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Water Company Stocks: Enough Profits to Wet Your Whistle?

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Water is a business worth more than half a trillion dollars around the globe including everything from infrastructure to treatment. It’s also the most in-demand commodity around the world. Once cleaned, water is necessary to sustain life, grow crops, and recently, bring oil and natural gas to the ground via fracking. In the developed markets, […]

Filed Under: Investing
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Home Depot: Real Estate Exposure at a Fair Price

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We’ve discussed here on The College Investor the belief that the housing market is going to rebound.  And one of the top ways to play it is to look at home remodeling companies, specifically Home Depot and Lowes.  Today, let’s look at Home Depot (HD). Home Depot shareholders are undoubtedly enjoying their rollercoaster ride on […]

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Buffett Grabs His Slice of Goldman Sachs, Should Investors Follow?

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Warren Buffett is finally cashing in on the upside to his famous 2008 rescue of the investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS) in which he bought $5 billion in preferred stock and negotiated a generous bonus in the form of stock warrants. Those 5 year stock warrants have come due, and Buffett’s taking his stake in […]

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eBay: A Sleeping Superstar?

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Make no mistake about it, eBay’s stock (EBAY) is on a tear, up more than 35% in just the last year. While the company may be seen as an “also-ran” compared to Amazon’s online marketplace, the online auction and payment company (eBay owns PayPal) is becoming a leader in online business and payment processing. Investors […]

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The Fundamentals of Mining Stocks: Separating Winners and Losers

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With gold down and mining stocks failing to find funding, your inbox is probably as littered as mine with new and great gold opportunities (if you need a reminder about why you shouldn’t buy gold, just look here: Do Not Buy Gold!). Just the other day I received four emails about mining stocks worth a […]

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How to Judge a Bond Fund’s Performance By its Cover

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As passive funds take a center stage, the number of bond funds on the market is skyrocketing. Most get into passive funds because they can’t be bothered to select individual bonds (i.e. buying individual bonds vs. bond funds), which means that investors have to judge a fund from a very simple cover. I’ll go through […]

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4 Ideas for Following Warren Buffett into Consumer Staples

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Warren Buffett and a private equity partner 3G Capital swallowed Heinz (HNZ) whole, in a big $23 billion deal that some think will lead to activity all over the consumer staples space. As it turns out, mergers and acquisitions can be very good for stock investors. Heinz is a strong, established brand in the slow-growing […]

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Why Recent Mergers and Acquisitions are Great for Investors

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The S&P 500 index is now at a 5-year high and near an all-time high set earlier in 2013. Stocks are off to a fast start, logging a 7.6% return year-to-date, more than one might expect for an average full year. So what’s driving Wall Street? It’s all about the M&A this year on Wall […]

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4 Ways to Interpret A Changing Dividend Policy

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Revenues can rise or fall, profit margins can wobble, and corporate executives can change from day to day, but everyone knows that a dividend is untouchable. The dividend is an institution on Wall Street, with whole funds and investment portfolio built around these cash distributions, and the companies that pay them out. Dividends are more […]

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6 Ugly Investment Realities to Remember in the Wake of the Dell Deal

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It now appears that Dell (DELL) will go private in what is being made out to be a strong arm deal of epic proportions. A consortium made up of Michael Dell, several private equity firms, and even Microsoft will take the company private at what is believed to be a ridiculously low multiple. The $24 […]

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SolarCity: Interesting Business But Lacks a Moat

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Saying the word “solar” on an investing blog might be a lot like dropping an f-bomb in the middle of a church. The solar industry has been nothing short of a total money loser for investors who have tolerated rapidly declining margins, changing subsidies, and intense competition. Suffice it to say, the only people who […]

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Socially Responsible Investing: Where’s Your Limit?

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The reality is that, as investors, we make money from the success of American and international businesses. When Walmart sells groceries, investors benefit. When McDonald’s sells a Big Mac, investors benefit. The effect of one sale is marginal. The effect of millions of sales leads to quarterly profits, which lead to dividends, and hopefully appreciation […]

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Investing in MLPs: Yields are High, but Complications are Many

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Master Limited Partnerships are all the rage on Wall Street. Known for high yields, favorable taxation, and exposure to a very popular sector (oil and gas, primarily), MLPs are the new “designer drug” for enterprising investors. Let’s work through the basics of MLPs, their tax structure, and their suitability in your portfolio. So, what is […]

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Groupon’s Woes Can’t Be Solved by “Friendly” Hedge Funds

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Over the past month, shareholders of famed internet deals site Groupon (GRPN) have encountered a wild ride up and down more than 50% as top-performing hedge funds claimed a stake in the company. One of the best performing funds in the last two years, Tiger Global, disclosed it owned 9.9% of the company. Someone close […]

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What is a Spin Off and How Do They Work?

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Ahead of tax concerns from the fiscal cliff, there is potential that the investing universe will again shift its focus to taxation. One integral method of avoiding corporate and personal taxation is the spin off. What Happens in a Spin Off? A spin off is what happens when a piece of a company is disconnected […]

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Betting on Crime: Investing in Private Prisons

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One of my (foreign) economics professors always said that Americans are good at two things: gaining weight and human storage. Human storage was referring to the millions of Americans locked behind bars. More than 2.2 million Americans currently call a jail cell their home, and the industry is booming. Thanks to a favorable legal environment […]

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6 Tips to Find Safe Insurance Stocks

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In light of all that is happening on the east coast, it might be time to turn our attention to the insurance industry. Like utilities, insurance companies have been a place of safety for investors. They are big, profitable cash cows that usually pay very good dividends. Why Invest in Insurance Companies Insurance companies are […]

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How to Steal the Pros’ Stock Picks

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I’m not ashamed to admit that I steal stock picks from a hedge fund or mutual fund from time to time.  In a universe of thousands of individual stocks, it would take years to do your own sorting – and believe me when I say that reading through the financials of 100+ companies just to […]

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CarMax Should Lead Used Auto Sales Recovery

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This week’s bullish case for CarMax in Barron’s encouraged me to reopen a CarMax annual report that had been gathering dust on my desk. As the Barron’s article says, CarMax is a differentiated retailer in a very commoditized space – used car sales. Let’s dig deeper into CarMax’s business model to determine whether or not […]

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The Case For Investing In Local Stocks

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A theory is something that is not proven true, but backed by continuous testing and supporting evidence. In finance, no theory is tested more than the theory of efficient markets – that is, all known information is always priced into a particular security. Researchers have an incredible interest in the idea of informational asymmetry, the […]

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Can Weyerhaeuser’s Timber Propel it to New Heights?

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Timber prices run hot and cold, but for right now, the timber trade is absolutely on. This year, Weyerhaeuser Company (WY) –the largest company in the timber business – has logged an impressive 40% return. Can Weyerhaeuser ride the waves in timber to a record valuation? What Drives Weyerhaeuser Weyerhaeuser is much larger than its […]

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Can For-Profit Education Stocks Outperform in an Economic Upswing?

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There are three things certain in this world: death, taxes, and the necessity of a college degree. While there is no index for death or taxes, there is one for college tuition. Since 1978, no basic good has become more expensive as college tuition, which increased 1120%. That’s nearly twice the rate of growth in […]

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