Is Hibbett Sports Making You Any Cash?

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Hibbett Sports (Nasdaq: HIBB  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Hibbett Sports generated $65.2 million cash while it booked net income of $72.6 million. That means it turned 8.0% of its revenue into FCF. That sounds OK. However, FCF is less than net income. Ideally, we'd like to see the opposite.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at Hibbett Sports look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With questionable cash flows amounting to only 0.2% of operating cash flow, Hibbett Sports's cash flows look clean. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, stock-based compensation and related tax benefits provided the biggest boost, at 1.9% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures, which consumed 25.2% of cash from operations.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home-run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

Selling to fickle consumers is a tough business for Hibbett Sports or anyone else in the space. But some companies are better equipped to face the future than others. In a new report, we'll give you the rundown on three companies that are setting themselves up to dominate retail. Click here for instant access to this free report.

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

Add Hibbett Sports to My Watchlist.

Copa Holdings: Panama Profits

There are always good operators in even the worst industries. Therefore, I am recommending a leading regional airline based in Panama, says Gavin Graham, contributing editor to Internet Wealth Builder.

Copa Holdings (CPA), operates a fleet of 83 modern aircraft, with an average age of 4.3 years, consisting of 57 Boeing 737-700s, and 737-800s, and 26 Embraer 190 jets.

From its base at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, it offers the most destinations and international flights of any hub in Latin America, including eight destinations in the US as well as Toronto.

Tocumen's convenient location, excellent weather, and sea level altitude contribute to Copa's excellent on-time record and its ability to act as the centre of a major hub-and-spoke operation, allowing passengers to reach any destination within Central and South America with only one stop.

Copa has expanded rapidly in the last decade. After going public in 2005, it used the access to public markets to grow and modernize its fleet. Also in 2005, it purchased the second largest Colombian airline, and now operates an extensive schedule of internal and international flights in that country.

Copa carried 10.1 million passengers in 2012, a 17% increase on the previous year, and experienced a 24% increase in capacity as it added ten new Boeing 737 aircraft.

With its rapid growth and profitable track record, Copa has far outperformed the S&P 500, returning 170% over the five years to the end of 2012, compared to a 12% increase in the index.

With its new membership in the Star Alliance beginning in mid-2012, Copa should benefit from increased traffic from members of other airline loyalty schemes in the alliance, especially the merged United Continental. As well, it has added new US destinations, such as Las Vegas in 2012, and Boston in 2013.

With the widening of the Panama Canal in 2016 forecast to add substantially to trade and visitors to Panama, and with the boost to its capacity through adding seven new Boeing 737-800s in 2013, it is reasonable to expect Copa's traffic to continue rising over the next few years.

Assuming that the airline keeps its costs competitive, and maintains its conservative policy of fuel hedging to offset the risk of higher prices, Copa should be able to maintain its margins at their present levels, and remain a profitable and successful airline, benefiting from the rising demand for air travel from the growing Latin American middle-class.

With earnings of $11-$11.50 per share projected for 2013, Copa is selling at around 12-times forecast earnings. It pays around 30% of its earnings as a single annual dividend in June of each year, giving it a yield of 1.7%, although it paid a dividend early in December 2012, to beat the change in US dividend tax law.

Copa Holdings is a buy for investors, willing to put up with the volatility inherent in airlines, as a play on growing air traffic and rising incomes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Top Tech Stocks To Invest In Right Now

According to a recent Morgan Stanley investor poll, the energy sector trails only technology as the favorite place to put investment dollars in 2013. Energy stocks can be complicated at first blush, but they are certainly worth a closer look if you don't already own some. �In this video, Fool.com contributor Aimee Duffy makes three key points for investors who may be new to the energy industry to consider before they jump in.

There are many different ways to play the energy sector, and The Motley Fool's analysts have uncovered an under-the-radar company that's dominating its industry. This company is a leading provider of equipment and components used in drilling and production operations and is poised to profit in a big way from it. To get the name and detailed analysis of this company that will prosper for years to come, check out the special free report: "The Only Energy Stock You'll Ever Need." Don't miss out on this limited-time offer and your opportunity to discover an under-the-radar company before the market does. Click here to access your report -- it's totally free.

Top Tech Stocks To Invest In Right Now: ePlus Inc.(PLUS)

ePlus inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in selling, leasing, financing, and managing information technology (IT) and other assets in the United States. Its Technology Sales segment involves in the direct marketing of IT equipment and third-party software solutions of Cisco Systems, HP, VMWare, NetApp, IBM, and Microsoft; and the provision of proprietary software for enterprise supply management, including order-entry and order-management, procurement, spend management, asset management, document management, distribution, and electronic catalog content management software and services. This segment also provides professional technology services in the areas of data center, storage, security, cloud enablement, and IT infrastructure that cover Internet telephony and communications, collaboration, cloud computing, virtual desktop infrastructure, network design and implementation, storage, security, virtualization, business continuity, visual communications, audio/visual technologies, maintenance, and implementation services. The company?s Financing segment offers a range of leasing and financing options for IT and capital assets, such as computers, associated accessories and software, communication-related equipment, medical equipment, industrial machinery and equipment, office furniture and general office equipment, transportation equipment, and other general business equipment. It also leases and finances equipment, as well as supplies software and services directly and through relationships with vendors and equipment manufacturers. ePlus sells its products primarily through direct sales force, inside sales representatives, and business development associates to commercial customers; federal, state, and local governments; K-12 schools; and higher education institutions. The company was formerly known as MLC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to ePlus inc. in 1999. ePlus was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.

Top Tech Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Qlik Technologies Inc.(QLIK)

Qlik Technologies Inc. engages in the development, commercialization, and implementation of software products and related services for user-driven business intelligence that enables customers to make business decisions primarily in the Americas, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and Africa. It provides QlikView Business Discovery platform, which helps people create and share insights and analysis in groups and across organizations. Business users can explore data, ask and answer their own stream of questions, and follow their own path to insight on their own and in teams and groups. The company also offers maintenance and professional services. It sells its products to a range of industry verticals, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail, manufacturing, technology, and healthcare through its direct sales force, as well as through an indirect channel partners comprising distribution partners, value-added resellers, system integrators, and original equipment manufacturers to license and support its software platform. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

5 Best Tech Stocks To Own Right Now: Zynga Inc (ZNGA)

Zynga Inc. (Zynga), is a provider of social game services with 240 million average monthly active users over 175 countries. The Company develops, markets and operates online social games as live services played over the Internet and on social networking sites and mobile platforms. The Company�� games are accessible on Facebook, other social networks and mobile platforms to players globally, wherever and whenever they want. It operates its games as live services. All of its games are free to play, and it generates revenue through the in-game sale of virtual goods and advertising. In March 2012, the Company acquired New York-based social game developer OMGPOP, makers of the cultural hit mobile game, Draw Something, and over 35 additional social games. In 2012, the Company launched several new games, including Hidden Chronicles, Zynga Bingo, Scramble With Friends, Slingo and Dream Heights.

Social Games

The Company designs its social games to provide players with shared experiences. Its social games leverage the global connectivity and distribution on Facebook, other social networks and mobile platforms, such as Apple iOS and Google Android. Its games are free to play, span a number of genres. It operates its games as live services and updates them with content and features. Its games include CityVille, Zynga Poker, FarmVille, CastleVille, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars and Word with Friends.

Virtual Goods

The Company�� primary revenue source is the sale of virtual currency, which players use to buy in-game virtual goods. Some forms of virtual currency are earned through game play, while other forms can only be acquired for cash or, in some cases, by accepting promotional offers from its advertising partners.

Advertising

The Company�� advertising services offer ways for marketers and advertisers to reach and engage with its players. Its advertising offerings include branded virtual goods and sponsorships, engagement ads, mobil! e ads and display Ads. It offers branded virtual goods and sponsorships integrate advertising within game play; Engagement Ads and Offers, in which players can answer certain questions or sign up for third party services to receive virtual currency; Mobile Ads through ad-supported free versions of its mobile games such as Words with Friends and Display Ads in its online web games include banner advertisements.

The Company competes with Crowdstar, Inc., DeNA, Electronic Arts Inc., King.com, The Walt Disney Company, Vostu, Ltd. wooga GmbH, Amazon.com, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation , Tencent Holdings Limited, Apple, Electronic Arts, GREE, DeNA Co. Ltd., Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Rovio Mobile Ltd , Storm8, Inc., Activision Blizzard, Inc., Big Fish Games, Inc., Electronic Arts, SEGA of America, Inc., and THQ Inc..

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tamara Rutter]

  Moving on, Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA  ) comes in at a close second, with the stock down more than 73% year to date. Admittedly, the social game developer has been my worst stock pick to date.

  As it stands, Zynga generates a majority of its revenue from Facebook. This means that much of the company's future success hinges on its ability to expand from a Web game maker to a multiplatform game maker. Investors should stay on the sidelines for now as Zynga focuses on cutting costs and becoming less reliant on Facebook.

  Speaking of the world's most popular social network, shares of Facebook are down nearly 30% year to date. The company hit the public market on May 18, with shares priced at $38 apiece. Today the stock trades around $26 a pop. Like so many investors, I want to see Facebook make meaningful inroads into mobile before I invest in the company.

Top Tech Stocks To Invest In Right Now: NetApp Inc.(NTAP)

NetApp, Inc. engages in the design, manufacturing, marketing, and technical support of networked storage solutions. It supplies enterprise storage and data management software, and hardware products and services. The company offers Data ONTAP, an operating system that supports storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) environments; storage efficiency technologies, including FlexVol, FlexClone, and Deduplication technologies; storage management and application integration software, such as OnCommand management software; fabric-attached storage unified storage systems, which support a range of data for users on various platforms; and virtual storage tier; V-Series network-based virtualization solutions that provide SAN and NAS access to the data stored in heterogeneous storage arrays. It also provides data protection software products, including Snapshot, SnapRestore, SnapVault, and Open Systems SnapVault techologies; MetroCluster products; and SnapMirror data replication solution. In addition, the company offers data retention and archive products, and Flash Cache modules; and storage security products for data security and key management in IP SAN, NAS, and tape backup environments; StorageGRID that enables intelligent data management and secure content retention; and professional services, global support solutions, and customer education and training. It serves energy, financial services, government, high technology, Internet, life sciences and healthcare services, manufacturing, media, entertainment, animation and video postproduction, and telecommunications industries. It offers its products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company was formerly known as Network Appliance, Inc. and changed its name to NetApp, Inc. in March 2008. NetApp, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Quickel]  

  The company is gaining significant market share over the past year due to a strong storage-optimization-based product positioning especially in virtual-server-related Storage deployments, ramping distribution and sales presence, and increasing penetration into the enterprise.

  The brokerage expects these growth drivers to continue driving share gains for NetApp and solidify its recently-achieved No.2 position in the Storage market.

  The analysts said: "Considering our belief that NTAP is strongly positioned in the strongest Storage growth markets, is gaining significant share at scale and has seen a significant reset in its earning power, we believe there is material potential upside in NTAP stock at current levels."

Why SCANA's Earnings May Not Be So Hot

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now

After a 12-week run of seeing its share price rise for the week, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  ) stock fell last week. Investors were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share, but even factoring that into account, Johnson & Johnson stock still fell for the week.

Oh, the horrors.

I jest, of course. Stocks can't go up forever. There are only so many buyers. Three months of continually higher prices is pretty impressive. And except for a few brief pauses, the run has actually been much longer.

JNJ data by YCharts.

What sent Johnson & Johnson stock on its terror
I think it's confidence more than anything. Investors were a bit spooked by the rash of recalls. From May 2010, when the recalls came to fruition, through the end of last year, Johnson & Johnson stock was up just 9% compared to 20% for the S&P 500.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: NGP Capital Resources Company(NGPC)

NGP Capital Resources Company is a business development company specializing in investments in small and mid size and middle market companies. The firm typically invests in acquisitions, buyouts, growth and development, revitalization, restructuring, recapitalizations, and special situations. It invests in energy companies with a focus on oil and gas exploitation, development, and production business; upstream businesses that acquire, develop, and produce oil, natural gas, and coal; midstream businesses that gather, process, store, and transport oil and natural gas; power generation and distribution; oil field services and other energy services; and alternative energy and other similar energy related businesses. The firm primarily invests between $10 million and $100 million in its portfolio companies. It invests in the form of secured, senior, and subordinate debt; convertible debt; preferred equity; project equity; production payments, net profits interests, and similar investments; and mezzanine loans and may receive equity investments in portfolio companies in connection with such investments. The firm makes asset and project based investments in private companies and can also invest in public companies. NGP Capital Resources Company was founded in 2004 and is based at Houston, Texas. It is a subsidiary of NGP Energy Capital Management.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Amphenol Corporation(APH)

Amphenol Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of electrical, electronic, and fiber optic connectors; interconnect systems; and coaxial and specialty cables worldwide. Its Interconnect Products and Assemblies segment produces connectors and connector assemblies primarily for the communications, aerospace, industrial, and automotive markets. This segment provides connector and cable assembly products used in communication applications; smart card acceptor and other interconnect devices used in mobile telephones; set top boxes to facilitate reading data from smart cards; fiber optic connectors used in fiber optic signal transmission; backplane and input/output connectors and assemblies used for servers and data storage devices and linking personal computers and peripheral equipment; sculptured flexible circuits used for integrating printed circuit boards; and hinge products used in mobile phone and other mobile communication devices. It also designs a nd produces radio frequency connector products and antennas used in telecommunications, computer and office equipment, instrumentation equipment, local area networks, and automotive electronics. The company?s Cable Products segment produces coaxial cable and connector products used in cable television systems, including full service cable television/telecommunication systems; radio frequency and fiber optic interconnect components for full service cable television/ telecommunication networks; and data cables and specialty cables used to connect internal components in systems with space and component configuration limitations. Amphenol Corporation markets its products directly, as well as through manufacturers? representatives and distributors to original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, cable system operators, and telecommunication companies. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Pat Racaniello]

  Amphenol Corp (APH) is our technology pick, a manufacturer of specialty cable and various connectors, including fiber optic ones, for use in electronic devices and the cable television industry. Near the lower band of the 52 week band ($40.44 - $59.11), the last traded price of $43.27 represents an excellent buy opportunity considering the stock is so far below the moving averages (50,100, 200).

  The main competition for companies such as Amphenol comes from Taiwanese component makers, that compete at a lower price. Amphenol has a solid market reputation and compared with Molex (MOLX), the free cash flow margin is far ahead at 10% compared to 5% for the latter. Price to earnings is on the industry mark at 14 times, but the concern lies in the dividend payout which is basically nothing (1.91) compared to the industry (26.91).

Best Growth Stocks For 2014: Verizon Communications Inc.(VZ)

Verizon Communications Inc. provides communication services. The company operates through two segments, Domestic Wireless and Wireline. The Domestic Wireless segment offers wireless voice and data services; and sells equipment in the United States. The Wireline segment provides voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, Internet protocol network, network access, long distance, and other services in the United States and internationally. The company serves consumer, business, and government customers, as well as carriers. As of December 31, 2010, its network covered a population of approximately 292 million and provided service to a customer base of approximately 94.1 million. The company was formerly known as Bell Atlantic Corporation and changed its name to Verizon Communications Inc. in June 2000. Verizon Communications Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Young]

  While AT&T (NYSE:T) has been fighting, and losing, the battle to get T-Mobile’s spectrum, Verizon has been piecing together spectrum from far-flung sources, allowing it to expand its 4G LTE operations. Verizon recently purchased more spectrum from a business consortium, and this month VZ bought more spectrum, this time from Cox — a cable provider. Verizon is inking the deals it needs to keep expanding. The company’s stock yields 5.1% today and has broken out of recent resistance on my price chart.

• [By Jim Cramer,TheStreet]

  This is the year for Verizon Communications (VZ). The iPhone is coming in the first quarter, which will lead to a growth spurt.

  The FIOS buildout is largely paid for, and now the company can reap the benefits. The company's half-owned portion of Verizon Wireless will be paying hefty dividends in 2011, and I think we will get a nice dividend boost.

  We're talking about $40 being reasonable, if conservative, giving this stock one of the best risk-reward profiles we've got in the Dow, or the S&P 500, for that matter.

  CEO Ivan Seidenberg has done a remarkable job turning this staid company into a growth vehicle with a nice dividend. It will be a core holding for many mutual funds.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Summit State Bank(SSBI)

Summit State Bank operates as a community bank in Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco, and Marin Counties in California. It offers deposit accounts, such as transaction accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, time deposit accounts, business checking accounts, time certificates of deposit, sweep accounts, and specialized deposit accounts, including professional, small business packaged, and tiered accounts for larger deposits, and Keogh and IRA accounts. The company also provides commercial and industrial lines of credit and term loans, credit lines to individuals, equipment loans, real estate and construction loans, small business loans, and business lines of credit; consumer loans, including auto loans, mortgage loans, home improvement loans, and home equity lines of credit; and loans for accounts receivable and inventory financing, loans to agriculture-related businesses, and equipment and expansion financing programs. In addition, it offers banking by appointment, on line and telephone banking services, direct payroll and social security deposits, letters of credit, access to national automated teller machine networks, courier services, safe deposit boxes, night depository facilities, notary services, travelers? checks, lockbox, and banking by mail. Further, the company, through its subsidiary, Alto Service Corporation, provides deed of trust services. It serves small-to medium-sized businesses, professionals and professional associations, entrepreneurs, high net worth families, foundations, estates, and individual consumers. The company operated five offices in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, and Healdsburg. Summit State Bank was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Rosa, California.

Top Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Intel Corporation(INTC)

Intel Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of integrated circuits for computing and communications industries worldwide. It offers microprocessor products used in notebooks, netbooks, desktops, servers, workstations, storage products, embedded applications, communications products, consumer electronics devices, and handhelds. The company also provides system on chip products that integrate its core processing functionalities with other system components, such as graphics, audio, and video, onto a single chip. In addition, it offers chipset products that send data between the microprocessor and input, display, and storage devices, including keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard drive, and CD, DVD, or Blu-ray drives; motherboards designed for desktop, server, and workstation platforms, and that has connectors for attaching devices to the bus; and wired and wireless connectivity products consisting of network adapters and embedded wireless cards used to translate and transmit data across networks. Further, the company provides NAND flash memory products primarily used in portable memory storage devices, digital camera memory cards, and solid-state drives; software products comprising operating systems, middleware, and tools used to develop, run, and manage various enterprise, consumer, embedded, and handheld devices; and software development tools that enable the creation of applications. Additionally, it develops computing platforms, which are integrated hardware and software computing technologies designed to offer an optimized solution. The company sells its products principally to original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers, PC components and other products users, and other manufacturers of industrial and communications equipment. It has a strategic alliance with Scientific Conservation Inc. Intel Corporation was founded in 1968 and is based in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  InvestorPlace.com Editor Jeff Reeves hasn’t had quite the track record he hoped for so far in these annual stock-picking contests, so this year, he decided to keep things simple with blue-chip tech company Intel (NASDAQ:INTC).

  Why? Well, quite simply, it’s the largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planet and comes with an eye-popping dividend yielding over 4.4%.

  Jeff acknowledges that the post-PC era is a challenge for Intel, but he remains convinced that the company will figure out mobile.

  And he isn’t just talk. He writes:

  “For the record, I have skin in the game on this. At the end of October, I added the semiconductor giant to my personal portfolio at $21.50. And when it fell to $20.50 recently I doubled down. I plan on hanging on to this company for a long time because of that attractive yield, and the hopes of big growth and continued increases in the payout.”

  Hopefully, the pick pays off — both for Jeff’s portfolio and for his contest pride.

3 Stocks to Buy This July

For the past two years, I have picked out one company every month that I would be putting my own Roth IRA money behind. So far, those picks have returned over 19%, and they are beating the S&P 500 by just over 3 percentage points.

This month, however, I'm breaking form and buying three stocks for my Roth, as my recent sale of Lumber Liquidators -- which returned 250% -- has freed up more cash to invest. Read below to see which three stocks to buy this July, and at the end, I'll offer up access to a special free report on how to maximize your retirement savings.

Nuverra Environmental Solutions (NYSE: NES  )
Until recently, Nuverra used to be known as Heckmann, but the goal of the company remains the same: to meet all of the water needs of North America's energy industry. Over the past few years, Nuverra has built out an impressive network of pipes, injection wells, water treatment plants, and trucking fleets that help streamline water usage.

While the energy industry -- because it's based on the underlying value of its commodities -- can be fairly volatile, there's no denying Nuverra's momentum. The company increased revenue during the first quarter by 190%, and from 2010 to 2012, that revenue increased 381% per year. The company also let it be known that the years of heavy spending on infrastructure will soon be coming to an end as Nuverra leverages its assets.

With shares trading 25% lower now than they were three months ago, I'm going to be buying shares when Fool trading rules allow.

Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS  )
Though there are more than just two players in the game, the emerging 3-D printing industry is dominated by heavyweights Stratasys and 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD  ) . While Stratasys has focused primarily on making printers for industrial use -- and bolstered that focus with its earlier merger with Objet -- it is 3D Systems that has focused on consumer products.

But Stratasys made waves last month when it announced it was merging with consumer-facing 3-D printing company Makerbot. As fellow Fool Blake Bos pointed out recently, MakerBot's Replicator is considered the iPhone of 3-D printers -- the coolest player in the game.

While Stratasys is certainly expensive by most traditional measures, these latest moves lead me to think that today's market cap for Stratasys of just $3.3 billion will look tiny a decade from now.

LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD  )
I'll admit it, I would much rather have been buying shares of LinkedIn when it was around $160 earlier in June. But the market -- and I -- has no qualms about paying a premium for a company that could disrupt HR departments of companies worldwide.

During the first quarter of 2013, LinkedIn was able to grow its revenue by 73% through three different channels: one focused on helping businesses fill openings, one focused on premium individual memberships, and one focused on advertising.

LinkedIn is certainly expensive right now, but it was when I bought it back in February and October 2012 as well. Since then, shares are up 115% and 80%, respectively.

More choices to help you retire comfortably
In the end, this series for me is about building a portfolio to help my family retire comfortably. The Motley Fool's free report "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich" names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well. I personally own two of the stocks, and they make up a combined 15% of my real-life holdings. Click here now to keep reading and find out which three stocks we're talking about.

Today's 3 Best Stocks

Everyone brace yourselves because the broad-based S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) is set to end the week down for the first time in a month. A mixture of profit-taking and concern that the Federal Reserve may wind down its bond-buying program sooner than expected has investors spooked.

The Fed's bond purchases create a sort of catch-22 for investors. On one hand, winding down its purchases would signal strength in the U.S. economy and point to it becoming more self-sufficient. Alternatively, fewer bond purchases could potentially move lending rates higher even with the Fed targeting record-low lending rates through 2015. In short, investor uncertainty has yielded another choppy, but modestly lower, reaction in the S&P 500.

When all was said and done, the S&P 500 ended lower by 0.91 points (-0.06%) to close at 1,649.60. There were few catalysts to send the market higher today, but the following three stocks certainly found the will to buck the downtrend in a big way.

Ascending to the top of the pack was robotic surgical device maker Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG  ) , which gained 4.8% after winning a lawsuit involving its da Vinci surgical system. The plaintiff in the case was a family that sued for $4.9 million following complications from a 14-hour prostate cancer surgery. The jury's verdict isn't too important from a monetary perspective for Intuitive so much as it reinforces the safety of its surgical devices, which are currently under investigation by the federal regulators. I certainly feel there could be further upside in Intuitive shares from here.

The world's largest consumer products maker, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) , surged higher by 4% after announcing that Bob McDonald was retiring as CEO. More interestingly, former CEO A.G. Lafley, who was head of P&G from 2000 to 2009, has rejoined the company as its new CEO. Lafley was responsible for steadily growing P&G's core brands during his tenure, so shareholders seem very pleased to have him back. I can't help but be a bit excited as well because P&G's huge advertising campaign really hasn't hit home with consumers as of yet. I'd suspect the readdition of Lafley could move the company's marketing in a completely different direction, which would ultimately be beneficial to its bottom line.

Finally, advertising and marketing services company Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC  ) added 3.4% despite no company-specific news today. However, earlier in the week, Omnicom announcement that it was keeping its dividend steady at $0.40 in the upcoming quarter certainly invigorated shareholders, who are digging Omnicom's 2.5% yield. Personally, I can't help but be a little skeptical of ad and marketing consultants in a slow-growing global environment, but shareholders are definitely enjoying a solid end to the week.

Are stories of this demise greatly exaggerated?
Recently, some investors have questioned Intuitive Surgical's future. However, Intuitive Surgical expert Karl Thiel believes a visible path to long-term growth persists. Will Intuitive capitalize or be crushed by unforeseen pitfalls? His report highlights all of the key opportunities and risks facing the company -- and includes a full year of ongoing updates as key new hits -- so be sure to claim your copy by clicking here now.

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More Expert Advice from The Motley Fool

The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock in our brand-new free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." I invite you to take a copy, free for a limited time. Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

Time Warner Just Became the World’s Finest Stock

At a venue well known for dramatic revelations, Man of Steel director Zack Snyder made what might be the biggest reveal of all at this year's San Diego Comic-Con: Time Warner (NYSE: TWX  ) will bring Batman and Superman together in 2015.

DC's two most iconic superheroes will share the screen soon. Source: DC Entertainment.

The untitled epic -- let's call it Man of Steel 2 for now -- takes the place of what many had thought would be a Justice League film. Instead, we'll get "Word's Finest," an onscreen version of the comic-book series in which Batman and Superman would share an adventure.

Or maybe it'll be more like "The Dark Knight Returns," a 1980s epic miniseries from writer and artist Frank Miller that helped redefine the medium. In it, older versions of DC Comics' Big Two face off in an epic battle that ends with a dying Bruce Wayne delivering this speech, which Snyder had actor Harry Lennix deliver to the audience before revealing the combined logo you see above:

I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come. In all your most private moments. I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.

Here's a closer look at the original, as drawn by Miller:

Batman vs. Superman in "The Dark Knight Returns." Source: MTV Geek and DC Comics.

As a fan, I love the idea of two iconic characters slugging it out on the big screen. As an investor, I love the box office prospects for a "World's Finest" team-up. I'm also encouraged by the timing, because it gives necessary space for DC to build up to a Justice League film in the same way that Marvel built up to The Avengers.

In the meantime, Man of Steel 2 has a decent chance to be the most profitable DC Comics film ever. Why? Former co-financier Legendary is now partnered with Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA  ) Universal Pictures, which means Warner should be be able to keep 100% of the proceeds from future DC Comics films.

Comic-Con is over, but the Time Warner stock story is only just beginning.

What will be the next superhero stock? The Motley Fool's chief investment officer thinks he's found one. Find out more in the special free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." Just click here for your report and we'll reveal the secret identity of this under-the-radar company.

Most Emerging Stocks Decline as Samsung Slides, Tencent Gains

Most emerging-market stocks fell after Samsung Electronics Co. reported earnings that missed estimates, countering a rally in health-care and Internet shares.

Samsung slid the most in a week in Seoul while Hindustan Unilever Ltd. lost 4.9 percent in Mumbai after sales growth slowed. Turcas Petrol AS (TRCAS) retreated to a one-month low after Turkey's finance ministry started a tax inspection into a joint venture. Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd. added 3.6 percent in Hong Kong after RHB Capital Bhd. raised its earnings forecast. Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700) climbed to a record in Hong Kong after internet companies in the U.S. surged.

About 343 stocks dropped and 269 rose in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which added 0.2 percent to 964.17 as of 4:11 p.m. in Hong Kong. The gauge has risen 1.5 percent this week, heading for a third weekly increase. About 54 percent of companies in the MSCI index that posted quarterly earnings this month have trailed analyst estimates. The Federal Open Market Committee will hold a meeting next week, and a July 31 report may show U.S. economic growth slowed in the April-to-June period.

"The earnings results are mixed so far, with investors being cautious as some bad news can still come to shake markets," Attila Vajda, head of institutional clients at ACB Securities Co., said in Ho Chi Minh City.

Samsung (005930), the world's biggest smartphone maker, dropped 0.9 percent, the largest drag to the MSCI developing-nation gauge, after its second-quarter earnings trailed estimates as market saturation for high-end handsets curbed sales growth for its flagship Galaxy S4.

Biggest Gain

A gauge of health-care companies in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.7 percent, the most among 10 industry groups. Sihuan Pharmaceutical gained to the highest level since January 2011 after RHB raised its 2013-2015 earnings forecast to reflect above-sector earnings growth.

Tencent, the world's No. 2 Internet company by market value, jumped 3.9 percent. The company is benefiting from online and mobile games advertising and a surge in U.S. technology stocks including Facebook Inc. yesterday is stimulating today's gains, said Ricky Lai, analyst at Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. NHN Corp., South Korea's biggest search-engine operator, surged 7.5 percent in Seoul, the largest gain in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

Largan Precision Co., a lens supplier for Apple Inc., surged 7 percent in Taipei after its second-quarter profit beat estimates and Barclays Bank Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock.

China Stocks

The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) slipped 0.5 percent after China's government ordered cuts to production capacity in 19 industries, while technology companies extended a slump after reaching the highest valuations in more than two years.

The S&P BSE Sensex of Indian stocks declined 0.5 percent to a two-week low. Hindustan Unilever, the Indian unit of the world's second-biggest consumer-goods company, dropped to the lowest level since July 16. Sales volume rose 4 percent in the quarter ended June, compared with a 9 percent growth in the same period last year, the company said in a statement today.

The won increased 0.4 percent against the dollar, its third week of gains, after Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong Soo said the economy is overcoming the impact of a weak yen. The Indian rupee was poised for a third weekly increase, the longest winning streak since February.

Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. (011200) tumbled 10 percent in Seoul, leading declines among companies that do business in North Korea. Talks between the two Koreas aimed at reopening the jointly-operated Gaeseong factory park broke down yesterday, with negotiators from both sides "pushing and shoving" and no agreement for dialogue to resume.

Turcas Drops

Turkey's stock gauge dropped 0.6 percent, its seventh day of declines, as energy group Turcas sank 2.6 percent. Turkey's Finance Ministry officials started a tax inspection at Shell & Turcas Petrol AS, in which Turcas has a 30 percent stake, according to a company statement.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PCOMP) declined 0.5 percent while Taiwan's Taiex Index and the Jakarta Composite Index slid at least 0.2 percent. Trading volumes for benchmark gauges in Indonesia, Malaysia and China were at least 23 percent less than the 30-day average, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The MSCI Emerging-Markets Index has lost 8.7 percent this year, while the MSCI World Index of developed-country stocks has gained 13 percent. The emerging-stocks measure trades at 10.1 times 12-month projected earnings, compared with the MSCI world's multiple of 13.9, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Why Hartford Earnings Should Soar This Quarter

Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG  ) will release its quarterly report on Monday, and the insurance company's prospects have been looking increasingly favorable lately. With a big boost in its stock price and some positive economic developments, Hartford earnings are poised to post some big growth numbers when it reports.

Hartford went through a rough few years during and after the financial crisis as commitments it had made to policyholders created big losses exactly as income from its investment portfolio fell through the floor. More recently, though, things have started looking up for the insurance industry more broadly, and Hartford's big transformation to focus on more profitable business appears to be paying off for the company. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Hartford Financial over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Hartford Financial

Analyst EPS Estimate	$0.71
Change From Year-Ago EPS	209%
Revenue Estimate	$5.46 billion
Change From Year-Ago Revenue	19.3%
Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters	2

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

How long can Hartford earnings climb so fast?
Analysts have actually had mixed views on Hartford earnings recently, having cut their June-quarter estimates by $0.02 per share. But they've raised full-year 2013 and 2014 projections by $0.07 per share each, and the stock has responded in line with the longer-term view, rising 17% since late April.

Hartford has been going through a large restructuring of its business, having sold off business lines such as its individual life-insurance unit and its retirement plan business. Although the company posted a loss in its first-quarter report, a one-time charge related to expansion in its annuity-hedging program in Japan was to blame for the loss as Hartford moves more toward becoming a pure property and casualty insurance company. The company continued divesting non-core assets during the quarter, selling its U.K. variable annuity business to a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A  ) (NYSE: BRK-B  ) last month for $285 million. Berkshire won in a competitive bidding process, seeing value in taking on the risk that Hartford is anxious to rid itself of going forward.

With almost three-quarters of its revenue now coming from its property and casualty business, Hartford will be increasingly sensitive to catastrophic losses when they occur. With this quarter's loss activity appearing to be relatively muted compared to past periods, Hartford's earnings growth is consistent with what we've seen from other companies. Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) , for instance, blew out estimates when it reported earnings earlier this month, with an 85% jump in profits coming in part from more favorable loss experience.

One concern, though, comes from the bond market. Travelers cited massive unrealized gains from its bond portfolio that hurt its book value, and Hartford could see similar pressure this quarter as well. Higher rates should help Hartford by providing more investment income in the long run, but the short-term impact could surprise investors who aren't prepared for it.

In the Hartford earnings report, look to see how much more progress the company has made toward fully embracing the property and casualty business. For now, that seems like a lucrative strategy, but in the long run, Hartford's prospects will depend increasingly on the state of the P&C market and whether insurers can continue to keep premiums high even if loss experience moderates from some of the big disasters we've seen over the past couple of years.

Solid companies selling at depressed prices have consistently helped generations of the world's most successful investors preserve capital, minimize risk, and achieve long-term, market-trampling returns. For one such company in the insurance industry, read our free report: "The One REMARKABLE Stock to Own Now." Just click here to get started.

 Click here to add Hartford Financial to My Watchlist, which can find all of our Foolish analysis on it and all your other stocks.

How Can 3M Earnings Grow Faster?

3M (NYSE: MMM  ) is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings report tomorrow, and shareholders have sent the stock on an impressive run so far this year, with sizable gains that have outpaced the overall performance of the Dow Jones Industrials (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) . Yet for the company to justify its higher valuation, 3M earnings need to keep pace with share-price gains, and that doesn't look very likely to happen in the near future.

3M still has plenty of good prospects for future growth, though. The question is whether 3M can reawaken its longtime innovative spirit and come out with another set of revolutionary products that will reinvigorate its business. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with 3M over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on 3M

Analyst EPS Estimate	$1.71
Change From Year-Ago EPS	3%
Revenue Estimate	$7.77 billion
Change From Year-Ago Revenue	3.1%
Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters	1

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Can 3M earnings growth accelerate?
Analysts haven't been too upbeat in recent months about the prospects for 3M earnings, as they've cut their June-quarter estimates by $0.07 per share and shaved a full dime per share from their full-year 2013 and 2014 estimates. That hasn't held the stock back, though, with shares posting gains of more than 10% since mid-April.

What makes 3M's share-price gains so impressive is that they've come despite relatively weak growth. In its first-quarter report, 3M saw overall revenue growth slow to just 2.1%, with net income rising only slightly. Admittedly, a large part of those headwinds came from the strong dollar's currency impact on foreign revenue, but still, 3M hasn't come out with innovative blockbuster products that tend to be the long-term drivers of sales success.

One issue that 3M faces is that it's tended to be conservative with respect to emerging businesses. That stands in stark contrast to fellow Dow conglomerate General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) , which has made gutsy bets on the energy side of its business and has seen them largely pay off. Just as GE got into wind turbines and has expanded to oil and gas services, 3M has the potential to become a much larger player in the solar industry if it chose to go beyond its supporting role for other companies and take the lead in module production or technological innovation. In addition, 3M's LED light bulb promises a 25-year life span and could seriously challenge GE in the lighting space if it put its mind to it.

Yet 3M has started to get more aggressive about capturing opportunities. With substantial cash commitments to strategic growth acquisitions and to research and development, 3M already leads GE and several of its other conglomerate peers, and it has plans to boost its R&D spending even further. Combined with its having identified Latin America, Asia, and Africa as prime candidates for expansion, especially in its health-care and consumer-business divisions, 3M is putting a long-term growth strategy in place that investors seem to have faith in.

In the 3M earnings report, watch for the company to give more specifics on its plan to jump-start its growth. With a solid dividend, investors will be willing to wait for better results, but eventually, 3M needs to come through with higher earnings and revenue if it wants to sustain its recent stock-price gains.

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Why Wesco Aircraft Holdings's Earnings May Not Be So Hot

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Wesco Aircraft Holdings (NYSE: WAIR  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Wesco Aircraft Holdings generated $54.5 million cash while it booked net income of $97.1 million. That means it turned 6.5% of its revenue into FCF. That sounds OK. However, FCF is less than net income. Ideally, we'd like to see the opposite.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at Wesco Aircraft Holdings look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With questionable cash flows amounting to only 8.9% of operating cash flow, Wesco Aircraft Holdings's cash flows look clean. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, other operating activities (which can include deferred income taxes, pension charges, and other one-off items) provided the biggest boost, at 39.7% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from changes in accounts receivable, which represented 57.5% of cash from operations. Wesco Aircraft Holdings investors may also want to keep an eye on accounts receivable, because the TTM change is 3.2 times greater than the average swing over the past 5 fiscal years.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home-run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

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We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

Add Wesco Aircraft Holdings to My Watchlist.

Texas Gives Tesla the Boot

It's official: Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA  ) has lost a key battle against the Texas Automobile Dealers Association. It appears the electric-vehicle maker won't be able to sell its cars in the Lone Star State after all, because of the state's strict regulations against manufacturer-owned dealerships. This is a huge loss for Tesla, particularly given the sheer size of the Texas market.

Everything's bigger in Texas
As the second largest and second most populous state in the U.S., Tesla can't afford to ignore Texas forever. It's surprising, than, that Tesla's outspoken CEO, Elon Musk, hasn't yet commented on this decision by Texas lawmakers. In April, Musk traveled to Texas to plead Tesla's case for selling its cars directly to consumers in the state.

During his visit, Musk argued, "What we're asking for from the Texas Legislature is really simple -- it's just, let us sell our products directly to the people of Texas like we're able to do in the rest of the country." The Texas Automobile Dealers Association, on the other hand, claimed that allowing Tesla to sell its cars directly to Texas consumers would open the floodgates for other carmakers to sell direct to consumers.

Tesla has fought and won similar battles in other states, including New York, Florida, New Jersey, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts. However, Texas is an important piece of the puzzle for Tesla, as the company strives to transform the car-buying experience in this country. Worse still, Tesla will have to wait until the state's legislature meets again in a general session in 2015 before it can revisit the issue, according to Automotive News.

What now?
It will be interesting to see what Musk has to say on this heated topic. Perhaps it will be similar to what he told Forbes in April:

"It is crazy that Texas, which prides itself on individual freedom, has the most restrictive laws in the country protecting the big auto dealer groups from competition. If the people of Texas knew how bad this was, they would be up in arms, because they are getting ripped off by the auto dealers as a result (not saying they are all bad -- there a few good ones, but many are extremely heinous)."

Investors shouldn't have to wait too long to hear from Tesla's CEO. The company is holding its annual shareholder meeting later this afternoon.

Tesla's plan to disrupt the global auto business has yielded spectacular results. But giant competitors are already moving to disrupt Tesla. Will the company be able to fend them off? The Motley Fool answers this question and more in our most in-depth Tesla research available. Get instant access by clicking here now.

Is Wells Fargo's Stock Still Worth Owning?

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) is a selection for the real-money Inflation-Protected Income Growth portfolio. Like any investment, it needs to be reviewed from time to time to see if it's still worth owning. In the brief video below, portfolio manager Chuck Saletta reviews its valuation, balance sheet, and dividends, and decides whether to hold on to the stock or let it go.

To follow the iPIG portfolio as buy and sell decisions are made, watch Chuck's article feed by clicking here. To join The Motley Fool's free discussion board dedicated to the iPIG portfolio, simply click here.

After the recent crisis, is there really such a thing as a bank worth owning?
Many investors are terrified about investing in big banking stocks after the crash, but the sector has one notable stand-out. In a sea of mismanaged and dangerous peers, it rises above as "The Only Big Bank Built to Last." You can uncover the top pick that Warren Buffett loves in The Motley Fool's new report. It's free, so click here to access it now.

Can This Struggling Drugmaker Overcome Generic Statins?

The Motley Fool's health-care show, Market Checkup, focuses this week on cholesterol, one of America's most notable health-care concerns.

According to the CDC, approximately 71 million Americans have high cholesterol, and less than 50% actually get treated. High levels of LDL cholesterol, commonly known as "bad" cholesterol, can lead to dangerous health problems, including heart disease and high blood pressure. In the following segment, health-care analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso discuss how sales of AstraZeneca's (NYSE: AZN  )  cholesterol-lowering statin Crestor are threatened by competing generic drugs.

Many investors are attracted to the hefty dividends of pharma companies such as AstraZeneca, but savvy investors know the importance of diversifying -- seeking high-yielding stocks from multiple industries. The Motley Fool's special free report "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks" outlines the Fool's favorite dependable dividend-paying stocks across all sectors. Grab your free copy by clicking here.

Why AMD Shares Skyrocketed

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD  ) have skyrocketed today by as much as 12% following a number of analyst upgrades.

So what: Merrill Lynch and Canaccord Genuity both boosted their respective ratings on AMD to "buy." Merrill more than doubled its price target from $2.50 to $6, and Canaccord did likewise by raising its valuation from $3 to $5. Both analysts are optimistic about the opportunity in next-generation game consoles.

Now what: With Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4 both using AMD chips, the next-generation consoles could help bring AMD back into the black, according to Merrill analyst Vivek Arya. There could be pent-up demand that could fend off competition from casual mobile platforms. Console generations last numerous years, so AMD's win could yield many years of recurring revenues.

Interested in more info on Advanced Micro Devices? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

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Japan's Election Looms Large for the Nikkei's Future

It's a big week across the Pacific in Japan. Parliamentary elections on Sunday could give Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party serious strength as Japan's governmental leader attempts to continue the economic rise he's birthed in an economy that has known stagnation for two decades. Expectations of the election helped the Nikkei (NIKKEIINDICES: ^NI225  ) gain 0.8% this week, part of the index's unrivaled 38% year-to-date gains. Can Japan keep up this surge?

Abe's time to shine
No doubt Abe's loose monetary policy  in the first half of 2013 has driven Japan's stocks to world-leading gains, but the prime minister could have even more control if the LDP gains control of both houses of Japan's parliament on Sunday. That hasn't happened in more than 20 years, but with many in Japan looking for a longer-ruling leader after several short periods of leadership by recent prime ministers, Abe's chances at a unified government look good.

What's that mean for the yen, the currency that investors' eyes around the world have tracked this year? Abe's committed to weakening Japan's currency and a united government will give him an unblocked path to pushing his aggressive economic agenda. The yen gained against the U.S. dollar and other currencies this week ahead of the election, although Japan's currency is still hovering at more than 100 yen to the dollar, a sharp drop compared to last year's strong exchange rates.

As long as the yen keeps dropping, investors in Japan's leading exporters will have plenty to cheer about. Japanese tractor and equipment manufacturer Kubota's (NASDAQOTH: KUBTY  )  shares fell by more than 2.4% this week after cautious investors reeled in profits ahead of the election, but Kubota and other leading Japanese manufacturers that engage in significant overseas business will be set to flourish if Abe's unified government comes to fruition.

Kubota's presence in the U.S. will be all the more valuable as long as the yen keeps falling against the dollar -- and the company's already facing benefits as leading rival Deere's (NYSE: DE  ) utility tractor sales remained flat through May, underperforming the industry's 4% growth in the segment. While Kubota has a lot of ground to make up to stack up against an industry titan like Deere, a weak yen and worse-than-expected performance from its top competitor will ease the firm's path to making up ground in the American market -- and likely keep its stock's run going strong through the year, although the shares' 36% gains so far in 2013 may not be set for a repeat in the year's second half. Given that Abe's looked to deregulate the Japanese agricultural sector as well, Kubota's facing strength both at home and abroad.

Fellow Japanese manufacturer Komatsu's (NASDAQOTH: KMTUY  ) shares have slid more than 3% this past month, but like Kubota, this stock has blown up in 2013 and could be headed higher with a win by Abe and the LDP. However, there's risk in Komatsu's lofty 45% profit growth outlook in 2013: The company's the top manufacturer in China, but given the current slowdown plaguing the second-largest economy on Earth, Komatsu investors could be left disappointed. Komatsu's likely to see a strong uptick for the full year due to the weak yen -- particularly if Abe moves more aggressively after the elections -- but China's slump could make meeting optimistic projections a tall order.

Japan's been the best world market in 2013 behind the weak yen, and major stocks like Komatsu and Kubota have soared. But even as Japan flies high, other world markets have soured.

Yet a turnaround could be coming for international investors, and now's the time to take advantage in your portfolio before markets take off. A recent Motley Fool report, "3 Strong Buys for a Global Economic Recovery," outlines three companies that could take off when the global economy gains steam. Click here to read the full report!

Why Sherwin-Williams Shares Sank

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Sherwin-Williams (NYSE: SHW  ) sank as low as 10% today after the paint specialist announced disappointing second-quarter results and said that its bid to acquire a Mexican company was rejected by antitrust regulators. 

So what: The stock has soared over the past year on solid earnings growth, but today's second-quarter miss -- adjusted EPS of $2.54 on revenue of $2.7 billion versus the consensus of $2.57 and $2.76 billion -- is forcing analysts to scale back their expectations a bit. Additionally, the decision by Mexican regulators to reject Sherman's planned $2.3 billion purchase of paint company Consorcio Comex puts another little dent into its growth prospects going forward.

Now what: Management backed its full-year EPS guidance of $7.45-$7.55 per share and expects sales to grow in the mid-single digits. "Our Global Finishes Group continues to improve its operating margins through improved operating efficiencies and good cost control," said Chairman and CEO Christopher Connor. "The Latin America Coatings Group is managing to improve its core operating margins through selling price increases and good cost control despite the difficult environment in which they are operating." More important, with the stock now off about 15% from its 52-week highs, Mr. Market might be offering a decent opportunity to buy into that bullishness.

Solid companies selling at depressed prices have consistently helped generations of the world's most successful investors preserve capital, minimize risk, and achieve long-term, market-trampling returns. For one such company, read our free report: "The One REMARKABLE Stock to Own Now." Just click here to get started.

New Homeowner Bailouts Again Send the Wrong Message

Millions of Americans lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of net worth during the housing bust, as the value of their homes plunged. Yet as well-intentioned as government initiatives are in trying to address the financial impact of the mortgage crisis, the newest program to help struggling mortgage borrowers seems to encourage exactly the behavior you'd want homeowners to avoid.

More options for delinquent homeowners
On July 1, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Streamlined Modification Initiative (link opens PDF file) took effect. As FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said back in March when the initiative was first announced, the "new option gives delinquent borrowers another path to avoid foreclosure."

Under the program, eligible homeowners who are 90 days or more behind on their mortgage payments will automatically receive an offer that includes a reduced mortgage payment based on a fixed interest rate. Payment terms will be extended to 40 years, and for some of those who owe more on their loans than their homes are currently worth, the program will provide limited reductions of the amount of principal they owe on their mortgages.

The FHFA hopes that this program will succeed where others have failed. In particular, because the Streamlined Modification Initiative doesn't require homeowners to complete an application or provide evidence of financial hardship, the agency is optimistic that more eligible homeowners will participate than have used similar programs in the past.

Will the FHFA catch strategic defaults?
The danger with the new program, though, is that it provides no incentives for homeowners who've kept current on their payments. Indeed, it arguably gives homeowners a reason to stop making mortgage payments in the hope that by doing so, they'll become entitled to favorable benefits that wouldn't otherwise be available to them.

Indeed, previous programs designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure raised similar concerns about moral hazard. Back in 2009, the earliest attempts to provide for mortgage loan modifications resulted in far fewer benefits than expected, because the banks involved chose not to grant modification in many cases. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) were among the slowest of the big banks to modify loans early in the program's existence, moving forward with just 4% to 6% of eligible mortgages within the first half-year or so of the program. Even giving lenders incentives to modify loans didn't keep bankers from concluding that they'd often be better off not modifying and counting on homeowners to find ways to cure their delinquent loans without a modification. In other words, banks chose not to reward their customers automatically for being late and seeking assistance.

To its credit, FHFA specifically addresses the moral hazard involved in the Streamlined Modification Initiative. The agency notes that "because many borrowers who miss one or two payments have a temporary hardship and often reinstate their mortgage to current status, it is most effective to target borrowers who are at least 90 days delinquent." Moreover, in its efforts to curb abuse of the program, the FHFA notes that Fannie Mae (NASDAQOTCBB: FNMA  ) and Freddie Mac (NASDAQOTCBB: FMCC  ) , which the FHFA oversees, have "existing proprietary screening measures to prevent strategic defaulters from taking advantage of a Streamlined Modification."

Still, the danger with this program is the same as with past attempts to help potential victims of foreclosure: It's hard to help deserving homeowners while avoiding giving unneeded help to those who are simply trying to game the system. In particular, principal reduction introduces a whole new element to moral hazard, as the government has to consider the costs that Fannie and Freddie have to bear under total-default scenarios compared to the more limited costs of principal reduction. According to projections by the Congressional Budget Office (link opens PDF file), extending principal forgiveness under another program, the Home Affordable Modification Program, could result in net decreases in the budget deficit of between $2.2 billion and $2.8 billion. Yet the CBO analysis acknowledges that strategic defaults would lead to cost reductions that would be "less than costs would fall if borrowers whose modifications were costly could be excluded." Moreover, because HAMP involved having to document financial hardship, the potential for gamesmanship in the Streamlined Modification Initiative is arguably more substantial.

Is there no solution?
In the end, any government program will struggle to identify those who most need help. Rather than focusing on decisions within homeowners' control, such as becoming late on payments, programs should choose objective criteria that limit manipulation and truly find those in need.

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Why Earnings Aren't the Whole Story for Kansas City Southern

Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU  ) will release its quarterly report on Friday, with the stock having risen to levels it hasn't seen since it spun off its interest in Janus Capital back in 2000. But as much as healthy conditions in the railroad industry have helped Kansas City Southern earnings, there's another potential elephant in the room that's also contributing to investors' interest in the stock.

Kansas City Southern is a relative baby in the railroad industry, with several of its larger peers having five to 10 times as much revenue as the regional carrier. But the railroad's size gives it some important strategic advantages over its peers as well, including the prospects for larger competitors to use a takeover bid to expand their own rail networks. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Kansas City Southern over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Kansas City Southern

Analyst EPS Estimate	$0.95
Change From Year-Ago EPS	11.8%
Revenue Estimate	$576.97 million
Change From Year-Ago Revenue	5.8%
Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters	3

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

What in store for Kansas City Southern earnings this quarter?
Analysts have reduced their views on Kansas City Southern earnings in recent months, reducing estimates for the June quarter by $0.03 per share and full-year 2013 calls by $0.04 per share. That hasn't stopped the stock, though, as it's added 6% gains since mid-April.

Recently, we've seen the railroad industry adapt to changing conditions, as old mainstays like coal shipments have given way to poor pricing environments and demanded reactions from railroads to keep volumes up. Earlier today, CSX (NYSE: CSX  ) said that it believes that the trend toward increased rail transport of crude oil from hard to reach areas like the Bakken is likely to continue, even with domestic crude prices getting more expensive compared to world oil prices and even in light of a recent train derailment in Quebec, which involved a crude-oil explosion. In its quarterly report Tuesday night, CSX posted reasonable gains of about 4.5% in net income on a 2% revenue jump, beating expectations but reining in any exuberance about its potential for accelerating earnings growth.

For its part, Kansas City Southern has also taken steps to take advantage of the trend toward moving oil and food toward the eastern part of the country, with plans to invest more than half a billion dollars in capital expenditures in order to make necessary improvements. Even with crude-oil growth of 350% last year, the railroad still has plenty of potential to ramp up shipments much further this year and beyond.

Another benefit for Kansas City Southern has come from strength in the auto sector, which has helped both it and larger rival Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) produce growth in past quarters. Auto sales have surged lately, and so increasing volumes of vehicles could help offset weakness in coal and other struggling commodities.

Yet arguably the biggest upside potential Kansas City Southern has is as a potential takeover target. Ever since the Berkshire Hathaway purchase of Burlington Northern, railroads have been on the radar screen as buyout candidates. The challenge, though, is that a Union Pacific bid would probably raise antitrust concerns, while for smaller companies like CSX, Kansas City Southern would be a pretty big bite to swallow. Nevertheless, as long as industry conditions remain good, expect takeover speculation to continue.

In Kansas City Southern's earnings report, watch for the current status of the company's continuing moves toward greater diversity of transported goods. If it can keep on top of trends, Kansas City Southern has plenty of room to grow.

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Click here to add Kansas City Southern to My Watchlist, which can find all of our Foolish analysis on it and all your other stocks.

An Unexpected (but Welcome) Consequence of Rising Mortgage Rates

Common sense seems to dictate that rising mortgage rates will hurt the housing market by depressing the demand for purchase-money mortgages. But here's the thing: The data suggests that the exact opposite may be occurring.

At the end of last week, the nation's two largest mortgage originators, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM  ) , released earnings for the second quarter. Insofar as headline numbers go, both banks had stellar quarters, netting $5.5 billion and $6.5 billion, respectively -- Citigroup (NYSE: C  ) , which reported today, had a similar experience.

But if you dig a bit further, and into their mortgage operations specifically, the story is more nuanced. As expected, the volume of refinance mortgages fell markedly relative to the first quarter. Wells Fargo's dropped by 17% and JPMorgan's by 6%.

Unexpectedly, however, both banks reported dramatic sequential upticks in purchase-money mortgage originations. Volume at Wells Fargo was 46% higher than the first quarter, and JPMorgan reported an improvement of 44%.

I say "unexpectedly" because of what we've seen happen to mortgage rates since the Federal Reserve first hinted on May 22 that it may begin to taper its support for the economy. Following the announcement, the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage went from 3.35% at the beginning of May all the way up to 4.51% today.

As the price of a mortgage goes up via the interest rate, conventional economics tells us, the demand for one should go down. But clearly that's not happening here.

There are at least two explanations for this apparent paradox. The first is that homebuyers are rushing to lock in current rates, which are still exceptionally low on a historical basis, before they head higher.

"I'm afraid we're going to miss the boat," an aspiring homeowner recently told CNBC's Diana Olick. "I feel like we might get priced out of the market in a few months, and just depending on the mortgage payment whether we could afford it if the interest rates go up more."

The problem with this conclusion is that purchase-money mortgage applications are going down. You can see this in the figure below, which charts the Mortgage Bankers Association's index for purchase-money and refinance mortgages.

While applications for purchase-money mortgages may not have taken as dramatic a dive as refinance applications, one can't help but notice a subtle downward slope over the past two months.

It's for this reason that I prefer the second explanation. Namely, given the precipitous decline in refinance applications, mortgage lenders now have both the motive and the opportunity to pursue purchase-money mortgages.

The motive stems from the twilight of the refinancing wave. In Wells Fargo's case -- which matters disproportionately because it controls upwards of a third of the domestic mortgage market -- the revenue hole is huge. Last quarter was the seventh consecutive time that it had more than $100 billion in mortgage originations. In the vast majority of those quarters, roughly two-thirds of the volume related to refinancing activity.

And the opportunity is similarly grounded, given the vast quantity of manpower that the bank can -- and, at least in part, will -- redirect to originating purchase-money mortgages.

The net result is that, while the absolute number of purchase-money applications might decline in the face of rising interest rates, the proportion of them that are approved by lenders may be on the ascent.

For anybody who cares about the housing market -- and I say that somewhat facetiously because, as my colleague Morgan Housel has noted, "there hasn't been a strong economy without a strong housing market in modern history" -- this is very good news, as it supports the idea that home sales will continue their upward momentum.

It's estimated that every single-family home built by the likes of D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI  ) and PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM  ) generates between two and three sustainable jobs. In addition, an increase in demand for housing will presumably push home prices higher, which will reduce the number of underwater homeowners and thereby spur consumer spending. It is, indeed, a virtuous circle.

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Why Insmed Is Poised to Keep Pulling Back

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biopharmaceutical company Insmed (NASDAQ: INSM  ) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Insmed and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Insmed facts

Headquarters (founded)	Monmouth Junction, N.J. (1999)
Market Cap	$347.2 million
Industry	Biotechnology
Trailing-12-Month EBITDA	($46.0 million)
Management	CEO William Lewis (since 2012) CFO Andrew Drechsler (since 2012)
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)	29.2%
Cash/Debt	$81.6 million / $19.5 million
Competitors	Forest Labs Gilead Sciences Novartis

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 18% of the 28 All-Star members who have rated Insmed believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just yesterday, one of those Fools, All-Star zzlangerhans, touched on the stock's seemingly unsustainable valuation:

I see the market cap over [$300M] excessive given the unresolved carcinogenicity concerns, the weak results of CLEAR-108 which met the primary endpoint in name only, and the questionable commercial prospects of an antibiotic for non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection even if the results of TARGET-NTM and a future phase III trial are positive.

While you can certainly make quick gains in speculative biotech plays like Insmed, the best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool's free report "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich" names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies that every investor should be aware of. Click here now to keep reading.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In Right Now

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ  ) jumped as much as 16% today after announcing a major project development.

So what: The company has been hired by Samsung Renewable Energy to design and build a 130 MW utility-scale project called Grand Renewable Solar. The project will generate $301.1 million in revenue for Canadian Solar and will begin construction in the third quarter of this year. �

Now what: Canadian Solar has been slowly turning itself into a project developer, a good move considering the competition in the module business. What's surprising about this project is its cost of just $2.32 per watt, one of the lowest I've ever seen in solar. This project will create a source of demand for the company's products, but at that low cost per watt it won't generate much profit. This is one of the better stocks in Chinese solar but it's still not a stock this Fool is buying today.

Interested in more info on Canadian Solar? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In Right Now: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated(RBA)

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated, an industrial auctioneer, sells various equipment to on-site and online bidders. The company, through unreserved public auctions, sells a range of used and unused industrial assets, including equipment, trucks, and other assets utilized in the construction, transportation, agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum, and marine industries. It also provides Internet bidding services, which facilitate customers access to live and online auction participation. The company primarily serves buyers and sellers of equipment, trucks, and other industrial assets; rental companies and brokers; finance companies; and truck and equipment dealers. As of December 31, 2011, it operated approximately 110 locations in approximately 25 countries, including 43 auction sites worldwide. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Burnaby, Canada.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In Right Now: Panhandle Royalty Company(PHX)

Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. engages in the acquisition, management, and development of oil and natural gas properties. The company?s mineral and leasehold properties are located primarily in Arkansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas. As of September 30, 2011, it owned 255,857 net mineral acres; leased 17,480 net acres; held working and royalty interests in 5,107 producing oil and natural gas wells; and operated 48 wells in the process of being drilled. It serves pipeline and marketing companies. Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. was founded in 1926 and is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Best International Stocks To Own Right Now: Suntech Power Holdings Co. LTD.(STP)

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., a solar energy company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products. The company also provides engineering, procurement, and construction services to building solar power systems for certain related party and third party customers. Its products include monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon PV cells; PV modules; and building-integrated photovoltaics products. In addition, the company provides PV system integration services, including designing, installing, and testing PV systems used in lighting for outdoor urban public facilities, as well as in farms, villages, and commercial buildings; and project development services. Its products are used to provide electric power for residential, commercial, industrial, and public utility applications. The company sells its products through value-added resellers, such as distributors and system integrators; and to end users, such as project develo pers primarily in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Benelux, Greece, the United States, Canada, China, the Middle East, Australia, and Japan. Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Wuxi, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Hawkinvest]

  Suntech Power Holdings (STP) is one of the world's largest makers of solar panels. The company expects to post revenues of just over $3.1 billion for 2011, and it plans to release fourth quarter and full year results on March 8, 2012. Suntech hasn't escaped the difficult industry conditions and it recorded impairment charges of $571 million in the third quarter of 2011. This stock was also once a darling of Wall Street and it traded for over $80 per share in December 2007. Now it can be bought for about $3 per share even though it has made significant progress in driving down the cost of solar energy, as well as improving the efficiency of solar cells.

  The company was recently included in Technology Review's annual list of the world's 50 most innovative technology companies. This company has a debt load which is of concern for some investors, however, the stock appears to have priced that risk in with the shares trading for a fraction of the current book value which is $8.90 per share.

• [By Curtis]

  Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.(NYSE: STP) closing price in the stock market Tuesday, Jan. 3, was $2.35. STP is trading -3.28% below its 50 day moving average and -46.49% below its 200 day moving average. STP is -78.30% below its 52-week high of $10.83 and 38.24% above its 52-week low of $1.70. STP‘s PE ratio is 30.52 and its market cap is $424.30M.

  Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is a solar energy company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products. STP also provides engineering, procurement, and construction services to building solar power systems for certain related party and third party customers.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In Right Now: Natural Gas(NG)

NovaGold Resources Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties primarily in North America. The company primarily explores for gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead ores. It holds interests in the Donlin Creek property covering 81,361 acres and the Ambler property comprising 90,614 acres located in Alaska; and the Galore Creek property comprising 293,838 acres located in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The company was formerly known as NovaCan Mining Resources (1985) Limited and changed its name to NovaGold Resources Inc. in March 1987. NovaGold Resources Inc. was founded in 1984 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Vodicka]

  Novagold Resources Inc New Ord (AMEX:NG): This equity had 11,424,918 shares sold short as of Aug 31st, as compared to 11,493,664 on Aug 15th, which represents a change of -68,746 shares, or -0.6%. Days to cover for this company is 4 and average daily trading volume is 2,735,045. About the equity: NovaGold Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, explores and develops mineral properties in North America. NovaGold primarily focuses on gold properties, which may include copper, silver and zinc resources.

• [By Vodicka]

  Novagold Resources Inc New Ord (AMEX:NG): This equity had 11,424,918 shares sold short as of Aug 31st, as compared to 11,493,664 on Aug 15th, which represents a change of -68,746 shares, or -0.6%. Days to cover for this company is 4 and average daily trading volume is 2,735,045. About the equity: NovaGold Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, explores and develops mineral properties in North America. NovaGold primarily focuses on gold properties, which may include copper, silver and zinc resources.

Top 5 Canadian Companies To Invest In Right Now: Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund(CFP)

Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund is a closed-ended equity fund of fund launched and managed by Cornerstone Advisors, Inc. The fund invests funds investing in the public equity markets of the United States. It invests in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund was formed on April 26, 2007 and is domiciled in the United States.