After rising 67% in the past 52-weeks, it is understandable that the price targets for First Financial Bankshares (FFIN) are slightly under the bank's current market price of $57.69 per share. But, the premium paid for these shares appear to be warranted.
First Financial is one of the fastest growing regional banks in Texas (though all appear to be very fast growing) but it is one that has a very unique strategy that I believe gives the bank a competitive advantage that isn't found in most of the its regional peers.
I'm timid of the current market valuation of FFIN because it is getting a premium well above the industry average but, the bank is setting up for long-term growth and isn't showing any signs of slowing down anytime soon. With that said, below I have outlined why I like First Financial's strategy and financial position, followed by a review of the company's current valuation.
Strategy
A lot of times we see a growing regional bank increase deposit share and assets by purchasing other regionals in an area where they are weak and need more exposure. This makes sense for obvious reasons but other than increased visibility and access to the local markets, investors rarely understand why that particular location was chosen for growth over any of the other areas the bank occupies. With First Financial, this is absolutely not an issue and, to be honest, I'm extremely surprised that any bank in Texas has been able to dominate any area as much as FFIN has.
Best Supermarket Companies To Own In Right Now: Chicago Bridge & Iron Company NV (CBI)
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CB&I) is one of the integrated engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services providers and process technology licensors, delivering solutions to customers primarily in the energy, petrochemical and natural resource industries. CB&I consist of three business sectors: Steel Plate Structures, Project Engineering and Construction, and Lummus Technology. Through these business sectors, the Company offers services both independently and on an integrated basis.
As of December 31, 2012, the Company had more than 900 projects in process in more than 70 countries. On February 13, 2013, it acquired The Shaw Group Inc. (Shaw).
Steel Plate Structures
Steel Plate Structures provides engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction services, including mechanical erection services, for the hydrocarbon, water and nuclear industries. Projects include above ground storage tanks, elevated storage tanks, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanks, pressure vessels, and other specialty structures, such as nuclear containment vessels. Customers include international energy companies, such as Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell; national energy companies, such as ADNOC (Abu Dhabi), CNOOC (China) and Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia); and regional energy companies, such as Kinder Morgan (United States) and Suncor (Canada).
Project Engineering and Construction
Project Engineering and Construction provides engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction services for upstream and downstream energy infrastructure facilities. Projects include LNG liquefaction and regasification terminals, gas processing plants, refinery units, petrochemical complexes and a wide range of other energy-related projects. Customers include international energy companies, such as British Petroleum, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell; national energy companies, such as Ecopetrol (Colombia) and ORPIC (Oman); and regio! nal energy companies, such as Dominion (United States), Gazprom (Russia), Nexen (United Kingdom), and Woodside (Australia).
Lummus Technology
Lummus Technology provides licenses, services, catalysts and equipment for the hydrocarbon refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. Customers include international energy companies, such as Chevron and Shell; national energy companies, such as Pemex (Mexico), Petrochina (China), Rosneft (Russia) and Sabic (Saudi Arabia); and regional refiners and chemical and gas processing companies, such as China Coal (China), IRPC (Thailand), Kazakhstan Petrochemical (Kazakhstan), and Williams Energy Services (United States).
Power provides a range of services, including design, EPC, technology and consulting services, primarily to the fossil and nuclear power generation industries. Plant Services provides electric power refueling outage maintenance, turnaround maintenance, routine maintenance, offshore maintenance, modifications, capital construction, off-site modularization, fabrication, reliability engineering, plant engineering, plant support and specialty services. Additionally, it provides services to restore, rebuild, repair, renovate and modify industrial and electric power generation facilities, and offers predictive and preventive maintenance services. Environmental & Infrastructure (E&I) provides full-scale environmental and infrastructure services for government and private-sector clients. These services include program and project management, design-build, engineering and construction, sustainability and energy efficiency, remediation and restoration, science and technology, facilities management and emergency response and disaster recovery. Fabrication and Manufacturing is a worldwide supplier of fabricated piping systems primarily to the electric power, petrochemical and refinery industries, supporting both external clients and other Shaw business sectors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Winning a big contract is usually good news for a company like Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), and today was no exception, as the engineering company won contract to build a liquefied natural gas facility.
Bloomberg NewsThe New Orleans Times-Picayune has the details:
Netherlands-based energy infrastructure company Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (CB&I) and Chiyoda International Corp., a Japan-based contractor that designs and constructs LNC plants, announced that they were contracted by Cameron LNC, LLC to construct the Cameron Liquefaction Project in Hackberry, La…
The $6 billion contract will include procurement, engineering and construction of natural gas liquefaction and export facilities that will be added to the existing LNC regasification facility. It’s expected to create about 3,000 on-site jobs including several hundred jobs at CB&I’s fabrication facilities in Louisiana. Additionally, officials expect several hundred engineering and project management jobs at its Baton Rouge office that will support design, fabrication and construction of the new facilities.
Deutsche Bank’s Vishal Shah and team consider the impact on Chicago Bridge & Iron, as well as Fluor (FLR), who had a competing bid:
While the award of Cameron LNG is clearly a positive for [Chicago Bridge & Iron], we believe this project could provide upside of $1.6B to our current new award estimate of $13.6B for 2014. Additionally, this project win further supports�[Chicago Bridge & Iron] as a leader in [liquefied natural gas] projects. The company is currently in the running for Golden Pass LNG ($10B), Anadarko Mozambique LNG ($15B, competing against FLR) and Russia Far East LNG ($15B), all of which will likely be awarded in 2015. As for [Fluor], our probability-weighted new award estimate for Cameron was $1.4B, which suggests that 2014 new awards could be $24.6B, vs. our current estimate of $26.0B.
Shares
Best Regional Bank Stocks To Own For 2014: Hewlett-Packard Company(HPQ)
Hewlett-Packard Company and its subsidiaries provide products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as to the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. Its Personal Systems Group segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, calculators and other related accessories, and software and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The company?s Services segment provides consulting, outsourcing, and technology services to infrastructure, applications, and business process domains. Its Imaging and Printing Group segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, and scanning devices, such as inkjet and Web solutions, laser jet and enterprise solutions, managed enterprise solutions, graphics solutions, and printer supplies. The company?s Enterprise Servers, Storage, and Networking segment offers industry standard s ervers, business critical systems, storage platforms, and networking products, including switches, routers, wireless LAN, and TippingPoint network security products. Its HP Software segment provides enterprise IT management software, information management solutions, and security intelligence/risk management solutions. The company?s HP Financial Services segment offers leasing, financing, utility programs, and asset recovery services; and financial asset management services for enterprise customers, as well as specialized financial services to SMBs, and educational and governmental entities. Hewlett-Packard Company also provides business intelligence solutions that enable businesses to standardize on consistent data management schemes, connect and share data across the enterprise, and apply analytics, as well as licenses its specific technology to third parties. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Louis Navellier]
Lightening-fingered shoppers were able to score treadmills for $33 and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) LCD monitors for less than nine bucks (though the jury is out on whether the company will honor those transactions). These were super low prices, even by the discount retailer’s standards.
- [By Mike Williams]
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shares are up more than 100% after falling to $11.71 after news broke of accounting improprieties at Autonomy. After this rather quick doubling of the shares, there has been a renewed interest in the company and many are speculating that another double is on the way. While I believe a near or even intermediate-term doubling of the stock is unlikely, shares of HPQ still appear to offer an asymmetric return profile given the cheap multiple and strong free cash flow generation. CEO Meg Whitman has thus far performed well, and the company's operations are likely a year away from resuming organic revenue growth.
Best Regional Bank Stocks To Own For 2014: Caplease Funding Inc (LSE)
CapLease, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT), focused on financing and investing in commercial real estate that is net leased primarily to single tenants with investment grade or near investment grade credit ratings. It provides private and corporate owners of net lease real estate with equity, debt, and mezzanine financing options. The company is organized to qualify as a REIT for federal income tax purposes and accordingly it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. Capital Lease is based in New York City.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian Louis]
Schorsch�� company had about $15 billion in pending acquisitions at the end of last month, including Phoenix-based Cole, according to Bloomberg Industries. American Realty agreed in May to purchase CapLease Inc. (LSE) for about $2 billion, and in July said it would acquire American Realty Capital Trust IV in a transaction it values at $3.1 billion. The deal for New York-based CapLease is scheduled to be completed this week.
- [By Inyoung Hwang]
Berkeley Group Holdings Plc (BKG) surged 8.3 percent after saying first-half profit rose 22 percent. London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSE) climbed 2.4 percent after Bank of America Corp.�� Merrill Lynch unit recommended buying the stock. Givaudan SA (GIVN) lost 1.3 percent after Nestle SA said it will sell $1.27 billion of shares in the world�� largest flavorings maker.
Best Regional Bank Stocks To Own For 2014: Pacific Drilling SA (PACD)
Pacific Drilling S.A., incorporated on March 22, 2011, is an international offshore drilling Company. The Company is a provider of ultra-deepwater drilling services to the oil and natural gas industry through the use of high-specification drilling rigs. The Company�� primary business is to contract its ultra-deepwater drilling rigs, related equipment and work crews, primarily on a dayrate basis, to drill wells for its customers. The Company is primarily focused on the ultra-deepwater market. The Company generally consider ultra-deepwater to begin at water depths of more than 7,500 feet and to extend to the maximum water depths, in which rigs are capable of drilling, which is approximately 12,000 feet.
The Company operates four drillships and has four drillships under construction, two of which are under customer contract. In connection with the Restructuring, the Company�� Predecessor was contributed to a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company by a subsidiary of Quantum Pacific International Limited.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Pacific Drilling (PACD) is an international offshore drilling contractor committed to becoming the preferred provider of ultra-deepwater drilling services to the oil and natural gas industry through the use of high-specification rigs. This stock closed up 1% to $9.94 in Thursday's trading session.
Thursday's Range: $9.87-$10.00
52-Week Range: $8.63-$10.99
Thursday's Volume: 450,000
Three-Month Average Volume: 308,772From a technical perspective, PACD bounced modestly higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $9.67 with above-average volume. This stock has been trending sideways and consolidating for the last five months, with shares moving between $8.89 on the downside and $10.23 on the upside. Shares of PACD are now starting to trend within range of triggering a breakout trade above the upper-end of its recent sideways trading chart pattern. That trade will hit if PACD manages to take out some key overhead resistance levels at $10.14 to $10.23 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in PACD as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $9.81 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 308,772 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then PACD will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $10.71 to its 52-week high at $10.99. Any high-volume move above $10.99 will then put its all-time high at $11.47 within range for shares of PACD.
- [By Aaron Levitt]
Management recently announced a hefty 50% hike in its quarterly dividend to 37.5 cents per share of NE stock. And with a 4.8% dividend yield, NE stock is now one of the best-paying dividend stocks in the energy sector.
Dividend Stocks To Buy #5 — Pacific Drilling (PACD)Estimated Dividend Yield: 6.5%
Best Regional Bank Stocks To Own For 2014: Tootsie Roll Industries Inc.(TR)
Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products primarily in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company sells its products under the TOOTSIE ROLL, TOOTSIE ROLL POPS, CHILD?S PLAY, CARAMEL APPLE POPS, CHARMS, BLOW-POP, BLUE RAZZ, ZIP-A-DEE POPS, CELLA?S, MASON DOTS, MASON CROWS, JUNIOR MINT, CHARLESTON CHEW, SUGAR DADDY, SUGAR BABIES, ANDES, FLUFFY STUFF, DUBBLE BUBBLE, RAZZLES, CRY BABY, and NIK-L-NIP. It distributes its products through candy and grocery brokers to the wholesale distributors of candy and groceries, supermarkets, variety stores, dollar stores, chain grocers, drug chains, discount chains, cooperative grocery associations, warehouse and membership club stores, vending machine operators, and the U. S. military and fund-raising charitable organizations. The company was founded in 1896 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
At the same time, tiny Tootsie Roll (NYSE: TR ) may see its sales grow as little as 13% through 2016. Could it be that in the candy industry, bigger is better? Does Hershey lack the scale to compete effectively against mammoth Mondelez?
- [By Sean Williams]
Leave the wrapper on
The returns on confectioner Tootsie Roll Industries (NYSE: TR ) have certainly been sweet for investors over the past year. You have to go back to the summer of 2010 to find sugar prices that were as low as they are now,�which has played a good part in helping Tootsie Roll keep that aspect of its costs down. But taking a bigger view of what's going on with Tootsie Roll and comparing that to its current valuation creates a sour taste in my mouth.
Best Regional Bank Stocks To Own For 2014: Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd (ASM)
Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (Avino) is a natural resource company, primarily engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of natural resource properties. The Company�� principal business activities include the exploration of a mineral property located in the State of Durango, Mexico and other mineral properties in Canada, specifically British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. The Company is focused on silver and gold exploration. As of December 31, 2011, the Company explored five silver and gold projects in Canada and Mexico. All of the Company�� mineral property interests in Canada are wholly owned by the Company. In Mexico, the Company has a 99.28% interest in Cia Minera, a Mexican company, which is involved in the mining of commercial ores and resource exploration and development, including the operation of the Avino Mine. Cia Minera is not involved with any exploration activities in Canada. Advisors' Opinion:- [By abirk]
Spirit's profits are signs of steady growth. Since 2010, Annual passenger revenue and net income have both increased steadily. Spirit generated 24.4% growth in revenue passenger miles (RPM), while the available seat miles (ASM), and grew 24.8%. On the other hand, Delta's mainland division had 8.6 million RPM. �On a revenue basis, Spirit is equivalent to about 3.2% of the total revenue of the combined Delta and US Airways, now part of American Airlines Group (AAL).
Best Regional Bank Stocks To Own For 2014: j2 Global Inc (JCOM)
j2 Global, Inc., incorporated on December 14, 1995, is a provider of services delivered through the Internet. The Company provides cloud services to businesses of all sizes, from individuals to enterprises. The Company operates in two segments: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. The Company's Digital Media business segment consists of the Web properties and business operations of Ziff Davis, Inc. (Ziff Davis). The Company�� cloud services and solutions include fax, voice and unified communications, email and customer relationship management, online backup, global network and operations, and customer support services. In February 2013, it acquired IGN Entertainment, Inc. On November 9, 2012, the Company acquired Ziff Davis. Effective March 18, 2013, it acquired MetroFax Inc. In April 2013, the Company acquired Backup Connect BV.
Business Cloud Services
The Company's eFax and MyFax online fax services enable users to receive faxes into their email inboxes and to send faxes via the Internet. eVoice and Onebox provides the Company's customers a virtual phone system with various available enhancements. The Company's FuseMail service provides the Company's customers email, archival and perimeter protection solutions, while Campaigner provides its customers email marketing solutions. KeepItSafe enables the Company's customers to securely backup their data and dispose of tape or other physical systems. The Company's CampaignerCRM business provides customer relationship management solutions designed to increase the Company's customers' sales and increase efficiency. The Company also generates Business Cloud Services revenues from patent licensing and sales and advertising. The Company�� Business Cloud Services and solutions are of two types: direct inward-dial number (DID) -based, which are services provided in whole or in part through a telephone number and non-DID-based, which are its other cloud services for business. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had DIDs issued! to approximately 2.1 million paying subscribers.
The Company's services allow individuals to receive and send faxes as email attachments. In addition to eFax , the Company offers online fax services under a variety of alternative brands, including MyFax , eFax Plus , eFax Pro, eFax Corporate and eFax Developer . eVoice is a virtual phone system that provides small and medium-sized businesses on-demand voice communications services, featuring a toll-free or local company DID, auto-attendant and menu tree. With these services, a subscriber can assign departmental and individual extensions that can connect to multiple United States or Canadian DIDs, including land-line and mobile phones and Internet protocol (IP) networks. These services also include advanced integrated voicemail for each extension, unifying mobile, office and other separate voicemail services and improving efficiency by delivering voicemails in both native audio format and as transcribed text. Onebox is a unified communications suite. It combines the features of many of the Company's other branded services, plus added functionality, to provide a virtual office. Onebox includes a virtual phone system, hosted email, online fax, audio conferencing and Web conferencing.
FuseMail offers hosted email, email encryption and email archival services to businesses. These solutions are hosted offsite and seamlessly integrated into a customer's existing email system. The services include hosted email, VirusSMART virus scanning, CypherSMART encryption services, SpamSMART SPAM filtering and VaultSMART / PolicySMART archiving, which delivers a secure, scalable email archiving and customizable compliance tool to correspond with a company's retention policy. Campaigner is an email marketing service that enables businesses to easily create and send personalized one-to-one email communications to subscribers and customers to build better relationships. Campaigner also helps businesses increase the size of their mailing lists, compl! y with em! ail regulations like CAN-SPAM and get more emails to more inboxes. CampaignerCRM is a cloud-based CRM solution specifically designed to help small/medium-sized businesses close more deals, reduce the sales cycle and sell larger deals. CampaignerCRM has a sales checklist capability that gives sales representatives a step-by-step plan to closing a deal. With CampaignerCRM's Social CRM capabilities, companies can seamlessly integrate a customer's latest information from Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook directly into their Contact profile. KeepItSafe provides managed and monitored online backup solutions for businesses, using its ISO-certified platform.
The Company's Business Cloud Services business operates multiple physical Points of Presence (POPs) worldwide, a central data center in Los Angeles and several remote disaster recovery facilities. The Company connects its POPs to its central data centers through redundant, and often times diverse, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) using the Internet. The Company's network is designed to deliver value-added user applications, customer support and billing services for the Company's customers anywhere in the world and a local presence for its DID-based service customers from thousands of cities in 49 countries on six continents. The Company offers DIDs covering all major metropolitan areas in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, and such other major cities as Berlin, Hong Kong, Madrid, Manila, Mexico City, Milan, Paris, Rome, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo and Zurich. The Company has customers located throughout the world.
The Company's Business Cloud Services customer service organization supports the Company's cloud services customers through a combination of online self-help, email communications, interactive chat sessions and telephone calls. The Company's Internet-based online self-help tools enable customers to resolve simple issues on their own, eliminating the need to speak or write to the Company's customer service re! presentat! ives. The Company's Business Cloud Services segment customer service organization provides email support seven days per week, 24 hours per day to all subscribers. Paying subscribers have access to live-operator telephone support seven days per week, 24 hours per day. Dedicated telephone support is provided for corporate customers 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Live sales and customer support services are available in nine languages, including English, Spanish, Dutch, German, French and Cantonese.
Digital Media
The Ziff Davis portfolio of Web properties, including PCMag.com, ExtremeTech.com, Geek.com, ComputerShopper.com, LogicBuy.com and Toolbox.com features reviews of technology products, technology-oriented news and commentary, professional networking tools for IT professionals and online deals and discounts for consumers. The Company generates Digital Media revenues from the sale of display advertising targeted to in-market technology buyers and from the sale of customer leads to online merchants and business-to-business leads to IT vendors. During the year ended December 31, 2012, Digital Media Web properties attracted 345 million visits and 1.1 billion page views.
PCMag is a trusted online resource for laboratory-based product reviews, technology news and buying guides. Toolbox.com is a network of online communities that allows experienced technology professionals to share collective knowledge and collaborate to resolve problems more efficiently. Toolbox.com includes professional networking tools, blogs, collaboration tools and reference guides. Geek.com is an online technology resource and community for technology enthusiasts and professionals. Its gaming site includes IGN.com and men's lifestyle site includes AskMen.com.
The Company competes with Google AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, AOL's Ad.com and Microsoft Media Network.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Another potential earnings short-squeeze trade idea is cloud services player J2 Global (JCOM), which is set to release its numbers on Tuesday after the market close. Wall Street analysts, on average, expect J2 Global to report revenue $130.43 million on earnings of 71cents per share.
The current short interest as a percentage of the float for J2 Global is extremely high at 20.6%. That means that out of the 43.70 million shares in the tradable float, 9.01 million shares are sold short by the bears. If the bulls get the earnings news they're looking for, then shares of JCOM could easily explode higher post-earnings.
From a technical perspective, JCOM is currently trending above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bullish. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last six months, with shares moving higher from its low of $38.07 to its recent high of $56.24 a share. During that uptrend, shares of JCOM have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of JCOM within range of triggering a major breakout trade post-earnings.
If you're in the bull camp on JCOM, then I would wait until after its report and look for long-biased trades if this stock manages to break out above its 52-week high at $56.42 a share (or Tuesday's intraday high if higher) on high volume. Look for volume on that move that hits near or above its three-month average action of 292,457 shares. If that breakout hits, then JCOM will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $65 to $75 a share.
I would simply avoid JCOM or look for short-biased trades if after earnings it fails to trigger that breakout, and then drops below some key near-term support levels at $54 to $53 a share with high volume. If we get that move, then JCOM will set up to re-test or possibly take out its ne
- [By Dave and Donald Moenning]
Internet Software & Services has been the place to be in 2013. In addition to Shutterstock (SSTK), just take a look at these constituents of this red-hot sub-industry: Pandora Media (P), Facebook (FB), j2 Global (JCOM), Yelp (YELP), CoStar Group (CSGP),LinkedIn (LNKD), etc. The list of superb stocks in the Internet Software & Services space goes on and on. Focusing on stocks in the top-performing sub-industries usually helps bullish trades, so today, let's take a closer look at Shutterstock Inc for a short-term long trade.
- [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 j2 Global (Nasdaq: JCOM ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Rich Smith]
j2 Global (NASDAQ: JCOM ) just keeps on growing -- by acquisition.
In its third corporate purchase in the past three months, j2 announced this morning that it has acquired Netherlands-based Backup Connect BV, a provider of online data backup services.
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