top stories in News Reel
Stock Screen
Jack Hough
The Surprising Truth About Positive Earnings Surprises; Hough: Shares not only leap after good earnings news, they drift higher for months.
SmartMoney.comTwo companies report earnings that surpass Wall Street estimates by 10 percent. Shares of the first company jump, but those of the second are unchanged. Why?
3 Retailers Betting Big on Shares; Hough: These chains are spending richly on stock repurchases. That could help or hurt investors.
SmartMoney.comA trio of retailers has lately spent massive sums on a single investment: their own stock. Stock repurchases are one of two ways companies return the cash they earn to investors. Dividends are the other. The long historical record for stocks ...
The Mystery of Closed-End Fund Discounts; Hough: A pot of stocks and bonds worth $15 a share can sometimes be had for $13. What that means for investors.
SmartMoney.comInvestors are rational agents, economists like to say. In other words, for the most part, we're not nuts. If IBM trades at $190 a share, Uncle Hank isn't going to offer his lot at $150 -- and if he does, it's time to talk to Aunt Lily about ...
Ugly Acronym, Handsome Stock Returns; Hough: Why investors should learn to love the "EV/Ebitda" ratio.
SmartMoney.comMany investors use the price-to-earnings ratio to tell whether stocks are cheap. It shows how many dollars a buyer must pay for each $1 in yearly earnings the company produces. There are other such measures that show how much investors must ...
3 Stocks That Could Start Dividends in 2012; Hough: These firms sit on excess cash and may feel pressured to pay, given investor appetite for yield.
SmartMoney.comCisco stock has been a poor performer since the dot-com stock bubble of more than a decade ago. But it's up 14% since last March, when the maker of networking equipment announced it would start paying quarterly dividends.
10 Stocks Analysts Say to Sell; Hough: Eastman Kodak is only the latest example of why Wall Street's pans, while rare, are worth heeding.
SmartMoney.comOn Wall Street, "sell" recommendations are exceedingly rare. Perhaps for that reason, they tend to be worth following. Among companies with the most sell recommendations is Eastman Kodak, which the Wall Street Journal reports this week is ...
2 Cheap Tech Stocks With Analyst Upgrades; Hough: Wall Street has recently turned keener on these battered shares.
SmartMoney.comBoring stocks are basking in popularity. The utilities and consumer staples sectors within the S&P 500 index are 12% and 22% more expensive, respectively, than the broader index based on 2011 earnings forecasts.
Dividend Stock Guide for Boomers; Hough: Firms that supply boomers with steady dividends will be in high demand.
SmartMoney.comBy 2030, around 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 and older, up from 13 percent today, reckons the Census Bureau. There's a gloomy theory on how that will affect stocks. As boomers earned and saved in the 1980s and 1990s, the ...
3 Cheap Stocks Hitting 2011 Highs; Hough: Not all rising shares are pricey. These sell for less than the market based on earnings.
SmartMoney.comU.S. stocks have rallied fiercely since Thanksgiving, but the S&P 500 index is still 8% below its 2011 high, reached in May. The stocks listed below have done better. On Monday, they all hit new highs for the year.
$100 Billion for Facebook? Buy This Instead; Hough: The dotcom's rumored valuation could get investors a lot more.
SmartMoney.comLarge numbers are difficult to conceptualize. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Facebook is targeting a spring initial public offering that would value the company at $100 billion. Is that a lot or a little for a website with ...
Bottom-Fishing: Netflix Vs. H-P; Hough: Both stocks have been shattered of late. Which offers investors the better deal?
SmartMoney.comNetflix and Hewlett-Packard are dissimilar companies that have met a common fate: a spectacular loss of popularity on Wall Street. The causes of these declines are more alike than different.
AAA-Rated Companies With 3% Dividends; Hough: These firms have better credit scores than the U.S. government--and their shares pay plenty.
SmartMoney.comInvestors already had two good reasons to lighten up on U.S. Treasury bonds. This week they got another. The first reason is a puny payoff. The 10-year Treasury note recently yielded less than 2%, or less than one-third of what it has paid, ...
4 Stock Traits That Will Outperform; During a down economy, investors should look for a combination of low price, low risk, high quality and size when picking stocks.
SmartMoney.comIf your stocks are plunging, your income is stagnant, and your spouse just lost his or her job, economists have "good" news. According to their definition of prosperity, the current period may not qualify as a recession. Hosanna!
3 Small-Company Stock Bargains; Small-cap indexes look pricey, but among individual shares are plenty of good deals, writes Jack Hough.
SmartMoney.comSmall-company stocks look expensive as a group, and their performance has underwhelmed this year. But that's no reason to ignore all of them, because many small-company stocks are bargains.
3 Cheap Stocks That Trounced Estimates; Upside surprises in sales and earnings bode well for these affordable shares.
SmartMoney.comUpside earnings "surprises" aren't all that surprising nowadays. The percentage of U.S. companies that beat Wall Street projections come reporting time jumped from 49% in the late 1980s to 76% in 2000, and it has stayed high since.
Industrials Post Strong Earnings -- 3 Names to Watch; Caterpillar and Boeing are the latest manufacturers to beat forecasts. That bodes well for the sector.
SmartMoney.comLarge U.S. companies are nearly halfway through earnings-reporting season, and predictably, the news is mostly good. Despite some high-profile forecast misses from Apple and Amazon, only 21% of companies have done worse than projected. ...
What Store Closings Mean for Retail Stocks; Lowe's and Gap are the latest chains trying to grow by shrinking. Will it work?
SmartMoney.comLowe's announcement Monday that it will close 20 underperforming stores sent its shares 1.5% higher by midday, bucking a broad market selloff. For retailers, judicious store closings can reduce long-term expenses and improve profit margins. ...
Where to Find 7% Yields; Preferred shares issued by real estate trusts are one of today's few sources of healthy investment income.
SmartMoney.comIncome investors have scant choices as the moment. The 10-year Treasury bond pays just 2.1%, and safe corporate and municipal bonds are similarly stingy. U.S. stocks have dividend yields averaging just over 2%--but they've frightened buyers ...
10 Cheap Stocks With Dependable Earnings; Bargain hunters should focus on companies that can deliver on forecasts. The evidence favors these names.
SmartMoney.comCheap stocks are suddenly abundant. The S&P Composite 1500 index of large, midsize and small U.S. companies has lost 12% in three months. More than 300 of its members now have price-to-earnings ratios in single digits, suggesting a ...
A Holiday Hit to Buy Now: GameStop Shares; While the world frets over Europe and recession, bargain hunters should think "Batman" and "Gears of War."
SmartMoney.comThere are fewer than 100 shopping days until Christmas, but with Europe flirting with a financial crisis and America at risk for a second recession, few investors are thinking about retail stocks.
3 Stocks That Fetch 60 Times Earnings; As economic growth slows, investors are paying richly for companies that can expand
SmartMoney.comFor bargain hunters, U.S. stocks offer a mixed message. The S&P 500 index trades at 12 times forecast 2011 earnings, a slight discount to its historic price. Companies in sectors with sturdy demand sell for modest premiums--big food ...
Growth Stocks Look Pricey. Favor Free Cash; Firms with glowing growth projections have gotten expensive. Here are some better bets.
SmartMoney.comAs economic growth slows worldwide, stock investors are competing fiercely for shares of companies with the best earnings growth prospects. But that has made shares of such companies expensive. A better approach might be to target firms ...
For 4% Yields and Safety, See Defense Stocks; They pay twice as much as Treasurys. And budget fears look overblown.
SmartMoney.comMilitary suppliers have gotten clobbered. Among S&P 500 members, aerospace and defense firms have lost 22% of their value in six months, versus 16% for the broader index. These companies were cheap to begin with relative to their ...
3 Stocks Under $15; Low-price stocks tend to outperform, studies show. Three to consider
SmartMoney.comNominal stock prices shouldn't matter. If Groucho Tech and Harpo Corp are identical companies, it should make no difference to investors that Groucho has 10 million shares outstanding priced at $4.50 apiece, and Harpo has one million ...
Dividends Should Jump. These 3 Just Did; Companies look likely to increase payments to shareholders. Here are three that already have.
SmartMoney.comWall Street projects handsome increases to both profits and dividends for large U.S. companies in coming years. Investors should view the profit forecast with suspicion, but the dividend outlook seems believable. Below are listed some ...
Ditch the IPOs; Try These Old-School Stocks Instead; IPOs tend to underperform the broad stock market over long periods, so it may be smart to avoid all the hoopla and stick with tried-and-true companies.
SmartMoney.comI'm waiting for Smurfler and Who-jitsu to file for initial public offerings. Prices for recent IPOs with more recognizable names are high enough to signal a bubble like the one that popped in 2000. All that's missing are a string ...
5 Stocks For Buying Into the Correction; The market's recent decline produced some bargains for investors.
SmartMoney.comFor investors brave enough to buy while the market's falling, below are a handful of stock ideas. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 7% during the five trading days through Thursday. These shares lost at least that much, and they ...
3 Stocks Prospering From Housing. Really; These shares are paying off because of the real estate bubble, not despite it.
SmartMoney.comIf there must be a financial bubble in something, maybe real estate isn't so bad. When the tulip bubble popped in 1637, traders were left with nothing but fragrant, mocking bulbs and lists of unenforceable contracts. When U.S. real ...
3 Stocks Turning Research Into Returns; These firms are suddenly spending more on product development -- an excellent sign, studies show.
SmartMoney.comAnyone can call a stock cheap on a gut feeling. To screen for stocks that are cheap based on evidence, however, it's useful to compare their prices to some measure of underlying value that isn't altered by investor fervor. Common ...
3 Companies Slashing Their Debt; As policy makers haggle over raising America's borrowing limit, these companies are paying off what they owe.
SmartMoney.comHistory's most prosperous nation is nearing default on its debt, not because it can't afford to pay, but because a handful of top policy makers can't agree on how to cut spending and whether to raise revenues. Here's ...
Look Beyond Company Earnings for Safe Bets; U.S. Company earnings may be reaching unsustainable levels, so other factors -- like sales and price-to-sales ratios -- may be better predictors of stock returns.
SmartMoney.comU.S. companies have rarely been more prosperous. That's not cause for investors to celebrate, however. Two of history's most reliable indicators say earnings are so good that they're about to turn bad. Here are the details ...
3 Stocks With Safe 3% Yields; These companies offer income backed by financial strength.
SmartMoney.comIf the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 151-point drop Monday seemed less than shocking, it's because fully one-quarter of trading days this year have produced triple-digit moves in the average. Below are listed the sort of ...
3 Stocks Sitting At Takeover Prices; At these valuations, these firms might be appealing to suitors.
SmartMoney.comThe value of U.S. mergers and acquisitions jumped 39% during the first five months of this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Companies are sitting on $1.1 trillion in cash, which suggests the second half of the year will see plenty ...
3 Big Tech Stocks Trading at Serious Discounts; Investors may be down on large-cap technology companies, but these stable earners are too cheap to ignore.
SmartMoney.comBig Tech is stuffed with cash and trading at a significant discount to the broad market. That's a sign of investor pessimism, and earnings for the group might indeed be due for a dip, but a handful of companies are too cheap to ignore. ...
3 Retailers With Superb Returns on Capital; These stores produce hefty profits relative to the money they invest--an excellent sign for investors.
SmartMoney.comNot all growing retail chains are healthy. To see what I mean, head to the nearest Circuit City, Linens n' Things or Chi-Chi's. If you have trouble finding them, it's because all three have closed most or all of their stores. ...
3 Simple-Food Stocks With Caviar Prices; Pantry shares satisfy in a shaky economy, but not when they cost this much.
SmartMoney.comFood stocks make sense right now. U.S. unemployment is up, house prices are down, European debt looks shaky and growth has slowed a bit in China and Brazil. When the economy looks shaky, food-makers can be counted on to deliver stable ...
3 Stocks With Suddenly Higher Yields; The market's recent selloff provides dividend hunters with opportunities.
SmartMoney.comGreed is said to push stock prices higher, but if anything, the doubling of U.S. shares during the two years ended March suggests buyers aren't greedy enough. They're settling for the mere hope of fast gains while making only ...
Stock Pickers Prepare for Sweeping Budget Reform; These dividend-paying, market share-taking companies should thrive and offer investors strong returns in the changing economy.
SmartMoney.comThe government Accountability Office runs two sets of numbers when forecasting the nation's long-term financial health: "baseline" and "alternative." Right now they might as well be called bad and worse. ...
Companies With 11-Figure Cash Balances; Together these six firms are sitting on more than $160 billion.
SmartMoney.comTen billion dollars is an almost unfathomable sum. Invested in humble Treasury bonds yielding 4% it will gush more than $1 million per day of income. Worldwide, 81 people have amassed such a fortune, one-third of them Americans, according ...
3 Stocks the Recovery Has Missed; Most shares have soared over the past two years. Not these.
SmartMoney.comHere's a challenge: Think of a stock whose price has fallen since the stock market bottomed in March 2009. The S&P 500 has roughly doubled since then, so these are shares that have missed out on a stunning rally.
3 Stocks Priced for Unrealistic Growth; The performance needed to support these shares seems unlikely, a research firm says.
SmartMoney.comWall Street analysts should work backwards. The price targets they assign to stocks -- "United Snorkle, currently $35 a share, should hit $42 in 18 months" -- are based on projections of how sales, margins, cash flow and more will ...
3 Stocks With Free Cash Flow and Dividends; These companies offer two things that are surprisingly difficult to find now.
SmartMoney.comEarnings for U.S. companies are forecast to hit a record high this year. So it should be little trouble to find companies that generate a respectable amount of cash relative to their purchase price, and that pay a fair portion of that cash ...
3 Stocks for Beating Inflation; These stocks offer handsome yields and protection against rising prices.
SmartMoney.comTreasury inflation-protected securities offer meager interest: 0.9% on 10-year issues, versus 3.2% on standard bonds of the same duration. The tradeoff, of course, is that the principal is adjusted for the rate of inflation, keeping ...
3 Stocks Selling at a 33% Discount; Based on earnings, these shares are one-third cheaper than the broad market.
SmartMoney.comThe S&P index of large American companies recently traded at 14 times forecast 2011 earnings. That suggests that, even though the index has quickly doubled since hitting its recessionary low point in March 2009, shares seem priced in ...
Investors Lose Sight of Good Stocks While Dodging Uncertainty; The stocks of companies facing uncertain -- and perhaps negative—outcomes may reward loyal investors.
SmartMoney.comStock buyers can profit from the power of negative thinking. Investors' tendency to assume the worst about uncertain events can make some of the most prosperous firms too cheap to ignore, particularly those with big dividends and ...
3 Stocks That May Have Hit Bottom; Contrarian investors might fancy these beaten-down names.
SmartMoney.comThere's at least a kernel of contrarian thinking behind most stock trades. Any convinced buyer takes the shares of a seller who is just as convinced. True contrarian investors, however, go rummaging through deeply unloved shares for ...
4 Surprise Reactions to S&P Treasury Slam; Investors greeted lowered U.S. outlook in odd but telling ways.
SmartMoney.comOn Monday, investors who worry about a sharp worsening of America's fiscal condition got a quick glimpse at how such a downturn might affect their portfolio holdings.
3 Stocks With Hidden Profits; Recent earnings reports might understate these companies' prosperity.
SmartMoney.comCompanies whose shares trade on Wall Street report their winnings to the public each quarter -- not once, but twice. Stock investors tend to obsess over one measure, earnings. Bankers tend to watch another, free cash flow. Stock investors ...
3 Companies Gaining Market Share
SmartMoney.comAmerica's birth rate is falling. Its incomes are stagnant. Even its illegal immigration has slowed. Companies that want to grow their sales in this economy had better be able to steal customers from rivals.
3 Stocks Up 20-Fold in Five Years
SmartMoney.comThe three stocks below are up 20-fold. On its own, that's no big deal. Stocks tend to increase in value over time, so historically, securing a 20-fold return has merely been a matter of buying decent stocks and waiting, say, 35 years. ...
3 Promising Stocks Priced Below Sales; These companies sell at deep discounts to the market and their peers.
SmartMoney.comPlenty of companies have stock market values that are smaller than their yearly sales. Nearly one-third of the large, midsize and small companies that make up the S&P Composite 1500 index trade that cheaply. However, most of these are ...
3 Bargain Stocks With Blowout Earnings
SmartMoney.comFour things bode well for the stocks listed below. First, they all traded at low prices relative to their earnings, a good (but not infallible) sign of handsome returns to come. Second, each company recently reported earnings that easily ...
3 Companies With Idle Cash, Low Returns
SmartMoney.comUpon learning last week that Cisco was killing Flip, the pocket video camera it acquired for $590 million when it bought start-up Pure Digital in May 2009, my first thought was "Brewster's Millions." In the 1985 film, Richard ...
3 Stocks Analysts Are Upgrading; Wall Street is turning sweeter on these shares. Should investors?
SmartMoney.comAnalysts stink at picking stocks, you might have heard, but that's only part true. Long-term studies have indeed shown that the "buy" recommendations attached to stocks are poor predictors of long-term returns. (Over short ...
3 Stocks to Beat Low Interest Rates; Punitive interest rates are forcing savers into stocks. These look safer than most.
SmartMoney.comFed refugees, or savers seeking to escape punishingly low interest rates by buying shares, had better choose carefully. Since December 2008, America's Federal Reserve has kept core short-term interest rates near zero while spending ...
3 Companies Growing By Shrinking; These firms are increasing sales while shedding assets, an excellent sign.
SmartMoney.comAssets aren't the same as wealth. The cash-poor consumer who finances a posh car has an impressive new asset but also a big new debt. With companies, sudden asset growth is a bad sign for investors, for two reasons. First, corporate ...
Insider Trading: Legalize It? Why one scholar calls the ban arbitrary, political and inefficient.
SmartMoney.comInsider trading is more common than most investors know and regulators admit. Back in 1974, a paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics showed shares of the average takeover target beat the market by 14% over seven months prior ...
3 Bargain Stocks Analysts Ignore; These companies have a limited following on Wall Street -- for now.
SmartMoney.comAmong the small, midsized and large companies in the S&P Composite 1500 index, "buy" recommendations by Wall Street analysts outnumber "sell" recommendations 8 to 1. It's not because analysts are naturally ...
3 Midcap Stocks Up 50% This Year
SmartMoney.comMidsize U.S. companies remain tops in stock performance. So far this year the S&P MidCap 400 index has returned 6.8%, about two percentage points more than the SmallCap 600 index and the large-company 500 index. Over the prior five ...
3 Stocks Even Doomsayers Should Like; These companies are strong enough to prosper during an economic downturn.
SmartMoney.comDozens of books published during the past four years promise to show readers how to survive and even prosper during an "economic collapse," "financial Armageddon" or "dollar meltdown." Many tout gold, as though ...
3 Stocks With 10 Years of 10% Dividend Growth
SmartMoney.com"If you're thinking about buying a bond right now, I want to refer you to a mental institution," says Ridgeland, S.C., money manager Tom Cameron. His point: America's debt is so large that inflation is inevitable, so ...
3 Stock Picks Based on Employee Satisfaction
SmartMoney.comHappy workers tend to generate big returns for shareholders, according to a growing trickle of statistical evidence. Firms that earn top scores on one survey of employee satisfaction have more than doubled the broad market's return ...
3 Japanese Stocks Priced to Buy
SmartMoney.comIf there's a case to be made for investing in Japanese stocks it has little to do with sympathy, the recent earthquake or the relationship between prices and earnings. Compassion is better expressed with a call to the Red Cross than to ...
3 Stocks With Big Dividend Bumps
SmartMoney.comLike big hair and Rubik's cubes, dividends were everywhere in the 1980s but are scarcer today. Fully 94% of the large American companies that make up the S&P 500 index made payments to shareholders in 1980. Today just ...
3 Bargain Stocks for Impatient Investors
SmartMoney.comValue investors buy cheap, unpopular shares and wait. Growth investors buy market darlings and get fast results or move on. Below are listed three companies that might appeal to the frugality of the first group of investors and the ...
3 Stocks Riding Crude Prices Higher
SmartMoney.comThe soaring price of oil threatens to squeeze family budgets and corporate profits alike. But a handful of companies and their shareholders stand to cash in.
3 Companies With Too Much Cash
SmartMoney.comThe companies below are stuffed with cash. That's a sign of their past success, but it doesn't necessarily make them good investments today. If anything, it makes them less attractive.
Server Farms Offer 4% Dividends and Growth
SmartMoney.comThe town of Maiden, North Carolina is an hour's drive northwest of Charlotte. It has 3,300 residents, three churches and a median house price of $108,000. And sometime this spring, it will also have a working data center the size of ...
3 U.S. Stocks With Emerging Markets Growth
SmartMoney.comEmerging markets investors might want to look beyond China, India and Brazil to another top performer. This country ranks third in the world in exports. Last year, the dollar amount of goods sold outside its borders jumped 17% while the ...
Video Results ( of )
-
China's Quiet Debt Problem 2:24
-
Yum Brands CEO Talks Growth 3:29
-
Turkey's Start Up Culture Comes Of ... 3:22
-
New Turkish VC Fund Established 2:43
-
Xi Leaves U.S. Optimistic for Chine... 3:14
-
Catching Jeremy Lin, 1960s-Style 4:04
-
Markets Crest Higher; Dow Near 4-Ye... 3:20
-
Asia's Week Ahead: Alibaba.com Repo... 1:35
-
Apple 'Most Admired' Status May Be ... 3:41
-
Is the Central Bank Gold's Savior? 4:11
-
Clik: A New App to Remote Control Y... 2:24
-
How Obama's Budget May Impact Small... 4:07
-
America Losing Ground in Science an... 6:47
-
Where Does Phil Falcone Go From Her... 3:22
-
Calpers' Dust-Up With Private Equit... 4:03
INVESTOR CENTER
MARKETS:
LOADING...
Buzz Box
Most Popular
//
Emailed
-
How to Find a Good Financial Adviser
Ask the right questions before you hand over your money
-
How to Create an Investment Portfolio
A balanced portfolio can have a bigger impact on long-term performance than individual stock picking
-
How to Invest for Retirement
Investing for retirement is more complicated than opening an IRA or maxing out your 401(k)
-
How to Choose a Stock Mutual Fund
When choosing a stock mutual fund, consider performance, manager track record and cost before investing.
-
How to Invest in a CD
Even in times of interest rate uncertainty, a certificate of deposit (CD) can still be part of your cash strategy.
SmartMoney Magazine
-
![[smpresidents]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PF-AC032_smpres_C_20120214145512.jpg)
How Important Is Family, Really?
You don't see many rankings of the big mutual fund families. The results, however, can be eye-opening.
-
![[sm0312travel]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PF-AC037_sm0312_C_20120214155524.jpg)
Extreme Makeover: Spa Edition
Spas are now luring guests with everything from pitch-black treatment rooms to "vibroacoustic" contraptions. But are Zen fans ready for all this excitement?
-
![[smstocksband]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PF-AC053_smstoc_C_20120215180059.jpg)
5 Calm Stocks for Any Market
Today's market jump, following yesterday's fall, has reignited volatility fears. Here are five picks that are more Zen-like than active.
-
![[sm0312miles]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PF-AC025_sm0312_C_20120214130223.jpg)
Will Fly for Cash
Mileage credit card junkies can now redeem points for more than just trips and swag. How fliers can suss out the true value of their miles.