Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.
Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.
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 EnPro Industries (NYSE: NPO ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Best Airline Companies To Own In Right Now: ExlService Holdings Inc.(EXLS)
Exlservice Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides outsourcing and transformation services primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. Its outsourcing services include claims processing, premium and benefit administration, agency management, account reconciliation, policy research, underwriting support, new business processing, policy servicing, trades/sub-account transactions, add-on processing, premium audit, billing and collection, and customer services in insurance and healthcare sector; back-office processing for customer operations, metering-related services and billing, debt recovery operations, imbalance management, and account management services in utilities sector; and servicing and processing various banking products, including residential mortgage lending, retail banking, credit cards, consumer finance, commercial lending, and investment management in banking and financial services sector. The company?s outsourcing services also co mprise processing transactions, including supply chain management, warehousing, transloading, transportation management, and international logistics services in transportation and logistics sector; managing and improving operational, financial, and analytical functions for travel management companies; and finance and accounting services, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, inter-company reconciliations, financial and statutory reporting, treasury management, and tax compliance. In addition, it offers transformation services consisting of decision analytics services, including data filtering, organization and synthesis, management information system reporting, trend and variance analysis, statistical and econometric modeling, and economic and financial markets research; finance transformation services; and operations and process excellence services. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
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 Exlservice Holdings (Nasdaq: EXLS ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
10 Best Income Stocks To Own Right Now: Glencore Xstrata PLC (GLCNF.PK)
Glencore Xstrata Plc is a diversified natural resource company. The Company operates in three segments: Metals and Minerals, which includes copper, nickel, zinc/lead, alloys, alumina/aluminum and iron ore; Energy Products, which includes controlled and non-controlled coal mining and oil production operations and investments in strategic handling, storage and freight equipment and facilities, and Agricultural Products, which focuses on grains, oils/oilseeds, cotton and sugar. The Company�� operations consist of over 150 mining and metallurgical sites, offshore oil production assets, farms and agricultural facilities. The Company is a producer and marketer of over 90 commodities, such as mobile phones, bicycles, cutlery, plastics and electricity. Effective January 2, 2014, Post Holdings Inc acquired Agricore United Holdings Inc from Viterra Inc, a unit of Glencore Xstrata PLC, and the transaction also included Dakota Growers Pasta Company, Inc. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Pendulum]
Century Aluminum was founded in 1995 as a part of Glencore (GLCNF.PK). In 1996, Century Aluminum became a public company. As of December 31, 2012:
"Glencore beneficially owned approximately 41.8% of our outstanding common stock and all of our outstanding Series A Convertible Preferred Stock. Through its ownership of common and preferred stock, Glencore has an overall 46.6% economic ownership of Century." (Source: Century Aluminum 2012 10-K)
10 Best Income Stocks To Own 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.
10 Best Income Stocks To Own Right Now: Strattec Security Corporation(STRT)
Strattec Security Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of automotive access control products. The company?s products include mechanical locks and keys, electronically enhanced locks and keys, steering column and instrument panel ignition lock housings, latches, power sliding door systems, power lift gate systems, power deck lid systems, door handles, and related products. It also provides full service and aftermarket support for its products. The company offers its products primarily for automotive manufacturers. It markets its products in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, Korea, and China. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Wolfe]
Strattec Security (STRT)
Last week Mario Gabelli increased his position in Strattec Security. The guru increased his position 4.82% by adding a total of 13,136 shares to his holdings. He bought these shares at an average price of $43.15, and since then the price per share has increased approximately 5%.
- [By Martin Vlcek]
Strattec Security Corp. (STRT) is a growing small-cap company with more than 100 years in the automotive supply industry and strong sales growth since 2009. The success and growth of Strattec are still mostly influenced by the global automotive markets. As many analysts still predict ongoing industry growth, the company is poised to continue strongly benefiting from this automotive tailwind. However, the company's recent diversification efforts into new product lines, industries outside of automotive and countries outside of the U.S. have created multiple new growth drivers that will ensure Strattec's continued robust sales and EPS expansion. The company's growth has also become much more balanced and more resilient to a potential automotive industry shock or U.S. slowdown.
10 Best Income Stocks To Own Right Now: FirstMerit Corporation(FMER)
FirstMerit Corporation operates as the bank holding company for FirstMerit Bank, N.A. that provides a range of banking, fiduciary, financial, insurance, and investment services to corporate, institutional, and individual customers in northern and central Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. The company?s commercial business offers commercial term loans, revolving credit arrangements, asset-based lending, leasing, commercial mortgages, real estate construction lending, letters of credit, cash management services, and other depository products. Its retail business provides various financial products and services, including consumer direct and indirect installment loans, debit and credit cards, debit gift cards, residential mortgage loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, fixed and variable annuities, and ATM network services, as well as deposit products comprising checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company?s wealth business provides a sset management, private banking, financial planning, estate settlement and administration, and credit and deposit products and services. FirstMerit Corporation also offers trust and investment services, including personal trust and planning, and investment management; retirement plan services; retail mutual funds, other securities, variable and fixed annuities, personal disability and life insurance products, and brokerage services; and private banking services, including credit, deposit, and asset management solutions. As of December 31, 2009, it operated a network of 160 full service banking offices and 182 ATMs. The company was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tim Melvin]
The year ahead should be a great one for the smaller bank stocks. Larger regionals like Huntington Bancorp (HBAN) and Capital Ban Financial (CBF) have made it clear they intend to grow by acquisition in the years ahead. Banks like First Merit (FMER) and First Merchants (FRME) have done deals in the past year and are open to doing more to increase their market share and footprints. This should be the year the floodgates open and we see the first wave of merger activity in small banks.
10 Best Income Stocks To Own Right Now: Mindspeed Technologies Inc.(MSPD)
Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, and sells semiconductor networking solutions for communications applications in enterprise, fixed and mobile broadband access, metropolitan, and wide-area networks (WAN). The company offers communications convergence processing products that serve as bridges for transporting video, voice, fax, and modem transmissions between circuit-switched and packet-based fixed and mobile networks, and across network boundaries; and offer video and voice over Internet protocol, voice-over-asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and voice-over-digital subscriber line services, as well as wireline-to-wireless connectivity. These products include the eighth-generation Comcerto family for fiber-access service delivery; and Transcede family of 3G/4G base station baseband processors. It also provides analog transmission devices and switching products, which comprise laser drivers, transimpedance amplifiers, post amplifiers, clock and data recovery cir cuits, signal conditioners, serializers/deserializers, video reclockers, cable drivers, and line equalizers that support storage area network, fiber-to-the-premise, optical transport networks, and broadcast video. In addition, the company offers WAN communications products comprising transmission solutions and ATM/multi-protocol label switching network processors that facilitate the aggregation, processing, and transport of voice and data traffic over copper wire or fiber optic cable to access metropolitan and long-haul networks. It sells its products directly to network infrastructure original equipment manufacturers; and indirectly through electronic component distributors and third-party electronic manufacturing service providers in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Monica Gerson]
Mindspeed Technologies (NASDAQ: MSPD) surged 69.02% to $5.02 in the pre-market session after M/A-Com Technology Solutions Holdings (NASDAQ: MTSI) announced its plans to acquire Mindspeed Technologies.
- [By Lee Jackson]
Mindspeed Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MSPD) provides voice over internet protocol (VOIP) infrastructure and some telecom chips, which account for about 10% of sales. This could disrupt earnings at a micro cap tech company. The consensus price target for the stock is $3.75.
10 Best Income Stocks To Own Right Now: Canadian/Yen (HY)
Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. and its subsidiaries engage in the design, engineering, manufacture, sale, and service of a line of lift trucks and aftermarket parts worldwide. It offers components, such as frames, masts, and transmissions; and assembles lift trucks. The company markets its products primarily under the Hyster and Yale brand names to independent Hyster and Yale retail dealerships. It also sells aftermarket parts under the UNISOURCE, MULTIQUIP, and PREMIER brands to Hyster and Yale dealers for the service of competitor lift trucks. The company was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Heavy-equipment maker�Hyster-Yale Materials Handling� (NYSE: HY ) announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.25 per share for both its Class A and Class B stock.
- [By Holly LaFon]
The Financial sector was the best performer in the Barclays Aggregate Index during 3Q13, generating nominal and excess returns of 1.54% and 1.40%, respectively. Spreads in High Yield (HY) issues tightened substantially, propelling Ba/B credits to a 2.07% nominal and 1.74% excess return. Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) also reacted positively to the Fed decision, as Agency MBS outperformed comparable duration Treasuries with a 1.03% nominal and 0.95% excess return. Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) were resilient as well, finishing 1.02% higher in nominal terms and 0.66% excess in 3Q13. Non-Corporate Credit issues fared positively in 3Q13, but with a relatively weaker 0.37% nominal and 0.41% excess return.
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