McDonald's stock will see record highs, technical analyst says

McDonald's has lagged the market this year.

The world's largest burger chain has added 5 percent since January, its smallest quarterly gain in three quarters, and less than half the advance of the broader market.

One technician sees a big move breaking it out of its funk.

"McDonald's possibly breaking out here. I'm liking, or I'm loving, the trade — to steal from the commercial," Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com, said Tuesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

Since the stock's consolidation in the final months of 2018, Gordon predicts a renewed surge to break past the $190 level. The stock last hit a record high of $190.88 in late November.

"We're seeing higher lows, indicating buyers are becoming more aggressive as we move on up. I do think we should get the breakout, eventually targeting the $200 region," said Gordon.

A move to $200 would mark a record and implies 7 percent upside from Tuesday's close.

To take advantage of that move, Gordon is buying the May 3 expiration 190/200 call spread for roughly $2.78. This trade pays off when McDonald's ends the contract above $200. Gordon is betting the stock could run the last leg of that move higher when it reports earnings on April 30.

"I remain net long in my portfolio. I hold McDonald's in my longer-term equity portfolio, so I like the way the stock acts," Gordon said.

Disclaimer

D-Street Buzz: PSU banks gain led by PNB, ADAG stocks rise after debt payment

The Indian benchmark indices are trading positively with Nifty50 adding 10 points, trading at 11,472 while the Sensex gained 49 points and trading at 38,144.

At 0940 hours, Nifty PSU Bank is up 1 percent led by Punjab National Bank that jumped 2 percent followed by State Bank of India, Bank of India, OBC, Union Bank and Bank of Baroda.

From the pharma space, the top gainers are Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Lupin, Divis Labs and Piramal Enterprises.

Selective real estate stocks are also buzzing led by Godrej Properties, Sobha and Oberoi Realty.

related news Maruti Suzuki's slump a bummer for investors; brokerages lose confidence Hotel Leela Venture locked at upper circuit on sale of hotel properties for Rs 3,950 cr Chalet Hotels climbs over 4% after JM Financial initiates coverage with 'buy' call

However, Nifty Auto is down a percent dragged by Eicher Motors, Hero Moto, Maruti Suzuki and TVS Motor Company.

ADAG stocks are rallying after Reliance Communications cleared the entire dues to Ericsson India after a Supreme Court order.

Reliance Communications jumped 10 percent while Reliance Infra and Reliance Power added 3-4 percent. Reliance Naval jumped 5 percent.

The top Nifty gainers included ONGC, Bharti Infratel, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and GAIL India while the top losers included Eicher Motors, Hero Moto, Bajaj Auto, JSW Steel and Larsen & Toubro.

The most active stocks were Reliance Industries, Mindtree, Just Dial, Jubilant Food and Maruti Suzuki.

Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Godfrey Phillips, Future Lifestyle, Power Finance Corporation, PVR have hit 52-week high on NSE.

The breadth of the market favoured the advances with 845 stocks advancing and 711 declining while 518 remained unchanged. On the BSE, 940 stocks advanced, 695 declined and 84 remained unchanged.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. First Published on Mar 19, 2019 10:32 am

Hold Cadila Healthcare; target of Rs 358: Geojit

Geojit's research report on Cadila Healthcare

Cadila Healthcare (Cadila) is India's leading vertically integrated pharmaceutical company. With its presence across the value chain, it manufactures finished dosage forms, active pharmaceutical ingredients, animal healthcare products and wellness products. Revenue rose by 10% YoY in Q3FY19 led by robust performance of US formulation business and improved Emerging market and API business. Indian formulation sales disappointed with 8% YoY decline impacted by rationalization of product portfolio and resources.

Outlook

Highly leveraged balance sheet post Heinz India acquisition, which was funded largely through debt, remain a near term concern. Hence, we change our rating to 'HOLD' from 'BUY' on the stock with a revised rollover target price of Rs 358 based on 18xFY21E EPS.

For all recommendations report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More First Published on Mar 18, 2019 03:44 pm

The best and worst cities for first-time home buyers

If you're a first-time home buyer and looking at cities in California, you may want to rethink your plans.

Some under-the-radar metro areas in other areas of the country may provide more value.

That's according to a new study from personal finance website Bankrate, which ranked the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. for first-time home buyers.

The cities were evaluated using criteria such as affordability, culture, job market and safety.

And the results were clear: California is one of the worst places to move to if you're looking to buy your first home.

Six out of 10 of the metro areas that landed on the bottom of the list were in the Golden State.

San Francisco, in particular, was the worst. That is because of its high home prices, market tightness and safety concerns.

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"This confirms what many of us already know about that market," said Adrian Garcia, data analyst at Bankrate. "This study sheds a light on places that maybe most younger or new families aren't considering."

The city that landed on the top of the list — Pittsburgh — set itself apart with its affordability and safety.

Bankrate's data is based on existing residents, not where home buyers are moving. So you still have some time to get into these overlooked markets that landed on the top 10. Here's the list:

10. Virginia Beach, Virginia

9. Kansas City, Kansas

8. Minneapolis

7. Buffalo, New York

6. Cincinnati

5. St. Louis

4. Hartford, Connecticut

3. Oklahoma City

2. Raleigh, North Carolina

1. Pittsburgh

And for the areas you may want to avoid, these 10 cities were the worst performers.

10. Memphis

9. Miami

8. Las Vegas

7. San Diego

6. Riverside/San Bernardino, California

5. Seattle

4. San Jose, Calif.

3. Sacramento, California

2. Los Angeles

1. San Francisco

Bankrate's list was compiled from multiple data sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the Gallup-Sharecare Wellbeing Index, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Attom Data Solutions and Realtor.com.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019

tags:TIK,ITHUF,BPMC,BVN,D,RDNT,RLGT,MDXG,LORL,DGLY,

Peyto (OTCPK:PEYUF) is a Canadian E&P company whose production profile is dominated by dry gas (92%). With the low price of natural gas, it has been a tough couple of years for Peyto's shareholders. That said, the company has maintained its dividend payout through the commodity price downturn. Recently natural gas prices have recovered from their lows, but Peyto's stock has not kept pace. In fact, it's gone the other direction:

Click to enlarge

As the chart above show, the stock is down ~13% over the past three months as natural gas - as measure by both the Henry Hub and AECO indexes - has rallied sharply with significant winter withdrawals and forecasts that additional cold weather is on the way:

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Tel-Instrument Electronics Corp.(TIK)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Amedica Corporation (NASDAQ: AMDA) rose 31.3 percent to $4.11 in pre-market trading after climbing 181.98 percent on Tuesday. ZAGG Inc (NASDAQ: ZAGG) rose 18.7 percent to $13.65 in pre-market trading after the company posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings. TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) rose 18.6 percent to $46.00 in pre-market trading after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter on Tuesday. TransEnterix, Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) shares rose 15 percent to $2.08 in pre-market trading after reporting Q4 results. Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAXN) rose 9.8 percent to $49.00 in pre-market trading following a big Q1 beat. The company raised its fiscal 2018 sales growth guidance from 16-18 percent to 18-20 percent. Centennial Resource Development, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDEV) shares rose 8.1 percent to $21.06 in pre-market trading following Q1 results. OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) shares rose 6.8 percent to $3.44 in pre-market trading following Q1 beat. Tel-Instrument Electronics Corp. (NYSE: TIK) rose 6.7 percent to $3.20 in pre-market trading after surging 25.37 percent on Tuesday. KBS Fashion Group Limited (NASDAQ: KBSF) rose 6.4 percent to $5.84 in pre-market trading after jumping 9.36 percent on Tuesday. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARWR) rose 6.6 percent to $8.26 in pre-market trading after reporting Q2 earnings. New Relic, Inc. (NYSE: NEWR) rose 6.3 percent to $82.00 in pre-market trading following Q4 results. Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) rose 5.8 percent to $38.43 in pre-market trading after reporting upbeat Q1 earnings. Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PBH) rose 5.2 percent to $30.62 in pre-market trading.

  Find out what's going on in today's market and bring any questions you have to Benzinga's PreMarket Prep.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (ITHUF)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  This past week, the largest marijuana deal to date in the U.S. closed, with iAnthus Capital Holdings (NASDAQOTH:ITHUF) ponying up north of $600 million for MPX Bioceutical. Following closure of the deal, iAnthus now has 19 open locations spanning 11 states (it only had a presence in six states prior to the deal), but has retail licenses in place to open as many as 63 retail locations. What's more, the combined company now has 210,000 square feet of aggregate grow space, but is targeting a near-tripling in this amount to 600,000 square feet, spread across the states it conducts business. 

• [By Spencer Israel]

  The charts below are courtesy of VantagePoint, a platform that uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to forecast future price movements 1-3 days in advance with up to 86 percent accuracy. The blue line represents a predictive moving average that shows what’s going to happen three days in advance, and the black line is a simple 10-day moving average. A crossover of the blue line over the black line indicates a bullish signal from the software, and vice versa for a bearish signal.

  iAthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ITHUF)

  Up 94 percent YTD

• [By Sean Williams]

  With this in mind, here are the pot stocks offering the highest revenue potential in fiscal 2019, listed in descending order:

  Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB): $244.5 million The Green Organic Dutchman: $227.1 million Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC): $190.4 million MedMen Enterprises: $188.9 million iAnthus Capital Holdings (NASDAQOTH:ITHUF): $181.4 million Village Farms International: $147.6 million GW Pharmaceuticals: $123 million KushCo Holdings (NASDAQOTH:KSHB): $117.9 million Aphria (NYSE:APHA): $107.4 million CannTrust Holdings: $105.5 million

  Image source: Getty Images.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Marijuana grower

  Canopy Growth Corporation (NYSE:CGC) $5.8 billion   Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQOTH: ACBFF) $2.9 billion   Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY) $2.3 billion   Aphria (NASDAQOTH: APHQF) $1.9 billion   MedMen Enterprises (NASDAQOTH: MMNFF) $1.3 billion   Cronos Group (NASDAQ: CRON) $1 billion   The Green Organic Dutchman (NASDAQOTH: TGODF) $1 billion   The Hydropothecary (NASDAQOTH: HYYDF) $728 million   CannTrust Holdings (NASDAQOTH: CNTTF) $513 million   Organigram Holdings (NASDAQOTH: OGRMF) $509 million   Marimed (NASDAQOTH: MRMD) $472 million   TerrAscend (NASDAQOTH: TRSSF) $398 million   Auxly Cannabis (NASDAQOTH: CBWTF) $368 million   iAnthus Capital Holdings (NASDAQOTH: ITHUF) $367 million   Medical Marijuana (NASDAQOTH: MJNA) $330 million   CV Sciences (NASDAQOTH: CVSI) $299 million   Emerald Health Therapeutics (NASDAQOTH: EMHTF) $287 million   Supreme Cannabis (NASDAQOTH: SPRWF) $277 million   Smart Cannabis (NASDAQOTH: SCNA) $276 million   MPX Bioceutical (NASDAQOTH: MPXEF) $234 million   AusCann Group Holdings (NASDAQOTH: ACNNF) $223 million   Liberty Health Sciences (NASDAQOTH: LHSIF) $213 million

  Biotech

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Blueprint Medicines Corporation(BPMC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Mutual of America Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blueprint Medicines Corp (NASDAQ:BPMC) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 10,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $667,000.

• [By Todd Campbell]

  In this clip of The Motley Fool's Industry Focus Healthcare, host Kristine Harjes is joined by Motley Fool contributor Todd Campbell to discuss LOXO-292's opportunity and how competitor Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ:BPMC) is challenging it. Also, the two analysts discuss why shares in Abiomed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) are soaring higher and if this is a high-priced stock that investors should embrace or ignore.

• [By Todd Campbell]

  Investors should also keep their enthusiasm in check because Loxo Oncology isn't alone in targeting TRK fusion and RET mutations: Roche Holdings (NASDAQOTH:RHHBY) could challenge it in TRK fusions and Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ:BPMC) could compete with it in RET mutations. 

• [By Motley Fool Transcribers]

  Blueprint Medicines Corp  (NASDAQ:BPMC)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 26, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Todd Campbell]

  The big thing to watch this week will be how investors view Loxo's results in comparison to results presented earlier this year by Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ:BPMC). Blueprint's BLU-667 also targets RET-fusions and at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in April, Blueprint revealed a preliminary overall response rate of 50% for NSCLC and 40% for MTC. It's bad science to compare unrelated trials, so investors might be best off viewing Loxo and Blueprint's data as evidence that they're both working on a winning approach.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Buenaventura Mining Company Inc.(BVN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  ClariVest Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Compania de Minas Buenaventura SAA (NYSE:BVN) by 22.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 347,900 shares of the mining company’s stock after purchasing an additional 64,500 shares during the period. ClariVest Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.14% of Compania de Minas Buenaventura SAA worth $4,742,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Compania de Minas Buenaventura SAA (NYSE:BVN) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 231,000 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,149,000.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Compania de Minas Buenaventura SAA (NYSE:BVN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at ValuEngine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Dominion Resources, Inc.(D)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Shares of Dominion Energy (NYSE:D) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $74.73.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  City Holding Co. grew its holdings in shares of Dominion Energy Inc (NYSE:D) by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 27,148 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,380 shares during the period. City Holding Co.’s holdings in Dominion Energy were worth $1,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Navigating the sweeping changes underway in American energy has not been easy for Dominion Energy (NYSE:D). The company's geographic locations just below the Mason-Dixon Line and in coal-friendly states out West mean it has historically relied on coal-fired power plants for power generation, while also slightly handicapping operations with relatively poor wind and solar potential. That has made it more difficult to retire aging assets, power up cleaner assets, and invest in energy efficiency projects (where it ranks pretty poorly).

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Of course, the current pipeline includes projects in various stages of planning, and some may never become a commercial reality. For instance, the tally includes a potential project in Virginia owned by Dominion Energy (NYSE:D). The project is about to install its first 12 megawatts' worth of turbines, which will be used to collect data that will influence a final investment decision on a future buildout to 2,000 megawatts. While the latter number is what's included in the DOE pipeline, it still goes to show that companies are taking the opportunity very seriously after years of avoiding the energy source.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Iowa State Bank lessened its stake in Dominion Energy (NYSE:D) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 60,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,380 shares during the quarter. Dominion Energy accounts for about 2.0% of Iowa State Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Iowa State Bank’s holdings in Dominion Energy were worth $4,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Commonwealth Bank of Australia raised its position in Dominion Energy Inc (NYSE:D) by 40.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,028,891 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,316,005 shares during the period. Dominion Energy accounts for 5.5% of Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s holdings in Dominion Energy were worth $549,725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: RadNet, Inc.(RDNT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  These are some of the news articles that may have impacted Accern Sentiment Analysis’s scoring:

  Get RadNet alerts: Edited Transcript of RDNT earnings conference call or presentation 9-Aug-18 2:30pm GMT (finance.yahoo.com) Stocks Favored By Analysts: RadNet, Inc. (NASDAQ:RDNT) & RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:RICK) (baycityobserver.com) RadNet, Inc. (RDNT) stock closes -0.37% above from its SMA-50 (nasdaqplace.com) $241.29 Million in Sales Expected for RadNet Inc. (RDNT) This Quarter (americanbankingnews.com) Zacks: Analysts Expect RadNet Inc. (RDNT) to Announce $0.15 EPS (americanbankingnews.com)

  Shares of RDNT traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $14.10. The stock had a trading volume of 128,336 shares, compared to its average volume of 171,176. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $678.40 million, a PE ratio of 48.62, a P/E/G ratio of 5.02 and a beta of 0.32. RadNet has a 1-year low of $9.50 and a 1-year high of $15.50.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Biocept (NASDAQ: RDNT) and RadNet (NASDAQ:RDNT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  RadNet Inc. (NASDAQ:RDNT) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $15.65 and last traded at $15.55, with a volume of 15009 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $15.15.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Radiant Logistics, Inc.(RLGT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Motley Fool Transcribers]

  Radiant Logistics Inc  (NYSEMKT:RLGT)Q2 2019 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 11, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Logan Wallace]

  RADIANT LOGISTI/SH SH (NYSEAMERICAN:RLGT) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 580,970 shares, a drop of 4.7% from the August 15th total of 609,874 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 102,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.7 days.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  RADIANT LOGISTI/SH SH (NYSEAMERICAN:RLGT) will be releasing its earnings data after the market closes on Thursday, September 13th. Analysts expect RADIANT LOGISTI/SH SH to post earnings of $0.06 per share for the quarter.

• [By Timothy Green]

  Shares of Radiant Logistics (NYSEMKT:RLGT) surged on Friday after the logistics and multimodal transportation services company reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results. Radiant posted double-digit revenue growth, soundly beating analyst estimates. The stock was up about 11.3% at 12:10 p.m. EDT.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  RADIANT LOGISTI/SH SH (NYSEAMERICAN:RLGT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 627,454 shares, a growth of 1.7% from the July 13th total of 617,038 shares. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 73,366 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 8.6 days.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Loop Capital began coverage on shares of RADIANT LOGISTI/SH SH (NYSEAMERICAN:RLGT) in a research report sent to investors on Monday, The Fly reports. The firm issued a buy rating on the stock.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: MiMedx Group, Inc(MDXG)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Baldwin]
  The price of Bitcoin surged more than 17% to top $8,000 in a rapid move that surprised many investors this morning. The sudden rally appears to be the result of a short squeeze, according to CNBC contributor Brian Kelly. This means that investors who had been betting on a decline in the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency had been forced to jump back and buy the currency again. A lot of people have been betting on a decline in the price of Bitcoin heading toward the April 17 tax deadline. The expectation is that many people will need to sell their Bitcoin in order to raise cash to meet tax obligations. Here's our latest daily insight on why the Bitcoin bear market may end very soon. Markets gains have been capped by concerns about the latest news out of the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, minutes from the Fed's most recent meeting indicated that policy makers are prepared to raise interest rates several more times in the coming months in order to stave off concerns about inflation. Four Stocks to Watch Today: BLK, FB, DAL Shares of BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) are on the move after the company reported earnings before the bell. The firm reported earnings per share (EPS) of $6.70. Analysts projected the firm would report EPS of $6.45 on top of $3.28 billion in revenue. The firm topped revenue expectations. The firm noted that an increase in its consulting fees and the recent tax reform bill helped bolster its profitability by 27%. The stock of Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) has climbed more than 6% since Tuesday. Investors cheered the testimony of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who appeared before Congress for two days to discuss his company's privacy policies. The CEO and his firm have been under intense scrutiny since news broke that 87 million user accounts had been accessed without permission by consulting firm Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 election season. The firm had ties to President Trump's campaign. Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) reported ea
• [By Shane Hupp]

  MiMedx Group Inc (NASDAQ:MDXG) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $13.50.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  MiMedx Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MDXG) dropped nearly 23% Monday to post a new 52-week low of $6.05. Shares closed at $7.83 on Friday and the stock’s 52-week high is $18.25. Volume was over 22 million, about 10 times the daily average. The company postponed is quarterly report last week in order to conduct an accounting review and Bloomberg reported today that a U.S. Justice Department investigation is underway.

• [By Max Byerly]

  MiMedx Group (NASDAQ: MDXG) and Mazor Robotics (NASDAQ:MZOR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  MiMedx Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MDXG) fell about 7.7% Friday to post a new 52-week low of $3.47. Shares closed at $3.76 on Thursday. The 52-week high is $18.25. Volume of around 3.5 million was about 15% above the daily average. The company had no specific news.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Loral Space and Communications Inc.(LORL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ:LORL) was upgraded by BidaskClub from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Loral Space & Communications (NASDAQ:LORL) was downgraded by equities researchers at ValuEngine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

• [By Max Byerly]

  GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC. lifted its position in Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ:LORL) by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 146,468 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,800 shares during the quarter. GABELLI & Co INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC. owned about 0.47% of Loral Space & Communications Ltd. worth $5,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ: LORL) and Maxar Technologies (NYSE:MAXR) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation and risk.

Top 10 Low Price Stocks To Own For 2019: Digital Ally Inc.(DGLY)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Press coverage about Digital Ally (NASDAQ:DGLY) has trended somewhat positive on Tuesday, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern ranks the sentiment of news coverage by monitoring more than 20 million news and blog sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Digital Ally earned a media sentiment score of 0.03 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news coverage about the scientific and technical instruments company an impact score of 45.1932077082068 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the immediate future.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Digital Ally (NASDAQ:DGLY)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Westpark Capital in a research note issued on Wednesday. They currently have a $5.00 target price on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock. Westpark Capital’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 17.65% from the company’s current price.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Digital Ally (NASDAQ:DGLY) was upgraded by equities researchers at ValuEngine from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Bessemer Group Inc. Sells 300 Shares of First Citizens BancShares Inc. (FCNCA)

Bessemer Group Inc. reduced its position in First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,400 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in First Citizens BancShares were worth $1,659,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in First Citizens BancShares by 13.4% in the third quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 1,693 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $766,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in First Citizens BancShares by 27.0% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,273 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,742,000 after buying an additional 1,758 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in First Citizens BancShares by 2.6% in the third quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 223,571 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $101,118,000 after buying an additional 5,618 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in First Citizens BancShares in the third quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Finally, Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC boosted its position in First Citizens BancShares by 4.2% in the third quarter. Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC now owns 4,330 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,958,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.50% of the company’s stock.

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Separately, BidaskClub lowered shares of First Citizens BancShares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 30th.

Shares of First Citizens BancShares stock opened at $424.48 on Wednesday. First Citizens BancShares Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $355.18 and a fifty-two week high of $488.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market capitalization of $5.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.10 and a beta of 1.16.

First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQ:FCNCA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 30th. The bank reported $7.62 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $402.89 million for the quarter. First Citizens BancShares had a net margin of 23.88% and a return on equity of 11.60%.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 15th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%.

In other First Citizens BancShares news, CFO Craig L. Nix purchased 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $419.86 per share, for a total transaction of $35,268.24. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 243 shares in the company, valued at $102,025.98. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 19.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

TRADEMARK VIOLATION NOTICE: This piece was originally reported by Ticker Report and is the sole property of of Ticker Report. If you are accessing this piece on another website, it was copied illegally and reposted in violation of US and international copyright and trademark legislation. The legal version of this piece can be accessed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4217222/bessemer-group-inc-sells-300-shares-of-first-citizens-bancshares-inc-fcnca.html.

First Citizens BancShares Profile

First Citizens BancShares, Inc operates as the holding company for First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company that provides banking services to retail and commercial customers. Its deposit products include checking, savings, money market and time deposit accounts. The company's loan products portfolio comprises commercial construction and land development, commercial mortgage, commercial and industrial, lease financing, and other commercial real estate loans; and noncommercial construction and land development, residential mortgage, revolving mortgage, consumer loans, and construction and land development loans.

Featured Article: How much can an individual set aside as a catch-up contribution?

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FCNCA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for First Citizens BancShares Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA).

Saving 10% of Your Income Really Isn't Enough for Retirement

Figuring out how much to save for retirement can be really complicated. To make the process easier, many people rely on conventional financial advice. And one of the most common pieces of advice you'll find is that you should save around 10% of your income for your senior years.

But what happens if you follow this advice and set aside 10% every year? Will it actually provide sufficient funds for you to live comfortably on as a senior? The math, unfortunately, says no, as you'll see below. 

Image source: Getty Images.

Why saving 10% of your income isn't enough for retirement

The amount of money you'd end up with if you save 10% of your income for retirement varies based on your income and the age when you start saving.

The chart below shows how large your nest egg would be if you consistently saved 10% of annual income starting at the age of 30-- assuming you get a 2% annual raise, earn a 7% annual return on investment and retire at the age of 65. 

The chart also shows how much income this nest egg would produce, assuming that you follow the 4% rule and withdraw 4% of your savings in the first year of retirement and increase withdrawals to keep up with inflation each year. And it shows the income you'd need during your golden years, assuming that you want to replace 90% of your final salary earned in the year before you leave the workforce. 

Starting Income at Age 30 Savings at 65 Retirement Income Following the 4% Rule Income Needed in Retirement

$30,000	$481,046	$19,241.84	$52,938
$40,000	$641,395	$25,655.80	$70,584
$50,000	$801,744	$32,069.76	$88,230
$60,000	$962,093	$38,483.72	$105,877
$70,000	$1,122,441	$44,897.64	$123,523
$80,000	$1,282,790	$51,311.60	$141,169

As you can see, you'll face income shortfalls ranging from $33,697 to almost $90,000. While you'll also have income coming in from Social Security, Social Security benefits alone won't be enough to make up the shortfall.

A 30-year-old today making $30,000 would have projected Social Security benefits of around $13,896 at age 65, which would leave that 30-year-old with just over $33,000 in total annual income -- far less than the $52,938 needed. As for the 30-year-old making $80,000 today, projected Social Security benefits at 65 would be $25,848. With a total annual income of $77,159, he'd be over $64,000 short! 

Saving more than 10% of income is essential

The above assumptions were actually pretty generous in terms of how much money you'd end up with in retirement, because many experts now believe withdrawing 4% of your savings is too much. Life expectancies have gotten longer, and projected future returns are lower, so you may need to withdraw less from your savings to ensure you don't run out of money before the end of your retirement years. 

Instead of assuming 10% of your income is enough, your best bet is to figure out how much you actually need to save for retirement and determine the amount to set aside annually to hit that goal. There are a few ways to do that, including estimating you'll need 10 times your final salary, or projecting what your budget will actually be in retirement to figure out how much income you'll require. 

Or, if you don't feel like doing the math, the chart in this article shows you'll be pretty safe if you save at least 15% of your income -- but you're better off striving to set aside 20% of what you earn each year. 

Start saving as much as you can today

Many Americans aren't even hitting the 10% savings goal, so the idea of saving more than 10% can be daunting. But the important thing is to start saving ASAP and work up to reaching your 15% or 20% milestone as soon as you can.

You can slowly increase the amount you save over time, and increase the percentage of income you save each time you get a raise. You should also take advantage of an employer match in your 401(k) if you can, as this reduces the percentage of income you personally need to save.

Through careful financial planning and gradual increases in your retirement contributions, hopefully you'll be able to eventually put aside the funds you need to have financial security as a senior. 

InterXion (INXN) Price Target Lowered to $69.00 at Credit Suisse Group

InterXion (NYSE:INXN) had its target price reduced by Credit Suisse Group from $70.00 to $69.00 in a report published on Thursday morning. They currently have an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

Separately, ValuEngine lowered InterXion from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. The company currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $73.82.

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Shares of NYSE:INXN traded down $1.04 during trading on Thursday, reaching $62.90. The stock had a trading volume of 12,891 shares, compared to its average volume of 458,448. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a PE ratio of 86.31, a P/E/G ratio of 5.41 and a beta of 1.05. InterXion has a 1-year low of $50.05 and a 1-year high of $68.95.

InterXion (NYSE:INXN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 6th. The technology company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $146.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $147.94 million. InterXion had a return on equity of 7.29% and a net margin of 6.27%. The business’s revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that InterXion will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of InterXion by 99.5% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 6,667 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $449,000 after buying an additional 3,325 shares in the last quarter. Standard Life Aberdeen plc grew its stake in shares of InterXion by 22.5% during the third quarter. Standard Life Aberdeen plc now owns 87,188 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,868,000 after purchasing an additional 16,000 shares during the last quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of InterXion by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,668 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $578,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares during the last quarter. Virtus Alternative Investment Advisers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of InterXion during the third quarter valued at approximately $133,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of InterXion during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $756,000. Institutional investors own 89.35% of the company’s stock.

InterXion Company Profile

InterXion Holding N.V. provides carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data center services in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The company enables its customers to connect to a range of telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers, and other customers.

Featured Article: Stock Symbols Definition, Examples, Lookup

Best Tech Stocks To Watch Right Now

tags:PBIB,MAN,CAS,

Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman gives a press conference in the Technion Institute of Technology in the northern port city of Haifa on October 05, 2011. JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel has taken plenty of companies public on the NASDAQ -- including Imperva, CyberArk, and Mobileye -- which went public in August 2014 and was bought by Intel for $15.3 billion in March 2017. While many of these startups get acquired by big U.S. companies and most split their teams between the Tel Aviv area and Boston or Silicon Valley, that could be changing according to six experts I interviewed.

Before getting into that, let's look at the numbers. In the second quarter of 2017, 157 companies Israeli high-tech companies raised $1.26 billion, attracted -- the second highest quarterly amount in the past five years. For the first half of 2017 -- 18% below the strongest period in recent history (the first half of 2016), 312 Israeli high-tech companies attracted $2.3 billion, according to Israel Venture Capital (IVC).

Best Tech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Porter Bancorp Inc.(PBIB)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Media stories about Porter Bancorp (NASDAQ:PBIB) have trended somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment reports. Accern identifies negative and positive news coverage by analyzing more than twenty million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Porter Bancorp earned a media sentiment score of 0.07 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news coverage about the financial services provider an impact score of 44.3359026173577 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near future.

• [By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]

  For the details of PATRIOT FINANCIAL PARTNERS GP, LP's stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=PATRIOT+FINANCIAL+PARTNERS+GP%2C+LP

  These are the top 5 holdings of PATRIOT FINANCIAL PARTNERS GP, LPBanc of California Inc (BANC) - 2,850,564 shares, 32.49% of the total portfolio. Meta Financial Group Inc (CASH) - 397,069 shares, 25.6% of the total portfolio. Guaranty Bancorp (GBNK) - 1,391,767 shares, 23.3% of the total portfolio. MBT Financial Corp (MBTF) - 2,060,302 shares, 13.08% of the total portfolio. Sterling Bancorp (STL) - 323,980 shares, 4.31% of the total portfolio.

Best Tech Stocks To Watch Right Now: ManpowerGroup(MAN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN) and StarTek (NYSE:SRT) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on ManpowerGroup (MAN)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its position in shares of ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE:MAN) by 266.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 70,310 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 51,147 shares during the period. ManpowerGroup comprises about 0.3% of GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings in ManpowerGroup were worth $6,051,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. reduced its holdings in shares of ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE:MAN) by 26.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 250,229 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 89,647 shares during the quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. owned 0.38% of ManpowerGroup worth $21,533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Best Tech Stocks To Watch Right Now: Castle (A.M.) & Co.(CAS)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Cascades Inc (TSE:CAS) – Analysts at National Bank Financial raised their Q4 2018 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Cascades in a report issued on Thursday, August 9th. National Bank Financial analyst L. Aghazarian now expects that the company will post earnings of $0.28 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $0.26. National Bank Financial has a “Outperform” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Cashaa (CURRENCY:CAS) traded up 3% against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 23:00 PM E.T. on September 18th. During the last seven days, Cashaa has traded 2.5% lower against the US dollar. Cashaa has a market capitalization of $6.33 million and $110,922.00 worth of Cashaa was traded on exchanges in the last day. One Cashaa token can currently be purchased for approximately $0.0124 or 0.00000195 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including Exrates, TOPBTC, IDEX and HitBTC.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Cashaa (CURRENCY:CAS) traded 5.4% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 1-day period ending at 17:00 PM Eastern on June 26th. Cashaa has a total market capitalization of $14.70 million and $413,446.00 worth of Cashaa was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Cashaa token can now be bought for approximately $0.0354 or 0.00000572 BTC on popular exchanges including HitBTC and IDEX. During the last week, Cashaa has traded down 17.6% against the U.S. dollar.

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now

tags:PMF,FIBK,SKT,FBNC,SFST,GOOD,

There's no two ways about it: Social Security is a financial savior for our nation's retired workforce.

According to an analysis conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the mere fact that qualifying aged beneficiaries are receiving a guaranteed monthly payout from the Social Security Administration (SSA) is keeping roughly 15.1 million retired workers out of poverty. That's an incredible statistic, and it suggests that we would probably be dealing with a significant elderly poverty crisis right now if not for Social Security. 

But the big question -- other than "When should I claim?" -- is, "How reliant should I be on Social Security?" And to be honest, there is no one-size-fits-all answer here. The real answer depends on perspective.

Image source: Getty Images.

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: PIMCO Municipal Income Fund(PMF)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Lavaca Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Pimco Municipal Income Fund in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Pimco Municipal Income Fund in the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. Winslow Evans & Crocker Inc. increased its position in Pimco Municipal Income Fund by 46.2% in the fourth quarter. Winslow Evans & Crocker Inc. now owns 9,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Cito Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Pimco Municipal Income Fund in the fourth quarter worth about $126,000. Finally, GWM Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Pimco Municipal Income Fund in the fourth quarter worth about $131,000.

  WARNING: “Pimco Municipal Income Fund (PMF) Hits New 1-Year High After Dividend Announcement” was published by Ticker Report and is owned by of Ticker Report. If you are viewing this news story on another domain, it was illegally stolen and republished in violation of US and international copyright & trademark laws. The original version of this news story can be accessed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4199787/pimco-municipal-income-fund-pmf-hits-new-1-year-high-after-dividend-announcement.html.

  Pimco Municipal Income Fund Company Profile (NYSE:PMF)

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: First Interstate BancSystem Inc.(FIBK)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on First Interstate BancSystem (FIBK)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of First Interstate BancSystem (NASDAQ:FIBK) by 4.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 464,152 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,543 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned 0.82% of First Interstate BancSystem worth $18,357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  First Interstate Bancsystem Inc (NASDAQ:FIBK) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $46.33.

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc.(SKT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Leo Sun]

  Shares of Tanger Factory Outlets (NYSE:SKT) fell 9% to an eight-year low on May 2 after the outlet owner reported its first quarter earnings. Tanger beat estimates on the top and bottom lines, but also reported declines in its core business and cut its full-year guidance.

• [By Reuben Gregg Brewer]

  Today, ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE:SKT), and AT&T, Inc. (NYSE:T) are all offering big yields for investors willing to think long term.

• [By Reuben Gregg Brewer]

  Finding cheap dividend stocks often means delving into companies that are working through some sort of problem. The hard part is figuring out if the problems are surmountable or, potentially, terminal. Investors have left Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT) and VEREIT (NYSE:VER) in the bargain bin. But you could find good reasons to think these cheap dividend stocks are worth buying when you dig into the details just a little.

• [By Rich Duprey, Matthew Frankel, and George Budwell]

  We asked three Motley Fool investors to identify a stock they felt was absurdly cheap compared to its prospects, and they picked Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT), and US Foods Holdings (NYSE:USFD). Let's find out why these companies represent unusual opportunities that we might not see again.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  These aren't exactly the golden days of brick-and-mortar retailing, but this doesn't mean that investors can't cash in on the trend while still betting on the side of the landlords. Deal-seeking shoppers and retailers looking to clear out excess merchandise are flocking to factory outlets, and that's where Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT) is making its mark.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE:SKT) saw an uptick in trading volume on Friday . 9,958,404 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 507% from the previous session’s volume of 1,640,557 shares.The stock last traded at $23.92 and had previously closed at $23.26.

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: First Bancorp(FBNC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  ILLEGAL ACTIVITY WARNING: “Intrust Bank NA Takes $240,000 Position in First Bancorp (FBNC)” was originally published by Ticker Report and is owned by of Ticker Report. If you are accessing this story on another domain, it was stolen and reposted in violation of US and international trademark & copyright laws. The original version of this story can be read at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4163865/intrust-bank-na-takes-240000-position-in-first-bancorp-fbnc.html.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Brean Capital in a note issued to investors on Monday.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on First Bancorp (FBNC)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.50.

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: Southern First Bancshares Inc.(SFST)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  DBS Grp HOLDING/S (OTCMKTS: DBSDY) and Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Southern First Bancshares (SFST)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) was downgraded by research analysts at BidaskClub from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Best Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: Gladstone Commercial Corporation(GOOD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Goodomy (GOOD) is a PoW/PoS token that uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm. Its genesis date was June 21st, 2017. Goodomy’s total supply is 888,000,000 tokens and its circulating supply is 620,508,777 tokens. Goodomy’s official Twitter account is @GoodKarmaCoin and its Facebook page is accessible here. Goodomy’s official website is goodomy.com.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Goodomy (GOOD) is a PoW/PoS token that uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm. Its launch date was June 21st, 2017. Goodomy’s total supply is 888,000,000 tokens and its circulating supply is 620,508,777 tokens. Goodomy’s official Twitter account is @GoodKarmaCoin and its Facebook page is accessible here. Goodomy’s official website is goodomy.com.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Goodomy (CURRENCY:GOOD) traded 7.9% lower against the dollar during the twenty-four hour period ending at 15:00 PM ET on September 25th. Goodomy has a total market cap of $909,583.00 and $32.00 worth of Goodomy was traded on exchanges in the last day. One Goodomy token can now be purchased for $0.0015 or 0.00000023 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges. Over the last seven days, Goodomy has traded down 2.7% against the dollar.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Good Energy Group (LON:GOOD) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The company reported GBX 10.80 ($0.14) EPS for the quarter, Bloomberg Earnings reports. Good Energy Group had a net margin of 1.46% and a return on equity of 7.08%.

• [By Motley Fool Transcribers]

  Gladstone Commercial Corp  (NASDAQ:GOOD)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 14, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

Railroad CEOs say US economy still looks pretty good

The CEOs of two major railroad companies told CNBC on Wednesday they aren't necessarily worried about the U.S. economy.

Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz and CSX CEO Jim Foote said they think things still look pretty good, despite some concerns on the part of consumers or customers.

Their comments come on the heels of a drop in what many view as an indicator of the country's economic health — the Dow Transports. The sector fell half a percent to post its ninth straight decline on Wednesday, its longest losing streak since 2009. It also closed in correction level, more than 11 percent below its intraday high on Sept. 14.

"We do see a lot of negativity being discussed that might scare consumers," Fritz said in an interview with "Closing Bell." "But broadly speaking, the job market still looks pretty good to us. Unemployment looks good. Wages look good. Overall wealth for consumers looks pretty good. They seem to still be purchasing. The industrial economy still looks pretty healthy. "

Foote, in a separate "Closing Bell" interview, said, "Obviously there's a lot of confusion and noise on a political level and elsewhere that cause people some concerns, but overall we're still expecting … this year to be relatively good."

show chapters Watch CNBC's full interview with CSX's CEO on railroads, transports    2 Hours Ago | 07:02

The latest U.S. jobs report comes out on Friday, but monthly nonfarm payroll gains have averaged 240,000 over the past three months. That's the fastest pace since mid-2016.

When it comes to job creation at private companies, things have cooled a bit, according to a report Wednesday from ADP and Moody's Analytics. There was an addition of 183,000 workers in February, compared with 300,000 in January. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said the decline could indicate the jobs market has peaked.

While Fritz and Foote remain positive, they said there is still the unknown of the U.S.-China trade war.

"The place that we have the biggest question mark is in trade and making sure we navigate this dispute with China and then not pick other disputes that disrupt the marketplace," Fritz said.

President Donald Trump initially set March 1 as a deadline to resolve the dispute — and had threatened to more than double tariffs on about $200 billion in Chinese products. However, he pushed the deadline back and now the U.S. and China are in the "final stages" of trade talks that could end this month, sources told CNBC on Monday.

Among those hardest hit by the ongoing dispute are American farmers, particularly those who grow soybeans.

Fritz said this has disrupted Union Pacific's agriculture products business and will continue to do so until the trade war is resolved. Once that happens, he hopes business will return to normal — but he's "a little" concerned about whether it will come back entirely.

"Once the supply chain has been disrupted, a lot of times that supply chain doesn't recover entirely because the buyers get used to their new source or they adjust their overall supply chain logistics around it and they are little bit hesitant to go all the way back," he said.

— CNBC's Kayla Tausche, Fred Imbert and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.

Why Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Stock Sank in February

What happened

Generic-drug giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:TEVA) lost over 14% of its value during the month of February, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The culprit? 

Shares hit the rocks after the company reported its fourth-quarter and full-year results on Feb. 13. The key issue behind this sell-off was the company's soft guidance for 2019. Specifically, Teva issued a 2019 annual revenue guidance range of between $17 billion to $17.4 billion. Wall Street, on the other hand, was expecting a top-end figure of $17.9 billion, according to Factset consensus. 

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

Rubbing salt in the wound, Mizuho also lowered its 12-month price target on the stock from $25 a share to $18, and downgraded the drugmaker's equity to neutral as well. The firm's key concerns are Copaxone's eroding sales in the face of generic competition, and the company's nearly $29 billion in outstanding debt. 

Now what

Teva has made significant progress toward delevering its balance sheet over the past year, but Copaxone's somewhat faster-than-expected drop-off may hamper this effort moving forward. The bright side is that newer branded products like Austedo and Ajovy should start to pick up the slack in a meaningful way starting in 2020. Unfortunately, Wall Street and the company alike have 2019 pegged as another down year in terms of revenue growth. 

Is Teva worth holding through this difficult chapter? If you already hold shares, the answer seems to be yes. Teva is poised to benefit from a host of favorable tailwinds in the next decade. So, despite some near-term turbulence, this top pharma stock should turn out to be a winner in the long run. 

Veritex Holdings Inc (VBTX) CEO C Malcolm Holland III Sells 3,750 Shares

Veritex Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VBTX) CEO C Malcolm Holland III sold 3,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.11, for a total transaction of $105,412.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 104,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,931,226.47. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Shares of NASDAQ VBTX traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $28.20. 352,064 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 394,527. The company has a market capitalization of $671.09 million, a P/E ratio of 15.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Veritex Holdings Inc has a twelve month low of $20.34 and a twelve month high of $33.08.

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Veritex (NASDAQ:VBTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $32.31 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.73 million. Veritex had a net margin of 25.19% and a return on equity of 7.86%. As a group, research analysts expect that Veritex Holdings Inc will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 6th. Veritex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.17%.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VBTX. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Veritex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Veritex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 22nd. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Veritex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 21st. Finally, Stephens set a $31.00 price target on shares of Veritex and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $32.00.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in shares of Veritex by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 2,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 714 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veritex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $112,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veritex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veritex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $151,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veritex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $121,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.11% of the company’s stock.

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Veritex Company Profile

Veritex Holdings, Inc operates as the holding company for Veritex Community Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, and professionals. The company's deposit products include checking, demand, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts, as well as commercial deposit and financial institution money market accounts.

Featured Story: Current Ratio

BOX (BOX) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Canaccord Genuity

BOX (NYSE:BOX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Canaccord Genuity in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $24.00 price target on the software maker’s stock, down from their previous price target of $30.00. Canaccord Genuity’s price target indicates a potential upside of 19.46% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on BOX. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $21.00 price target (down from $27.00) on shares of BOX in a report on Thursday. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of BOX from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of BOX from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of BOX in a report on Tuesday, December 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, JMP Securities cut their price target on shares of BOX from $32.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 29th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. BOX currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.13.

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Shares of BOX stock opened at $20.09 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a PE ratio of -20.93 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.88. BOX has a twelve month low of $15.64 and a twelve month high of $29.79.

BOX (NYSE:BOX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 27th. The software maker reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $163.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $164.16 million. BOX had a negative net margin of 25.39% and a negative return on equity of 482.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.06) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that BOX will post -0.86 EPS for the current year.

In other BOX news, Director Daniel J. Levin sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total transaction of $567,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $109,431. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Dylan C. Smith sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.57, for a total transaction of $1,060,650.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,124,274 shares in the company, valued at $26,499,138.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 145,000 shares of company stock worth $3,105,250 over the last three months. 8.51% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of BOX. SQN Investors LP raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 67.2% during the fourth quarter. SQN Investors LP now owns 3,955,464 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $66,768,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589,667 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 456.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,843,317 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,115,000 after purchasing an additional 1,512,201 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BOX during the third quarter worth $29,552,000. Portolan Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 198.5% during the fourth quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC now owns 1,513,011 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $25,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006,179 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc raised its holdings in shares of BOX by 7.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc now owns 13,567,400 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $324,397,000 after purchasing an additional 919,030 shares during the period. 61.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About BOX

Box, Inc provides cloud content management platform that enables organizations of various sizes to manage and share their enterprise content from anywhere or any device. The company's Software-as-a-Service platform enables users to collaborate on content internally and with external parties, automate content-driven business processes, develop custom applications, and implement data protection, security, and compliance features.

Featured Story: What is the 52-week high/low?

Is Recession Near?

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty size-large wp-image-1132698883&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/1132698883/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;640&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g;

I trust Dave Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff. He&a;rsquo;s been a perpetual speaker at my SIC conference for at least 10 years.

Dave is screaming recession every chance he gets, but he is not a perma-bear by any means.

He&a;rsquo;s been bullish at the right times in the past. Dave turned uber-bullish 9 or 10 years ago. It was way outside the consensus at the time, but he has never cared much about being part of the consensus.

So while I don&a;rsquo;t entirely agree with him this time, I pay attention.

Dave summed up his bearish argument in his famous &l;em&g;Breakfast with Dave&l;/em&g; letter last month. It was weeks before &l;a href=&q;http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v3bdrc/FOR&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;the retail sales report knocked the legs&l;/a&g; out of more bullish outlooks.

This article will be more like a back-and-forth between Rosie and me when we are together. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

&l;strong&g;Rosenberg&a;rsquo;s Bearish Argument&l;/strong&g;

&l;/p&g;&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;nbsp;&a;ldquo;We are now in month #115 of the current expansion, double the post-WWII norm, and five months from becoming the longest ever.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

I guess I just shrug my shoulders and ask, &a;ldquo;So what?&a;rdquo; We have a dozen data points of recoveries after recessions. Maybe when we have 100, we can start talking about statistical probability. There is no statistical reason this recovery couldn&a;rsquo;t last a lot longer. Ask Australia.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;The yield curve doesn&a;rsquo;t have to completely invert for a recession call. It barely did so the last two times.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

Agreed. The below table measures the&a;nbsp;&l;em&g;size&l;/em&g;&a;nbsp;of the last five 2Y/10Y yield curve inversions. You see, they&a;rsquo;ve been getting progressively smaller.

&l;p style=&q;margin: 25px 0 25px 0 !important;&q; align=&q;center&q;&g;&l;img class=&q;img-responsive&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/johnmauldin/files/2019/03/Image_3_20190222_TFTF.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q;&g;&l;/p&g;

&l;p align=&q;center&q;&g;&l;small&g;Source: Real Investment Advice &l;/small&g;&l;/p&g;

If that trend continues, &l;a href=&q;http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v3bdrg/FOR&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;we might not even need a yield curve inversion to signal recession.&l;/a&g; And much of the curve is already inverted at the short end.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;Stocks appear to have peaked last fall. Average lead time from market peak to business-cycle peak is seven months.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

Maybe. Then again, a solution to the China trade war and a solution to Brexit coming at roughly the same time could cause a market melt-up and new highs. On the other hand, Doug Kass thinks the market is getting ready to roll over and is increasing his short exposure.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;Fed policy changes are coming too late. It already overtightened, as it did so often in the past. Rosenberg thinks &a;ldquo;neutral&a;rdquo; Fed Funds rate is no more than 1.75%, so the last two hikes were missteps.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

Again, maybe. I agree the neutral rate is historically low, but it may be here. This is something we will only know for sure in hindsight. If 50 basis points can cause recession, then this economy is extremely weak and is likely to enter recession anyway.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;Recessions historically begin when the unemployment rate climbs 0.4 percentage points above its cycle low, which this time seems to have been 3.7%. So 4.1% unemployment, when it happens, should ring an alarm bell.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

Completely agree. Small increases in unemployment tend to coincide with the onset of recessions.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;The recession will probably be mild but there is no correlation between a recession&a;rsquo;s severity and how far equity markets decline.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

Agreed.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;This time, the bubble is on corporate balance sheets, as firms borrowed money at historically low rates. Instead of productive use, much of the borrowing went to share buybacks. This did nothing to cover future debt-servicing costs.&a;rdquo;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

I&a;rsquo;ve written about this at length. I think corporate high-yield debt and leveraged loans will be the next recession&a;rsquo;s subprime mortgage loans. This could create quite a severe liquidity crisis.

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;&a;ldquo;While many focus on high yield, the leveraged loan market is in a bubble of its own. A key risk for this year is a debt refinancing &a;ldquo;tsunami&a;rdquo; as trillions in debt has to be rolled over at higher rates.&l;a href=&q;http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v3bd5h/FOR&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;&a;rdquo;&l;/a&g;&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

That &a;ldquo;tsunami&a;rdquo; could actually cause a recession.

Share buybacks and capital spending will be curtailed as cash flow falls, and wages and debt-servicing costs rise.

A 35% decline in stocks would be typical for this kind of recession, though Rosenberg thinks some non-cyclical and defensive names could outperform.

&l;strong&g;Has the Fed Overtightened?&l;/strong&g;

The main question here is whether the Fed stayed hawkish too long, as Dave thinks, or is loosening up in time to keep the economy growing. We don&a;rsquo;t know yet.

For that matter, we don&a;rsquo;t&a;nbsp;&l;em&g;know&l;/em&g;&a;nbsp;if they are turning dovish. We only know they&a;rsquo;re talking about ending the rate hikes and/or ending the balance sheet reductions.

The FOMC meets again March 19&a;ndash;20, so whatever they do then should tell us more. And if the economy perks up? The Fed can talk about more tightening later in the year.

Why 3D Systems Stock Plunged 14% on Friday, After Rising 6% After Hours on Thursday

Shares of 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) plummeted 14% on Friday, following the 3D printing company's release of fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results after the market closed on Thursday. After this haircut, the stock is up 19.4% in 2019, versus the S&P 500's 12.3% return. 

3D Systems stock's price action on Friday probably took many investors off guard because the market's initial reaction to 3D Systems' earnings release was quite positive, with shares gaining nearly 6% in after-hours trading on Thursday. 

Here's what you should know.

Image source: Getty Images.

Fourth-quarter results and 2019 high-level guidance

In the fourth quarter, 3D Systems' revenue edged up 1.9% to $180.7 million, its GAAP loss per share narrowed by 100% to $0.04, and its adjusted earnings per share (EPS) doubled to $0.10. EPS beat the $0.07 Wall Street was looking for -- but that was only thanks to a tax benefit -- while revenue came in right about at the consensus estimate. 

The company didn't issue specific guidance for 2019, but on the earnings call, CFO John McMullen provided a "high-level 2019 outlook": 

We continue to expect growth to be driven by printer revenue growth, including the expected ramp of sales of new products launched throughout 2018, materials growth with higher growth beginning in the second half of 2019, continuing healthcare revenue growth, and software growth continuing and improving over time. ... We ... expect continued revenue growth, improved profitability, and cash generation.

With market participants seemingly satisfied on Thursday with 3D Systems' Q4 results and outlook, why did investors pummel the stock on Friday?

Wall Street firm lowered its 2019 revenue and EPS estimates 

We can attribute the market's seemingly Dr-Jekyll- and-Mr.-Hyde-like behavior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowering its 2019 estimates for 3D Systems on Friday. Citing concerns about 3D Systems' declining gross margin, the firm's analyst who covers the stock rolled back his 2019 revenue expectations for the company to $710 million, from $712 million, and lowered his adjusted EPS projection to $0.19, from $0.25, according to Benzinga. The revenue action is negligible, but an earnings estimate rollback of 24% is significant.

The firm maintained its underperform rating on 3D Systems stock and left its $10 price target unchanged. For some context, shares closed out Thursday's regular trading session at $14.12 and, after taking the 14% hit on Friday, are now priced at $12.14.

3D Systems' gross margin 

Long-term investors shouldn't pay too much attention to Wall Street's ratings and short-term estimates. That said, 3D Systems' declining gross margin is a legitimate concern. Gross margin can be expected to fluctuate from quarter to quarter based on such factors as product mix and timing of new product launches, which is why it's better to consider gross margins for trailing-12-month periods. A sustained decline in gross margin, however, can reflect a loss of pricing power from increasing competitive pressures. 

Data by YCharts. 

3D Systems' trailing-12-month gross margin has declined by nearly 200 basis points (2 percentage points) over the past two years, while rival Stratasys' gross margin has risen by roughly the same amount in a year and three quarters. (Stratasys hasn't yet reported its Q4 earnings.) 

In the fourth quarter, 3D Systems' gross margin came in at 45.7%, down from 48.2% in the year-ago period. In the earnings release, the company attributed the decline to "the impact of sales mix, costs to launch and ramp new products, and lower on-demand manufacturing gross profit margins." For full year 2018, gross margin was 47.2%, flat compared with 2017.

One notable factor that's been dragging down the company's gross margin is the anemic growth in print materials, which sport higher profit margins than other parts of the business. In Q4, materials revenue dipped 2% year over year, and for the full year, it edged up only 1%, while overall revenue rose 6%. On the earnings call, management expressed confidence that materials growth will pick up in the second half of this year due to the solid recent growth in 3D printer sales. In 2018, printer revenue jumped 25% year over year on a 76% increase in unit sales.  

Investors should keep their eyes on 3D Systems' gross margin and its revenue growth from materials sales, particularly for the second half of the year.

Why Whiting Petroleum Stock Is Slumping Today

What happened

Shares of Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) sold off on Wednesday, falling more than 10% by 10:15 a.m. EST. Driving the decline was the oil company's fourth-quarter report and its outlook for 2019.

So what

Whiting Petroleum reported a loss of $4.8 million, or $0.05 per share, during the fourth quarter, which missed analysts' expectations by $0.56 per share. The primary problem was that production came in well below the low end of the company's guidance range. While Whiting anticipated that it would pump out between 12.2 million and 12.6 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE) during the quarter, it only produced 11.96 MMBOE due to issues with third-party midstream providers, including gathering delays and gas-processing curtailments. Production, however, was up 2% versus the year-ago period and up 8% for the full year. On an even more positive note, Whiting continued to produce excess cash as it tallied $19 million in free cash flow during the quarter despite lower oil prices, pushing its full-year total to $280 million.

Image source: Getty Images.

Whiting Petroleum also provided its outlook for 2019. The oil producer said that it plans to spend between $800 million and $840 million on capital projects this year. While that's about 1.5% lower at the midpoint from 2018's level ($832 million), it's not as deep a spending cut as most peers are planning. Instead, the company aims to invest enough money to grow its production in the Williston Basin by 11% while still generating some free cash flow at current oil prices.

Now what

Whiting Petroleum's fourth-quarter report was rather disappointing as production came in well below forecast due to some third-party midstream issues, which significantly squeezed profitability. In addition, the outlook for 2019 wasn't what investors wanted to see, because the company barely cut spending even though oil prices crashed to end 2018. This decision could cause problems if crude takes another tumble. Because of that, Whiting Petroleum is not the type of oil stock investors should consider buying given the current market volatility.