The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) issued its survey-based Small Business Economic Trends report today. The report shows that optimism among small business owners increased in October, though its numbers are still consistent with those of a recessionary economy. The 23-page report (which you …
November, 2010 Archive
Equus Total Return (EQS): Sideline Observations of a BDC Rights Offering Well Below Published NAV
If ever there was a sign that individual investors need protection from themselves, it may have shown up in Tuesday’s November 2nd 2010 market action in Equus Total Return (EQS) shares. I have no position. Rarely do shares of a company trade higher on news that it is entering wealth destructive transactions. However that is exactly what occurred on November 2, 2010 with EQS shares trading significantly higher. Investors paid up for the right to infuse additional capital into a Closed-End Fund with a transaction which would appear highly destructive to per share published Net Asset Value.
Cohen and Steers Dividend Majors Fund (DVM) Taking Profits
The market discount of Cohen and Steers Dividend Majors Fund (DVM) shares has narrowed by more than 11% in less than two months. On the evening of September 15th, 2010 Cohen & Steers announced adopting a level rate distribution policy, and declared third quarter distributions for its affected Closed-End Funds. That afternoon, DVM had closed at $11.20, a 15.66% discount to its $13.28 Net Asset Value (“NAV”). Yesterday, November 4th 2010 DVM closed at $13.61, a 2.86% discount to its $14.01 NAV. (Data source: CEF Connect)
Concerns over Quantitative Easing Slow Down Investors (BRKA, BRKB, SYY, AOL, YHOO)
Many regional Federal Reserve bank representatives voiced concerns today about the Federal Reserve’s plan to invest $600 billion in treasuries for quantitative easing. Unfortunately, these concerns were not limited to other Fed officials but were also shared by world financial leaders. Some of the concerns, …
Covestor Live Interview with AthenaInvest
Investors use many different strategies for picking equities, some of them well-known and widely utilized and some proprietary and based on years of personal research and strategy development. This week, we asked Reiman School of Finance Professor and AthenaInvest Co-Founder C. Thomas Howard, PhD to …
U.S. Markets Rise after Jobs Report, despite Declining Pending Home Sales (SBUX, CBS, FLR)
The Labor Department issued their October 2010 Employment Situation Summary today, and showed an increase of 151,000 nonfarm jobs in October, although the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.6 percent. You can see the full report here. Unfortunately, the pending home sales news released by …
Dow Gains Over 219 Points on Quantitative Easing News (WFMI, M, POT, BHP)
Initial jobless claims rose by 20,000 during the last week of October, according to today’s report by the Department of Labor (which you can find here). But this piece of negative news was not enough to overshadow yesterday’s announcement by the Federal Reserve that they …
Adib Motiwala New Positions on Covestor (ESV, BOLT, GME)
I added three new companies to the Dividend Value Plus model in Oct 2010. All companies have excellent balance sheets and are currently out of favor with investors and analysts.
New Positions on Covestor—November 4th, 2010 (HUM, ESI, HUBG)
In his Only The Best model, manager Czar Reyes takes a value approach in order to buy excellent businesses at fair prices. The model generally has between 11 and 20 holdings. Last month, Reyes added a few new positions to the model, including Humana Inc …
New Positions on Covestor (HRB, SDS, HYC)
In his Under-Capitalized Sectors model, manager John Mooney looks for sectors that are currently out of favor with investors and have relatively low price to earnings ratios. Recently, he added H&R Block Inc (NYSE: HRB) to the model. HRB has a low price to earnings …