Despite turmoil in Washington and skepticism over the Affordable Care Act, two industry heavyweights remain bullish about equities and the economy.
“Forecasting the market is pretty basic — just watch the correlation to corporate earnings growth and the S&P 500,” Douglas Cot� the chief investment strategist at ING U.S. Investment Management, told an audience of over 500 at the Investment Management Consultants Association's Advanced Wealth Management Conference in Chicago. “When earnings grow, stocks go up and when earnings slow stocks go down.”
With that in mind, and in the context of what he described as “the Washington mess,” Mr. Cot�said the “safest trade right now is to get back to a full allocation to equities.”
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., an integrated media and entertainment company, engages in the sports entertainment business. The company develops content centered around its talent, and presents at its live and televised events featuring World Wrestling Entertainment. It operates through four segments: Live and Televised Entertainment, Consumer Products, Digital Media, and WWE Studios. The Live and Televised Entertainment segment conducts live events; produces television shows; sells merchandise at its live events; provides sponsorships, such as various promotional vehicles, including Internet and print advertising, arena signage, on-air announcements, and pay-per-view sponsorships for advertisers; offers television rights; and markets and promotes the storylines associated with pay-per-view events. It also provides WWE Classics On Demand, a subscription video on demand service that offers classic television shows, pay-per-view events, specials, and original programmi ng. This segment distributes its programming in approximately 30 languages and in approximately 145 countries. Its merchandise consists of various WWE-branded products, such as T-shirts, caps, and other novelty items. The Consumer Products segment licenses and sells retail products, including toys, video games, home videos, apparel, and books; and publishes magazines comprising lifestyle publications with native language editions in the UK, Mexico, Greece, and Turkey. The Digital Media segment operates Web sites; provides advertising services; sells merchandise on its Web site at WWEShop Internet storefront; and offers broadband and mobile content. The WWE Studios segment is involved in the distribution of entertainment films. This segment focuses on creating a mix of filmed entertainment. The company was founded in 1980 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By muhammadbazil] >DirecTV Group (DTV) refused to carry WWE�� pay per view events unless it killed WWE Network. The satellite companies did this because wrestling is still one of the highest rated programs on basic cable and satellite. Supplying cheap programming through streaming video can hurt your core business. Historically, some of WWE�� biggest revenue generators have been pay per view events��ajor wrestling shows featuring big matches between top stars that cable and satellite viewers pay extra to watch. Since WWE Network started streaming pay per views live for just $9.99, pay per view revenues and ratings have collapsed. The June 2013 Payback pay per view attracted 186,000 buyers; only 67,000 pay per view fans tuned into the June 2014 Payback event. Overall, WWE�� pay per view revenues have fallen by 39%, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Streaming video is not automatically profitable. On August 1, 2014, WWE announced that it will cut its workforce by 7%, or 40 to 60 employees, to make up for a $14.5 million net loss. The loss compares to the $5.2 million net profit WWE made last summer. It looks like the TTM revenue increases didn�� translate into automatic profit or cash for WWE. Streaming video won�� automatically boost your stock value, even with the experiences of Netflix (NFLX). A month after WWE Network went live, WWE�� share price shot up to a high of $31.39 on March 21, 2014; by May 21, 2014, it had fallen to $10.85. Over the summer it had inched up to $14.37 a share by August 19, 2014. Building a streaming video audience can take a lot of time. World Wrestling executives believe they will need 1.3 to 1.4 million subscriptions for the WWE Network to break even, The Wall Street Journal reported. That means they will need to double the size of their subscriber base just to stay online. The company still has a way to go to achieve that number; its current goal is one million subscribers by January 2015. Technical problems can drive subscribers away
Best Safest Companies To Own In Right Now: Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.(TTWO)
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. publishes, develops, and distributes interactive entertainment software, hardware, and accessories worldwide. The company develops and publishes software titles for various gaming and entertainment hardware platforms, including PlayStation3 and PlayStation2 computer entertainment systems, PlayStation Portable system, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, and Wii and DS systems, as well as for the personal computer and games for Windows. It offers products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games and 2K, which publishes titles under 2K Games, 2K Sports, and 2K Play. The company, through its subsidiary, Jack of All Games, also distributes software, hardware, and accessories in North America. Its proprietary brand franchises include Grand Theft Auto; Sid Meier's Civilization; Max Payne; Midnight Club; Manhunt; Red Dead Revolver; Bully; BioShock; Sid Meier's Railroads!; Sid Meier's Pirates!; Carnival Games; and Top Spin, as wel l as licensed brands comprise the sports games Major League Baseball 2K; NBA 2K; and NHL 2K. The company sells its software titles to retail outlets through direct relationships with large retail customers and third party distributors. Its customers include mass merchandisers, specialty retailers, video stores, electronics stores, toy stores, national and regional drug stores, and supermarket and discount store chains. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Michael Calia]
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.(TTWO) dramatically increased revenue and profit in its fiscal third quarter, as continuing strong demand for “Grand Theft Auto V” and other titles helped overcome problems that have hurt competitors. But the company gave a disappointing outlook, which dragged shares down 5.8% to $17.80 premarket.
- [By Kurt Avard]
Fool Rick Munarriz�wrote about four video game stocks to watch this past December. While two of these companies,�Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI ) and Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO ) , are priced notably higher than when that article was published, detractors note that the burst in stock prices means very little in the long run.
Best Safest Companies To Own In Right Now: Pall Corporation(PLL)
Pall Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets filtration, purification, and separation products and integrated systems solutions worldwide. The company?s Life Sciences segment provides technologies that facilitate the process of drug discovery, development, regulatory validation, and production used in the research laboratories, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, food and beverage industry, blood centers, and hospitals at the point of patient care. It also offers medical products that enhance the safety of the use of blood products in patient care and help control the spread of infections in hospitals; and cell therapy products that enable technologies for the regenerative medicine market. In addition, this segment sells various filtration and purification technologies, appurtenant hardware, and engineered systems for the development and commercialization of chemically synthesized and biologically derived drugs, plasma, and vaccines, as well as offers filtration solutions; validation services to drug manufacturers; and laboratory products for use in drug research and discovery, quality control testing, and environmental monitoring applications. Further, it serves the filtration needs of the food and beverage market. The company?s Industrial segment provides enabling and process enhancing technologies for the industrial market. It offers filtration and fluid monitoring equipment to the aerospace industry; filtration and purification technologies for the semiconductor, data storage, fiber optic, advanced display, and materials markets; and a suite of contamination control solutions for chemical, gas, water, chemical mechanical polishing, and photolithography processes. This segment also provides various technologies to producers of energy, oil, gas, renewable and alternative fuels, electricity, chemicals, and municipal water. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Port Washington, New Yo rk.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By John Divine]
Filtration systems producer Pall (NYSE: PLL ) leads off today's list, having slumped 5.1%. The company reported quarterly results after the markets closed yesterday, and investors were underwhelmed. Sales didn't live up to expectations, although earnings actually beat estimates. The company's outlook really stung shares: Pall said that European expansion was going well, while operations in China were sluggish. Apart from that being the inverse version of what Wall Street wanted to hear, the company also lowered guidance for the fiscal year.
Best Safest Companies To Own In Right Now: UBS AG (UBS)
UBS AG, incorporated on February 28, 1978, is a client-focused financial services company that offers a combination of wealth management, asset management and investment banking services on a global and regional basis. UBS AG is the parent company of the UBS Group (Group).The operational structure of the Company consists of the Corporate Center and four business divisions: Wealth Management & Swiss Bank, Wealth Management Americas, Global Asset Management and the Investment Bank. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated about 877 business and banking locations worldwide, of which about 42% were in Switzerland, 42% in the Americas, 11% in the rest of Europe, Middle East and Africa, and 5% in Asia-Pacific. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it completed acquisitions in Global Asset Management and in the equities business of the Investment Bank. In November 2011, investment management responsibility for a private equity fund of funds was transferred to Global Asset Management from Wealth Management & Swiss Bank. In October 2011, Global Asset Management acquired ING Investment Management Limited business in Australia. In July 2011, the infrastructure and private equity fund of funds businesses were transferred from its alternative and quantitative investment area to its infrastructure investment area. In January 2011, investment management responsibility for a multi-manager alternative fund was transferred to Global Asset Management from Wealth Management & Swiss Bank.
Wealth Management
Wealth Management provides wealthy private clients with financial advice, products and tools to fit their individual needs. As of December 31, 2011, Wealth Management had presence in over 40 countries and approximately 200 wealth management and representative offices, half of which are outside Switzerland, mostly in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. During 2011, the Company had CHF 750 billion of invested assets. The Company offers products and services to private! clients, focusing in particular on the ultra-high-net-worth (clients with investable assets of more than CHF 50 million) and high-net-worth client segments (clients with investable assets between CHF 2 million and CHF 50 million). In addition, it also provides wealth management solutions, products and services to financial intermediaries. Wealth Management has a presence in over 40 countries and approximately 200 wealth management and representative offices, half of which are outside Switzerland, mostly in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East.
The Company�� Global Financial Intermediaries (Global FIM) business serves approximately 1,700 asset managers. It provides its clients with the financial advice, products and tools. The Company�� clients can trade a range of financial instruments from single securities, such as equities and bonds, to various investment funds, structured products and alternative investments. Additionally, it offers structured lending, corporate finance and wealth planning advice on client needs, such as funding for education, inheritance and succession. For its ultra high net worth clients, it offers institutional-like servicing that provides access to its Investment Bank and Global Asset Management offerings. Wealth Management also gives clients access to the knowledge, and product and service offerings from Global Asset Management and the Investment Bank, complemented by an open product platform providing access to an array of products from third-party providers.
The Company competes with Credit Suisse, Julius Bar, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays and Unicredit.
Retail & Corporate
The Company delivers financial products and services to its retail, corporate and institutional clients. The Retail & Corporate unit is a core element of UBS Switzerland�� universal bank delivery model. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had a network of around 300 branches, 1,250 automated teller machines! , self-se! rvice terminals and customer service centers, alongside e-banking and mobile banking. The Company�� retail clients have access to offering, including cash accounts, payments, savings and retirement solutions, investment fund products, residential mortgages, as well as life insurance and advisory services. It provides financing solutions to its corporate clients, offering access to capital markets (equity and debt capital), syndicated and structured credit, private placements, leasing and traditional financing. The Company�� transaction banking offers solutions for payments and cash management services, trade and export finance, receivable finance, as well as global custody solutions to institutional clients.
The Company competes with Credit Suisse, Raiffeisen and PostFinance.
Wealth Management Americas
Wealth Management Americas provides advice-based relationships through its financial advisors, who deliver a range of wealth management solutions. On December 31, 2011, the business division had CHF 709 billion in invested assets. Wealth Management Americas consisted of branch networks in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, with 6,967 financial advisors as of 31 December 2011. Most corporate and operational functions of the business division are located in the home office in Weehawken, New Jersey. In the United States and Puerto Rico, Wealth Management Americas operates through direct and indirect subsidiaries of UBS AG. Securities and operations activities are conducted primarily through two broker-dealers, UBS Financial Services Inc. and UBS Financial Services Incorporated of Puerto Rico. Its banking services in the United States include those conducted through the UBS AG branches and UBS Bank USA, a federally regulated Utah bank, which provides Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured deposit accounts. It includes the domestic US business, the domestic Canadian business and international business booked in the United States.
Ca! nadian we! alth management and banking operations are conducted through UBS Bank (Canada). The Company�� include wealth accumulation and preservation, income generation and portfolio diversification. The Company�� advisors work closely with internal consultants in areas, such as wealth planning, portfolio strategy, retirement and annuities, alternative investments, managed structured products, banking and lending, equities, and fixed income accounts, structured products, banking and lending, equities, and fixed income retirement and annuities, alternative investments, managed accounts, structured products, banking and lending, equities, and fixed income. It also offers lending and cash management services, such as securities-backed lending, the resource management account, FDIC-insured deposits, mortgages and credit cards. For corporate and institutional clients, it offers a range of solutions, including equity compensation, administration, investment consulting, defined benefit and contribution programs and cash management services. It offers a range of equity and fixed income instruments.
The Company competes with Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.
Global Asset Management
The Company serves third-party institutional and wholesale clients and the clients of UBS�� wealth management businesses. The Company�� fund services unit, a global fund administration business, provides professional services, including legal fund set-up, accounting and reporting. Invested assets totaled CHF 574 billion and assets under administration were CHF 375 billion on December 31, 2011. Global Asset Management serves third-party institutional and wholesale clients, and the clients of UBS�� wealth management businesses. Global Asset Management�� business lines include traditional investments (equities, fixed income and global investment solutions); alternative and quantitative investments; global real estate; infrastructure and private equity, and fund services.
Global ! investment solutions offer asset allocation, currency, multi-manager, structured solutions, risk advisory and strategic investment advisory services. Alternative and quantitative investments has two primary business lines-Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) and O��onnor. AIS offers a range of hedge fund solutions and advisory services, including multi-manager strategies. O��onnor is a provider of single-manager global hedge funds. Global real estate manages real estate investments globally and regionally within Asia, Europe, Switzerland and the United States. Infrastructure and private equity manages direct infrastructure investment and multi-manager infrastructure and private equity strategies for both institutional and high net worth investors. Infrastructure asset management manages direct investments in core infrastructure assets worldwide. Fund services, the global fund administration business, provides professional services, including legal set-up, reporting and accounting for retail and institutional investment funds, hedge funds and other alternative products.
The Company competes with Fidelity Investments, AllianceBernstein Investments, BlackRock, JP Morgan Asset Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Investment Bank
The Investment Bank provides a range of products and services in equities, fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities to corporate and institutional clients, sovereign and government bodies, financial intermediaries, alternative asset managers and UBS�� wealth management clients. The Investment Bank has three business areas: equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC), and the investment banking department. The Company operates through branches and subsidiaries of UBS AG. Securities activities in the United States are conducted through UBS Securities LLC, a broker-dealer. Securities research provides investment analysis across a range of asset classes of more than 3,400 companies worldwide.
The ! Company p! articipates in the primary and secondary markets for cash equity and equity-related products, including listed options, structured products, equity-linked securities, swaps, futures and over-the-counter (OTC) derivative contracts. Cash equities provide clients with liquidity, investment advisory, trade execution and related consultancy services. It offers trade execution for single stocks and portfolios, including capital commitment, block trading, small-cap execution and commission management services. In addition, it also provides clients with a range of electronic trading algorithms and analytical tools. Derivatives and equity-linked provides a range of flow, structured, synthetic and equity-linked products with worldwide access to primary and secondary markets.
Prime services offer brokerage business, including clearing and custody, capital consultancy, financing, securities lending and equity swaps execution. The FICC business area delivers products and solutions to corporate, institutional and public-sector clients in all markets, as well as to private clients via targeted intermediaries. Macro consists of the foreign exchange, money market and interest rate sales and trading businesses, as well as cash and collateral trading. It provides a range of foreign exchange, precious metals, treasury, and liquidity management solutions to institutional and private clients via targeted intermediaries. Credit sales and trading consists of the origination, underwriting, trading and distribution of cash and synthetic products across the credit spectrum - bonds, derivatives, notes and loans.
The investment banking department provides advice and a range of capital markets execution services to corporate clients, financial institutions, financial sponsors, sovereign clients and hedge funds. The Company also provides liquidity in local markets across foreign exchange, credit, rates and structured products. The advisory group assists in acquisitions and sale processes, and also advises on! reviews ! and corporate restructuring solutions. Global capital markets is a joint venture with the securities business. It offers financing and advisory services that cover all forms of capital raising, as well as risk management solutions. Global leveraged finance provides event-driven (acquisition, leveraged buyout) loans, and bond and mezzanine leveraged finance to corporate clients and financial sponsors.
The Company competes with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Molly McCluskey]
The top firms in the employee segment were Edward Jones, Raymond James and Associates, UBS (NYSE: UBS ) Financial Services, Merrill Lynch Financial Management , Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) , and Chase. In the independent-advisor segment, the highest-ranked firms were Commonwealth Financial Network, Cambridge Investment Research, Raymond James Financial Services, Northwestern Mutual, and LPL Financial. J.D. Power looked at factors including compensation, contact, people, job duties, work environment, products and offerings to clients, technology, and services and support offered to financial advisors.
- [By Virginia Harrison]
The global foreign exchange market has grown steadily over the last three years and is worth $5.3 trillion a day. Deutsche Bank (DB), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Barclays (BCLYF) and UBS (UBS) are among the biggest players in the market. Spokespeople for the banks declined to comment on the investigations.
Best Safest Companies To Own In Right Now: American Lorain Corp (ALN)
American Lorain Corporation (ALN), incorporated on February 4, 1986, is an integrated food manufacturing company. The Company develops, manufactures and sells food products, which includes chestnut products, convenience foods, including ready-to-cook (RTC) foods, ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and meals ready-to-eat (MRE)), and frozen food products. The Company conducts its production activities in China. Its products are sold in 26 provinces and administrative regions in China and 42 foreign countries. The Company derives its revenues from sales in China, Japan and South Korea. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company produced 254 products, including 16 new products in its chestnut and convenience foods segment. During 2011, it discontinued three products in the convenience segment. In February 2014, American Lorain Corp acquired a 51% interest in Athena Group.
The Company manufactures its products in six facilities in China, three of which are located in Junan County, Shandong Province, one in Luotian County, Hubei Province, one in Miyun County, Beijing City and one leased facility in Dongguan, Guandong Province. As of December 31, 2011, the Company manufactured its products using 26 production lines. Each production line is used to produce between 10 and 50 products. The Company operates three product lines: deep-freezing lines, canning lines and convenience food lines. The Company sells its products in all first-tier cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou. Its export sales destinations include Asia pacific, primarily Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, but also Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia; Europe, primarily Belgium and the United Kingdom, but also France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and Denmark the Middle East, primarily Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel; North America, including the United States and Canada.
ALN owns 100% of International Lorain Holding, Inc. (ILH). ILH wholly owns two Chinese operating subsi! diaries, Luotian Green Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (Luotian Lorain) and Junan Hongrun Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (Junan Hongrun), directly. Junan Hongrun, in turn, wholly owns Dongguan Green Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (Dongguan Lorain). In addition, together with Junan Hongrun, ILH wholly owns Beijing Green Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (Beijing Lorain), Shandong Greenpia Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (Shandong Greenpia), and owns approximately 80% of Shandong Green Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (Shandong Lorain) (Shandong Economic Development Investment Co. Ltd. owns approximately 20%).
Chestnut Products
During 2011, the Company produced 57 processed chestnut products. During 2011, this segment contributed 51.7% of its total revenues. The Company's products include its aerated open-bottom chestnuts, which are chestnuts packaged with nitrogen; sweetheart chestnuts, which are sweet preserved chestnuts; chestnuts in syrup, and golden chestnut kernels.
Convenience Foods
The Company's convenience food products include RTC food products, RTE food products and MRE food products. During 2011, the Company's RTCs included beef and lamb products, and its RTEs included bean products and pickle products. The Company's self heating MREs are primarily for military use since no cooking device or other ingredients are needed other than water. The Company also introduced microwavable MREs for civilian uses, such as camping, traveling and other situations. The Company produces various MREs based on Chinese cuisine, which include its pork with garlic sauce over rice and kungpao chicken with rice. The Company produced 138 convenience food products, during 2011, including 14 new products, such as filled buns and fried sweet potato.
Frozen Food Products
The Company produces a variety of frozen foods, including frozen vegetables, frozen fruits, frozen fish, and frozen meats. The Company produced 63 frozen food products in 2011. The Company's frozen foods included, during 2011, were frozen asparagus a! nd frozen! corn.
The Company competes with Hebei Liyuan, Foodwell Corporation, Weifang Langdong Food Co. Ltd., Yuyao Hongji Food Co. Ltd. and Yantai Pengshun Food Co. Ltd.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By James E. Brumley]
Truth be told, were it just today's 11% pop from American Lorain Corporation (NYSEMKT:ALN), it might not even be worth mentioning. It's not just today's 11% rally from ALN, though, that's made this stock so interesting. It's everything that's happened up until this point that may mean American Lorain deserves a spot at the top of your watchlist, if not in your portfolio.
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www.funnyordie.com Funny or Die, a website that attracts A-list celebs to skewer hands-off topics, has hired a financial adviser to investigate options, which could include a sale. "We've received unsolicited interest from a number of companies," Bloomberg says CEO Dick Glover told employees in a memo. "We are NOT trying to sell Funny or Die, but we thought it wise to engage some experts to help us evaluate the situation. In the meantime, if any of you mistakenly receive a briefcase full of cash, please bring it to my office immediately." Hahahahaha. "The asking price is $100 million to $300 million, people with knowledge of the matter said," Bloomberg reported. Satire in Short Doses Funny or Die -- the brainchild of Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy -- uses short-form videos to satirize popular topics. Its first video, "The Landlord," has been viewed 82 million times. "Porn Stars Explain Net Neutrality" riffs on a current controversy. Its popular celeb-grab, "Between Two Ferns," features Zack Galifianakis asking the super-famous super-embarrassing questions. Most notably, Galifianakis interviewed President Obama, apologizing to the leader of the free world for cancellng three times. The president tried gamely to match Galifianakis' wit, but it was like watching a kitten try to out-roar a lion. As the president promoted his then-new Affordable Care Act, Galifianakis checked his watch, shifted in his seat, then asked, "Is this what they mean by drones?" Although the site is irreverent, it's not exactly anti-establishment, at least when it comes to money. Time Warner (TWC) is a minority stakeholder and Sequoia Capital has delivered funding; and Under Armour (UA), General Motors (GM) and Pepsi (PEP) have hired it to produce entertainment videos, Bloomberg said. More from Lisa Kaplan Gordon