Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B ) is now the fifth-largest company in the U.S. Much has been made of the fact that its sheer size precludes the kinds of acquisitions that have powered its performance in years past. Motley Fool analysts Joe Magyer and Rex Moore were in Omaha recently, and they offer their thoughts on what Buffett is capable of in the future.
Is Berkshire for you?
Thanks to the savvy of investing legend Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's book value per share has grown a mind-blowing 586,817% over the past 48 years. But with Buffett aging and Berkshire rapidly evolving, is this insurance conglomerate still a buy today? In The Motley Fool's premium report on the company, Berkshire expert Joe Magyer provides investors with key reasons to buy as well as important risks to watch out for. Click here now for instant access to Joe's take on Berkshire!
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: ExactTarget Inc (ET)
ExactTarget, Inc. is a global provider of cross-channel, interactive marketing software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. The Company�� solutions provide marketers with a suite of integrated applications. The Company�� suite of cross-channel, interactive marketing applications include e-mail, mobile, social media and sites, is built on its flexible multi-tenant SaaS platform. These channel applications are integrated with its campaign management, calendaring, dashboard, integrated reporting, marketing automation and data management tools. The Company also provides open application programming interfaces (APIs) and developer tools that allow third parties to embed its technology into their solutions and build applications on its platform. The Company generates revenue through the sale of subscriptions to its suite of cross-channel, interactive marketing SaaS solutions and the delivery of professional services. It serves a range of clients across many industries and sizes. Professional services revenue consists primarily of fees associated with training, implementation, integration, deliverability, campaign services and strategic consulting. In October 2012, it acquired iGoDigital.
The Company�� direct client base consisted of over 4,700 organizations as of June 30, 2012, ranging from enterprises to small businesses in numerous industries, including retail and e-commerce, media and entertainment, travel and hospitality, financial services and insurance, technology, daily-deal and flash-sale and marketing service providers. Among its direct clients are the United States-based companies, such as Ally Financial, Inc., Angie�� List, Inc., CareerBuilder, LLC, Groupon, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Oakley, Inc., OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc., One King�� Lane, Inc., Papa John�� International, Inc., priceline.com Incorporated, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Tommy Hilfiger Group, WellPoint, Inc. and Zappos.com, Inc. Companies also include Abril Gro! up (Brazil), Fairfax Media Limited (Australia), Icelandair Group (Iceland) and Telegraph Media Group Limited (United Kingdom).
Interactive Marketing Hub
The Interactive Marketing Hub provides marketers with a solution to engage in cross-channel marketing. The Interactive Marketing Hub integrates its e-mail, mobile, social media and sites Channel Applications with data management and marketing automation Hub Applications. Built on its cloud-based FUEL platform, these applications integrate with Hub Tools, which include a calendar, campaigns, dashboards and integrated reporting. Channel Applications provide interactive marketing engagement solutions to plan, automate, deliver and optimize messages across e-mail, mobile, social media and sites. The Company�� core edition is designed for small and medium-sized organizations, as well as departments within enterprises and provides content management tools, segmentation tools and reporting, such as opens, clicks, bounces and other performance metrics.
The Advanced Edition includes content syndication, dynamic content, relational data, advanced marketing automation, triggered and transactional communications for e-statements, alerts and order confirmations and advanced reporting. The Advanced Edition also provides full access to its FUEL platform�� open integration framework and developer tools that facilitates integration with other business systems and applications. Enterprise Edition is built for large, distributed enterprises that need centralized control and compliance for e-mail marketing communications. The Enterprise Edition includes international sending, advanced role and permission administration, content locking and sharing, and enterprise analytics and reporting. The Enterprise Edition can also include its Xpress Sending interface that enables non-technical users within distributed marketing organizations to create and send e-mails using pre-approved content via defined templates.
The Company� �s mobil! e applications enable marketers to create, automate, deliver personalized inbound and outbound short message service (SMS) mobile messages and support messaging in more than 80 countries worldwide. Through these applications, clients can easily create polls, quizzes, surveys, contests, mobile tickets, coupon redemption, SMS alerts and mobile opt-in for e-mail campaigns. Its social media applications provide solutions to manage engagement on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook and integrate social data and interactions into cross-channel campaigns. SocialEngage (powered by CoTweet) provides a social media management application that enables teams to manage multiple social media accounts with administrator-defined user permissions and roles.
SocialPages provides a drag and drop interface that allows marketers to create, publish and manage branded Facebook pages and tabs that display content and incorporate engaging features, such as forms, YouTube videos, Flickr galleries and the Facebook Like button. The Company�� sites application provides a solution to drag and drop interface microsites into cross-channel marketing campaigns. Hub Applications provide capabilities for advanced cross-channel marketing automation, data management, customer data segmentation and analysis. Audience Builder provides a drag-and-drop interface that enables marketers to explore multiple data scenarios through filtering and segmentation to create target audiences in for any campaign or automated messaging series.
Automation Studio provides a drag and drop interface to plan, create and execute complex, multi-stage, recurring cross-channel campaigns based on consumer behavior, time or custom attributes. Automated communications can be triggered by events, such as product purchases, online registrations or Website browsing behavior. The Company�� Hub Tools enable integrated planning, cross-channel campaign management and reporting. Calendar provides a single view of planned and completed camp! aigns, ev! ents and interactions across e-mail, mobile, Facebook, Twitter and Websites. Campaigns enables marketers to define interactive marketing campaigns and associated content and interactions across e-mail, mobile, Facebook, Twitter and Websites.
Pulse provides dashboards that display information, such as the number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers, e-mail subscribers and current status of automated programs and engagement metrics, such as opens, clicks and conversions. Integrated Reporting provides contextual and reporting throughout its Interactive Marketing Hub. The Company�� applications are built and delivered on its cloud-based FUEL platform. FUEL provides an open integration framework, enabling clients and third-party application providers to integrate data from systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM), Web analytics, and e-commerce through its partner ecosystem of productized integrations with providers, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, salesforce.com, inc., SAP, and Adobe Omniture.
Common Data Model creates a cross-channel view of each consumer by aggregating online behavioral data, channel engagement history, communication preferences and other online or offline data. Security provides a single sign-on environment for all Interactive Marketing Hub applications secured by multiple technologies, including but not limited to two-factor authentication, Internet protocol (IP) whitelisting and IP blocking, and enables monitoring and alerting of system activity.
Developer Tools provide a library of user interface controls and APIs that enable developers to build applications with a common look and feel on its cloud-based platform. Integration Framework provides a suite of integration capabilities that include its open APIs, CRM and Web analytics integrations, Embedded/Xpress Marketing and HubExchange. Its Embedded/Xpress Marketing solution enables independent software vendors and developers to embed the functionality of its e-mail and mobile applic! ations di! rectly into their technology offerings. The Company�� HubExchange enables marketing technology providers to develop and sell applications built on its platform.
Services
The Company complements its suite of cross-channel, interactive marketing SaaS solutions with a range of professional services. Its collaborative and full-service offerings include Training, Implementation, Integration, Deliverability, Campaign Services and Strategic Consulting. The Company offers a variety of methods of introduction to its products, including self-help resources, Web-based and on-site training, enterprise workshops and train the trainer programs. Clients who purchase implementation services are assigned an implementation consultant who works with them to adopt and deployment its solutions. Through its platform�� integration framework, the Company�� applications can be integrated with CRM, Web analytics, e-commerce and other business systems. It provides consulting and program management to help clients define, develop and implement interactive communication strategies.
The Company competes with Aprimo, Inc., CheetahMail Inc., e-Dialog Inc., Eloqua Limited, Epsilon Data Management, LLC, Marketo, Inc., Responsys, Inc., Silverpop Systems Inc., StrongMail Systems, Inc., Unica Corporation, Yesmail, Buddy Media, Inc. and Radian6 Technologies, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian Pacampara]
What: Shares of ExactTarget (NYSE: ET ) soared 52% today after cloud technologist salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM ) agreed to acquire the marketing software company for $2.5 billion.
- [By The GeoTeam]
Our recent 2013 articles on SaaS companies Selectica (SLTC), E2open (EOPN), Responsys (MKTG), Vocus (VOCS), and ExactTarget (ET) highlighted such opportunities. The average return since the inception of our coverage currently stands at around 34% (55% at their highs).
- [By Chris Hill]
Dollar General's (NYSE: DG ) first-quarter profits rose rose 3%, but the retailer cut guidance for the full year. Business market software maker ExactTarget (NYSE: ET ) rose more than 50% after Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM ) agreed to buy the company for more than $2.3 billion. Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA ) held firm after shares tanked on Monday in the wake of the company announcing it's cutting 18% of its staff. And IBM (NYSE: IBM ) buys a company to better compete in the cloud computing space. In this installment of Investor Beat, our analysts discuss four stocks making big moves.
- [By Evan Niu, CFA]
What: Shares of ExactTarget (NYSE: ET ) missed the mark today, down by as much as 16% after the company reported earnings with weak guidance.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: CoBiz Financial Inc.(COBZ)
CoBiz Financial Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services. The company?s Commercial Banking segment offers various accounts for depositors, including certificates of deposit, money market accounts, Eurodollar sweep accounts, savings accounts, checking and NOW accounts, and individual retirement accounts; lending products comprising commercial loans, commercial and residential real estate construction loans, commercial and residential real estate mortgage loans, consumer loans, revolving lines of credit, and tax-exempt financing; and real estate banking, private banking, interest-rate hedging, and treasury management services. Its Investment Banking segment provides merger and acquisition advisory services, institutional private placements of debt and equity, and other strategic financial advisory services for middle-market companies. The company?s Wealth Management segment offers wealth planning and investment management, trust and fiduciary, wealth transfer, estate and business succession planning, estate settlement, financial planning, and family office services. Its Insurance segment provides employee benefits consulting, insurance brokerage, and related administrative support to individuals, families, and employers; and commercial and personal property insurance brokerage, and casualty insurance brokerage, as well as risk management consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals. CoBiz Financial Inc. operates 12 locations, including 9 in the Denver metropolitan area, 1 in Boulder, and 2 in the Vail area in Colorado under the name Colorado Business Bank; and 7 locations serving the Phoenix metropolitan area and the surrounding area of Maricopa County in Arizona under the name Arizona Business Bank. The company was formerly known as CoBiz Inc. and changed its name to CoBiz Financial Inc. in May 2007. CoBiz Financial Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Denver, Co lorado.
Top 5 Dividend Stocks To Own Right Now: The Griffin Corporation (GRN.V)
Greenscape Capital Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates in parking facility and energy retrofitting service businesses in Canada. The company, through its subsidiary, Green Park Denver LLC, engages in the development and operation of an off-airport parking facility in Commerce City, Colorado for the Denver International Airport. It also offers energy retrofitting services; and focuses on developing and commercializing proprietary electronics cooling technologies. The company was formerly known as Lela Designs Inc. and changed its name to Greenscape Capital Group Inc. in April 2008. Greenscape Capital Group Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Dairy Crest Grp(DCG.L)
Dairy Crest Group plc, a dairy foods company, processes and sells fresh milk and branded dairy products in the United Kingdom and rest of Europe. The company offers various cheese products, including cheddar cheese under Cathedral City and Davidstow brands; butters and spreads under the Country Life, Clover, and St Hubert brands; conventional, organic, and flavored milk in retailer own brand bottles or Country Life brand; milk in bags; potted creams; and retail products and ingredients, such as milk powders, butter, and stabilized cream for the food industry. Its brands also include FRijj, Chedds, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite, and Willow. Dairy Crest Group also provides a range of catering and retail convenience essentials, and dairy products to catering, hotel, restaurant, cafe and coffee shop, school and university, hospital and care-home, and retail convenience store customers. The company was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Esher, the United Kingdom.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Alphatec Holdings Inc.(ATEC)
Alphatec Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Alphatec Spine, Inc., designs, develops, manufactures, and markets products for the surgical treatment of spine disorders, and focuses on the aging spine. Its products include Trestle Anterior Cervical plate system that enables the surgeon to have graft site and end plate visualization; Solanas Posterior Cervico/Thoracic fixation system, which provides a solution for posterior cervico/thoracic fusion procedures; Zodiac Degenerative fixation system that offers various polyaxial pedicle screws and advanced instruments; Zodiac Smart Set Deformity fixation system that enables the surgeon to address patient-specific spinal deformities; and ASPIDA Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion plate system that provides the option of performing a single anterior procedure. The company also offers spinal spacers for placement of bone grafting material inside and around the spacer in lumbar and cervical regions of the spine; and minimally invasiv e system, a cannulated pedicle screw and rod system to be inserted through a minimally invasive surgical procedure. In addition, it offers aging spine products that comprise OsseoFix spinal fracture reduction, OsseoFix+ Vertebroplasty, OsseoScrew spinal fixation, and HeliFix Interspinous spacer systems; and biologics, such as Alphagraft structural allograft spacers, Alphagraft demineralized bone matrix, PureGen Osteoprogenitor cell allograft, Alphagraft profuse demineralized bone scaffolds, Amnioshield amniotic membrane, and AlphaGUARD anterior vessel guards. It serves cervical, thoracolumbar, and intervertebral regions of the spine, as well as vertebral compression fractures, bone disorders, and spinal stenosis. Alphatec Holdings, Inc. sells its products through distributors, direct sales representatives, and sales management employees and executives in the United States, Asia, Europe, and rest of the world. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Carls bad, California.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Cadence Design Systems Inc (CDNS)
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Cadence) develops electronic design automation (EDA), software, hardware, and silicon intellectual property (IP). Cadence licenses software and IP, sells or leases hardware technology and provides engineering and education services worldwide to help manage and accelerate electronics product development processes. The Company�� customers use its products and services to design and develop complex integrated circuits (ICs) and electronics systems. The Company combines its products and technologies into platforms for four design activities: Functional Verification; Digital IC Design and Implementation; Custom IC Design and Verification, and System Interconnect Design. It sells software using three license types: subscription, term and perpetual. It also offers a number of fee-based services, including engineering and education services. In June 2010, Cadence acquired Denali Software, Inc. (Denali). In May 2011, it acquired Altos Design Automation, Inc. On July 11, 2011, the Company acquired Azuro, Inc. In July 2012, the Company acquired Sigrity, Inc.
The four Cadence design platforms are branded as Incisive functional verification, Encounter digital IC design, Virtuoso custom design and Allegro system interconnect design. In addition, the Company augments these platform product offerings with a set of design for manufacturing (DFM), products that service both the digital and custom IC design flows. These solutions and their constituent elements are marketed to users who specialize in areas, such as system design and verification, functional verification, logic design, digital implementation, custom IC design and printed circuit board (PCB), and IC package / SiP design.
Functional Verification
Cadence�� functional verification offerings consist of two categories: Logic Verification and System Design and Verification. Logic Verification offering consists of planning, property checking, testbench simulation, verification IP, and envi! ronment capabilities within the Incisive functional verification platform. This offering enables the Company�� customers to employ enterprise-level verification process automation, including metric-driven verification planning, process tracking and management. System Design and Verification offerings consist of hardware-assisted verification with emulation and acceleration, including the verification computing platform Palladium XP, Palladium and Xtreme platforms, system-level design capabilities, verification IP, estimation of system-on-chip (SoC), consulting services, and methodologies. The QuickCycles program allows customers access to its simulation acceleration and emulation products, either on their secure Internet site or remotely over a secure network connection. The products obtained through the acquisition of Denali include verification IP, memory models, and design IP.
Digital IC Design and Implementation
Cadence�� Digital IC offerings are used by its customers to create logical representations of a digital circuit or IC. The Company�� Digital IC offerings include two categories: Logic Design and Physical Implementation. Logic Design offering consists of formal verification, equivalency checking, synthesis and test capabilities within the Encounter digital IC design platform and property checking, simulation, and environment capabilities within the Incisive functional verification platform. This offering provides chip planning, design, verification and test technologies and services to customers across all digital design end markets. Physical Implementation offering consists of a range of the Encounter digital IC design platform capabilities. The Physical Implementation offering includes timing analysis, signal integrity, power analysis, extraction, physical verification, and place and route capabilities within the Encounter digital IC design platform. It enables the customers to create a physical representation of logic models, analyze electrical and physical! characte! ristics of a design and prepare a design for manufacturing.
Custom IC Design and Verification
Cadence�� Custom IC Design and Verification offerings are used by its customers to create schematic representations of circuits down to the transistor level for analog, mixed-signal, custom digital, memory and radio frequency (RF) designs. These logical representations are verified using simulation tools optimized for each type of design. The offering includes the environment, IC layout and simulation capabilities within the Virtuoso custom design platform. Other tools in the Custom IC portfolio are used to prepare the designs for manufacturing.
System Interconnect Design
Cadence�� System Interconnect Design offerings are used by its customers to develop printed circuit board (PCBs), and IC packages. The offerings include the capabilities within the Allegro system interconnect design platform: PCB, IC package, SiP, design management and collaboration. The Company�� offerings also include the simulation capability within the Virtuoso custom design platform. These offerings enable engineers who are responsible for the capture, layout and analysis of advanced PCB and IC packages to design electronic products across the domains of IC, IC package and PCB. For PCB customers, the Company provides the OrCAD family of offerings that is marketed worldwide through a network of resellers.
The Company competes with Synopsys, Inc., Mentor Graphics Corporation and Magma Design Automation, Inc.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Thermon Group Holdings Inc.(THR)
Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. offers heat tracing solutions for process industries worldwide. The company?s solutions provide an external heat source to pipes, vessels, and instruments for the purposes of freeze protection, temperature and flow maintenance, environmental monitoring, and surface snow and ice melting. Its products comprise a range of electric heat tracing cables, steam tracing components, and tubing bundles. The company also offers instrument and control products, including self-regulating and power limiting heating cables; mineral insulated cables; heat traced tube bundles for environmental gas sampling systems; heat transfer compounds and steam tracers for steam tracing solutions; control and monitoring systems for electric tracing of pipes, tanks, hoppers, and instrument sampling systems; and hopper heating modules. In addition, it provides various turnkey solutions for heat tracing, such as design, front-end optimization, product supply, engineering deli verables, system integration, installation, commissioning, and maintenance services. The company offers its solutions to the energy, chemical processing, power generation, and industrial and commercial infrastructure, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction companies. It serves customers through a network of sales and service professionals, and distributors in approximately 30 countries. The company is headquartered in San Marcos, Texas.
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 Thermon Group Holdings (NYSE: THR ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Namitha Jagadeesh]
ThromboGenics NV (THR) tumbled 18 percent to 22.93 euros, the biggest drop since at least July 2006. The Belgian drugmaker said sales of Jetrea, the eye drug approved by the U.S. last year, will not increase in the second half of the year. That implies full-year sales will be 36 percent less than estimates for 39.4 million euros, according to Richard Vosser, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Thermon Group Holdings (NYSE: THR ) reported earnings on June 5. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 31 (Q4), Thermon Group Holdings missed estimates on revenues and missed estimates on earnings per share. - [By CRWE]
Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:THR), will issue a press release reporting its fourth quarter and full fiscal 2012 consolidated financial results before the market opens on Friday, June 1 2012.
Best Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG)
Lloyds Banking Group plc, incorporated on October 21, 1985, is a holding company. The Company is a financial services group providing a range of banking and financial services, primarily in the United Kingdom, to personal and corporate customers. The Company operates in four segments: Retail, Commercial Banking, Wealth, Asset Finance and International and Insurance. Retail provides banking, mortgages and other financial services to personal customers in the United Kingdom. Commercial Banking provides banking and related services to business clients, from small businesses to large corporate. Wealth, Asset Finance and International provides private banking and asset management and asset finance in the United Kingdom and overseas and operates the Company�� international retail businesses. Insurance provides long term savings, protection and investment products in the United Kingdom and Europe and provides general insurance to personal customers in the United Kingdom.
Retail
The Retail division operates the retail bank in the United Kingdom and is a provider of current accounts, savings, personal loans, credit cards and mortgages. This includes a range of current accounts including packaged accounts and basic banking accounts. It is also the provider of personal loans in the United Kingdom, as well as being the United Kingdom�� credit card issuer. Retail is the private sector savings provider in the United Kingdom. It is also a general insurance and bancassurance distributor, offering a range of long-term savings, investment and general insurance products.
Commercial Banking
The Commercial Banking division supports the Company�� business clients from small businesses to corporate. Commercial Banking provides support to corporate clients through the provision of core banking products, such as lending, deposits and transaction banking services whilst also offering clients expertise in capital markets (private placements, bonds and syndicated loans), ! financial markets (foreign exchange, interest rate management, money market and credit) and private equity.
Wealth, Asset Finance and International
Wealth, Asset Finance and International consists of the Company�� the United Kingdom and international wealth businesses, the Company�� the United Kingdom and international asset finance and online deposit businesses along with its international retail businesses. The Wealth business consists of private banking and asset management. Wealth�� private banking operations cater to the range of wealth clients from affluent to Ultra High Net Worth within the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, and internationally. Asset Finance consists of a number of leasing and speciality lending businesses in the United Kingdom, including Lex Autolease and Black Horse Motor and Personal Finance along with its leasing and specialty lending businesses in Australia and its European online deposit business. The international business comprises its non-core banking business outside the United Kingdom, with the exception of corporate business written through the Commercial Banking division. This primarily consists of Ireland, Retail Europe and Asia.
Insurance
The Insurance division provides long-term savings, protection and investment products and general insurance products to customers in the United Kingdom and Europe. The United Kingdom Life, Pensions and Investments business provides long-term savings, protection and investment products distributed through the bancassurance, intermediary and direct channels of the Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows brands. The European Life, Pensions and Investments business distributes products primarily in the German market under the Heidelberger Leben and Clerical Medical brands. The General Insurance business is a distributor of home insurance in the United Kingdom, with products sold through the branch network, direct channels and strategic corporate! partners! . It operates primarily under the Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Andrew Marder]
Barclays fell into the capital shortfall trap along with RBS and Lloyds (NYSE: LYG ) . Lloyds, especially, is going to be watching how smoothly Barclays' new issuance goes. The bank reported stronger than expected earnings last week, and the success has opened up the possibility that the U.K. government may be able to start selling off its stake. The Barclays' issuance could provide a good temperature check of the market, and help move that action along.
- [By Owain Bennallack]
LONDON --�In this investing video, Owain Bennallack reveals why he thinks the Chancellor of the Exchequer should be happy with the recent revival at�Lloyds� (LSE: LLOY ) � (NYSE: LYG ) .
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