Shares of Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN ) have been on a tear of late. Since the beginning of last year, they're up nearly 37%, outperforming the S&P 500 by roughly eight percentage points and ascending recently to a new 52-week high. As I write, they're trading for the highest price since the financial crisis took its toll on the bank. For current or prospective investors in Huntington, in turn, this performance begs the question: What's left for its shares going forward?
HBAN data by YCharts.
While it's impossible to predict the future, what can be said is that Huntington's valuation leaves room for further gains. Trading at 1.25 times its tangible book value, the bank is by no means cheap -- a common saying in the industry is to "buy at half of book value and sell at two times book value." At the same time, it's far from expensive. Take U.S. Bancorp, the nation's largest regional bank, as a counterpoint. Its shares trade for 2.54 times tangible book value. Or even BB&T, a regional bank operating primarily throughout the mid-Atlantic region. It changes hands at 1.86 times tangible book.
Top Transportation Companies To Invest In 2015: Global Payments Inc.(GPN)
Global Payments Inc. provides electronic transaction processing services for merchants, independent sales organizations (ISO), financial institutions, government agencies, and multi-national corporations located in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. It offers a comprehensive line of processing solutions for credit and debit cards; business-to-business purchasing cards; gift cards; and electronic check conversion and check guarantee, verification, and recovery, including electronic check services, as well as terminal management. The company also offers proprietary software products to establish revolving check cashing limits for the casinos? customers in the gaming industry. In addition, it sells, installs, and services automated teller machine and point of sale terminals; and provides card issuing services, including card management and card personalization. The company markets its products directly, as well as through ISOs, retail outlets, tra de associations, alliance bank relationships, and financial institutions. Global Payments Inc. has a joint venture with La Caixa Group to provide merchant acquiring services to merchants in Spain. Global Payments Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Thursday
Earnings Expected From: Global Payents Inc. (NYSE: GPN), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), Synnex Corporation (NYSE: SNX) Economic Releases Expected: �US services PMI, Canadian imports and exports, US trade balance, eurozone services PMI, ECB interest rate decision, British services PMIFriday
- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Wednesday
Earnings Expected From: Uniferst (NYSE: UNF), Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), RPM International (NYSE: RPM), Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) Economic Releases Expected: German trade balance, German factory orders, Australian retail salesThursday
Top Cheap 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 John Divine]
But as much as those macroeconomic developments were responsible for the rise of the blue chips, it was tech stocks that really lifted the index. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) was one notable beneficiary of tech's popularity surge Monday, adding 2.6%. Since HP has seen its stock slip at the expense of a move to tablets from PCs, today's report showing an uptick in consumer spending doesn't hurt things.�
- [By Dan Caplinger]
Looking at the three top gainers in the Dow, you'll find a who's-who of the technology industry filling all three slots. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) led the way higher with a 2.65% gain, pushing the stock above the $20 mark. Fool contributor Anders Bylund earlier today attributed the gains to speculation that activist investor Carl Icahn could build a position in HP, although one wonders just how many projects Icahn can take on without overextending himself. Worth considering is that despite the idea that the PC market is in decline, HP is nevertheless the top-volume seller of PCs in the world, and despite the company's attempts to diversify beyond personal computers, the segment will continue to drive HP's overall results for years to come.
- [By Jessica Alling]
Helping limit the Dow's losses this morning is Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) . The tech company is soaring after better-than-expected earnings prove that CEO Meg Whitman is heading the company in the right direction. Up 13.3% so far in trading, HP is enjoying the boost from investors' added confidence, despite continued drops in important operating segments. Though revenue was a solid 10% lower than last year, the company produced $0.87 per share in earnings, beating both its guidance of $0.80 to $0.82 and analyst estimates, which fell within that range. Personal systems, which is the company's most important segment, is also the worst-performing -- with a 20% decline in revenues from the previous year. In order to keep shareholders happy with the current turnaround plan, Whitman asked for patience as the company continues to improve its balance sheet. As a reward for that patience, HP raised its dividend for shareholders by 10%.
Top Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Oracle Corporation(ORCL)
Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and services database and middleware software, applications software, and hardware systems worldwide. It licenses of database and middleware software, including database management software, application server software, service-oriented architecture and business process management software, data integration software, business intelligence software, identity and access management software, content management software, portals and user interaction software, development tools, and Java; and applications software comprising enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, enterprise performance management, supply chain management, business intelligence applications, enterprise portfolio project management, Web commerce, and industry-specific applications software. The company also offers customers with rights to unspecified software product upgrades and maintenance releases; Internet access to technical content; and Internet and telephone access to technical support personnel. In addition, its hardware systems products consist of computer server and hardware-related software, including the Oracle Solaris Operating System; and storage products, such as tape, disk and networking solutions for open systems and mainframe server environments. Its hardware systems support solutions include software updates for the software components. Further, the company offers consulting solutions in business and IT strategy alignment, enterprise architecture planning and design, initial product implementation and integration, and ongoing product enhancements and upgrades; cloud services, including Oracle Cloud Services and Advanced Customer Services; and education solutions comprising instructor-led, media-based, and Internet-based training in the use of its software and hardware products. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Redwood Ci ty, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Volkman]
Langdon is a longtime TIBCO employee, having joined the company in 2003. Previous to that, he worked at Siebel, now owned by Oracle (NYSE: ORCL ) . He also held positions at an affiliate of privately held Bass Brothers Enterprises and at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, which is currently under the wing of Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS ) .
- [By Anders Bylund]
salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM ) was started by former Oracle (NYSE: ORCL ) vice president Marc Benioff, and the two companies have been fierce rivals in a very vocal way ever since. So when Oracle promised that it would share a "startling announcement" regarding Salesforce this week, the company wasn't kidding.
- [By Jeremy Bowman]
Outside the Dow, Oracle (NYSE: ORCL ) dropped 8.8% after hours as it posted just 0.3% revenue growth in its quarterly report, as the software-maker appears to be losing new business to cloud computing competitors. This was the second quarter in a row with flat revenue growth leading to a sharp decline in share price. The drop will weigh on the Nasdaq tomorrow, and could also hamper other tech stocks as the company is seen as a bellwether for industry demand.
Top Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Kohl's Corporation(KSS)
Kohl?s Corporation operates department stores in the United States. The company?s stores offer private and exclusive, as well as national branded apparel, footwear, and accessories for women, men, and children; soft home products, such as sheets and pillows; and housewares primarily to middle-income customers. As of January 29, 2011, it operated 1,089 stores in 49 states. The company also offers on-line shopping on its Web site at Kohls.com. Kohl?s Corporation was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Will Ashworth]
But just to make sure you understand why I feel this way, let’s take a look at the major points I covered for JCP earnings previews in both the fourth quarter and this quarter, and how they’ve shaped up. There are seven points overall, and each encourages continued faith in JCPenney:
Online Sales. JCPenney�� online sales in Q1 2013 were $217 million, a 19.9% decrease year-over-year. This year it increased online sales by 25.7% to $273 million, or 9.7% of overall revenue. While it didn�� quite hit my target of 10%, it�� close enough. I expect it do push into double digits in Q2. Private Label. As Ullman stated in its conference call, it�� almost back to where it used to be at 50% of revenue. St. John�� Bay is back as if it never left and Liz Claiborne is getting the attention it deserves. With private label boosting gross margins by several hundred basis points, you can expect that to help JCP stock in the future. Liquidity. This is the one that Jeff Macke and company are most concerned about and so they should be. You can�� run a company if you don�� have enough cash to meet your obligations. This past year, liquidity never went below $1 billion and this year CFO Ed Record believes it won�� go below $1.5 billion — evidence it�� making progress. More importantly, suppliers continue to be supportive of its turnaround efforts, and that�� key to maintaining liquidity. Gross Margins. I specifically stated in my Q4 JCP earnings preview, ��s long as they can move above 30% in the next two to three quarters, JCP�� survival is less in doubt.��JCP delivered gross margins of 33.1% in Q1, 230 basis points better than a year earlier, and it expects to go even higher in Q2. Sears. Both Kohl�� (KSS) and Macy�� (M) experienced negative same-store sales growth in the first quarter. Sears (SHLD) doesn�� report until May 22, but we can assume that its earnings going to be dismal as usual. JCP is taking back some of the market s - [By Bloomberg]
Companies added fewer workers than projected in February, a sign that U.S. employers were waiting for a pickup in demand before boosting headcount, a private report based on payrolls showed today. The 139,000 increase in employment followed a revised 127,000 gain in January that was weaker than initially reported, the weakest two months since August-September 2012, according to the ADP Research Institute in Roseland, N.J. The median forecast of 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 155,000 advance. Harsh winter weather conditions, which kept some shoppers away from stores and car dealerships, help explain why companies were hesitant to accelerate hiring at a more robust pace. Faster payroll growth that spurs bigger wage gains would help to boost the consumer purchases that make up almost 70 percent of the economy. "Employment was weak across a number of industries," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pa., said in a statement. Moody's produces the figures with ADP (ADP). "Bad winter weather, especially in mid-month, weighed on payrolls. Job growth is expected to improve with warmer temperatures." Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of economists ranged from gains of 100,000 to 180,000 after a previously reported increase of 175,000 in January. Missing Mark ADP's numbers have missed the mark in tracking the government's jobs figures over the past couple of months. The group's initial estimates showed a 238,000 gain in employment for December followed by a 175,000 January increase. That compares with the Labor Department's initial estimate of an 87,000 gain in December private payrolls and a 142,000 increase in January. Stock-index futures were little changed after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GSPC) expiring this month rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,872 at 9:06 a.m. in New York. Payrolls at goods-producing industries increased headcount by 19,000. Factories added 1,000 workers,
- [By Lauren Pollock]
Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Thursday’s session are Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT), Kohl's Corp.(KSS) and Viacom Inc.(VIAB)
- [By Patricio Kehoe]
Negative macroeconomic trends, such as consumer credit contraction, housing market downturn, and increases in commodity costs, have negatively affected the retail industry. Yet the economic downturn, which followed the 2008 financial crisis, has not hit all retailers equally. Whereas Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) has struggled to grow, Kohl�� Corp (KSS) is expected to continue on its positive growth trajectory.
No comments:
Post a Comment