Ford (NYSE: F ) and General Motors (NYSE: GM ) have both come a long way since the depths of the recession. Each company took a very different route, but both are now better managed and more profitable. GM has much larger revenues and sells more vehicles globally, yet even with that top-line advantage it lags behind its rival Ford in bottom-line profits. That's because Ford cut costs and improved operating efficiency to bring more dollars of each sale to the bottom line ��and it's worked tremendously. That's a large reason for Ford's recent stock rally that saw its 52-week low of $8.82 rocket up to around $15 ��but there's more to be excited about.
Goodbye Toyota and Honda
Behold four reasons for Ford's recent success:
Image courtesy of Ford.�
Those four vehicles, from left to right, are the Escape, Fusion, Focus, and Fiesta. Ford has named the combination of these four segments to be the "super segment". Ford is focusing its effort and toward new models because it expects that global growth will be in those segments. Consider that in 2004 the super segment accounted for about 35% of new vehicle sales, but now it's over 50%.
Best Construction Material Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Buffalo Wild Wings Inc.(BWLD)
Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. engages in the ownership, operation, and franchise of restaurants in the United States. The company provides quick casual and casual dining services, as well as serves bottled beers, wines, and liquor. As of July 26, 2011, it had 773 Buffalo Wild Wings locations in 45 states in the United States, as well as in Canada. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Steve Symington]
Your secret sauce for profitable growth
First up, consider spicing up your portfolio with shares of Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD ) . Though B-Wild is currently trading near its 52-week-high on the heels of another�successful March Madness ad campaign, there are a number of reasons to believe that the beer and wings specialist should be able to continue its winning streak for the foreseeable future.
Top Growth Stocks For 2014: Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc.(EIHI)
Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides workers compensation insurance and reinsurance products in the United States. The company?s Workers Compensation Insurance segment provides traditional workers compensation insurance coverage products, including guaranteed cost policies, policyholder dividend policies, retrospectively-rated policies, deductible policies, and alternative market products to employers. This segment distributes its workers? compensation products and services through its independent insurance agents primarily in Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, Maryland, Indiana, and Virginia. Its Segregated Portfolio Cell Reinsurance segment offers alternative market workers compensation solutions comprising program design, fronting, claims administration, risk management, segregated portfolio cell rental, asset management, and segregated portfolio management services to individual companies, groups, and associations. Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lauren Pollock]
ProAssurance Corp.(PRA) agreed to acquire Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc.(EIHI) for about $205 million, expanding the insurance company’s casualty insurance offerings. Eastern Insurance is a domestic casualty insurance group specializing in workers’ compensation products and services, among other things. ProAssurance plans to pay $24.50 in cash for each outstanding Eastern share, a 16% premium over Monday’s closing price.
Top Growth Stocks For 2014: Intuitive Surgical Inc.(ISRG)
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets da Vinci surgical systems for various surgical procedures, including urologic, gynecologic, cardiothoracic, general, and head and neck surgeries. Its da Vinci surgical system consists of a surgeon?s console or consoles, a patient-side cart, a 3-D vision system, and proprietary ?wristed? instruments. The company?s da Vinci surgical system translates the surgeon?s natural hand movements on instrument controls at the console into corresponding micro-movements of instruments positioned inside the patient through small puncture incisions, or ports. It also manufactures a range of EndoWrist instruments, which incorporate wrist joints for natural dexterity for various surgical procedures. Its EndoWrist instruments consist of forceps, scissors, electrocautery, scalpels, and other surgical tools. In addition, it sells various vision and accessory products for use in conjunction with the da Vinci Surgical System as surgical procedures are performed. The company?s accessory products include sterile drapes used to ensure a sterile field during surgery; vision products, such as replacement 3-D stereo endoscopes, camera heads, light guides, and other items. It markets its products through sales representatives in the United States, and through sales representatives and distributors in international markets. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Yesterday, I wrote up an analyst report about Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) touting the company’s da Vinci surgical system–a report that appeared to have helped pushed the stock up 4.7%.
One of my readers left a comment that I’ll cite here in full:
Davinci surgeons do not scrub up for the console, so the picture choice is curious. They watched presentations and then made investment pronouncements. Yikes. The presentations likely emphasize safety to try to counter all the recent publicity. This gave these casual analysts the impression that davinci is safe. lol.
Well, wouldn’t you know it–Bloomberg ran a story this morning with the headline, “Robot Surgery Damaging Patients Rises With Marketing.” The nearly three-thousand word article describes in detail what my reader was hinting at: Robotic surgery hasn’t been all that safe. From the Bloomberg article:
Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver announced last year that Warren Kortz, a general surgeon on the medical staff, was the first in the Rocky Mountain region to use a technique known as robotic surgery to remove gall bladders through one incision in the belly button…
What the hospital and�Kortz�didn�� reveal was the risk. Even as Kortz promoted robotic surgery, 10 patients he treated suffered injuries or complications between 2008 and 2011, according to an April complaint by the Colorado Medical Board. Five had arteries punctured or torn. Objects were temporarily left inside two, and others had nerve damage. One died and another needed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The complaint charges Kortz with 14 counts of unprofessional conduct, including sometimes not advising patients on alternatives to the robot.
Robotic surgeries are on the rise, fueled by aggressive marketing by doctors, hospitals and�Intuitive Surgical Inc., which manufactures the $1.5 million robot. Advertising on hospital and doctor websites, YouTube vide
- [By Roberto Pedone]
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) designs, manufactures and markets da Vinci Surgical Systems, EndoWrist instruments and surgical accessories. This stock closed up 4.5% to $380.99 in Monday's trading session.
Monday's Volume: 741,000
Three-Month Average Volume: 658,592
Volume % Change: 56%Shares of ISRG jumped sharply higher on Monday after William Blair said it's time to start accumulating shares of Intuitive Surgical after watching presentations on one of Intuitive's surgical system, da Vinci.
From a technical perspective, ISRG ripped higher here right above some near-term support at $360 with above-average volume. This stock recently formed a double bottom chart pattern at $357.02 to $358.02. Following that bottom, shares of ISRG have started to rebound strongly and move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if ISRG manages to take out Monday's high of $382.31 to more resistance at $401 with high volume.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ISRG as long as it's trending above Monday's low of $362.29 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 658,592 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then ISRG will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap down zone from July that started near $430. An even bigger gap down zone sits right above $432.50, so keep that level in mind if ISRG clears it with volume soon.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) has dropped 9.3% to $489.84 after the maker of surgical robots said it would report first-quarter earnings well below forecasts, as sales of its� da Vinci model plunged.
- [By Sue Chang]
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) �is projected to report first-quarter earnings of $3.29 a share.
Top Growth Stocks For 2014: MEDIFAST INC(MED)
Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, and sale of weight management and disease management products, and other consumable health and diet products in the United States. The company?s product lines include weight and disease management, meal replacement, and vitamins. It also operates weight control centers that offer Medifast programs for weight loss and maintenance, customized patient counseling, and inbody composition analysis. The company markets its products under the Medifast and Essential brand names, including shakes, appetite suppression shakes, women?s health shakes, diabetics shakes, joint health shakes, coronary health shakes, calorie burn drinks, calorie burn flavor infusers, antioxidant shakes, antioxidant flavor infusers, bars, crunch bars, soups, chili, oatmeal, pudding, scrambled eggs, hot cocoa, cappuccino, chai latte, iced teas, fruit drinks, pretzels, puffs, brownie, pancakes, soy crisps, crackers, and omega 3 and digestive health products. Medifast Inc. sells its products through various channels of distribution comprising Web, call center, independent health advisors, medical professionals, weight loss clinics, and direct consumer marketing supported via the phone and the Web; Take Shape for Life, a physician led network of independent health coaches; and weight control centers. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Analysts expect Medifast (NYSE: MED) to post its Q4 earnings at $0.36 per share on revenue of $80.83 million. Medifast shares surged 2.19% to close at $26.08 on Friday.
Top Growth Stocks For 2014: Thoratec Corporation(THOR)
Thoratec Corporation engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of proprietary medical devices used for circulatory support. The company?s primary product lines include ventricular assist devices, such as HeartMate II, an implantable left ventricular assist device consisting of a rotary blood pump to provide intermediate and long-term mechanical circulatory support (MCS); and HeartMate XVE, an implantable and pulsatile left ventricular assist device for intermediate and longer-term MCS. Its ventricular assist devices also comprise Paracorporeal Ventricular Assist Device, an external pulsatile ventricular assist device, which provides left, right, and biventricular MCS approved for bridge-to-transplantation (BTT), including home discharge, and post-cardiotomy myocardial recovery; and Implantable Ventricular Assist Device, an implantable and pulsatile ventricular assist device designed to provide left, right, and biventricular MCS approved for BTT comprising hom e discharge, and post-cardiotomy myocardial recovery. The company also provides CentriMag, an extracorporeal full-flow acute surgical support platform that offers support up to 30 days for cardiac and respiratory failure. In addition, it offers PediMag and PediVAS extracorporeal full-flow acute surgical support platforms designed to provide acute surgical support to pediatric patients. The company sells its products through direct sales force in the United States, as well as through a network of distributors internationally. Thoratec Corporation was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Anna Prior]
Medical device company Thoratec Corp.(THOR) has purchased Apica Cardiovascular Ltd., in a deal that includes $35 million in cash upfront and potential milestone payments of up to $40 million.
- [By Todd Campbell]
Competing for heart pump market share
Abiomed's products provide circulatory support for up to six hours and are designed for use in cardiac cath labs or during heart surgery, but competitors Thoratec (NASDAQ: THOR ) and Heartware (NASDAQ: HTWR ) target the intermediate- and long-term-use market instead. - [By Brian Pacampara]
What: Shares of medical device company Thoratec (NASDAQ: THOR ) sank 12% today after its quarterly results missed Wall Street expectations. �
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