America's Best And Worst Banks
This year the U.S. banking industry continued its slow recovery from its nadir in 2010, as banks cleaned up their balance sheets and reduced nonperforming loans and assets. There were only 24 bank failures in 2013, versus 51 last year. Failures peaked at 157 in 2010. The FDIC�� ��roblem List��of banks shrank to 515 from 694 a year ago (it was 888 in March 2011).
Yet there is still a broad disparity between the best and worst banks. In order to gauge the financial health of the 100 largest U.S. banks and thrifts, Forbes turned to Charlottesville, Va.-based financial data provider SNL Financial for information on asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability. The data is based on regulatory filings through the third quarter of 2013. SNL provides the data, but the rankings are done by Forbes (click here for a more detailed methodology and a complete ranking of the 100 largest banks).
Leading the way is Prosperity Bancshares, which also ranked first in 2011. The $16 billion bank has 218 locations, with one-quarter of them in the Houston area, where it is headquartered. The bank has only six branches outside of Texas. The share of Prosperity�� loans that are nonperforming (0.1%) and assets that are nonperforming (0.1%) both rank among the three lowest in the banking industry. Its level of reserves/NPLs is an eye-popping 1,144%. Prosperity ranked in the top 10 in five of the nine metrics we evaluated the banks on.
Smithfield Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and marketing of fresh meat and packaged meats products in the United States and internationally. The company involves in the production of hog; and produces various fresh pork, beef, poultry, and packaged meats products. It sells fresh pork to retail customers as unprocessed and trimmed cuts, such as butts, loins, picnics, and ribs; packaged meats products, including smoked and boiled hams, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and deli and luncheon meats; specialty products, such as pepperoni and dry meat products; and ready-to-eat prepared foods comprising pre-cooked entrees, and pre-cooked bacon and sausages. The company offers its products to supermarket chains; wholesale distributors; the foodservice industry, including fast food, restaurant and hotel chains, hospitals, and other institutional customers; export markets; and other further processors. It sells its products through its salespersons an d independent commission brokers. Smithfield Foods, Inc. was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Seth Jayson]
Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD ) is expected to report Q4 earnings on June 14. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:
The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Smithfield Foods's revenues will grow 2.2% and EPS will compress -2.3%.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
Paula Deen has seen her future earnings prospects dim after her admission of using a racial slur. She lost her show. Several retailers have stopped stocking the celebrity chef's products. However, Deen has also lost lucrative endorsements with casino operator Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR ) and packaged pork products producer Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD ) .
- [By Seth Jayson]
Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD ) reported earnings on June 14. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended April 28 (Q4), Smithfield Foods beat slightly on revenues and missed estimates on earnings per share.
Top 10 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: Farmer Brothers Company(FARM)
Farmer Bros. Co. engages in the manufacture, wholesale, and distribution of coffee, tea, and culinary products. Its product line includes roasted coffee; liquid coffee; and coffee related products, such as coffee filters, sugar and creamers, assorted teas, cappuccino, cocoa, spices, gelatins and puddings, soup, gravy and sauce mixes, pancake and biscuit mixes, and jellies and preserves. The company distributes its products through direct and brokered sales to institutional foodservice establishments, including restaurants, hotels, casinos, hospitals, and foodservice providers, as well as retailers, such as convenience stores, coffee houses, general merchandisers, private label retailers, and grocery stores in the United States. Farmer Bros. Co. was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Torrance, California.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Eric Volkman]
Farmer Brothers (NASDAQ: FARM ) has a new top financial executive. The company has appointed Mark Nelson to its CFO and treasurer positions, effective April 15. He will initially be assisted by, then replace, interim Treasurer and CFO Jeffrey Wahba.�
- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Monday
Earnings Releases Expected: Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND), Farmer Brothers Company (NASDAQ: FARM) Economic Releases Expected: US Chicago PMI Tuesday
Top 10 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: Youku.com Inc.(YOKU)
Youku.com Inc. operates as an Internet television company in the People?s Republic of China. Its Internet television platform enables consumers to search, view, and share video content across various devices. The company?s services for users comprise video content library consisting primarily of professionally produced content, including television serial dramas, movies, event reports, variety shows, and music videos under the Youku brand. It also provides user-generated content through Youku Paike and Youku Niuren programs; and produces a range of content, such as sponsored Web serial dramas, reality shows, interviews, and variety shows under Youku Originals brand. The company?s other services for users comprise online video search and discovery, online community, video space, real time commenting, and searchable community message board, as well as wireless video, iPhone channels and iPad, and P2P downloadable software client services. In addition, it offers online advert ising services to various advertising companies operating in fast moving consumer goods, information technology services, automobile manufacturing, electronics, telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, and online game industries. The company?s products and services for advertisers and customers include online advertising services, such as in-video, display, sponsorship, and other forms of advertisements; targeting solutions; viral video advertisements; product placements; subscription-based services that enables users to watch advertisement-free premium content, such as high-definition movies; and sub-licensing content. It sells its advertising services through third-party advertising agencies comprising members of American Association of Advertising Agencies and Chinese advertising agencies. The company was formerly known as 1Verge Inc. and changed its name to Youku.com Inc. in June 2008. Youku.com Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Beijing, the Peo ple?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Kevin Chen]
Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU ) plans to kick off a new partnership with Korea's YG Entertainment by being the exclusive China host of the webcast of the April 13 concert of Psy, whose wildly popular Gangnam Style video became the first YouTube video to have more than a billion views. It has more than 1.5 billion views as of today.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
However, the real development here is that fortifying its video offerings through iQiyi and PPS.tv will make Baidu a legitimate competitor to Chinese top dog Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU ) .
- [By John Seward]
Youku Tudou Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), an online marketer, gained 4.14 percent to $22.90.
And online television company Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC: TCTZF) picked up 2.6 percent, to trade at $15.28.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
The exodus isn't universal. Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU ) �had 11.2 million shorted shares as of mid-April. The leading video streaming website hasn't had this many naysayers since late last year.
Top 10 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: Clifton Star Resources Inc (CFO)
Clifton Star Resources Inc. (Clifton) is a mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral resource properties in Canada. Clifton�� focuses on gold exploration in Quebec, but it also has precious and base metal projects in Quebec and Manitoba. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, a total of 41,730 meters have been drilled, with 124 holes completed. As of June 30, 2012, the Company had two drills operating on the Duparquet Project. The Company's exploration properties include Beattie, Donchester and Dumico properties, Central Duparquet, Duquesne property, Hunter Property and Cat Lake Property. The Duparquet Project covers 7.7 kilometers of strike length along the prolific gold bearing Porcupine-Destor Fault. The Central Duparquet property consists of 18 mineral claims totaling 293 hectares located in the Duparquet Township, Quebec. Duquesne property owns 55 mineral claims and one mining concession located in Destor Township, Quebec.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Muhammad Bazil]
There are four criteria used to determine how profitable a company is. Of these four criteria, Facebook satisfies three, making it appear to be a very profitable company. Those criteria are as follows:
Return on Assets (ROA): This figure is essentially the company�� net income. In order to meet this criterion in Piotroski�� method, the ROA must be a positive number. With an ROA of 0.40, Facebook meets this requirement and receives a 1.
� Cash Flow from Operations (CFO): This tells investors how much the company is earning from its regular business activities (production, sales, etc). It must be a positive number in order to receive a score of 1. Facebook�� cash flow from operations was $1,612 meaning it definitely satisfies this requirement and receives a 1.
� Change in ROA: In order for the profitability of a company to be considered sustainable, it must show a steadily increasing return on its assets. To calculate this, we take Facebook�� current ROA of 0.40 and subtract the previous year�� ROA (15.80). This gives us a difference of -15.40, showing a decrease. Therefore, Facebook does not meet this requirement and receives a 0.
� Accrual: This criterion simply checks to make sure that the company�� cash flow from operations is higher than its return on assets. As we can see above, Facebook�� CFO of $1,612 is definitely greater than its ROA of 0.40 meaning that it receives a score of 1.
Top 10 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: E*TRADE Financial Corporation(ETFC)
E*TRADE Financial Corporation, a financial services company, provides online brokerage and related products and services primarily to individual retail investors under the E*TRADE Financial brand in the United States. It offers trading products and services, including automated order placement and execution of the U.S. equities, futures, options, exchange-traded funds, and bond orders; sweep deposit accounts; access to E*TRADE Mobile Pro to trade stocks and transfer funds between accounts, as well as to monitor real-time investment, market, and account information; access to Power E*TRADE Pro, a desktop trading software for active traders; an open applications programming interface for third-party and independent software developers; margin accounts; cross boarder trading; access to international equities; research and trade idea generation tools; and E*TRADE Community that utilizes social media to offer a platform to customers. The company also provides access to the inve stor resource center that provides an aggregated view of its investing tools, market insights, independent research, education, and other investing resources; advisory services through Online Advisor; fixed income tools to identify, evaluate, and implement fixed income investment strategies; access to Retirement QuickPlan calculator that provides action plan on personal retirement savings; one-on-one portfolio recommendations and personalized plans; managed investment portfolio advisory services; unified managed account advisory services; individual retirement accounts; access to non-proprietary exchange-traded funds and mutual funds; investing and trading educational services through online videos, Web seminars, and Web tutorials; and deposit accounts, including checking, savings, and money market accounts. In addition, it provides software and services for managing equity compensation plans for corporate customers. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Ne w York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By victorselva]
The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) is a savings and loan holding company. The company is engaged, through its subsidiaries, in securities brokerage, banking, money management, and financial advisory services. Its subsidiaries include Charles Schwab & Co. (a leading discount broker-dealer), Charles Schwab Investment Management (a mutual fund investment advisor) and Charles Schwab Bank.In this article, let's take a look at this brokerage firm and try to explain to investors the reasons this is an apparently appealing investment opportunity.The FocusThe company provides financial services to individuals and institutional clients through two segments: Investor Services and Institutional Services. The Investor Services segment provides retail brokerage and banking services to individual investors. The Institutional Services segment provides custodial, trading, and support services to independent investment advisors. The Institutional Services segment also provides retirement plan services, specialty brokerage services, and mutual fund clearing services. The company seeks to meet the financial services needs of investors, advisers and employers. It focuses on building client loyalty with the goal of attracting new clients and serving them. Additionally, Schwab麓s strengths through shared core processes and technology advances which help create services that are scalable and consistent with the business.Interest Rates, Capital Structure and Debt-to-Capital RatioThe results are dependent on short-term interest rates, as 37% of its top line came from net interest income in the first quarter of 2014.The broker has been making significant efforts to become less dependent on interest rates, which we expect Federal Reserve will raise them in late 2014 or 2015. Also, the company麓s plan is to reach a low-cost capital structure and targets a long-term debt-to-total financial capital ratio of less than 30%.Lucrative Derivatives Trading In 2011, the company acquired Compl
- [By Sean Williams]
Finally, and along those same lines, E*TRADE Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC ) jumped 4% both on the comfort that the Fed will continue to buoy the still-fragile markets with QE3 and on the announcement that CEO Paul Izdik will be speaking at the Sandler O'Neil Global Exchange & Brokerage Conference next week. Just as with State Street, these conferences give analysts a good idea about the health of a financial firm and are often followed by upgrades and/or downgrades. For E*TRADE, a lot more is on the line since it's still in the process of recovering from a mortgage loan portfolio rife with toxic and delinquent loans. As long as the Fed keeps lending rate targets near record lows (as it pledged today), it'll allow E*TRADE ample time to recover.�
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Skeptics have argued to us that individual investors, who have pulled more than $345b from equities since 2007, are not likely to return to markets for years, maybe decades. We disagree��nvestors are likely to move into assets that generate strong returns…E*TRADE (ETFC) provided some evidence that this is already under way…DARTs (daily average revenue trades) rose in 2013 to 151k, after declining steadily since 2009. In fact, the company noted that in January DARTs rose to 196k, the highest since well prior to 2009. This reengagement by individual investors, we believe, is a positive and is naturally supportive of improving valuations and liquidity for stocks.
Top 10 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (RH)
Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc. (Restoration Hardware Holdings), incorporated on August 18, 2011, is a holding company. The Company is merchants of home furnishings. Restoration Hardware Holdings offers merchandise assortments across a number of categories, including furniture, lighting, textiles, bath ware, decor, outdoor, garden, and baby and child products. The Company�� business is integrated across its multiple channels of distribution, consists of its stores, catalogs and Websites. As of July 28, 2012, the Company�� operated a total of 73 retail stores, consisted of 71 Galleries and two full line Design Galleries, and 10 outlet stores throughout the United States and Canada. RH is a brand in the home furnishings. During the fiscal year ended January 28, 2012 (fiscal 2011), the Company opened five stores and closed 22 stores. In fiscal 2011, the Company distributed approximately 26.1 million catalogs, and its Websites logged over 14.3 million visits.
Restoration Hardware Holdings operates a Website for its Baby & Child brand at www.rhbabyandchild.com. The Company opened its two full line Design Galleries in Los Angeles in, June 2011 and Houston in November 2011. In May 2011, the Company launched catalog applications for Apple�� iPad and iPhone that enable customers to view and purchase its product assortment. Restoration Hardware Holdings operates three store types: the Company's full line Design Gallery format, approximately between 22,000 and 28,000 gross square feet; its Gallery format of approximately 7,000-15,000 gross square feet, and its Baby & Child Gallery format of approximately 2,000-3,000 gross square feet.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Teresa Rivas]
Other home furnishings retailers, including Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Restoration Hardware (RH) and Kirkland�� (KIRK) were trading down in afternoon trading.
- [By Brian Nichols]
Restoration Hardware (RH) was Barron's latest weekend victim. To me, Barron's bearish take is reminiscent of its Facebook (FB) call, which was also an article I questioned. The similarities and situations surrounding the two calls include both stocks being post-IPO and both articles implying that stock performance indicates value and future trends. Here is why Barron's is wrong, again!
- [By Maria Armental and Anna Prior]
Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Thursday’s session are Lululemon Athletica Inc.(LULU), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc.(RH) and Geron Corp.(GERN)
Top 10 Quality Companies To Own For 2015: AptarGroup Inc. (ATR)
AptarGroup, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of consumer product dispensing systems in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. The company operates in three segments: Beauty + Home, Pharma, and Food + Beverage. The Beauty + Home segment primarily sells pumps, closures, aerosol valves, and accessories to the personal care and household markets, as well as pumps and decorative components to the fragrance/cosmetic market; and fragrance/cosmetic and personal care fine mist spray pumps, personal care lotion pumps, and continuous spray aerosol valves. The Pharma segment provides pumps for nasal allergy treatments; and metered dose inhaler valves for respiratory ailments in pharmaceutical market. The Food + Beverage segment offers dispensing and non-dispensing closures, spray pumps, and aerosol valves to the food and beverage markets. AptarGroup, Inc. sells its products through sales force, independent representatives, and distributors. The c ompany was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Seth Jayson]
When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR ) .
- [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 AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
