" Now that Actavis has bought out Forest Laboratories, what girls are left at the dance for the other pharma partners to pick up? My pick is Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP), $6.63 billion market cap, rather than Mylan Labs."

Dow Jones Industrial Average 16,103.30 (Down) Week ending 02-21-2014

 Julia Roberts - waiting for a dance partner

I am familiar with Salix Pharmaceuticals (Symbol SLXP, $105.37) for two reasons. I had started watching Salix when the stock was trading at 14 dollars per share and it went up to 21 and so I thought it was too expensive, so then I forgot about it and lost track of it. Secondly, I owned the stock of Santarus, which I had talked about on this blog earlier in an article last year and a couple of months ago Salix Pharmaceuticals came in and bought them out. So this time I am paying attention to SLXP.  

Now let's go over the numbers that make it so attractive. First, the Current ratio on the stock is 4.3 to 1. The current market capitalization of the company is $6.63 Billion so it is a Mid-Cap stock. (I started this blog on Sunday last, so things are in motion). The company has annual revenues of $874.4 Million dollars. 2014 Revenues are projected at $1.59 Billion dollars.

This Raleigh, NC company has a One year stock price appreciation of 113.43% for the trailing 12 months. The company has 1 year earnings growth of 73.1%. 

On my key benchmarks, the company has a PEG Ratio of 1.19 and a Return on Equity of 17.90%. A double pass on my checkoff list. The IBD rating on the stock for earnings is 93.

2013 earnings were $3.23 per share and for 2014 is projecting out at $6.04 per share. This is a forward PE of 16.94. The company operates at gross margins of 81.99 %. 




Analyst Rankings on the stock are 7 Buy - 1 Outperform and 4 - Hold ratings. Hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and George Soros have been active trading the stock over the last year.






I would look for a down day in the market to find an entry point on this one. Again, always buy in small and accumulate a position even if you only buy 10 shares at a time.

I think that this holding will work out well for you for growth  as part of your Healthcare holdings segment of your diversified portfolio.


Have a good week and the sooner you invest, the better your odds are of accumulating wealth. 

Freewilly

"How about a bank that derives 56% of its global consumer banking revenue from credit cards. Such is the unrecognized case with the stock Citigroup, (Symbol C)."

Dow Jones Industrial Average 15,739 (UP) Week ending 02-07-2014
Dow Jones Industrial Average  16,154 (UP) Week ending 02-14-2014

Well the siege of winter has laid in upon us the last two weeks in the Mid-Atlantic states and Maryland, with snow, ice, wind and non-stop storms. It is hard to write a stock blog when you have no heat or electricity for 5 days straight. If I had known, I would have bought the stock of  Generac Holdings, (Symbol GNRC), who makes portable and installed electric generators and whose stock went up 9 points in 3 days last week. Oh well, not that clever.

 "My back porch"

So now it is time to get back to the business of making money in the stock market. If you will remember your economic history, the stock of Citigroup, (Symbol C, $49.52), had done a 10 for 1 reverse stock split. That really says that you can buy the stock here at a previous pre-split price of $4.95 cents per share. It is listed in the Investors Business Daily as a "Bank", but it really is a "Financial" stock based on its revenue like American Express and Discover. IBD rates the stock an 87 for earnings.

Citi has a market capitalization of $150 Billion dollars but the Enterprise value of the company is $239.90 Billion dollars. I took a small position in Citi last month than added another position Friday morning. Friday afternoon at 5:10 PM it was announced that George Soros had taken a position in the stock, so I knew that I was on the right track.

Citigroup has a Peg Ratio of 0.1389 and a Return on Equity of 7.23%. To me this stock is a deep value play that should hopefully start paying a higher dividend soon. "Despite huge losses during the global financial crisis, Citigroup built up an enormous cash reserve in the wake of the financial crisis with $420 billion in surplus liquid cash and government securities as of June 2012. As of Q1 2012, Citi has tier 1 capital ratio of 12.4%, making one of the best-capitalized financial institutions in the world after billions of dollars in losses from the financial crisis" (Citing Wikipedia). 

I do not pretend to understand a banks balance sheet or accounting, but I know when something seems inexpensive. Citi is forecasting earnings
of $5.04 per share and for 2015 is looking at $5.80 per share with a forward PE of 8.6.

The company stock has a One year twelve month trailing gain of 12.96. That might be glacially slow compared to the stocks that I normally talk about in this venue but most conservative folks would be very happy with 13%  a year return on their money. 

There are 21 buy recommendations by analyst on the stock currently , (plus add in the endorsement of billionaire George Soros).  Also insider buying is running 5 to 1 of purchases over sales. That is a very strong endorsement for the stock.

So think credit card, when you think Citi and buy some "C". 

Let's have a great 2014,

Freewilly

"Sometimes a stock comes along that has technologies that are just "scary" cool. Put that together with impressive financial numbers and you will find the stock of Synaptics Inc. (SYNA) "

Dow Jones Industrial Average 15,698.85 (Down) Week ending 01-31-2014

First, you had human to human interaction. Then M2M machine communications, (a business that I was in for 19 years!). Now you have the new frontiers of human to machine communications and interaction. Sometimes you only need to be nearby, (Near Field Communications) to interact. Sometimes it is a touch or a gesture to communicate.

Enter Synaptics (Symbol SYNA, $58.36). Sometimes I talk about a stock and it may go down in that week. The stocks I pick out for this blog are purchased with a 1 year to 3 year opportunity window in mind. I am not a day trader. 


Synaptics describes the company on their website as follows:

Our Company

We are the leading developer of human interface solutions which enhance the user experience in the expanding digital lifestyle. We were founded in 1986 by Federico Faggin and Carver Mead and over the last 26 years we have grown from a neural network research organization into the leading human interface solutions partner of a global customer base. Simply put, our next-generation interfaces set users free to interact with devices in ways the world couldn’t have imagined a decade ago.

Our combination of technology, expertise, innovation, comprehensive and customized solutions (from prototyping to module design to manufacturing to testing), and exceptional customer support makes us the right choice for partners that want to differentiate in the market.

• We have more than 1,900 unique capacitive touch solutions in the market
• We have close to 400 patents issued or pending

Over one billion devices include Synaptics interfaces. Shouldn’t yours?

Now to take a look at the numbers. SYNA

The company currently has a PEG ratio of 0.0692 and a ROE of 26.54%. (Stats are from Y-Charts).  I should note here that be careful with the stats that you make your purchasing decisions on when doing your homework. You can go to four different websites and they may all give you a different number for the same stat. Use multiple websites for reference. 

Revenues for the company this year are $822 Million dollars so this is a small cap stock. Revenue year over year growth has been running 43.85%. Wall Street is in love with revenue growth right now because they think that most earnings are being engineered by buybacks of company stock.

Synaptics Inc. has a great balance sheet with a Current Ratio of 3.8. (3.8 Assets to every 1 part liability), with a current PE of 15.24. The company has Gross Profit Margins of 45.95%.

Earnings for 2014 are looking like $3.70 per share and looking out into 2015 are projecting at $4.11 per share, (Stats from CBSMarketwatch) , with a forward PE of 14.19. The last quarter Year over Year, (YOY), earnings change was 62%.

The One year stock gain for the Trailing Twelve Months, (TTM), is 66.36%. The Investor's Business Daily's current EPS rating is 92. (I would have liked that as a grade in high school.)

 Here is the link for Near Field Communications. Really Cool. Near Field Technology Demo Link . It shows how amazing this technology is.

 Multi-Touch Interfacing

The Analyst have 10 buy recommendations, 1 Overweight, and 2 Hold rankings on the stock. 

There are 34 Million Shares outstanding of the stock. The largest Institutional holder of SYNA stock is BlackRock.

I would say to buy in with small buys into the stock because the price will move around here a bit up and down. Then sit back and relax and put your feet up.

 "Sully"

Happy Superbowl - Ground Hog Day here in Pennsylvania. Phil saw his shadow, so 6 more weeks of Winter and another 4-8 inches of snow coming tomorrow. Super Bowl prognostication: Broncos. 

Freewilly