December 2018 – WStNN.com™ WallStreetNewsNetwork® Stockerblog™ WSNN®

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s Recent Investments

by Nkem Iregbulem

As the third-wealthiest person in the world, Warren Buffett is widely regarded as an investment guru. His investment philosophy is based on the concept of value investing. He is the chairman, CEO, and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, the world’s 10th largest company by revenue. As of 2018, Buffett is estimated to be worth over $80 billion. He is not only an investor but also a dedicated philanthropist. In fact, he has promised to give 99% of his fortune to charitable causes.

Due to his success, Buffett’s stock purchases are closely followed by many other investors. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway recently purchased the stocks of JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Oracle (ORCL), PNC Financial Services Group (PNC), and Travelers Companies (TRV). His company also added to its position in Bank of America (BAC) and Apple (AAPL). These stocks can all be found on the New York Stock Exchange, except for AAPL, which is traded on the NASDAQ exchange.

With more than $2.5 trillion in assets, JP Morgan Chase is one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. The company is segmented into consumer and community banking, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and asset and wealth management. The company was founded in 1871 and is headquartered in New York, but it operates both within and outside of the United States. JP Morgan Chase has a market cap of $360.6B and pays a dividend yield of 2.89%. It trades at 13.70 times trailing earnings and at 11.07 times forward earnings. The stock has a price-to-sales ratio of 3.60, putting it into the overpriced range. It also has price-to-book ratio of 1.59. With its revenue growing each fiscal year since 2015, the company enjoys a 3-year revenue growth rate of 1.56% and a 5-year revenue growth rate of 0.53%.

Founded in 1977 and based in California, Oracle is a computer technology company that sells databases, middleware, applications, hardware, and other enterprise IT solutions. Most of the its revenue comes from software licenses, support, and maintenance, but the company has recently started to shift towards cloud-based subscriptions. Oracle has a market cap of $183.1B and pays a dividend yield of 1.57%. It trades at 49.21 times trailing earnings and at 14.33 times forward earnings. The stock has a price-to-sales ratio of 5.04, so it is considered overpriced. It also has a price-to-book ratio of 4.81. Oracle has a 3-year revenue growth rate of 1.38% and a 5-year revenue growth rate of 1.39% and has seen its revenue increase each fiscal year since 2016.

PNC is a financial services company involved in retail banking, corporate and institutional banking, residential mortgage banking, and asset management. With nearly 2,600 branches in 19 states and D.C., the company stands as the eight-largest bank in the United States — measured by assets. The company was founded in 1845 and is based in Pennsylvania. PNC Financial Services Group has a market cap of $61.4B and pays a dividend yield of 2.86%. The company’s stock trades at 11.17 times trailing earnings and at 11.56 times forward earnings.

It falls into the overpriced range with a price-to-sales ratio of 3.70. The stock also has a price-to-book ratio of 1.30. The company boasts a 3-year revenue growth rate of 2.03% and a 5-year revenue growth rate of 1.03%.

The Travelers Companies is an insurance company that was founded in 1853 and is headquartered in New York. The company segments its business into commercial and personal insurance lines. Under its commercial operations, it provides coverage for primarily midsize businesses. Under its personal line, the company mostly serves car and homeowners. The Travelers Companies has a market cap of $33.8B and pays a dividend yield of 2.40%. It trades at 14.33 times trailing earnings and at 11.26 times forward earnings. The company’s stock has a normal price-to-sales ratio of 1.17 and a price-to-book ratio of 1.51. The company enjoys a 3-year revenue growth rate of 2.08% and a slightly better 5-year revenue growth rate of 2.34% as its revenue has been increasing each fiscal year since 2015.

With over $2 trillion in assets, Bank of America is one of the largest and most well-known financial institutions in the United States. The company’s business operations can be segmented into consumer banking, global wealth and investment management, global markets, and global banking. Its lines of business include home mortgage lending, credit and debit cards, investment banking, brokerage services, small-business services, and many others. Headquartered in North Carolina and founded in 1998, Bank of America has a market cap of $267.5B and pays a dividend yield of 2.19%. The stock trades at 12.98 times trailing earnings and at 9.51 times forward earnings. It has a price-to-sales ratio of 3.20, so the stock falls into the overpriced category. It also has a price-to-book ratio of 1.12. The company has a 3-year revenue growth rate of 0.56% and a 5-year revenue growth rate of 1.46%. Its revenue has been increasing each fiscal year since 2015.

Apple is a large and familiar technology company that was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in California. It designs and sells computer software, online services, and consumer electronics. Its product line of electronics include smartphones, tablets, computers, and smartwatches. The company also provides services such as Apple Music, a music streaming service, and Apple Pay, a mobile payment service. Apple has a market cap of $741.37B and pays a dividend yield of 1.87%. The stock trades at 13.12 times trailing earnings and 11.96 times forward earnings. It has a price-to-sales ratio of 2.94, making it slightly overpriced. The company’s stock also has a price-to-book ratio of 6.92. With its revenue increasing each year over the past few years, the company boasts a 3-year revenue growth rate of 4.35% and an even higher 5-year revenue growth rate of 9.22%. Most of this revenue comes from Apple’s iPhone sales.

Hopefully, one of the richest men in the world can give you some profitable investment ideas.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in January 2019

by Fred Fuld III

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Many traders and investors use the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the strategy of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

This technique generally works in bull markets and flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the strategy during bear markets. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and many with yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount, and annual yield.

American Express Company (AXP)	1/3/2019	0.39	1.65%
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS)	1/3/2019	0.15	9.55%
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY)	1/3/2019	0.41	3.25%
Campbell Soup Company (CPB)	1/8/2019	0.35	4.18%
Mastercard Incorporated (MA)	1/8/2019	0.33	0.70%
Foot Locker, Inc. (FL)	1/17/2019	0.345	2.66%
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW)	1/22/2019	0.48	2.09%
Hasbro, Inc. (HAS)	1/31/2019	0.63	3.10%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found HERE . (If you have been to the page before, and the latest link doesn’t show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists HERE . Most of the lists are free.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Crack the Funding Code: How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup

by Fred Fuld III

The book, Crack the Funding Code: How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup, by Judy Robinett, is a very extensive but easy to read and understand guide on raising money for your startup.

The book covers everything, from finding the right investors, to knowing what investors are looking for, to closing the deal. Probably the most important chapter is Your Funding Roadmap, which covers finding and reaching the people who can help you. The steps pointed out in that chapter are clear and concise.

Robinett even covers such topics as what to include in a pitch deck, covered in Chapter 8. There is even a successful pitch deck example shown in the appendix.

If you are starting a startup, or need to raise money for an existing startup, I highly recommend that you read Crack the Funding Code.

Cyber Smart: Five Habits to Protect Your Family, Money, and Identity from Cyber Criminals

It is rare that I ever say this about a non-fiction book, but I couldn’t put this book down. Cyber Smart: Five Habits to Protect Your Family, Money, and Identity from Cyber Criminals by Bart R. McDonough is the most thorough guide on protecting yourself from cyber criminals.

It is a captivating book with numerous true anecdotes about the victims of cyber crime, which are included with every chapter and the most interesting parts of the book.

For example, there is the story of the woman who met a man on an online dating site and “loaned” him $72,000. When she tried to meet the man in person, he never showed up.

Another victim was a woman who received a phone call from her local hospital saying that her baby would have to be taken from her and turned over to child protective services because they detected meth in the baby. The woman said that, first, she didn’t have a baby, and second, she never used drugs in her life. Apparently, someone stole this woman’s medical ID so that the bad woman’s birth of her baby would be covered by the innocent woman’s insurance.

For some of the victims, you wonder how they could fall for a scam but others you feel sorry for, especially the grandparent scam victims.

If you think you know all the email scams, like email phishing, do you know what spear phishing is? How about whaling, clone phishing, SMS phishing, or pretexting?

At the end of every chapter, the author provides advice on how to protect yourself from the particular digital threat, whether you have a Windows or Mac computer, whether you have an Android or an iPhone, whether you use T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T, and so on.

With the ubiquitous hacks, scams, privacy compromises, and identity thefts taking place, everyone should read Cyber Smart. I highly recommend it.

How to Get Free Same Day and One Day Delivery from Amazon

If you are doing some last minute shopping, you may be pleased to know that Amazon offers Free Same Day and One Day Delivery. Here are the catches:

It is limited to certain items but over a million items qualify.
It is limited to certain cities but over 10,000 cities and towns qualify.
The order must be for over $35.
Same day orders must be placed by noon.
Next day orders must be placed by the afternoon.
Must be a member of Amazon Prime.

For more information, go HERE.

How to Make Money From Insider Trading Legally

by Fred Fuld III

You may have heard that insider trading is illegal. And it is, un der most circumstances. An insider is a top executive, a director, or a holder of 10% or more of the outstanding shares of a corporation. If an insider gives you information about the company that is not disclosed to the public, and you act on that info to profit from buying or shorting the company’s shares, that is illegal.

However, insiders are allowed to buy shares in their own company, as long as it is reported to the SEC in a short period of time. Also, the purchases and sales that the insiders make is available to the public.

For long term investors, this can be useful information, especially if insiders make purchases, because they usually do so based on a long term horizon. If they sell, it could be for any number of reasons totally unrelated to th company, such as raising funds to buy a house, estate planning purposes, paying for their kids college education, or diversification.

So if you look for the stocks that have has more than a 20% increase in total insider ownership over the last six months, you might find some interesting investment opportunities. All of the following fit that category, plus they ll have price to earnings ratios of less than 15, forward P/E ratios less than 15, and a low price to earnings growth ratio of less than one.

Company	Ticker	Market Cap	P/E
Apogee Enterprises, Inc.	APOG	880.84M	11.33
Avon Products, Inc.	AVP	772.51M	6.32
Famous Dave’s of America	DAVE	41.90M	9.31
GMS Inc.	GMS	627.56M	12.22
Hyster-Yale Materials Handlg	HY	979.49M	13.4
Koppers Holdings Inc.	KOP	381.94M	12.49
McDermott International	MDR	1.25B	3.47
Riverview Bancorp, Inc.	RVSB	165.13M	10.7
Olympic Steel, Inc.	ZEUS	176.46M	3.93

Bedtime Stories for Managers: Farewell, Lofty Leadership . . . Welcome, Engaging Management

by Fred Fuld III

The book, Bedtime Stories for Managers: Farewell, Lofty Leadership . . . Welcome, Engaging Management, by Henry Mintzberg, is a great compendium of short essays that gives managers numerous ideas on how to be better leaders.

The book is filled with anecdotes, humor, and even pictures.

In Chapter 1, the author provides a blurb called “Five Day Steps for Managing without Soul,” and in Chapter 4, there is another blurb “Rules for Being a Lofty Leader.” Both of these show clearly what a manager should NOT do.

Mintzberg has a unique take on leadership and management. For example, did you know that Eastern Airlines went bankrupt because of scrambled eggs?

The book will be available in a little over a month on February 5. If you are a manager, I highly recommend that you pre-order Bedtime Stories for Managers.

Top Tax Selling Stocks: Bargains for a Possible Bounce in January

by Fred Fuld III

You may be wondering what a tax selling stock is. It is a stock that is currently selling for a low price but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

As the year-end approaches, many investors employ the technique called tax harvesting , which is the selling of loser stocks to offset any gains that may have been established during the year.

With all the heavy selling, the price of the stocks that have had big drops tends to tank far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a little (or big) bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, here is a selection of some that have dropped by over 75% year-to-date. They all have low market capitalizations so they should be considered speculative, as the market caps are all less than $800 million. However, all of these have a price to earnings ratio of less than 12 and all have a price sales ratio less than one.

Company	Symbol	Market Cap	P/E	Price
Francesca’s Holdings Corp.	FRAN	45.86M	11.81	1.04
Ferroglobe PLC	GSM	334.56M	4.15	1.81
Iconix Brand Group, Inc.	ICON	9.41M	0.29	0.12
MiMedx Group, Inc.	MDXG	190.98M	5.53	1.55
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	OMED	31.76M	6.08	0.81
United Natural Foods, Inc.	UNFI	788.58M	4.09	11.09
Ultra Petroleum Corp.	UPL	189.41M	1.36	0.92

If the above stocks are too speculative for you, here are some stocks that are down over 50% year-to-date and have market caps in excess of $2 billion. They all have P/E ratios less than 14, and a price sales ratio of less than one.

Company	Symbol	Market Cap	P/E	Price
CommScope Holding Company, Inc.	COMM	3.39B	13.91	16.89
Mohawk Industries, Inc.	MHK	8.96B	9.65	117.02
Owens Corning	OC	4.83B	10.78	43.44
Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.	SPB	2.43B	4.66	45.81
Thor Industries, Inc.	THO	2.79B	6.25	54.04

Maybe someone’s tax losses can be your tax stock gains.

Top Stock Market and Wall Street Gifts for the Holidays

by Fred Fuld III

It’s time to do your shopping for gifts, if you haven’t already done so. For friends and family that are interested in investing, there are plenty of stock market and Wall Street related gifts to choose from.

Check out the following great ideas for presents.