Vectren Corp.'s (VVC) share price has been rallying since early October, helped by the company's strong third-quarter results reported at the end of the month. Analysts are bullish on Vectren, with the next-year estimate projecting 23% earnings growth.

Company Description

Vectren Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides energy delivery services to residential and commercial customers in Indiana and Ohio, specializing in natural gas and electricity. Approximately 75% of Vectren's earnings mix is derived from utility operations with the other 25% from non-regulated businesses. The company was founded in 1990 and has a market cap of $4 billion.

Third-Quarter Results

Vectren pleased shareholders on Oct 30 when the company reported excellent third-quarter results comprising its two business segments.

Income from the utility group came in at $13.6 million, or 17 cents per share, up from last year's $10.7 million, or 14 cents per share.

Income from Vectren's

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The UAW holds the key to the success of the U.S. auto industry. The recent Senate hearing with the CEOs of the big three car manufacturers was better than most sitcoms. The CEOs were unable to answer questions about how they plan to pay back the loans, or just avoided the question, or how long the loans would keep them afloat, or how they would change their business models to avoid asking the taxpayers to bail them out again. It went on and on.

The CEO of GM was asked how long GM had to pay the employees of a plant that had been closed. His answer, “I don’t know.” How long do you think you would be working for him with answers like that? The senator who asked the question shook his head in disbelief and muttered, “Unbelievable!”

The whole time the panel questioned the

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The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar's Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong. To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street is to allocate capital-to decide who should get it and who should not. Believe me when I tell you that I hadn't the first clue. I'd never taken an accounting course, never run a business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job at Salomon ...

Obama Link FestBarack Obama Hedge Fund Link Fest(http://HedgeFundBlogger.com) I have received many congratulatory emails over the past day from hedge fund/investment professionals in India, Switzerland, London and Singapore all thankful that Obama was elected. I found that interesting in itself and also saw a flood of articles come out discussing Barack Obama and the hedge fund industry, or Obama and the finance/investment industry in general.Yesterday I published this piece: Barack Obama & Hedge Funds... Here are excerpts and links to many of these discussions:(I never discuss my own political views through this site throwing my opinion around regarding hedge funds is enough. I don't support any of these articles one way or another but simply provide them as an aggregation of what has been put out ...

Casey & General Stores (CASY) has been trading ahead of the broader market amid recent turmoil and over the long-term. While grocers and food retailers have been slowing down, convenience stores like CASY have been outperforming. CASY has been consistently outperforming the Dow Jones ($DJI), S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq (COMP). The company offers a dividend yield of 1.2%, while the majority of its industry peers pay no dividend at all.

Company Description

Casey & General Stores, Inc. together with its subsidiaries, operate convenience stores under the Casey's General Stores name in the Midwest states. It has operations in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa.

Solid Growth

The company reported an all-time high in earnings for the first fiscal quarter, surpassing the consensus estimate

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Headquartered in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. is an upscale, modern, and casual restaurant chain. Trading on the NASDAQ Global Market, the Company features affordable, high quality, family favorite menu items. In addition to food, they also have their own on-site brewery in each location. Founded in 1997, Granite City has a current market capitalization of $8.10 million.

The Company opened their first restaurant in St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1999. From there, they proceeded to open their next restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in December of 2000. Next in line was their Fargo, North Dakota location, which opened in November of 2001. Today, Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. operates 25 restaurants in eleven Midwestern states.

The Company’s focus is on made-from-scratch recipes, which they serve to their patrons in generous portions. They also serve handcrafted beers in the moderate price point range. They produce unique

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U.S. Dry Cleaning (UDRY) operates 60 dry cleaning stores throughout its home state of California, Hawaii and Virginia. The company also provides commercial dry cleaning services to hotels across the U.S. In order to bolster market share, U.S. Dry Cleaning is highly acquisitive, averaging a couple of acquisitions per quarter thus far in 2008. The company generally looks for stores or chains of dry cleaning shops that have about $5 million in annual revenue. U.S. Dry Cleaning had nearly $13 million in sales for 2007.

The company is also seeking to enter new markets across the U.S. via acquisitions. U.S. Dry Cleaning recently announced that it made purchases to enter new markets in Indiana and Tennessee. The company said earlier this month that paid almost $800,000 to gain nearly $8 million in sales by buying 25 cleaning centers in the Indianapolis area. It was the company’s fourth acquisition in 2008.

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U.S. Dry Cleaning (UDRY) operates 60 dry cleaning stores throughout its home state of California, Hawaii and Virginia. The company also provides commercial dry cleaning services to hotels across the U.S. In order to bolster market share, U.S. Dry Cleaning is highly acquisitive, averaging a couple of acquisitions per quarter thus far in 2008. The company generally looks for stores or chains of dry cleaning shops that have about $5 million in annual revenue. U.S. Dry Cleaning had nearly $13 million in sales for 2007.

The company is also seeking to enter new markets across the U.S. via acquisitions. U.S. Dry Cleaning recently announced that it made purchases to enter new markets in Indiana and Tennessee. The company said earlier this month that paid almost $800,000 to gain nearly $8 million in sales by buying 25 cleaning centers in the Indianapolis area. It was the company’s fourth acquisition in 2008.

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Indiana is perhaps best known by its world famous Indianapolis 500 motorsports race, but there is indeed much more to this state. It is also a fast growing and very diverse state. The following are interesting facts about Indiana:1. Livestock and poultry occupations employ over 42,000 in Indiana.2. There are three biodiesel plants in Indiana, and one under construction.3. There are 12 ethanol plants operating within the state and together they produce over 1 billion gallons of ethanol.4. A third of Indiana’s soybean production is exported.5. Indiana’s tourism industry contributes almost $7 billion to the economy.6. Indiana’s top manufacturing industries are: transportation equipment, chemicals, and primary metals.7. The manufacturing industry employs approximately 640,000 workers in the state.8. Indiana’s coal industry provides the state with over 2,000 jobs.9. International manufacturing firms with operations in Indiana employ ...

Casey & General Stores (CASY) reported an all-time high in earnings for the first fiscal quarter, surpassing the consensus estimate by nearly 18%. The company’s return on equity (ROE) is 13%, which beats industry average of 5%.

Company Description

Casey & General Stores, Inc. together with its subsidiaries, operate convenience stores under the Casey’s General Stores name in the Midwest states. It has operations in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa.

Solid Growth

The company reported an all-time high in earnings for the first fiscal quarter, surpassing the consensus estimate by nearly 18% and noting that the record quarter gave CASY a solid foundation for meeting its annual performance goals. During the past 5 consecutive quarters, the company missed analyst forecasts only once and on average topped estimates by 11%.

First-quarter sales were

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