IBM� (NYSE: IBM ) is the only tech stock Warren Buffett owns. In this video, Andrew Tonner describes why investors should be optimistic about Big Blue's future. Most analysts expect IBM earnings to grow about 9%, from $2.78 per share to about $3.50 per share. The company has a three-pronged business model that helps funnel customers from its low-margin hardware business to its higher-margin software business. IBM also has an even higher-margin consulting business, all of which position IBM well for its long-term goal of earning $20 per share. Corporate leadership looks solid and on board for achieving this goal.
IBM is a classic Buffett stock: a well-run, profitable company selling at a fair (certainly not cheap) price.
The price of becoming the world's greatest investor is that Warren Buffett can no longer make many of types of investments that made him rich in the first place. Find out about one such opportunity in "The Stock Buffett Wishes He Could Buy." The free report details a sector of the economy Buffett's heavily invested in right now and exactly why he can't buy one attractive company in that sector. Click here to keep reading.�
Top Diversified Bank Companies To Buy For 2015: Geospace Technologies Corp (GEOS)
Geospace Technologies Corporation, formerly OYO Geospace Corporation, incorporated on September 13, 1997, designs and manufactures instruments and equipment used in the acquisition and processing of seismic data, as well as in the characterization and monitoring of producing oil and gas reservoirs. The Company also manufactures and distributes thermal imaging equipment and dry thermal film products to a variety of markets including the screenprint, point of sale, signage and textile markets. As of September 30, 2011, OYO Corporation U.S.A. (OYO USA) owned approximately 20.3% of the Company�� common stock. The Company operates in two segments: Seismic and Thermal Solutions. The seismic segment of its business accounts for the majority of its sales. Its thermal solutions product technologies were developed for seismic data processing applications.
Seismic Products
Geoscientists use seismic data primarily in connection with the exploration, development and production of oil and gas reserves to map hydrocarbon bearing formations and the geologic structures that surround them. The Company provides many of the components of seismic data recording systems, including data acquisition systems, geophones, hydrophones, multi-component sensors, seismic leader wire, geophone strings, connectors, seismic telemetry cables and other seismic related products. Its marine seismic products help steer streamers while being towed and help recover streamers if they become disconnected from the vessel.
The Company has developed permanently installed high-definition reservoir characterization products for ocean-bottom applications in producing oil and gas fields. It also produces a retrievable version of this ocean-bottom system for use on fields where permanently installed systems are not appropriate or economical. Seismic surveys repeated over selected time intervals show dynamic changes within the reservoir and can be used to monitor the effects of production. In addition, it produc! es seismic borehole acquisition systems which employ a fiber optic augmented wireline capable of high data transmission rates. These systems are used for several reservoir characterization applications, including an application pioneered by it allowing operators and service companies to monitor and measure the results of fracturing operations.
The Company designs and manufactures power and communication transmission cable products for offshore applications and market these products to the offshore oil and gas and offshore construction industries. These products include a variety of specialized cables, primarily used in deepwater applications, such as remotely operated vehicle (ROV) tethers, umbilicals and electrical control cables. These products also include specially designed and manufactured cables, including armored cables, engineered to withstand harsh offshore operating environments. In addition, it designs and manufactures industrial sensors for the vibration monitoring, security and earthquake detection markets. The Company also design and manufacture other specialty cable and connector products, such as those used in connection with global positioning products and water meter applications.
Its seismic product lines consists of land and marine nodal seismic data acquisition systems, high-definition reservoir characterization products and services, geophones and hydrophones, including multi-component geophones and hydrophones, seismic leader wire, geophone string and acquisition system connectors, seismic telemetry cables, marine seismic cable retrieval and steering devices and specialized data acquisition systems targeted at conventional and niche markets.
The Company�� high-definition reservoir characterization products include the HDSeis product line and a suite of borehole and reservoir characterization products and services. Its HDSeis System is a high-definition seismic data acquisition system with architecture that allows it to be configured as a bo! rehole se! ismic system or as a subsurface system for both land and marine reservoir-monitoring projects. Its multi-component seismic product developments include an omni-directional geophone for use in reservoir monitoring, a compact marine three-component or four-component gimbaled sensor and special-purpose connectors, connector arrays and cases. Its products used in marine seismic data acquisition include its marine seismic streamer retrieval devices (SRDs). Its SRDs, which are attached to the streamer cables, contain air bags which are designed to inflate automatically at a given depth, bringing the severed streamer cables to the surface. It also produces seismic streamer steering devices, or birds, which are finlike devices that attach to the streamer cable. These birds help maintain the streamer cable at a certain desired depth as it is being towed through the water.
The Company competes with CGGVeritas, ION Geophysical, INOVA, Amphenol Corporation, Fairfield Industries, Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, Avalon, Mitcham Industries, Inc. and Seismic Equipment Solutions.
Thermal Solutions Products
The Company thermal printers include both thermal imagesetters for graphics applications and thermal plotters for seismic applications. In addition, its thermal solutions products include direct-to-screen systems, thermal printheads, dry thermal film, thermal transfer ribbons and other thermal media. Its thermal imaging solutions produce images ranging in size from 12 to 54 inches wide and in resolution from 400 to 1,200 dots per inch. It markets its thermal imaging solutions to a variety of industries, including the screen printing, point-of-sale, signage, flexographic and textile markets. It also distributes private label dry thermal media for use in its thermal printers and direct-to-screen systems. In addition, the Company is engaged in efforts to develop new lines of dry thermal film and ribbon in order to improve the image quality of its media for use with printheads.
The! Company thermal solutions products include thermal imagesetters for graphics applications and thermal plotters for seismic applications. In addition, its thermal solution products include thermal printheads and thermal media products. It markets these products to a variety of industries, including the screen print, point of sale, signage and textile markets. It also sells these products to seismic customers.
The Company competes with KIWO USA, Inc., Colour Scanned Technology and iSys Group.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Geospace Technologies (Nasdaq: GEOS ) reported earnings on May 2. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 31 (Q2), Geospace Technologies whiffed on revenues and whiffed on earnings per share.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Crestwood Equity Partners LP (CEQP)
Crestwood Equity Partners LP, incorporated on March 7, 2001, is a master limited partnership. The Company owns the general partner interest (including the distribution rights) and an approximate 4% limited partner interest of Crestwood Midstream.
In addition, the Company's operations include a natural gas storage business in Texas and a natural gas liquid (NGL) and crude oil supply and logistics business that serves customers in the United States and Canada. On October 7, 2013, Crestwood Midstream Partners LP merged into Inergy Midstream, L.P.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Aimee Duffy]
With Kinder Morgan's acquisition of Copano Energy officially in the bag, all eyes are on the newest big deal in the midstream world: the merger of Crestwood Midstream Partners (NYSE: CMLP ) and Inergy (NYSE: CEQP ) . In this video, Fool.com contributor Aimee Duffy takes a look at this $7 billion deal, and explains what the ownership structure looks like at the new, yet-to-be-named entity.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
On Tuesday, Inergy (NYSE: CEQP ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Atlantic Power Corp (AT)
Atlantic Power Corporation (Atlantic Power) owns and operates a fleet of power generation and infrastructure assets in the United States and Canada. The Company�� power generation projects sell electricity to utilities and industrial customers under long-term power purchase agreements. During the year ended December 31, 2011, its power generation projects in operation had an aggregate gross electric generation capacity of approximately 3,397 megawatts in which its ownership interest was approximately 2,140 megawatts. The Company operates in five segments: Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest and Un-allocated Corporate. As of December 31, 2011, its portfolio consisted of interests in 31 operational power generation projects across 11 states in the United States and two provinces in Canada, and a 53 megawatts biomass project under construction in Georgia and a 500-kilovolt 84-mile electric transmission line. On December 31, 2012, the Company acquired Ridgeline Energy Holdings, Inc. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Justin Loiseau]
More recently, improved technology and production tax credits have pushed power companies to ramp up their renewables efforts. It should come as no surprise that NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE ) is adding on to its 10,000 net MW of wind capacity with General Electric's �newest turbines, but other traditional companies are making the renewables leap, as well. Atlantic Power (NYSE: AT ) bought a renewables business from Veolia Environnement�in 2012 that added 150 net MW of wind to its power portfolio. With over 350 net MW of wind power and 195 MW of biomass under its belt, the "growth by acquisition" utility is trying its hand at renewable energy efficiency.
- [By Selena Maranjian]
A good dividend investor needs to remember that dividend amounts are not set in stone. Companies do try hard to not reduce or eliminate them, but that happens sometimes. Recently, for example, both Atlantic Power (NYSE: AT ) and Exelon (NYSE: EXC ) reduced their dividends -- by 65% and 40%, respectively. Atlantic had been yielding 10%, and Exelon 6.8%. Atlantic still sports a hefty yield, but that's because its stock has fallen some 62% over the past three months amid poor results and worries over lawsuits. Exelon, a nuclear-power specialist, is viewed more favorably, and has been investing in renewable energy, as well. Still, some think it could be a while before its also-depressed stock turns around.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Kaiser Aluminum Corp (KALU)
Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, incorporated on February 20, 1987, is engaged in the production of semi-fabricated specialty aluminum products. As of December 31, 2012, the Company operated 11 focused production facilities in the United States and one in Canada. The Company operates in fabricated products business segment. In addition to the Fabricated Products segment, it has two business units, Secondary Aluminum and Corporate and Other. The Secondary Aluminum business unit sells value added products, such as ingot and billet, produced by Anglesey Aluminium Limited, in which it has a 49% equity investment and which owns and operates a secondary aluminum remelt and casting facility in Holyhead, Wales. Its Corporate and Other business unit provides general and administrative support for its operations. Through its 12 focused production facilities in North America, it manufactures rolled, extruded, and drawn aluminum products to serve four market applications: aerospace and high strength products (Aero/HS products), general engineering products (GE products), extrusions for automotive applications (Automotive Extrusions), and other industrial products (Other products).
The Company�� Fabricated Products segment produces rolled, extruded, and drawn aluminum products used principally for aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer durables, electronics, electrical, and machinery and equipment applications. During the year ended December 31, 2012, its North American manufacturing facilities produced and shipped approximately 585.9 million pounds of fabricated aluminum products. The Company�� Aero/HS products include heat treat plate and sheet, as well as cold finish bar, seamless drawn tube, hard alloy extrusions, and billet that are manufactured to demanding specifications for the global aerospace and defense industries. It makes aluminum plate, sheet, extruded shapes, and tube for aerospace applications, and it manufactures a variety of specialized rod and bar products that are incorporated! in diverse applications.
The Company�� GE products are standard catalog items sold to metal distributors. Its GE products consist of 6000-series alloy rod, bar, tube, wire, sheet, plate and standard extrusions. The 6000-series alloy is an extrudable medium-strength alloy that is heat treatable and extremely versatile. The Company�� GE products have a range of uses and applications, many of which involve further fabrication of these products for numerous transportation and other industrial end market applications where machining of plate, rod and bar is intensive. The Company�� products are used in the enhancement and production of military vehicles, semiconductor manufacturing cells, numerous electronic devices, after-market motor sport parts and tooling plate. Its rod and bar products are manufactured into rivets, nails, screws, bolts and parts of machinery and equipment.
Automotive products consist of extruded aluminum products for many North American automotive applications. The variety of extruded products that the Company supplies to the automotive industry include extruded products for bumper systems, anti-lock braking systems and structural components and drawn tube for drive shafts. For some Automotive Extrusions, it performs limited fabrication, including sawing and cutting to length. Other products consist of extruded, drawn, and cast aluminum products for a variety of North American industrial end uses, including consumer durables, electrical/electronic, machinery and equipment, light truck, heavy truck and truck trailer applications.
The Company competes with Alcoa Inc., Constellium, SAPA, and Norsk Hydro ASA.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lauren Pollock]
Kaiser Aluminum Corp.'s(KALU) board raised the quarterly dividend by 17% and also authorized an additional $75 million in stock buybacks.
Linear Technology Corp.'s(LLTC) fiscal second-quarter profit climbed 18% as the chip manufacturer reported higher sales and gross margins.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Kaiser Aluminum (Nasdaq: KALU ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Marc Bastow]
Semi-fabricated aluminum products manufacturer Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) raised its quarterly dividend 17% to 35 cents per share, payable Feb. 14 to shareholders of record Jan. 24.
KALU Dividend Yield: 1.98% - [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of Alcoa have dropped 3.3% to $7.90 today at 9:30 a.m. The downgrade has also hit other aluminum producers this morning. Alumina (AWC) has fallen 1.1% to $3.73, Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) has declined 0.7% to $71.17, and BHP Billiton (BHP), of which aluminum is but a small piece, is off 0.3% at $66.22.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Volkswagen AG (VLKAY)
Volkswagen AG is a Germany-based automobile manufacturer. The Company develops vehicles and components, and also produces and sells vehicles, in particular Volkswagen brand passenger cars and commercial vehicles. The Company consists of two divisions: Automotive and Financial Services division. The Automotive division is responsible for the development of vehicles and engines, the production and sale of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, trucks and buses, and the genuine parts business. The Financial services division's portfolio of services includes dealer and customer services in the field of financing, leasing, directbank, insurance and fleet business. The Company's brands include Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda, Scania and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and each brand offers a product range from low-consumption small cars to luxury class vehicles, as well as pick ups, busses and heavy trucks in the commercial vehicle sector.
During 2009, the Company introduced two additions to the Audi5 model series: Audi A5 Cabriolet and the Audi A5 Sportback. In addition, Audi A4 allroad Quattro, Audi TT RS, Audi RS Spyder and the Audi 8 were introduced. During 2009, Audi brand delivered 950 thousand vehicles to customers worldwide. The SEAT launched the Exeo in the B segment. This sporty midsized saloon marks the arrival of the Spanish brands. Bentley introduced the Bentley Mulsanne. This saloon includes proportioned interiors. It also introduced GTC Speed and the Bentley Continental Supersports.
The Company has various delivery centers, including Western Europe, China, Brazil, United States and Mexico. During 2009, deliveries of vehicles were 6336222 worldwide.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Neha Marwah]
However, foreign automakers including Honda (HMC), Hyundai and Volkswagen (VLKAY) are expected to lose market share in November. One of the prime reasons why these foreign automakers aren�� benefitting as much as domestic carmakers is because they do not specialize in pickups and trucks. The Detroit Three, General Motors, Ford (F), and Chrysler are known for manufacturing pickups and trucks. With the rebound in the housing and construction sector, businesses are improving and are therefore demanding more and more of pickups.
- [By John Rosevear]
It's far from alone. Volkswagen (NASDAQOTH: VLKAY ) has been playing with electric-car ideas for a few years now, and all-electric Audi A3s have been spotted testing. The company is thought to be planning plug-in vehicles ranging from small city cars to a plug-in hybrid diesel super-sports car for Audi.
- [By John Rosevear]
So why aren't there more diesels here?
It's a good question. Among mass-market automakers, only Volkswagen (NASDAQOTH: VLKAY ) seems to sell significant quantities of diesel cars in the United States. VW says�that cars powered by its clean diesel engines accounted for 22.6% of its U.S. sales in March, a 6.6% increase over last year. Maybe it's a German thing? - [By John Rosevear]
So what should we expect from GM's new ultra-lux SUV? Along with other members of the media, Fool contributor John Rosevear was invited to listen in by phone as it was unveiled. In this video, he gives you the full scoop -- along with some insight into GM's strategy and plans for the next-generation Escalade as it goes up against rivals from Daimler's (NASDAQOTH: DDAIF ) Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen's (NASDAQOTH: VLKAY ) Audi brands.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Altera Corporation (ALTR)
Altera Corporation, a semiconductor company, designs, manufactures, and markets programmable logic devices (PLD), HardCopy application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) devices, pre-defined design building blocks, and associated development tools. Its PLDs consist of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), which are semiconductor integrated circuits manufactured as standard chips that can be programmed to perform logic functions in electronic systems; and HardCopy structured ASIC devices that transition customer designs from high-density FPGAs to low-cost non-programmable implementations for volume production. The company?s products primarily include Stratix series high-end, system-level FPGAs; Arria series mid-range, transceiver-equipped FPGAs; Cyclone series low-cost FPGAs; MAX series CPLDs; and HardCopy ASICs. It also offers intellectual property cores that are pre-verified building blocks that execute system-level functio ns that is incorporated into the PLD design; and development tools consisting primarily of the Quartus II software for design entry, design compilation, design verification, and device programming. Altera Corporation serves customers primarily in the telecom and wireless, industrial automation, military and automotive, networking, and computer and storage markets. The company markets its products through a network of distributors, independent sales representatives, and direct sales personnel. It has operations in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Japan. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Chuck Carnevale]
For additional insight into the dividend paying prospects of the Information Technology sector, I thought it would be interesting to show the following companies on David Fish�� Challenger�� list. These are companies that have raised their dividend consecutively for at least five to nine straight years. Only two companies on this list failed to make my cut. Altera Corp (ALTR) was rejected due to recent inconsistency in their earnings and high valuation. Visa did not meet my minimum dividend yield threshold. Otherwise, the remaining companies were included in my conservative and aggressive candidates.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Morningstar Inc.(MORN)
Morningstar, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides independent investment research to investors worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Investment Information and Investment Management. The Investment Information segment offers data, software, and research products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, and institutional clients. It provides Licensed Data, a set of investment data spanning various investment databases, including real-time pricing data available through electronic data feeds; Morningstar Advisor Workstation, a Web-based investment planning system; Morningstar.com, a membership service and Internet advertising space; Morningstar Direct, a Web-based institutional research platform; integrated Web tools to build customized Websites or enhance existing sites; Morningstar Principia, a CD-ROM-based investment research and planning software; Morningstar commodity data that provides data and analytics for the energy, financial, and agriculture sectors; equity and corporate credit research; and Morningstar structured credit ratings and research services. This segment also offers various financial communications materials, real-time data and desktop software, investment software, and investment indexes, as well as various print and online publications. The Investment Management segment offers various products and services, such as Investment Consulting that focuses on investment monitoring and asset allocation for funds of funds, including mutual funds and variable annuities; Retirement Solutions comprising the Morningstar Retirement Manager and Advice by Ibbotson platforms; and Morningstar Managed Portfolios, a asset management service includes series of mutual fund, exchange-traded fund, and stock portfolios. This segment serves banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, and retirement plan sponsors and providers. Morningstar, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bill Smith]
FDS operates in a highly competitive industry, some with more resources. Their competitors include:
Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI)BloombergInteractive (IDC)MSCI Inc. (MXB)Morningstar Inc. (MORN)Track Data Corp. (TRAC)Edgar Online (EDGR)McGraw-Hill (MHP )
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