Well, that was fast.
As if iRobot's (NASDAQ: IRBT ) strong first quarter results weren't enough, shares of the robot maker�rose more than 3% yesterday and touched a new 52-week high after the company�announced the first official adopters of its RP-VITA medical telepresence robots.
Just two weeks ago, I�noted�that things seemed to be moving along nicely for�RP-VITA. After all, management had recently told investors as many as a dozen of the automatons had already found their way into hospitals around the continent -- though at the time it looked like they were simply putting the robot through its paces.
As a result, I had warned investors to be careful not to expect much of an impact from a revenue standpoint, especially considering that the company also only just started shipping the bots to partner InTouch Health last quarter to be outfitted with InTouch's specialized medical equipment.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: Avalon Holdings Corp (AWX)
Avalon Holdings Corporation (Avalon) is a subsidiary of American Waste Services, Inc. (AWS). Avalon operates in two business segments: waste management services and golf and related operations. The waste management services segment includes waste disposal brokerage and management services and captive landfill management operations. The golf and related operations segment includes the operation and management of golf courses, fitness centers, tennis, spa services, dining and banquet facilities and a travel agency. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the net operating revenues of the waste management services segment represented approximately 81% of its total segments��net operating revenues. During 2011, the net operating revenues of the golf and related operations segment represented approximately 19% of its total segments��net operating revenues.
Waste Management Services
Avalon�� waste management subsidiaries provide hazardous and nonhazardous waste brokerage and management services and captive landfill management services. Waste management services are provided to industrial, commercial, municipal and governmental customers primarily in selected north-eastern and mid-western United States markets. American Waste Management Services, Inc. (AWMS) assists customers with managing and disposing of wastes at approved treatment and disposal sites based upon a customer�� needs. American Landfill Management, Inc. (ALMI) is a landfill management company that provides technical and operational services to customers owning captive disposal facilities. A captive disposal facility only disposes of waste generated by the owner of such facility. ALMI provides turnkey services, including daily operations, facilities management and management reporting for its customers. As of December 31, 2011, ALMI manages one captive disposal facility located in Ohio. In addition, American Construction Supply, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ALMI, sells construction mats.
Gol! f and Related Operations
Avalon�� golf and related operations segment operates golf courses and related facilities and a travel agency. Avalon Lakes Golf, Inc. (ALGI) owns and operates a Pete Dye designed championship golf course located in Warren, Ohio. ALGI generates revenue from membership dues, greens fees, cart rentals, merchandise, and food and beverage sales. TBG, Inc. (TBG), a subsidiary of ALGI, entered into a long-term agreement with Squaw Creek Country Club to lease and operate its golf course and related facilities. In addition to a championship golf course, the Squaw Creek facilities include a swimming pool, tennis courts and a clubhouse that includes a fitness center, dining and banquet facilities. TBG generates its revenue in the same manner as ALGI, but also generates revenues from tennis. Avalon Travel, Inc., a subsidiary of ALGI, owns and operates a travel agency which generates its revenue from booking travel reservations. Avalon�� golf courses are located in Warren, Ohio, Vienna, Ohio and Sharon, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Geoff Gannon] company that is in two different businesses.
It has a golf course business that is not profitable but has a lot of assets. And then it has a waste management business that is profitable. But doesn�� have a lot of assets.
This is the sort of situation where I would pay a lot of attention to the balance sheet. You aren�� really double counting in a stock like this. The assets are not producing the earnings. They could be separated from the business.
Unfortunately, this is a controlled company. And not a good activist target.
But you will find situations like Gyrodyne (GYRO) and Syms (SYMSQ) where at some point the company�� entire value really depended on its balance sheet.
Obviously when looking at things like real estate you don�� go by what it says on the balance sheet. You try to find a note on depreciation that breaks out land, buildings, etc. And gives information about how the company depreciates its property.
And ��of course ��you look at the ��roperties��item in the 10-K. In the U.S., you then use the information you��e gathered to check county land records and things like that for more information about the property.
Generally, you want to:
路 Find out when the company bought the property
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: Freescale Semiconductor Inc (FSL)
Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. provides embedded processing solutions for automotive, networking, industrial, and consumer markets worldwide. The company�s embedded processor products comprise microcontrollers, such as ultra low power, low end 8-bit, and 32-bit products with on-board flash memory, which provide the digital logic or intelligence for electronic applications; single-and multi-core microprocessors; and applications processors with embedded memory, and special purpose hardware and software for multimedia applications. It also offers wireless connectivity products for low power wireless communications functionality; communications processors that perform tasks related to control and management of digital data, and network interfaces; and radio frequency (RF) devices, which consist of power transistors, amplifiers, receivers, and tuners for amplifying RF signals. In addition, the company provides analog, mixed-signal, and power management integrated circuits (ICs ) that include switches, power management devices, battery and motor control devices, CAN/LIN network transceivers, and signal conditioners that perform audio processing, backlight management/control, power management, and charging functions; sensors comprising pressure, inertial, magnetic, and proximity sensors, which act as an interface between an embedded system and external environment; and cellular products consisting of baseband processors, power management ICs, and RF subsystems. It sells its products to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, original design manufacturers, and contract manufacturers through its direct sales force and distributors. The company was formerly known as Freescale Semiconductor Holdings I, Ltd. and changed its name to Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. in April 2012. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. is a subsidiary of Freescale Holdings L.P.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Shares of Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) were also up, gaining 15.56 percent to $17.67 after the company beat street estimates on its fourth quarter report.
- [By Lee Jackson]
Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (NYSE: FSL) also has a less than 10% exposure in sales to Cisco. With a large percentage of sales, totaling close to 30% to the growing automotive sector, Freescale may be able to dodge lower orders for its digital networking chips. The consensus price target for the stock is $19.
- [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 Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top Supermarket Companies To Buy For 2015: NEW GOLD INC.(NGD)
New Gold Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, extraction, processing, and reclamation of mineral properties. The company primarily explore for gold, silver, and copper deposits. Its operating properties include the Mesquite gold mine in the United States; the Cerro San Pedro gold-silver mine in Mexico; and the Peak gold-copper mine in Australia. The company also has development projects, including the New Afton gold, silver, and copper project in Canada; and a 30% interest in the El Morro copper-gold project in Chile. The company was formerly known as DRC Resources Corporation and changed its name to New Gold Inc. in June 2005. New Gold Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Hamed singles out Goldcorp (GG) and Yamana Gold (AUY) as two companies that have strong production growth, falling costs, declining capital obligations and less debt than competitors. New Gold (NGD), meanwhile, should have the lowest all-on costs in the group at $731 an ounce, but its capital spending is likely to notes, Hamed says. Hamed rates Goldcorp and Yamana Overweight, while New Gold is rated Equal Weight.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
January is nearing an end, and that means one thing: Gold miners will start announcing earnings. New Gold (NGD) will get things started on Feb 6, followed by Kinross Gold (KGC) on Feb. 12 and Goldcorp (GG) and Barrick Gold (ABX) on Feb. 13.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Even bad news has failed to dent the rise in gold stocks today. NewGold (NGD), for instance, has gained 1.8% to $7.49 despite the fact that the wall of one of its mines collapsed. The Wall Street Journal has the details:
- [By Ben Levisohn]
One group of stocks not feeling the optimism today: Gold miners. With fewer concerns that a U.S. attack on Syria will be disruptive and more evidence that tapering will begin this month, the price of the precious metal has dropped 1.6% to $1,388.90 an ounce–and gold stocks are falling with it. New Gold (NGD), for one, has dropped 3% to $6.55, while Barrick Gold (ABX) has fallen 1.3% to $19.25.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: PDF Solutions Inc.(PDFS)
PDF Solutions, Inc. provides infrastructure technologies and services for the design and manufacture of integrated circuits (IC) in Asia, the United States, and Europe. It offers manufacturing process solutions that include process research and development, and process integration and yield ramp; volume manufacturing solutions; and design-for-manufacturability (DFM) solutions, such as logic DFM, circuit level DFM, memory DFM, and pdBRIX Physical IP solutions. The company also offers characterization vehicle (CV) infrastructure, which includes CV test chips, pdCV analysis software, and pdFasTest electrical wafer test system; Yield Ramp Simulator software that analyzes an IC design to compute its systematic and random yield loss; and Circuit Surfer software, which estimates the parametric performance yield and manufacturability of analog/mixed-signal/RF blocks. In addition, it provides pdBRIX platform, which includes software for identifying and developing a set of physical IP building blocks that are tailored to a given manufacturing process and target product application; dataPOWER YMS platform that collects yield data, loads, and stores it in an integrated database and allows product engineers to identify and analyze production yield issues; FDC software, which provides fault detection and classification capabilities to identify sources of process variations and manufacturing excursions by monitoring equipment parameters; and YA-FDC service and software platform that allows online modeling to create real-time virtual measurements of final product attributes during processing. PDF Solutions sells its technologies and services through direct sales force, sales representatives, and strategic alliances to integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor design companies, and foundries in the microprocessors, memory, graphics, image sensor solutions, and communications segments. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in San Jo se, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
PDF Solutions (PDFS) provides infrastructure technologies and services to improve yield and optimize performance of integrated circuits. This stock closed up 2.6% at $21.51 in Friday's trading session.
Friday's Volume: 543,000
Three-Month Average Volume: 112,159
Volume % Change: 393%From a technical perspective, PDFS trended up here right above some near-term support at $20.50 and into new 52-week-high territory with above-average volume. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last three months, with shares moving higher from its low of $14.95 to its intraday high on Friday of $21.64. During that move, shares of PDFS have been consistently making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has also been accompanies by heavy upside volume flows since mid-July.
Traders should now look for long-biased trades in PDFS as long as it's trending above some near-term support at $20.50 or above its 50-day at $19.06 and then once it sustains a move or close above Friday's high of $21.64 with volume that's near or above 112,159 shares. If we get that move soon, then PDFS will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $25 to $28.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: MOJO Organics Inc (MOJO)
MOJO Organics, Inc., incorporated on August 2, 2007, engages in product development, production, marketing and distribution of CHIQUITA TROPICALS. CHIQUITA TROPICALS are a 100% fruit juice, produced under license agreement from Chiquita Brands. The Company�� product flavors include Banana Strawberry, Mango, Passion Fruit, and Pineapple.
The Company�� juices are produced without preservatives and without added sugar. The Company produces and packages the CHIQUITA TROPICALS products through production facilities and services on a contract basis.
The Company competes with The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lisa Levin]
Catalog & Mail Order Houses: The industry gained 1.13% by 10:15 am. The top performer in this industry was Mojo Organics (OTC: MOJO), which gained 6.6%. Mojo Organics shares have jumped 361.54% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 16.18% in the same period.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: Monsanto Co (MON)
Monsanto Company (Monsanto), incorporated on February 9, 2000, along with its subsidiaries, is a provider of agricultural products for farmers. The Company's seeds, biotechnology trait products, and herbicides provide farmers with solutions that improve productivity, reduce the costs of farming, and produce better foods for consumers and better feed for animals. It manages business in two segments: Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. In April 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of a corn and soybean processing plant located in Paine, Chile from Anasac, a company that provides seed processing services. In October 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of Seminium, S.A. (Seminium), a corn seed company. In February 2011, the Company acquired Divergence, Inc. In September 2011, the Company acquired Beeologics. In June 2012, the Company purchased a planting technology developer, Precision Planting, Inc. In January 2013, it purchased select assets of Agradis, Inc. In June 2013, Monsanto Company acquired GrassRoots Biotechnology Inc. In November 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of The Climate Corporation.
Seeds and Genomics Segment
Through the Company's Seeds and Genomics segment, it produces seed brands, including DEKALB, Asgrow, Deltapine, Seminis and De Ruiter, and it develops biotechnology traits that assist farmers in controlling insects and weeds. It also provides other seed companies with genetic material and biotechnology traits for their seed brands. It has a global distribution and sales and marketing organization for its seeds and traits. It sells products under Monsanto brands and license technology and genetic material to others for sale under their own brands. Through distributors, independent retailers and dealers, agricultural cooperatives, plant raisers, and agents, it markets DEKALB, Asgrow and Deltapine branded germplasm to farmers globally. In the United States, it markets regional seed brands under it! s American Seeds, LLC and Channel Bio, LLC businesses to farmers directly, as well as through dealers, agricultural cooperatives and agents. It markets and sells trait technologies with branded germplasm, pursuant to license agreements with its farmer customers. In Brazil and Paraguay, its has implemented a point-of-delivery, grain-based payment system. It contracts with grain handlers to collect applicable trait fees when farmers deliver their grain. In addition to selling its products under its own brands, the Company licenses a range of germplasm and trait technologies to large and small seed companies in the United States and certain international markets. Those seed companies in turn market its trait technologies in their branded germplasm; they may also market its germplasm under its own brand name. Its vegetable seeds are marketed in more than 100 countries through distributors, independent retailers and dealers, agricultural cooperatives, plant raisers and agents, as well as directly to farmers.
The Company�� row crop seeds brands include DEKALB, Channel Bio, Asgrow and Deltapine. Its DEKALB and Channel Bio are corn hybrids and foundation seed. Its Asgrow are soybean varieties and foundation seed. Its Deltapine are cotton varieties, hybrids and foundation seed. Canola is its row crop variety and hybrid. Its vegetable seed brands are Seminis and De Ruiter. These are open field and protected-culture seed for tomato, pepper, eggplant, melon, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, beans, broccoli, onions, and lettuce, among others. Its Biotechnology traits include SmartStax, YieldGard, YieldGard VT Triple, VT Triple PRO, VT Double PRO, Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready 2 Yield and Genuity. Its SmartStax, YieldGard, YieldGard VT Triple, VT Triple PRO and VT Double PRO have applications for corn, and Bollgard and Bollgard II have application for cotton. It enables crops to protect themselves from borers and rootworm in corn and leaf- and boll-feeding worms in cotton, reducing the need for application! s of inse! cticides. Its Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready 2 Yield have application for soybeans. The Company�� Genuity is a global umbrella trait brand. It enables crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola to be tolerant of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides. Monsanto also offers farmers stacked-trait products, which are single-seed products in which two or more traits are combined.
Agricultural Productivity Segment
Through the Company's Agricultural Productivity segment, it manufactures Roundup brand herbicides and other herbicides and provide lawn-and-garden herbicide products for the residential market. Its products include Glyphosate-based herbicides, Selective herbicides and Lawn-and-garden herbicides. Its Glyphosate-based herbicides have applications in nonselective agricultural, industrial, ornamental and turf applications for weed control. Its Selective herbicides control preemergent annual grass and small seeded broadleaf weeds in corn and other crops. Its residential lawn-and-garden has applications for weed control. It uses the same distribution and sales and marketing organization for its crop protection products as for its seeds and traits. It also has separate distribution and sales and marketing organizations for its crop protection products. It sells crop protection products through distributors, independent retailers and dealers and agricultural cooperatives. In some cases outside the United States, it sells such products directly to farmers. It also sells certain of the chemical intermediates of its crop protection products to other agricultural chemical producers, who then market their own branded products to farmers. The Company markets its lawn-and-garden herbicide products through The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
Still, agriculture remains the big growth area for DuPont. Rival Monsanto (NYSE: MON ) recently reported lackluster sales in its most recent quarter, with roughly flat sales of corn and soybean seeds revealing the general malaise in the sector.
- [By Paul Ausick]
Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) posted fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal�2013 results before markets opened Wednesday morning. The fertilizer and seed maker reported a fourth-quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.47 on revenue of $2.2 billion. In the same period a year ago, Monsanto reported an adjusted diluted EPS loss of $0.44 on revenue of $2.1 billion. Fourth-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for an EPS loss of $0.43 and $2.24 billion in revenue.
- [By Vanina Egea]
The battle on the field continues. Monsanto (MON) and Syngenta (SYT) are expected to enter the seed business with a strong bid. Both companies stand at the top of the agricultural inputs industry, and continue to look for ways to improve performance. Let us see what some gurus think about their future prospects, and if they see them fit for a long term investment.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: ACI Worldwide Inc (ACIW)
ACI Worldwide, Inc.(ACI), incorporated on November 2, 1993, develops, markets, installs and supports a line of software products and services primarily focused on facilitating electronic payments. In addition to its own products, it distributes, or acts as a sales agent for software developed by third parties. These products and services are used principally by financial institutions, retailers and electronic payment processors, both in domestic and international markets. Its products are sold and supported through distribution networks covering three geographic regions the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific. Each distribution network has its own sales force that it supplements with independent reseller and/or distributor networks. Its products are marketed under the ACI Worldwide and ACI Payment Systems brands. In March 2013, it completed the acquisition of Online Resources Corp. In November 2013, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of Official Payments Holdings, Inc, a provider of electronic bill payment solutions.
The Company�� software products and hosted services deliver a broad range of solutions for payments processing, card and merchant management, online banking, mobile, branch and voice banking, fraud detection and trade finance. Trusted by more than 1,650 organizations globally, ACI serves three primary market audiences: Financial institutions, including national, regional and global banks, community banks and credit unions , Processors and Retailers. Its products cover several different domains within the payments and banking marketplace, which includes Online Banking and Cash Management ,includes the payments and cash flows across accounts globally through the online or mobile channel , Branch , includes the management and processing of monetary, non monetary, sales and account origination financial transactions, Trade Finance, includes the management of all trade related transaction types, both traditional trade and open acc! ount instruments with the ability for end users to view and track those transactions through the online channel, Community Financial Services, includes the online and mobile banking and payment systems, and security solutions that service community banks and credit unions , Retail Banking Payments provides the software to support in house issuance of payment instruments and the management of a consumer payment from transaction acquiring all through the lifecycle within the banking system to settlement; which it split into Payments Processing, and Card and Merchant Management , Wholesale Banking Payments , includes the management of primarily corporate payments and messages through their lifecycle including RTGS payments, ACH payments, and SWIFT transactions , Merchant Retail , includes the management of a consumer payment within a merchant retailer and supporting services such as the management of store and gift card and loyalty programs , Payment Fraud Management, includes securing of payments against fraud and money laundering and Payment Infrastructure, includes the tools and infrastructure to operate and optimize the payments system .
Online Banking and Cash Management, Branch and Trade Finance
Online Banking and Cash Management, Branch & Trade domain offers ACI Enterprise Banker is a comprehensive Internet-based business banking product for financial institutions including banks, brokerage firms and credit unions and can be flexibly packaged for small, medium and business customers. This product provides these customers with electronic payment initiation capability, information reporting, and numerous other payment related services that allow the business customer to manage all its banking needs via the Internet. ACI Global Banker provides single-window access to corporate cash management, trade finance, FXservices, reporting and data exchange. Global Banker supports single-window, Single Sign-On access to a bank�� corporate Internet banking platform. ACI Universal Onl! ine Banke! r is a comprehensive Internet-based banking product for financial institutions including banks, brokerage firms and credit unions and can be flexibly packaged for small, medium and business customers as well as individual consumers. This product provides these customers with electronic payment initiation capability, information reporting, and numerous other cash management services that allow the business customer to manage all its banking needs via the Internet as well as mobile channels.
InterACT Universal Banker is a multi-channel product suite which supports the processing of monetary, non-monetary, sales and account origination transactions across multiple channels including branch, call center and back office, as well as delivering extended branch support for browser based employees , such as relationship managers or calling officers. track their entire trade portfolio of traditional trade and open account instrument over the Internet. This product is also utilized in the wholesale domain. ACI Mobile Channel Manager allows organizations to provide consumers, business and corporate customers with mobile access to functions across the banking and payments spectrum. When used with ACI banking products and payment engines, Mobile Channel Manager enables mobile functions which might include account management, balance inquiries, transfers, bill payments, person-to-person (P2P) payments (including PayPal), pre-paid purchases, remote deposit capture, ATM/branch locator, SMS notifications. This solution is also utilized in the retail domain.
Community Financial Services
Online and Mobile Banking solutions for Community Banks and Credit Unions offers a full-featured self-service banking solution including online banking, voice banking and mobile banking for consumer and small-to-mid-size businesses, all from a single hosted platform. The WebFederal suite provides credit unions with online banking, business solutions, mobile banking, CRM Marketing, and Creative and ! Web Desig! n services. ACI Defense is a full-service security solutions for community banks and credit unions. The ACI Defense suite of solutions helps U.S. financial institutions address security compliance obligations with firewall and intrusion prevention services, security assessments, vulnerability testing, endpoint and mobile protection, email security and encryption and identity theft/anti-phishing services. Online Bill Payment and Presentment provides full-service bill payment solutions for community banks and credit unions, including pay-anyone functionality, online bill presentment, P2P and A2A payments and express pay services.
Retail Banking Payments Payments Processing
The Company's retail payments processing products are designed to acquire electronic payment transactions from transaction generators and route them to acquiring institutions so that they can be authorized for payment. The software often interfaces with regional or national switches to access the account-holding financial institution or card issuer for approval or denial of the transactions (authorization). The software returns messages to the original transaction generator (e.g. an ATM), thereby completing the transactions. Depending on how the software is configured, it can perform all of the functions necessary to authenticate, authorize, route and settle an electronic payment transaction, or it can interact with other systems to ensure that these functions are performed. Payments processing software may be required to interact with dozens of devices, switch interchanges and communication protocols around the world.
BASE24-eps is an integrated electronic payments processing product marketed to customers operating electronic payment networks in the retail banking and retail industries. The modular, open architecture of the product enables customers to select the application and system components that are required to operate their networks. BASE24-eps offers a broad range of features and function! s for ele! ctronic payment processing. BASE24-eps is licensed as a standalone electronic payments solution for financial institutions, retailers and electronic payment processors. BASE24-eps, which operates on International Business Machines��(IBM) System z, IBM System p, Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) NonStop, and Oracle Solaris servers, provides flexible integration points to other applications and data within enterprises to support 24-hour per day access to money, services and information. On the HP NonStop platform, BASE24-eps uses NET24-XPNET, an ACI developed message oriented middleware solution. ACI continues to support and maintain a number of other retail payments engines which are no longer actively marketed to new customers.
BASE24 is an integrated family of software products previously marketed to customers operating electronic payment networks in the retail banking and retail industries. A substantial portion of ACI�� revenues are derived from licensing the BASE24 family of products and providing related services and maintenance as it has been the core of the ACI business since the Company�� inception. The BASE24 product line operates exclusively on HP NonStop servers. The HP NonStop parallel-processing environment offers fault-tolerance, linear expandability and distributed processing capabilities. The combination of features offered by BASE24 and the HP NonStop technology are important characteristics in high volume, 24-hour per day electronic payment systems. BASE24 makes use of NET24-XPNET, an ACI developed message oriented middleware solution.
Postilion is an integrated electronic payments processing system. It authenticates, authorizes, routes and switches transactions generated at ATMs and merchant POS sites as well as provides flexible infrastructure to handle key aspects of the back office functions. The product is used widely across the world, with a particular emphasis in Africa. This product is also used in the merchant retail domain.
Retail Ban! king Paym! ents Card and Merchant Management
ACI Card and Merchant Management solutions are card issuing and merchant management products, which have been successfully used by the payments industry for many years. These products run on IBM System z, and various Unix and Microsoft Windows servers. ACI Issuer is a modern card and account management system. It has been developed to support national, international, and global financial institutions. The system has full multi-currency, multi-product, multi-institution and multi-language capabilities. It manages card portfolios in different countries and for different issuers on a single platform and has been built to fully comply with EMV standards. ACI Acquirer supports the full lifecycle of merchant portfolio management, including merchant onboarding, transaction acquisition, interchange fee qualification, settlement and statement generation. The system is enabled with the flexibility acquirers require to manage complex merchant portfolios.
ACI Interchange is the central monetary transaction manager, processing all incoming customer transactions and maintaining a central transactions database. ACI Interchange also manages the clearing and settlement communication with the international payment schemes, ensuring compliance with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, China Union Pay and JCB. The module can easily be adapted to manage clearing and settlement with additional networks such as domestic payment schemes. ACI Token Manager consists of a suite of products from ACI�� partner Bell Identification B.V. The Smart Card & Application Management System provides for central lifecycle management of smart cards and other tokens as well as the management of the applications activated within the scheme. The Key Management System facilitates the implementation of security concepts based on the generation, storage, recovery, import and distribution of cryptographic keys. The keys are used for encryption and decryption of data and for verific! ation and! authorization of trusted parties using digital certificates. ACI Token Manager for Mobile enables the delivery of payment tokens, such as wallets, to mobile phones.
ACI Payments Manager is an integrated, modular software solution that automates the processing, settlement and reconciliation of electronic transactions, as well as provides plastic card issuance and account management. This product is primarily marketed in North America. ACI Automated Dispute Manager enables issuers, acquirers, processors and payment networks to streamline and automate the dispute management process through workflow-based software components.
Wholesale Banking Payments
The Company�� wholesale banking solutions are focused on global, super-regional and regional financial institutions that provide treasury management services to corporations and correspondent banks. In addition, the market includes non-bank financial institutions with the need to conduct their own internal treasury management activities. ACI Money Transfer System provides high value payments processing, bulk payments processing and SWIFT financial messaging. The high value payments processing function, which produces the majority of revenues for the ACI Money Transfer System, is used to generate, authorize, enrich, route and settle high value wire transfer transactions in domestic and international environments. The ACI Money Transfer System product operates on IBM System p servers using the AIX operating system.
Merchant Retail
ACI Retail Commerce Server is a solution for retailers, is an integrated suite of electronic payments products that facilitate a broad range of capabilities. These capabilities include prepaid, debit and credit card processing, ACH processing, electronic benefits transfer, card issuance and management, check authorization, customer loyalty programs and returned check collection. The Retail Commerce Server product line operates on open systems technologies such as! Microsof! t Windows, UNIX and Linux, with the current installations deployed on the Microsoft Windows platform. ACI In-store Solution supports retailers and drives the retailer�� payment portion of the customer�� in-store purchase experience. The In-store solution prompts the consumer and gathers the necessary card payment details to process the payment request. Importantly, the solution helps retailers control the costs and risk of key regulatory issues such as PCI compliance and data theft at the point of sale.
Payment Fraud Management
ACI Proactive Risk Management is a payment fraud detection system designed to help card issuers, merchants, merchant acquirers and financial institutions combat fraud schemes. The system combines the pattern recognition capability of neural-network transaction scoring with custom risk models of rules-based strategies and advanced client/server account management software. The real time capability enables fraud assessment to be part of the authorization process preventing fraud from occurring. Proactive Risk Management operates on IBM System z, HP NonStop, Oracle Solaris and Microsoft Windows servers. This product offers customers the flexibility to automate activities and processes across the complete lifecycle of a case related to fraud. Cases are created when fraud officers checking an alert within Proactive Risk Manager identify fraud or money laundering. The solution is a basic framework that defines processes for researching and resolving cases, including investigation resources, timeframes, escalation paths and alerts.
Payments Infrastructure
The Payments Infrastructure products provide specific technology extensions to augment the business services provided in the business service domains. ACI Communication Services provides a range of communication services to enable message exchange on multiple platforms in particular enabling applications to support legacy protocols, such as SNA and X.25, running over TCP/IP net! works. It! also supports hybrid networking environments such as IBM�� HPR/IP. This set of products runs on HP NonStop, IBM System z and Unix platforms. ACI Enterprise Security Services is a suite of security solutions that secure access to systems and resources. These products run on the HP NonStop platform and are designed to take advantage of HP NonStop fundamentals.
ACI Web Access Services allows HP NonStop users to securely expose existing applications to peer systems as well as PC clients and Web browsers. Web Access Services supports new GUI client development, standard 6530 and 3270E terminal emulation or automated data stream transformation to give users a range of options for integrating NonStop services across the enterprise. ACI Payment Testing (ASSET) is a simulation and testing tool that allows companies involved in electronic payments to simulate devices and transactions, and perform application testing. ASSET is available for use with BASE24, BASE24-eps, Postilion, and ACI Proactive Risk Manager.
Prognosis is available for use with BASE24, BASE24-eps, Postilion, ACI Proactive Risk Manager, and ACI Money Transfer System. ACI Mobile Alerting powered by Spectrum MoneyGuard offers fraud or service alert options in near real-time with SMS messages to their mobile phones of events affecting their banking transactions. When used for fraud alerting, customers have the option of responding via text (two-way communication) and requesting a block of the card and a confirmation is sent.
Services
It offers its customers a wide range of professional services, including analysis, design, development, implementation, integration and training. It has service professionals within each of its three geographic regions who generally perform the majority of the work associated with installing and integrating its software products, rather than relying on third-party systems integrators. It utilizes a standard methodology to deliver customer project implementations ! across al! l products lines. Within the process, it provides customers with a variety of services, including on-site solution scoping reviews, project planning, training, site preparation, installation, product configuration, product customization, testing and go-live support, and project management throughout the project lifecycle. Product-support-funded services are available to customers after a solution has been installed and are based on the relevant product support category. A team of support analysts and an appointed customer manager are available to assist customers. Technical services are provided to customers who have licensed one or more of its software products. Services offered include programming and programming support, day-to-day systems operations, network operations, help desk staffing, problem resolution, system design, and performance planning and review. Technical services are typically priced according to the level of technical expertise required. ACI�� education courses provide students with knowledge at all levels, to enhance and improve their understanding of ACI products. ACI also provides further, more in-depth technical courses that allow students to use practical labs to enhance what they have learned in the classroom. The ACI trainers��ability to understand customers��systems means ACI can also provide tailored course materials for individual customers.
ACI�� testing services team works within the ACI customer base to establish testing practices and build a standard testing environment that meets an organization�� current needs, and is easily extensible for future requirements. It is important that any testing environment encompasses all aspects of the testing lifecycle (i.e., functional, acceptance, regression and stress testing), as well as allowing ease of use by the appropriate staff. ACI�� testing services can provide this environment as either a stand-alone deliverable or as a fully managed service.
ACI is committed to providing cons! ulting se! rvices to its customer base. In order to do this, it has assembled a team of technicians with many decades of experience, not only with ACI solutions, but also in the payments industry in general. Trusted globally, these consultants are available to provide technical assistance to ACI�� customers across the full range of the ACI portfolio. The consultants��knowledge and understanding of ACI�� customers allow them to define, design and build appropriate technical solutions. This in turn provides an enhanced business offering to customers, ultimately enabling a greater competitive advantage and increased satisfaction. It offers facilities management services whereby it operates a customer�� electronic payments system for multi-year periods. Pricing and payment terms for facilities management services vary on a case-by-case basis giving consideration to the complexity of the facility or system to be managed, the level and quantity of technical services required, and other factors relevant to the facilities management agreement.
The Company competes with Clear2Pay NV/SA (Clear2Pay), Intuit Corporation, Bottomline Technologies, ARGO, FIS, Fundtech Ltd, First Data Corporation, Fidelity National Information Services, Inc, Fiserv, Inc., China Systems, CSI, Misys, CGI, Clear2Pay, Computer Sciences Corporation, Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., Pegasystems Inc., OpenWay Group, Total System Services, Inc. (TSYS), Alaric Technology Inc., BPC Banking Technologies, PayEx Solutions AS, Financial Software and Systems, CR2, Lusis Payments Ltd., Opus Software Solutions Private Limited, Atos Origin S.A., Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., First Data Corporation, SiNSYS, TSYS, VISA, MasterCard, Dovetail Software, IBM, Logica Plc, Tieto Corporation, AJB Software Design, Inc., Retalix, Heartland Payment Systems, Inc., Servebase Computers Ltd, Tender Retail Inc., VeriFone Systems, Inc, Actimize, Inc., Fair Isaac Corporation, BAE Systems Detica, ReD, Memento Inc., Norkom Techn! ologies, ! and SAS Institute, Inc., CA Technologies, HP and Oracle USA, Inc.
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 ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq: ACIW ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By CRWE]
ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq:ACIW), a leading international provider of payment systems, released details of its product roadmaps to the market, and described how the combination of ACI and S1 adds innovation, new product capabilities and resources around the globe to support the needs of its customers.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: Scripps Networks Interactive Inc(SNI)
Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. operates as a lifestyle content company in the United States and internationally. It engages in the operation of television networks, including Home and Garden Television, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, and Great American Country. The company also operates Websites, including FoodNetwork.com, Food.com, CookingChannelTV.com, HGTV.com, DIYnetwork.com, and Travelchannel.com that are associated with its television networks and other Internet-based businesses serving food, home, and travel related categories. Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Will Ashworth]
Somebody will buy Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI), given that HGTV and Food Network are both in the top 20. It looked momentarily like Discovery Communications (DISCA) might be the suitor, but the company backed out of talks this past week, preferring to focus on overseas expansion.
Top 10 Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: MDU Resources Group Inc (MRE)
MDU Resources Group, Inc.,incorporated on March 14, 1924, is a diversified natural resource company. Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (Montana-Dakota) is a public utility division of the Company. Montana-Dakota, through the electric and natural gas distribution segments, generates, transmits and distributes electricity and distributes natural gas in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Cascade Natural Gas Corporation (Cascade), which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of MDU Energy Capital, distributes natural gas in Oregon and Washington. Intermountain Gas Company (Intermountain) distributes natural gas in Idaho. Great Plains Natural Gas Co. (Great Plains), which is a public utility division of the Company, distributes natural gas in western Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota. These operations also supply related value-added services. The Company�� segments include electric, pipeline and energy services, exploration and production, construction materials and contracting and construction services.
The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Centennial Energy Holdings, Inc. (Centennial), owns WBI Holdings, Inc. (WBI Holdings) (consisting of the pipeline and energy services and the exploration and production segments), Knife River Corporation (Knife River) (construction materials and contracting segment), MDU Construction Services Group, Inc. (MDU Construction Services) (construction services segment), Centennial Energy Resources LLC (Centennial Resources) and Centennial Holdings Capital LLC (Centennial Capital) (both included in the Other category). The Company produces Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions primarily from its fossil fuel electric generating facilities, as well as from natural gas pipeline and storage systems, operations of equipment and fleet vehicles, and oil and natural gas exploration and development activities.
Electric
Montana-Dakota provides electric service at retail, serving more than 131,000 residential, commercial, indu! strial and municipal customers in 177 communities and adjacent rural areas as of December 31, 2012. The principal properties owned by Montana-Dakota for use in its electric operations include interests in 10 electric generating facilities and three small portable diesel generators, as further described under System Supply, System Demand and Competition, approximately 3,100 and 4,700 miles of transmission and distribution lines, respectively and 51 transmission and 268 distribution substations. Montana-Dakota has obtained and holds valid and existing franchises authorizing it to conduct its electric operations in all of the municipalities it serves where such franchises are required.
The Company, through the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (Midwest ISO), Montana-Dakota has access to wholesale energy, ancillary services and capacity markets. The Midwest ISO is a regional transmission organization responsible for operational control of the transmission systems of its members. The Midwest ISO provides security center operations, tariff administration and operates day-ahead and real-time energy markets, ancillary services and capacity markets. In 2012, Montana-Dakota purchased approximately 27 % of its net kilowatts-hour needs for its interconnected system through the Midwest ISO market.
Montana-Dakota serves markets in portions of western North Dakota, including Bismarck, Mandan, Dickinson and Williston; eastern Montana, including Glendive and Miles City; and northern South Dakota, including Mobridge. The maximum electric peak demand experienced to date attributable to Montana-Dakota's sales to retail customers on the interconnected system was 573,587 kilowatts in July, 2012. The interconnected system consists of nine electric generating facilities and three small portable diesel generators, which has an aggregate nameplate rating attributable to Montana-Dakota's interest of 488,905 kilowatts. Through the Sheridan System, which is a separate electric system o! wned by M! ontana-Dakota, Montana-Dakota serves Sheridan, Wyoming, and neighboring communities. The maximum peak demand attributable to Montana-Dakota sales to retail customers on that system was approximately 61,501 kilowatts in July, 2012.
Montana-Dakota's four principal generating stations are steam-turbine generating units, which uses coal for fuel. The nameplate rating for Montana-Dakota's ownership interest in these four stations , including interests in the Big Stone Station and the Coyote Station, aggregating 22.7 % and 25%, respectively is 327,758 kilowatts. Two combustion turbine peaking stations, two wind electric generating facilities, a heat recovery electric generating facility and three small portable diesel generators supply the balance of Montana-Dakota's interconnected system electric generating capability.
The Coyote coal supply agreement provides for the purchase of coal necessary to supply the coal requirements of the Coyote Station or 30,000 tons per week, whichever may be the greater quantity at contracted pricing. The Heskett and Lewis & Clark coal supply agreements provide for the purchase of coal necessary to supply the coal requirements of these stations at contracted pricing. Montana-Dakota estimates the Heskett and Lewis & Clark coal requirement to be in the range of 450,000 to 550,000 tons and 250,000 to 350,000 tons per contract year, respectively
Natural Gas Distribution
The Company's natural gas distribution operations consist of Montana-Dakota, Great Plains, Cascade and Intermountain, which sell natural gas at retail, serving over 859,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 334 communities and adjacent rural areas across eight states as of December 31, 2012, and provide natural gas transportation services to certain customers on their systems. These services are provided through distribution systems aggregating approximately 18,200 miles.
The Company's purchased natural gas is supplied by a po! rtfolio o! f contracts specifying market-based pricing and is transported under transportation agreements with WBI Energy Transmission, Northwest Pipeline GP, Northern Natural Gas, Gas Transmission Northwest LLC, Northwestern Energy, Viking Gas Transmission Company and Ruby Pipeline LLC. The natural gas distribution operations have contracts for storage services to provide gas supply during the winter heating season and to meet peak day demand with various storage providers, including WBI Energy Transmission, Questar Pipeline Company, Northwest Pipeline GP and Northern Natural Gas. In addition, certain of the operations have entered into natural gas supply management agreements with various parties.
Pipeline and Energy Services
WBI Energy Transmission, the regulated business of this segment, owns and operates approximately 3,800 miles of transmission, gathering and storage lines in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. WBI Energy Midstream owns a 50% undivided interest in certain midstream assets located in western North Dakota. Three underground storage fields in Montana and Wyoming provide storage services to local distribution companies, producers, natural gas marketers and others, and serve to enhance system deliverability. WBI Energy Transmission's system is located near five natural gas producing basins, making natural gas supplies available to WBI Energy Transmission's transportation and storage customers. The system has 13 interconnecting points with other pipeline facilities allowing for the receipt and/or delivery of natural gas to and from other regions of the country and from Canada.
WBI Energy Midstream, the non-regulated pipeline business of this segment, owns and operates gathering facilities in Colorado, Kansas, Montana and Wyoming. It also owns a 50% undivided interest in certain midstream assets located in western North Dakota that were acquired in 2012, which include a natural gas processing plant, both oil and gas gathering pipelines, an ! oil stora! ge terminal and an oil pipeline. Prairielands is an energy services business,which provides natural gas purchase and sales services to local distribution companies, producers, other marketers and a limited number of end-users, primarily using natural gas produced by the Company's exploration and production segment. WBI Energy Transmission's underground natural gas storage facilities has a storage capacity of approximately 353 billion cubic feet, including 193 billion cubic feet of working gas capacity, 85 billion cubic feet of cushion gas and 75 billion cubic feet of native gas.
Exploration and Production
Fidelity is involved in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas resources. Fidelity continues to seek additional reserve and production growth opportunities through these activities. Fidelity's business is focused primarily in two core regions: Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent/Gulf States.
Fidelity's Rocky Mountain region includes Bakken areas , which includes oil targets in which Fidelity holds approximately 16,000 net acres in Mountrail County, North Dakota, approximately 51,000 net acres in Stark County, North Dakota, and approximately 60,000 net acres in Richland County, Montana; Cedar Creek Anticline, which is in primarily in eastern Montana, the Company has a long-held net profits interest in this oil play. Paradox Basin holds approximately 83,000 net acres located in Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah, targeting oil; Big Horn Basin includes approximately 33,000 net acres in Wyoming, targeting oil and Natural gas liquids (NGL); Green River Basin properties primarily includes natural gas targets in Wyoming in which the Company holds approximately 36,000 net acres; Baker Field is a long-held natural gas properties in which Fidelity holds approximately 99,000 net acres in southeastern Montana and southwestern North Dakota; Bowdoin Field is a long-held natural gas properties in which Fidelity holds approximately 127,000 net! acres in! north-central Montana, and Other includes other exploratory oil projects in the Niobrara play in Wyoming and the Heath Shale in Montana; along with the Powder River Basin natural gas properties, which Fidelity is pursuing divestment of and various non-operated positions.
Fidelity's Mid-Continent/Gulf States region includes South Texas area includes approximately 9,000 net acres in the Tabasco, Texan Gardens and Flores fields, this area has NGL content associated with the natural gas. East/Central Texas holds approximately 27,000 net acres, primarily natural gas and associated NGL. Other includes various non-operated onshore interests, as well as offshore interests in the shallow waters off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. At December 31, 2012, there were 44 gross (17 net) wells in the process of drilling or under evaluation, 39 of which were development wells and 5 of which were exploratory wells.
Construction Materials and Contracting
Knife River operates construction materials and contracting businesses. These operations mine, process and sell construction aggregates (crushed stone, sand and gravel); produce and sell asphalt mix and supply ready-mixed concrete for construction, including roads, freeways and bridges, as well as homes, schools, shopping centers, office buildings and industrial parks. Although not common to all locations, other products include the sale of cement, liquid asphalt for various commercial and roadway applications, various finished concrete products and other building materials and related contracting services.
Construction Services
MDU Construction Services specializes in constructing and maintaining electric and communication lines, gas pipelines, fire suppression systems, and external lighting and traffic signalization equipment. This segment also provides utility excavation services and inside electrical wiring, cabling and mechanical services, sells and distributes electrical materials, and manufactures ! and distr! ibutes specialty equipment. These services are provided to utilities and manufacturing, commercial, industrial, institutional and government customers. MDU Construction Services operates a fleet of owned and leased trucks and trailers, support vehicles and specialty construction equipment, such as backhoes, excavators, trenchers, generators, boring machines and cranes. In addition, as of December 31, 2012, MDU Construction Services owned or leased facilities in 17 states. This space is used for offices, equipment yards, warehousing, storage and vehicle shops.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Lam]
Martinrea International Inc. (MRE), a metal auto-parts maker, slumped 10 percent to C$10.96 after the company said it received a press release discussing a claim from Nat Rea, former vice chairman of the company. Martinrea has not received the claim or reviewed the allegations and will ��espond appropriately in due course.��
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