LONDON -- I'm looking at some of your favorite FTSE 100 companies and examining how each will deliver their dividends.
Today, I'm putting telecommunications giant�Vodafone�Group� (LSE: VOD ) (NASDAQ: VOD ) under the microscope.
Current dividend policy
Vodafone unveiled a new dividend policy when it announced its annual results this week:�"The Board ... going forward aims at least to maintain the ordinary dividend per share at current levels."
Vodafone's dividend for its financial year ended March 2013 is 10.19 pence a share. Therefore, investors can hope for a�minimum�of 10.19 pence a share (and�perhaps�more)�"going forward"�-- though how far forward the company doesn't tell us.
Past dividend policy
How well has Vodafone delivered on its dividend policy in the past? Let me begin by saying that the group is one of just a handful of FTSE 100 companies to have provided shareholders with an above-inflation dividend increase each and every year since the turn of the millennium.
Top 10 Warren Buffett Companies To Watch For 2015: Verint Systems Inc (VRNT)
Verint Systems Inc. (Verint), incorporated in February 1994, is engaged in Actionable Intelligence solutions and value-added services. More than 10,000 organizations use Verint Actionable Intelligence solutions to capture, distill, and analyze complex and underused information sources, such as voice, video, and unstructured text. In the security intelligence market, it offers communications and cyber intelligence, video and situation intelligence, and public safety solutions help government and commercial organizations to protect people and property. On March 30, 2011, the Company acquired Rontal Engineering Applications Ltd. On August 2, 2011, the Company acquired a privately held provider of communications intelligence solutions, data retention services, and network performance management, based in the Americas region. On August 4, 2011, the Company acquired Vovici Corporation (Vovici). On October 7, 2011, the completed the acquisition of Global Management Technologies (GMT). On November 1, 2011, the Company acquired certain technology and other assets for use in its Communications Intelligence operating segment. On November 10, 2011, the Company acquired certain technology and other assets for use in its Enterprise Intelligence operating segment in a transaction. On January 5, 2012, the Company acquired a privately held provider of Web intelligence technology, based in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. In February 2014, Verint Systems Inc has completed its acquisition of KANA Software, Inc, a portfolio company of Accel-KKR.
The Enterprise Intelligence Solutions Segment
The Company is a provider of enterprise intelligence software and services. Its solutions enable organizations to extract and analyze information from customer interactions and related operational data. It markets these solutions under the Impact 360 brand to contact center, back-office, and branch and remote office operations, to other customer-facing departments, such as sale! s and marketing. These solutions comprise a range of enterprise workforce optimization and voice of the customer solutions and services, which include Internet protocol (IP) and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) voice recording, quality monitoring, voice of the customer analytics (speech, text, and enterprise feedback management), workforce management, e-Learning and coaching, performance management, and desktop and process analytics. These solutions can be deployed stand-alone or in an integrated fashion.
The Company�� Impact 360 is an unified portfolio of workforce optimization and voice of the customer solutions. Its portfolio of Enterprise Intelligence Solutions include Quality Monitoring, Full-Time and Compliance Recording, Workforce Management, Voice of the Customer Analytics (Speech, Text, and Enterprise Feedback Management), Performance Management, e-Learning and Coaching, Desktop and Process Analytics, Workforce Optimization and Voice of the Customer for Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses and Public Safety. Quality Monitoring records multimedia interactions based on user-defined business rules and provides interaction assessment functionality, including intelligent evaluation forms and automatic delivery of calls for evaluation according to quotas or contact-related criteria. Its Full-Time and Compliance Recording provides contact center recording for compliance, sales verification, and monitoring in IP, traditional TDM, and mixed telephony environments. It includes encryption capabilities to help support the payment card industry data security standard and other regulatory requirements for protecting sensitive data. Workforce Management Helps enterprises forecast staffing requirements, deploy the appropriate level of resources, and evaluate the productivity of their customer service staff. It also includes optional strategic planning capabilities. Its speech analytics solutions analyze call content for the purpose of identifying business trends, building containment and customer s! ervice st! rategies, and quality monitoring programs. Its text analytics analyze structured and unstructured data in multiple text sources include e-mail, chat sessions, blogs, contact center notes, white mail, survey comments, and social media channels. Its enterprise feedback management solutions provide enterprise-wide customer feedback capabilities through surveys and online communities to centralize and simplify survey management, deployment, and analysis across survey platforms, including interactive voice response, e-mail, social media, and mobile devices. Performance Management Provides a view of key performance indicators (KPIs), with performance scorecards and reports on customer interactions, customer experience trends, and contact center, back-office, branch, remote office, and customer service staff performance. e-Learning and Coaching Enables enterprises to deliver Web-based training to customer service staff desktops, including learning clips created from recordings and other customized materials to staff needs and competencies. Desktop and Process Analytics Captures information from customer service employee interactions with their desktop applications to provide insights into productivity, training issues, process adherence, and bottlenecks. Workforce Optimization and Voice of the Customer for Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses is designed for smaller companies (with contact centers), which face the same business requirements as their larger competitors. Public Safety includes quality assurance, forecasting and scheduling, speech analytics, performance scorecards, citizen surveys, incident investigation and analytics, and full-time and compliance recording solutions under the brand Impact 360 for Public Safety Powered by Audiolog. Its public safety solution allows first responders (police, fire departments, emergency medical services, etc.) in the security intelligence market to deploy workforce optimization solutions to record, manage, and act on incoming assistance requests and related data.
! The Company competes with Aspect Software, Inc., HP company, Genesys Telecommunications, NICE Systems Ltd. (NICE).
The Video and Situation Intelligence Solutions Segment
The Company is a provider of networked IP video solutions and a provider of situation intelligence solutions to optimize security and enhance operations. Its solutions, marketed under the Nextiva brand, include IP video management software and services, edge devices for capturing, digitizing, and transmitting video over different types of wired and wireless networks, video analytics, network video recorders, and physical security information management. Its networked IP video portfolio enables organizations to deploy an end-to-end IP video solution with analytics or evolve to IP video solutions. Its situation intelligence solutions enable organizations to view, correlate, and analyze information from various stand-alone systems and sensors. It is engaged in the networked IP video market with Nextiva, an end-to-end, networked IP video solution portfolio. Its IP Video Management Software simplifies management of video and geographically dispersed video surveillance operations, with a suite of applications, which includes automated system health monitoring, policy-based video distribution, networked video viewing, and investigation management. It is designed for use with industry-standard servers and storage solutions and for interoperability with other enterprise systems. Edge Devices captures, digitizes, and transmits video across enterprise networks. It includes IP cameras, bandwidth-efficient video encoders to convert analog images to IP video for transmission over IP networks, and wireless devices, which perform both video encoding and wireless IP transmission. Video Analytics Analyzes video content to detect anomalies and activities of interest, such as perimeter intrusion, unattended objects, camera tampering, and vehicles moving in the wrong direction. It also includes industry-specific analytics applicati! ons. Netw! ork Video Recorders Performs networked video recording utilizing secure, embedded operating systems and market-specific data integrations for applications, which require local storage, as well as remote networking.
The Company�� Physical Security Information Management (Situation Intelligence) captures and integrates information from various stand-alone security and public safety systems, such as access control, video, intrusion, fire and public safety, first responder, and other mobile device systems. Its Video Intelligence solutions are deployed across a range of industries, including banking, retail, critical infrastructure, government, corporate campuses, education, airports, seaports, public transportation, and homeland security. Its video solutions include video analytics and data integrations.
The Company competes with 3VR, Tyco, Genetec Inc., March Networks Corporation, Milestone Systems A/S, NICE and Schneider Electric Limited.
The Communications and Cyber Intelligence Solutions Segment
The Company is a provider of communications intelligence solutions and a developer of cyber intelligence solutions, which help law enforcement, national security, intelligence, and civilian government agencies detect, investigate, and neutralize criminal and terrorist threats and detect and thwart cyber-attacks. Its portfolio includes solutions for communications interception, service provider compliance, mobile location tracking, open source Web intelligence, cyber intelligence and tactical communications intelligence. These solutions can be deployed stand-alone or collectively. The Company is engaged in the market for communications intelligence solutions and a developer of cyber intelligence solutions, which are marketed under the RELIANT, VANTAGE, STAR-GATE, ENGAGE, FOCALINFO, and CYBERVISION brand names. Its Communications Interception enables the interception, monitoring, and analysis of information collected from a range of communications networks, inc! luding fi! xed and mobile networks, IP networks, and the Internet. It includes lawful interception solutions designed to intercept specific target communications pursuant to legal warrants and mass interception solutions for investigating and proactively addressing criminal and terrorist threats. Communications Service Provider Compliance enables communication service providers to collect and deliver to government agencies specific call-related and call-content information in compliance with Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and other compliance regulations and standards. It includes a scalable warrant and subpoena management system. Its Mobile Location Tracking tracks the location of mobile network devices for intelligence and evidence gathering, with analytics and workflow designed to support investigative activities. It provides real-time tracking of multiple targets, real-time alerts, and investigative capabilities, such as geospatial fencing and events correlation. Its Open Source Web Intelligence features advanced data collection, text analysis, data enrichment and analytics. Tactical Communications Intelligence provides portable communications interception and location tracking capabilities for local use or integration with centralized monitoring systems, to support tactical field operations. Its Cyber Intelligence designed to provide network-based cyber security, including malware detection capabilities for high-speed networks, for national cyber protection organizations.
The Company competes with Bosch Security Systems, Cisco Systems, Inc., United Technologies Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Aqsacom Inc., BAE Systems, JSI Telecom, NICE, Pen-Link, Ltd., RCS S.R.L., Rohde & Schwarz, Trovicor, SS8 Networks, Inc. and Sophos, Plc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tess Stynes]
Verint Systems Inc.(VRNT) agreed to buy customer-service software firm Kana Software Inc.(SWKH) from private equity firm Accel-KKR for about $514 million in cash, as the data-analysis company seeks to expand its offerings.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Verint Systems (NASDAQ: VRNT) was also up, gaining 4.33 percent to $48.96 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued a strong full-year forecast. Verint reported its adjusted earnings of $0.91 per share on revenue of $257.1 million.
- [By Lee Jackson]
Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT) is a global leader in actionable intelligence solutions. Its portfolio of Enterprise Intelligence Solutions and Security Intelligence Solutions helps organizations make Big Data actionable through the ability to capture, analyze and act on large volumes of rich, complex and often underused information sources — such as voice, video and unstructured text. With Verint solutions and value-added services, organizations of all sizes can make more timely and effective decisions. More than 10,000 organizations in over 150 countries, including more than 80% of the Fortune 100, count on Verint solutions to improve enterprise performance. The J.P. Morgan price target is $51, and consensus estimate is inline at $51.29. Verint closed Tuesday at $47.12.
Top Gas Utility Stocks To Watch For 2014: Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (ARE)
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), engages in the ownership, operation, management, development, acquisition, and redevelopment of properties for the life sciences industry. Its properties consist of buildings containing scientific research and development laboratories, and other improvements. The company offers its properties for lease primarily to universities and independent not-for-profit institutions; and pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, life science product, service, biodefense, and translational research entities, as well as governmental agencies. As of December 31, 2006, it had 159 properties, including 156 properties located in 9 states in the United States and 3 properties located in Canada. As a REIT, the company is not subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes 100% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 1993 and is based in Pasadena, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By GuruFocus]
George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) just reported his first quarter portfolio. He buys Citrix Systems Inc, Baker Hughes Inc, Comcast Corp, Spansion Inc, etc during the 3-months ended 03/31/2014, according to the most recent filings of his investment company, Soros Fund Management LLC. As of 03/31/2014, Soros Fund Management LLC owns 305 stocks with a total value of $10.1 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells.New Purchases: BHI, CODE, CTRP, CLI, AVB, COMM, CNQ, AGO, AUY, ATML, ASH, BXMT, CSTM, AEM, CMA, ARE, CHKP, AUQ, BEAV, CX, ADSK, AALCP, BLK, AIG, BIIB, ADEP, AMRI, ARWR, ATHX, BALT, BCRX, BEAT, CFX, CLFD, CUR, CODE,Added Positions: CTXS, CMCSA, CNP, ALTR, BRCD, CBS, CRM, CHTR, CCJ, CIEN, BIDU, ALLE, ABT, CDNS, ACT,Reduced Positions: AAPL, CCI, AMT, ABBV, AAL, BITA, AL, ANGI, ARIA, CBST, BA, BIRT, EXAR,Sold Out: C, BAC, CRI, AMZN, AGN, CF, BRCM, COTY, BMY, AMCX, CAR, A, ADBE, AFL,For the details of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)'s stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=George+SorosThis is the sector weightings of his portfolio:Technology18.9%Energy14%Healthcare8.3%Consumer Defensive8.2%Communication Services8.1%Consumer Cyclical5.4%Industrials5.1%Basic Materials4.9%Financial Services2.5%Real Estate1.9%Utilities0.5%These are the top 5 holdings of George Soros (Trades, Portfolio)1. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA) - 10,310,041 shares, 5.4% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 10.67%2. Herbalife Ltd (HLF) - 4,901,337 shares, 2.8% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 52.9%3. EQT Corp (EQT) - 2,573,814 shares, 2.5% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 3.27%4. Adecoagro SA (AGRO) - 25,915,076 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio.5. Halliburton Co (HAL) - 3,596,353 shares, 2.1% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 20.73%New Purchase: Baker Hughes Inc (BHI)George Soros (Trades, Portfolio) initiated holdings in Baker Hughes Inc. His purchase prices were between $51.82 and $65.27, with an estimated
- [By Shauna O'Brien]
Real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc (ARE) announced on Tuesday that its board has approved a 4.6% increase to its quarterly dividend.
The firm has raised its dividend from 65 cents to 68 cents per share, or $2.72 annually. The dividend will be paid on October 15 to shareholders of record on September 30. The stock will go ex-dividend on September 26.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities shares were mostly flat during pre-market trading Tuesday. The stock is down 9% YTD.
Top Gas Utility Stocks To Watch For 2014: iStar Financial Inc.(SFI)
iStar Financial Inc. operates as a finance company focusing on the commercial real estate industry. The company provides custom-tailored financing to high-end private and corporate owners of real estate. Its financing products include senior and mezzanine real estate debt, senior and mezzanine corporate capital, corporate net lease financing, and equity. The company also involves in corporate tenant leasing business, which provides capital to corporations and others who control facilities leased primarily to single creditworthy customers. As of December 31, 2008, iStar Financial owned 362 office, industrial, entertainment, hotel, and retail facilities in 39 states. The company qualifies as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, it generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 1993 and is based in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sally Jones]
iStar Financial Inc. (SFI): Sold OutUp 52% over 12 months, iStar Financial has a market cap of $940.1 million and trades with a P/B of 0.70. The current share price is $11.01.
Top Gas Utility Stocks To Watch For 2014: Washington Real Estate Investment Trust(WRE)
Washington Real Estate Investment Trust is an equity real estate investment trust (REIT). The company engages in the ownership, operation, and development of real properties. The firm invests in real estate markets of the greater Washington D.C. metro region. It focuses on office, medical office, industrial/flex space, retail, and multifamily real estate investments. Washington Real Estate Investment Trust was founded in 1960 and is based in Rockville, Maryland.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Commercial and residential income-producing property REIT�Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE: WRE ) announced yesterday its third-quarter dividend of $0.30 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past four quarters.
Top Gas Utility Stocks To Watch For 2014: ResMed Inc (RMD)
ResMed Inc., (ResMed), incorporated on March 31, 1994, is a holding company for the ResMed Group. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of medical equipment for treating, diagnosing, and managing sleep-disordered breathing and other respiratory disorders. Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) includes obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and other respiratory disorders that occur during sleep. The Company has developed a number of products for SDB and other respiratory disorders including airflow generators, diagnostic products, mask systems, headgear and other accessories. Its manufacturing operations are located in Australia, Singapore, France, Germany, Malaysia and the United States. Its distribution and sales sites are located in the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Norway and Sweden. In December 2013, ResMed Inc acquired Unimedis SRO, a surgical appliance and manufacturing company.
Air Flow Generators
The Company produces continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), variable positive airway pressure (VPAP) and AutoSet systems for the titration and treatment of SDB. The flow generator systems deliver positive airway pressure through a patient interface, either a small nasal mask, nasal pillows system, or full-face mask. Its VPAP units deliver bilevel therapy. There are two preset pressures: a higher pressure as the patient breathes in, and a lower pressure as the patient breathes out. AutoSet systems are based on a technology to monitor breathing and can also be used in the diagnosis, treatment and management of OSA. The Company�� Stellar 100 and 150 ventilation devices, provide both invasive and non invasive ventilation applications for adult and pediatric patients.
ResMed Inc.�� CPAP products include S8 Escape, S9 Elite and S9 Escape. Its VPAP products include VPAP III STA with QuickNav, VPAP S / VPAP IV, VPAP IV ST, S8 Auto 25, VPAP Tx Lab System, S9 VPAP S, S9 VPAP ST! , S9 VPAP Auto, S9 VPAP Adapt, S9 AutoSet CS, S9 Auto 25 and S9 VPAP COPD. The Company�� automatic positive airway pressure products include S9 AutoSet and S9 Escape Auto. Its ventilation products include Elisee 150, VS III and Stellar 100 and 150.
Masks, Accessories, Motors and Diagnostic Products
Masks, accessories, motors and diagnostic products together accounted for approximately 46% of its net revenues in fiscal 2012. Its Mask products include Activa LT, Swift LT for Her, Swift FX, Mirage SoftGel, Quattro FX, Swift FX for Her, Mirage FX, Mirage FX for Her, Pixi Pediatric Mask, Quattro FX for Her, Swift FX Bella, Quattro Air and Swift FX Nano. Its diagnostic products includes ApneaLink + Oximetry and ApneaLink Plus (U.S.)
Accessories and Other Products
The Company to assist those professionals diagnosing or managing the treatment of patients have data communications and control products, such as the EasyCare, ResLink, ResControl, ResControl II, TxControl, ResScan and ResTraxx modules that facilitate the transfer of data and other information to and from the flow generators. These products include humidifiers, such as H5i and H4i, which connect directly with the CPAP, VPAP and AutoSet flow generators to humidify and heat the air delivered to the patient, helping to prevent the drying of nasal passages that can cause discomfort. Other optional accessories include cold passover humidifiers, carry bags and breathing circuits. The Company�� data/patient management products include S9 Embletta Adapter, ResScan v3.14, ResTraxx v17.1., ResTraxx v18.3, ResScan v3.16 and EasyCare 1.0.
The Company competes with Philips BV, DeVilbiss Healthcare., Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited, Apex Medical Corp, BMC Medical Co. Ltd and Weinmann Gerate fur Medizin GmbH + Co. KG.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Basic guidelines
In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at ResMed (NYSE: RMD ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is ResMed doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, pretty well. Trailing-12-month revenue increased 10.0%, and inventory decreased 9.3%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks decent. Revenue increased 9.9%, and inventory shrank 9.3%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks healthy. Revenue grew 1.9%, and inventory dropped 14.5%. - [By Anna Prior]
ResMed Inc.(RMD) seems like a solid growth stock, but March sales reportedly were aided by a quarter-end deal with a large customer, while profit was boosted by noncash accruals, according to Barron’s. The strains evident in march-quarter results may grow, if Medicare and other insurers decide to pay a bundled price for continuous positive airway pressure treatments. Shares slipped 3.8% to $50.49 in recent trading.
- [By Roberto Pedone]
Another earnings short-squeeze prospect is medical equipment player ResMed (RMD), which is set to release numbers on Wednesday after the market close. Wall Street analysts, on average, expect ResMed to report revenue of $400.01 million on earnings of 64 cents per share.
The current short interest as a percentage of the float for ResMed is extremely high at 25.6%. That means that out of the 139.26 million shares in the tradable float, 35.89 million shares are sold short by the bears. The bears have also been increasing their bets from the last reporting period by 5%, or by about 1.72 million shares. If the bears get caught pressing their bets into a bullish quarter, then shares of RMD could easily trend sharply higher post-earnings as the shorts rush to cover some of their positions.
From a technical perspective, RMD is currently trending above its 50-day moving average and just below its 200-day moving average, which is neutral trendwise. Shares of RMD have started to flirt with a near-term breakout trade today, since the stock has tested some past overhead resistance at $48.07 a share. That move is starting to push shares of RMD within range of triggering a much bigger breakout trade post-earnings.
If you're bullish on RMD, then I would wait until after its report and look for long-biased trades if this stock manages to break out above some key overhead resistance levels at $51.22 to $51.32 share with high volume. Look for volume on that move that hits near or above its three-month average action of 1.17 million shares. If that breakout hits post-earnings, then RMD will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap-down-day zone from October of 2013 that started just above $56 a share. If that gap gets filled with strong upside volume flows, then RMD could easily trend north of $60 a share.
I would simply avoid RMD or look for short-biased trades if after earnings
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
ResMed�Inc. (NYSE: RMD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was downgraded to Neutral rom Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Top Gas Utility Stocks To Watch For 2014: CA Inc.(CA)
CA Technologies, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, delivers, licenses, and supports information technology (IT) management software products that operate on a range of hardware platforms and operating systems. It offers enterprise IT management software for organizations that addresses components of the computing environment, including people, information, processes, systems, networks, applications, and databases. The company provides a portfolio of mainframe and distributed software products with a focus on mainframe, service assurance, security (identity and access management), project and portfolio management, service management, virtualization and service automation, and cloud computing. It serves banks, insurance companies, other financial services providers, government agencies, manufacturers, technology companies, retailers, educational organizations, and health care institutions worldwide. CA Technologies offers its solutions through its d irect sales force and indirectly through global systems integrators, technology partners, managed service providers, solution providers, distributors and volume partners, and exclusive representatives. The company was formerly known as CA, Inc. and changed its name to CA Technologies in May 2010. CA Technologies was founded in 1974 and is based in Islandia, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jonas Elmerraji]
The chart of CA (CA) doesn't need much introduction -- it's about as simple as a technical pattern gets. CA is currently bouncing higher in an uptrending channel, a setup that gives us a very high probability range for shares of CA to remain within. Here's how to trade it.
Trendline support is the price level to watch right now in CA -- it's been the floor that's kept CA bouncing higher each of the last five times it's been tested. Even though it generally makes sense to be a buyer anywhere in an uptrend, the ideal time to buy comes on a bounce off of support.
Buying off a support bounce makes sense for two big reasons: It's the spot where shares have the furthest to move up before they hit resistance, and it's the spot where the risk is the least (because shares have the least room to move lower before you know you're wrong). With little room between the trendline support line and CA's most recent price, this week looks like as good a time as any to start building a position.
Do you know how hard your money worked for you in 2014? If not, it's time to do a 15-minute checkup of your investments and make some plans for 2015. Step 1: Check Your Performance The first thing to do is pull out recent statements for all your investments, including retirement plans such as IRAs and 401(k)s, or check them online. If you don't have a recent paper statement or online access to your accounts, you may have to wait until the year-end statement arrives in the mail. But let's assume you have your statements in front of you. The important number you are searching for is your fund performance. Once you find that number, your next question should be: "Is that good?" To find an answer, you'll need to compare your funds with indexes that include similar investments. For example, if your funds are invested in large-company stocks, you might compare your performance with the S&P 500 (^GPSC). If you have a small cap fund, look to the Russell 2000 (^RUT) for guidance. For more tech-heavy investments, Nasdaq (^IXIC) might be the best comparison. I know it would be easier if I could simply tell you that if you hit a certain percentage, your investments had a great year. However, anyone who boils your fund performance down to such basic terms is doing you a disservice. You need to have an apples-to-apples comparison. That means comparing bond funds to bond funds, balanced funds to balanced funds and so on. In addition to indexes, you can also see how your funds performed by comparing them with funds offered by such well-established fund companies as Vanguard, American Funds or Fidelity. Don't freak if your fund is a few percentage points off the returns offered by indexes or similar funds, but if your large-cap fund earned 5 percent this year when the S&P 500 earned 28 percent, that should be a red flag. Step 2: Review the Fees After you check out fund performance, the next step is to look at what you paid to achieve it. In other words, fees. If you're investing in mutual funds, this should be listed on your statements as the expense ratio. If for some reason you don't find it on your 401(k) paperwork, you may need to call your employer's HR office and ask. Obviously, lower fees are better. Some mutual funds have expense ratios as low as 0.10 percent. Others might have combined fees that top 3 percent. Look at the fund families in the links above for comparisons. With so many excellent, low-cost investment choices available today, there is little reason to have a fund with more than a 1 percent expense ratio. Step 3: Rebalance Your Assets The final step is to rebalance your portfolio. Over time, as certain funds underperform or outperform, your asset allocation may become skewed. For example, because stocks did so well in 2013, you may have more of your savings in stocks than you're now comfortable with. That's important because the type of investments you have is directly related to the amount of risk you're taking. Stocks often earn more than bonds or money market funds, they certainly have this year, but if the market crashes, you could lose big. Ideally, you should have a balance of stocks, bonds and other investments that are based upon your individual goals. If you are 22 and saving for retirement, you can probably be stock-heavy since you have time to weather the market's ups and downs. But if you're 60, you'll want more of your money in bonds and money market funds so you don't risk wiping out your life savings as you approach retirement. When you opened your investment account, you may have gotten guidance on the right asset allocation for your situation. Now is the time to rebalance your investments so they reflect that advice. Stacy Johnson offers advice in "A Simple Way to Invest for Retirement" or consult with a fee-only investment professional. Bottom line? Make an investment review part of your year-end planning. Set 15 minutes aside, follow these three easy steps, and you'll feel a lot more confident that your money is ready to meet the new year.