Stock Investing Guide

Spartan Stores, Inc. (SPTN – Snapshot Report) is a regional grocer that recently rewarded shareholders by raising its dividend by 30%. In addition to the rising yield, this Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) also is a value stock, with a forward P/E of 12.9.

Spartan Stores is a Grand Rapids based grocery distributor to 375 independent grocery stores in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

It also operates 97 corporate owned stores in Michigan under the brands Family Fare Supermarkets, Glen’s Markets, D&W Fresh Markets and VG’s Food and Pharmacy.

Dividend Raised and Share Repurchase Program Announced

On May 18, Spartan announced it would be raising its quarterly dividend by 30% to $0.065 from $0.05 per share.

It currently yields 1.8%.

The Board of Directors also authorized a 5-year stock repurchase program worth up to $50 million.

Spartan Beat By 17% in the Fiscal Fourth Quarter

On May 11, Spartan Stores reported its fiscal fourth quarter results and surprised on the Zacks Consensus for the 3rd time in the last 4 quarters.

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Tags: Inc, Spartan Stores

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Hasbro’s hit battling-top game Beyblade couldn’t rescue Hasbro’s first quarter from pallid demand for other games and girls toys and spending to launch The Hub TV network.

Net income fell 71 percent and missed Wall Street expectations. Stock in the maker of Scrabble and Nerf dropped 84 cents to $44.95 in morning trading.

The first quarter is typically small for toy makers because it comes just after the crucial holiday season.That was worsened this year by an unexpected dropoff in demand for toys in December. That led retailers to hold back orders in the following quarter as they worked to unload leftover holiday toys.

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner said he still expects higher profit and revenue during 2011 as Hasbro launches new products like Sesame Street’s Lets Rock Elmo and action figures tied into upcoming movies “Thor,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Captain America.”

First-quarter results are “on track with our plan for the full year,” he said.

Hasbro said its net income fell 71 percent to $17.2 million, or 12 cents per share, in the January-March period, down from $58.9 million, or 40 cents per share, in last year’s quarter. Full Article…

Tags: Hasbro, Hasbro Firstquarter

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Oracle Corporation (ORCL)  closed the day on its highs but tomorrow will be a very different story as the stock is down almost 7% in after hours trading. ORCL beat earnings but traders felt the numbers weren’t good enough as the stock immediately sold off on the release of the report.. The company reported $0.75 EPS on a 12% gain in sales with $10.78 billion in revenues. As you can see in the above chart, the stock has held its 200 day moving average but as of this writing it appears that ORCL will open down tomorrow well below this very important and most watched moving average. In the after-hours session Oracle Corporation (ORCL) is currently trading at 30.46 which is down 6.25% from Thursday’s close.

Tags: Hours Trading, Oracle Corporation, Trading

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Are Brazilian stocks worth calling on? The growth in the number of cellular phones has increased by more than 17% in the last year, according to Teleco. Brazil has several telecom companies which are publicly traded, most of which trade on the New York Stock Exchange. According to the free list of Brazil stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are almost half a dozen Brazilian telecom companies that pay yields in excess of 1.5%.

Oi (TNE), based in Rio De Janeiro, was formerly called Telemar, but is also still called Telemar Norte Leste S.A., is the largest landline telephone company in Brazil and the second biggest in Latin America, behind Mexican América Móvil (AMX), based on both the number of lines in service and on revenues.
The company has over 22 million land lines, more than 31 million wireless customers, 4 million ADSL subscribers and approximately 44,000 employees. Oi is Portuguese for “Hi”. The stock has a forward P/E of 8.4 with a fairly generous yield of 3.2%.

Brasil Telecom S.A. (BTM) is one of the major telecommunications companies in Brazil is Brasil Telecom, which is headquartered out of Brasilia. I Full Article…

Tags: Stocks

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Truck engine and power generation system manufacturer extraordinaire Cummins Inc. (CMI), which I first discussed here on April 3, 2009, at a price of $29.70, is making a strong case for 2011 “play of the year” — and it’s only April.

Cummins, which is up about 260%, sliced through major, psychological resistance at $100, tested $110, pulled back during the winter and has recently moved back toward $110. Hence, if you haven’t already, now would be a good time to consider taking some profits off the table with CMI if you’re in near $30.

However, those investors who can tolerate the risk can maintain their full position, as CMI shares may test $130 by the end of 2011 and $150 in 2012.

Further, I’d raise the sell/stop loss to $85 from $77 at this stage, making this a 180% profitable trade at the $85 stop price. Decent, to say the least.

As noted, there’s probably more upside ahead for Cummins.

Full Article…

Tags: Cummins, Cummins Time

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