The Pimco fund had ruled the fund roost for five years. It became the biggest fund in November 2008, as investors were pouring money into bond funds in search of safety during the financial crisis. The Pimco fund knocked off American Funds’ Growth Fund of America (AGTHX).
The switch in fund popularity reflects three related developments. First is performance.
In 2008, Pimco Total Return gained 4.5 percent, including reinvested dividends. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index tumbled 37 percent.
But the Vanguard fund outperformed in four of the next five years (including 2013 so far). Over five years, the Vanguard fund has returned an annualized 27.2 percent, compared with 7.5 percent for Pimco Total Return. For 2013 through October, the Vanguard fund was up 26.4 percent and the Pimco fund was down 1.2 percent.
Top 5 Shipping Companies To Own For 2015: China Citic Bank Corp Ltd (CHCJY)
CHINA CITIC BANK CORPORATION LIMITED is a commercial bank. The Bank operates its businesses primarily through retailing banking, including band card services, saving, personal loan, wealth management, credit card, banking services, private banking, financial services of traveling abroad and electronic banking services; corporate banking, including financial organization services, international business, investment banking, supply chain financing, account settlement, financing services for small enterprises, trading services, cash management, asset management, international settlement and trade financing, among others, as well as capital market business, including foreign exchange business, bond business, trading of financing and derivative products, financial service platform and financial solutions. Advisors' Opinion:- [By MARKETWATCH]
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks opened lower Tuesday, after China's central bank reportedly drained 48 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) from the money market on Tuesday through bond-repurchase agreements. The Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) moved lower by 0.3%. Banks retreated, as China Merchants Bank Co., (HK:3968) (CIHHF) declined 2.2%, Bank of Communications Co. (HK:3328) (BKFCF) fell 1.6%, China Minsheng Banking Corp. (HK:1988) (CMAKY) lost 1.4%, and China Citic Bank Corporation (HK:998) (CHCJY) dropped 1.2%. China's Dongfeng Motor Group Co. (HK:489) , currently in negotiations to buy a stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen, suspended trading of its H-shares in Hong Kong markets. The state-owned car maker didn't clarify the reason in the announcement. On Monday, the company said in a filing that its commercial-vehicle unit has been served with a request for arbitration by a Brazilian firm, which is seeking damages of approximately 1.67 billion Brazilian reals ($700 million) for Dongfeng's failure to establish a joint venture with the firm. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index (CN:SHCOMP) gave up 0.5% to 2,125.54.
Top Financial Companies To Watch For 2014: Arch Capital Group Ltd.(ACGL)
Arch Capital Group Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance products worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Insurance segment offers casualty; construction; executive assurance; healthcare; collateral protection, debt cancellation, and service contract reimbursement products; national accounts casualty; professional liability; programs; property, energy, marine, and aviation; surety; and travel and accident insurance products. It also provides other insurance products, such as excess workers compensation and employers' liability insurance coverages for qualified self-insured groups, associations, and trusts; captive insurance programs; and accident, disability, and medical plan insurance coverages for employer groups, medical plan members, students, and other participant groups. This segment markets its products through a network of licensed independent retail and wholesale brokers. The Reinsurance segment rei nsures third party liability and worker?s compensation exposures; individual property risks that include personal lines and commercial property exposures; other specialty lines, including surety, accident and health, workers' compensation catastrophe, multi-peril crop, trade credit, and political risk; catastrophic perils, such as hurricane, earthquake, flood, tornado, hail, and fire; marine business, which includes coverage for hull, cargo, and transit and offshore oil and gas operations, as well as aviation business that comprises coverage for airline and general aviation risks; and non-traditional business to provide insurers with risk management solutions. This segment markets its reinsurance products through brokers, as well as directly with the ceding companies. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
For the past several years, Berkshire has contrasted its own cost-free float provided by profitable underwriting against the industry�� (unimpressive) tendency to lose money on underwriting while generating net returns from investment income. So far, so good. Less edifying, though, is the repeated contrast of Berkshire�� track record of profitability to State Farm��…even though, as a mutual company, State Farm�� profitability goals are inherently different from for-profit insurers like Berkshire. It�� true that through year-end 2013, Berkshire�� underwriters have ��ow operated at an underwriting profit for eleven consecutive years,��but so have ACE (ACE), American Financial (AFG),� AmTrust Financial (AFSI), Arch Capital (ACGL), Chubb (CB), HCC (HCC), Progressive (PGR), RLI (RLI), and W.R. Berkley (WRB), any or all of whom provide a more meaningful comparison than contrasting Berkshire�� results to a company that�� not out to produce a profit in the first place.
- [By Holly LaFon]
Arch Capital (ACGL)'s Dinos Iordanu recently described to our analysts how he met me in 2001. Before we invested in his business, we asked him all sorts of personal questions about how he came to America from Cyprus; whether or not his wife had a job; and how big was his house? He told our analysts that "Ron was trying to get a sense of me. He wanted to understand how I viewed risk. No one else asked us such questions. They were the right questions since you were investing in our business, which was assuming underwriting risk on your behalf. "We got it right with Dinos and have about quadrupled our money in the past twelve years, not exactly the most propitious time to invest in stocks! Of course, there can be no assurance that future investments will be as profitable��lthough you can be assured that we will continue to work hard to try to achieve similar results.
Top Financial Companies To Watch For 2014: National Bank Holdings Corp (NBHC)
National Bank Holdings Corporation (NBH), incorporated in June 2009, is a bank holding company. Through Bank Midwest, N.A. (Bank Midwest), NBH�� primary business is to offer a range of traditional banking products and financial services to both its commercial and consumer customers, located in Kansas, Missouri and Colorado. The Company offers an array of lending products to cater to the customers��needs, including, but not limited to, small business loans, equipment loans, term loans, asset-backed loans, letters of credit, commercial lines of credit, residential mortgage loans, home equity and consumer loans. It also offers traditional depository products, including commercial and consumer checking accounts, non-interest-bearing demand accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts and time deposit accounts and cash management services. As of December 31, 2011, it operated a network of 103 full-service banking centers, with the majority of those banking centers located in the Kansas City region and Colorado. On October 21, 2011, the Company acquired selected assets and assumed selected liabilities of Community Banks of Colorado, a state chartered bank based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, from the FDIC, which included 36 full-service banking centers in Colorado and four in California.
Lending Activities
NBH�� loan portfolio includes commercial and industrial loans, consumer loans, commercial real estate loans, residential real estate loans and agricultural loans. As of December 31, 2011, approximately 61.5% of the Company�� total portfolio was variable rate loans, approximately 38.5% of the total loan portfolio was fixed rate loans and less than 1.6% of its total loan portfolio was unsecured. As of December 31, 2011, of the loans it had originated, approximately 35.1% were variable rate loans and approximately 64.9% were fixed rate loans.
The Company originates commercial and industrial loans and leases, including working capital loans, equi! pment loans and other commercial loans and leases. As of December 31, 2011, approximately 98.2% of its commercial and industrial loans were secured. As of December 31, 2011, it had $372.0 million in commercial and industrial loans and leases outstanding, comprising approximately 16.3% of its total loan portfolio. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it originated and closed $26.7 million of commercial and industrial loans, which was approximately 18.8% of total loans originated for portfolio investment during that period.
The Company offers a range of consumer loans, including loans to banking center customers for consumer and business purposes, to meet customer demand and to increase the yield on its loan portfolio. As of December 31, 2011, it had $74.3 million in consumer loans outstanding, comprising 3.3% of its total loan portfolio. Its real estate loans consist of commercial real estate loans and residential real estate loans. Commercial real estate loans (CRE) loans, consist of loans to finance the purchase of commercial real estate, loans to finance inventory and working capital that are secured by commercial real estate and construction and development loans. Its CRE loans include loans on 1-4 family construction properties, commercial properties such as office buildings, strip malls, or free standing commercial properties, multi-family and investor properties and raw land development loans.
Residential real estate loans consist of loans secured by the primary or secondary residence of the borrower. These loans consist of closed loans, which are typically amortizing over a 10 to 30 year term. It also offers open-ended home equity loans, which loans are secured by secondary financing on residential real estate. As of December 31, 2011, it had a total of $522.4 million in outstanding residential real estate loans, comprising 22.9% of its total loan portfolio. Agricultural loans consist of loans to farmers and other agricultural businesses to finance agricultural produ! ction.
Source of Fund
NBH�� offers a range of deposit products to the customers, including checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts and other deposit accounts, including fixed-rate, fixed maturity retail time deposits ranging in terms from 30 days to five years, individual retirement accounts, and non-retail time deposits consisting of jumbo certificates greater than or equal to $100,000. As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� deposit portfolio was comprised of 13.4% non-interest bearing deposits and 55.0% time deposits. Its deposits are primarily obtained from areas surrounding its banking centers.
Financial Products and Services
In addition to traditional banking activities, the Company provides other financial services to the customers. It includes Internet banking, wire transfers, automated clearing house services, electronic bill payment, lock box services, remote deposit capture services, courier services, merchant processing services, cash vault, controlled disbursements, positive pay and cash management services (including account reconciliation, collections and sweep accounts).
The Company competes with UMB, Commerce, US Bank, Bank of America, Valley View, Capitol Federal, Central Bancompany, CCB Financial Corp, Enterprise Financial Services Corp, Wells Fargo, FirstBank, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Bank of the West, KeyBank, Alpine Bank, Compass Bank, Vectra Bank, First National Bank of Colorado and Zions Bank.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Shauna O'Brien]
On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs reported that it has downgraded National Bank Holdings Corp (NBHC) to “Sell.”
The firm has cut its rating on NBHC from “Neutral” to “Sell,” and has given the company a $21 price target. This price target suggests that the stock will remain flat at its current price of $20.94.
An analyst from the firm commented: “While we believe that NBHC can grow EPS longer term as it leverages its $400mn of excess capital (above 10% tier 1 leverage), with shares trading at 1.1x TBV, we see limited upside in the near-term without any strategic M&A.”
Looking ahead, the firm has maintained its FY2013 EPS estimate of 26 cents. For FY2014 and FY2015, estimates have been maintained at 57 cents and $1.88.
National Bank Holdings shares were mostly flat during pre-market trading Tuesday. The stock is up 10% YTD.
Top Financial Companies To Watch For 2014: ProShares UltraShort FTSE China 25 (FXP)
ProShares UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (the Fund) seeks daily investment results that correspond to twice (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (the Index). The Index consists of 25 of the largest and most liquid Chinese stocks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). This free float-adjusted Index caps the weight of any of constituent stock at 10% to ensure broad representation of the Chinese economy. The Fund takes positions in securities and/or financial instruments that, in combination, should have similar daily return characteristics as -200% of the daily return of the Index. The Index is a price return index. The Fund�� investment advisor is ProShare Advisors LLC. Advisors' Opinion:- [By pamatlarge]
Three short ETFs are designed to profit from China�� economic downward slide. The ProShares Short FTSE China 25 (YXI), an unleveraged ETF, holds shares in iShares FTSE China Large-Cap (FXI) swaps. Investors looking to magnify their returns can choose from two leveraged short ETFs: ProShares Ultra Short FTSE China 25 (FXP) and Direxion Daily China Bear 3x Shares (YANG). Both ProShares Ultra Short and Direxion Daily hold shares that increase in value three times faster than an unleveraged ETF. The downside is that the per share price of these leveraged ETFs also drops three times faster.
Top Financial Companies To Watch For 2014: Retail Opportunity Investments Corp.(ROIC)
Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., a real estate investment trust (REIT), engages in the acquisition, ownership, and management of necessity-based community and neighborhood shopping centers in the eastern and western regions of the United States. As of December 31, 2011, its portfolio consisted of 30 owned retail properties totaling approximately 3.2 million square feet of gross leasable area. The company has elected to be taxed as a REIT, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The company is based in White Plains, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian Pacampara]
Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, shopping center REIT Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (NASDAQ: ROIC ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.
- [By Brian Stoffel]
Retail Opportunity Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: ROIC )
Fool analyst Michael Olsen tends to focus on overlooked companies that offer up deals based on the difference between a stock's price and its intrinsic value. His recent pick of ROIC stock is right down his alley. - [By Chandan Dubey]
A better measure of performance is the return on invested capital (RoIC) and Return on Assets (RoA). These are leverage neutral in the sense that it looks at returns on all the assets which the bank is employing to achieve the return. Higher the RoIC/RoA, better the management is performing. Obviously, it is not as clear-cut as this but coupled with conservative lending practices, good liquidity and manageable leverage, we have a recipe for side-stepping bad management and a crappy bank.
Top Financial Companies To Watch For 2014: Chemung Financial Corp (CHMG)
Chemung Financial Corporation, incorporated on January 2, 1985, is a financial holding company. The Company was organized for the purpose of acquiring Chemung Canal Trust Company (the Bank). The Company provides a range of financial services, such as insurance products, mutual funds, and brokerage services. The subsidiaries of the Company include Chemung Canal trust Company and CFS Group, Inc. CFS Group, Inc. offers a range of financial services including mutual funds, full and discount brokerage services, annuity and other insurance products and tax preparation services. Chemung Canal Trust Company is a full-service community bank with full trust powers. The Company manages its operations through two primary business segments: core banking and wealth management group services. The core banking segment provides revenues by attracting deposits from the general public and using such funds to originate consumer, commercial, commercial real estate, and residential mortgage loans, primarily in the Company�� local markets and to invest in securities. The wealth management group services segment provides revenues by providing trust and investment advisory services to clients.
The Bank is a New York chartered commercial bank, which engages in full-service commercial and consumer banking and trust business. The Bank's services include accepting time, demand and savings deposits, including negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts, savings accounts, insured money market accounts, investment certificates, fixed-rate certificates of deposit and club accounts. The Bank's services also include making secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans, financing commercial transactions (either directly or participating with regional industrial development and community lending corporations), and making commercial, residential and home equity mortgage loans, revolving credit loans with overdraft checking protection and small business loans. Additional services include renting safe deposit faciliti! es and the provision of networked automated teller facilities and an Internet banking product featuring bill payment services. Wealth management services provided by the Bank include services as executor and trustee under wills and agreements, and guardian, custodian, trustee and agent for pension, profit-sharing and other employee benefit trusts, as well as various investment, pension, estate planning and employee benefit administrative services.
Lending Activities
At December 31, 2011, 22.5% of the Corporation�� loans consist of commercial real estate loans to borrowers in the real estate, rental or leasing sector. The major portion of this sector comprises borrowers that rent, lease or otherwise allow the use of their own assets by others. The Bank�� loan portfolio includes commercial, financial and agricultural loans, commercial mortgages, residential mortgages, indirect consumer loans, and consumer loans. As of December 31, 2011, the total loan portfolio of the Bank was at $796,915,000.
Investment Activities
The Bank�� investment portfolio consists of obligations of the United States Government and the United States Government sponsored entities; mortgage-backed securities, residential; obligations of states and political subdivisions; corporate bonds and notes; SBA (small business administration ) loan pools; trust preferred securities, and corporate stocks. As of December 31, 2011, the investment portfolio of the Bank was at $289,182,000.
Sources of Funds
The Bank�� source of funds includes non-interest-bearing demand deposits, interest-bearing demand deposits, savings and insured money market deposits, and time deposits. As at December 31, 2011, the total deposits of the Bank was at $965,183,000.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Doug Hughes]
Steve Halpern: Okay, today we��e going to walk through two specific investment ideas that you find attractive in the banking sector. The first is Chemung Financial (CHMG), a New York-based operation that happens to be one of the oldest banks in the country. Could you tell us a little more about that?
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