Finance & Investment News
Every investor wants the kind of stock you can buy and forget about. These are the kinds of stocks that will rack up giant returns over time as their competitive advantages accrue, much as the FANG group of stocks has over the last decade. They often operate in timeless businesses that are insulated from broader changes in technology or consumer tastes.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and it’s safe to say that Sonos(NASDAQ:SONO) didn’t get it right the first time. The maker of high-end wireless speakers has seen its stock plummet 22% over the past four trading days, taking a hit after its first quarterly report as a public company failed to impress the market.
There’s a growing epidemic in the U.S. and other developed nations and there aren’t any available treatments to tackle the problem. Right now, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is damaging around 20 million livers in the U.S., and it’s quickly becoming the No. 1 reason to join a transplant waitlist.
Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ICPT), Madrigal Pharmaceuticals Inc.(NASDAQ:MDGL), and Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) are three top stocks for investing this arena, which could be worth as much as $35 billion annually by 2020. There are plenty of companies with NASH candidates, but these three biotechs rise to the top of the list for some very different reasons.
The gaming industry may not be the first place you would look for dividend stocks, but it has some surprisingly strong dividends right now. Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS), Wynn Resorts(NASDAQ:WYNN), and Melco Resorts (NASDAQ:MLCO) all have strong cash flows and solid dividend yields for investors.
If you want to take the pulse of the North American oil and gas market, one of the best places to start is Halliburton‘s (NYSE:HAL) quarterly conference call. As the largest oil services company in North America and with clients of all sizes across every shale basin, management has an intimate knowledge of what is going on in the oil patch at any given moment. Listening to, or reading a transcript of, Halliburton’s quarterly conference calls can give investors insights into the market that can help steer investment decisions.
Over the last five years, the S&P 500 index has returned around 87%, including reinvested dividends, a decent performance by any measure. Yet investors could have done much better investing in any number of individual stocks, and it wouldn’t have required taking fliers on risky penny stocks, either.
They say that big things come in small packages, and sometimes the same can be said about stock prices. There are plenty of stocks trading in the single digits, and while most of them — let’s face it — are there for a reason, risk-tolerant investors can sometimes find some real gems among low-priced equities.
The big banks tend to grab most of the headlines, but there are some good reasons to look at the smaller end of the banking spectrum. Not only do smaller banks have more room to grow, but they also have some other advantages, such as lower compliance costs. Three smaller banks three of The Motley Fool’s contributors think are worth a look right now are BofI Holding(NASDAQ:BOFI), Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR), and Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL).
These three Motley Fool contributors think now could be the perfect time for biotech investors to add Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ONCE), Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR), andCelgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) to portfolios. Why? An overreaction to trial data could mean Spark’s shares are on sale, Esperion Therapeutics has big news fast approaching, and Celgene may be one of biotech’s best bargain-bin buys.
Whether you realize it or not, the current economic expansion is close to making history. Having begun in June 2009, following the steepest recession this country has seen in more than 70 years, the current expansionary cycle just completed its 109th month. If the U.S. economy manages to continue expanding all the way through next July, it’ll top the 120-month economic expansion that led up to the dot-com bubble as the longest ever.