Another quarter has passed for RadioShack (NYSE: RSH ) and things are still looking pretty bleak for the once high-flying electronics retailer. This past quarter revealed that while The Shack's heart is still beating, it's on life support, and I'm doubtful it will come off anytime soon.
Mmmmmm... bacon
The key to The Shack's success depends on "five pillars" that will guide the turnaround strategy. Let's take a look at these five pillars and dissect what they really mean:
Repositioning the brand: Sounds great, but the fact of the matter is, the more time that passes, the less relevant RadioShack's brand is, which makes it even more difficult to reposition.
Revamping product assortment: One of the biggest problems RadioShack faces is that consumers can get what they sell virtually anywhere; there's no real differentiation at this point. And this problem is only growing worse.
Reinvigorating stores: The stores are part of the problem indeed, but I'm not sure reinvigorating them is going to make much of a difference. For the most part it's a matter of convenience, not the experience.
5 Best High Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2015: Solar Thin Films Inc (SLTZ)
Solar Thin Films, Inc. is engaged in the business of designing, manufacturing and installation of thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. The equipment is used in plants that produce photovoltaic thin-film a-Si solar panels or modules. The Company operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Kraft Elektronikai Zrt (Kraft). Kraft is engaged in the design, development, manufacture, and installation of a-Si photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. The primary buyers of photovoltaic thin-film manufacturing equipment are businesses, as well as investment partnerships, engaged in the production of photovoltaic thin-film modules. In May 2010, the Company acquired Atlantis Solar LLC. In May 2013, Solar Thin Films Inc acquired Quality Resource Technologies Inc. In October 2013, Solar Thin Films Inc announced the sale of all of its ownership stake of Hungarian subsidiary, Kraft, R.t. (Kraft), to GJR Collectibles LLC.
Kraft has been providing equipment that is incorporated into a single manufacturing line capable of manufacturing a-Si solar modules that produce approximately 5megawatt (MW) of solar power annually. The Company focuses, directly and through joint ventures or alliances with other companies or governmental agencies, to sell equipment for and participate financially in solar power facilities using thin film a-Si solar modules or metallurgical and other crystalline solar modules as the power source to provide electricity to municipalities, businesses and consumers.
The Company competes with Applied Materials and Oerlikon.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap stocks Alliance Creative Group Inc (OTCMKTS: ACGX), Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure Inc (OTCMKTS: DJRT), Inscor Inc (OTCMKTS: IOGA) and Solar Thin Films Inc (OTCMKTS: SLTZ) have all been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters and it should come as no surprise that two out of four of these stocks have been the subject of paid promotions ��which tend to benefit traders. However, two out of four of these stocks also have pretty good financials for being small cap OTC stocks and that might make them attractive to investors with a long term time horizon. So which of these stocks might make traders some profits in the short term and investors some profits over the longer term? Here is a closer look to help you decide:
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014: Rally Software Development Corp (RALY)
Rally Software Development Corp., incorporated on July 12, 2001, is a global provider of cloud-based solutions for managing Agile software development. The Company's platform transforms the way organizations manage the software development lifecycle by enabling close alignment of software development and strategic business objectives, facilitating collaboration, increasing transparency, and automating manual processes. Organizations use its solutions to accelerate the pace of innovation, improve productivity and more effectively adapt to rapidly-changing customer needs and competitive dynamics. Its enterprise-class platform is extensible, cost-effective and designed to be easy to use. Agile is a software development methodology characterized by short, iterative and adaptable development cycles.
The Company provides a common platform on which organizations can collaborate across globally-distributed software development teams, solicit ideas and feedback from customers, and gain transparency into Agile software development projects. Its solutions automate and optimize activities such as project planning and scheduling, resource allocation and reporting on progress and cost, enabling users to manage the entire Agile software development lifecycle. Its cloud-based platform of management solutions is designed to address the application lifecycle market, which IDC defines as comprising the software configuration management, information technology (IT) project and portfolio management, and automated software markets.
Agile Management Solutions
It offers Agile management solutions that its customers use for planning, collaborating, tracking and reporting on the creation of new software products and applications. Its solutions support the full software development lifecycle with key capabilities that include Idea Management, Agile Portfolio Management, Time and Cost Management, Agile Project Management, Requirements Management and Quality Management. Its Idea Management c! apability, Rally Idea Manager, is used by its customers to engage with their end users to solicit ideas for products and manage feedback on proposed features and enhancements. This capability establishes a communication channel between its customers and their end-users. Teams and organizations use this capability to engage directly with end-users in an online community, collect information to assess customer needs and automatically communicate development status to end-users.
Its Agile Portfolio Management capability, Rally Portfolio Manager, bridges the gap between business leaders and development teams. Business leaders are provided up-to-date and accurate information on the status of key projects while development teams are provided clear visibility into the priorities of the business in order to better align their feature backlogs. Our Time and Cost Management capability, Rally Time Tracker, enables key financial functions related to software development, such as software capitalization, cost tracking, budget management and billing. This capability reduces double entry in other systems and ensures data is captured and aggregated into reports. Teams and organizations use this capability to reduce daily overhead of tracking time by integrating into the daily process, design and generate aggregate timesheets to meet accounting, budgeting or billing requirements , ensure that time entries meet audit and compliance requirements and integrate time tracking information into existing back office and time and attendance applications.
Its Agile Project Management capability allows cross-functional teams to efficiently plan and manage software releases. Teams and organizations use this capability to manage product and release backlogs that reflect the priorities of the business, schedule all or parts of requirements from backlogs into releases based on capacity and real-time visibility into the status of features, priorities, roadblocks and risks. Its Requirements Management capabil! ity enabl! es business leaders and analysts to centrally manage and prioritize features for development. Users can elaborate requirements with needed details, break them up into smaller units and organize them to match the changing structures of their teams or technology components. Its Quality Management capability, Rally Quality Manager, enables testing engineers to integrate testing into the development process from the beginning of a project. This capability provides a full enterprise solution to plan and track the execution of test activities.
Platform Capabilities
Its platform employs a analytics and reporting engine. In addition to over 25 pre-built standard reports, its platform includes a custom reporting engine that allows customers to create reports to meet their needs. Its platform also includes dashboard technology to present personalized content and then share that content for consistent use across a team or organization. Its platform provides enterprise-class security capabilities simplifying the administration of thousands of users. It can integrate its platform with its customers' existing security infrastructure to provide end-users with the ability to have single-sign-on (SSO) and provide advanced security measures to reduce risk and meet the needs of enterprises. This adaptability also ensures its solutions can be configured to meet the changing needs of an organization. It offers an open Web services application programming interface (WSAPI) providing full read-write access to all of the data within its platform. The WSAPI is versioned so that integrations or customizations are insulated from changes in the WSAPI, thereby preserving a customer's investment in custom functionality.
It provides customization services that produce Apps for specific customer needs. Examples of Apps that are available in its catalog include Dependency Status Dashboard enables organizations to view dependencies between teams and forecast potential impediments and stoppages in ! a project! ; System Requirement Validation Document generates a document for signature and archival typically used by customers in regulated industries to validate that the requirements of a system or application have been met; Agile Earned-Value Management provides a report based on traditional project management practices that provides what-if scenarios for planning scope, schedule and budget, and There are over 40 integrations available for its platform. It has 25 pre-built integrations with complementary products that synchronize their data with its platform. Additionally, there are over 20 integrations that third parties have created with its platform that they offer to their customers. It also integrates with open-source development tools, including Subversion, Jenkins and Eclipse, as well as commercial products, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Visual Studio and HP QualityCenter.
Editions
It offers four editions of its Agile management solution. Each edition is built on the same software code base. Rally Community Edition is designed for an individual team that operates independently, even if it is part of a larger organization. Community Edition includes a basic version of Agile Project Management and Requirements Management capabilities and is available for free for 10 users and one project.
Rally eXpress Edition is designed for both and small organizations and scales from a single team to multiple, independent teams and projects. eXpress Edition includes a basic version of Agile Project Management and Requirements Management capabilities. eXpress Edition supports unlimited users and projects.
Rally Enterprise Edition is targeted at medium to organizations focused on coordinating projects across multiple teams. Enterprise Edition includes Agile Project Management, Requirements Management and basic Quality Management capabilities. Enterprise Edition supports unlimited users and projects.
Rally Unlimited Edition is built for organizations and ! offers it! s full set of capabilities for managing the entire software lifecycle, including Idea Management, Agile Portfolio Management, Time and Cost Management, Agile Project Management, Requirements Management and Quality Management. Unlimited Edition supports unlimited users and projects.
On-Premise Deployment Option
A small percentage of its customers deploy its solutions on-premise. When its software is installed at the customer site, it specifies the hardware requirements and deliver its solutions on a virtual software appliance.
Professional Services
It offers a broad array of professional services to its customers to assist them in the implementation of its platform and adoption of Agile techniques.It offers its services globally. It offer public and private courses educating customers on Agile practices. A number of its training courses are certified by the independent organization Scrum Alliance. Through its Agile University brand, it offers Agile-related education and coursework taught by its consultants and a network of instructors. It offers a broad set of services that help customers implement Agile practices across their organization. It aims to make organizations self-sufficient so they can continue expanding their usage of Agile after it concludes its services engagement. Its implementation services combine workshops and training to help organizations incorporate its platform into their development process. These services include process training and product customization to help organizations take advantage of the full breadth of capabilities its platform offers. Customers can elect to leverage its platform extension services to customize its platform to meet the specific needs of their organization. It creates custom Apps and customized integrations to ensure that its solutions fit a customer's infrastructure and practices, and it offers data migration services to migrate data from a customer's legacy application into its platform.
The ! Company competes with Atlassian, CollabNet, VersionOne, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Small cap cloud and enterprise services stock Rally Software Development Corp (NYSE: RALY) just had a reversal ��meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with potential performance benchmarks like Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL), iShares North American Tech-Software (NYSEARCA: IGV) and First Trust ISE Cloud Computing Index (NASDAQ: SKYY).
- [By Evan Niu, CFA]
What: Shares of Rally Software (NYSE: RALY ) rallied today by as much as 20% after the company announced fiscal first quarter results.
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014: Daily Mail and General Trust PLC (DMGT)
Daily Mail and General Trust PLC (DMGT) is a United kingdom-based multi-media and information company. The Company�� business activities are split into seven operating segments: RMS, business information, events, Euromoney, national media, local media and radio. Its dmg information is a business information division, providing business to business (B2B) information to the property, financial, energy and educational recruitment markets. As of October 2, 2011, dmg events, its business-to-business (B2B) exhibition and conferences division, operated 27 exhibitions and two conference businesses. Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC is a B2B media group. Associated Newspapers is its newspaper division. In September 2012, it sold its remaining 50% interest in DMG Radio Australia to Illyria. In July 2013, Daily Mail and General Trust PLC announced that Rothermere Continuation Limited has a holding 89.2% of interest of the Company. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Inyoung Hwang]
Daily Mail & General Trust Plc (DMGT) climbed 2.4 percent to 861 pence. The company said contribution from national newspapers to the group�� revenue dropped to 36 percent this year from 43 percent in 2012 and will fall further. The publisher of Britain�� second-biggest U.K. daily newspaper forecast full-year revenue will be 1.8 billion pounds, matching analysts�� estimates.
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014: DXP Enterprises Inc.(DXPE)
DXP Enterprises, Inc. engages in distributing maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) products, equipment, and services to industrial customers in the United States. Its Service Centers segment provides MRO products, equipment and services, including technical design expertise and logistics capabilities to industrial customers with the ability to provide same day delivery. This segment?s product categories comprise rotating equipment, bearing, power transmission, hose, fluid power, metal working, industrial supply, and safety products; and services consist of field safety supervision, in-house and field repair, and maintenance services. The company?s Supply Chain Services segment manages the supply-chain of its customers from various industries. This segment designs supply chain inventory management programs, including SmartAgreement, a procurement solution for MRO categories; SmartBuy, an on-site or centralized MRO procurement solution; SmartSource, an on-site procurem ent and storeroom management solutions; SmartStore, an e-catalog solution; SmartVend, an industrial dispensing solution; and SmartServ, an integrated service pump solution. Its Innovative Pumping Solutions segment fabricates and assembles custom-made engineered pump packages consisting of diesel and electric driven firewater, pipeline booster, potable water packages, pigging pump packages, LACT charge units, chemical injection pump packages wash down units, seawater lift pumps, jockey pumps, condensate pump packages, cooling water skids, and seawater/produced water injection packages. DXP Enterprises, Inc. distributes its products and services through service centers and distribution centers to customers in the oil and gas, food and beverage, petrochemical, transportation, mining, construction, chemical, municipal, agriculture, pulp and paper, and other general industrial industries. The company was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Margins matter. The more DXP Enterprises (Nasdaq: DXPE ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong DXP Enterprises's competitive position could be.
- [By Lisa Levin]
DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ: DXPE) shares climbed 3.46% to $68.42. The volume of DXP Enterprises shares traded was 771% higher than normal. DXP Enterprises' PEG ratio is 0.64.
- [By Rich Smith]
Houston-based DXP Enterprises (NASDAQ: DXPE ) has purchased Canada's National Process Equipment, also known as Natpro, the company announced Wednesday. In so doing, DXP expanded its industrial equipment wholesaling business to include Natpro's portfolio of pumps, integrated system packaging, compressors, and related equipment.
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014: MOJO Organics Inc (MOJO)
MOJO Organics, Inc., incorporated on August 2, 2007, engages in product development, production, marketing and distribution of CHIQUITA TROPICALS. CHIQUITA TROPICALS are a 100% fruit juice, produced under license agreement from Chiquita Brands. The Company�� product flavors include Banana Strawberry, Mango, Passion Fruit, and Pineapple.
The Company�� juices are produced without preservatives and without added sugar. The Company produces and packages the CHIQUITA TROPICALS products through production facilities and services on a contract basis.
The Company competes with The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
Catalog & Mail Order Houses: The industry gained 1.13% by 10:15 am. The top performer in this industry was Mojo Organics (OTC: MOJO), which gained 6.6%. Mojo Organics shares have jumped 361.54% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 16.18% in the same period.
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014: Axxess Pharma Inc (AXXE)
Axxess Pharma Inc. is a pharmaceutical company. It is engaged in marketing of dermatological, therapeutic nutritionals, pain management, and diagnostic products in Canada and abroad. In October 2013, the Company announced that it has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary AllStar HealthBrands Inc.
The Company various products include Britical Tablets, Gravergol Capsules, Lactrase Capsules, Somnol Tablets, Triferexx -150 Polysaccharide-iron complex, Urasal Granules, Axspaz Tablets, Vivol Tablets, Hydraxx Lotion, Kemsol Solution, Soropon shampoo, and Skin care Products. Its distribution network includes physicians, hospitals, Government and defense institutions, and pharmacies.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap healthcare and lifestyle stocks Axxess Pharma Inc (OTCMKTS: AXXE), Medefile International Inc (OTCMKTS: MDFI) and Intelligent Living Inc (OTCMKTS: ILIV) have all been getting some extra attention lately thanks in part to a few disclosed paid promotions or investor relations type of activities. But just how healthy are these small cap stocks for investors and traders alike? Here is a quick reality check:
Axxess Pharma Inc (OTCMKTS: AXXE) Has Been Busy With the Press ReleasesSmall cap Axxess Pharma is a specialty Health Care Products Company dedicated to improving health and quality of life by offering select medicines, nutritional supplements and over the counter remedies all across the Americas. On Friday, Axxess Pharma fell 7.52% to $0.295 for a market cap of $12.46 million plus AXXE is down 88.8% over the past year and down 99.8% over the past five years in intermittent trading according to Google Finance.
- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap health care or personal care stocks Axxess Pharma Inc (OTCMKTS: AXXE), Radiant Creations Group Inc (OTCBB: RCGP) and Tauriga Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS: TAUG) have recently been attracting attention in various investment newsletters or in investor alerts. Some of the attention may have to do with paid promotions that two of these small caps have been the subject of. So how healthy are these three small cap health care or personal care orientated stocks? Here is a checkup:
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Buy For 2014: SunCoke Energy Partners LP (SXCP)
SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P., incorporated on July 30, 2012, manufactures coke, which is used in the blast furnace production of steel. The Company's sponsor owns the remaining 35% interest in each of Haverhill and Middletown. The Company's sponsor, through its subsidiary, owns a 55.9% partnership interest in the Company owns and controls its general partner which holds a 2% general partner interest in the Company. The Company's cokemaking ovens utilize efficient, modern heat recovery technology designed to combust the coal's volatile components liberated during the cokemaking process and use the resulting heat to create steam or electricity for sale. The Company operates in cokemaking facilities located in Ohio. In September 2013, SunCoke Energy Partners, L.P completed its acquisition of Lakeshore Coal Handling Corporation. In October 2013, the Company acquired Kanawha River Terminals LLC (KRT).
The Company licenses this advanced heat recovery cokemaking process from its sponsor. The Company's sponsor designed, developed and built, and owns and operates five cokemaking facilities in the United States, including Haverhill and Middletown with an aggregate coke production capacity of approximately 4.2 million tons per year and designed and operates one cokemaking facility in Vitoria, Brazil with a coke production capacity of approximately 1.7 million tons per year. Approximately 90% or 17.5 million tons, was for blast furnace steelmaking operations and the remaining 10% was for foundry and other non-steelmaking operations. The Company's cokemaking capacity represents stated capacity for the production of blast furnace coke. The Middletown capacity on a run of oven basis is approximately 578,000 tons per year.
The first phase of the Company's Haverhill facility or Haverhill 1, includes steam generation facilities which use hot flue gas from the cokemaking process to produce steam. The steam is sold to a third-party pursuant to a steam supply and purchase agreement. The Company! 's Middletown facility and the second phase of the Company's Haverhill facility, or Haverhill 2, include cogeneration plants that use the hot flue gas created by the cokemaking process to generate electricity. The electricity is either sold into the regional power market or to AK Steel pursuant to energy sales agreements. The Company has Approximately 400 acres in Franklin Furnace (Scioto County), Ohio, on which the Haverhill cokemaking facility is located and 250 acres in Middletown (Butler County), Ohio near AK Steel�� Middletown Works facility, on which the Middletown cokemaking facility is located.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Aimee Duffy]
But this too is starting to shift. If you look at the most-recent IPOs on the New York Stock Exchange, you'll find many corners of the energy industry represented:
Tallgrass Energy Partners�-- Natural gas midstream, debuted May 14 KNOT Offshore Partners (NYSE: KNOP ) -- Shuttle tankers, debuted April 10 SunCoke Energy Partners (NYSE: SXCP ) -- Coal/coke making, debuted Jan. 18 CVR Refining (NYSE: CVRR ) -- Mid-continent refining, debuted Jan. 17There have also been a few MLP-related funds to hit the market this year, including Global X Junior MLP ETF�and Neuberger Berman MLP Income Fund.
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