Supermarket giants Albertsons and Safeway (SWY) made news last week by agreeing to merge, creating a combined company that will fall just shy of Kroger (KR) in terms of store count. Cerberus Capital, the private equity firm that owns Albertsons, has offered to pay $40 per share for Safeway.
But naturally, whenever a large merger like this is announced, it raises questions.
I have two particular questions at the front of my mind: Will there be more industry consolidation to come? And more importantly, who are the winners and losers?
A Brutal IndustryThe biggest winners in the Albertsons-Safeway merger are, of course, the Safeway shareholders. Belief that a buyout was imminent was a major factor in Safeway�� share price rising about 20% year-to-date.
Given the size of the remaining players, large consolidation is unlikely, though given the competitive dynamics of the business, it would be welcome.
Hot Paper Stocks To Buy For 2015: Materion Corporation (MTRN)
Materion Corporation, a materials solutions company, engages in the production and supply of high-performance engineered materials in the United States and internationally. The company offers high performance materials solutions for large area coatings, alternative energy, and thin film applications; and specialty inorganic chemicals for semiconductors, LED lighting, and energy storage applications. It also provides precision thin film coatings and optical filters for manufacturers in the defense, commercial, space, science, astronomy, and thermal imaging industries; beryllium-based metals and metal matrix composites for commercial, research, and engineering applications; and copper, copper beryllium, and spinodal alloy products for end-use products in the aerospace, automotive, computers, telecommunications, manufacturing equipment, mobile equipment, medical products, oil and gas, alternative energy, and plastic tooling markets. In addition, the company offers high perfor mance engineered ceramics; beryllium X-ray window and ultra high vacuum products; electron beam welding, vacuum furnace brazing, and waterjet cutting services, as well as engineering support services; and beryllium products, such as speaker domes and microphone transducers. Further, Materion Corporation provides precision-coated materials; thin film deposition materials, electronic packaging products, and specialty materials for the semiconductor, photonics, data storage, wireless, military, and medical markets; and precision parts cleaning, precious metals refining, and recycling services. Additionally, it engages in beryllium mining and milling business; and offers engineered beryllium materials and specialty strip metal products. The company was formerly known as Brush Engineered Materials Inc. and changed its name to Materion Corporation on March 8, 2011. Materion Corporation was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
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 Materion (NYSE: MTRN ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.20 percent. Among the leading sector stocks, gains came from Axiall (NYSE: AXLL), Materion (NYSE: MTRN), Huntsman (NYSE: HUN) and Joy Global (NYSE: JOY).
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Buy For 2014: Buckeye Partners L.P. (BPL)
Buckeye Partners, L.P. owns and operates refined petroleum products pipeline systems in the United States. Its Pipelines & Terminals segment transports refined petroleum products; and provides bulk storage and terminal throughput services in the continental United States. This segment owns and operates approximately 6,000 miles of pipeline serving approximately 110 delivery locations; and has 100 active products terminals with aggregate storage capacity of approximately 40 million barrels. The company’s International Operations segment provides marine terminal throughput, marine bulk storage, and other related services. This segment operates through two petroleum product terminals located on Grand Bahama Island, in The Bahamas and in Puerto Rico with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 30 million barrels. Its Natural Gas Storage segment provides natural gas storage services through a facility with approximately 30 billion cubic feet of working natural gas storage capacity located in Northern California. The company’s Energy Services segment engages in the wholesale distribution of refined petroleum products, including gasoline; propane; ethanol; biodiesel; and petroleum distillates, such as heating oil, diesel fuel, and kerosene to wholesalers and commercial users. Its Development and Logistics segment provides contract operations, construction management, and asset development services to third-party pipeline and energy assets, and energy companies in the United States. This segment owns and operates 2 underground propane storage caverns with approximately 800,000 barrels of throughput and storage capability in Indiana and Illinois; and a 30-mile ammonia pipeline and 25 miles of pipeline in Texas. Buckeye GP LLC serves as the general partner of the company. Buckeye Partners, L.P. was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Matt DiLallo]
Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL )
Earlier this month I participated in a Motley Fool roundtable discussion and made Buckeye my top pick. Needless to say, my reputation is at risk if Buckeye turns out to be a quick bust. While a poor earnings report could make that happen, that's not what has my attention. - [By Dividends4Life]
Buckeye Partners LP (BPL) is one of the largest independent U.S. pipeline common carriers of refined petroleum products, with over 6,000 miles of pipeline.
Yield: 6.0% | Years of Dividend Growth: 18
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Buy For 2014: IMF (AUSTRALIA)
IMF (Australia) Ltd investigates, manages, and funds litigation and arbitration claims primarily in Australia and the United States. Its litigations include commercial claims, insolvency claims, and group actions. The company offers funding for litigation and investigations preliminary to litigation; payment of adverse costs orders; strategic planning, monitoring, and managing of litigation; factual investigation, including asset tracing; and assistance in facilitating settlements and maximizing the value of each claim. IMF (Australia) Ltd is based in Sydney, Australia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Charles Mizrahi]
Companies rely on third party contractors, such as Atwood Oceanics (ATW) to provide rigs in these deep-water environments. High utilization rates have resulted in rig shortages, creating upward pressure on prices. Atwood's largest customers include Chevron (Australia), Noble, and Kosmos Energy Ghana.
- [By GURUFOCUS]
News Corp. (0.4%) (NWSA - $16.06 (0.3%) NWS - $16.43 (0.1%) - NASDAQ)(NWSA), based in New York, operates in five segments: 1) News and information services ��U.S., United Kingdom, and Australian publishing businesses, including The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, and the New York Post, along with News America Marketing Corp., a leading provider of free standing inserts (FSIs or cents off coupons); 2) Cable network programming ��Fox Sports Australia; 3) Digital real estate services ��a 62% interest in publicly traded REA Group Ltd. (Australia); 4) Book publishing ��Harper Collins, one of the largest English language publishers in the world; and 5) Other ��primarily the company's K-12 education business ��Amplify. On June 28, 2013, 'old News' Corp. (now Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (2.4%)) spun off most of its non entertainment assets ('new News') to holders on a one for four basis. We estimate that the company will generate about $800 million of EBITDA on $8.7 billion of revenues for the year ending June 30, 2014.�
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Buy For 2014: US Tungsten Corp (USTU)
US Tungsten Corp., formerly Stealth Resources Inc., incorporated on January 10, 2007, is an exploration-stage company. As of October 5, 2012, the Company had begun investigating tungsten opportunities. In September 2013, US Tungsten Corporation completed the registration and acquisition of 64 mineral claims located in Beaverhead, Montana.
On August 21, 2012, the Company acquired an option to acquire a 100% interest in three mineral claims known as the Calvert Property, located in Calvert, Montana (the Property). As of October 5, 2012, the Company had no operating revenues.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap mining stocks US Tungsten Corp (OTCMKTS: USTU) and LKA Gold Inc (OTCMKTS: LKAI) along with biotech Entest BioMedical Inc (OTCMKTS: ENTB) have been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters with at least one of these stocks being the subject of paid promotions while another could soon be the subject of an investor relations campaign. But will any of these small cap stocks be winners for investors or traders? Here is a quick reality check:
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Buy For 2014: WisdomTree Investments Inc (WETF)
WisdomTree Investments, Inc. is an asset management company that focuses on exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The Company�� family of ETF includes both fundamentally weighted funds that track its own indexes, and actively managed funds. It distributes its ETFs through all channels within the asset management industry, including brokerage firms, registered investment advisors, institutional investors, private wealth managers and discount brokers. As of December 31, 2011, the Company offered a family of 48 ETFs, which included 34 international and domestic equity ETFs, seven currency ETFs, five international fixed income ETFs and two alternative strategy ETFs.
Equity ETFs
The Company offers equity ETFs covering the United States, international developed and emerging markets. These ETFs offer access to the securities of large, mid and small-cap companies, companies located in the United States, developed markets and emerging markets, as well as companies in particular market sectors, including basic materials, energy, utilities and real estate. Its equity ETFs track its own fundamentally weighted indexes.
Currency ETFs
The Company offers currency ETFs that provide investors with exposure to developed and emerging market currencies, including the Chinese Yuan, the Brazilian Real and the Japanese Yen. Currency ETFs invest in the United States money market securities, forward currency contracts and swaps and seek to achieve the total returns reflective of both money market rates in selected countries available to foreign investors and changes to the value of these currencies relative to the United States dollar.
International Fixed Income ETFs
In August 2010, the Company launched an ETF that invests in a range of local debt denominated in the currencies of emerging market countries and in March 2011, it launched an ETF that invests in local debt denominated in the currencies of Asia Pacific ex-Japan countries. In March 2012, the! Company launched an emerging markets corporate bond ETF.
Alternative Strategy ETFs
In January 2011, the Company launched the managed futures strategy ETF. This fund seeks to achieve positive returns in rising or falling markets that are not directly correlated to broad market equity or fixed income returns. In July 2011, it launched a global real return ETF. This fund seeks total returns (capital appreciation plus income) that exceed the rate of inflation over long-term investment horizons. This fund combines domestic and global inflation-linked bonds with commodity strategies and gold exposure.
Index Based ETFs
Its equity ETFs seek to track the Company�� own fundamentally weighted indexes. Most of today�� ETFs track market capitalization weighted indexes and most of these indexes are licensed from third parties by ETF sponsors. The Company has developed fundamentally weighted indexes that weight companies by a measure of fundamental value. The Company benchmarks its fundamentally weighted indexes against traditional market capitalization-weighted indexes designed to track similar companies, sectors, regions or exposure.
Actively Managed ETFs
The Company�� actively managed ETFs include its currency, international fixed income and alternative strategy ETFs. The securities purchased and sold by its ETFs include the United States and foreign equities, forward currency contracts and the United States and foreign debt instruments. In addition, the Company enters into derivative transactions, in particular the United States-listed futures contracts, non-deliverable currency forward contracts, and total return swap agreements in order to gain exposure to commodities, foreign currencies, and interest rates. The exchanges these securities trade on include all the exchanges worldwide.
The Company competes with Vanguard, Charles Schwab, iShares and FocusShares (through Scottrade Inc.).
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Murphy]
It may not be as big as Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ) or as high-profile as BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), but WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (NASDAQ:WETF) offers something to investors right now that IVZ and BLK don't ... a lot of near-term upside potential after a big tumble between January and May.
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Buy For 2014: SJW Corporation (SJW)
SJW Corp., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production, purchase, storage, purification, distribution, wholesale, and retail sale of water. It also provides nonregulated water related services, including full water system operations, billing, and cash remittances under agreements with municipalities. The company?s water supply consists of groundwater from wells, surface water from watershed run-off and diversion, and imported water purchased from the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The company, through its subsidiary, SJW Land Company, owns undeveloped land in the states of California and Tennessee; owns and operates commercial buildings in the states of California, Florida, Connecticut, Texas, Arizona, and Tennessee; and holds a 70% limited partnership interest in 444 West Santa Clara Street, L.P., a real estate limited partnership that owns and operates an office building. It provides water service to approximately 226,000 connections that serve customers in p ortions of the cities of Cupertino and San Jose, as well as in Campbell, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, the Town of Los Gatos, and adjacent unincorporated territory in Santa Clara County, California. The company also provides water service to approximately 9,200 connections that serve approximately 36,000 residents in a service area comprising approximately 237 square miles in the region between San Antonio and Austin, Texas. SJW Corp. was founded in 1866 and is based in San Jose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marc Bastow]
Public water utility holding company SJW (SJW) raised its quarterly dividend 2.7% to 18.75 cents per share, payable on Mar. 3 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 10.
SJW Dividend Yield: 2.62%
Top 10 Supermarket Stocks To Buy For 2014: Crown Castle International Corporation (CCI)
Crown Castle International Corp., through its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and leases towers and other wireless infrastructure primarily in the United States and Australia. Its infrastructure includes distributed antenna system (DAS) networks, as well as rooftop installations. The company involves in the rental of antenna space of its towers to wireless communications companies. It also provides network services relating to its towers, which primarily include antenna installations and subsequent augmentations, as well as additional services, such as site acquisition, architectural and engineering, zoning and permitting, other construction, and other services related network development. As of December 31, 2010, it owned, leased, or managed approximately 23,900 towers, including 43 completed DAS networks. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Natan Hayes]
Astonishing growth statistics to say the least, companies benefitting from this trend will be mobile chip makers Qualcomm (QCOM) and Intel (INTC), broadband service providers such as Cisco (CSCO), and most importantly the wireless communications and broadband tower providers American Tower and Crown Castle (CCI).
- [By Alexis Xydias]
Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) climbed 2.7 percent to $72.45. The provider of infrastructure for wireless communications said it will take steps to qualify as a real estate investment trust for tax purposes.
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