Net Asset Value(s)

Bloomberg
Citadel’s Silver Bet Exposes Rifts in the WallStreetBets Army
(Bloomberg) -- Ken Griffin’s Citadel has once again found itself at the center of a WallStreetBets drama, this time over the firm’s holdings of silver.The precious metal has become a popular buying target for retail investors who want to inflict losses on hedge funds, after posts on WallStreetBets claimed the market was ripe for a short squeeze. Others in the Reddit forum have responded with pleas to avoid the trade, saying Citadel stands to benefit as a major holder of the largest silver exchange-traded fund.“CITADEL IS THE 5TH LARGEST OWNER OF SLV,” one WallStreetBets user wrote on Sunday, referring to the iShares trust’s ticker symbol. “IT’S IMPERATIVE WE DO NOT ‘SQUEEZE’ IT.”Citadel Advisors LLC owned about 6 million shares of the iShares Silver Trust as of Sept. 30, equivalent to a 0.93% stake, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The firm also held shares in at least 17 other silver companies and ETFs.While WallStreetBets users have stunned the world by banding together to fuel epic gains in heavily shorted stocks including GameStop Corp., the debate over silver highlights that traders in the forum are far from a homogeneous group. Investors have been watching the metal’s rally for clues on the staying power of a David-vs-Goliath buying spree that’s spreading to ever-bigger targets.Silver jumped more than 10% on Monday, but the gains are so far tiny relative to GameStop’s 16-fold surge since mid-January.Read more: Silver Spikes as Retail Investors Swarm Their Biggest Target YetA phone call to Citadel’s Chicago office outside regular business hours went unanswered. It’s unclear whether the firm’s holdings of iShares Silver Trust or other silver-related securities have changed since September. Inflows into the iShares trust surged by a record $944 million on Friday as trading in the ETF soared.Citadel runs one of the largest hedge funds and one of the biggest market makers in the world. The firm drew the ire of the WallStreetBets crowd last month after it injected cash into hedge fund Melvin Capital, which lost about 53% in January after being hit by a short squeeze on shares including GameStop.Anger toward Citadel among WallStreetBets users only increased after Robinhood Markets imposed curbs on trading GameStop last week. Some alleged that Griffin, whose firm helps execute orders from Robinhood customers, might be behind an attempt to stamp out the rebellion of individual investors. Citadel and Robinhood both denied any involvement by the billionaire in the decision.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
4h ago
InvestorPlace
Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets Just Took Down a Hedge Fund. You’ll Love What Comes Next.
As a member of r/WallStreetBets, a popular Reddit forum, let me tell you this: It wasn’t supposed to ever happen. Our happy band of rag-tag investors was supposed to use our little corner of the internet to exchange risky stock investment ideas, not take down one of America’s most prominent hedge funds. Source: Mehaniq / Shutterstock.com Yet here we are. In the past week, traders reading WSB and other forums have pushed GameStop (NYSE:GME) and a host of other highly shorted stocks to impossibly high levels, bankrupting at least one hedge fund and causing several platforms to halt trading. So ham-handed was Wall Street’s response that Congress members Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, long-sworn enemies, even managed a coordinated tongue-wagging (Twitter-wagging?) at the U.S. financial system. But as Citadel picks up the pieces of Melvin Capital and Reddit users find their next short-squeeze target, people are starting to ask, “what’s next?”InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets Gives Citron a Taste Let me be clear: You won’t find my posts on r/WallStreetBets. As much as I read and enjoy the platform, my work and ethics prevent me from talking about any stock I own. (Sorry, Elon Musk. I wish I were you.) Wall Street Bets has always been about having fun. Many of the posts are intentionally moronic — think out-of-the-money calls on failing retailers — and there are plenty of contributors who show screenshots of life savings going to zero. Profitable or not, it was about finding the joys and absurdities of market speculation. Back in November, GameStop was among these fun little ventures. And it all seemed quite a standard fare for the subreddit billed as “4chan finding a Bloomberg Terminal.” GameStop fans cheered on buyers while cursing out Melvin Capital for shorting the stock. All in hopes of realizing America’s favorite pastime: making a lot of money with as little effort as possible. But then Citron Research changed it all. Citron Research? Meet r/WallStreetBets On Jan. 19, respected short-seller Andrew Left managed to finally pick the wrong target. As long-time Wall Street outsider, Mr. Left made a name for himself exposing companies like Valeant Pharmaceuticals, whose executives were channel stuffing and spiking the prices of the lifesaving drugs. He would have made a great WSB contributor, if he were willing to put up with hate speech from 15 year olds. But then something happened. The day before the presidential inauguration, Mr. Left announced he would make a case why GameStop shares were worth only $20. Perhaps Mr. Left was right to target GameStop, a shrinking company that still awarded its executives $20 million. Or he could have been wrong — at $20, GameStop would still be worth less than half of Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) when adjusted for sales. But that didn’t matter one bit. Suddenly, GameStop became more than a money-making venture to Redditors. It became a way to fight back against Wall Street greed; now it was war. How Did WSB Do It? In a financial system that values a stock based on its last trade price, even tiny trades at weird prices will revalue a hedge fund’s entire holding. In other words, a few well-timed buys can cause mayhem, especially in stocks with few sellers. That’s exactly what happened with GME. Until then, short interest had remained relatively stable. Market makers, the underpinnings of the U.S. financial system, were doing their job in matching orders and sales. That all changed on Wednesday when prices jumped from $150 to $350. As market makers began to seize up, markets started going wild. That spelled problems for Robinhood. On Wednesday, Robinhood halted trading for GameStop and almost a dozen other companies. “In order to protect our firm and protect our customers,” CEO Vlad Tenev would later tell CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, “we had to limit buying in these stocks.” Can Robinhood Go Under? In the world of trading, most conservatively-run platforms don’t have trouble managing liquidity. As long as you hold enough capital and maintain disciplined margin requirements, it’s rare for your clearinghouse to force you to raise fresh capital. But when it comes to Wall Street, financial companies all seem to run into the same issue — when your customers are making so much money, it’s hard to resist the temptation to join them. Financial regulators have long known these Wall Street shenanigans. Banks from Bear Stearns to Barings all went under when they tried trading customer money as their own, leaving taxpayers and shareholders footing the bill. Many more have experimented with bare-minimum capitalization — only later to realize their disastrous mistakes. So, over the years, smart governments have occasionally found the willpower to ban such practices and enforce strict margin and capital requirements. (Often, these rules would come undone by even smarter financial lobbyists.) Today, many platforms use a loophole to lease customer securities for profit. And when GME stock can get leased out at 25% interest rates to short-sellers, there’s a great temptation for these financial firms to double-dip. Did Robinhood do that? Possibly. Despite Robinhood’s claims that its trading shutdown was proactive, the company still drew down capital lines and banned users from buying more GameStop shares — a signal that Robinhood itself might have been short on capital and shares. (Since Robinhood is a private company, we may never know the truth.) But will Robinhood get in regulatory trouble? Almost certainly. The company banned trading in a dozen stocks on Wednesday during peak investment demand — reportedly because the company needed time to raise fresh capital. So, as retail investors watched from the sidelines, hedge funds cashed out at otherwise lower prices. In a very real sense, Robinhood arguably saved institutions billions of dollars at investors’ expense. Should We Be Scared? As Wall Street picks up the remnants of Melvin Capital and the GME fallout, two things have become clear. 1) “Dumb money” isn’t so dumb after all, and 2) “smart money” is getting taken to the woodshed. First, let’s consider what Wall Street has long called “dumb money,” the retail investor. Most of these people are like you and me — investing the majority of savings in long-term stocks for retirement, while playing around with a small portion for fun. And the gleeful absurdity of r/WallStreetBets aside, most retail investors tend to know what they’re buying (even if they get the valuations wrong sometimes.) The top-100 Robinhood stocks represent a wide swatch of consumer-related companies that have grown in real-world popularity as well as stock-related fame. Second, the GME fiasco has revealed “smart money” for the absurd bets they sometimes take. While a long-short hedge fund can help investors smooth out gains, they’re often as bad as what they call “dumb money” in closing out losses. Melvin Capital, for instance, lost 30% of its net worth in the first three weeks of January. But it took another six days (after the stock had gained another 250%) for the hedge fund to finally relinquish its mammoth position. Since then, other hedge funds have stepped up to replace Melvin in this high-stakes game of “pass the hot potato,” as if trying to prove r/WallStreetBets’ point that hedge funds will always try to make more money off regular investors if they believe the odds are right. GameStop also exposed the revolving door behind hedge funds and market makers. When Ken Griffin’s Citadel LLC, a $35 billion fund, bailed out Melvin Capital, Twitter users quickly pointed out that Citadel also owns a market-making operation that services none other than Robinhood. Where to Go from Here? Investors looking to soak the financial system would do well to buy index funds and sit on them forever. You might not get the gleeful joy of seeing a hedge fund blow up, but companies like Citadel that rely on retail money will see revenues dry up. But for those looking to invest wisely, consider this. With retail investors’ newfound power, you can expect short-sellers to think twice about selling a company. Citron Research’s Andrew Left has already vowed never again to publish short-seller reports. Other hedge funds are nervously watching. That means hot stocks will move faster than ever. As Reddit users have learned this week, it doesn’t take much to influence stock prices when only the marginal trade counts. And with no one willing to short-sell stocks in the face of an angry mob, price spikes will become increasingly common. You can expect many winners and losers. The stock market, after all, is mostly a fixed-sum game. But for long-term investors, the same truth still holds: The road to consistent wealth has always been in buying a group of high-quality investments bought at a reasonable price. Practice that discipline with your core portfolio, and you’ll make plenty of merriment with joining me in reading about the trials and tribulations of others on r/WallStreetBets. On the date of publication, Tom Yeung did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Tom Yeung, CFA, is a registered investment advisor on a mission to bring simplicity to the world of investing. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. The post Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets Just Took Down a Hedge Fund. You’ll Love What Comes Next. appeared first on InvestorPlace.
2d ago
Bloomberg
Robinhood Narrows Trading Restrictions to Eight Companies
(Bloomberg) -- Robinhood Markets Inc. reduced the number of companies with trading restrictions to eight from 50, ahead of Monday’s trading session, according to an update on its website.The current list includes GameStop Corp., AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., BlackBerry Ltd., Express Inc., Genius Brands International Inc., Koss Corp., Naked Brand Group Ltd. and Nokia Oyj.Opening new positions in these securities is limited, according to Robinhood’s website, which listed the maximum number of shares and options contracts each user can hold. For those whose current holdings already exceed the limits, their positions won’t be sold or closed.Robinhood put buying restrictions in place after its clearinghouse deposit requirements for equities increased last week, the company said in a blog post on Friday. “It was not because we wanted to stop people from buying these stocks,” Robinhood said.Rumors that the company was pressured by Citadel or other market makers to restrict trading on GameStop and other “meme stocks” are false, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said on social audio app Clubhouse in an appearance with Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. Rather, it was because the National Securities Clearing Corp. sought $3 billion in deposits, which the firm negotiated down to $700 million, he said.“We knew this was a bad outcome for customers,” Tenev said. “But we had no choice as we had to conform to our requirements.”The trading app, popular among retail investors who fostered the rise of GameStop stock, has been under fire across the political spectrum for its decision to restrict trading of high-flying stocks that surged after being touted on social media.Senator Elizabeth Warren on Sunday called for a broader review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on recent trading swings and said a broker-dealer like Robinhood that invites a lot of individual investors needs to operate “under some basic rules.”Robinhood’s Trading Restrictions Not Illegal: Fmr. SEC Counsel (Video)“You can’t do that in the middle of a trading cycle,” Warren said of Robinhood’s trading limits on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s not about protecting people from making bad trades. It’s about keeping the playing field level.”A representative for Robinhood declined to comment beyond the website’s update.Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Robinhood, mostly alleging restrictions by the trading platform that amounted to a breach of contract. Still, investors who sued online brokerages over claims they were unfairly blocked from trading shares may have a long wait before their cases are resolved.(Updates with CEO comments in 5th, 6th paragraphs.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
2h ago
Yahoo Finance
The GameStop short squeeze was 'the grand awakening': expert
What happened this past week with GameStop, Reddit and Robinhood is a classic tale of David and Goliath, but even the pros say this time is different.
23h ago
Yahoo Finance
GameStop traders may inflict even more pain on Wall Street: Goldman
Wall Street is far from being out of the woods as retail investors have their moment.
47m ago
Benzinga
10 Short Squeeze Candidates Under $10
The movement of retail traders against hedge funds has caused several stocks to spike. Many of the top movers have been stocks that have a high percentage of their floated shares short, causing what’s known as a short squeeze. Among the other themes of the high-flying stocks is that many of them started trading under $10 before their run-ups. AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC), BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE: BB) and Express Inc (NYSE: EXPR) were all stocks that were under $10 and saw huge increases. Related Link: AMC, National Beverage And 8 More Heavily-Shorted Stocks To Watch Here are 10 stocks that trade under $10 with large short percentages that could be short squeeze candidates: Clovis Oncology Inc (NASDAQ: CLVS) is a biotechnology company. Currently, 42% of the float is short. Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SENS) is a medical technology company; 34% of its float is traded short. VBI Vaccines Inc. (NASDAQ: VBIV) develops vaccines for adults, children and newborns; 20% percent of the float is short. Naked Brand Group Ltd (NASDAQ: NAKD) sells intimate, swimwear and apparel, and 33% of its float is short. Precigen Inc (NASDAQ: PGEN) is a biotechnology company; 35% of its float is short. Opko Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) is a pharmaceutical and diagnostics company, with 26% of its float short. Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) is a generics pharmaceutical company; 25% of its float is short. Dyanvax Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: DVAX) is a biotechnology company that is seeing 24% of its float traded short. United Microelectronics Corp (NYSE: UMC) is a semiconductor company that makes products for companies like Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) and Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ: XLNX). The company is seeing 21% of its float traded short. TherapeuticsMD Inc (NASDAQ: TXMD) is a pharmaceutical company targeting women, and 25% of its float is short. (Photo: Omar Eduardo, Flickr) See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaRobinhood Expands Trading Restrictions To 50 Stocks, Including GameStop, General Motors, Starbucks, Several SPACsStock Wars: AMC Entertainment Vs. Cinemark© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
2d ago
Bloomberg
Silver Spikes Past $30 as Retail Investors Swarm Biggest Target
(Bloomberg) -- Silver broke above $30 an ounce as the precious metal took center stage in the retail investor frenzy sweeping through markets.Most-active futures jumped as much as 13% to $30.35 an ounce on the Comex, the highest in eight years. That followed a weekend buying binge that overwhelmed online sellers of silver coins and bars from the U.S. to Australia. BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Silver Trust, the largest exchange-traded product tracking the metal, recorded an unprecedented $944 million net inflow on Friday.Like the buying stampede in GameStop Corp. and other small-cap stocks that has captivated the financial world in recent weeks, silver’s advance can be traced to Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum. One post last week declared the metal “THE BIGGEST SHORT IN THE WORLD” and encouraged traders to pile into the iShares trust as a way to stick it to big banks.Yet silver differs in important ways from stocks like GameStop. For one, the scope for a short squeeze in silver is far less obvious: money managers have had a net-long position on the metal since mid-2019, futures and options data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.The market for silver is also by some measures much deeper than those for smaller stocks like GameStop. The bricks-and-mortar video game retailer had a market capitalization of about $1.4 billion in mid-January, before the Reddit frenzy sent the company’s value soaring more than 16-fold. By contrast, London vaults held 1.08 billion ounces of silver at the end of November, according to LBMA data. That’s worth almost $32 billion at current prices.Why Reddit traders will learn commodities aren’t stocks: Macro ViewWhat’s more, it’s unclear how long retail investors will stick to the silver trade. Already some prominent members of the WallStreetBets forum have advised against it, with some noting that Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC, a favorite bogeyman of the Reddit crowd, is listed as one of the biggest shareholders of the iShares silver trust.Whether or not the rally fizzles, it could have ramifications beyond what has typically been a relatively niche corner of the commodities world. As the first high-profile target of the retail frenzy to start trading on Monday, silver may help set the tone this week for managers trying to gauge how Reddit-fueled volatility will impact their risk models and potentially cascade from one asset to the next.Momentum Trade“Last week’s events have shown it to be unwise to doubt the purchasing power of retail investors, and this has been sufficiently demonstrated again on the silver market,” said Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “They may find it a bit harder to squeeze the silver market than they did with GameStop -- the former is much bigger and more liquid -- but the momentum looks like it rests with them at the moment.”Early trading pointed to more gains for SLV on Monday. The ETF was up about 9% in the pre-market session, on huge volumes. As of 7:03 a.m. in New York 5.4 million shares had changed hands, about eight times the second most-traded fund.Futures were trading 11% higher on the Comex, after rising more than 5% last week. Spot silver climbed to as high as $30.1003 an ounce. Other precious metals also advanced. Spot gold rose 0.9%, while platinum jumped 4.1%.The buying frenzy also fed into mining shares. Mexican silver miner Fresnillo Plc surged as much as 21% in London trading. China Silver Group Ltd. rose as much as 63% in Hong Kong, while Australia’s Silver Mines Ltd. gained as much as 49%.The calls to buy silver began appearing on WallStreetBets as early as Wednesday, when the mania surrounding GameStop reached a fever pitch. Some of the posts touched on a similar David-vs-Goliath theme that has inspired individual investors to take on short-selling hedge funds: “Any short squeeze in silver paper shorts would be EPIC. We know billion (sic) banks are manipulating gold and silver to cover real inflation.”But that narrative isn’t as straightforward as the one surrounding GameStop, one of the most-shorted stocks in the U.S. before it began surging this month.Silver has performed well over the past year, rallying more than 60% on a weaker dollar and hopes for an end to the pandemic. It has also attracted bullish commentary from some of the biggest Wall Street banks. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. described silver as the “preferred precious metal” in a Jan. 27 research note that had a price target of $30 an ounce. Net-bullish bets by money managers rose to a three-week high in the week to Jan. 26, according to CFTC data compiled by Bloomberg.Short-term forward rates on the London silver market flattened on Monday, indicating strong demand for the metal in coming weeks.“I can envisage a scenario where maybe a hedge fund has purchased maybe a short-term tactical long position, so the upside could be a combination of several factors now,” said Philip Newman, managing director at consultancy Metals Focus.Locking UpStill, that hasn’t stopped some retail investors from piling in. By Sunday, sellers of physical silver including Apmex -- often called the Walmart of precious metals products in North America -- said they were unable to process orders until Asian markets opened because of record demand. “It’s been nuts,” said John Feeney, business development manager at Guardian Vaults in Sydney.Ken Lewis, Apmex’s chief executive officer, said the decision to temporarily suspend silver sales was unprecedented in the company’s history and that it may take longer then usual to fill orders going forward.“As we evaluate the markets, it is difficult to know where silver’s price and demand will go in the coming day and weeks,” Lewis said, adding that his firm is “locking up any metal we can find in the marketplace.”(An earlier version of this story corrected value of London vault holdings in fifth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
5m ago
Yahoo Finance
Investors aren't convinced the GameStop drama is a big deal: Morning Brief
Top news and what to watch in the markets on Monday, February 1, 2021.
1h ago
CoinDesk
XRP Erases SEC-Led Drop as Supporters Pump Price Over $0.60
XRP has more than reversed the late December drop prompted by an SEC lawsuit against Ripple with a rally to two-month highs.
2h ago
Reuters
Wall Street gears up for second bout against Reddit traders
Wall Street is gearing up for another week of market mayhem, with signs that the retail frenzy that pumped up the stock prices of the likes of GameStop Corp and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc is spreading to other assets. Some of Wall Street's largest hedge funds are still licking their wounds after retail traders sought to drive up the prices of stocks that were heavily bet against, resulting in large losses for major investors. Concerns about the GameStop effect that helped weaken U.S. stocks last week spilled over into S&P 500 futures when trading reopened Sunday night.
14h ago
Bloomberg
Battery Maker Microvast Agrees to Merger With Tuscan SPAC
(Bloomberg) -- Battery maker Microvast Inc. will go public via a merger with blank-check company Tuscan Holdings Corp. in a deal that values the combined company at $3 billion.The companies will receive more than $800 million in cash when the deal closes, including a $540 million investment led by Oshkosh Corp., BlackRock Inc., Koch Strategic Platforms and InterPrivate, according to a statement Monday.Special purpose acquisition company Tuscan raised $276 million in March 2019. Led by Chief Executive Officer Stephen Vogel, the firm initially said it intended to focus on targets in the cannabis industry, though it could pursue an acquisition in any sector, according to its listing documents. Tuscan shares closed at $15.66 each on Friday in New York.“There are many battery companies out there to talk to,” Vogel said in an interview. “This is the only battery company out there we talked to that has a history of 10 years, and has revenue -- its products are being used by customers every day.”Microvast, founded in 2006, makes batteries for commercial vehicles such as taxis and buses, as well as specialty transportation including mining trucks and port equipment. CITIC Securities, a Chinese state-owned broker, led a $400 million private funding round in the company in 2017, according to its website.Last year, Microvast said it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium to develop low-cost and fast-charge batteries for electric vehicle applications.“We are tackling commercial vehicles first because they’re required to run for longer hours and require better technology,” said Yang Wu, CEO of Microvast, in an interview. “I believe that carmakers are eventually going to make batteries by themselves, and why would I want to compete with my customers?”One of the lead investors in the additional investment raised to support the transaction -- InterPrivate -- has also managed a SPAC. InterPrivate Acquisition Corp. signed a merger agreement with Lidar company Aeva Inc. in November.The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, after which the company will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MVST.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
6m ago
InvestorPlace
7 Stocks Selling at a Discount As January Comes To An End
Nowadays it’s not really popular to focus stocks selling at a discount — that is, the so-called value investing approach. Instead, the interest is mostly on momentum. For the most part, this approach has gotten… well… crazy! The phenomenon of Reddit investors has taken Wall Street by storm — and has even threatened the stability of billion-dollar hedge funds. These investors have targeted heavily shorted stocks to gin up epic squeezes. The result is that there have been huge surges with companies like GameStop (NYSE:GME), AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC), Koss (NASDAQ:KOSS) and BlackBerry (NYSE:BB).InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips But whenever there is this level of speculation, the markets are likely close to reaching a peak. And if this is the case this time, investors may want to look at value plays. The Top 7 Hot Stocks to Buy for 2021’s Biggest Trends So then which ones looking interesting right now? Well, let’s take a look at seven otherwise familiar names: IBM (NYSE:IBM) Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) Stocks Selling at a Discount: IBM (IBM) Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com The past few years have seen strong gains from old-tech companies like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE). But some have been left behind. One is IBM. IBM stock touched a $180 high in February 2017 and hasn’t been anywhere close in the intervening four years. Shares are trading for under $120 a piece, bringing the current market capitalization to about $106 billion. The main reason for this? It’s really simple: Revenues have been declining. In fact, the latest earnings report was yet another case of this, with revenues off about 6% to $20.4 billion. OK, in light of this, why might it be a good idea for investors to consider IBM stock? There are several reasons. First of all, IBM plans to spin-off its managed-infrastructure services business, which should help streamline operations. Next, the company has been making bold acquisitions — such as for Red Hat — to reinvigorate its technology product line. Then there is the R&D capability. The company has been investing heavily in key areas like artificial intelligence (AI), the hybrid cloud and quantum computing. As for IBM stock, it is selling at a reasonable valuation. The forward price-to-earnings ratio is at 10.8x. The dividend yield is also 5.43%, which is one of the highest in the tech industry. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Source: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com Since late October, Morgan Stanley has been in the rally mode. The shares have gone from $48 to $68. Yet MS stock is still trading at a discounted valuation. Consider that the forward price-earnings ratio is only about 12.08x. This is reasonable in light of the potential growth opportunities. With interest rates at rock-bottom levels and the booming market for IPOs and SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies), the environment is quite favorable. During the latest quarter, earnings jumped by 51% to $3.39 billion, or $1.81 per share and revenues were up by 26% to $13.64 billion. There was strength across all the company’s businesses. 7 Safe Stocks to Buy for Solid Returns in Tumultuous Times However, the biggest bright spot was the investment banking division. The revenues soared by 46% to $2.30 billion. About $1 billon came from equity offerings. True, IPOs can be choppy. But for the most part, the momentum is particularly strong — and this should be a nice source of growth in the new year. Morgan Stanley has also been aggressive with M&A. To this end, the company acquired E*TRADE and Eaton Vance. There will not only be cost synergies, but also boosts of the top line. The company is also ramping up its buybacks for MS stock. The most recent authorization is for up to $10 billion. Oracle (ORCL) Source: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com Oracle has been a laggard in its move to the cloud, which has certainly been a drag on ORCL stock. But during the past few years, the company has been transitioning its various platforms. And yes, this should be key to get Oracle back on the growth path. The components for the cloud story include NetSuite, which is a fast-growing ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, Fusion (middleware technologies) and Gen2 (for infrastructure). These platforms have been seeing nice growth ramps — and have good long-term prospects. Then what about the core database business? Yes, this has come under pressure from upstarts like MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB). But Oracle has been making considerable progress. At the heart of this is the Autonomous Database. Oracle CTO and cofounder, Larry Ellison, told the latest earnings call: “it is certainly cloud first. It is the only database that really does both transaction processing and query processing. So query processing were much faster than Snowflake, the market’s current darling. And in transaction processing, we’re much faster than anybody.” Meanwhile, ORCL stock is trading at a cheap valuation — at least compared to other tech operators — with the forward price-to-earnings multiple at 14x. The dividend yield is also an acceptable 1.657%. Ameriprise Financial (AMP) Source: Shutterstock Revenues for financial advisory operators are projected to go from $57 billion to $200 billion in the next decade. One driver for this is the digitization of the industry. But then there is the impact of the Baby Boom generation, which has a population of 75 million. This group will demand more services to help with retirement needs (such as finding ways to live off their current assets). Such trends are definitely good news for Ameriprise Financial. The company is one of the largest financial advisory firms. It has over $900 billion in assets under management and has more than two million clients. The Top 7 Hot Stocks to Buy for 2021’s Biggest Trends Ameriprise Financial is also a highly disciplined organization. During the past eight years, earnings per share have nearly tripled and the company has returned a hefty $15 billion back to shareholders. AMP stock is also selling at a discount, with the forward PE at 11x. As for the dividend, it is at 2.1%. Cisco Systems (CSCO) Source: Valeriya Zankovych / Shutterstock.com Last year, investors saw Cisco Systems shares decline about 6% while the S&P 500 index gained more than 18%. Then again, the growth sputtered as competition heated up and there were delays because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But as for the new year, things are likely to be better for CSCO stock. Analysts expect continued improvement in the operations after the company beat the consensus estimates in the fiscal first quarter. The company has been making a shift towards software and recurring subscription business models. Q2 results are due on Feb. 9. Although, the WebEx videoconference business could be the biggest driver. Cisco has been making considerable updates to the platform, which should help boost growth. Some of the new features include real-time language translation, speech enhancement, and transcriptions. Regarding the valuation of Cisco, it is at relatively low levels at least for big tech operators. The forward price-to-earnings multiple is 14.3x and the dividend yield is 3.2%. Verizon Communications (VZ) Source: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com The consumer mobile phone business in the U.S. is fairly saturated. But it is still a great source of cash flows. Just look at Verizon. During the first nine months of last year, cash flows came to $32.5 billion, up from $26.7 billion in the same period in 2019. There are currently about 94.1 million subscribers. But in the coming years, Verizon is poised to get a boost from its 5G network. And this will be more than just about consumer offerings. If anything, the opportunity for business customers may be even bigger. A key will be the development of edge network systems to allow for Internet of Thing (IoT) applications, such as on the factory floor. 7 Safe Stocks to Buy for Solid Returns in Tumultuous Times The valuation on VZ stock is also at discounted levels. The forward price-to-earnings ratio is 10.88x and the dividend yield is 4.6%. Moreover, the company has increased the payout for 13 consecutive years. Lockheed Martin (LMT) Source: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com With the new Biden Administration, there will likely be more pressure on the defense budget. Another factor is the escalating budget deficits. However, for the large defense contractors, there will likely be continued growth — especially since there remain considerable national security risks to address. So one company that looks attractive is Lockheed Martin, which has the advantage of massive scale. Consider that it is the largest defense contractor in the U.S. During the latest quarter, revenues increased by 7.3% to $17.03 billion and earnings were up by 20.6% to $6.38 per share. The big source of business is the massive F-35 program. But there are other important drivers as well. In fact, the company recently acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.4 billion. The company is a developer of hypersonic technology, which is essential for missile and space systems. Regarding LMT stock, the valuation is at a reasonable 12.2x times forward earnings. The dividend yield is also at 3.3%. On the date of publication, Tom Taulli did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. Tom Taulli (@ttaulli) is the author of various books on investing and technology, including Artificial Intelligence Basics, High-Profit IPO Strategies and All About Short Selling. He is also the author of courses on topics like the Python language and COBOL. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Stocks Selling at a Discount As January Comes To An End appeared first on InvestorPlace.
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CoinDesk
XRP Posted Biggest Single-Day Gain in 3 Years in a Coordinated Buying Attack
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InvestorPlace
I Was Wrong About Amazon Stock Before… I Won’t Make That Mistake Again
If I had $1 million to invest in the stock market, I would have no issue with buying Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock as I count my theoretical fortune aboard my equally imaginary yacht cruising the Caribbean to my imaginary private island. Source: Hadrian / Shutterstock.com However, since I am not made of money, there are any number of reasons why the shares scare me now, such as their hefty $3,000-plus price tag and sky-high 94x multiple on current year earnings. However, I believe I have come up with a compelling case why even the most skittish investors should add AMZN stock to their portfolios.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Amazon stock has defied naysayers in the past, including yours truly, who noted in 2013 that the company hadn’t generated consistent profits since 2011 and added that the e-commerce juggernaut “ended (then) last year in the red, and no one has any idea when AMZN will be consistently profitable.” To be sure, hindsight is 20/20, and my post was accurate at the time. What I failed to grasp was the growth in e-commerce and the emergence of cloud computing. I am not planning on repeating my previous mistakes. Amazon Stock Is a Tricky One Amazon stock has always been a tricky one for Wall Street analysts to figure, given CEO Jeff Bezos’s disdain for “The Street.” As far as I know, Bezos has never participated in the company’s earnings conference call. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as companies that focus on beating Wall Street’s expectations chase short-term gains at the expense of long-term growth. And AMZN is all about the long-run. As a result, this stock can be unpredictable. Nonetheless, AMZN stock still has got plenty going for it because of its dominance in the cloud computing business and its Amazon Prime membership/media production growth. The Top 7 Hot Stocks to Buy for 2021’s Biggest Trends The shares have surged nearly 80% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 index, which gained 18% during the same time. AMZN stock is currently trading at roughly 16% below Wall Street’s average 52-week price target of $3,800. Expect Monster Quarter “The conditions line up for Amazon to post a monster quarter, surpassing $100 billion in revenues for the first time,” said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst for Insider Intelligence. “The combination of Prime Day kicking off the quarter in October plus a historically strong holiday e-commerce season give Amazon’s topline plenty of momentum.” Though AMZN truly is the “everything store,” its overall penetration of the e-commerce market is estimated by Digital Commerce 360 at 23.1% in the third quarter. That represents a decline from 23.6% in the second quarter. That isn’t a sign of Amazon’s weakness as it reflects the growth in the company’s competitors’ digital platforms. Digital Commerce estimates that North American online retail sales grew 39.3% in the third quarter. The company’s fourth-quarter results, expected on Feb. 2, will include the December holidays, which per usual was a record. Potential Upside However, the potential upside for AMZN probably is most significant in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing business, which accounted for 57% of the company’s $6.19 billion in third-quarter operating profit and 12% of its $96.1 million in revenue. According to Canalys, AWS generated $11.6 billion in third-quarter sales, as much revenue in the third quarter as its next three largest rivals. AWS accounted for 32% of the $36.5 billion worldwide cloud infrastructure market. Like in e-commerce, AMZN’s market dominance in cloud c0mputing is slipping. In 2018, Gartner estimated AWS’s share at 47.8%. However, It’s important to keep a few things in mind. First, AWS is a “victim” of the so-called Law of Large Numbers, which notes that it’s harder to grow a $1 million business than a $1 billion one. Microsoft, for instance, reported a 50% increase in Azure sales in its most recent quarter. AWS posted a year-over-year gain of 29%. Azure’s performance isn’t comparable to AWS since Microsoft doesn’t report a sales number. Other Income Surges Thanks to the success of AWS, AMZN has the financial cushion to develop other businesses like its Amazon Prime membership/original content business and its burgeoning advertising services platform. Seattle-based AMZN reported $5.39 billion in “Other” income, including advertising, increasing more than 50% from a year earlier. In conclusion, the time to buy AMZN stock is now. Bezos isn’t going to split the shares anytime soon because he doesn’t need to make the price more affordable to gain entry to the S&P 500. On the date of publication, Jonathan Berr did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Jonathan Berr is an award-winning freelance journalist who has focused on business news since 1997. He’s luckier with his investments than his beloved yet underachieving Philadelphia sports teams. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. The post I Was Wrong About Amazon Stock Beforeâ¦ I Won’t Make That Mistake Again appeared first on InvestorPlace.
2d ago
Reuters
Retail mania propels silver prices to near 8-year peak
Silver rallied for a third straight session on Monday, soaring as much as 11.2% to a near eight-year peak as retail investors in Asia followed up frenzied buying by U.S. counterparts last week following a social media-led call to push the market higher. Spot silver jumped 8.7% to $29.36 an ounce by 0831 GMT, having earlier hit its highest since February 2013 at $30.03. Both a safe-haven asset and an industrial metal, silver has risen nearly 19% since Thursday when posts began circulating on Reddit urging individual investors to buy silver mining stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETF) backed by physical silver bars, in a GameStop-style squeeze.
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WisdomTree Artificial Intelligence UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BDVPNG13	6188541	USD	399,288,675.20	64.5206
WisdomTree AT1 CoCo Bond UCITS ETF – USD	29/01/2021	IE00BZ0XVF52	513029	USD	52,970,761.24	103.251
WisdomTree AT1 CoCo Bond UCITS ETF – EUR Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BFNNN236	279036	EUR	28,630,090.99	102.6036
WisdomTree AT1 CoCo Bond UCITS ETF – GBP Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BFNNN459	34640	GBP	3,600,888.54	103.9517
WisdomTree AT1 CoCo Bond UCITS ETF – USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BZ0XVG69	42463	USD	5,084,434.33	119.738
WisdomTree AT1 CoCo Bond UCITS ETF – USD Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BFNNN012	17006	USD	1,856,057.35	109.1413
WisdomTree Battery Solutions UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BKLF1R75	7613534	USD	352,920,577.98	46.3544
WisdomTree Cloud Computing UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BJGWQN72	11644000	USD	617,416,230.78	53.0244
WisdomTree Cybersecurity UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BLPK3577	40000	USD	961,610.50	24.0403
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BQQ3Q067	2512109	USD	36,243,104.97	14.4274
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income UCITS ETF Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BDF12W49	90558	USD	1,857,348.54	20.51
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Small Cap Dividend UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BQZJBM26	1630000	USD	29,048,499.50	17.8212
WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity UCITS ETF – CHF Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BG88WL21	185000	CHF	1,916,190.18	10.3578
WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity UCITS ETF – EUR Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BG88WG77	1750000	EUR	16,922,104.28	9.6698
WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity UCITS ETF – GBP Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BG88WH84	1200000	GBP	11,822,803.09	9.8523
WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity UCITS ETF - USD	29/01/2021	IE00BZ1GHD37	600000	USD	6,281,964.13	10.4699
WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYMLZY74	9150000	USD	99,726,607.00	10.8991
WisdomTree EUR Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR	29/01/2021	IE00BD49R912	210439	EUR	11,639,695.24	55.3115
WisdomTree EUR Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BD49RB39	59498	EUR	3,367,594.65	56.6001
WisdomTree EUR Government Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BD49RJ15	19908	EUR	1,125,175.69	56.5188
WisdomTree EUR Government Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BD49RK20	40000	EUR	2,313,831.56	57.8458
WisdomTree Europe Equity Income UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BQZJBX31	1732717	EUR	18,111,333.05	10.4526
WisdomTree Europe Equity Income UCITS ETF Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BDF16007	352386	EUR	4,663,985.05	13.2354
WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF - CHF Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZT11	7703	CHF	134,209.37	17.423
WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF - EUR Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZX56	269545	EUR	4,788,002.15	17.7633
WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF - GBP Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZQ89	131454	GBP	1,462,685.83	11.127
WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF - USD Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BVXBH163	1135423	USD	20,992,244.46	18.4885
WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF - USD Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZP72	2018673	USD	44,009,464.97	21.8012
WisdomTree Europe Small Cap Dividend UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BQZJC527	1595372	EUR	27,029,341.51	16.9423
WisdomTree Europe Small Cap Dividend UCITS ETF Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BDF16114	277191	EUR	4,348,841.51	15.689
WisdomTree Eurozone Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF - EUR	29/01/2021	IE00BZ56SY76	630208	EUR	10,921,403.85	17.3298
WisdomTree Eurozone Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF - EUR Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BZ56TQ67	679042	EUR	13,465,941.36	19.8308
WisdomTree Global Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF - USD	29/01/2021	IE00BZ56RN96	308660	USD	8,407,595.70	27.239
WisdomTree Global Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BZ56SW52	1875284	USD	55,480,345.75	29.585
WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF - CHF Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZL35	235650	CHF	4,499,208.12	19.0928
WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF - EUR Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZJ13	201551	EUR	3,294,088.64	16.3437
WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF - GBP Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZF74	89539	GBP	940,038.00	10.4986
WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF - JPY Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZN58	189960	USD	4,097,891.64	21.5724
WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF - USD Hedged	29/01/2021	IE00BVXC4854	1451738	USD	24,112,276.32	16.6092
WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF - USD Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BYQCZD50	400818	USD	7,638,540.26	19.0574
WisdomTree UK Equity Income UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BYPGTJ26	1800000	GBP	7,471,472.11	4.1508
WisdomTree US Equity Income UCITS ETF	29/01/2021	IE00BQZJBQ63	804894	USD	14,964,513.27	18.5919
WisdomTree US Equity Income UCITS ETF - EUR Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BD6RZW23	8073	EUR	132,118.30	16.3655
WisdomTree US Equity Income UCITS ETF - GBP Hedged Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BD6RZZ53	379189	GBP	5,576,697.02	14.7069
WisdomTree US Equity Income UCITS ETF Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BD6RZT93	1455101	USD	28,863,140.54	19.8358
WisdomTree US Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF - USD	29/01/2021	IE00BZ56RD98	436031	USD	11,860,659.85	27.2014
WisdomTree US Quality Dividend Growth UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BZ56RG20	2012843	USD	59,019,566.79	29.3215
WisdomTree USD Floating Rate Treasury Bond UCITS ETF - USD	29/01/2021	IE00BJFN5P63	20916	USD	1,049,126.38	50.159
WisdomTree USD Floating Rate Treasury Bond UCITS ETF - USD Acc	29/01/2021	IE00BJJYYX67	358822	USD	18,301,622.30	51.0047

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