Market News

The DividendRank formula at Dividend Channel ranks a coverage universe of thousands of dividend stocks, according to a proprietary formula designed to identify those stocks that combine two important characteristics — strong fundamentals and a valuation that looks inexpensive. Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM) presently has an excellent rank, in the top 25% of the coverage universe, which suggests it is among the top most "interesting" ideas that merit further research by investors.

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Shares of Terra Chips maker Hain Celestial have been getting hammered since the company announced that it would delay the release of its fourth quarter earnings results due to an accounting issue. The organic-and-natural food company also said that it would fail to achieve its full year earnings guidance.

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Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. One way we can try to measure the level of fear in a given stock is through a technical analysis indicator called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30.

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Iran continued its defiance of OPEC on Tuesday, dampening hopes of a production cut next month when the 14-nation oil cartel meets in Algiers. Iran said that its production will not have risen to the levels the country needs to justify cooperation with its rivals.

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In recent trading, shares of Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) have crossed above the average analyst 12-month target price of $51.00, changing hands for $51.20/share. When a stock reaches the target an analyst has set, the analyst logically has two ways to react: downgrade on valuation, or, re-adjust their target price to a higher level. Analyst reaction may also depend on the fundamental business developments that may be responsible for driving the stock price higher — if things are looking up for the company, perhaps it is time for that target price to be raised.

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Looking at the underlying holdings of the ETFs in our coverage universe at ETF Channel, we have compared the trading price of each holding against the average analyst 12-month forward target price, and computed the weighted average implied analyst target price for the ETF itself. For the iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF (AMEX: IVW), we found that the implied analyst target price for the ETF based upon its underlying holdings is $134.44 per unit.

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The directors of a company tend to have a unique inside view into the business, so when directors make major buys, investors are wise to take notice. Presumably the only reason a director of a company would choose to take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So in this series we look at the largest insider buys by company directors over the trailing six month period, one of which was a total of $151.4K by John Thomas Baily, Director at Golub Capital BDC Incorporated (NASD: GBDC).

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Change at the top of a company can be a sign to take a fresh look at a stock. Often times, a CEO's departure can show that the board of directors is taking seriously the problems with a company that the market has been signaling for a while. The new CEO may also be able to affect the changes that are necessary to improve the prospects for a struggling company as s/he is not wedded to the legacy systems and processes that left the firm struggling in the first place. In this article, we will look at three companies that have recently announced the departure of their CEO and pay a nice dividend that will help compensate investors while they wait for an improvement in the company's prospects.

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Vanguard just closed its most popular dividend fund to new money. If you're not already in, I'm afraid you’re out of luck.

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When standard-bearer economic relationships no longer seem to apply, there is little sense in running a data dependent monetary policy. Reading through these minutes this seems to be the core debate among FOMC participants – when time-worn relationships aren't delivering time-worn results, why adjust policy as if these relationships will deliver model results? SF Fed President Williams essentially expounds on this point in his August 15. He comes down on the side of needing different prescriptions, Chair Yellen probably does too (as we will likely hear in her speech next week at Jackson Hole) and, based on our read of the minutes, so does most of the FOMC.

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