A hotly debated rule change that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has proposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission could allow arbitrators to direct cases to Finra's enforcement division before the case has closed.
Currently, arbitrators must wait until the case has concluded before they can report concerns to Finra's Department of Enforcement, which is responsible for suspending, sanctioning or taking other disciplinary action against firms and individuals.
But Finra said that making arbitrators wait could delay the ability to take action against a bad actor or hamper its ability to collect evidence.
5 Best Telecom Stocks To Buy For 2015: Align Technology Inc.(ALGN)
Align Technology, Inc., a medical device company, designs, manufactures, and markets clear aligner systems or Invisalign systems, intra-oral scanners, and computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) restorative models used in dentistry, orthodontics, and dental records storage in North America and Internationally. The company?s clear aligner products include Invisalign Full for the treatment of malocclusions; Invisalign Express and Invisalign Lite solutions for less complex orthodontic cases; Invisalign Teen, which is primarily marketed to orthodontists for treating malocclusion in teenage patients; Invisalign Assist for use in anterior alignment and aesthetically-oriented cases; and Vivera retainers for invisalign and non-invisalign patients. It also offers ancillary products comprising cleaning material and adjusting tools used by dental professionals during the course of treatment. In addition, the company provides iTero scanners; iOC scanners; a nd iTero dual scanner, which includes both the iTero restorative software and the iOC orthodontic software, as well as services comprising iTero restorative and OrthoCAD services. Further, it offers CAD/CAM services, such as iTero Models and Dies; OrthoCAD iCast and OrthoCAD iRecord that provides a digital alternative to traditional stone cast models, which allows for simplified storage and digital record retrieval; and OrthoCAD iQ, a computer-guided system for optimal placement of traditional brackets and customized indirect bonding tray system. The company distributes its products primarily directly to orthodontists and general practitioner dentists, as well as restorative dentists, including prosthodontists, periodontists, and oral surgeons. Align Technology, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Its braces might be invisible but Align Technology’s (ALGN) gains are not.
Getty ImagesThe maker of transparent braces and other dental products reported earnings of 42 cents a share, week above analyst forecasts for a 30 cent profit. Revenue, meanwhile, rose to $164.5 million, above the $158.6 million forecast.
William Blair’s John Kreger and team are impressed:
We are encouraged by the strong results, which stand in stark contrast to second half 2012 when volume growth and margins declined unexpectedly. Align’s Invisalign is clearly gaining market share, generating 16% unit growth in an environment where overall orthodontic procedures are essentially flat by our estimates.
Stifel’s Jonathan Block and Ethan Roth can barely contain their excitement. They write:
Our entire 2014 leverage thesis played out in 3Q13 as ALGN significantly beat EPS numbers…yet we were silly enough to make a cautious call in front of the quarter. That said, we think our 2014 $1.66 versus the Street�� $1.53 should no longer be viewed as an ��nrealistic expectation��and we believe consensus likely brings their estimates up to us��overnight. Align seems to be in the sweet spot as past investments (APAC, N.A. sales reps) are starting to pay off and new innovations (SmartTrack) are resonating with docs and helping to drive utilization higher. We are raising our 2014 and 2015 EPS estimates. Reiterate Buy and increase PT from $54 to $57.
Cantor Fitzgerald’s Jeremy Feffer upgrades Aligns shares to Buy from Hold:
After seemingly hitting bottom in 3Q:12, ALGN has taken concrete steps to revitalize its North American GP dentist segment, stabilize/improve pricing, and build a formidable O-U.S. sales and training operation, all of which are paying dividends. With better overall volume trends, the ClearCorrect ITC victory, and the Realine launch, we see plenty of runway for continued outperformance.
- [By Sue Chang and Ben Eisen]
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) �shares jumped 26%. The maker of Invisalign braces said late Thursday that it had swung to a profit in the third quarter, and raised fourth-quarter earnings projections to a range of 41 to 43 cents a share. Thomson Reuters-surveyed analysts had expected 36 cents a share.
Best Prefered Stocks To Watch Right Now: Performance Technologies Incorporated(PTIX)
Performance Technologies, Incorporated manufactures and supplies network communications solutions to carrier, government, defense, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) markets. The company offers a suite of SEGway signaling solutions, including IP-centric STPs, gateways, edges, and network applications that provide signaling, routing, IP migration, gateway capabilities, SIP bridging, and core-to-edge distributed intelligence. It also provides IPnexus application-ready systems, which are IP-native integrated platforms and element management systems; Xpress, a portfolio of SIP-based applications and enabling infrastructure for next-generation network architectures; and universal signaling point and SP2000 products. The company markets its products through its direct sales forces, as well as through OEMs, value added resellers, distributors, and systems integrators worldwide. Performance Technologies, Incorporated was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Rochester, Ne w York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Another stock that's starting to move within range of a big breakout trade is Performance Technologies (PTIX), which is a supplier of advanced network communications solutions to carrier, government and OEM markets. This stock has been red hot so far in 2013, with shares up huge by 275%.
If you take a look at the chart for Performance Technologies, you'll notice that this stock has been trending sideways and consolidating for the last three months and change, with shares moving between $2.50 on the downside and $3.97 on the upside. Shares of PTIX have now started to spike higher back above its 50-day moving average of $2.92 a share with bullish upside volume flows. This spike is quickly pushing shares of PTIX within range of triggering a big breakout trade above the upper-end of its recent sideways trading chart pattern.
Market players should now look for long-biased trades in PTIX if it manages to break out above some key overhead resistance levels at $3.40 to $3.79 a share, and then once it takes out its 52-week high at $3.97 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 167,669 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then PTIX will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $6 to $7 a share.
Traders can look to buy PTIX off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support around $2.50 a share. One can also buy PTIX off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.
- [By Ben Fox Rubin]
Sonus Networks Inc.(SONS) agreed to buy Performance Technologies Inc.(PTIX), a supplier of network communications products, for $3.75 a share, a 26% premium of Thursday’s close, or $42 million. The companies said the deal was worth $30 million, net of Performance Technologies’ cash and excluding acquisition costs. Performance Technologies shares jumped 24% to $3.70 premarket, just under the offer price.
Best Prefered Stocks To Watch Right Now: Obagi Medical Products Inc.(OMPI)
Obagi Medical Products, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, develops, markets, and sells topical aesthetic and therapeutic prescription skin care systems. It offers Obagi Nu-Derm System, including prescription and OTC drugs that are used for the treatment of fine lines, wrinkles, acne, photo damage, hyperpigmentation, melasma, laxity, and skin sallowness; Obagi Condition and Enhance Systems that are used before and after surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures; Obagi-C Rx System comprises Vitamin C with 4% hydroquinone system to treat skin conditions resulting from sun damage and the oxidative damage of free radicals; and Professional-C products consisting of Vitamin C serums for the treatment of antioxidant protection, fine lines, wrinkles, and hyperpigmentation. The company also provides ELASTIderm Eye and D�olletage, which increases the elasticity and skin tone of eyes, face, neckline, and chest; ELASTILash Eyelash Solution that enhances the appearance of thickness and fullness of eyelashes; CLENZIderm M.D. Systems and Tretinoin for treating acne; and Obagi Rosaclear System used for the treatment of rosacea. In addition, it offers Refissa and Blue Peel RADIANCE used for the treatment of fine facial lines, hyperpigmentation, and tactile roughness; Metronidazole used for the treatment of rosacea; Obagi Blue Peel Essential Kit used for the treatment of fine lines, wrinkles, and hyperpigmentation. Further, the company licenses non-prescription product concepts under the Obagi trademark to a Japanese-based pharmaceutical company for sale through consumer distribution channels in Japan. Obagi Medical Products, Inc. sells its products through sales force and distribution partners in the United States, North and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and other physicians that are focused on aesthetic and therapeutic skin care. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Lon g Beach, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Keith Speights]
"Bidness" is good
Last week, Obagi Medical Products (NASDAQ: OMPI ) made our list of humongous performers after Valeant Pharmaceuticals� (NYSE: VRX ) announced a $344 million bid for the company. This week saw a bidding frenzy, with Obagi shares jumping another 29%. - [By David Williamson]
Though many excited traders had hoped to see the bidding war continue between Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX ) and Merz over Obagi Medical Products (NASDAQ: OMPI ) and a subsequent run-up in the stock price of the smaller dermatological products maker, Merz has now walked away from the table, leaving the highly acquisitive Valeant the victor. In this video, Motley Fool health care analyst David Williamson gives us some background on these companies and tells us how Valeant plans to profit from the deal, and describes for investors why this is a win both for Obagi and for Valeant.
Best Prefered Stocks To Watch Right Now: BP p.l.c.(BP)
BP p.l.c. provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services, and petrochemicals products. Its Exploration and Production segment engages in the oil and natural gas exploration, field development, and production; midstream transportation, and storage and processing; and marketing and trading of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), and power and natural gas liquids (NGL). This segment has exploration and production activities in Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Norway, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as in Asia, Australasia, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East. This segment also owns and manages crude oil and natural gas pipelines; processing facilities and export terminals; and LNG processing and transportation, as well as NGL extraction facilities. BP p.l.c. has interests in the Trans-Alaska pipeline system, the Forties pipeline system, the Central Area transmission sys tem pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline, and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as well as in LNG plants located in Trinidad, Indonesia, and Australia. The company?s Refining and Marketing segment involves in the supply and trading, refining, manufacturing, marketing, and transportation of crude oil, petroleum, and petrochemicals products and related services to wholesale and retail customers primarily under the BP, Castrol, ARCO, and Aral brands. Its Other Businesses and Corporate segment produces and markets rolled aluminum products, as well as generates energy through wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage sources; and engages in shipping activities. The company was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Alex Planes]
By the time the British government lost its controlling interest, Anglo-Persian had undergone two name changes, one of which you know better than the other. It became Anglo-Iranian Oil in 1935 after a contentious renegotiation of terms with a new regime that had renamed the country, and it changed again to British Petroleum (NYSE: BP ) in 1954, after a 1951 military coup led to a brief nationalization of its assets.
Best Prefered Stocks To Watch Right Now: Aspen Technology Inc.(AZPN)
Aspen Technology, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated process optimization software solutions for manufacturers in process industries, and engineering and construction firms. It designs and develops aspenONE suite software applications for use in the engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain business areas. The company?s aspenONE engineering software includes Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS, which are process modeling software products for conceptual design, optimization, and performance monitoring; Aspen Basic Engineering, a workflow tool that allows engineers to build, re-use, and share process models and data; Aspen Economic Evaluation, an economic evaluation software for estimating costs of conceptual process designs; and Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating, a software used to design, simulate, and optimize the performance of heat exchangers. Its aspenONE manufacturing software comprises Aspen InfoPlus.21, a data historian software that collects and stores data for analysis and reporting; and Aspen DMCplus, a multi-variable controller software capable of processing multiple constraints. The company?s aspenONE supply chain software products comprise Aspen Collaborative Demand Manager, Aspen Petroleum Scheduler, Aspen PIMS, Aspen Plant Scheduler, Aspen supply chain planner, Aspen Inventory Management & Operations Scheduling, Aspen Petroleum Supply Chain Planner, and Aspen Fleet Optimizer that are designed to enable process manufacturers to reduce inventory levels, increase asset efficiency, and optimize supply chain decisions. It also offers customer support, professional, and training services. The company serves manufacturers in process industries, such as energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods, power, metals and mining, pulp and paper, and bio-fuels, as well as engineering and construction firms. Aspen Technology, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [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 Aspen Technology (Nasdaq: AZPN ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Eric Volkman]
AspenTech (NASDAQ: AZPN ) will be led by a new individual starting this autumn. The company announced that it has tapped Antonio Pietri to be its president and CEO, effective Oct. 1. He will replace Mark Fusco, who according to the firm is retiring to spend more time with his family.
Best Prefered Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cooper Tire & Rubber Company(CTB)
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets replacement tires in North America and internationally. It operates in two segments, North American Tire Operations and International Tire Operations. The North American Tire Operations segment produces and distributes passenger car and light truck tires, as well as tires for racing, medium trucks, and motorcycles to independent tire dealers, wholesale distributors, regional and national retail tire chains, and other large automotive product retail chains. This segment sells its products through three own retail stores. The International Tire Operations segment manufactures and markets passenger car, light truck, motorcycle, light vehicle tires, radial and bias medium truck tires, and racing tires and tire retread material to markets worldwide. The company was founded in 1913 and is based in Findlay, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jim Fink]
Year-to-Date Performance
Industry Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO) $55.39 $7.7 billion 3.3 -14.2% Oil Drilling HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP) $36.22 $16.5 billion 3.5 -16.0% Healthcare REIT American Realty Capital Properties (Nasdaq: ARCP) $12.64 $2.4 billion 8.6 1.9% Retail and Office REIT Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) $40.88 $36.1 billion 9.8 -0.1% Electric Utility Cooper Tire & Rubber (NYSE: CTB) $22.01 $1.4 billion 10.3 -11.8% Automobile Tires CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) $31.36 $18.5 billion 11.8 -14.5% Telecommunications Quest Diagnostic (NYSE: DGX) $54.05 $7.8 billion 13.4 -5.4% Medical Diagnostic Tests Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) $79.57 $34.9 billion 15.4 6.0% Energy pipeline MLP Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR) $31.98 $10.3 billion 15.9 -5.6% Semiconductors ADT Corp. (NYSE: ADT) $40.01 $8.0 billion 16.8 -12.9% Home SecuritySource: Bloomberg
- [By Monica Gerson]
Breaking news
Vitran Corporation (NASDAQ: VTNC) announced today that it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement with TransForce pursuant to which TransForce has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Vitran not already owned by TransForce for US$6.50 in cash per share, in accordance with TransForce's prior proposal. To read the full news, click here. ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) today announced it signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) to sell three utility-scale projects in Western China, with a total capacity of 60MW, to Jiangsu Akcome Solar Science & Technology Co on December 30, 2013. To read the full news, click here. Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: CTB) today announced it has terminated the merger agreement with Apollo Tyres (NSE:ApolloTYRE). To read the full news, click here. RedHill Biopharma (NASDAQ: RDHL) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with leading healthcare investor OrbiMed Israel Partners Limited Partnership, an affiliate of OrbiMed Advisors LLC, for the sale of RedHill's American Depository Shares and warrants in a private placement transactionor a total sum of $6.0 million. To read the full news, click here.Posted-In: Guggenheim US Stock FuturesNews Eurozone Futures Global Pre-Market Outlook Markets
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB) has gained 1% to $24.86 today, but its trading more on whether investors expect its acquisition by Apollo Tyres to be completed. Car-part companies, however, are also exhibiting weakness today. TRW Automotive (TRW) has fallen 0.8% to $77.91, Lear (LEA) has dipped 0.4% to $74.78 and American Axel and Manufacturing (AXL) is off 0.5% to $18.99.
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