We place a strong buy on Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) stock on the back of its state-of-the-art product portfolio, diversity and superiority of its coffee products combined with resilient consumer demand and its future expansion plans in other markets. The company is one of the leading roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee in the world through company operated stores, licensed stores, and through other retail channels. Owing to continuous investment on improved operational foundation, invigorated innovative muscle, the revenue base of the company depicted an increase of 11%, amounting to USD 11.7b in FY11. The revenues generated from Consumer Product Group (CPG) food service and licensed-stores showed immense growth of 22% and 15% respectively, while company-operated stores registered nominal growth of 7%. (more…)

The answer is, not much. On the surface, there has been much hoopla around the $2 billion trading loss that JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) suffered. Yesterday it was announced that Ina Drew was now the ex-Chief Investment Officer of JPM. Dealbook reported that two of “Drew’s lieutenants, Achilles Macris and Javier Martin-Artajo, are also expected to resign” and that the company would “form a team of senior executives to investigate and respond to the recent losses.” Our take is that if you take a step back and evaluate JPM as a whole, the couple billion-dollar loss will be easily absorbed. (more…)

One of the great beverage rivalries of all-time pits Warren Buffet and John Horseman favorite, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) against Donald Yacktman favorite, PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP). Interestingly enough, numerous blind taste tests have all proved inconclusive, with results consistently around fifty fifty. Some consumers maintain that the two are similar enough to be substitutes, while other consumers exhibit extreme loyalty to one brand. Both companies spend millions of dollars every year on marketing to create an emotional tie between consumers and their product, but which is the victor from a stock perspective? (more…)

European pharma has not had a great run recently, but we think we’ve found a diamond in the rough. Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) is a Danish pharmaceuticals company that specializes in treatments for diabetes and haemostasis, the latter of which refers to the human body’s response to blood vessel injury and bleeding. We see long term trends and expanding markets for the indications that NVO focuses on. In particular, diabetes is a fast-growing epidemic in the US, and with NVO being the leading supplier of insulins NVO is our pick in European pharma. (more…)

The markets have been fixated on McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) global comp miss of 3.3%. This fell short of management guidance of 4%, vs. 2011 results of 6%, and consensus estimates of 4.8%. We suspect that the miss was due to weak US sales in the last ten days of the month. Overall April numbers were on the light side, with weak Japan comp sales of negative 3.6% and slower-than-expected US comp sales of 3.3%. However, when results are viewed from a fiscal year perspective, we see no reason why MCD won’t be able to meet its earnings guidance since the 1% global comp change q-o-q is only equivalent to approximately 2% of annual EPS and since margins are getting a breather with a drop in dairy, coffee, and produce costs. In spite of potential macro headwinds, we continue to believe that MCD is a top notch operator in the global quick service restaurant (QSR) market, and think it is well-positioned to outperform its peers. (more…)

For years, companies have been buying land, building towers (or allowing a lessee to do so), then leasing the land to wireless carriers like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). These carriers served as tenants, leasing space for antennas and other equipment in order to develop their wireless networks. (more…)

Dividend stocks offer a way for investors to earn a return regularly before realizing any gains from the sale of the stock. Large companies, like those with market caps over $40 billion (mega-cap) tend to be fairly consistent in paying dividends. Below we complied a list of 6 mega-cap stocks that have a market cap of over $40 billion and dividend yields higher than 4%. We obtained market data from Finviz and MSN Money. (more…)

Exxon Mobil Corporation holds a significant position in the global oil & gas sector through their industry leading portfolio of resources, technology portfolio, and disciplined investment approach. The company’s integration in all sectors of oil & gas gives it a market leadership over Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Total, and Chevron. During FY11, the company achieved a substantial growth of 27% in its revenue base as compared to FY10. The main contribution in revenues emanated from company’s upstream (exploration & production of oil & gas) & down-stream operations (refining & marketing of petroleum products). While, revenues generated from chemical division registered a negative growth of 10%, mainly on account of lower volumes sold. In FY11, XOM also announced a 6% increase in their dividend pay-out and an on-going repurchase program that is expected to add economic value to the company going forward. We have recommended a strong buy on XOM’s stock as we believe that through a combination of balanced and competitive portfolio of resources, projects, products and asset base, company will continue to dominate the Oil & Gas sector. (more…)

Since the start of 2012, Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) has rewarded investors with a near 50 percent return, as the stock has crawled out of its so-called ‘winter of discontent’ with shares currently trading above the $8 mark.  From Main Street to Wall Street, BAC has been a banking beaut, though the stock’s fundamentals tell a darker tale.  Coupled with oncoming clouds concerning the effectiveness of the company’s strategic direction and its lack of macroeconomic stability, it may be time to sell BAC and take the gains while they are green. (more…)

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) modernized the telecommunication technology sector by empowering the businesses, people and communities with reliable wireless networks, high speed fiber, and enhanced communication solutions, such as cloud services. Verizon now leads the wireless services sector in USA with more than 107.8 million connections (including 92.8 million retail customers and 15.6 million wholesale & other connections), and ranks second in the wire-line sector after AT&T (T). However, despite Verizon’s extensive product and services portfolio, the company faces severe competition from AT&T in both the wireless and wire-line sectors. (more…)

PepsiCo (PEP) trumped analyst estimates on Thursday, April 26 when the company announced that during the first quarter 2012 it had earned 69 cents a share, over analyst estimates of 67 cents a share and brought in revenues of $12.43 billion, versus estimates of $12.36 billion. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised – after all, Pepsi has either toppled analyst estimates or met them with regard to both earnings and revenues for the previous 5 quarters. But, that is only part of the story. Pepsi might have beaten analyst estimates, but it did not beat its own historical numbers. Pepsi had earned 74 cents a share the same quarter last year. (more…)