�he life of a finance minister is not easy and I must be cruel only to be kind�were the words of the finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee in his union budget speech. Has the finance minister been really kind or was it his cruelty that the markets did not like the overall budget.
With the conclusion of the Union Budget 2012 and after reading the fine prints, the investors realised what actually the finance minister left for them in their kitty. Though the finance minister tried to maintain a balance between reforms and fiscal consolidation in his budget speech, it finally turned out to be more generous for the rich who will become richer and left very little for the low income earners. So, if you fall in the high income category with earnings of over Rs 10 lakhs per anum for FY 2012-13, then the savings on your income tax will be Rs 22,660, while if you earn anywhere between Rs 2 Lakh to Rs 8 Lakh, then with the new tax slabs, your savings from taxes will not be more than Rs 2,060. So it is not that your high savings will result in high earnings, but instead your high earnings will result in high savings on your personal taxes.
5 Best Japanese Stocks To Watch Right Now: Whitestone REIT (WSR)
Whitestone REIT is a real estate investment trust (REIT) engaged in owning and operating commercial properties in culturally diverse markets in the metropolitan areas. The Company is internally managed and owns a real estate portfolio of 36 properties containing approximately three million square feet of leasable space, located in Texas, Arizona and Illinois. As of December 31, 2009, the Company had one property, which accounted for more than 10% of the total gross revenue and leasing of the properties. In December 2011, the Company announced that it had closed on the purchase of Phase I of Pinnacle of Scottsdale, a 113,108 square foot 100% leased Class A Community Center in North Scottsdale. In December 2011, it purchased shops at Starwood. In August 2012, the Company closed on the purchase of Paradise Plaza, a 125,898 square foot 100%-leased Community Center in Paradise Valley. In September 2012, the Company purchased Village Square at Dana Park, a 310,979 square foot Community Center located in the Mesa submarket of Phoenix, plus six developed pads (total of 2.9 acres) and the adjacent 4.7 acre parcel of development land to add another 200,000 square feet of leasable space. In December 2012, the Company closed on the off-market purchase of The Shops at Pecos Ranch. In April 2013, it closed on the off-market purchase of Headquarters Village, a 89,134 square foot (sf) Community Center located within the Preston Road retail corridor in Plano, Texas. Effective July 1, 2013, Whitestone REIT acquired Anthem Marketplace. In October 2013, Whitestone REIT completed the purchase of Fountain Hills Plaza, retail center in Fountain Hills, Arizona. In December 2013, Whitestone REIT purchased Market Street at DC Ranch in Scottsdale.
As of December 31, 2009, the Company owned a 64.7% interest in Whitestone REIT Operating Partnership, L.P. (the Operating Partnership). As of December 31, 2009, the Company owned a real estate portfolio consisting of 36 properties located in three states. As of December 3! 1, 2009, the occupancy rate at the operating properties was 82% based on leasable square footage.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Charles Sizemore]
Returning to U.S. shores, the next of our monthly dividend stocks is Whitestone REIT (WSR), a smaller REIT that specializes in shopping centers.
I should start by making one point very clear: while I like Whitestone, it is a very different kind of REIT than Realty Income or American Realty Capital Properties. Its property portfolio is far less geographically diversified (with properties in just three states), and it is a much smaller company by market cap ($290 million).
Top 10 Net Payout Yield Companies To Watch For 2014: Sharp Corp (SRP)
Sharp Corporation is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of electric telecommunication, electric and electronic equipment. The Company operates in two business segments. The Electronics Equipment segment offers audio and video (AV) and communication products, including liquid crystal color televisions, projectors and various telephones; health and environmental equipment, including refrigerators, microwaves and air conditioners, as well as information equipment, such as handy terminal equipment, electronic registers, information displays and copy machines. The Electronic Component segment provides liquid related products such as liquid crystal display modules, solar cells, as well as other electronic devices, such as parts for satellite broadcasting, regulators and optical sensors. The Company withdrawed from solar battery production in United Kingdom by end of Feb. 2014. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Alexis Xydias]
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. fell 3.7 percent, as a gauge of London-listed commodity producers dropped. BAE Systems Plc (BA/) retreated 2.1 percent after Deutsche Bank AG downgraded Europe�� biggest defense company. Serco Group Plc (SRP) advanced 2.7 percent after saying first-half sales will grow at a faster pace than it had estimated.
- [By Sofia Horta e Costa]
Vivendi SA climbed 2.7 percent after posting better-than-estimated third-quarter profit and saying it plans to spin off its French phone carrier SFR by July 2014. Serco Group Plc (SRP) increased 1.7 percent as UBS AG upgraded the stock. Safran SA (SAF) lost 3.2 percent as its largest shareholder sold a stake.
Top 10 Net Payout Yield Companies To Watch For 2014: Novavax Inc.(NVAX)
Novavax, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing recombinant vaccines for infectious diseases using its virus-like particle platform (VLP) technology. It develops vaccine product candidates that target pandemic influenza, including H1N1 and H5N1 strains; seasonal influenza; and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Novavax has a joint venture with Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to develop and manufacture the company?s pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccine candidates, Cadila?s biogeneric products, and other diagnostic products for the territory of India; and a licensing agreement with LG Life Sciences, Ltd. to use the company?s VLP technology to develop and sell the company?s influenza vaccines in South Korea and other countries. It also has a co-marketing agreement with GE Healthcare for a pandemic influenza vaccine solution. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sean Williams]
Hardly what I'd call a pandemic
Every few years a new strain of flu virus seems to mutate and reveal itself somewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, instilling fear that the next pandemic may be on the way. This time it's the avian influenza H7N9 virus, which has gone relatively undetected in most fowl and has caused the death of nine people in China thus far. What hasn't been proven to this point is whether or not human-to-human contraction is possible. Based on the early estimates from the World Health Organization, that would be a no, which makes the likelihood of the Chinese government -- or any government, for that matter -- asking Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX ) to make a vaccine for the virus quite low. - [By John McCamant]
Novavax (NVAX) released its Phase I trial of 284 subjects injected with the H7N9 flu virus vaccine.
While the data was expected to be released before the end of the year, the fact that the NEJM published the Phase I study adds tremendous validation to the NVAX vaccine. We would note that the prestigious NEJM rarely publishes Phase I data.
- [By Roberto Pedone]
One under-$10 biopharmaceutical player that's currently trending within range of triggering a major breakout trade is Novavax (NVAX), which is engaged in creating differentiated, value- upon current preventive options for various infectious diseases. This stock is off to a strong start in 2013, with shares up around 40%.
If you take a look at the chart for Novavax, you'll notice that this stock has been uptrending strong for the last two months, with shares soaring higher from its low of $1.68 to its recent high of $2.78 a share. During that uptrend, shares of NVAX have been making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. Shares of NVAX are now starting to move within range of triggering a major breakout trade accompanied by strong upside volume flows.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in NVAX if it manages to break out above some key overhead resistance levels at its 52-week high of $2.78 to $3 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 1.56 million shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then NVAX will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $3.50 to $4 a share, or possibly even $4.50 a share.
Traders can look to buy NVAX off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some near-term support at $2.35 a share, or right below its 50-day at $2.22 a share. One can also buy NVAX off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.
Top 10 Net Payout Yield Companies To Watch For 2014: Telecom Italia S.P.A.(TI)
Telecom Italia S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides fixed-line and mobile telecommunications, Internet, and media services. The company also operates in office and system solutions. Its portfolio ranges from consumer-focused convergent communications services to business-oriented advanced ICT solutions. The company?s integrated range of offerings, proprietary platforms, and network architecture leverage the potential of fixed-line and mobile broadband to offer convergent solutions for communication, Web surfing, always-in-touch services, and serve as a gateway to the digital world from the home, the office, and on the move, from fixed-line telephone, cell phone, PC, or TV. Its business portfolio covers various categories of business needs, from freelance professionals to SMEs, corporations, institutions, and public government bodies. The company?s Web offerings combine Italy?s Virgilio portal with Web 2.0 ventures, such as Yalp!, a TV community where users p ublish their own content and create their own TV channels. Its media operations span traditional broadcasting over analogue and digital networks, and mobile broadcasting through TIM/MTV partnership vehicle, MTV Mobile. The company has operations in Italy, Latin America, Germany, Holland, and the Mediterranean basin. As of December 31, 2009, it provided fixed telecommunications services with approximately 16.1 million physical accesses in Italy. The company?s wholesale customer portfolio consisted of approximately 6.2 million accesses for telephone services; and broadband portfolio had approximately 8.7 million accesses in Italy, as well as 30.8 million mobile telephone lines. Telecom Italia was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By DAILYFINANCE]
Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images NEW YORK -- Facebook (FB) is placing a $19 billion bet on reaching its next billion mobile users with the acquisition of WhatsApp, a popular messaging service that lets people send texts, photos and videos on their smartphones. The $19 billion deal is by far Facebook's largest and bigger than any that Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) or Apple (AAPL) have ever done. But it is likely to raise worries that Facebook and other technology companies are starting to become overzealous in their pursuit of promising new products and services, said Anthony Michael Sabino, a St. John's University business professor. "This could be seen as a microcosm of a bubble," Sabino said. "I expect there to be a lot of skepticism about this deal. People are going to look at this and say, 'Uh-oh, did they pay way too much for this?" Facebook, for its part, is taking the long view. WhatsApp has 450 million monthly users, 70 percent of whom use it every day. The service is adding a million new users a day. There are 19 billion messages sent and 34 billion received via WhatsApp each day, in addition to 600 million photos and 100 million video messages. At this rate, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is confident the app will reach a billion users. Services that reach that milestone, Zuckerberg said in a statement, "are all incredibly valuable." It's an elite group to be sure -- one that includes Google (which owns YouTube), Facebook itself and little else. Facebook said Wednesday that it's paying $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp. In addition, the app's founders and employees -- 55 in all -- will be granted restricted stock worth $3 billion that will vest over four years after the deal closes. The transaction translates to roughly 11 percent of Facebook's market value. In comparison, Google's biggest deal was its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility, while Microsoft's largest was Skype at $8.5 billion. Apple, meanwhil
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) was started as Buy at Goldman Sachs, just a day after J.P. Morgan raised it to Neutral from Underperform.
Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at J.P. Morgan.
Top 10 Net Payout Yield Companies To Watch For 2014: TSR Inc.(TSRI)
TSR, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides contract computer programming services to commercial customers, and state and local government agencies in the metropolitan New York area, New England, and the mid-Atlantic region. It offers technical computer personnel to supplement in-house information technology capabilities. The company provides its staffing services in the areas of mainframe and mid-range computer operations, personal computers and client-server support, Internet and e-commerce operations, voice and data communications, and help desk support capabilities. TSR, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is based in Hauppauge, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Geoff Gannon] ay.
TSRI is typical of the kinds of net-nets you find on this list. The number of net-nets with five straight years of profits is about a dozen stocks. TSR is one of them. It is controlled by the founder. He formed the company 42 years ago. And he still owns 46% of the company today.
Other companies on the list of profitable net-nets also involve one man (or one family) control. These include:
路 Micropac (MPAD)
路 ADDvantage Technologies (AEY)
路 Solitron Devices (SODI)
路 OPT-Sciences (OPST)
Micropac
Micropac is 76% owned by Heinz-Werner Hempel. He�� a German businessman. You can see the German company he founded here. He�� had control of Micropac for a long-time. I don�� have an exact number in front of me. But I would guess it�� been something like 25 years.
ADDvantage
ADDvantage Technologies is controlled by the Chymiak brothers. See the company�� April 4 press release explaining their decision to turn over the CEO position to an outsider. Regardless, the Chymiaks still control 47% of the company. Ken Chymiak is now chairman. And David Chymiak is still a director and now the company�� chief technology officer. Clearly, it�� still their company.
By the way, the name ADDvantage Technologies has nothing to do with the Chymiaks. Today�� AEY really traces its roots to a private company called Tulsat. The Chymiak brothers acquired that company about 27 years ago. So, effectively, when you buy shares of AEY you are buying into a 27-year-old family-controlled company.
That�� pretty typical in the world of net-nets.
Solitron
Solitron Devices is 29% owned by Shevach Saraf. He has been the CEO for 20 years. The post-bankruptcy Solitron has never known another CEO. Before the bankruptcy, Solitron was a much bigger, much different company. So even though we are not talking about the founder here ��and even though 70% of the company�� shares are not held by the CEO
Top 10 Net Payout Yield Companies To Watch For 2014: Southcross Energy Partners LP (SXE)
Southcross Energy Partners, L.P., incorporated on April 12, 2004, is a limited partnership. The Company owns, operates, develops and acquires midstream energy assets. The Company provides natural gas gathering, processing, treating, compression and transportation services and natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation services to its producer customers, under fixed-fee and fixed-spread contracts, and it also sources, purchases, transports and sells natural gas and NGLs to its power generation, industrial and utility customers. Its assets are located in South Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. During the year ended December 31, 2011, its South Texas assets, which consist of approximately 1,445 miles of pipeline and two processing plants and accounted for approximately 77% of its revenues. Its Mississippi and Alabama assets, which consist of approximately 626 and 519 miles of pipeline, respectively, provide transportation of natural gas to its power generation, industrial and utility customers, as well as to unaffiliated interstate pipelines. The assets in its South Texas region are located between Houston and Freer. These assets consist of approximately 1,445 miles of pipeline ranging in diameter from 2 inches to 20 inches. In March 2014, the Company acquired natural gas pipelines near Corpus Christi, Texas along with contracts related to those pipelines.
South Texas
The assets in the Company�� South Texas region are located between Houston and Freer, a city, which is located approximately 50 miles west of Corpus Christi. These assets consist of approximately 1,445 miles of pipeline ranging in diameter from 2 inches to 20 inches with an estimated design capacity of 590 million cubic feet per day. Its South Texas region also includes 29 compressors with total compression of approximately 35,000 horsepower, two processing plants with total processing capacity of 185 million cubic feet per day and contracted third-party processing capacity of 83 million cubic feet per day, two treatin! g plants and one fractionator. During 2011, the systems in this region had an average throughput of 379 million cubic feet per day, including the processing plants, which processed an average of 75 million cubic feet per day in that period. It divides its South Texas region into four asset systems Vanderbilt and Gulf Coast gathering systems, which it refers to collectively as the Gulf Coast system; CCNG Transmission, which refer to as the CCNG system; Gregory gathering system, Gregory processing plant and Gregory fractionation plant, and Conroe gathering system and Conroe processing plant.
The pipelines in its South Texas segment are connected to multiple producing fields, including the Eagle Ford shale area. In addition to tie-ins to its two processing plants, its gathering systems are also connected to two processing plants owned by third parties and to a range of intrastate and interstate pipelines.
The Gulf Coast system is located throughout 13 counties in South Texas, including parts of the Eagle Ford shale area, and consists of two pipeline systems. The Gulf Coast system includes approximately 743 miles of pipeline ranging from 2 inches to 20 inches in diameter with an estimated design capacity of 205 million cubic feet per day. The system also includes seven compressors with compression of approximately 7,136 horsepower on a combined basis. During 2011, this system had an average throughput of approximately 114 million cubic feet per day.
The Gulf Coast system acquires natural gas from over 100 producers at prices that are at a fixed discount to the Houston Ship Channel Index price. The gas is delivered to third-party processing plants, including the Formosa processing plant located in Point Comfort, Texas and the Hilcorp processing plant located in Old Ocean, Texas. In the case of the Hilcorp processing plant, its customers pay it gathering fees to transport approximately 25 million cubic feet per day from their wells to this processing plant. Its producer ! customers! on the Gulf Coast system range from small independent exploration and production companies to producers, such as Chesapeake Energy and Devon Energy.
The CCNG system is located in the Eagle Ford shale area and consists of over 417 miles of transmission and gathering pipeline ranging from 2 inches to 20 inches in diameter. The system also includes one compressor with total compression of approximately 1,260 horsepower. During 2011, the system had an average throughput of 190 million cubic feet per day. Natural gas is supplied to this system from approximately 35 field receipt points, treating plants and third party gathering systems and pipelines, including Texas Eastern, Kinder Morgan and Conoco Lobo. Producers who supply or transport natural gas on the CCNG system include Swift Energy, EOG, Exxon, Comstock and Apache. Liquids-rich gas can be transported from the western end of the system to its Woodsboro and Gregory processing plants. Dry gas is brought into the dry gas portions of the system along with residue gas from the outlets of its processing plants. Gas in the system is purchased and sold, under fixed-spread arrangements, as well as transported on behalf of shippers. The CCNG system sells its dry natural gas in the industrial market around the city of Corpus Christi. A portion of the throughput on its CCNG system is processed at its Gregory processing plant or at the Formosa processing plant located in Point Comfort, Texas.
The Gregory gathering system is located near Corpus Christi, Texas and consists of approximately 266 miles of pipeline ranging from 4 inches to 18 inches in diameter. The system also includes one compressor. Its Gregory processing plant is a cryogenic natural gas plant comprised of two units collectively having a total capacity of 135 million cubic feet per day. Its Gregory processing plant processes natural gas from the Gregory gathering system, as well as gas originating in its CCNG System.
Produced NGLs are fractionated in the Compan! y�� fra! ctionator located on the same site as the Company�� Gregory processing plant. Purity ethane is shipped through pipeline to Dow Chemical while remaining NGLs are shipped through truck to local markets, which yield a premium to available pipeline rates. All of its customers on the Gregory gathering system pay a flat fee for natural gas to be gathered in the system and processed at the Gregory processing plant. Its Conroe processing plant is a 50 million cubic feet per day cryogenic natural gas plant. The plant recovers approximately 65% of the ethane contained in the inlet natural gas, depending on loads and temperatures.
Mississippi
The assets in the Company�� Mississippi region are located in the southern half of the state and comprise the intrastate pipeline system in Mississippi. The Mississippi assets consist of approximately 626 miles of pipeline ranging in diameter from 2 inches to 20 inches. The Mississippi system also includes two compressors. During 2011, the system had an average throughput of 86 million cubic feet per day. It generates revenues from its Mississippi assets by charging fixed transportation fees to shippers and by entering into fixed-spread contracts with suppliers and power generation, industrial and utility customers. During 2011, fixed-fee transportation contracts comprised 34.8% of the volumes it transported on its Mississippi system and fixed-spread contracts comprised the remaining 65.2% of its volumes.
Alabama
The assets in the Company�� Alabama region are located in northwest and central Alabama and consist of 519 miles of natural gas gathering pipeline ranging from 2 inches to 16 inches in diameter. The Alabama system also includes 22 compressors with total compression of approximately 24,537 horsepower. The system has an estimated design capacity of 375 million cubic feet per day. The gas supply to the system is coalbed methane gas from the Black Warrior Basin with incremental volumes gathered from conventional ! gas wells! . It gathers, transports, compresses, purchases and sells natural gas in Alabama and offers both intrastate transportation and interstate transportation services. During 2011, 81% of the volumes on its Alabama system were transported pursuant to fixed-fee transportation contracts and 19% of the volumes on the system were purchased from producers and then transported and sold to power generation, industrial and utility customers pursuant to fixed-spread contracts.
The Company competes with Copano Energy, L.L.C., Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., Enterprise Products Partners LP and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
Southcross Energy Partners LP (NYSE: SXE) shares rose 11.05% to $20.61. The volume of Southcross Energy shares traded was 624% higher than normal. Southcross Energy and TexStar Midstream Services announced a combination agreement.
Top 10 Net Payout Yield Companies To Watch For 2014: Violin Memory Inc (VMEM)
Violin Memory, Inc., incorporated on March 9, 2005, is pioneering a new class of flash-based storage systems that are designed to bring storage performance in-line with high-speed applications, servers and networks. The Company�� Flash Memory Arrays are specifically designed at each level of the system architecture starting with memory and optimized through the array to leverage the inherent capabilities of flash memory and meet the sustained requirements of business-critical applications, virtualized environments and Big Data solutions in enterprise data centers. The Company�� Velocity Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), Flash Memory Cards leverage its persistent memory-based architecture in servers and are optimized for applications that require continuous access to quantities of low latency persistent memory located directly in servers.
The Company�� storage systems are based on a four-layer hardware architecture, which is integrated with its Violin Memory Operating System (vMOS), software stack to optimize the management of flash memory at each level of its system architecture. The Company�� Velocity PCIe Flash Memory Cards leverage its expertise in persistent memory-based storage and controller design, as well as its vMOS software stack, to offer a differentiated architecture in a deployable PCIe form factor.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jayson Derrick]
Violin Memory (NASDAQ: VMEM) dove following its third quarter results and guidance that was released last night. The company reported a third quarter EPS loss of $0.63 while the Street was looking for a loss of $0.47. Revenue of $28.3 million fell short of the Street's expectation of $31.7 million. Shares were downgraded by J.P. Morgan, (NYSE: JPM) Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) and Pacific Crest. Shares lost 48.33 percent, closing at $3.10.
- [By Michael Calia]
Violin Memory Inc.(VMEM) named Kevin A. DeNuccio as chief executive after firing prior CEO Don Basile in December because of the company’s poor performance. The flash-storage company posted disappointing third-quarter results and a sagging stock price.
- [By Mani]
Violin Memory, Inc. (NYSE: VMEM) is well positioned to take advantage of the strong secular growth of flash in the enterprise. The combination of its proprietary hardware, a growing software portfolio and resulting industry-leading price/performance should translate into robust growth over a multi-year time frame.
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