In the July issue of Investment Advisor, we take on succession planning and study groups. Tom Giachetti, securities chairman for law firm Stark & Stark, has called study groups “a bunch of people sitting around convincing each other that they’re right.” A group borne out of the Financial Planning Association’s NexGen community, though, has provided major support, personally and professionally, for its members.
Following last year’s TechLeaders survey, Beacon Strategies took another look at the state of broker-dealers’ technology planning. The firm surveyed major independent and insurance broker-dealers to find out what they’re working on now, what they expect for the future and what’s changed since last year.
Succession Planning for an Entire Industry: Why Study Groups Are Critical
5 Best Mid Cap Stocks To Own For 2015: FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI)
FMC Technologies, Inc. provides technology solutions for the energy industry worldwide. Its Subsea Technologies segment designs and manufactures subsea systems used in the offshore production of crude oil and natural gas; and multiphase meters used in production and surface well testing, reservoir monitoring, remote operation, fiscal allocation, process monitoring and control, and artificial lift optimization, as well as provides installation and workover tools, installation assistance, and field support for commissioning, intervention, and maintenance of subsea systems. This segment also provides remotely operated vehicle systems and remote manipulator systems, as well as offers support services for subsea control systems and other high-technology equipment for subsea exploration and production. This segment markets its products primarily through its own technical sales organization. The company�s Surface Technologies segment offers surface wellheads for standard and cri tical service applications; fluid control products for use in well completion and stimulation activities; and fracturing flowback and wireline services for exploration companies in the oil and gas industry. Its Energy Infrastructure segment offers measurement systems for the custody transfer of crude oil, natural gas, and refined products; fluid loading and transfer systems to the oil and gas, petrochemical, and chemical industries; material handling solutions, such as bulk conveying systems to the power generation and mining industries; systems that separate production flows from wells into oil, gas, sand, and water; and direct drive systems for various energy-related applications. This segment also offers design, engineering, project management, maintenance, and aftermarket services for blending and transfer systems; and automation, control, and information technology for the oil and gas, and other industries. FMC Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marc Courtenay]
Some other names to consider as takeover targets would include FMC Technologies, Inc. (FTI), which provides technology solutions for the energy industry worldwide and hit a 52-week high on April 11th. Another less conspicuous target is the diversified chemical company FMC Corp. (FMC), which has a market cap of only $8 billion plus a forward PE of less than 13.
- [By Rich Smith]
Following up on its March order with Cameron International�for $600 million worth of subsea "trees" -- equipment affixed to an oil wellhead to regulate the flow of gas and fluids injected into a well to help force oil out -- Brazilian oil major Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR ) (NYSE: PBR-A ) announced Wednesday that it is ordering another 49 subsea trees, tooling, and associated subsea controls from FMC Technologies (NYSE: FTI ) in a contract worth $500 million.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
While Schlumberger has a free-cash-flow yield of about 3.5%, Cameron International’s (CAM) and Dril-Quip’s (DRQ) are just over 3% and�FMC Technologies‘ (FTI) is just under 3%. Halliburton (HAL) has a free-cash-flow yield of just over 1%.
Hot Consumer Service Stocks To Watch For 2014: iStar Financial Inc.(SFI)
iStar Financial Inc. operates as a finance company focusing on the commercial real estate industry. The company provides custom-tailored financing to high-end private and corporate owners of real estate. Its financing products include senior and mezzanine real estate debt, senior and mezzanine corporate capital, corporate net lease financing, and equity. The company also involves in corporate tenant leasing business, which provides capital to corporations and others who control facilities leased primarily to single creditworthy customers. As of December 31, 2008, iStar Financial owned 362 office, industrial, entertainment, hotel, and retail facilities in 39 states. The company qualifies as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, it generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 1993 and is based in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sally Jones]
iStar Financial Inc. (SFI): Sold OutUp 52% over 12 months, iStar Financial has a market cap of $940.1 million and trades with a P/B of 0.70. The current share price is $11.01.
Hot Consumer Service Stocks To Watch For 2014: Ishares Msci Singapore Ews (EWS)
iShares MSCI Singapore Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the Singaporean market, as measured by the MSCI Singapore Index (the Index).
The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Singaporean equity market. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. iShares MSCI Singapore Index Fund's investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Doug Fabian]
The country seems to have been boosted by an unexpected rise in manufacturing and gains in the service sector. One way to invest in Singapore is through the iShares MSCI Singapore ETF (EWS).
Hot Consumer Service Stocks To Watch For 2014: eBay Inc.(EBAY)
eBay Inc. provides online platforms, services, and tools to help individuals and merchants in online and mobile commerce and payments in the United States and internationally. Its Marketplaces segment operates ecommerce platform eBay.com; vertical shopping sites, such as StubHub, Fashion, Motors, and Half.com; and classifieds Websites, including Den Bl�Avis, BilBasen, Gumtree, Kijiji, LoQUo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de, Alamaula, Rent.com, eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and eBay Annunci, as well as provides advertising services. The company?s Payments segment offers payment and settlement services for consumers and merchants on and off eBay Websites and other merchant Websites. This segment operates PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online and through mobile devices; Bill Me Later that enables the United States merchants to offer, the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for ecommerce and mobile tra nsactions; Zong, which allows users with mobile phones to purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill; and BillSAFE that enables customers pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice. Its GSI segment offers an ecommerce services suite for enterprise clients that operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys and baby, health and beauty, and home; and marketing services comprising full-service digital agency, enterprise email marketing, mobile advertising, affiliate marketing, advertisement retargeting, and in-depth analytics services. The company also offers X.commerce platform that provides software developers access to the company?s applications programming interfaces to develop functionality for various merchants; and Magento Connect, which allows developers to market and sell add-on functionality and solutions to merchants that use a Magento storefront. eBay Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquarter ed in San Jose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By FinanceGuru]
This being said, it should also be factored in that brick and mortar retailers faced certain generic unfavorable conditions in December and this poor performance could be a one-off case. It is actually impressive to see that Wal-Mart is at least stepping up its game in e-retailing, which is under its control and can be leveraged. For instance, this report points out the company's plans to push for an e-retailing business model in India similar to that of Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY). This is a significant step from the company considering the fact that it failed to establish brick and mortar stores in the country after hanging there for almost six years.
- [By Asit Sharma]
It's time to value Amazon for what it is today
Accepting the reality that Amazon has grown up makes it much easier to value the company against existing businesses. Competitor Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY ) is juicing its revenues at an annual clip of 21%, and it trounces Amazon on a profitability basis, generating $2.6 billion of net profit on only $14.1 billion of sales. The market values Ebay at 28.6 times trailing 12-month earnings, which is an aggressive, but realistic, multiple. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) , huge as it is, surprisingly is growing faster than either Amazon or Ebay, with higher profits. Like Amazon, its revenue is comprised primarily of retail sales, supplemented by services revenue. Worried about the impossibility of Apple sustaining its phenomenal results, the market has steadily discounted the company's success in order to sleep at night. As Amazon transformed our purchasing habits, Apple transformed our relationship to technology. But it now trades at just under 10 times trailing 12-month earnings.� - [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
"An offering of this size would give Alibaba a $168 billion market cap - making it smaller than Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL), but larger than Facebook, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY)," Money Morning's Executive Editor Bill Patalon said.
The Piper Jaffray estimate is the latest in a string of bullish projections for the Alibaba IPO. Last week, the investment research firm Morningstar estimated that Alibaba could raise an incredible $26 billion in its IPO. Before that, financial research company Sanford C. Bernstein estimated Alibaba's value at $230 billion. - [By Steve Heller]
With the help of PayPal, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY ) is making the world of online shopping a whole lot simpler.
Log In With PayPal takes a single user login ID and proliferates it across the world of online commerce so a buyer can make secure purchases without entering much more than a login ID and password. On the backend, PayPal sends all of the pertinent credentials to the merchant so that the buyer doesn't have to. In the context of mobile, Log In With PayPal revolutionizes the mobile online shopping experience since it eliminates as many required fields as possible.
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