Today we are featuring top-performing “Real Estate" equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in equity securities of real estate companies.

Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Real Estate Equity Funds.

3 Excellent Examples

Forward Select Income A (KIFAX) was incepted in March 2001. The investment seeks high current income and potential for modest long-term growth of capital.

The fund invests primarily in securities of companies in the real estate industry, such as real estate investment trusts, master limited partnerships and other real estate firms. The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in income-producing securities.

Shareholders have to make a minimum initial investment of $2,000 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy") fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.77%.

Joel S. Beam has been Lead Manager of the fund since March 2001. Prior to joining Kensington, Beam was with Liquidity Financial

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Mohamed El-Erian and Ramin Toloui (Financial Times): How to fill the gaps left by dollar decline, November 5, 2009. We should expect to see more discussion in the next few years on new types of reserve assets.

• James West (GoldSeek): Gold price is no bubble, November 4, 2009. The price performance of gold recently has all sorts of armchair economists waxing philosophical on the idea that this is the advent of a price “bubble”. While certainly everyone has and is entitled to their opinion, there are other features of humanity that we all possess, and much like many opinions, are best obscured from view. Declaring that gold is in a “bubble” demonstrates complete ignorance of or disregard for

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Franklin Biotechnology Discovery A (MAPTX) seeks capital appreciation by primarily investing in securities of biotechnology companies and discovery research firms.

This non-diversified fund may invest a substantial portion of assets in equity securities of smaller capitalization companies with a market capitalization of less than $1.5 billion.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD), Celgene Corp. (CELG) and Genzyme Corp. (GENZ) are among the fund’s key holdings.

Franklin Real Estate Securities A (FREEX) was incepted in January 1994. The investment seeks maximize total return.

The fund normally invests most of its assets in equity securities of real estate firms. It may invest up to 20% of assets in equity or debt securities of issuers engaged in businesses whose products and services are closely related to the real estate industry.

Shareholders have to make a minimum initial investment of $50,000 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy")

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The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday said that it has sanctioned $6.5 billion in loans to investors under its Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This action follows investors’ application for loans to buy securities backed by auto, credit card and other types of consumer loans, in the seventh round of such funding. The current loan amount is down from $6.9 billion requested in August but up from $5.4 billion in July. Also, it is substantially lower from $11.45 billion in June. The overall decrease in investors' appetite this month for government loans indicates that the investors are not relying much on the Fed for funding to buy these securities. A total of $14.7 billion was borrowed by investors for purchasing eligible asset-backed securities sold by companies including American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), General Electric (GE), Nissan Motor (NSANY) and Ford ...

A rise in existing home sales last month shows things are getting better in the U.S. housing market, but the still-dire unemployment situation and the looming possibility of a jobless recovery may halt the rally by the end of the year. That makes the extension of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers imperative.

Existing home sales rose 7.2% to a 5.24 million annual rate in July, the most since August 2007 and the fourth straight month the figure increased, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Friday. Year-over-year sales grew 5%, the increase since September 2007, just before the markets came crashing down the following month.

“The housing market has decisively turned for the better,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “A combination of first-time buyers taking advantage of the housing stimulus tax credit and greatly improved affordability conditions are contributing to higher sales.”

Rising sales numbers

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Move, Inc. (MOVE) recently reported sales of $54.6 million in the second quarter of 2009, down 11.1% year over year and about flat on a sequential basis. Move provides a variety of real estate services through a family of websites. These services, which include online media and technology solutions, are provided to real estate industry professionals, advertisers and providers of home and real estate-related products and services. The past two years have been very tough for the company due to a rapid deterioration in the global economy led by the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The situation has not improved much, though the pace of decline has slowed a bit. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings from continuing operations before interest, taxes, stock-based compensation and charges, depreciation, amortization and other non-recurring charges) came in at $7.1 million, compared to $5.7 million in the year-ago quarter and $6.6 million in the ...

The U.S. Housing Market: Three (More) Reasons Real Estate Isn’t Rebounding

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist

Editor’s Note: Yesterday we heard from Martin Denholm, the managing editor at Smart Profits, one of our affiliate publications which will be joining us over the next few weeks. We’ll be adding their experts to our esteemed panelists to give you the best investing ideas and advice out there. Today we follow Martin with outspoken favorite, Louis Basenese, who also gives us his take and concern for investors, on the housing market.

If ever an off-the-wall indicator existed to predict the fate of the U.S. housing market, I found it… You see, business is booming in one particular niche of the real estate industry - shrink-wrap.

That’s right. Contractors and developers are wrapping mothballed building projects in plastic, literally - from single-family homes to 25,000 square foot commercial properties.

The beneficiary? Privately-held Fast Wrap

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Today we are featuring top-performing “Real Estate" equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in stocks of companies that are part of the real estate and REIT sectors.

Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Real Estate Equity Funds.

3 Solid Samples

Thrivent Real Estate Securities A (TREFX) seeks to provide high current income and long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in the equity securities of companies in the real estate industry.

The fund focuses on real estate equity securities, but may invest in other types of real estate securities or in companies from other industries. It may invest up to 20% in equity and fixed-income securities of companies that are not principally engaged in the real estate industry.

Reginald L. Pfeifer has managed the fund since its inception in June 2005. Pfeifer has 22 years of industry experience.

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PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

PennyOmega.com Hot Stock News & Alerts!

 

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

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Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRE) will hold a conference call to discuss its second quarter 2009 financial results on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. Green Plains’ participants will include Todd Becker, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jerry Peters, Chief Financial Officer. Following their presentation, participants will be available for a brief question and answer session.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (Nasdaq:ISRG), the industry leader in surgical robotics, today reported second quarter of 2009 revenue of $260.6 million, compared with $219.2 million for the second quarter of 2008. Second quarter of 2009 revenue included $13.8 million of

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On July 16, 2009, Grupo Televisa, S.A. de C.V. - GDS (TV), the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world, posted positive results for the second quarter 2009. During the quarter, the company recorded a year-over-year increase of 10.2% and 3.2% in net sales and operating income respectively. Increase in net sales was mainly attributable to 55% revenue growth in cable and telecom segment, and 35.7% in pay television networks. However, net income decreased 7.4% year over year. The remarkable growth in its telecom business area continued with the Sky segment reaching 1.8 million subscribers and the telephony segment reaching 237,000 subscribers. Televisa continued to deliver strong ratings and audience shares. During the second quarter of 2009, Televisa’s weekday prime-time audience share reached 71.7%, while its sign-in to sign-off audience share was 70.1%. During the second quarter, the company paid a cash dividend of ...