This analysis is from John Derrick, U.S. Global Investors Director of Research. The market has rallied dramatically since the March 9 low, with the biggest beneficiary of this rally being low-quality companies. This intuitively makes sense, given that companies with the most troubled outlooks are the ones most likely to have a strong recovery when the dire outcomes predicted at the bottom of the crisis failed to transpire. Quality may have different meanings to different investors, but in a recent research piece, Citigroup ranked performance based on multiple definitions of quality. Samp;P earnings quality ranking, debt-to-capitalization ratio and return on equity were used as proxies for quality. The research universe was the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, but I believe broader market conclusions can be drawn as well. Based on Samp;P earnings quality rankings, companies with C or D (the two lowest categories) ratings returned about 55 percent over the past six months, while the ...

Tendril, the developer of the first integrated software/hardware platform to enable real-time, two-way communications between utilities/retailers and their customers on energy supply and consumption, is broadening its smart grid relationship with General Electric Company (GE) beyond appliances with an equity investment by GE Energy Financial Services.  GE Energy Financial Services is treating the venture capital investment as a follow-up to Tendril’s announcement in June that it raised $30 million in Series C funding, making it one of the best-funded energy management startups.  The Tendril Residential Energy Management Ecosystem (TREE) is designed to help utilities operate more efficiently to improve customer service and comply with new regulatory requirements.  GE’s investment builds on its appliances partnership with Tendril. GE Consumer & Industrial and Tendril announced in July that they would integrate the TREE Platform to work with GE's dryers, refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances. GE appliances ...

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

_______________________________________

FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com

_______________________________________

Monday October 12, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

**************************************************************

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, today introduced its Synphony HLS (High Level Synthesis) solution that integrates M-language and model-based synthesis to deliver up to 10X higher design and verification productivity than traditional RTL flows for communications and multimedia applications. Synphony HLS creates optimized RTL for ASIC and FPGA implementation, architecture exploration and rapid prototyping. In addition, Synphony HLS complements C/C++-based flows by generating C-models for system

...

Emerging leader in lithium-power battery technology, Superlattice Power, Inc., proudly announces the completion of their design of a fast charge lithium-ion battery pack. The newly completed design qualifies the company for EV Innovations Inc.’s LiV(TM) series electric vehicles.

Superlattice Power Inc. currently designs lithium ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles. Working with EV Innovations Inc., the company developed a robust lithium ion battery pack system that has been tested in 10 vehicles. Each vehicle tested the battery back for about 2,000 miles. The innovative design developed by Superlattice Power Inc. is capable of handling more than 2.5 C rates, meaning, the battery pack can reach an 80% charge capacity in less than 30 minutes.

The first prototype of this battery pack will be developed and delivered by the end of November 2009. The components to be modified in the first prototype include charging protocol, Battery Management System, thermal management

...

div style="text-align: justify;"Merrill Lynch/BAM is making a major call upgrading span style="font-weight: bold;"Citigroup (NYSE:C)/span to Buy from Underperform and raising their target price to $5.75 (prev. $2.50)br /br /The analyst Guy Moszkowski is upgrading C to Buy from Underperform because: in firm's view, credit quality is stabilizing; technical overhang of new-share issuance is past; and, given Citi’s new disclosure of core Citicorp vs non-core CitiHoldings, they see limited bookvalue downside potential. PO is $5.75, about Book Value.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Consumer credit quality stabilizing; psychology shifting/spanbr /2Q bank results showed consumer credit delinquency stabilizing, which should drive better credit loss trends in quarters ahead. This is of course key for Citi and its large portfolio of mortgage and other consumer debt. With crisis largely past for Citi, we believe psychology on the company is changing.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Technical risks have passed/spanbr /On July 30, Citi converted $58bn of Preferred ...

The price of a futures contract is the result of a decision on the part of both a buyer and a seller. The buyer believes prices will go higher; the seller feels prices will decline. These decisions are represented by a trade at an exact price.

Once the buyer and seller make their trade, their influence in the market is spent — except for the opposite reaction they will ultimately have when they close the trade. Thus, there are two aspects to every trade: 1) each trade must ultimately have an opposite reaction on the market, and 2) the trade will influence other traders.

The price of a futures contract is the result of a decision on the part of both a buyer and a seller. The buyer believes prices will go higher; the seller feels prices will decline. These decisions

...

Some investors often wonder why others have come out of the latest economic conditions with a better looking portfolio then theirs. Yes, there are very few investors that found no hit to their portfolio or made a profit as a result of current conditions, but there are those that were less affected. Why? In past posts the philosophy of looking past the next quarter has been a common theme. One quarter or event does not make a poorly performing company if the company has a solid product mix and executes correctly.

An investor that can look past a bump or string of a few poor quarters, while recognizing why the quarters were poor, will be one that will find profit on the other side as the company work’s through its issues or a poor economy. With this in mind, the following company is about to announce test results and may

...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif - July 9, 2009 - SolFocus, the leading developer of Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) systems, today announced that it has closed its Series C Funding round having raised $77.6 million.

State budgets are a shambles. Sales taxes, corporate taxes, personal income taxes and other taxes are being raised all over the country.  The budget problems and consequential taxes will impact municipal bond rates and default risk, and after-tax investment returns on many forms of investment.

California Muni Money Funds:

We have been advising our California clients holding reserve assets in California tax-exempt money funds to consider moving assets to a national tax-exempt money fund or a taxable money fund while California works out its problems.  It’s one thing to take credit risk and interest rate risk in muni bonds intentionally, but if parking cash for safe keeping is the goal, the default risk (albeit perhaps temporary) or the the risk of being paid in IOU’s is just not worth holding reserve in California muni money market funds at this time.

California On The Ropes:

Reuters (June 19, 2009) “California… faces the prospect of a

...

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #5 Rank ("strong sell") List today:

Acuity Brands Inc (AYI) Anthracite Capital Inc (AHR) Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc (BBW) C&D Technologies Inc (CHD) Cavco Industries Inc (CVCO) China Precision Steel Inc (CPSL) CNOOC Ltd (CEO) CoBiz Financial Inc (COBZ) Corn Products International Inc (CPO) Cumulus Media Inc (CMLS) Cybex International Inc (CYBI) Discover Financial Services (DFS) Eastman Kodak Co (EK) Electronics For Imaging Inc (EFII) Entertainment Properties Trust (EPR) Erie Indemnity Co (ERIE) Fastenal Co (FAST) First Advantage Corp (FADV) First M & F Corp (FMFC) FirstService Corp (FSRV) Gray Television Inc (GTN) Kaman Corp (KAMN) KVH Industries Inc (KVHI) Legacy Bancorp Inc (LEGC) Mercantile Bank Corp (MBWM) Meridian Bioscience Inc (VIVO) MetroCorp Bancshares Inc (...