Finally Sold Goldman Sachs (GS)

I have been holding Goldman Sachs (GS) stock for quite some time and had been looking for a good opportunity to exit the position. Earlier this week I got the chance to sell and took the opportunity to end the trade with a small 5-6% loss. The stock had rallied up to $189 a share at the end of October 2009 but estimates began to slip and the stock steadily fell to below $150. A recent financials rally pulled Goldman Sachs from the price of $148.72 up to $177.90 a share on March 19th. During this time the fundamentals of the company did not change.

The current earnings estimates are as weak as ever for Goldman. Just this week, estimates were cut again from $4.13 a share in the current quarter down to $4.02 a share. Revenue is rising this quarter at 18% compared to the same quarter a year ago. But revenues next quarter are expected to fall 14.8% with current year revenue flat compare to 2009.

Furthermore, the Russell 2000 gave a hold signal 5 trading days ago and Goldman Sachs stock broke down through a top formation, it looks like an excellent time to sell. The stock price fell to $172.87 on March 26th to rally the next day. But has now fallen to $170.63 a share, creating a pretty decent top formation from a technical perspective. A continued financials rally could stabilize the stock near its current level but the underlying fundamental problems should keep it from rallying with the rest of the industry.

Express Scripts (ESRX) – Riding the Health Care Wave?

Express Scripts, a provider of pharmacy benefits management including retail management, card programs, home delivery, specialty and formulary management among other services has climbed to new 52 week highs as recently as yesterday. With the passage of a portion of the Obama Administrations Health Care Reform Bill, health care stocks in many sectors have rallied. But Express Scripts also shows great sales and earnings growth at a reasonable price.

The company’s stock has moved from $48.05 a share to a recent 52 week high of  $103.24 a share. More than doubling over the past 12 months. Revenue is growing 93% for this quarter and next quarter compared to the prior year numbers. While earnings is expanding roughly 28% this quarter and 35% next quarter, according to recent estimates. Analysts have bumped their earnings expectations over the past three months from $1.06 a share for first quarter of the year to $1.10 a share.

The price of the stock compared to its earnings (P/E) is 20.64 midway through the trading day today. When considering Express Scripts’ nearest quarters, this is a very reasonably priced stock. The 5 year growth rate is tempered at 19.6% which allows the PEG to be reported at a more standard ratio near 1. I believe the stock will continue to move higher with investors interested in industry due to the recent government action. The company will also report their first quarter earnings the last week of April, which should create additional interest from traders.

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Capella Education Company (CPLA) Continues to Perform

Capella Education through its subsidiary Capella University has performed well over the past year rising from $50.34 a share to a recent 52-week high of $86.06. The provider of post-secondary education recently beat it’s fourth quarter earnings expectations and has seen it’s first quarter expectations increase steadily from 64 cents a share to 78 cents over the quarter.

The company will report its first quarter results on April 27th and could continue to move higher if expectations improve again. Revenue for the quarter as compared to last year is improving 29% according to analysts. With early revenue increasing 26%. The quarterly earnings are even more optimistic than the revenue numbers with an increase for the first quarter being 59% better than the same quarter last year.

An end-of-the-day price to earnings ratio (P/E) of 25.29 is low when compared to the quarterly growth but on par at a PEG ratio of 1.02 when compared to a 5 year estimated growth rate of 24.88%. The recent run has been quite steep so selling part of a trade at this time is a better ideal than adding to a position. Wait for a decline in the price weeks before the earnings to resume purchasing shares.

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Dollar Tree (DLTR) Continues to Peak

The stock for discount variety retailer Dollar Tree Inc. (DLTR) continues to reach new highs with analysts expecting better results when the company announces its earnings on May 24th. The current quarterly earnings estimates for the stock got a bump over the past 30 days from 74 cents a share to 81 cents a share compared to the same quarter last year. While the yearly estimate moved higher in the last week from $4.14 a share to $4.15 a share.

Quarterly Growth

Current quarter growth for the company is expected to come in at 22.7% while next quarter’s growth is pegged a little lower at 17.5%. With a forward price to earnings ratio (P/E) of 12.25, the stock is a little underpriced. The recent positive company expectations for competitor Big Lots (BIG) has also helped the variety discount sector as a whole. Big Lots moved from $28.85 a share to $36.09 a share over the past month on company optimism for the current quarter.

Variety Discounter Trade

Dollar Tree’s recent quarter was decent with a 6% improvement in earnings compared to what was expected. Revenue continues to climb as shoppers search for bargains in a troubled economic environment. DLTR is seeing revenue move higher 9% a quarter and 9% for the year. The discount retailing sector remains strong and should for some time providing a nice stable industry to own several names for the short-term.

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© 2010 FastSwings.com

Big Lots (BIG) Rallies on Stronger Expectations

Big Lot Inc, the closeout retailer, has rallied recently on strong expectations for current and future quarter earnings. The company has beat earnings expectations four quarters in a row while earning 27 cents a share at the end of their 3rd quarter compared to expectations of 18 cents. The company is ready to announce their 4th quarter earnings for 2009 on Wednesday with estimates at $1.28 a share. This is a 28% improvement over the same quarter a year ago.

Next quarter is also looking well with analysts recently improving expectations to 53 cents a share from 47 cents a share 3 months ago. The companies forward looking Price/Earnings is at 13.07 after a nice 2.24% rise today. Revenue growth is moving higher each quarter on a year-over-year basis near 5% each period.

Options action for BIG Call options has been strong over the last two weeks. There has been 5 times more Call action for Big stock options compare to interest in Put options. The March 35 Calls are particularly popular which is slightly above the current trading price of $34.24 a share. You could purchase the stock going into earnings and place a trailing stop in case the earnings aren’t as strong as expected. Waiting until after the earnings would be a safe trade if the company increases their expectations for future quarters.

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© 2010 FastSwings.com

Netflix Continues to Move Higher

The king of home DVD delivery and streaming video to almost every entertainment device available has rallied in recent weeks reaching a 52 week high just yesterday. Running from $49.13 a share to $66.65 a share yesterday, earnings and the stock’s price to earnings both look decent at this time.

The recent news that Warner Brother’s movies will not be available through Netflix or kiosk chain Redbox for 28 days after a DVD’s release has not affected the stock price in recent weeks. The two distributors will wait on making new releases available to improve the studio’s profits on sold movie DVDs. They also agreed to destroy the DVDs after they are no longer widely rented instead of selling them to the public.

Netflix beat earnings expectations for the fourth quarter by 25% roughly and has nice revenue and earnings growth. Revenue growth is near 25% for the coming quarters with earnings growth at 46% this quarter and at 26% next quarter. Analyst increased their expectations within the past 30 days for the quarter earnings from 45 cents a share to 54 cents a share, thus sparking the recent increase in share price.

The price to earnings (P/E) is at 33 with the stock price near $65 at the close today. This is slightly lower than the 46% earnings increase but higher than next quarters 25% expected increase. If analyst nudge their expectations higher again, the stock should move accordingly. Look for this increase as a chance to buy or look for a slight sell off for your chance to trade the stock long.

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© 2010 FastSwings.com

comScore Moves Higher on Acquisition

comScore, an Internet research company, released fourth quarter earnings after the close and beat the street by 4 cents. The stock moved higher today some 14% on the earnings and news that the acquisition of ARSGroup will close in March.

Fourth Quarter Results

comScore earned 21 cents per share in the last quarter of 2009, 18% better than the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue also improved by 7 percent from a year ago period. Forecasts are slightly better than previously with the company somewhat upbeat on corporate spending.

comScore Trade

The stock is trading lower than its growth rate (P/E) and has come down quite a bit prior to today’s rally. Several services are showing quarterly growth rates in the range of 60% – 100%. With the revenue growth rate more in-line with what the company announced last night. The overall picture seems lukewarm for the company and the economy making the optimism today overdone. I think you could make a short-term short position trade when the stock corrects back to near $14 a share.

© 2010 FastSwings.com

A Guide to Day Trading

For decades people have been fascinated with the stock marketw and intrigued by the practice of trading. In years past, taking part in the stock market was a treat for professionals only. When individuals wanted to capitalize on their small fortunes through investing, they would hire a professional who would get a cut of their profits. While this is still a common way to go about trading, technology has advanced enough to make trading accessible to anyone who wants to earn more money.

Day trading is not the same as traditional trading. While both can now easily be done online, in order to learn how to be a day trader, you’ve got to invest some time and energy into really understanding the market. Day trading involves buying and selling securities within the same day. That sounds pretty simple, right? Essentially, knowing how to be a day trader is similar to knowing how to buy and sell stock. The idea is to try to buy low and sell high. In day trading, this is just done in a very compressed amount of time.

When you look at profits of individual day trades, you might wonder why anyone would want to engage in such a task. The reason it is worth it is because of the amount of the combined trades each day is significant. Typically, day traders make around 25 trades each day. Here’s what you need to remember: day trading is a task that requires constant attention throughout the day. Day traders rarely hold stock overnight, due to the instant changes a stock can go through. Throughout the day, day traders must be tuned into the latest stock news. They must know how to read stock charts and how to respond to changes immediately. Mere seconds can severely impact one’s profits for that day.

Clearly day trading is risky. Does that mean it’s not worth it? Not at all. Day trading, when you really have learned how to be a day trader, can pay huge rewards. If you don’t feel quite confident enough to jump into day trading right away, that’s ok. There are other options that can fall between traditional long-term trading and day trading.

To make money in the stock market, you don’t have to go to one extreme or the other. A good idea is to learn the ropes to the best of your abilities. Learn how to read stock charts; learn the language of trading. This is something that can be accomplished through an online course in the comfort of your own home. To make money without waiting years, you can look into Position trading, which is holding a stake in a stock or commodity for several weeks or even months. Another way to make your money grow is with Swing trading. Swing trading is holding a stake in a stock or commodity only for several days.

Investing is an important aspect of your financial picture. There are several options available; which means that everyone can find a form of trading that works for their individual needs.

© 2010 FastSwings.com

Stock Charts and Your Finances

In order to capitalize on the stock market, it pays to learn how to read stock charts. A stock chart is a graph that represents the value of a given stock or group of stocks (called an index). Stock charts graph values over a specified time interval. The daily stock report shows values of stocks for the current day of trading. The reason why it pays to learn how to read stock charts is because they can quickly show you stock values and also show how wide the range was during the day (if using a daily stock report). In essence, you gain information about the possible profits and losses when read stock charts.

If you read the daily stock report, then you may be ready to take the next step into learning how to read stock charts, watch trends, and expand your investing know-how. Stock charts are varied in size and scope, and therefore allow you to see the many different things you need to in order to make informed trading decisions. Some charts will show you the activity in a given day, while others will show market trends over the course of several years.

In years past, stock charts were read in print. Today, however, learning how to read stock charts can be done online in the comfort of your own home. Taking a course on how to read stock charts can come in handy, as many stock charts are now found online and are interactive. This works to the advantage of the trader because it allows you to track stocks over any period of time needed. Online, interactive stock charts make researching investments an overall easier practice. They also give you more information at your fingertips than you would get with just the daily stock report.

There is more that goes into stock trading than just looking at the daily stock report; even more than knowing how to read stock charts. To really be successful in doing your own trading, you’ve got to be able to look past analysis when need be. Just because a stock may fall doesn’t mean that it’s no good. Sometimes it is when the stock of a particular company falls that you can benefit the most from buying it.

While knowing how to read stock charts can give you a good start in growing investments, it isn’t the end of the road. There is a lot that goes into trading, whether you are engaging in online trading through a brokerage firm, or you have hired an investment broker to do the work for you. The investing that is done on your behalf, or by you, directly affects your future. By knowing the language of trading and learning how to read stock charts, you give yourself the best chance of having a helping hand in your own financial security.

The payoff is worth the learning you must do. Navigating your way through the investment game can lead you to that long-awaited vacation, or just safely into retirement. Whatever your dreams are for the future, learning the stock market is one piece of the puzzle to help you reach them.

© 2010 FastSwings.com

Plan for a Secure Financial Future

When talking finances, many people tune out far before they should. Perhaps you fall into this category. Perhaps you feel that securing a financial future is out of reach. This simply isn’t true. The fact of the matter is that the sooner you start thinking about your long-term financial plan, the better your chances of making sure it is as secure as you’d like it to be.

A big part of financial planning comes in the way of college for your kids. You may not even have kids at this point, but opening an IRA, either a traditional IRA or a ROTH IRA, can be a great starting point for investing in the future educational needs you are sure to face. By planning early, before your life becomes hectic with family and work obligations, you ensure that you don’t let time run away from you; leaving you without much-needed college funds. Additionally, you will have more disposable income before you have children. By getting an early start, you can balance out the savings once children do enter the picture.

Investing is a common practice that will help you grow the money you earn now. Investing doesn’t have to be a risky endeavor. In fact, you could put yourself through a reputable stock trading course to learn everything you need to about trading and reading the daily stock report. Learning the basics of investing can be done in the comfort of your own home oftentimes. A good stock trading course doesn’t have to be a college-style course; just something that gives you a greater understanding of the daily stock report and stocks in general.

Buying and trading stocks can be a practice that you engage in for a lifetime. Because there is so much you can learn in a stock trading course, you set yourself up to really make a significant impact on your finances by taking one. This will reduce the learning curve and give you confidence to get involved in online trading.

Sometimes it helps to sit down with a financial planner. However, there are some questions you can ask yourself, alone or with your partner, to gauge the best way to make sure your future needs are taken care of. Here are a few questions you can address.

• What are your short-term financial goals?
• What are your long-term financial goals?
• How much income do you make today and how much do you hope to make in five years? In 10 years?
• What are your career goals?
• How many children do you want, if any? How will children change your budget?
• Do you plan to purchase a home? If you currently own, will you need a bigger home later?
• When do you hope to retire?
• Do you own a business or hope to start one?
• How will you protect your family if something happens to you or your partner?

Planning for your future financial picture is a task that pays huge rewards when done in time. You will find that it hurts much less than you may have originally thought to start putting away for your future.