This year has been a bit of a roller coaster for investors in Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG ) . The company responsible for manufacturing and selling the daVinci Surgical Robot has had no problem continuing to grow its business, but a number of new worries have appeared on the horizon, causing Intuitive's stock to take a long pause.
Back in July of 2011, I pledged to buy and hold $4,000 worth of Intuitive shares. Since then, the shares have appreciated to about $5,000. Although the shares were outperforming the broader market for much of the past two years, recent worries have caused it to lose ground.
ISRG Total Return Price data by YCharts.
Read below to find out what these worries are, and why I still think the stock is worth holding.
Doubters surfacing
It's tough to say when the worry-warts took over the narrative, but it likely began when famed short-seller Citron came out with a paper saying Intuitive was grossly overpriced. Though many of the assertions Citron made were overblown, one seemed to stick: that doctors were possibly not getting the type of training that they should be. This led to the FDA opening an investigation to check on these assertions.
Top Building Product Stocks To Buy For 2015: CCR SA (CCRO3)
CCR SA is a Brazil-based holding company primarily engaged in the operation of highways. The Company's businesses are divided into five main operating segments: Highway which includes concessions such as AutoBAn, ViaOeste, NovaDutra, RodoNorte, SPVias, Ponte, ViaLagos, RodoAnel Oeste, Transolimpica and Renovias; Subway which includes ViaQuatro, Sea Transportation which includes Barcas concession; Airport Concessions which include Quiport, Aeris and CAP, and all companies related to these concessions; and Services/Holdings which is related to sub-holdings CPC and CCR Espana, among others. It is involved in the collection of toll fees on highways and is responsible for repairing, conserving, maintaining and operating of these highways. It is responsible for national highways network in Brazilian states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Parana. Additionally, it is active in automotive inspection services, automatic toll payment and automatic vehicle identification systems operation. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ney Hayashi]
Toll-road operator CCR SA (CCRO3) added 3.1 percent to 16.75 reais, snapping a five-day rout that drove shares 11 percent lower. Competitor EcoRodovias Infraestrutura e Logistica SA gained 1.7 percent to 14.75 reais today.
Top 10 Performing Stocks To Own Right Now: Wausau Paper Corp. (WPP)
Wausau Paper Corp. manufactures, converts, and sells paper and paper products in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Tissue and Paper. The Tissue segment produces and sells paper towel and tissue products for the ?away-from-home? market, including washroom roll and folded towels, windshield folded towels, industrial wipers, dairy towels, household roll towels, and various towel, tissue, and soap dispensers, as well as other premium towel and tissue products to paper and sanitary supply distributors under the DublSoft, EcoSoft, OptiCore, Revolution, Dubl-Nature, and Dubl-Tough names. The Paper segment focuses on four core markets comprising food, industrial and tape, coated and liner, and print and color. This segment manufactures products for food processing, food packaging, and foodservice, such as products used for baking applications, microwave popcorn, and other cheese and meat processing products; products for interleaving, saturating, coating, unsaturated crepe base, and a range of micro markets; specialty liners, and siliconized release papers for use in pressure sensitive tapes, specialty label applications, the production of fiber composite applications, and casting sheets used in the production of solar cells; and uncoated printing, writing, text, cover, and board grades for commercial printers, in-plant print shops, quick printers, copy centers, and office supply and mass merchandisers under the Wausau Paper, EcoSelect, ExperTec, DuraTec, InvenTec, ProGard, ProRedi, ProPly, ProTec, Astrobrights, Royal, Exact, Professional Series, Intrigue, and Creative Collection names. This segment also produces a range of custom color products, which include matte board, end leaf, and luxury packaging applications. Wausau Paper Corp. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
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 Wausau Paper (NYSE: WPP ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Jonathan Morgan]
WPP Plc (WPP), the world�� biggest advertising company, advanced 3.6 percent to 1,210 pence in London trading.
LSE advanced 7.4 percent to 1,590 pence, the highest price since February 2008, as the operator of Europe�� oldest independent bourse reported a 39 percent increase in first-quarter revenue.
- [By Holly LaFon]
In the second half of the year, Crescent established new positions in a few companies that have more such global footprints. We initiated investments in Google (GOOG), as well as the advertising agencies Interpublic (IPG) and WPP (WPP). The fortunes of all three are tied directly to the level of global advertising spend, and they all saw their shares prices decline due to concerns of a recession-related slowdown. At our purchase price, we believe we were buying each at roughly 11-13x our estimated earnings for 2012 should the fears of a macroeconomic slowdown prove correct. This strikes us as a very reasonable multiple to pay for asset-light global businesses that generate strong free cash flow across the business cycle and have the capability to grow earnings greater than GDP in a normal economic environment.
- [By Mariko Yasu]
Dentsu paid 3.16 billion pounds ($4.8 billion) for Aegis as Japan�� biggest agency competes with global firms including WPP Plc (WPP) and Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) With Japan�� benchmark Topix index on pace for its best result since 2005, the 112-year-old company is tapping an equities boom to fund the deal that added the largest independent buyer of advertising space and reduced its reliance on the domestic market.
Top 10 Performing Stocks To Own Right Now: Greenhill & Co Inc (GHL)
Greenhill & Co., Inc. (Greenhill), incorporated on March 10, 2004, is an independent investment bank focused on providing financial advice on mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings and capital raising to corporations, partnerships, institutions and governments. The Company acts for clients located throughout the world from its offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia and Sweden. The Company provides advisory services primarily in connection with mergers and acquisitions, financings, restructurings, and capital raisings. On merger and acquisition engagements, it provide a broad range of advice to global clients in relation to domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and similar corporate finance matters and are generally involved at each stage of these transactions, from initial structuring to final execution. It advises client�� matters, including acquisitions, divestitures, defensive tactics, special committee projects and other important corporate events. It also provides advice on valuation, tactics, industry dynamics, structuring alternatives, timing and pricing of transactions, and financing alternatives.
In the Company�� financing advisory and restructuring practice, the Company advise debtors, creditors, governments, other stakeholders and companies experiencing financial distress as well as potential acquirers of distressed companies and assets. It provides advice on valuation, restructuring alternatives, capital structures, financing alternatives, and sales or recapitalizations. The Company also assists those clients who seek court-assisted reorganizations by developing and seeking approval for plans of reorganization as well as the implementation of such plans. In its private capital and real estate capital advisory business the Company assists fund managers and sponsors in raising capital for new funds and provide related advisory services to private equity and real estate funds and other organizations globally. It ! also advises on secondary transactions.
The Company competes with America Corporation, Barclays Bank PLC, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, UBS A.G., Evercore Partners Inc., Jefferies Group, Inc., Lazard Ltd., Credit Suisse and Park Hill.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Mark Hulbert]
The stocks are C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW) �, a freight-transportation company; chip maker Cirrus Logic (CRUS) �; independent oil company Forest Oil (FST) �; investment bank Greenhill & Co. (GHL) �; Intrepid Potash (IPI) �, a fertilizer company; retailer J.C. Penney (JCP) �; Quest Diagnostics (DGX) �, a medical diagnostic company; Strayer Education (STRA) �, a for-profit college; Tower Group International (TWGP) �, an insurance company; and Windstream Holdings (WIN) �, a rural telecommunications firm.
- [By John Seward]
Timken Steel Corp. will replace Greenhill & Co. (NYSE: GHL), and Greenhill replaces Spartan Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: SPAR) in the SmallCap 600 June 30. Timken Co. (NYSE: TKR) is spinning off TimkenSteel to shareholders.
- [By Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson]
An article in Financial Times came out suggesting that smaller investment banks, such as Greenhill (NYSE: GHL ) or Lazard (NYSE: LAZ ) , might be workplaces that offer more options and flexibility for those pursuing a banking career. Will we start to see the best talent move away from Wall Street's biggest banks to find the true opportunities? In the video, Matt tells us what effect this could have on big banking as a whole.
Top 10 Performing Stocks To Own Right Now: Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp (TRER.PK)
Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp., formerly Standard Silver Corporation, incorporated on July 29, 1970. a mining company engaged in the business of the acquisition and development of mineral properties. As of August 31, 2012, it held a nineteen year lease to explore and develop a 950 acre rare earth uranium-beryllium prospect located in Hudspeth County, Texas known as Round Top and prospecting permits covering an adjacent 9,345 acres.
The Company�� principal focus will be on developing a metallurgical process to concentrate or otherwise extract the metals from the Round Top rhyolite. In addition to the Round Top Project, the Company also own title to 12 unpatented mining claims, the Macho group, comprising 240 acres covering the Old Dude Mine, located in Sierra County, New Mexico. Another 18 unpatented mining claims and fractional claims, the HA group, consisting 274 acres cover an andesite hosted vein system similar to and some 10 miles to the southwest of the Macho District.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake Mitchell]
As a speculative play on the industry, I came across Texas Rare Earth Resources (TRER.PK), which is principally focused on its 950 acre Round Top project. A Preliminary Economic Assessment by an independent third party found that there are an estimated over 1 billion metric tonnes of resources containing over 1 billion pounds of rare earth elements. A revised PEA, which was originally projected to have a capital cost of $2.1 billion is now estimated to be between $150 million to $350 million. A key concern in the exploration of these mines is how expensive it is to ultimately extract the rare earths from the ground. If Texas Rare Earth is able to show evidence that cost has been significantly reduced it will be the target of interested parties globally.
Top 10 Performing Stocks To Own Right Now: Medidata Solutions Inc.(MDSO)
Medidata Solutions, Inc. provides software-as-a-service based clinical development solutions for life science organizations worldwide. Its solutions comprise software and services that allow customers to increase the value of their development programs by designing, planning, and managing key aspects of the clinical trial process, including study and protocol design, trial planning and budgeting, site negotiation, clinical portal, trial management, randomization and trial supply management, clinical data capture and management, safety events capture, medical coding, clinical business analytics, and data flow and interoperability. The company primarily offers Medidata Rave, a comprehensive platform for capturing and managing clinical data. It also provides Medidata CTMS, a clinical trial management solution that streamlines operational workflows; Medidata Designer, a protocol development tool that enhances the efficiency of clinical trial start-up; Medidata Insights, a busi ness analytics platform; and Medidata Balance, a randomization and trial supply management solution, which streamlines the process of developing, building, and implementing subject allocation plans. In addition, the company offers Medidata Grants Manager, an application to benchmark the investigator budgets against industry data; Medidata contract research organization (CRO) Contractor, an analytical tool for CRO outsourcing, budgeting, and negotiation; and iMedidata, a hosted portal application that allows investigative sites and sponsor study teams to start trial activities. Further, it provides hosting, support, and professional services. The company serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies; academic institutions; and CROs and other entities engaged in clinical trials through a direct sales force; and through relationships with CROs and other strategic partners. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Einhorn mentioned operating margin estimates are too high and that similar companies to Athenahealth have margins around 10%. Our expectations aren�� that much higher, as we estimate Athenahealth will finish 2014 with adjusted operating margins of 10.3%, increasing to 11.4% and 12.0% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. While we expect some margin expansion, our absolute margin levels are in-line with other [software-as-a-service] peers 2014E operating margins including: Medidata (MDSO) at 8.9%, Salesforce.com (CRM) at 10.3%, and LinkedIn (LNKD) at 13.8%. While not expecting significant margin expansion in the near term, we expect Athenahealth�� margins to expand in the future, driven by declining marginal costs associated with adding additional providers to its user base. Additionally, as the top-line growth slows, we expect the company to cut back on its investments, allowing earnings to flow through the bottom line.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Medidata Solutions (NASDAQ: MDSO) were 19.89 percent to $42.21 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results. - [By Brian Pacampara]
What: Shares of cloud-based clinical development technologist Medidata Solutions (NASDAQ: MDSO ) surged 19% today after its quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street expectations.�
Top 10 Performing Stocks To Own Right Now: LendingClub Corp (LC)
LendingClub Corporation, incorporated on October 2, 2006, provides online marketplace connecting borrowers and investors. The Company operates an online market that connects borrowers looking for loans with individuals with the money to fund them. It lends money to help consumers pay off credit-card bills, consolidate debt and take vacations. Its platform enables customers in investing in and obtaining personal loans by providing financial data and credit information.
The Company provides search algorithm, credit decisioning, a secondary market, and a choice of loan durations. The Company serves the professional fixed income investors, such as family offices and insurance companies.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rana Pritanjali]
Lending Club's (NYSE: LC ) stock is up a stellar 66% since the company went public in December. The peer-to-peer lending specialist offers an alternative to the traditional banking system with an online platform for borrowers and lenders. It has a leading 40% share of the�peer-to-peer lending market, far outstripping No. 2 player�Prosper.com and its 8% market share.�
Top 10 Performing Stocks To Own Right Now: Hampden Bancorp Inc.(HBNK)
Hampden Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Hampden Bank that provides banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in Hampden county, Massachusetts. The company?s deposit products include checking, regular savings, and money market deposits, as well as time deposits, including certificate of deposit accounts and individual retirement accounts. Its lending portfolio comprises commercial real estate loans, residential real estate loans secured by one-to-four-family residences, residential and commercial construction loans, commercial and industrial loans, home equity lines-of-credit, fixed rate home equity loans, and other personal consumer loans. The company also engages in buying, selling, holding, and dealing in securities. It offers its services through nine offices located in Hampden county, Massachusetts, as well as through Internet. Hampden Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts. Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Lisa Levin]
This industry tumbled 3.15% by 11:50 am. The worst stock within the industry was Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB), which fell 3.9%. erkshire Hills Bancorp and Hampden Bancorp (NASDAQ: HBNK) have signed a definitive merger agreement under which Berkshire will acquire Hampden and its subsidiary, Hampden Bank, in an all-stock transaction valued at around $109 million.
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