The recent and very rapid rise in bond yields is changing the playing field for banks. As second-quarter earnings announcements rapidly approach, expect them to have an impact on both revenue and profit margins.�
Every bank will be affected, from the trillion-dollar megabanks like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) and�Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) , to the community bank headquartered in your home town (or an index of community banks, like the SPDR S&P Regional Banking Index).
In the video below, Motley Fool contributor Jay Jenkins explains these critical issues and what they mean heading into the second-quarter earnings season.�
Many investors are scared about investing in big banking stocks after the crash, but the sector has one notable stand-out. In a sea of mismanaged and dangerous peers, it rises above as "The Only Big Bank Built to Last." You can uncover the top pick that Warren Buffett loves in The Motley Fool's�new report. It's free, so click here to access it now.
Top 5 Gas Utility Companies For 2015: Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp (FSFR)
Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp., incorporated on May 22, 2013, is a closed-end, non-diversified management investment company. The Company investment objective is to maximize the Company�� portfolio�� total return by generating income from its debt investments while seeking to preserve its capital. The Company intends to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in senior secured loans, including first lien, unitranche and second lien debt instruments, that pay interest at rates, which are determined periodically on the basis of a floating base lending rate, made to private middle market companies whose debt is rated below investment grade, which the Company refer to collectively as senior loans. The Company�� investment adviser is Fifth Street Management.
The Company may also invest in senior unsecured loans issued by private middle market companies and, to a lesser extent, subordinated loans issued by private middle market companies and senior and subordinated loans issued by public companies. Under normal market conditions, at least 80% of the value of its net assets plus borrowings for investment purposes will be invested in floating rate senior loans. Senior loans pay interest at rates, which are determined periodically on the basis of the London-Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus a premium. Senior loans in which the Company expects to invest are made to United States and, to a limited extent, non- United States corporations, partnerships and other business entities which operate in various industries and geographical regions.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marc Bastow]
Management investment company Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp. (FSFR) raised its quarterly dividend 15% to 23 cents per share, payable April 15 to shareholders of record as of March 31.
FSFR Stock�Dividend Yield: 6.88%
Hot Regional Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: Vistaprint NV (VPRT)
Vistaprint N.V., incorporated on June 5, 2009, is an online provider of coordinated portfolios of customized marketing products and services to micro businesses worldwide. The Company offers a range of brand identity and promotional products, marketing services and digital solutions. While the Company focuses on micro business marketing products and services, consumers also purchases its products, such as invitations and announcements, greeting cards, photo books and calendars. Customers visiting the Company's Websites can select the type of product they wish to design from its range of available products and services for the business and home and family markets, including paper based, non-paper based, and digital and marketing services. Paper based products include brochures, business cards, data sheets, desk and wall calendars, envelopes, flyers, folded business cards, folded cards, holiday cards, and invitations and announcements. Its non-paper based products include banners, bottle openers, calculators, car door magnets, decals, drink koozies, embroidered apparel, hats, iphone cases, key chains, lawn signs, letter openers and luggage tags. Its digital and marketing services include blogs, custom Facebook pages, design tools and content, e-mail marketing services and logos.
When a product type has been selected, the customer can initiate the design process by using the Company's predefined industry styles and theme categories, by entering one or more keywords in its image search tool, or by uploading the customer's own design. If the customer chooses to do a keyword search, the Company's automated design logic will, in real time, create and display to the customer a variety of product templates containing images related to the customer's keyword. When the customer chooses a particular template for personalization, the Company's user-friendly, browser-based application enables the customer to quickly and easily perform a wide range of design and editing functions on the selected design,! for example, cropping images or entirely replacing images with other images or uploading customer images or logos.
Once customers choose a pre-designed template or upload their own content for a product, they can instantly see what their design looks like on a range of other Vistaprint products and related services, including signage, Websites and e-mail marketing, business identity, direct mail services, apparel and promotional gifts. Customers who need help with their design or ordering process are able to reach the Company's customer service agents through phone, e-mail, and chat. The Company has six customer service facilities: Montego Bay, Jamaica; Berlin, Germany; the Hague, the Netherlands; Tunis, Tunisia; Sydney, Australia; and Mumbai, India. These centers provide phone, email and chat support for customers who speak English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Turkish, Japanese and Hindi. Using the Company's design software applications, combined with voice over Internet protocol telephone transmission technology and call center management tools, its agents and designers provide customer service. Customers purchasing products check out either through a standard e-commerce self-service shopping basket or by providing their order and payment information through telephone to one of the Company's service agents.
The Company's design creation technologies enable customers, by themselves or together with the assistance of the Company's design support staff, to design and create marketing materials from their homes or offices. The Company's document model architecture and technology employs Internet-compatible data structures to define, process and store product designs as a set of separately searchable, combinable and modifiable component elements. The Company's auto-matching design software generates customized product designs in real-time based on key-word searches. VistaStudio is the Company's product ! design an! d editing software suite, which is downloaded to its customer's computer from its server and runs in the customer's browser. This browser-based software provides real-time client-side editing capabilities. A range of layouts, color schemes and fonts are provided and a selection of photographs and illustrations are available for use by customers in product design. Customers can also upload their own images and logos for incorporation into their product designs. The Company's Internet-based, remote, real-time, co-creativity and project management application and database enables customers and the Company's design agents to design a product across the Internet in real-time, while engaging in voice communication.
Albumprinter Downloadable and Online Editors enable the creation of a range of photo products, such as calendars, canvas prints, and greeting cards through an intuitive user interface. These editors allow the Company's customers the choice of creating their personalized products on their own computer or utilizing their preferred browser and enable functionality, such as auto generated layouts, creation of content, and font selection. Features available to the Company's customers include adding personal images, maps, electronic payment processing, downloadable files and contact forms. Pagemodo offers small businesses to create a professional looking custom Facebook page. Pagemodo allows customers to select from a range of templates to create custom tabs for their Fanpage, including welcome tabs, lead capture tabs and video tabs. Pagemodo also offers a template driven cover image designer, which lets customers create cover images for their Facebook pages through a simple click and edit interface.
The Company's pre-production and production technologies process and aggregate customer orders, prepare orders for high-quality production and manage production, addressing and shipment of these orders. DrawDocs is the Company's automated pre-printing press technology that prepares ! customer ! documents received over the Internet for high-resolution printing. The Company's VistaBridge technology allows the Company to store and process. The Company's aggregation software scans these pending jobs and analyzes a range of production characteristics, including quantity, type and format of raw material, color versus black and white, single or double-sided print, delivery date, shipping location, type of production system being used and type of product. For printed products, the VistaBridge software then automatically aggregates orders with similar production characteristics from multiple customers into a single document image that is transferred to either a digital press or to an automated plating system that produces offset printing plates. Viper is the Company's workflow and production management software for tracking and managing its global production facilities on a networked basis. Viper monitors and manages bar-code driven production batch and order management, pick and pack operations, and addressing and shipping of orders.
The Company uses its marketing technologies to generate and display additional products incorporating the customer's initial designs, facilitating the cross-sale of related products and services. VistaMatch Software generates and displays one or more additional customized product designs based upon a customer's existing design. Design elements and customer information are automatically transferred to the additional design.
Automated Cross-Sell and Up-Sell technology permits the Company to show a customer, while the customer is in the process of purchasing a product, marketing offers for one or more additional or related products. Localization/Language Map is the Company's content management system that permits all of its localized Websites, and the changes to those Websites, to be managed by the same software engine. Text and image components of the Company's Web pages are separated, translated and stored in its managed content database.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Vistaprint (VPRT) provides online customized marketing products and services. This stock closed up 5.2% to $55.01 in Friday's trading session.
Friday's Volume: 1.16 million
Three-Month Average Volume: 250,767
Volume % Change: 396%Shares of VPRT jumped higher on Friday after the company reported a profit topping Wall Street expectations and beat the revenue expectation.
From a technical perspective, VPRT broke out here above some near-term overhead resistance at $53.16 with heavy upside volume. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last four months, with shares moving higher from its low of $36.51 to its intraday high on Friday of $55.25. During that uptrend, shares of VPRT have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of VRPT within range of triggering a major breakout trade. That trade will hit if VRPT manages to take out $55.25 to its three-year high at $56.25.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in VPRT as long as it's trending above $53.16 or above $52 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 250,767 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then VRPT will set up to enter new 52-week- and three-year-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $60 to $65.
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
Vistaprint N.V. (NASDAQ: VPRT) was started with an Underweight rating and a $48 price target (versus $54.21 close) at Barclays.
Friday’s analyst upgrades had many more names than the downgrades.
- [By Anna Prior]
VistaPrint NV(VPRT) agreed to acquire most of e-commerce printing firm Pixartprinting SRL for roughly EUR127 million ($175 million), expanding the breadth of the online printing-services provider’s range of product offerings.
- [By Garrett Cook]
Vistaprint NV (NASDAQ: VPRT) shares shot up 29.18 percent to $48.74 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and issued a strong FY15 outlook.
Hot Regional Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: Ishares Trust Russell 1000 (IWF)
iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the large-capitalization growth sector of the United States equity market, as represented by the Russell 1000 Growth Index (the Growth Index). The Growth Index is a subset of the Russell 1000 Index. The Index is capitalization weighted, and consists of those companies, or portion of a company, with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth within the Russell 1000 Index. The Growth Index represents approximately 49% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 1000 Index.
The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Growth Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Growth Index. iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund's investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By James Brumley]
It’s been especially untrue the last few years. Since this point in the year back in 2003, the iShares Russell 1000 Growth Fund (IWF) has advanced 81%, while the iShares Russell 1000 Value Fund (IWD) has only advanced 67%.
Hot Regional Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: CACI International Inc. (CACI)
CACI International Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides information solutions and services to the U.S. federal government and commercial markets in North America and internationally. The company offers enterprise information technology (IT) solutions and services for the design, development, integration, deployment, operations and management, sustainment, and security of clients� infrastructure; information solutions and services that automate the knowledge management lifecycle; and enterprise-level system solutions in the domain of procurement, financial, human capital, logistics, and supply chain management. It also offers intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions; command and control solutions to support military, homeland security, law enforcement, border security, emergency response, and disaster relief missions; and develops and manages logistics information systems, and simulation and modeling toolsets, as well as provides logistics engineering se rvices. In addition, the company offers cyber security services that support preparing for, protecting against, detecting, reacting, and responding to the cyber threats; integrated security solutions and services for mitigating and countering the effects of natural, technological, and man-made hazards; geospatial solutions relating to defense, intelligence, homeland security, and commercial applications; and government investigation and litigation support solutions. Further, it provides healthcare IT solutions; identity management solutions; program management, and system engineering and technical assistance services to government program offices; mobility solutions and services; and planning, design, implementation, and management solutions that resolve technical or business needs for commercial and government clients in the telecommunications, education, financial services, healthcare services, and transportation sectors. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartere d in Arlington, Virginia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
Starting the week off slow, the U.S. Department of Defense announced only a half-dozen new contracts Monday, worth a bit over $345 million in aggregate value. Raytheon scored the big win of the day -- a monster $279 million deal to develop a new electronic warfare product for the Navy. But it wasn't the day's only winner:
- [By Katie Spence]
Last September, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters successfully targeted six banks, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. This attack, along with others, spurred the U.S. to invest heavily in cybersecurity initiatives such as the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center -- which partners with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) and its subcontractor CACI international (NYSE: CACI ) . In fact, analysts expect that while defense budgets are cut, cybersecurity-related spending will �increase.�
- [By CRWE]
CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI) reported that it has been awarded a $45 million prime contract to provide operations and maintenance support services for the National Institutes of Health�� (NIH) Oracle e-Business suite applications.
- [By Rich Smith]
The biggest of these contracts, a sizable $179.9 million, one-year award with the potential to swell to $899.5 million if the four "option-year" extensions are exercised, is to be split among 13 separate firms:
Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH ) CACI (NYSE: CACI ) Technologies Computer Sciences Corp (NYSE: CSC ) General Dynamics (NYSE: GD ) One Source Honeywell (NYSE: HON ) Technology Solutions Engility Corp. Lockheed Martin Science Applications International Corp. URS Federal Services and four privately held firms.Under the awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), cost-plus-fixed-fee, performance-based umbrella contract, all 13 firms will be able to compete to perform task orders for the U.S. Navy, providing "integrated cyber operations services" to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic.
Hot Regional Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: Giant Interactive Group Inc (GA)
Giant Interactive Group Inc. (Giant Interactive), incorporated on July 26, 2006, is an online game developer and operator in China. The Company focuses on massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) that are played through networked game servers, in which a number of players are able to simultaneously connect and interact. The Company operates 11 online games, among which nine are self-developed, including the five games in the Zheng Tu (ZT) Online Series. As of December 31, 2010, its game development team consisted of 934 members, which includes product development and enhancement teams for each of its MMORPG and multiplayer online (MMO) games.
In January 2010, the Company acquired China operation licenses for Elsword and Allods Online, two three dimensional (3D) MMORPGs. In November 2010, the Company acquired Julun Network. On December 6, 2010, Zhengtu Information, Giant Network and Shanghai Juyan Network Technology jointly established Beijing Huayi Juren Information Technology Co., Ltd with 51%, 34% and 15% interest, respectively. On December 31, 2010, Zhengtu Information sold its 51% interest in Huayi Juren Information to Huayi Brothers Media Corporation. In May 2010, the Company acquired Snow Wolf.
The Company has built nationwide distribution and marketing networks to sell and market its prepaid game cards and game points. As of December 31, 2010, its distribution network consisted of more than 130 non-exclusive regional distributors and reached over 96,000 retail outlets, including Internet cafes, software stores, supermarkets, bookstores, newspaper stands and convenience stores located throughout China. The Company also sells game points through its official game Website. The Company generates its revenues from licensing of its games to third party operators in other territories, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Russia and other Russian speaking territories. In addition, it has also licensed its ZT Online Green Edition to! Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Company Limited (Tencent), on a non-exclusive basis for operation of such game on Tencent�� QQ game platform in China.
ZT Online
ZT Online is a two-dimensional, online role-playing game set in ancient China, and was the first game that was wholly developed by its internal product development team. ZT Online players assume one of five different roles, including soldiers and magicians, in 10 different kingdoms. In order to play ZT Online, players must log into one of multiple shards, or independent copies of the game world. Players can only interact with other players in his or her respective shard at any given time, and its technology enables players to travel among the different shards. The Company has developed technology for use in ZT Online that allows up to 40,000 players to play together in a single shard at any given time. ZT Online is free of charge to play. Players may purchase physical or virtual prepaid game cards and game points on its game Website or from Internet cafes and other distribution points, which allow their characters to obtain gold coins, one of the currencies used in the ZT Online game. Players may also earn silver coins for their characters when they fulfill tasks or adventures in the game world.
The game has gold coin vouchers, which are offered both as a salary to players who meet certain requirements and as a reward in connection with certain of its promotions. Players may trade silver coins for gold coins, and vice-versa, inside the game. Neither gold coins, gold coin vouchers, nor silver coins may be used by players to purchase any items or services outside of the ZT Online game. ZT Online allows players to purchase a range of virtual items and services for their characters using their gold and/or silver coins. These include weapons, clothing, pets, ceremonies and rites, and others. Weapons may be repaired or replaced by purchases of certain in-game raw materials or by payment of additional gold or! silver c! oins. ZT Online offers a play experience, where players can choose to enter the game 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ZT Online can be accessed from any location with an Internet connection. It has licensed ZT Online to Lager Network for operation in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, licensed ZT Online to VinaGame for operation in Vietnam, and licensed ZT Online to Atrum Nival for operation in the Russia and other Russian speaking territories.
ZT Online PTP
ZT Online PTP is pay-to-play MMORPG game developed by the Company, and is based on the ZT Online free-to-play game. As in ZT Online, players assume one of five different roles in 10 different kingdoms. ZT Online PTP also requires players to log into one of multiple shards, while enabling players to travel between different shards. ZT Online PTP requires players to pay to play the game by purchasing physical or virtual prepaid game cards on its game Website or from Internet cafes and other distribution points. ZT Online PTP shares the same graphics and system requirements as ZT Online.
Giant Online
Giant Online is a military-themed MMORPG. Giant Online players may assume one of 14 different roles, such as detectives and spies. As with ZT Online, the game world in Giant Online is divided into a number of regions. Each player must guide his or her character to develop skills and cooperate with other players to fight against players from other regions. Players can equip their characters with a range of modern weaponry. Apart from waging war, characters can also engage in forms of in-game social interaction, such as friendship and even romance. Giant Online enables players, and groups of players, to purchase a range of virtual items and services. These virtual items and services include weapons, vehicles and pets. Giant Online is a 2.5 dimensional game, the background and items in the game are depicted three dimensionally, while the characters are depicted two dimensionally.
King of! Kings IIIK III is a three-dimensional online role-playing experience set in a European-style magical world. Players assume the roles of K III heroes as they explore across a virtual world of forests and medieval cities and castles. K III is the third episode of the King of Kings series of MMORPGs.
My Sweetie
My Sweetie is a 2.5D free-to-play casual MMO game, which allows players to create virtual characters, raise virtual pets on their personal computer desktops and go online to interact with other virtual pet-owners. My Sweetie is the game developed pursuant to its Win@Giant program.
XT Online is a 2.5D ancient Chinese martial arts MMORPG that was developed by Snow Wolf, a game development studio. XT Online enables users to practice different schools or styles of martial arts with the goal of becoming a master, while focusing on brotherhood and trust-building with other martial artists. The Golden Land is a free-to-play medieval strategy browser game, which was developed by Juhe Network, one of its 51% owned game development studios. ZT Online II is an internally-developed free-to-play 2D sequel to its game ZT Online. ZT Online II was developed by an internal studio that it is reorganizing into Jujia Network, one of its 51% owned game development studios.
Dragon Soul is an internally developed 3D ancient Chinese MMORPG developed by Chengdu Jufan Network Technology Co. Ltd. (Jufan Network) one of its 51% owned game development studios. Spirits of the Warriors is a free-to-play 3D MMORPG based on the Three Kingdoms period of ancient Chinese history.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading UP
Giant Interactive Group (NYSE: GA) shot up 12.29 percent to $11.36 after the company received a non-binding proposal to acquire the company for $11.75 per share. - [By Rich Smith]
With their stock trading near a 52-week high, and up 61% from a year ago, a Giant Interactive Group (NYSE: GA ) insider is cashing out at the top.
- [By Lauren Pollock]
Giant Interactive Group Inc.(GA) named three of its directors to a special committee intended to review a nonbinding proposal to take the online-game company private. Last week, investors including former chief executive Chairman Yuzhu Shi and Baring Private Equity Asia offered to acquire the stake they don’t already own for $11.75 a share.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading UP
Giant Interactive Group (NYSE: GA) shot up 11.97 percent to $11.34 after the company received a non-binding proposal to acquire the company for $11.75 per share.
Hot Regional Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: PetSmart Inc(PETM)
PetSmart, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer of products, services, and solutions for pets in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. The company offers consumables, such as pet food, treats, and litter; and hardgoods, which include pet supplies and other goods comprising collars, leashes, health care supplies, grooming and beauty aids, toys, apparel, and pet beds and carriers, as well as aquariums and habitats, accessories, d�or, and filters for fish, birds, reptiles, and small pets. It also provides fresh-water fish, small birds, reptiles, and small pets; and pet services, such as grooming, including precision cuts, baths, nail trimming and grinding, and teeth brushing, as well as training, boarding, and day camp services. In addition, the company operates PetsHotels that offer boarding for dogs and cats; provides personalized pet care, an on-call veterinarian, temperature controlled rooms and suites, daily specialty treats and p lay time, and day camp services for dogs; and operates veterinary hospitals, which offer services comprising routine examinations and vaccinations, dental care, a pharmacy, and surgical procedures. As of January 29, 2012, it operated 1,232 retail stores; 192 PetsHotels; 791 veterinary hospitals under the trade name of Banfield, The Pet Hospital; and 8 hospitals operated through other third parties in Canada. The company also offers its products through an e-commerce and community site, PetSmart.com. PetSmart, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jeff Reeves]
Expect further pain for shareholders and right-sizing for this brick-and-mortar office supply store.
PetSmart (PETM)Returns since 1/1/14: -24%
Returns since 1/1/11: +38%
Revenue Growth Last Year: 2% ($6.8 billion in FY13 to $6.9 billion for FY14) - [By John Udovich]
About�a week ago, Wall Street was biting small cap pet stock Petmed Express Inc (NASDAQ: PETS) for not living up to its earnings expectations�- meaning it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock�and compare its performance with other pet stocks like mid cap PetSmart, Inc (NASDAQ: PETM) and small cap VCA Antech Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF). I should also mention that we have recently added Petmed Express to our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio because we think the stock is undervalued in the pet space and has tremendous growth potential�moving forward.
- [By Garrett Cook]
PetSmart (NASDAQ: PETM) shares shot up 12.76 percent to $67.43 on news that activist investor Barry Rosenstein had acquired a 9.9 percent stake and will seek a review of strategic alternatives.
Hot Regional Bank Companies To Watch In Right Now: Swedbank AB (SWDBY.PK)
Swedbank AB is the parent company of Swedbank. Swedbank consists of subsidiaries, associates and a joint venture. The Company operates in six business areas: Swedish Banking, Baltic Banking, International Banking, Swedbank Markets, Asset Management and Ektornet. On January 20, 2009, Swedbank Robur AB acquired Banco Fonder AB from Alfred Berg. In February 2010, the Company acquired a 15% equity stake in OAO Swedbank from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). During the year ended December 31, 2009, Swedbank sold four branches to Sparbanken Nord, three branches to Sparbanken Dalsland, two branches to Sparbanken Rekarne, one branch to Tidaholms Sparbank and one branch to Sparbanken 1826.
Swedish Banking
Swedish Banking is engaged in offering a range of financial products and services to private customers, corporates, organisations and municipalities through close to 400 branches, as well as the telephone bank and Internet bank in Sweden. Swedbank�� products are also sold through the cooperating savings banks, which account for another 275 branches. The subsidiary in Luxembourg, with a representative office in Spain is included in the business area as well.
Baltic Banking
Baltic Banking offers a range of financial products and services to private and corporate customers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It offers its services through 226 branches, as well as the telephone bank and Internet bank.
International Banking
International Banking consists of operations outside Swedbank�� home markets, primarily the banking operations in Ukraine and Russia. In addition to Ukraine and Russia, the business area includes the branches in Denmark, Norway, the United States and China, as well as the representative office in Japan. The branch network in Ukraine, consists of 156 branches, serves both private and corporate customers. The Nordic branches offer corporate customers, mainly Swedish customers with operations in! the Nordic markets, a range of financial products and services.
Swedbank Markets
Swedbank Markets has operations in equity, fixed income and currency trading, corporate finance, as well as project, export and acquisition financing. In addition to its operations in Swedbank�� home markets, the business area includes the subsidiaries First Securities ASA in Norway and Swedbank First Securities LLC in New York.
Asset Management
Asset Management, which consists of the subsidiary Swedbank Robur Group, offers services in fund management, institutional and discretionary asset management in all of Swedbank�� home markets. Its customers include private customers, as well as institutions, foundations, municipalities, county councils and other investors. Its products are sold and distributed primarily by Swedish Banking and Baltic Banking and the savings banks in Sweden.
Ektornet
Ektornet is an independent subsidiary of Swedbank AB. It focuses on managing the Company�� repossessed assets and developing them over time. Most of the collateral consists of real estate, the part of which will be in the Baltic countries, though also in the Nordic region and the United States.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By David Hunkar]
Current Dividend Yield: 5.16%
Company: Swedbank AB (SWDBY.PK)
Sector: Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels
Country: FranceCurrent Dividend Yield: 6.50%
Sector: Banking
Country: Sweden
