMED) Have A Particularly Volatile Share Price? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you own shares in Globus Medical, Inc. (NYSE:GMED) then it's worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first category is company specific volatility. This can be dealt with by limiting your exposure to any particular stock. The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market. Some stocks are more sensitive to general market forces than others. Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stock's exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, it's worth noting that Warren Buffett pointed out in his 2014 letter to shareholders that 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' Having said that, beta can still be rather useful. The first thing to understand about beta is that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one. View our latest analysis for Globus Medical Given that it has a beta of 0.90, we can surmise that the Globus Medical share price has not been strongly impacted by broader market volatility (over the last 5 years). If history is a good guide, owning the stock should help ensure that your portfolio is not overly sensitive to market volatility. Many would argue that beta is useful in position sizing, but fundamental metrics such as revenue and earnings are more important overall. You can see Globus Medical's revenue and earnings in the image below. Globus Medical is a reasonably big company, with a market capitalisation of US$4.1b. Most companies this size are actively traded with decent volumes of shares changing hands each day. When large companies like this one have a low beta value, there is usually some other factor that is having an outsized impact on the share price. For example, a business with significant fixed regulated assets might earn a reasonably predictable return, regardless of broader macroeconomic factors. Alternatively, lumpy earnings might mean minimal share price correlation with the broader market. Since Globus Medical is not heavily influenced by market moves, its share price is probably far more dependend on company specific developments. It could pay to take a closer look at metrics such as revenue growth, earnings growth, and debt. In order to fully understand whether GMED is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Globus Medical’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for GMED’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor GMED’s outlook. 2. Past Track Record: Has GMED been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of GMED's historicalsfor more clarity. 3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how GMED measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with thisfree list of prospective options. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
UK’s financial watchdog proposes to ban crypto derivatives for retail investors U.K.’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), hasannouncedtoday that it is proposing to ban the sale of cryptocurrency derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) to retail investors. The FCA said it thinks these products are “ill-suited” to retail consumers due to their “extreme volatility.” The products’ underlying assets having “no reliable basis for valuation,” cyber theft and lack of sufficient understanding among retail investors are some other reasons, the regulator said.These features could harm users from “sudden and unexpected losses,” and therefore, it isconsultingon banning the sale, marketing and distribution of all derivatives, including contracts for difference or CFDs, options and futures, as well as ETNs, to all retail consumers. Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy & competition at the FCA, said: “As with our work on the wider CFD and binary options markets, we will act when we see poor products being sold to retail consumers. These are complex contracts built on top of complex assets.” The FCAwas mullingto prohibit the sale of certain crypto derivatives to retail investors since March of this year, and today it has officially proposed the ban.
Does Finning International Inc. (TSE:FTT) Have A Volatile Share Price? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Anyone researching Finning International Inc. (TSE:FTT) might want to consider the historical volatility of the share price. Modern finance theory considers volatility to be a measure of risk, and there are two main types of price volatility. First, we have company specific volatility, which is the price gyrations of an individual stock. Holding at least 8 stocks can reduce this kind of risk across a portfolio. The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market. Some stocks are more sensitive to general market forces than others. Beta can be a useful tool to understand how much a stock is influenced by market risk (volatility). However, Warren Buffett said 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk' in his 2014 letter to investors. So, while useful, beta is not the only metric to consider. To use beta as an investor, you must first understand that the overall market has a beta of one. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, while those with a beta below one are either less volatile or poorly correlated with the market. View our latest analysis for Finning International Looking at the last five years, Finning International has a beta of 1.61. The fact that this is well above 1 indicates that its share price movements have shown sensitivity to overall market volatility. If the past is any guide, we would expect that Finning International shares will rise quicker than the markets in times of optimism, but fall faster in times of pessimism. Beta is worth considering, but it's also important to consider whether Finning International is growing earnings and revenue. You can take a look for yourself, below. With a market capitalisation of CA$3.9b, Finning International is a pretty big company, even by global standards. It is quite likely well known to very many investors. It has a relatively high beta, suggesting it may be somehow leveraged to macroeconomic conditions. For example, it might be a high growth stock with lots of investors trading the shares. It's notable when large companies to have high beta values, because it usually takes substantial capital flows to move their share prices. Since Finning International has a reasonably high beta, it's worth considering why it is so heavily influenced by broader market sentiment. For example, it might be a high growth stock or have a lot of operating leverage in its business model. In order to fully understand whether FTT is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Finning International’s financial health and performance track record. I urge you to continue your research by taking a look at the following: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for FTT’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor FTT’s outlook. 2. Past Track Record: Has FTT been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of FTT's historicalsfor more clarity. 3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how FTT measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with thisfree list of prospective options. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Two people dead after rail workers hit by train The scene of the crash where two rail workers died after being hit by a passenger train between Port Talbot Parkway and Bridgend stations (Picture: PA) An investigation is underway after two rail workers were killed by a train in south Wales. The workers were pronounced dead at the scene after being hit by a train on the tracks between Pyle and Port Talbot on Wednesday morning. A third person was treated for shock at the scene but was uninjured. Union bosses have called for a full investigation into the deaths, with one saying it was clear something had ‘gone badly wrong’. Port Talbot train deaths. See story TRANSPORT PortTalbot. Infographic from PA Graphics Manuel Cortes, general secretary at the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, said: "It's too early to speculate about what has happened here but clearly something has gone badly wrong. "There must now be a full investigation because it is simply not acceptable that in the 21st century people go out to work and end up losing their lives. READ MORE Indonesian woman faces five years in jail after taking dog into mosque "Our Network Rail members, together with everyone else at the company, do so much to keep our railways running smoothly. They must be able to do this in a safe environment. "Safety on our railways is paramount and sadly, as today's tragic events show, it can never be taken for granted." Two people have sadly died after being struck by a train in South Wales. A number of urgent enquiries are being made to understand exactly what happened. Officers remain on scene, check with @nationalrailenq for travel disruption. https://t.co/yryoge36XT pic.twitter.com/OvTmGyx3lw — British Transport Police (@BTP) July 3, 2019 Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said: "This is shocking news. RMT is attempting to establish the full facts but our immediate reaction is that this is an appalling tragedy and that no-one working on the railway should be placed in the situation that has resulted in the deaths that have been reported this morning. Story continues "As well as demanding answers from Network Rail and a suspension of all similar works until the facts are established, the union will be supporting our members and their families at this time. "Our thoughts are with those involved in this incident and their loved ones." Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said there will be an investigation into how the fatal crash happened. Network Rail Wales route director Bill Kelly said the railway network owner was "shocked and distressed" by the "dreadful accident", and it is "fully cooperating" with investigators. He added: "Our thoughts are with the families of our colleagues and our members of staff who will be affected by this tragic loss, and we will provide all the support we can." Investigations were underway at the scene on Wednesday with BTP officers at the scene as well as investigators from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The incident resulted in cancelled trains, with replacement busses being put on for rail passengers. A man who said he worked at the nearby Tata steelworks told PA: "I didn't see a great deal, by the time I got close paramedics were giving one of the workers CPR, but he sadly passed away. "The other worker had already passed away." Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
Imagine Owning Tower International (NYSE:TOWR) And Wondering If The 47% Share Price Slide Is Justified Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers So we wouldn't blame long termTower International, Inc.(NYSE:TOWR) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 47% over a half decade. And we doubt long term believers are the only worried holders, since the stock price has declined 39% over the last twelve months. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 17% in the last three months. See our latest analysis for Tower International While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS). During five years of share price growth, Tower International moved from a loss to profitability. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time. It could be that the revenue decline of 6.5% per year is viewed as evidence that Tower International is shrinking. This has probably encouraged some shareholders to sell down the stock. The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers). We know that Tower International has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Tower International willearn in the future (free profit forecasts). It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Tower International the TSR over the last 5 years was -43%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted thetotalshareholder return. While the broader market gained around 8.7% in the last year, Tower International shareholders lost 38% (even including dividends). However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 11% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. Is Tower International cheap compared to other companies? These3 valuation measuresmight help you decide. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of companies that have proven they can grow earnings. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.'s (NYSE:HII) CEO Overpaid Relative To Its Peers? Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Mike Petters has been the CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. ( NYSE:HII ) since 2011. This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid. Check out our latest analysis for Huntington Ingalls Industries How Does Mike Petters's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? At the time of writing our data says that Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. has a market cap of US$9.3b, and is paying total annual CEO compensation of US$5.6m. (This is based on the year to December 2018). We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at US$1.0. We examined companies with market caps from US$4.0b to US$12b, and discovered that the median CEO total compensation of that group was US$6.9m. So Mike Petters receives a similar amount to the median CEO pay, amongst the companies we looked at. Although this fact alone doesn't tell us a great deal, it becomes more relevant when considered against the business performance. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Huntington Ingalls Industries has changed over time. NYSE:HII CEO Compensation, July 3rd 2019 Is Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. Growing? Over the last three years Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 23% per year (using a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 10% over the last year. Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's a real positive to see this sort of growth in a single year. That suggests a healthy and growing business. You might want to check this free visual report on analyst forecasts for future earnings . Has Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. Been A Good Investment? Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. for providing a total return of 40% over three years. This strong performance might mean some shareholders don't mind if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for a company of its size. In Summary... Mike Petters is paid around what is normal the leaders of comparable size companies. Shareholders would surely be happy to see that shareholder returns have been great, and the earnings per share are up. So one could argue the CEO compensation is quite modest, if you consider company performance! So you may want to check if insiders are buying Huntington Ingalls Industries shares with their own money (free access). Story continues If you want to buy a stock that is better than Huntington Ingalls Industries, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. View comments
Is Now The Time To Put Johnson Outdoors (NASDAQ:JOUT) On Your Watchlist? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Some have more dollars than sense, they say, so even companies that have no revenue, no profit, and a record of falling short, can easily find investors. But as Warren Buffett has mused, 'If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.' When they buy such story stocks, investors are all too often the patsy. So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, likeJohnson Outdoors(NASDAQ:JOUT). While profit is not necessarily a social good, it's easy to admire a business than can consistently produce it. In comparison, loss making companies act like a sponge for capital - but unlike such a sponge they do not always produce something when squeezed. Check out our latest analysis for Johnson Outdoors If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price will eventually follow. That makes EPS growth an attractive quality for any company. As a tree reaches steadily for the sky, Johnson Outdoors's EPS has grown 30% each year, compound, over three years. As a general rule, we'd say that if a company can keep upthatsort of growth, shareholders will be smiling. Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. While we note Johnson Outdoors's EBIT margins were flat over the last year, revenue grew by a solid 2.8% to US$544m. That's a real positive. In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers. Of course the knack is to find stocks that have their best days in the future, not in the past. You could base your opinion on past performance, of course, but you may also want tocheck this interactive graph of professional analyst EPS forecasts for Johnson Outdoors. I like company leaders to have some skin in the game, so to speak, because it increases alignment of incentives between the people running the business, and its true owners. So it is good to see that Johnson Outdoors insiders have a significant amount of capital invested in the stock. Indeed, they have a glittering mountain of wealth invested in it, currently valued at US$126m. That equates to 17% of the company, making insiders powerful and aligned with other shareholders. Very encouraging. For growth investors like me, Johnson Outdoors's raw rate of earnings growth is a beacon in the night. I think that EPS growth is something to boast of, and it doesn't surprise me that insiders are holding on to a considerable chunk of shares. So this is very likely the kind of business that I like to spend time researching, with a view to discerning its true value. Now, you could try to make up your mind on Johnson Outdoors by focusing on just these factors,oryou couldalsoconsider how its price-to-earnings ratio compares to other companies in its industry. You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here isa list of companies with insider buying in the last three months. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Tesla posts record vehicle deliveries in Q2, shares soar: Morning Brief Wednesday, July 3, 2019 Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET.Subscribe Today’s trading session will be shortened as the major markets close at 1:30 p.m. ET in observance of the Independence Day holiday. Nevertheless, there will be a slew of economic data released. One of the standout releases will be the ADP’s June employment report. Though it’s not always a reliable gauge of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report, the ADP report will likely be the focal point for investors. Economists polled by Bloomberg expect 140,000 private sector payrolls were added during June, up from the 27,000 added in May. Read more Tesla posts record vehicle deliveries in the second quarter: Tesla’s (TSLA) vehicle deliveries for the second quarter of 2019 topped Wall Street’s expectations, sending shares higher during after-hours trading Tuesday. The electric car-maker delivered 95,200 vehicles in the three months ending in June, besting average analyst estimates for about 88,000, according to Bloomberg data. [Yahoo Finance] Trump nominates Waller, Shelton for 2 Fed board vacancies: President Donald Trump said on Twitter he will nominate economists Christopher Waller and Judy Shelton to fill two vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Trump's choices come after he has harshly and repeatedly criticized the Fed under Chair Jerome Powell for raising rates four times last year and for keeping rates unchanged this year. [Associated Press] Women to head ECB and European Commission: European Union leaders have finally agreed on who should fill its top roles after a marathon three-day summit in Brussels. International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde has been picked to take over the leadership of the European Central Bank from Mario Draghi. Lagarde will be the first woman to hold her position. German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen will become European Commission president, and also the first woman to hold the job. [Yahoo Finance UK] UK service sector suffers 'worst month in decade': New figures suggest the UK economy may have shrunk in the second quarter, the first quarterly contraction in 3 years. Data provider IHS Markit published its closely-watched service sector PMI on Wednesday, which is a survey measuring business activity and future intentions. [Yahoo Finance UK] Auto executive who saved Chrysler from bankruptcy dies: Lee Iacocca, the charismatic U.S. auto industry executive who gave America the Ford Mustang and was celebrated for saving Chrysler from going out of business, has died at the age of 94, Fiat Chrysler said. [Reuters] Jamie Dimon: 'Regulation, bureaucracy, and stupidity' are what's wrong with America The future of fashion: How The RealReal and Revolve are reinventing retail McDonald’s Japan is one of the most popular places on Facebook July 4th cookout costs have hardly budged this year Hot dog eating champ Takeru Kobayashi: 'I treat this like a sport' Editor’s note: Morning Brief will be observing Independence Day on July 4, 2019. It will resume on Friday, July 5, 2019. To ensure delivery of the Morning Brief to your inbox, please addnewsletter@yahoofinance.comto your safe sender list. Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,SmartNews,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit.
Pay rises by 5.8%, competition heats up among job hunters Job vacancies have fallen 3% since June 2018. Photo: Getty Competition is heating up for job-seeking Brits, as applications are up while job vacancies are down, according to a new report. Average salaries for new job roles have risen by a promising 5.8% in the past year — prompting a 15% increase in job applications, new data from job board CV-Library shows. Some cities saw above-average growth in pay. In both London and Hull, Brits can expect to earn about 16% more in a new role compared with June 2018. READ MORE: The top 10 industries for pay right now Salaries in Edinburgh (13%), Portsmouth (11%), and Nottingham (10%) are also significantly up. Meanwhile, Bristol has seen a huge — 27% — jump in job applications. Brighton trails behind with applications up 22%, while job applications in Edinburgh, Manchester, and London are each up by a fifth. Unfortunately, despite these increased salaries and applications, there has been a small drop in the number of jobs on offer — meaning increased competition among job-seekers. The data reveals job vacancies have fallen 3% since June 2018. READ MORE: 3 questions to ask immediately after you're denied a pay raise “It’s good to see Brits are reacting well to the increase in pay, and it has clearly encouraged more people to apply for new roles,” Lee Biggins, CEO of CV-Library , said. “But if you’re looking for work right now, just be wary that you face stiff competition from other job hunters! Because of this, try to think of ways to stand out from the crowd and make yourself distinguishable.” “From learning new skills or reading up on key trends, improving your value in an increasingly-saturated job market is crucial,” Biggins said.
Deutsche Telekom first to market in Germany with limited 5G rollout By Markus Wacket and Douglas Busvine BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom stole a march on its competitors by announcing a limited rollout of 5G services in its German home market on Wednesday, targeting early adopters in cities with the high-speed mobile technology. Existing 5G trials will be opened up to public use in the German capital Berlin and in Bonn, where Deutsche Telekom is headquartered, with four more cities to follow this year. By the end of 2020, 20 German cities will get 5G coverage. "Our goal now is to get 5G to the streets, to our customers, as quickly as possible," Deutsche Telekom's Germany head, Dirk Woessner, told a glitzy presentation in Berlin. Networks running on 5G offer much faster download speeds than existing 4G services while latency - or reaction times - is reduced to milliseconds. That can power multi-player video games or run billions of devices and sensors connected to the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Deutsche Telekom bid 2.17 billion euros ($2.45 billion) for 130 Megahertz of the 420 MHz of 5G spectrum allocated last month in Germany's longest-ever auction of mobile frequencies. It competes with existing operators Telefonica Deutschland and Vodafone, while new market entrant 1&1 Drillisch also acquired spectrum to serve as the basis for a fourth national network. The market leader, which is partly state owned, had complained that the high cost of the auction had left a "bitter aftertaste" and would sap the ability of network operators to invest in costly network upgrades. But it will still be able to plow 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) this year into building out its network infrastructure, technology chief Claudia Nemat told the same briefing. Germany lags countries like South Korea and the United States in rolling out 5G services. Also on Wednesday, Vodafone said it is switching on its 5G network in seven U.K. cities and would continue to invest in rolling out 5G with the aim of reaching at least eight million consumers by 2021. HUAWEI CUSTOMER Deutsche Telekom partnered with Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] in a Berlin 5G trial now being opened up to users, despite calls by the United States on its allies to bar the Chinese network vendor on national security grounds. Instead of imposing blanket bans, Germany has toughened security rules on all network vendors. Deutsche Telekom, for its part, is conducting an ongoing review of its vendor strategy and said it was in close touch with regulators and the government on the matter. "The most important criterion is network security," said Nemat. "And the most important statement to make here is that we should not depend on one vendor." Germany's three main network vendors are Huawei customers and, industry sources say all are keen to build on their existing relationship with the Chinese vendor as they adopt 5G. The alternative, of ripping and replacing existing gear, could set back rollouts by years and cost billions, they warn. CONSUMER FOCUS Deutsche Telekom is making 5G-enabled devices available to early adopters with immediate effect, offering the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone for 900 euros ($1,017) as part of its all-you-can-use data package. The unlimited data plan will be priced at 85 euros a month. It is also marketing a mobile 5G hotspot hub from HTC, which offers speeds of up to 1 gigabyte per second and can run up to 20 devices, at a price of 556 euros, plus a 75 euro monthly fee for unlimited data use. "We are doing this for the people who want to be there at the very start," said Michael Hagspihl, head of consumer business. Deutsche Telekom will bring 300 5G-enabled antennas into service this year, making use of its newly acquired 3.5 Gigahertz spectrum that is most suited to urban coverage. More broadly, the company will continue to build 2,000 new masts per year, bringing the total to 36,000 by the end of 2021, as it strives to meet coverage requirements for its existing 4G network set by the network regulator, said Woessner. (Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Deepa Babington)
Nouriel Roubini Rages at ‘Sleazy Coward’ Crypto CEO After Vicious Debate Economist and fierce bitcoin critic Nouriel Roubini has slammed BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes in a series of angry tweets, calling him a “sleazy coward.” Roubini and Hayes sparred in a heated on-stage debate at theAsia Blockchain Summiton Wednesday, but the organizers have so far refused to release footage. Roubini accused the organizers of censoring the debate and called the crypto community “mafioso gangsters.” “Shut up and release the tape of our debate. This was the only session not streamed live as you mafioso gangsters decided to censor it with hush money and keep the only tape for yourselves. Typical bully behaviour of yours. Release the tape you coward [Arthur Hayes]! Talk is cheap!” The much-hyped session between Nouriel and Hayes was a firestorm of insults and rants, judging by thetranscriptpublished by The Block’s Mike Dudas. The pair launched into personal attacks and repeatedly shouted over each other. The moderator stepped in numerous times and asked Roubini to stop repeating himself. While explosive, the session probably didn’t do much for the cryptocurrency industry. By pitching two opposite ends of the spectrum against each other, the chance of civil debate was nil from the start. AsCCN reported, Hayes called Roubini a bitter “no-coiner” in the run-up to the debate and promised to “wipe the floor with him.” Read the full story on CCN.com.
What You Must Know About ANSYS, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ANSS) Financial Health Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), a large-cap worth US$17b, comes to mind for investors seeking a strong and reliable stock investment. Most investors favour these big stocks due to their strong balance sheet and high market liquidity, meaning there are an abundance of stock in the public market available for trading. These firms won’t be left high and dry if liquidity dries up, and they will be relatively unaffected by rises in interest rates. Today I will analyse the latest financial data for ANSS to determine is solvency and liquidity and whether the stock is a sound investment. See our latest analysis for ANSYS A debt-to-equity ratio threshold varies depending on what industry the company operates, since some requires more debt financing than others. As a rule of thumb, a financially healthy large-cap should have a ratio less than 40%. For ANSYS, investors should not worry about its debt levels because the company has none! This means it has been running its business utilising funding from only its equity capital, which is rather impressive. Investors' risk associated with debt is virtually non-existent with ANSS, and the company has plenty of headroom and ability to raise debt should it need to in the future. Given zero long-term debt on its balance sheet, ANSYS has no solvency issues, which is used to describe the company’s ability to meet its long-term obligations. But another important aspect of financial health is liquidity: the company’s ability to meet short-term obligations, including payments to suppliers and employees. Looking at ANSS’s US$503m in current liabilities, the company has been able to meet these commitments with a current assets level of US$1.1b, leading to a 2.11x current account ratio. The current ratio is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities. For Software companies, this ratio is within a sensible range since there's a sufficient cash cushion without leaving too much capital idle or in low-earning investments. ANSS has zero debt in addition to ample cash to cover its near-term commitments. Its strong balance sheet reduces risk for the company and its investors. This is only a rough assessment of financial health, and I'm sure ANSS has company-specific issues impacting its capital structure decisions. I recommend you continue to research ANSYS to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for ANSS’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor ANSS’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is ANSS worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether ANSS is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Bank of Canada to cut rates in October, then twice more: economist The Bank of Canada will start cutting its key lending rate in October as annual economic growth slows to one per cent in 2020, according to Capital Economics. Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist at the London-based research firm, expects weak demand at home and abroad will prompt two additional cuts after October’s announcement, with little prospect of the central bank raising rates before 2022. “Investors are right to price in lower interest rates from the Bank of Canada, but the single 25 basis point cut priced into futures markets for the next 12 months does not go far enough,” he wrote in a research note on Tuesday. The oil and gas sectors lifted real gross domestic product by a better-than-expected 0.3 per cent in April, according to Statistics Canada. Analysts polled by Reuters called for a 0.1 per cent uptick. The Bank of Canada remains optimistic that recent headwinds posed by weak energy prices, stagnant consumption growth and trade tensions are easing. Brown said capacity constraints lessen the odds that oil and gas will pick up the slack for non-energy exports weakened by softer global demand. “The big picture is that we expect GDP growth to drop below Canada’s potential in the second half of the year, causing the output gap to widen,” Brown wrote. He predicts Canada’s economy will expand by a muted 1.3 per cent in 2019, and one per cent in 2020. The bank’s anticipated trio of rate cuts will then lift GDP growth to 1.7 per cent in 2021, he said. “The outlook for the next few years is challenging, but Canada’s longer-term fundamentals are strong,” Brown wrote. “The adoption of new technologies should drive a pick-up in productivity growth over the next twenty years. As that will more than offset a slowdown in labour force growth, we expect potential GDP growth to edge up to two per cent by the mid-2020s, from about 1.8 per cent currently.” The Bank of Canada is scheduled to make its next rate announcement on July 10. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available forAppleandAndroid.
What To Know Before Buying NorthWestern Corporation (NYSE:NWE) For Its Dividend Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Could NorthWestern Corporation (NYSE:NWE) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. If you are hoping to live on your dividends, it's important to be more stringent with your investments than the average punter. Regular readers know we like to apply the same approach to each dividend stock, and we hope you'll find our analysis useful. In this case, NorthWestern likely looks attractive to investors, given its 3.2% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. We'd guess that plenty of investors have purchased it for the income. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable. Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Looking at the data, we can see that 53% of NorthWestern's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. This is a healthy payout ratio, and while it does limit the amount of earnings that can be reinvested in the business, there is also some room to lift the payout ratio over time. Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. NorthWestern paid out 486% of its free cash flow last year, suggesting the dividend is poorly covered by cash flow. Paying out more than 100% of your free cash flow in dividends is generally not a long-term, sustainable state of affairs, so we think shareholders should watch this metric closely. While NorthWestern's dividends were covered by the company's reported profits, free cash flow is somewhat more important, so it's not great to see that the company didn't generate enough cash to pay its dividend. Cash is king, as they say, and were NorthWestern to repeatedly pay dividends that aren't well covered by cashflow, we would consider this a warning sign. As NorthWestern has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A quick check of its financial situation can be done with two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments. Essentially we check that a) the company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. With net debt of 4.61 times its EBITDA, investors are starting to take on a meaningful amount of risk, should the business enter a downturn. We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. Interest cover of 3.00 times its interest expense is starting to become a concern for NorthWestern, and be aware that lenders may place additional restrictions on the company as well. We update our data on NorthWestern every 24 hours, so you can always getour latest analysis of its financial health, here. Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of NorthWestern's dividend payments. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was US$1.32 in 2009, compared to US$2.30 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 5.7% per year over this time. Companies like this, growing their dividend at a decent rate, can be very valuable over the long term, if the rate of growth can be maintained. Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Over the long term, dividends need to grow at or above the rate of inflation, in order to maintain the recipient's purchasing power. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see NorthWestern has grown its earnings per share at 11% per annum over the past five years. NorthWestern's earnings per share have grown rapidly in recent years, although more than half of its profits are being paid out as dividends, which makes us wonder if the company has a limited number of reinvestment opportunities in its business. We'd also point out that NorthWestern issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Trying to grow the dividend when issuing new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill. Companies that consistently issue new shares are often suboptimal from a dividend perspective. To summarise, shareholders should always check that NorthWestern's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. NorthWestern gets a pass on its dividend payout ratio, but it paid out virtually all of its cash flow as dividends. This may just be a one-off, but we'd keep an eye on this. Next, growing earnings per share and steady dividend payments is a great combination. While we're not hugely bearish on it, overall we think there are potentially better dividend stocks than NorthWestern out there. Companies that are growing earnings tend to be the best dividend stocks over the long term. See what the 3 analysts we track are forecasting for NorthWesternfor freewith publicanalyst estimates for the company. We have also put together alist of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Democrats’ Leftward Turn Was a Reaction to Hillary Clinton T he consensus view on the right is that Hillary Clinton was a primary reason for Donald Trump’s success in 2016. But not all conservatives agree about why that was. For devotees of the Trump-as-savior narrative, Clinton — and all the allegedly nefarious forces at her beck and call — was a uniquely formidable opponent. Defeating her required a different kind of Republican, one who’d be willing to fight as dirty and as tough as the Democrats. This was a “Flight 93 election,” and Trump was the hero we needed to storm the cockpit. Others on the right see it differently. It wasn’t so much that Trump was the one person who could beat Clinton, but that she was the one candidate he could beat. In other words, it was only thanks to the fact that she was so unpopular that Trump had a chance. Trump-reluctant Republicans and independents could be persuaded that he was better than Clinton — when presented with a binary choice. The latter seems vastly more plausible for the simple reason that Trump didn’t have to convince those voters that Clinton was unlikable and a little scary; he simply had to exploit their pre-existing opinion of her. Indeed, Trump’s continued obsession with bashing Clinton points to how central she is to his identity. This has consequences for 2020 because the White House’s entire strategy boils down to making Trump’s opponent more unlikable than he is. If Trump wasn’t responsible for Hillary’s unfavorable numbers in the first place, it remains to be seen whether he can Hillaryize another Democrat. It may not be all that hard, though, because the Democrats are doing everything they can to keep the Flight 93 panic alive on the right. They’re doing this by running so far to the left that many Trump-skeptical Republicans feel as if they have no choice but to vote for him again. (I hear this from my fellow conservatives every day.) Democratic candidates have openly praised socialism, the Green New Deal, the abolition of private insurance, voting rights for incarcerated felons, federal funding of abortion late into pregnancy, confiscatory “wealth taxes,” and even the right to sex-change operations paid for by taxpayers. Story continues And here is where I think Clinton’s true historical significance isn’t being recognized. Again, conservatives (including yours truly) invested a lot of time and energy in shaping public perceptions of Clinton. But the blame — or credit — doesn’t just go to the right. Clinton herself did much to help the effort. She was never the natural politician her husband was. She lacked his gift for reading the electorate and speaking to voters’ concerns. She collected all of her husband’s baggage without any of her husband’s skill at deflecting criticism. She wasn’t very likable. This was a huge advantage for Bernie Sanders in 2016. He came way closer to beating Clinton in the primaries than most people thought he would by tapping into the passion of the base and the frustrations of other Democrats who didn’t relish a Clinton dynasty and disliked both Hillary personally and the corrupt practices of the establishment she represented. She ran on the implied claim that it was simply her “turn” to be president — a poisonous framing in a populist moment (just ask Jeb Bush). In retrospect, not being Hillary was almost as big a boon for Sanders as it was for Trump. If the Clinton machine had not scared away more talented and resourceful politicians from running in 2016, it’s possible that someone other than Sanders would have captured the passion of the party, just as Obama did when he toppled Hillary as the inevitable nominee in 2008. But that didn’t happen, and as a result, the Democratic party got the message that Sanders-style socialist populism was the key to success, just as the GOP has concluded that Trump-style nationalist populism is the future of the right. Sanders’ frustration at no longer being the undisputed voice of the base is palpable. “They said our ideas are crazy and wild and extreme,” he recently complained. “And now it turns out all of the other candidates are saying what we said four years ago.” He’s right. Of course, there are larger historical forces at work here, but it sure looks like Hillary Clinton’s candidacy was an inflection point, because it galvanized not only the GOP’s turn toward nationalism but the Democrats’ turn toward socialism. She’ll never be president, but she’s made history nonetheless. © 2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC More from National Review The Flaw in Trying to Paint Biden as Another Hillary Clinton The Heat on Biden May be Politically Driven Don’t Overestimate Trump’s Ability to Knowingly Collude with Russia
Colin Kaepernick and Nike: A timeline of ex-NFL QB's relationship with brand Colin Kaepernick’slongtime business relationship withNikedrew renewed scrutiny on Tuesday after the former NFL quarterback reportedly influenced the brand’s decision to cancel the release of its commemorative Fourth of July “Betsy Ross flag” sneakers. A Nike endorser since 2011 and prominent social activist, Kaepernick told company executives that the sneaker design was offensive because it featured a flag from an era when slavery was still legal in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported. Nike pulled the sneaker, dubbed the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July, from stores just days before release. “We regularly make business decisions to withdraw initiatives, products and services. Nike made the decision to halt distribution of the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July based on concerns that it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation’s patriotic holiday,” the company said in a statement. Nike did not address whether Kaepernick played a role in the canceled sneaker release. Kaepernick has yet to comment on the situation. Kaepernick gained international attention in recent years for his role in leading NFL player protests during the national anthem. More recently, he served as the face of Nike’s marketing campaign to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” slogan. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP FOX Business breaks down Kaepernick’s history with Nike below. 2011: Nike signs Kaepernick to an endorsement deal Nike signs Kaepernick, a rookie out of the University of Nevada, to an endorsement deal, adding him to its lengthy list of NFL endorsers. The San Francisco 49ers draft Kaepernick in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft. 2012: Nike enters partnership with NFL The sports apparel giant secures the NFL’s exclusive apparel rights in a deal valued at more than $1 billion. At the same time, Kaepernick supplants Alex Smith as the 49ers’ starting quarterback and leads the franchise to a deep playoff run, culminating in a Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens. 2014: Kaepernick signs $126M contract with 49ers, but struggles begin After a strong 2013 season, Kaepernick and the 49ers agree to a six-year, $126 million contract extension that included $54 million guaranteed at signing. At the time, the deal appeared to cement Kaepernick’s status as the 49ers’ franchise quarterback. However, the 49ers struggled to an 8-8 record in 2014, and head coach Jim Harbaugh left to coach the University of Michigan. 2016: The national anthem protests After an injury-plagued 2015 season, Kaepernick entered the 2016 campaign in a full-fledged competition for the starting quarterback job. However, he drew international scrutiny for his actions off the field. During the 2016 NFL preseason, Kaepernick became the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem, in what he said was a protest against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States. Subsequent protests throughout the 2016 and 2017 seasons drew the ire of President Trump and led some to suggest that the demonstrations were to blame for a decline in NFL television viewership. 2016 to 2018: Kaepernick’s relationship with Nike goes dormant Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers after the 2016 season and became a free agent, but remained an active figure in discussions between the NFL and protesting players about its approach to social justice. Nike did not use Kaepernick in any advertising campaigns during this period. At the same time, Kaepernick and former 49ers teammate Eric Reid filed suit against the NFL, alleging that league executives colluded to keep him off the field. Months later, the two sides reached a financial settlement. Despite the lawsuit, the NFL expressed support for Nike’s decision, with one executive stating that the social justice movement that Kaepernick helped to popularize “deserve[s] our attention and action.” September 2018: Nike doubles down In September, Nike renews Kaepernick’s endorsement deal, which had been on the verge of expiring, despite the fact that he had not played in the NFL in nearly two years. At the same time, Nike announces that Kaepernick would be the face of its marketing campaign for the 30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” slogan. The decision drew a mixed reaction on social media, and Nike shares briefly sank on the news. However, the company’s stock rallied, and a report by Edison Trends suggested that the company’s e-commerce sales spiked in the days after the announcement. In an earnings call days after the announcement, Kaepernick said the campaign had generated “a real uptick” in sales and customer engagement. February 2019: Nike’s Kaepernick jersey sells out in hours A special edition Nike jersey featuring Kaepernick’s name sells out in less than 24 hours. The jersey featured an all-black color scheme and the number 7, which Kaepernick wore during his time with the 49ers. June 2019: Nike pulls ‘Betsy Ross flag’ sneaker launch The apparel giant canceled a sneaker that featured Betsy Ross’ 13-star American flag just days before its release. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nike’s decision came after Kaepernick raised concerns that the flag was offensive because it was created when slavery was still legal in the United States. In response, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey withdrew financial incentives for a planned Nike manufacturing plant in the state. Nike said the sneaker was nixed out of a fear that it might “unintentionally offend” some customers, but did not address whether Kaepernick was a factor in the decision. 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OI European Group B.V. Issues Notice of Partial Redemption for 6.75% Senior Notes due 2020 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [["", ""], ["", ""], ["", ""], ["", ""], ["", ""], ["", ""]] OI European Group B.V. Issues Notice of Partial Redemption for 6.75% Senior Notes due 2020 PERRYSBURG, Ohio / SCHIEDAM, the Netherlands (July 3, 2019)- Owens-Illinois Group, Inc. (the "Company") announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, OI European Group B.V. ("O-I Europe"), has delivered a notice of partial redemption to holders of O-I Europe`s outstanding 6.75% senior notes due 2020 (the "Notes") calling for the redemption of €250 million aggregate principal amount of the outstanding Notes. Following the redemption, €250 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes will remain outstanding. The redemption date will be July 12, 2019. In accordance with the terms of the Notes and the related indenture under which the Notes were issued, the Notes will be redeemed at a price equal to the sum of the principal amount of the Notes to be redeemed, the applicable premium calculated in accordance with the terms of the Notes and the related indenture, and the accrued and unpaid interest on the Notes up to, but not including, the redemption date. The Company intends to fund the redemption with cash on hand and revolver borrowings. Questions relating to the notice of partial redemption and related materials should be directed to Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch, in its capacity as paying agent for the redemption of the Notes (the "Paying Agent"), at tss-gds.row@db.com. The address of the Paying Agent is Winchester House, 1 Great Winchester Street, London EC2N 2DB, UK. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. This announcement contains inside information by the Company and O-I Europe under Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (16 April 2014). ### About O-I At Owens-Illinois, Inc. (OI), we love glass and we`re proud to make more of it than any other glass bottle or jar producer in the world. We love that it`s beautiful, pure and completely recyclable. With global headquarters in Perrysburg, Ohio, we are the preferred partner for many of the world`s leading food and beverage brands. Working hand and hand with our customers, we give our passion and expertise to make their bottles iconic and help build their brands around the world. With more than 26,500 people at 77 plants in 23 countries, O-I has a global impact, achieving revenues of $6.9 billion in 2018. For more information, visit o-i.com. ### Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company`s current expectations and projections about future events at the time, and thus involve uncertainty and risk. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "will," "could," "would," "should," "may," "plan," "estimate," "intend," "predict," "potential," "continue," and the negatives of these words and other similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. It is possible the Company`s future financial performance may differ from expectations due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to the following: (1) foreign currency fluctuations relative to the U.S. dollar, (2) changes in capital availability or cost, including interest rate fluctuations and the ability of the Company to refinance debt at favorable terms, (3) the general political, economic and competitive conditions in markets and countries where the Company has operations, including uncertainties related to economic and social conditions, disruptions in the supply chain, competitive pricing pressures, inflation or deflation, and changes in tax rates and laws, (4) the Company`s ability to generate sufficient future cash flows to ensure the Company`s goodwill is not impaired, (5) consumer preferences for alternative forms of packaging, (6) cost and availability of raw materials, labor, energy and transportation, (7) the Company`s ability to manage its cost structure, including its success in implementing restructuring plans and achieving cost savings, (8) consolidation among competitors and customers, (9) the Company`s ability to acquire businesses and expand plants, integrate operations of acquired businesses and achieve expected synergies, (10) unanticipated expenditures with respect to environmental, safety and health laws, (11) unanticipated operational disruptions, including higher capital spending, (12) the Company`s ability to further develop its sales, marketing and product development capabilities, (13) the failure of the Company`s joint venture partners to meet their obligations or commit additional capital to the joint venture, (14) the Company`s ability to prevent and detect cybersecurity threats against its information technology systems and to comply with data privacy regulations, (15) the Company`s ability to accurately estimate its total asbestos-related liability or to control the timing and occurrence of events related to outstanding asbestos-related claims, including but not limited to settlements of those claims, (16) changes in U.S. trade policies, (17) the Company`s ability to achieve its strategic plan, and the other risk factors discussed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and any subsequently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or the Company`s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. SOURCE: Owens-Illinois Group, Inc. For further information, please contact: Chris ManuelVice President, Investor Relations567-336-2600chris.manuel@o-i.com 2020 Notes Redemption Press Release This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: Owens-Illinois, Inc. via GlobeNewswireHUG#2246792
Does Nichols plc (LON:NICL) Have A Good P/E Ratio? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll look at Nichols plc's (LON:NICL) P/E ratio and reflect on what it tells us about the company's share price. Looking at earnings over the last twelve months,Nichols has a P/E ratio of 24.12. That means that at current prices, buyers pay £24.12 for every £1 in trailing yearly profits. See our latest analysis for Nichols Theformula for P/Eis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Nichols: P/E of 24.12 = £16.7 ÷ £0.69 (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. That is not a good or a bad thingper se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future. Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. If earnings are growing quickly, then the 'E' in the equation will increase faster than it would otherwise. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers. Most would be impressed by Nichols earnings growth of 10% in the last year. And it has bolstered its earnings per share by 13% per year over the last five years. So one might expect an above average P/E ratio. The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. The image below shows that Nichols has a lower P/E than the average (28.2) P/E for companies in the beverage industry. Its relatively low P/E ratio indicates that Nichols shareholders think it will struggle to do as well as other companies in its industry classification. Since the market seems unimpressed with Nichols, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. It is arguably worth checkingif insiders are buying shares, because that might imply they believe the stock is undervalued. Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings. Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof). Nichols has net cash of UK£39m. That should lead to a higher P/E than if it did have debt, because its strong balance sheets gives it more options. Nichols's P/E is 24.1 which is above average (16.3) in the GB market. With cash in the bank the company has plenty of growth options -- and it is already on the right track. So it is not surprising the market is probably extrapolating recent growth well into the future, reflected in the relatively high P/E ratio. When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. So thisfreevisual report on analyst forecastscould hold the key to an excellent investment decision. But note:Nichols may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20). We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
A $1,000 Investment in Aurora, Canopy, Cronos, and HEXO at the Beginning of 2019 Is Worth This Much Today Marijuana stocks have undergone a striking change so far in 2019. In the first quarter, it was game on for investors, with14 cannabis stocks gaining more than 70%, and theHorizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETFgalloping forward by about 50%. The prospect of rapid sales growth and the impending launch of derivative pot products in Canada (e.g., edibles, infused beverages, vapes, topicals, and concentrates) sent anything cannabis related soaring. But in the second quarter, pretty much 3 out of every 4 pot stocks declined, and the aforementioned cannabis ETF fell 13%. Supply issues throughout Canada continue, and the launch of derivatives has been pushed back a few months. The issues are compounded with ongoing operating losses for most marijuana stocks, and the industry has lost some of its investment buzz. Image source: Getty Images. But when discussing the state of the cannabis industry, what investors really want to know is how thefour most popular pot stocksare performing:Aurora Cannabis(NYSE: ACB),Canopy Growth(NYSE: CGC),Cronos Group(NASDAQ: CRON), andHEXO(NYSEMKT: HEXO). I say "most popular," because online investing app Robinhood shows that Aurora, Cronos, Canopy, and HEXO rank first, sixth, 11th, and 14th, respectively, in terms of shares held by its members. That puts all four of these marijuana stocks ahead of bothAmazonandDisneywith millennial investors (the average age of Robinhood's 6 million investors is 32). So, just how did the four horsemen of cannabis do in the first half of the year? To answer that, let's visualize what $1,000 invested in each company at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2019 (in other words, buying at Dec. 31, 2018, closing prices), would be worth at the end of June 2019: • Canopy Growth:$1,500.20 • Aurora Cannabis:$1,576.60 • Cronos Group:$1,538.00 • HEXO:$1,551.00 In terms of nominal percentage gains, Canopy Growth has been the "worst" with a return of 50.02%, while Aurora Cannabis has been the best with a return of 57.66% through the first six months of the year. Image source: Getty Images. Although supply issues have been persistent in Canada, all four of these cannabis stocks have made significant strides in either diversifying their product portfolios or pushing into foreign markets. For example, the United States is viewed as the crown jewel of the cannabis movement, even with marijuana remaining wholly illegal at the federal level. While that's going to keep all four of these names from participating in even legalized states, the passing of the farm bill in December has opened the door for Canopy Growth and HEXO toenter the U.S. hemp marketand develop cannabidiol (CBD) products. (CBD is the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid best known for its perceived medical benefits.) In mid-January, Canopy Growth was awarded a hemp-processing license by New York state. Canopy plans to spend roughly $150 million constructing a processing facility that'll allow derivative production to begin sometime next year. Meanwhile, HEXO's most recent quarterly operating results signaled its intent to push into up to eight U.S. states (via itsnewly created HEXO USA subsidiary) with CBD products. As for Aurora Cannabis and Cronos Group, they've been making noise with their product diversification. The expected launch of derivatives in Canada is especially exciting for Cronos Group, which landed a 45% (non-diluted) equity stake from tobacco companyAltriathatclosed in March. Altria is expected to work with Cronos to develop vape products, which could become the most popular alternative consumption form in Canada. Cronos also has a deal for up to $100 million with Gingko Bioworks to use its microorganism platform to produce cannabinoids at commercial scale. Aurora Cannabis, which projects as the leading producer of marijuana in Canada, has been hard at work diversifying its production line tocater to medical marijuana patients. Although the adult-use consumer pool is much larger than the medical marijuana market, medical patients use cannabis products more frequently, and they're far more willing to buy higher-margin derivatives. Image source: Getty Images. Although everyone who's invested in these four popular pot stocks at the beginning of the year has made out quite well, there is one aspect of these returns that's a bit concerning. Namely, that they all delivered very similar returns, implying that the industry trades as a group rather than individually. To be clear, it's very common for companies in established industries to move in tandem with one another. There's not always going to be a tangible news event that justifies synchronized moves by a group of stocks within a specific industry or sector. But in the high-growth and still relatively nascent cannabis industry, it's a bit more worrisome to see popular marijuana stocks like these trade very similarly to one another. It's yet unclear which marijuana stocks will stand out as true long-term winners, and investors are looking for cannabis stocks to separate themselves from the pack. The fact that stocks like Canopy, Aurora, Cronos, and HEXO have been moving almost identically to one another suggests that even big-money investors are uncertain which pot stocks will lead this industry forward. As I've noted before, production is one metric to consider when valuing these companies, but it'scertainly not the only tool. At this point, HEXO, the smallest marijuana stock of the group by market cap, and a company expected to produce less than a quarter of what Aurora will generate in cannabis each year, looks to have the best shot of these four to hit recurring profitability first. Then again, its peak output relative to cultivation square footage gives itone of the lowest yields in the industry. While these six-month returns have been impressive, we're a long way from settling which marijuana stocks will end up as survivors and true industry leaders. It could be all four of these popular pot stocks, or it may be none. Only time will give us that answer. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Sean Williamshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends HEXO. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca has died at age 94 DETROIT (AP) — Lee Iacocca, the auto executive and master pitchman who put the Mustang in Ford's lineup in the 1960s and became a corporate folk hero when he resurrected Chrysler 20 years later, has died in Bel Air, California. He was 94. Two former Chrysler executives who worked with him, Bud Liebler, the company's former spokesman, and Bob Lutz, formerly its head of product development, said they were told of the death Tuesday by a close associate of Iacocca's family. In his 32-year career at Ford and then Chrysler, Iacocca helped launch some of Detroit's best-selling and most significant vehicles, including the minivan, the Chrysler K-cars and the Mustang. He also spoke out against what he considered unfair trade practices by Japanese automakers. The son of Italian immigrants, Iacocca reached a level of celebrity matched by few auto moguls. During the peak of his popularity in the '80s, he was famous for his TV ads and catchy tagline: "If you can find a better car, buy it!" He wrote two best-selling books and was courted as a presidential candidate. But he will be best remembered as the blunt-talking, cigar-chomping Chrysler chief who helped engineer a great corporate turnaround. Liebler, who worked for Iacocca for a decade, said Iacocca had a larger-than-life presence that commanded attention. "He sucked the air out of the room whenever he walked into it," Liebler said. "He always had something to say. He was a leader." In recent years Iacocca was battling Parkinson's Disease, but Liebler was not sure what caused his death. He remembers that Iacocca could condemn employees if they did something he didn't like, but a few minutes later it would be like nothing had happened. "He used to beat me up, sometimes in public," Liebler remembered. When people asked how he could put up with that, Liebler would answer: "He'll get over it." In 1979, Chrysler was floundering in $5 billion of debt. It had a bloated manufacturing system that was turning out gas-guzzlers that the public didn't want. Story continues When the banks turned him down, Iacocca and the United Auto Workers union helped persuade the government to approve $1.5 billion in loan guarantees that kept the No. 3 domestic automaker afloat. Liebler said Iacocca is the last of an era of brash, charismatic executives who could produce results. "Lee made money. He went to Washington and made all these crazy promises, then he delivered on them," Liebler said. Iacocca wrung wage concessions from the union, closed or consolidated 20 plants, laid off thousands of workers and introduced new cars. In TV commercials, he admitted Chrysler's mistakes but insisted the company had changed. The strategy worked. The bland, basic Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant were affordable, fuel-efficient and had room for six. In 1981, they captured 20% of the market for compact cars. In 1983, Chrysler paid back its government loans, with interest, seven years early. The following year, Iacocca introduced the minivan and created a new market. The turnaround and Iacocca's bravado made him a media star. His "Iacocca: An Autobiography," released in 1984, and his "Talking Straight," released in 1988, were best-sellers. He even appeared on "Miami Vice." A January 1987 Gallup Poll of potential Democratic presidential candidates for 1988 showed Iacocca was preferred by 14%, second only to Colorado Sen. Gary Hart. He continually said no to "draft Iacocca" talk. Also during that time, he headed the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, presiding over the renovation of the statue, completed in 1986, and the reopening of nearby Ellis Island as a museum of immigration in 1990. But in the years before his retirement in 1992, Chrysler's earnings and Iacocca's reputation faltered. Following the lead of Ford and General Motors, he undertook a risky diversification into the defense and aviation industries, but it failed to help the bottom line. Still, he could take credit for such decisions as the 1987 purchase of American Motors Corp. Although the $1.5 billion acquisition was criticized at the time, AMC's Jeep brand has become a gold mine for now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as demand for SUVs surged. Iacocca was born Lido Anthony Iacocca in 1924 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His father, Nicola, became rich in real estate and other businesses, but the family lost nearly everything in the Depression. After earning a master's degree in mechanical engineering at Princeton University, Iacocca began his career as an engineering trainee with Ford in 1946. But the extrovert quickly became bored and took the unconventional step of switching to sales. He said a turning point in his career came in 1956, when he was assistant sales manager of the Philadelphia district office ranked last in Ford sales nationwide. Iacocca's devised a financing plan called "56 for 56," under which customers could buy a 1956 Ford for 20% down and payments of $56 a month for three years. The district's sales shot to the top, and Iacocca was quickly promoted to a national marketing job at company headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. By 1960, at age 36, Iacocca was vice president and general manager of the Ford division. "We were young and cocky," he recalled in his autobiography. "We saw ourselves as artists, about to produce the finest masterpieces the world had ever seen." Iacocca's first burst of fame came with the debut of the Mustang in 1964. He had convinced his superiors that Ford needed the affordable, stylish coupe to take advantage of the growing youth market. He broke from tradition by launching the car in April rather than the fall. Ford invited reporters to a 70-car Mustang rally from New York to Dearborn, which generated huge publicity. The car made the covers of Time and Newsweek the same week. In 1970, Iacocca was named Ford president and immediately undertook a restructuring to cut costs as the company struggled with foreign competition and rising gas prices. Iacocca's relationship with Chairman Henry Ford II became strained, and in 1978, Ford fired Iacocca. Henry Ford II later described Iacocca as "an extremely intelligent product man, a super salesman" who was "too conceited, too self-centered to be able to see the broad picture," according to interview transcripts published by The Detroit News. Iacocca got the last laugh. He was strongly courted by Chrysler, and he helped cement its turnaround in the 1980s by introducing the wildly successful Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans. In July 2005, Iacocca returned to the airwaves as Chrysler's pitchman, including a memorable ad in which he played golf with rapper Snoop Dogg. Chrysler wasn't faring well. In his 2007 book "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" Iacocca criticized Chrysler's 1998 sale to the Germany's Daimler AG, which gutted much of Chrysler to cut costs. As the recession began, sales worsened, and soon Chrysler was asking for a second government bailout. In April 2009, it filed for bankruptcy protection. "It pains me to see my old company, which has meant so much to America, on the ropes," Iacocca said. Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy protection under the control of Italian automaker Fiat. In a 2009 interview with The Associated Press, he urged Chrysler executives to "take care of our customers. That's the only solid thing you have." Iacocca was also active in later years in raising money to fight diabetes. His first wife, Mary, died of complications of the disease in 1983 after 27 years of marriage. The couple had two daughters, Kathryn and Lia. Iacocca remarried twice, but both marriages ended in divorce.
What Kind Of Investor Owns Most Of FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ:FONR)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you want to know who really controls FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ:FONR), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.' FONAR is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of US$139m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about FONR. Check out our latest analysis for FONAR Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. FONAR already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 45% of the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of FONAR, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. It would appear that 7.7% of FONAR shares are controlled by hedge funds. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known. The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO. Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group. Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in FONAR Corporation. It has a market capitalization of just US$139m, and insiders have US$7.0m worth of shares, in their own names. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board, though I generally prefer to see bigger insider holdings. But it might be worth checkingif those insiders have been selling. The general public, with a 42% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand FONAR better, we need to consider many other factors. I always like to check for ahistory of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

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