Equity Analysis

Family Dollar’s operating efficiency is deteriorating and its margins are under pressure, making its expansion plan look like a risky move that may damage the company’s earnings sustainability. Conventional wisdom has it that when the economy is shaky, dollar stores and super discounters become most popular with shoppers. But while Family Dollar Stores (FDO.N) is [...]

Even before the negotiations aimed at stemming the “fiscal cliff” crisis stalled late this week, uncertainty was causing investors to pull money out of virtually all categories of funds. Last week’s senseless murders in Newtown, Connecticut caused – understandably – many of our elected officials to take time off from discussions of a solution to [...]

From kitty litter to spa treatments, PetSmart is making money from the North American tendency to spoil our pets; the company’s focus on managing costs, expenses and cash flow means that those profits are likely to be sustainable. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Americans like to pamper their pets. They buy designer togs [...]

The selloff in Apple’s stock has weighed on the S&P 500 and left many investors flummoxed, given the apparent success of its latest range of products. What’s afoot – has Apple become overvalued? or has it now become a value stock? If someone out there presented an award for the company that generates the most [...]

Investors are busy harvesting year-end tax losses to set against their portfolio gains, and the pros are doing some “window dressing”. The price declines that are the result of this activity offer thoughtful investors a great opportunity to stop and scrutinize the ranks of these market laggards for any fallen angels: stocks whose attractive fundamentals [...]

Three companies that have invested heavily in precision agriculture – helping farmers employ new technologies when deciding what to plant, when to plant, how to irrigate and fertilize on a micro-level within fields, monitor crop growth and determine how to harvest as efficiently as possible – are poised to reap the rewards in the form [...]

Carrefour is making a determined effort to salvage its important domestic operations in France by selling non-core assets abroad and cutting prices, but lower margins and Europe’s economic headwinds may make it impossible for the company to boost profitability. The recent announcement by Tesco PLC (TSCO.L) that it plans to exit the U.S. supermarket business [...]

S&P 500 companies are seeking growth overseas, a strategy that has had mixed results of late and one that investors must monitor closely in order to understand the risk it may create for their portfolio. Since corporate earnings began to recover from the financial crisis in mid-2009, companies in the S&P 500 index have reported [...]

Among those hardest-hit by the eurozone’s fiscal problems and economic woes are the engineering companies that rely on capital investment and infrastructure upgrades for their revenues and profits. Among them is Strabag SE (STRV.VI), an Austrian construction and civil engineering company that warned investors of a dismal outlook when it reported its third-quarter results at [...]

Investors appear confident that policymakers will hammer out some kind of compromise on the ‘fiscal cliff’, and send another $8.7 billion into equity ETFs to reflect that confidence and in response to the strong stock market performance. As the clock ticks down toward the end of December and of 2012, the market continues to focus [...]