Thursday, June 18, 2015

Cops fear stock mkt! Experts aid with handy investment tips

Cops fear stock mkt! Experts aid with handy investment tips
One portion of your investments does need to go into areas which are high risk and high reward.

According to research conducted by CNBC-TV18 across various cities with police officers, of various carders and ranks, it was found that 71% of the police officers were not at all comfortable investing in the stock markets.

While 23% were somewhat comfortable and this is something, which is affecting their risk profile is the fact that most of them were single-income families, which means that our target groups were the only earning members of that family having three or more dependents.

It was also found that half of those who were surveyed preferred to invest in bank FDs and about a quarter of them opted for investments in insurance products as well. So, Informed investor not only focused on just their financial fitness, but some tips on physical fitness were also provided.

Here are some investment strategies.

Q: It is not surprising that the participation in the equity markets is so low, but I am surprised that out of all the communities that we meet with and interacted so far this is one community, which does not even invest in mutual funds or any investments of that matter. For a single-income family I realised that they wouldn't want to invest in equities per se. How can equities or mutual funds incentivise for people with this kind of a risk profile?

Anand: It is about budgeting. You have an income, you have your expenses, you have EMIs, you should buy insurance and after that is really what you have is savings. Most Indians - they put their money away in fixed deposits. Yes, capital is absolutely safe; no bank has ever gone bust in India. However, savings and fixed deposit is getting killed by two factors the return is taxable and it is not even beating inflation.

In that context, this is not necessarily to this group, but to the larger audience as well that it does make sense to move some money away from fixed deposits into slightly more riskier assets. There is a myth that mutual funds are for the rich. You can actually buy a mutual fund for as little as Rs 1,000 today. So, you can start investing even Rs 1,000 per month over a period of time and that will in a sense start to build a corpus, which if not anything else will at least help you start beating inflation.

Q: You have dealt with a lot of people with the similar risk profile. What's the one common investment mistake that you have seen and how can it be rectified?

Roongta: When you look at an investor profile, you will have people with all kind of preferences which they have basically been inherited with - there are some things which come through generations into their culture.

So, we do hear people saying that equities, my family has never invested, so I am not going to venture out into it. My forefathers told me equity is not for people like me. So, what is important is that once a person is living in a particular century if I may put so, he needs to understand that there are certain things which he needs to do which are relevant to present times.

In India, we have had situations wherein there were a lot of scams if I may put that word, 'a lot' but things are changing now. Regulatory things are turning around, we are seeing stringent norms. There needs to be confidence that needs to be coming in at this point keeping in mind that regulatory environment has changed.

Coming back to this specific group - we know that there are a large number of people who are earning less than Rs 5 lakh - that's the data that we have. A majority of them are less than 29 years of age. So, average age of the group that we see is about 30 years of age. So, if age is to your side and if you are comfortable understanding what kind of products are available today in the industry, listen to it with an open mind, accept it with an open mind.

If they can allocate some funds out of their total corpus, it does work for them. Another reason why it is even more necessary if I may put so, we are seeing that the large numbers have an annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh.

Secondly, if you are going to invest into a product which does not even beat inflation then you are really going to be struggling very hard to meet your goals. So, with that less corpus that you have, you need your money to work harder.

Unless you do that, it is going to be very difficult to achieve your targets. So, one portion of your investments does need to go into areas which are high risk and high reward, but as long as you have restricted it to a small portion of your total corpus, it should not be a cause of concern.

Abidi: It doesn't matter the amount of investment that you are making but a percentage of that needs to go into assets that will work for you, give you much higher returns than other assets would. So, it may not be a very large percentage but a percentage for sure.

Rajiv raised a very interesting point, he said invest in the century that you live in. There is a myth about bank fixed deposits (FD) being safe when they are not even safeguarding the value of your capital.

Anand: Absolutely, I think bank FD is saving and you have to differentiate between saving and investing. Yes, in a bank FD, your capital is safe but the return that is pretty much worthless as you go into time. The other is, ofcourse, taxes and there is nothing much that we can do about taxes. Every rupee of income that we have, we have to pay taxes on and I think we must look at investment as a return on post tax basis. What are the most efficient tools that are available such that I am able to mitigate or minimize the tax that I am paying? I am already paying a fairly large amount of my salary as tax, I certainly don't want to pay too much more on the interest or investment income that I am making and there are numerous tools there. 

Section 80C is available which gives you tax breaks. Use those instruments, public provident fund, which gives you tax free income. Utilize those to the maximum and in that sense at least your post tax income is beginning to go up. It's a subsidy which the government is giving back some of the taxation that is taken from you. Utilize all that and then start to use some of the market instruments that are available.

Abidi: So, like they say debt and taxes are the only certainty so I suppose one of the certainties atleast we can try and minimize and till we arrest inflation, let's try and beat that.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Will Rambus' 2Q Earnings Beat Est.? - Analyst Blog

We expect technology licensing company Rambus Inc. (RMBS) to beat expectations when it reports second quarter 2013 results on Jul 18.

Why a Likely Positive Surprise?

Our proven model shows that Rambus is likely to beat earnings because it has the right combination of two key ingredients.

Positive Zacks ESP: Expected Surprise Prediction or ESP (Read: Zacks Earnings ESP: A Better Method), which represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is at +9.09%. This is very meaningful and a leading indicator of a likely positive earnings surprise for shares.

Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy): Note that stocks with Zacks Ranks of #1, #2 and #3 have a significantly higher chance of beating earnings. The sell rated stocks (#4 and #5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement.

The combination of Rambus' Zacks Rank # 1 (Strong Buy) and +9.09% ESP makes us very confident in looking for a positive earnings beat on Jul 18.

What is Driving the Better Than Expected Earnings?

We believe that Rambus has had a great quarter. Rambus has signed a two-way licensing agreement with European chip-making company STMicroelectronics. Both the companies will use each other's patented technologies for excelling in their core areas. Apart from this, the deal puts an end to the decade-long legal battle between the two companies and also keeps the doors open for further collaborations.

Apart from STMicro, Rambus settled legal disputes with South Korean memory chip-making company SK Hynix and signed a patent licensing agreement.

Also, Rambus is adding features to its LED (light emitting diodes) portfolio and is on its way to capitalize on the growing popularity of energy-efficient lighting.

Rambus has surpassed estimates in the past four trailing quarters, which resulted in an average positive surprise of 176.85%.

Other Stocks to Consider

Apart from Rambus, we also expect earnings beat ! from the following stocks.

SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), Earnings ESP of +4.55% and Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Huron Consulting Group Inc. (HURN), Earnings ESP of +1.64% and Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Gartner Inc. (IT), Earnings ESP of +1.96% and Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Late Gains Lead Dow, S&P To New Highs

Stocks overcame early pessimism to end higher Friday, another day of records.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 30.34 points, or 0.2%, to 15,658.36, topping yesterday's all-time high of 15,628.02.

The Nasdaq rose 13.84 points, or 0.4% to 3,689.59, another new 52-week high.

The S&P 500 added 2.8 points, or 0.2% to 1,709.44, edging out its previous 1,706.87 high.

Bucking the trend, the Russell 2000, which logged a record close yesterday, fell a fraction of a point.

It's the second day in a row of record closings, although Thursday's moves were much bigger. For the week, the Dow is up 0.6%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.1%, and the S&P added 1.1%.

For the Dow, it was its longest winning streak since the week ending August 17, 2012, when the market rose for six straight weeks.

Stocks shrugged off early concerns about a disappointing jobs report. Still, most big news makers were in the red.

Chevron (CVX) lost ground on its second-quarter report, as did Alpha Natural Resources (ANR).

J.C. Penney (JCP) ended lower despite reports that CIT had lifted its credit restrictions, while Weight Watchers (WTW) sank on its disappointing guidance and the departure of its CEO.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Will Finisar Join in the Optical-Networking Renaissance?

On Wednesday, Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR  ) will release its latest quarterly results. With the stock having traded down sharply from its highs in early 2011, investors are hoping that the company can finally pull off a long-awaited turnaround and send shares higher.

Finisar and many of its rivals have faced the difficulty of weak demand for its optical-networking products. But a few signs point to a reversal of that trend, potentially pointing the way to better times for the company. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Finisar over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its report.

Stats on Finisar

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.17

Change From Year-Ago EPS

(19%)

Revenue Estimate

$242.95 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

1.3%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

2

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Can Finisar keep its earnings up?
Analysts haven't budged in their views on Finisar's earnings over the past few months, making no changes to their consensus figures for the April quarter. But they've reined in their fiscal 2014 estimates by $0.02 per share, and the stock has responded negatively, falling about 3% since mid-March.

Finisar has been under pressure for some time, with factors including slowing growth in China and the ongoing slump in Europe hurting its prospects. Finisar relies on orders from telecom companies and data-network operators, so when business conditions in those industries are poor, the pessimism tends to flow through to Finisar's results as well.

But recent good news from Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN  ) has Finisar investors looking for better times ahead. Earlier this month, Ciena's stock jumped 17% after the company reported a 6% increase in sales, pointing to a revival in spending on network infrastructure. Comments from Ciena CEO Gary Smith suggest strength not just for his own company but also for the industry as a whole, and that sent both Finisar and larger rival JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU  ) higher on the news. JDS Uniphase issued a fairly weak earnings and outlook early last month, needing to temper expectations for a revival in its own sales during the current quarter. As a result, Ciena's news came as a pleasant surprise for the industry, and with Finisar counting Ciena as a customer, Ciena's success reflects directly on Finisar.

Finisar can point to several catalysts that could boost its prospects. For instance, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) , which is also a Finisar customer, has had to respond to challenges from rivals to its networking dominance, and Cisco has also tried to branch out into broader areas of the big data trend. Greater investment from Cisco and its peers could lead to more orders from them for Finisar products, given Finisar's emphasis on makers of storage systems, networking, and telecommunications equipment.

In Finisar's quarterly report, watch for commentary about what recent good news from industry peers like Ciena means for the company going forward. If times are indeed getting better, Finisar needs to capitalize rather than letting its competitors grab all the glory.

It's incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?" in The Motley Fool's latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged by the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

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

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Today's 3 Worst Stocks

After slipping yesterday on fears that the Federal Reserve would temper the pace of bond-buying, Wall Street reversed its position, gaining ground as poor economic indicators made continued Fed intervention more likely. The S&P 500 Index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) tacked on 6 points, or 0.4%, to end at 1,654. Not only did the following three companies fail to recover from Wednesday's market decline, but they also ended as the three worst performers in the entire 500-company index.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY  ) , which also earned a spot on this ignominious list yesterday, fell 2.9% today. Shares in the company -- which grows and harvests trees, as well as provides end-products such as beams, framing products, decking, insulation, rebar, and plywood -- have fallen four of the past five days. As you can imagine, the company is sensitive to changes in the housing market, and with April's pending home sales growth trailing estimates by 1.2%, investors may be concerned with growth expectations. 

Plum Creek Timber (NYSE: PCL  ) , which, like Weyerhaeuser, is also a REIT with a main focus on -- you guessed it -- timber products, fell 2.5% today. The uber-short-term performance of Plum Creek has also been dismal, with shares slumping more than 8% in the past five days alone. But just last week, shares reached a 52-week high, and why shouldn't they have? A recovery in the housing market is well under way; as the resurgence continues, companies such as Plum Creek Timber and Weyerhaeuser will be there to benefit.

Lastly, Kraft Foods (NASDAQ: KRFT  ) slipped 2.3% Thursday. The food giant has refocused its business since last year, spinning off the snack-foods division, Mondelez into a company of its own. The split was intended to give each company a more entrepreneurial spirit, and since the decision, Kraft shares have doubled the returns of the Dow. With a well-established brand, a dividend that stands at 3.5%, and a new strategy that seems to be working, Kraft actually doesn't have any major problems threatening its future.

Kraft Foods Group is entering a new era after its recent corporate breakup. Its brand power is indisputable and its market share dominates, but Kraft's growth potential is limited, and its heavily commoditized categories face massive pressures. In The Motley Fool's premium report on the company, we guide you through everything you need to know about Kraft, including the key opportunities and threats facing the company. To get started, simply click here now.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Arbitron Sets Dividend at $0.10

International media and marketing shop Arbitron  (NYSE: ARB  )  announced yesterday its second-quarter dividend of $0.10 per share, the same rate it's always paid since 2005

The board of directors said the quarterly dividend is payable on July 1 to the holders of record at the close of business on June 17. 

Arbitron is in the process of merging with Nielsen Holdings. If the transaction is completed before June 17, the dividend will be pro-rated at a rate of $0.001063829787234 per share per day for each day after March 15, the record date for its previous dividend.

The merger agreement ensures that, regardless of when the deal is consummated, stockholders will receive a dividend at the current rate. The pro rata dividend will be payable within 30 days after the merger closes to shareholders of record at the close of business on the day before the merger is completed.

The regular dividend payment equates to a $0.40-per-share annual dividend, yielding 0.9% based on the closing price of Arbitron's stock on May 22.

ARB Dividend Chart

ARB Dividend data by YCharts

Seeking Ideas on the Ground in Taiwan

The following commentary was originally posted on FoolFunds.com, the website of Motley Fool Asset Management, LLC, on May 8, 2013. With permission, we're reproducing it here in its original form

"To understand is difficult. To act is easy."
-- Attributed to Sun Yat-sen

It was just another day at the office. I took the subway downtown, bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and walked the remaining few blocks to work. The security guard greeted me from the front desk as I walked onto the elevator. It was just another day -- except I wasn't heading into Fool HQ in Alexandria, Va. -- I was heading to my temporary desk in Taipei, Taiwan.

I'm halfway through a 10-week stay in Taiwan, which is quite unusual for me. I feel like less of a Wandering Fool and more of a Lingering Fool. A typical business trip involves a few days at a hotel, meetings with high-interest companies, and perhaps a few minutes to enjoy the culture of a particular city. In the years since Motley Fool Asset Management first launched the Independence Fund, I have taken several trips, and written about a few of them here, but I've never had much time to experience the daily life in another city.

My not-so-glamorous job
Visiting companies is great. Talking to management adds value to our investment process. But it's not my entire job.

Most of what I do -- probably more than 95% of my time -- is sitting at a computer and reading. Then I think about what I've read, perhaps build an Excel spreadsheet -- and then read some more. On a daily basis, it may appear that all the hours I spend working are producing no tangible output. I really must thank Bill Mann and Motley Fool Asset Management for allowing me to behave in this manner. As Warren Buffett has said numerous times, knowledge is cumulative. The more threads I can pull, the more time I can spend learning, the better decisions I can make for shareholders now and in the years to come. But I really do spend countless hours staring at my computer screen.

And so now I am sitting in Taiwan. On a typical day, you will find me at a desk reading exactly the same materials I would have read back in Virginia. The Internet has made gathering information a bit too easy; there is no shortage of material available for my perusal, and I spend most of the day sifting through it.

And then I step outside.

I wander around the markets in Taipei, observing which goods are most popular, which selling techniques seem to be most effective. I sample the foods and talk to the vendors. I go out for coffee and listen to complaints about corporate bureaucracy. I go to the pub and listen to an American businessman pine for the multinational contract he is about to sign. I don't necessarily know what conclusions this information will help me reach, but I continue to store it away in my mind, collecting knowledge about various topics as an investor collects a diverse basket of stocks.

Enough of that; tell us about Taipei
Taipei is an efficient city. As you walk down the street, looking into shops that spill onto the sidewalks, it is difficult to find any wasted space. The city is home to more than 2 million people, but the metropolitan area is closer to 7 million. The subway linking everything is among the most efficient I have seen, and a high-speed train connects the entire country, enabling you to travel from Taipei to Kaohsiung in about two hours. And when you venture outside the city, you will be treated to natural surroundings whose splendor is difficult to overstate.

There are plenty of tourist activities in Taipei. There is the world's fourth tallest building, Taipei 101; a bevy of temples and parks; the Taipei Zoo; and a few of the world's most famous night markets.

Also, the food is pretty good.

As much as I enjoyed seeing those sites, I learned to appreciate the city after I settled in and experienced the daily life. Many office workers are at their desks from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; if their bosses work late, they will typically stay as well, whether there are tasks to complete or not. The freedom I am given to set my own hours is unheard of among Taiwanese workers -- to be fair, it is unusual even by American standards.

Learning as I go
One of the misperceptions I had a month ago is that America is a better place for fostering entrepreneurship. It turns out there are plenty of entrepreneurs in Taiwan. But instead of launching tech start-ups or seeking venture capital, they manage to open a restaurant, a food stall, or a boutique shop. The people I see at these stores work incredibly long hours and are dedicated to their craft. So entrepreneurs do exist, but it seems more difficult to go from moderate success to the exponential success that we have seen from companies like Google and Facebook in the U.S. Perhaps the opportunity is there, and I must keep searching.

Luckily, I have a few more weeks to explore.

A visitor's guide
Taipei is a fun city in which to wander aimlessly, letting serendipity be your guide. But if you want a few pointers, here's a start:

Best restaurant: Din Tai Fung. Most famous for its xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. There are now several locations in Taiwan, as well as in many other cities around the world. Best foreign restaurant: Persian Heaven. Featuring Iranian cuisine. No. 6 Nanjing East Road Section 5, Songshan District. Best snack: Bubble tea. This drink is now available worldwide, but it originated in Taiwan. Best shopping: Shida Night Market. You'll also do well with the Shilin Night Market, which is one of the largest of its kind in the world, but Shida has plenty of recent college grads trying to create a niche for themselves. During the day, the Ximending neighborhood is also good for people-watching. Best view of the city: Maokong Gondola. Yes, the observation deck at Taipei 101 is worth a visit, but if you take public transit out to the zoo, you can ride a glass-bottomed gondola up into the mountains for less than $2. At the top, you'll be treated to winding paths through tea plantations. Best libations: This is difficult to find since there is no exterior signage, but if you like whiskey, then the MoD Public Bar is an absolute must. Amazing selection, and the prices can't be beat. No. 40, Alley 4, Lane 345, Ren'ai Road Section 4, Da'an District.

Editor's note: Tony Arsta is not able to engage in discussion on the boards or in the comments section below. Tony does not own shares of the companies mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook, Google, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook, Google, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Thursday, June 4, 2015

Can Ford Keep Riding America's Recovery Higher?

On Wednesday, Ford (NYSE: F  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Ford's comeback over recent years has been nothing short of spectacular, as the automaker managed to regain its footing without government assistance to turn the tables on its competitors both in the U.S. and abroad. But how can the company keep its momentum going forward? Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Ford over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Ford

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.38

Change From Year-Ago EPS

(2.6%)

Revenue Estimate

$33.78 billion

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

10.6%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

4

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Ford keep driving its earnings ahead this quarter?
In recent months, analysts have toned down their enthusiasm about Ford's earnings prospects, cutting their estimates for the just-finished quarter by $0.04 per share and more aggressively reducing full-year 2013 earnings-per-share estimates by $0.07. The stock has gotten stuck in reverse as a result, losing almost 10% of its value since mid-January.

Ford has seen dramatic successes in its U.S. market lately, with pent-up demand for new vehicles finally starting to work its way through to new sales. New models in its small fuel-efficient-vehicle segment and strength in its core truck division have bolstered growth, helping Ford take advantage of improved economic conditions for buyers.

But internationally, Ford has a tougher road to follow. On one hand, Europe has been problematic for automakers everywhere, as the weak economy there, combined with the challenges of the European labor markets, has caused losses not only at Ford but also its competitors. In China, though, Ford has lagged behind General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) , which got a head-start in pushing into the emerging-market country. GM sold six vehicles in China last year for every one that Ford sold, even though Ford's new Focus has been a huge hit in the emerging-market country and could help the company catch up to GM.

The other area for Ford to address is gaining a bigger presence on the luxury end of the market. Toyota's (NYSE: TM  ) Lexus and GM's Cadillac have both made huge names for themselves for high-end buyers, but Ford has largely missed out on that end of the demographic spectrum. Efforts to reinvigorate its Lincoln division haven't gone as well as many hoped, threatening to leave Ford without an obvious strategy to keep its share of the luxury market.

In Ford's quarterly report, be sure to look beyond the sales figures that we've already gotten to focus instead on whether the company remains on track to score big improvements in profitability, especially overseas. Sales are important, but producing more income from them is the key to future gains for Ford investors, both in the form of further dividend increases as well as share-price increases.

Find out more about Ford's turnaround and its big growth opportunities ahead by joining the Fool's premium Ford research service. Inside, our top analysts look at the automaker's prospects for the future, with freshly updated guidance on Ford's potential both now and in the long run. Click here to get started now.

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

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Level 3 Picks New CEO

Just one month after alerting investors to the possibility, Broomfield, Colorado-based Level 3 Communications (NYSE: LVLT  ) is under new management today. The global voice and data carrier announced Thursday that company President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff K. Storey has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer, replacing outgoing CEO James Q. Crowe.

A five-year veteran of the company, and 30-year veteran of the industry, Storey was said to have been "the clear and unanimous choice of the Board" to replace Crowe.

In addition to the new job, Storey also gets a new and improved pay package. In a filing with the SEC Thursday, Level 3 described how Storey will receive:

A 46% increase in salary to $950,000 a year An increase in his annual long-term incentive awards from 75,000 outperform stock appreciation rights (essentially, virtual stock options), to 100,000 A similar increase in his allotment of restricted stock units from 75,000, to 100,000

The balance of Storey's compensation will remain "at the award levels originally granted to him." 

Monday, June 1, 2015

Why Dollar General Corporation, VeriSign, Inc., and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Are TodayĆ¢€™s

The S&P 500 Index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) ended modestly higher on Friday, ending the week on a bullish note as the end of the second quarter approaches. Wall Street and Main Street alike are hoping that the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2014 will see higher growth than the first quarter, when the U.S. economy actually contracted at a 2.9% annualized rate. Dollar General (NYSE: DG  ) , VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN  ) , and DuPont (NYSE: DD  ) investors weren't too optimistic about growth today, as those three stocks ended as the worst performers in the entire S&P index. The S&P, for its part, tacked on three points, or 0.2%, to end at 1,960.

Dollar General lost 7.3% today after the company's Chairman and CEO, Richard W. Dreiling, surprised the stock market by announcing his retirement. Investors have plenty of reasons to like Dreiling, 60, who took control of the company at the beginning of 2008. Under his guidance, the dollar store went public in 2009, increased sales by more than 80%, and expanded its store count to more than 11,000 locations. The silver lining is that Dreiling could stay on at Dollar General for nearly another year -- until May 30, 2015 -- as the board searches for a successor.

VeriSign, which offers domain name registry, network intelligence, and other domain name-related services, shed 3.9% on Friday. A downgrade from Wells Fargo is behind today's drop, as the bank lowered its rating from outperform to market perform, noting that overall domain name registrations in the second quarter are trending lower than the company's midpoint expectations. Google's announced entry into the domain name market earlier this week also threatens to hurt VeriSign's business, especially if Google decides to offer domains at steep discounts, or even give them away for free.

DuPont is seeing farmers switch to soybeans as corn prices drop. Image Source: DuPont.

Finally, shares of chemicals giant DuPont slumped 3.3% today, giving the stock the ignominious distinction of being the Dow Jones Industrial Average's worst daily performer. The company warned investors late yesterday that it expects full-year 2014 earnings to come in between $4.00 and $4.10 per share, notably less than the $4.20 to $4.45 in per-share operating earnings it previously projected. In an industry that increasingly relies on genetically modified and patented seeds for a leg up on competition, DuPont is still subject to the whimsy of Mother Nature and Mr. Market, and challenging weather and falling corn prices combined to put the company in a tough position to grow substantially this year.

Leaked: Apple's next smart device (warning, it may shock you)
Apple recently recruited a secret-development "dream team" to guarantee its newest smart device was kept hidden from the public for as long as possible. But the secret is out, and some early viewers are claiming its everyday impact could trump the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. In fact, ABI Research predicts 485 million of this type of device will be sold per year. But one small company makes Apple's gadget possible. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors. To be one of them, and see Apple's newest smart gizmo, just click here!