In trying to make their money work harder for them, investors often fall for questionable investment strategies that promise to help you get rich quick but usually deliver huge losses. But the smartest ways to reach your money goals don't require you to deal with arcane, hard-to-understand financial products. By following these three simple investment strategies, you can get the long-term results you want without the risk you'll find with more aggressive and dubious alternatives.
1. Dollar-cost averaging.
Few investors have huge pots of money to invest all at once, but most people are able to set aside at least a modest amount of money every month. Dollar-cost averaging involves taking that money and investing it in a mix of low-cost index mutual funds or ETFs. The exact mix depends on your tolerance for risk, your time horizon, and the amount you have to save, but by putting aside the same amount month in and month out, you'll build a habit of saving and investing.
The benefit of dollar-cost averaging is that when shares are cheaper, you'll buy more of them with the same fixed amount. Meanwhile, when prices rise, you end up with fewer shares, and so on average you'll buy more when an investment is cheap than when it's expensive. Buying low is a key tenet of investing, and dollar-cost averaging lets you take full advantage of it.
10 Best Quality Stocks For 2016: Alliance Holdings GP L.P.(AHGP)
Alliance Holdings GP, L.P., through its subsidiaries, produces and markets coal primarily to utilities and industrial users in the United States. It produces a range of steam coal with varying sulfur and heat contents. The company operates nine underground mining complexes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, and West Virginia. As of December 31, 2010, it had approximately 697.4 million tons of proven and probable coal reserves in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. In addition, the company leases land; and operates a coal loading terminal, with a capacity of 8.0 million tons with ground storage of approximately 60,000 to 70,000 tons, on the Ohio River at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. Further, it engages in purchasing and selling coal; and providing services, including ash and scrubber sludge removal, coal yard maintenance, and arranging alternate transportation services. Alliance GP, LLC, serves as the general partner of the company. Allian ce Holdings GP, L.P. is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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 Alliance Holdings GP (Nasdaq: AHGP ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Robert Rapier]
The National Association of Publicly Traded Partnerships (NAPTP) lists five MLPs in the category ��atural Resources – Coal,��although two of the five are Alliance Holdings (NYSE: AHGP) and its operating affiliate, Alliance Resource Partners (NYSE: ARLP). The other three are Natural Resource Partners (NYSE: NRP), Rhino Resource Partners (NYSE: RNO), and Oxford Resource Partners (NYSE: OXF).
Hot Cheap Companies For 2015: Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc.(WEN)
The Wendy's Company operates as a quick-service hamburger company in the United States. The company, through its subsidiary, Wendy's International, Inc., operates as a franchisor of the Wendy's restaurant system. As of December 26, 2011, the Wendy's system comprised approximately 6,500 franchise and company restaurants in the United States and the United States territories, as well as in 26 other countries worldwide. The company was formerly known as Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc. and changed its name to The Wendy's Company in July 2011. The Wendy's Company was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images Don't let the recent weakness at McDonald's (MCD) lead you to the conclusion that all burger flippers are struggling. It's just not true, and Burger King (BKW) proved that in its latest quarter. McDonald's longtime nemesis posted better than expected profitability during the first three months of the year, fueled by marginally positive comparable-restaurant sales for the period. It may not seem like much of a victory. Burger King's worldwide comps rose 2 percent, with its U.S. and Canada locations clocking in with a meager 0.1 percent increase. However, even that baby step up is better than the 1.7 percent decline at McDonald's. Unlike Ronald McDonald, Burger King isn't clowning around. The Whopper Beats the Big Mac? This would be an opportune time for Burger King to break away from the larger chain that it's been copying for years. We've seen Burger King offer up items that are blatantly similar to McCafe smoothies, Chicken McBites, Big Macs, Egg McMuffins, and even the cult fave McRibs. However, now that McDonald's is in a rut -- having posted three consecutive quarters of negative comparable-restaurant sales in this country -- it appears Burger King is ready to carve its own path. "We started off 2014 strong by generating comparable sales growth across all four regions during the first quarter," Burger King Worldwide CEO Daniel Schwartz explained in the fast food giant's earnings release. "Despite severe winter weather in the U.S. and Canada, our commitment to launching fewer, more impactful products and simplifying in-restaurant operations helped drive improved performance." If there's one thing in that statement that should stand out as a sharp contrast to the current strategy at McDonald's it's that Burger King is rolling out "fewer" products as it is "simplifying" operations. That's an entirely different strategy than the one being used by McDonald's, which seems to involve rolling out a lot of new menu ite
- [By Emily Jane Fox]
In the past year, millennials turned up the heat against low wages at Victoria's Secret, Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500), Wendy's (WEN), KFC (YUM, Fortune 500) and others like Kaplan (GHC), which runs tutoring centers.
- [By James O'Toole]
In Congress, a group of 53 lawmakers sent letters Wednesday expressing support for higher wages to McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500), Wendy's (WEN), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Burger King (BKW) and Yum! Brands (YUM, Fortune 500), which operates KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Hot Cheap Companies For 2015: Compass Minerals Intl Inc(CMP)
Compass Minerals International, Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces and markets inorganic mineral products primarily in North America and the United Kingdom. The company operates in two segments, Salt and Specialty Fertilizer. The Salt segment produces salt and magnesium chloride for use in road deicing and dust control, food processing, water softeners, pool salt, and agricultural and industrial applications. This segment also purchases potassium chloride and sells as a finished product. The Specialty Fertilizer segment produces and markets sulphate of potash crop nutrients and industrial grade sulfate of potash for use in the production of specialty fertilizers for vegetables, fruits, potatoes, nuts, tobacco, and turf grass. The company also produces and markets consumer deicing and water conditioning products, ingredients used in consumer and commercial food preparation, and other mineral-based products for consumer, agricultural, and industrial applications. In ad dition, Compass Minerals provides records management services to businesses located in the U.K. The company operates rock salt mines in Goderich, Ontario, Canada; and Winsford, Chesire, the United Kingdom. It primarily serves producers of intermediate chemical products used in the production of vinyls and other chemicals, and pulp and paper, as well as water treatment and other industrial uses. The company markets its products through direct sales personnel, contract personnel, and a network of brokers or manufacturers? representatives. Compass Minerals International, Inc., formerly known as Salt Holdings Corporation, was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Compass Minerals (CMP) is a producer of minerals, including salt, sulfate of potash specialty fertilizer and magnesium chloride. This stock closed up 3.4% at $75.60 in Wednesday's trading session.
Wednesday's Volume: 913,000
Three-Month Average Volume: 212,481
Volume % Change: 315%From a technical perspective, CMP gapped higher here off its recent low of $64.24 with heavy upside volume. This stock recently gapped down sharply from around $90 to $64.24 with heavy downside volume. That move pushed shares of CMP into extremely oversold territory, since the stock's current relative strength index reading is 25.78. Oversold can always get more oversold, but it's also an area where a stock can experience a powerful bounce higher from. Shares of CMP are now starting to move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if CMP manages to take out its gap down day high of $78.20 and then once it clears its 200-day moving average at $79.14 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in CMP as long as it's trending above Wednesday's low of $73.07 or $72.50 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that's near or above 212,481 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then CMP will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap down zone that started near $90.
- [By Brendan Mathews]
Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP ) is a sleepy producer of a boring product: rock salt. But it has a strong competitive advantage. It owns the world's largest rock salt mine, which luckily is conveniently located near the major deicing markets of the Great Lakes region. This combination of a great mining resource and ideal location provide the company with a wide, crocodile-filled competitive moat.
- [By Alex Planes]
PotashCorp's difficulty sustaining its pricing power is underscored by recent reports from sulfate of potash (SOP) producer Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP ) , which charged a hefty premium of almost $300 per ton against Potash Corp's prices for muriate of potash. Efforts to move away from SOP sales seem to be the right choice -- PotashCorp peer Intrepid Potash's�SOP sales fell by 37%, while the average price received has slumped nearly 14% in the last quarter. Even ore miner BHP Billiton�has recently jumped into the fertilizer industry with a $2.6 billion build-out of a potash mine in Canada, which is all but certain to produce further downward pressure on potash prices.
- [By cody56]
Meridian Growth Fund performance
Compass Minerals�(CMP) is a leading producer of rock salt and specialty potash fertilizer. Its unique collection of resource assets has helped the company generate historically high returns on capital. We invested in Compass as we believed that earnings were due to turn after four years of weak road salt demand driven by mild Northeast winters and production problems at its potash mines. During 2013 the potash industry was rocked by the potential collapse of a European cartel, which led to falling potash prices. Facing significant uncertainty for the future of the potash market, we sold the stock.We continue to remain focused on individual stock selection and portfolio construction that identifies quality companies that we believe are experiencing temporary disruptions to their businesses. These disruptions enable us to buy the businesses at attractive prices and provide the portfolio with what we believe is an attractive risk-reward profile for our shareholders.
Hot Cheap Companies For 2015: Global Payments Inc.(GPN)
Global Payments Inc. provides electronic transaction processing services for merchants, independent sales organizations (ISO), financial institutions, government agencies, and multi-national corporations located in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. It offers a comprehensive line of processing solutions for credit and debit cards; business-to-business purchasing cards; gift cards; and electronic check conversion and check guarantee, verification, and recovery, including electronic check services, as well as terminal management. The company also offers proprietary software products to establish revolving check cashing limits for the casinos? customers in the gaming industry. In addition, it sells, installs, and services automated teller machine and point of sale terminals; and provides card issuing services, including card management and card personalization. The company markets its products directly, as well as through ISOs, retail outlets, tra de associations, alliance bank relationships, and financial institutions. Global Payments Inc. has a joint venture with La Caixa Group to provide merchant acquiring services to merchants in Spain. Global Payments Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.95 per share on revenue of $623.79 million.
Synergetics USA (NASDAQ: SURG) is projected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.06 per share on revenue of $17.01 million.
- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Thursday
Earnings Expected From: Global Payents Inc. (NYSE: GPN), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), Synnex Corporation (NYSE: SNX) Economic Releases Expected: �US services PMI, Canadian imports and exports, US trade balance, eurozone services PMI, ECB interest rate decision, British services PMIFriday
- [By Wallace Witkowski]
Shares of Global Payments Inc. (GPN) �advanced 4.8% to $67.50 on moderate volume after the company raised its earnings outlook for the year to a range of $4.03 to $4.10 a share. Analysts were forecasting $4.04 a share.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Global Payments�(GPN) has gained 6.8% to $54.12 in pre-open trading after the payment processing company reported a profit of $1 a share, beating analyst forecasts of 95 cents. It also said it would buy back stock.
Hot Cheap Companies For 2015: Emerson Electric Company(EMR)
Emerson Electric Co. operates as a diversified manufacturing and technology company. The company engages in appliance solutions, climate technologies, industrial automation, motor technology, network power, process management, professional tools, and storage solutions businesses. Its appliance solutions business provides appliance controls, appliance motors, heating products, and white-rodgers; climate technology business provides heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) solutions for residential, industrial, and commercial applications; and industrial automation business offers bearings and power transmission products, electrical power generation products, electric motors, variable speed drives and servos, electrical products, material joining solutions, fluid automation products, and wind turbine systems. The company?s motor technology business provides appliance motors, HVACR motors, DC motors, fractional horsepower motors, integral horsepower a nd larger motors, and drives; network power business provides power, precision cooling, connectivity, and embedded solutions; and process management business provides various wireless related products from self-organizing field networks to wireless asset and people tracking. Its professional tools business offers pipe working and threading equipment, pressing technology, utility locating and visual diagnostics systems, drain maintenance tools, power tools, air tools, general purpose hand tools, wet/dry vacs, job site storage equipment, truck tool boxes and equipment, and van storage equipment; and storage solutions business provides shelving and storage products for residential, commercial, and foodservice needs, as well as offers specialized carts, mobile computer workstations, and cabinet fixtures. The company was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dividends4Life]
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Hot Cheap Companies For 2015: Express-1 Expedited Solutions Inc.(XPO)
XPO Logistics, Inc. provides third-party logistics services using a network of relationships with ground, sea, and air carriers in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It operates in three segments: Express-1, Concert Group Logistics, and Bounce Logistics. The Express-1 segment offers ground expedited surface transportation services for freight. It operates a fleet ranging from cargo vans to semi tractor trailer units. The Concert Group Logistics segment provides domestic and international freight forwarding services through a network of independently owned stations. Its domestic freight forwarding services include air charter, expedites, and time sensitive services, as well as cost sensitive services comprising deferred delivery, less than truckload, and full truck load services; and international freight forwarding services consist of on-board courier and air charters, time sensitive services, less-than-container and full-container-loads, and vessel charters. This segm ent also offers documentation on international shipments, customs clearance and banking, trade show shipment management, time definite and customized product distributions, reverse logistics and on site asset recovery projects, installation coordination, freight optimization, and diversity compliance support services. The Bounce Logistics segment provides premium freight brokerage services for truckload shipments. The company serves approximately 4,000 retail, commercial, manufacturing, and industrial customers through 6 U.S. operations centers and 22 agent locations. It offers its services to the automotive manufacturing, automotive components and supplies, commercial printing, durable goods manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food and consumer products, and high tech sectors. The company was formerly known as Express-1 Expedited Solutions, Inc. and changed its name to XPO Logistics, Inc. in September 2011. XPO Logistics, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in Buchanan, Michi gan.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) shot up 7.06 percent to $30.01 after the company announced its plans to acquire Pacer International (NASDAQ: PACR) in a deal valued at $335 million.
- [By Vera Yuan]
We initiated a new position in Aircastle Ltd. (AYR), an aircraft leasing company with a flexible business model and a rational capital allocation philosophy. We took advantage of an opportunity to purchase shares in the heavily capitalized Georgia bank State Bank Financial Corp. (STBZ) as the depressed stock price reflected investors��lack of patience with a slower than expected pace of capital deployment. We like State Bank�� management team led by Georgia banker Joe Evans. This management team has experience successfully building and selling other Georgia banks. We also received shares of transportation infrastructure company XPO Logistics, Inc. (XPO) as a result of its acquisition of holding Pacer International, Inc.
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