Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) has a strong reputation for excellence in the financial industry, and investors are looking forward to seeing more positive results from the bank when it releases its latest quarterly results on Friday. Even though the financial giant has surpassed JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) in terms of market capitalization, Wells Fargo still faces risks it needs to overcome in order to ensure its continued leadership position in the banking industry.
To help you understand those risks, all companies in the stock market are required to identify what they see as their most important risk factors when they file their annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Let's take a look at three of the biggest risks Wells Fargo identified for shareholders to consider, to help guide your analysis of its coming earnings results.
Hot Safest Stocks To Invest In 2016: STAG Industrial Inc (STAG)
STAG Industrial, Inc., incorporated on July 21, 2010, is an integrated, full-service real estate company focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of single-tenant industrial properties throughout the United States. As of December 31, 2012, the Company owned 172 properties in 31 states with approximately 29.4 million rentable square feet, consisting of 112 warehouse/distribution properties, 39 light manufacturing properties and 21 flex/office properties. As of December 31, 2012, its properties were 95.1% leased to 156 tenants, with no single tenant accounting for more than 2.7% of its total annualized rent and no single industry accounting for more than 10.7% of its total annualized rent. In January 2014, the Company announced that it has completed the acquisition of six buildings, consisting of two light manufacturing facilities and four warehouse and distribution facilities.
Its ability to re-lease space subject to expiring leases will impact its results of operations and is affected by economic and competitive conditions in its markets and by the desirability of its individual properties. As of December 31, 2012, it had approximately 1.4 million rentable square feet of available space in its properties. For the year ended December 31, 2012, it has achieved an 84% tenant retention rate for those tenants whose leases were scheduled to expire in 2012.Its rental expenses generally consist of utilities, real estate taxes, management fees, insurance and site repair and maintenance costs. For the majority of its tenants, its rental expenses are controlled, in part, by the triple net provisions in tenant leases. In its triple net leases, the tenant is responsible for all aspects of and costs related to the property and its operation during the lease term, including utilities, taxes, insurance and maintenance costs. Real estate investments are carried at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization. The cost of real estate includes the purchase price of the property and lease! hold improvements. Total revenue consists primarily of rental income from its properties, lease termination fees, tenant reimbursements for insurance, real estate taxes and certain other expenses, and asset management fees. As of December 31, 2012 and December 31 2011, there were two and three vacant properties, respectively, owned by STAG Investments III, LLC (Fund III) and not contributed to the Company in the Formation Transactions (the Option Properties).
The Company evaluates the carrying value of all tangible and intangible real estate assets held for use for possible impairment when an event or change in circumstance has occurred that indicates their carrying value may not be recoverable. STAG Investments IV, LLC and STAG GI Investments, LLC (which are certain of the Participants and are referred to as part of the STAG Contribution Group), contributed 100% of their real estate entities and operations in exchange for 7,320,610 Common Units. On April 18, 2012, the Company entered into an agreement with affiliates of Columbus Nova Real Estate Acquisition Group, Inc. (Columbus Nova) to source sale leaseback transactions for potential acquisitions by the Company. On June 15, 2012, the Company acquired six industrial properties representing approximately 750,000 square feet in total for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $30.0 million directly from Columbus Nova. At the June 15, 2012 acquisition of these six industrial properties, the Company paid Columbus Nova an acquisition fee in the form of 15,789 Common Units. On December 22, 2011, the Company sold a vacant flex/office property located in Amesbury, MA containing approximately 78,000 net rentable square feet. On April 20, 2012, the Company sold a vacant warehouse and distribution facility located in Youngstown, OH containing 153,708 net rentable square feet. On November 30, 2012, the Company sold the Great Bend, KS building.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Single-tenant industrial REIT STAG�Industrial� (NYSE: STAG ) announced today its third-quarter dividend of $0.30 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past two quarters after raising the payout 11% from $0.27 per share.
- [By Marc Bastow]
Single-tenent industrial properties real estate investment trust (REIT) Stag Industrial (STAG) raised its annual dividend 5% to $1.26 per share. The first monthly payment is payable on Feb. 17 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 31.
STAG Dividend Yield: 6.4% - [By Brad Thomas]
Other REITs mentioned: (O), (NNN), (STAG), (DCT), (EGP), (PDM), (DRE), (LRY)
Source: Chambers Street: More Liquidity Magic On The Way In REIT-DomDisclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)
- [By Rich Duprey]
Industrial real estate investment trust�STAG Industrial� (NYSE: STAG ) yesterday announced its second-quarter dividend, the eighth consecutive quarterly payout it's made.
Top Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: Assurant Inc (AIZ)
Assurant, Inc. (Assurant) is a provider of specialized insurance products and related services in North America and select worldwide markets. The Company operates in four segments: Assurant Solutions, Assurant Specialty Property, Assurant Health, and Assurant Employee Benefits. The products offered by the segments include warranties and service contracts, pre-funded funeral insurance, lender-placed homeowners insurance, manufactured housing homeowners insurance, individual health and small employer group health insurance, group dental, disability, and life insurance and employee-funded voluntary benefits. On June 21, 2011, the Company acquired the SureDeposit business, the provider of security deposit alternatives to the multifamily housing industry. In October 2013, FirstService Corporation completed the sale of its Field Asset Services business to Assurant, Inc. In October 2013, Assurant Inc acquired Lifestyle Services Group Ltd.
Assurant Solutions
Assurant Solutions targets three product areas: domestic and international extended service contracts (ESC) and warranties, preneed life insurance, and international credit insurance. Through partnerships with retailers and original equipment manufacturers, the Company underwrites and provides administrative services for ESC and warranties. These contracts provide consumers with coverage on cellular phones, personal computers, consumer electronics, appliances, automobiles and recreational vehicles, protecting them from certain covered losses. It pays the cost of repairing or replacing customers��property in the event of mechanical breakdown, accidental damage, and casualty losses such as theft, fire, and water damage. The Company provides administration, claims handling and customer service. Preneed life insurance allows individuals to prepay for a funeral in a single payment or in multiple payments over a fixed number of years. The insurance policy proceeds are used to address funeral costs at death. These products are only so! ld in the United States and Canada and are generally structured as whole life insurance policies in the United States and annuity products in Canada.
The Company�� credit insurance products offer protection from life events and uncertainties that arise in purchasing and borrowing transactions. Credit insurance programs offer consumers the option to protect a credit card balance or installment loan in the event of death, involuntary unemployment or disability, and are generally available to all consumers without the underwriting restrictions that apply to term life insurance. In addition to the domestic market, the Company operates in Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Chile, Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico and China. In these markets, it primarily sells ESC and credit insurance products through agreements with financial institutions, retailers and wireless service providers.
Assurant Specialty Property
The product line within Assurant Specialty Property is homeowners insurance, consisting principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance offered through its lender-placed programs. The lender-placed program provides collateral protection to lenders, mortgage servicers and investors in mortgaged properties in the event that a homeowner does not maintain insurance on a mortgaged dwelling. Lender-placed insurance coverage is not limited to the outstanding loan balance; it provides structural coverage, similar to that of a standard homeowners policy. The policy is based on the replacement cost of the property and ensures that a home can be repaired or rebuilt completely in the event of damage. The Company also provides insurance to some of its clients on properties that have been foreclosed and are being managed by its clients. This type of insurance is called Real Estate Owned (REO) insurance. Lender-placed and voluntary manufactured housing insurance: Manufactured housing insurance is offered on a lender-placed and voluntary basis. Lender-plac! ed insura! nce is issued after an insurance tracking process similar to that described above. The tracking is performed by Assurant Specialty Property using an insurance tracking administration system, or by the lenders themselves.
The Company has developed products in adjacent and emerging markets, such as the lender-placed flood and mandatory insurance rental markets. It also acts as an administrator for the United States Government under the voluntary National Flood Insurance Program, for which it earns a fee for collecting premiums and processing claims. This business is 100% reinsured to the Federal Government. The Company offers its manufactured housing insurance programs primarily through manufactured housing lenders and retailers, along with independent specialty agents. The independent specialty agents distribute flood products and miscellaneous specialty property products. Multi-family housing products are distributed primarily through property management companies and affinity marketing partners. Its lender-placed homeowners insurance program and certain of its manufactured home products are not underwritten on an individual policy basis.
Assurant Health
Assurant Health offers medical insurance and short-term medical insurance to individuals and families in the medical insurance market. Its products are offered with different plan options. Assurant Health also offers medical insurance to small employer groups. The Company�� medical insurance products are sold to individuals, primarily between the ages of 18 and 64, and their families, who do not have employer-sponsored coverage. It offers a variety of benefit plans at different price points. The Company�� group medical insurance is primarily sold to small companies with 2 to 50 employees, although larger employer coverage is available. The Company�� health insurance products are principally marketed through a network of independent agents. It also markets through a variety of national account relationships ! and direc! t distribution channels. In addition, the Company markets its products through North Star Marketing, a wholly owned affiliate.
Assurant Employee Benefits
The Company offers group disability, dental, vision, life and supplemental worksite products, as well as individual dental products. The group products are offered with funding options ranging from fully employer-paid to fully employee-paid (voluntary). In addition, it reinsures disability and life products through its wholly owned subsidiary, Disability Reinsurance Management Services, Inc. (DRMS). Group disability insurance provides partial replacement of lost earnings for insured employees who become disabled, as defined by their plan provisions. The Company�� products include both short- and long-term disability coverage options. It also reinsures disability policies written by other carriers through its DRMS subsidiary.
Dental benefit plans provide funding for necessary or elective dental care. Customers may select a traditional indemnity arrangement, a preferred provider organization (PPO) arrangement, or a prepaid or managed care arrangement. Coverage is subject to deductibles, coinsurance and annual or lifetime maximums. In a prepaid plan, members must use participating dentists in order to receive benefits. Assurant Employee Benefits owns and operates Dental Health Alliance, L.L.C., a dental PPO network. The Company also has an agreement with Aetna that allows it to use Aetna�� Dental Access network. Fully insured vision coverage is offered through its agreement with Vision Service Plan, Inc., a supplier of vision insurance. The Company�� plans cover eye exams, glasses and contact lenses, and are sold in combination with one or more of its other products.
Group term life insurance provided through the workplace provides benefits in the event of death. The Company also provides accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance. Insurance consists primarily of renewable term life insu! rance wit! h the amount of coverage provided being either a flat amount, a multiple of the employee�� earnings, or a combination of the two. It also reinsures life policies written by other carriers through DRMS. In addition, the Company provides group critical illness, cancer, accident, and gap insurance. These products are paid for by the employee through payroll deduction, and the employee is enrolled in the coverage(s) at the worksite. Its products and services are distributed through a group sales force located in 34 offices near metropolitan areas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Whitney Kisling]
Assurant (AIZ), the insurer of foreclosed homes, has climbed 72 percent in 2013, extending the rally since the bull market started to 245 percent. Per-share profit the last two quarters exceeded analyst projections. Earnings growth at the New York-based company will slow to 1 percent next year and 5 percent in 2015, when sales contract, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
- [By Rich Duprey]
Specialized insurance products provider�Assurant (NYSE: AIZ ) announced yesterday its third-quarter dividend of $0.25 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after raising the payout 19%, from $0.21 per share.
Top Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF (IHF)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Providers Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Health Care Providers Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the healthcare providers sector of the United States equity market. The Index includes companies that are healthcare providers, such as owners and operators of health maintenance organizations, hospitals, clinics, dentists, opticians, nursing homes, rehabilitation and retirement centers.
The Fund will concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent as the Index is so concentrated. Since all of the securities included in the Index are issued by companies in the healthcare providers sector, the Fund will be concentrated in the healthcare providers industry. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Beaten down small cap home care and infusion stock BioScrip Inc (NASDAQ: BIOS) was recently�called a�potential takeover target, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with healthcare ETFs like the iShares Dow Jones US Health Care ETF (NYSEARCA: IHF) or the Health Care SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA: XLV).�I should mention that during the third quarter of last year, we had BioScrip in our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio after the stock had�taken a beating but we also believed the company is on the verge of turning a profit and is potentially undervalued.
- [By WWW.INVESTMENTNEWS.COM]
Most advisers are quick to spell out uncorrelated returns as the primary benefit of alternatives but few understand how to conduct comparative analysis. The tendency is to look at the funds' return and volatility; which starts one off on the wrong path. With alternatives, it's a two part process in which the first is simply qualification and then the second is measuring the material benefit for your portfolio. The necessary condition is uncorrelated, or non-systemic, returns. Without this, the investor is better off simply selecting a traditional long-only fund with the highest risk-adjusted prospects. Once you have identified a group of uncorrelated funds, the second step involves the tradeoff between return and correlatio
- [By John Udovich]
Small cap BioScrip Inc (NASDAQ: BIOS) is a specialized health care services stock that���seeking to roll-up the heavily fragmented�home infusion care market���meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock and its performance against healthcare ETFs like the iShares Dow Jones US Health Care ETF (NYSEARCA: IHF) or the Health Care SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA: XLV). However,�BioScrip has taken a beating and I should note that we have recently added shares to our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio�because we believe the company is on the verge of turning a profit and is potentially undervalued.
Top Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: Powershares Golden Dragon (PGJ)
PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio is based on the Halter USX China Index. The Index is comprised of the United States listed securities of companies, which derive a majority of their revenue from the People's Republic of China. The fund was incepted on December 9, 2004.
The sectors covered by the investment include consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, information technology, materials, telecommunications and utilities. PowerShares Capital Management LLC provides investment management to the Fund.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Robert Martin]
With that in mind, here are four of the best emerging market ETF picks: A China ETF, an India ETF, and two other ETFs that track broad indices like the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
PowerShares Gold Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio (PGJ)Expense Ratio: 0.7%
- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
PowerShares Golden Dragon China Portfolio (NYSE: PGJ) has a position in more than 70 companies, and its holdings are all U.S.-listed companies that generate most of their revenue in China. For that reason, Alibaba is the perfect candidate to join PGJ's holdings once it starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Top Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM)
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (the Index). The Index is designed to measure equity market performance in the global emerging markets. The Index was developed by Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc. as an equity benchmark for emerging market stock performance. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. Component companies are adjusted for available float and must meet objective criteria for inclusion in the Index. The Index is reviewed quarterly.
The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The Fund's investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Carroll]
That's helped destroy the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index fund (NYSEMKT: EEM ) , which has lost a crushing 15% over the past month alone. China's right in the forefront of this decline, and Chinese ETFs have been hammered just as badly: The SPDR S&P China ETF (NYSEMKT: GXC ) has lost more than 13% in the past month and is down more than 17% in 2013. Forget about keeping up with the market; emerging-markets-oriented investors haven't even been able to break even this year.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Investors have created a monster of their own–the emerging markets, an amalgamation of various countries that have very little in common–and like the monster in the original Frankenstein, they’re coming for their creator. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) fell 3.9% to $38.24 this week–dragging down U.S. stocks with it. The S&P 500 fell 2.6% to 1,790.29, its largest one-week decline since June, 2012, as it was pulled lower by International Game Technology (IGT) and Kansas City Southern (KSU). The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.5% to 15,879.11, its largest decline since November, 2011, with�EI Du Pont De Nemours (DD) and�General Electric (GE) the biggest losers. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.726%, down from 3.006% at the start of 2014, as investors flocked to the relative safety of bonds.
- [By Barbara Kollmeyer]
As for U.S. investor exposure, the pain was there for all to see as the week wound down. Among exchange-traded funds, the iShares MSCI Russia ETF (ERUS) �and the SPDR S&P Russia ETF (RBL) �each fell more than 6% for the week, contrasting with a 0.1% gain for the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) .
Top Financial Stocks To Buy Right Now: PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS Index Exchange-Traded Fund (STPZ)
PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS Index ETF, formerly Pimco 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Fund, is an exchange traded fund (ETF) designed to capture the returns of the shorter maturity subset of the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) market by tracking The BofA Merrill Lynch 1-5 Year US Inflation-Linked Treasury Index. The BofA Merrill Lynch 1-5 Year US Inflation-Linked Treasury Index is an unmanaged index comprised of the United States Treasury Inflation Protected Securities with at least $1 billion in outstanding face value and a remaining term to final maturity of at least one year and less than five years. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Benjamin Shepherd]
While there are several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) devoted to TIPS, my favorite is PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS Index (NYSE: STPZ).
This ETF has one of the lowest durations of any of the TIPS funds at 2.7 years, so it won’t take much of a ding based on shifting interest rates.
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