Best Stocks For 2014, Top Stocks For 2014

I will admit: I’ve tried hard to stay out of the debate that has raged on for years around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. I am not an insurance actuary, nor a doctor; trying to understand all the different facets of the law can be a dizzying prospect. One thing I am, however, is an American citizen who has to purchase individual health insurance to cover my family and myself. So I’ve been keeping a close eye on what will happen to individual insurance rates in Wisconsin — my home state — as the insurance exchange is set up within its borders. It turns out, if what we’re seeing out of states like California prove any trend, many Obamacare opponents have been wasting a lot of hot air on doomsday predictions of unaffordable premiums. Top Insurance Stocks To Own For 2014: MGIC Investment Corp … Continue reading →

We live in a yield-obsessed era. Whether it's dividend yields, junk bond yields or lowly government bond yields, investors seek yields in every corner of the market. But many overlook the most important type: free cash flow yield. It's a simple yet powerful measure that points to the market's top bargains. And you should measure each stock in your portfolio against this underappreciated metric. You can figure out this yield by identifying a company's annual free cash flow (which is its operating cash flow minus its capital spending) and dividing it by the company's market value. For example, a company with $50 million in free cash flow and a $1 billion market value has a 5% free cash flow (FCF) yield ($50 million/$1 billion). Most companies in the S&P 400 (a mid-cap index), S&P 500 and S&P 600 (small caps) have FCF yields below that 5% threshold, yet any time … Continue reading →

So far, Game of Thrones is beating Mad Men in the ratings war. The second episode of the fantasy epic based on author George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” books drew in 4.3 million viewers, versus 3.4 million for the Mad Men premiere. As far as I’m concerned, both shows are well written and worth watching. Yet if HBO were spun off from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX  ) as an independent company, I’d still rather own shares of Mad Men distributor AMC Networks (NASDAQ: AMCX  ) . Sources: HBO, YouTube. Why? Accessibility. By bundling its content with cable providers, HBO makes it unnecessarily difficult to cater to the increasing number of viewers who are just as comfortable watching via tablet as they are on TV. Consider how Comcast’s obtuse Xfinity service handles streamed HBO content. Watching on my Mac requires a log-in to comcast.net and then navigating to a … Continue reading →

Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI  ) has stepped up its role in India. On Tuesday, the auto parts manufacturer and self-proclaimed “global leader in automotive seat systems and components” announced that it has bought out local partner Tata Automotive Components’ 50% interest in the companies’ Tata Johnson Controls joint venture. The purchase — whose price both parties agreed not to disclose — gives Johnson control over 11 joint venture locations across India and a work force of 2,100. Announcing the acquisition, Johnson Controls Automotive Experience India CEO Paul Chawla called India “an emerging market and part of Johnson Controls’ global strategy for sustainable growth.” Added Chawla, “We enjoyed our partnership with Tata AutoComp, and thank them for their support in making TJC a leading seating systems company in India. We are looking forward to building on the successes of the partnership.” Johnson Controls has operated in India since 1995. 10 Best Heal … Continue reading →

We’d all like to invest like the legendary Warren Buffett, turning thousands into millions or more. Buffett analyzes companies by calculating return on invested capital, or ROIC, to help determine whether a company has an economic moat — the ability to earn returns on its money above that money’s cost. In this series, we examine several companies in a single industry to determine their ROIC. Let’s take a look at Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR  ) and three of its industry peers, to see how efficiently they use cash. Of course, it’s not the only metric in value investing, but ROIC may be the most important one. By determining a company’s ROIC, you can see how well it’s using the cash you entrust to it and whether it’s actually creating value for you. Simply put, it divides a company’s operating profit by how much investment it took to get that profit. The … Continue reading →