The Google Problem was something Ballmer wrestled with throughout his tenure, without success, and it's not going away. No competitor has devoted more resources to hollowing out the market for Microsoft's core products, or achieved more success in the process.
The news about Apple's challenge to Microsoft's Office only highlighted this, because in targeting that enormously successful bundle (which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook), Apple is only following Google's lead ��and Google hasn't had to give away a product for free to do it. One of the under-reported highlights of Google's earnings results last week was the 85% growth it showed in "Other Revenue, which rose to $1.23 billion. "Other" at Google means primarily its Enterprise software division and its own suite of productivity Apps, which has been slowly but steadily carving away at Microsoft's bread-and-butter revenue source: the bulk seat licenses it sells to corporate customers who want to install its software across hundreds or thousands of PCs.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Watch For 2015: Uroplasty Inc (UPI)
Uroplasty, Inc., incorporated in January 1992, is a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets products for the treatment of voiding dysfunctions. The Company�� primary focus is on two products: the Urgent PC Neuromodulation system and Macroplastique Implants. The Urgent PC system is a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved minimally invasive, office-based neuromodulation therapy for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) and associated symptoms of urinary urgency, urinary frequency, and urge incontinence; and Macroplastique Implants a urethral bulking agent for the treatment of adult female stress urinary incontinence primarily due to intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD). Outside of the United States, the Company�� Urgent PC is also approved for treatment of fecal incontinence, and Macroplastique is also approved for treatment of male stress incontinence and vesicoureteral reflux.
Urgent PC Neuromodulation System
Using a small-gauge needle electrode inserted above the ankle, the Urgent PC System delivers electrical impulses to the tibial nerve that travel to the sacral nerve plexus, a control center for pelvic floor and bladder function. Components of the Urgent PC system include a hair-width needle electrode, a lead set, and an external, handheld, battery-powered stimulator. For each 30-minute, office-based therapy session, the physician or other qualified healthcare provider inserts the needle electrode in the patient�� lower leg and connects the electrode to the stimulator. Typically, a patient undergoes 12 consecutive weekly treatment sessions, with follow-up maintenance treatments as required to sustain the therapeutic effect. The Company has received regulatory clearances for sale of the Urgent PC system in the United States, Canada and Europe. It also has launched its second generation Urgent PC system.
Macroplastique
Macroplastique is designed to restore the patient�� urinary contine! nce immediately following treatment. Macroplastique is a soft-textured, permanent implant injected, under endoscopic visualization, around the urethra distal to the bladder neck. It is a composition of heat vulcanized, solid, soft, irregularly shaped polydimethylsiloxane (solid silicone elastomer) implants suspended in a biocompatible excretable carrier gel. Macroplastique does not degrade, is not absorbed into surrounding tissues and does not migrate from the implant site. The Company has sold Macroplastique for several urological indications in over 40 countries outside the United States.
Other Uroplasty Products
The Company markets outside of the United States minimally invasive products to address fecal incontinence. Its PTQ Implants offer minimally invasive, soft-textured permanent implant for treatment of fecal incontinence. The PTQ Implants are implanted circumferentially into the submucosa of the anal canal, creating a bulking and supportive effect similar to that of Macroplastique injection for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. The PTQ is Conformite Europeenne (CE) marked and is sold outside the United States in various international markets. The Urgent PC is also CE marked and sold outside of the United States for the treatment of fecal incontinence. In addition to urological applications, the Company markets its tissue bulking material outside the United States for otolaryngology vocal cord rehabilitation applications under the trade name VOX Implants. In the Netherlands and the United Kingdom only, the Company distributes certain wound care products in accordance with a distributor agreement.
The Company competes with Pfizer Inc., Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Allergan, GlaxoSmithKline, Carbon Medical Technologies, BioForm, Inc., Q-Med AB and Contura.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
Uroplasty (NASDAQ: UPI) shares reached a new 52-week high of $5.22 after the company reported strong Q3 results.
Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) shares gained 8.23% to touch a new 52-week high of $28.15 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Barclays upgraded the stock from Equalweight to Overweight and lifted the price target from $29.00 to $34.00.
Best Forestry Stocks For 2014: Cache Inc.(CACH)
Cache, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mall and Web based specialty retailer of women?s lifestyle sportswear and dresses in the United States. It offers eveningwear; casual and daytime sportswear, including tops, bottoms, and dresses; and accessories, such as jewelry, belts, and handbags under the Cache brand name. The company also provides its products online through its Web site, cache.com. As of March 22, 2012, it operated 267 stores in 43 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Cache, Inc. was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
As we head into Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, small cap apparel retail stocks Cache, Inc (NASDAQ: CACH), Stein Mart, Inc (NASDAQ: SMRT), Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc (NASDAQ: PSUN) and Destination XL Group Inc (NASDAQ: DXLG) have the distinction of being the best performing small cap apparel retail stocks for this year (according to Finviz.com) with gains of 111.6%, 92.7%, 88.7% and 65.7%, respectively. What are these high flying small caps doing right in the apparel retail space and will they continue delivering a stellar performance for Black Friday and the all important holiday season for�investors? Here is what new and existing investors and traders alike need to know or consider:
Best Forestry Stocks For 2014: TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation(AMTD)
TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides securities brokerage services and technology-based financial services to retail investors, traders, and independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) in the United States. The company?s offerings include TD Ameritrade for self-directed retail investors; TD Ameritrade Institutional, which provides brokerage and custody services to independent RIAs and their clients; thinkorswim that offers a suite of trading platforms serving self-directed and institutional traders, and money managers; and Investools, which provides investor education products and services for stock, option, foreign exchange, futures, mutual fund, and fixed-income investors. Its offerings also include Amerivest, an online advisory service that develops portfolios of exchange-traded funds to enable long-term investors pursue their financial goals; and TD Ameritrade Corporate Services, which provides self-directed brokerage services to employees and executives of corporations. In addition, the company offers various products and services, such as common and preferred stocks; exchange-traded funds; a range of option trades, including complex, multi-leg option strategies; futures trades in various commodities, stock indices, and currencies; and foreign exchange products. Further, it provides mutual funds; treasury, corporate, government agency, and municipal bonds; mortgage-backed securities and certificates of deposit; new issue securities; margin lending; and cash management services. Additionally, the company offers trustee, custodial, and other trust-related services to retirement plans; and cash sweep and deposit account products through third-party relationships. It provides its products and services through the Internet, network of retail branches, mobile trading applications, and interactive voice response and registered representatives via telephone. The company was founded in 1971 and is headquart ered in Omaha, Nebraska.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Michele Lerner]
Alamy Self-employed people by definition must rely on themselves for their paychecks and their insurance. And then there's retirement funding. Without the benefit of a company 401(k) (and the potential employer match), saving for the future falls entirely on their own shoulders. That's a lot to take on. Perhaps too much, if you look at the results of a recent TD Ameritrade (AMTD) study. The company's Self-Employment and Retirement Survey found that even though the majority of self-employed people think that they'll live on their savings when they eventually stop working, 70 percent of them are not actually saving for retirement on a regular basis: 28 percent of self-employed people report that they aren't saving for retirement 40 percent aren't saving regularly. 83 percent have put their retirement savings on hold or cut back at one time or another, compared to only 70 percent of people who are traditionally employed. While you might think that self-employed people assume they can live off their business profits, only 19 percent plan to fund their retirement through profits from the company which will continue to run after their retirement -- and only 14 percent think they'll be able to sell their business and live off the profits from the sale. "One of the biggest challenges that self-employed people face is irregular income, so opening a retirement account is sometimes not top of mind," says Lule Demmissie, managing director of retirement at TD Ameritrade in Jersey City, N.J. "But, once you have an understanding of what type of account is best for you, just go ahead and open it. You don't have to fund it right away, but having it open will make it easier to contribute money when you do come into a windfall. Having the foundation in place is a critical first step." However, the picture is not entirely bleak for self-employed people. When it comes to retirement readiness, the size of one's retirement account doesn't show the full picture, says Guy Penn
- [By Maria Armental var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach]
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.(AMTD) disclosed on Thursday the revenue it receives for routing trade orders to certain venues for execution. The disclosure comes as regulators step up scrutiny of the relationship between trading venues and high-speed traders.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
The problem for Schwab, though, is that its competitors have seen similarly strong performance lately. TD AMERITRADE (NYSE: AMTD ) weighed in with a 9% increase in daily average revenue trades in May, posting its best level in a year as it has gone head-to-head with Schwab with their similarly sized offerings of commission-free ETFs. Meanwhile, shares of E*TRADE Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC ) hit a 52-week high earlier this week, as the company rode on its own success with a 15% gain in trades from May. As the industry has gotten more cutthroat, brokers have been fighting to boost business, giving out expensive incentives to draw new customers in an effort to capture long-term relationships.
Best Forestry Stocks For 2014: Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc (IMH)
Impac Mortgage Holdings, Inc. (IMH), incorporated in August 1995, operations include the mortgage and real estate fee-based business activities conducted by its subsidiaries: Integrated Real Estate Service Corporation (IRES), IMH Assets Corp. (IMH Assets) and Impac Funding Corporation (IFC). The Company�� operations include the mortgage and real estate fee-based business activities conducted by IRES and the long-term mortgage portfolio (residual interests in securitizations reflected as net trust assets and liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets. The mortgage lending activities include the origination, funding, selling and servicing of loans. The Company is focusing on originating loans eligible for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and government sponsored loans eligible for Ginnie Mae securities issuance.
Mortgage and real estate services
The Company created IRES to provide solutions to the mortgage and real estate markets. IRES performs services for investors, portfolio managers, servicers and individual borrowers, including mortgage lending services, portfolio monitoring and real estate services, surveillance and recovery services. The platform includes the mortgage lending operations, the portfolio loss mitigation and real estate services and formerly the title and escrow operations. The mortgage lending activities include the origination, funding, selling and servicing of loans. The Company is focusing on originating loans eligible for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and government sponsored loans eligible for Ginnie Mae securities issuance.
Master Servicing
In the ordinary course of business, the Company sells mortgage loans to the secondary market. The Company retains servicing on certain loans sold and earns servicing fees generally between 0.25% and 0.44% per annum of the monthly outstanding principal balance of the loans serviced. The Company has hired a nationally recognized residential sub-servicer to sub-service! the servicing portfolio. Although the Company uses a sub-servicer to provide primary servicing and certain default servicing functions, the Company's default management team, experienced in loss mitigation and real estate recovery, monitors and surveys the performance of the mortgage servicing portfolio. Incurring the cost of both a sub-servicer and an internal default management team reduces net servicing income, but it is an important investment used to minimize delinquencies and minimize repurchase risk. As of December 31, 2011, the total unpaid principal balance of mortgage loans serviced was $605.4 million.
Long-Term Mortgage Portfolio
The long-term mortgage portfolio consists of the residual interest in securitizations represented on the consolidated balance sheet as the difference between trust assets and trust liabilities. The long-term mortgage portfolio includes adjustable rate and fixed rate Alt-A single-family residential mortgages and commercial (primarily multifamily residential loans) mortgages that were acquired and originated by the Company. Alt-A mortgages are primarily first lien mortgages made to borrowers whose credit is within typical Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, but have loan characteristics that make them non-conforming under those guidelines. Commercial mortgages in the long-term mortgage portfolio are adjustable rate mortgages with initial fixed interest rate periods of two-, three-, five-, seven- and 10-years that subsequently convert to adjustable rate mortgages (hybrid ARMs).
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Another stock that insiders are active in here is Impac Mortgage (IMH), which offers residential mortgage services in the U.S. Insiders are buying this stock into big time weakness, since shares are off by 27.4% so far in 2013.
Impac Mortgage has a market cap of $89 million and an enterprise value of $6.05 billion. This stock trades at a premium valuation, with a forward price-to-earnings of 124.10. This is not a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $14.15 million and its total debt is a whopping $5.98 billion.
A beneficial owner just bought 77,863 shares, or about $782,000 worth of stock, at $10 to $10.05 per share.
From a technical perspective, IMH is currently trending below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bearish. This stock has been trending sideways in a consolidation pattern for the last month, with shares moving between $9.80 on the downside and $10.90 on the upside. A high-volume move above the upper-end of its sideways trading chart pattern soon could trigger a big breakout trade for shares of IMH.
If you're bullish on IMH, then look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above some key near-term support at $9.80 and then once it breaks out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $10.50 to $10.90 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 volume of 29,759 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then IMH will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $11.88 to $11.95. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give IMH a chance to tag $14.
Best Forestry Stocks For 2014: iShares Dow Jones US Energy Sector Fund (IYE)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the oil and gas sector of the United States equity market. The Index includes companies in industry groups, such as oil and gas producers, and oil equipment, services and distribution. The Index is a subset of the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index and is capitalization weighted. The Index is reconstituted quarterly.
The Fund will concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent as the Index is so concentrated. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Aaron Levitt]
Fellow InvestorPlace contributor Lawrence Meyers recently recommended the Energy SPDR (XLE) as good ETF to hold for life. I like the pick and you could certainly do worse, but my personal favorite way�to play WTI crude would be the iShares U.S. Energy ETF (IYE).
- [By Louis Navellier]
The ishares Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Fund (IYE) tracks the performance of 99 major energy stocks in the U.S. IYE is actually up 20% for the year, but it has been trending downward over the past month. Meanwhile, the ishares S&P Global Energy Sector Fund (IXC) is up just 10% so far for the year. This fund, which also contains 99 holdings from all over the world, provides perhaps the best view of how the energy sector is faring on the global level. It has also fallen in the past month.
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